Page 95 of Modern Romance May 2026 Books 1-4
‘No.’ He stared at her unwaveringly. ‘I’m sorry. I never should have done any of that without talking to you. It won’t happen again.’
She shook her head slightly and spotted the envelope. ‘Don’t you want to open those results?’
‘The result doesn’t matter to me.’ He thrust his hand through his hair. ‘I want you. You and everything that’s yours. I will love your baby. I will deal with your family however you want me to. Because at the end of the day, it’s you I want.’
Lily looked down. She couldn’t handle this. She couldn’t believe—
He suddenly dropped to his knees right before her. ‘I hate living without you beside me. I miss your laugh. Your bite. Your brain. I wanted you from the moment I saw your picture. I liked you from the second you spoke to me in that dark cargo plane. Honestly, I think I fell in love with you instantly. But I didn’t think I could have you, Lily. I let you leave. I let you think I didn’t love you.’
Emotion clogged her throat, so she choked. ‘And that’s not true?’
He slowly shook his head. ‘Our baby is infinitely precious to me, because it’s part of you. I will love and adore it the way I love and adore you.’
Tears scalded her eyes, blurring her sight. ‘Why didn’t you say so sooner? Why didn’t yousay?’
His hands gripped hers. ‘I failed my parents, Lily. I wrecked their lives. How could I have all this happiness when my actions deprived them of the same? How dare I claim everything they lost? Everything I don’t deserve? How dare I be that damned selfish?’
She flinched, hating his pain. His hold on her tightened.
‘But then, how dare I not?’ he said huskily. ‘I can’t go back in time. I can’t ever earn the forgiveness I want from them. But Icanspend my future being better for you—loving you, loving our child. Putting you first. Because how dare I depriveyouof all that you deserve?’ His hands shook as he held hers. ‘Youdeserve all the things, Lily. You deserve the world. And if by some miracle you do still wantme, then I am yours.’
‘I don’t want the world or all the things,’ she said raggedly. ‘I don’t want anything but you.’
‘I don’t deserve you, but I can’t deny you.’ His smile was agonised.
‘You do deserve me,’ she muttered fiercely. You do.’
He pulled her to her feet and kissed her. Reverently.Fervently.
‘I missed you,’ she sobbed.
‘I’m here now and I’m never going anywhere without you again.’ He gripped her waist in that wonderfully strong, familiar way.
Lily leapt, finally believing. She wrapped her arms and legs around him. How she’d yearned to wind like a vine around him like this again. Burying her tear-streaked face in the side of his neck, she clung tight. She’d missed how safe his size made her feel. When she felt the soft sheets beneath her, she knew he’d found her bedroom but she kept her eyes closed. Like that first time, there was only touch and sound and heat and it was everything.
‘I love you, Lily.’
She heard his smile, felt his wonder. All-consuming tenderness enshrouded the passion that had always flared so swiftly between them.
He brushed his cheek against her burningly delicate skin. ‘I missed you so much.’
‘Yes.’ Broken apart, she trembled so much she could barely move, only able to surrender to him completely.‘Please—’
‘I told you I can slow down.’
‘I don’t want you to slow down,’ she half-laughed, half-wailed. ‘I want you to love me.’
‘I do. Will. Always.’ He punctuated the promises with kisses. ‘Always. Always. Always.’
He moved so deliberately, deliciously slowly—kissing her, caressing where she was most sensitive. But it was the infinite care with which he did it that had her shaking and incoherent. When she was pure putty in his arms he finally pressed home. Her breath quickened as a riot of need overwhelmed her. Absolute emotion—allof the emotions—suddenly stormed through her in a cacophony of blazing intensity. She couldn’t contain her cries. His words tumbled, too—hot and incoherent. There was no slow anymore. There was only passion. Onlylove.
A long time later, she heard the race commentator roar the results on the telly.
‘Oh no.’ Biting her lip she softly chuckled. ‘You’re missing another Emiliano podium.’
Massimo ran his fingertip across her belly in a possessive swirl. ‘He was okay with me missing the race as long as I bring you to the next. And all the rest.’
‘You talked to him about me?’ She quivered but not from the tickling sensation.
