Modern Romance Collection: May 2018 Books 1 - 4. Эбби Грин

seduce. Not to convince. And his promises? He never broke them. There was also no denying the evidence as she managed to let go of his shirt, one of her hands brushing a rock-hard erection as it dropped into his lap.

      “You are still needing.”

      “It can wait.”

      Oh, how many times had he said that very thing six years ago? He turned self-denial into a fine art and the springboard for her ecstasy as well as his own ultimate and very loud, energetic satisfaction. Andreas was apex sexual alpha.

      Primal man.

      “You are winding me up,” she accused with little heat.

      His smile was too damn sexy. “Only in the best way.”

      A tap on the door window alerted her that they were at their destination. She had no idea how many minutes the car had been stopped.

      Kayla groaned. “How long has he been standing out there?”

      Andreas shrugged.

      She pulled away and looked around her. The privacy darkening shield was closed between the chauffeur and the back, the tinted windows preventing any curious New Yorkers from witnessing her and Andreas’s heavy make-out session.

      “I can’t believe we just did that.” Only, really, she could.

      Andreas lifted one brow. “It was inevitable.”

      “Because I dressed too sexily today, according to you?” she demanded, not liking that excuse.

      He shook his head. “Because from the moment I thought I might lose you, the need to reclaim you in a very primal way has been paramount.”

      There was that word again. “You just admitted to being more Neanderthal than modern man.”

      “Did I?” He asked, sounding more amused than offended.

      “I’m pretty sure.”

      “Maybe I’m just more Greek than either of us ever realized.”

      “Or, you know, just a throwback.”

      “You enjoyed it.”

      “The driver is waiting,” she reminded him, instead of answering.

      His very predatory smile said he knew the truth. And really, after climaxing from, well...making out, what could she have said? No, I didn’t? Kayla didn’t lie.

      Not outright.

      Omission? That was something else entirely. She’d never told him she loved him and she never would. It would be the fastest ticket to getting Andreas Kostas to walk out of her life. And really, no matter what she told herself in the midst of fury and pain, that was not what she wanted.

      “Are you going to open the door?” she prompted.

      How could laughter sound both so darn appealing and diabolical at the same time?

      * * *

      The Brooklyn Bridge was even more impressive up close than from afar. No question, but watching Kayla fall in love with another piece of history was even more satisfying than seeing it for himself.

      Andreas marveled that it had taken him so long to come up with his current solution to both their issues. He was not usually a dense man.

      His only excuse was that he got tunnel vision when he had a goal in sight. She was a friend, he’d been blind to other options, so focused on the final steps of proving to his father and the rest of the Georgas clan that Andreas could succeed without them. He’d not realized how well that goal fit with the only other long-term one that mattered. That of keeping Kayla Jones in his life.

      She pulled her phone out and smiled, typing something with her fingers, taking a picture of the bridge, typing something else and then sliding it back into her pocket.

      “This is just so amazing. The ingenuity of design, the aesthetics.” Her deeply appreciative sigh warmed him, though he was still irritated she was texting someone else on their date.

      “Do you want me to get a picture of you here?” he asked, his tone even.

      See him not even mention the texting.

      She looked around, biting her lip, clearly torn. “It’s so busy.”

      “We’ll wait as long as it takes to get a good shot.”

      Her smile was worth his promise and the patience he’d promised.

      “I want another one in the middle of the bridge, okay?” she asked when they were done.

      “Sure.”

      Her phone buzzed as he handed it over. She looked down, a small tilt of her lips saying she liked whatever she saw on the screen. She typed something again.

      Andreas felt a frown forming. Whom was she talking to? He didn’t ask, striving manfully to respect boundaries.

      She should appreciate his restraint.

      They started their walk across the bridge, needing to stop every few feet for another perfect picture of the view, or the structure, and more than once she wanted him to allow her to take his photo too. She also continued texting with someone.

      They reached midway and she wanted another photo, this time with him. “You take it. You have longer reach, you’ll get more of the bridge in.”

      He grabbed her phone, sliding his finger over the pattern that would unlock it. It was still open to the text app from her last message.

      She was chatting with that damn actor. Who else would have the screen name OnBroadway?

      Another man might have clicked out of the app. But Andreas’s respect for boundaries only went so far. It was not as if she had never read his texts before and vice versa. If she didn’t want him reading her messages, she should have shut the app before handing him her phone.

      Andreas scrolled up to scan the discussion.

      OnBroadway: My sister showed me a steamy pic.

      Codergirl: Your sis needs to mind her own biz.

      OnBroadway: Looks like you and the boss man are friends again.

      Andreas smiled to himself. And then some. The ride in the back of the private cab had gone even better than he had anticipated when he’d closed the privacy screen. But then the passion between them had always been incendiary. It had taken every ounce of Andreas’s self-control not to demand the driver take them to the hotel, instead of getting out at the bridge.

      Codergirl: I guess we never stopped.

      Well, at least she admitted their relationship wasn’t something that could simply stop at the click of her fingers.

      OnBroadway: That’s so sweet.

      Andreas grunted.

      Codergirl: Don’t mock.

      OnBroadway: My sister’s mad at you.

      Codergirl: Andreas isn’t happy with you either.

      OnBroadway: Maybe we should all get together for a meal while you’re in town.

      “No way in hell!”

      Andreas would share a table with the man who had designs on Kayla the day he changed his name back to Georgas and gave his wealth away to his cousins.

      Kayla grabbed his wrist of the hand with her phone in it. “What are you doing? Are you reading my texts?”

      “We are not going on a double date with Jacob and his sister.” He gave Kayla a look to let her know he was serious about this. “I have no interest in the woman and you have none in the brother.”

      “Are you sure, Andreas? I’m pretty certain she would tick all of Genevieve’s boxes for you.”

      “I told you, Genevieve and her boxes are no longer