Modern Romance December 2019 Books 1-4. Maisey Yates

the beach house. ‘But my winter clothes would be too warm.’

      ‘I’ll take you shopping,’ Leo told her calmly. ‘So, yineka mou, if I’m now yours, what next have you in store for me?’

      Letty chuckled. ‘I was rather hoping you’d take the lead there. I haven’t had sex before.’

      Halfway into the house again, Leo stopped dead and turned to look at her with startled dark golden eyes. ‘You mean—?’

      ‘Yes. No experience at all,’ she admitted with an uneasy shrug.

      Leo was frowning. ‘But why?’

      ‘Wasn’t interested enough to bother before. Clearly,’ Letty murmured with hot cheeks, ‘you float my boat, which is very apt for a shipping tycoon.’

      Leo laughed with rich appreciation and swept her towards the stairs. ‘I can’t wait to get you into that bed,’ he admitted frankly. ‘Since that night in the car, you’ve been playing a leading role in all my fantasies.’

      Warmth filtered into Letty’s chilled body at the concept of figuring in Leo’s fantasies. She guessed that it was the unexplored sensual side of her nature which enjoyed that admission of his and then she drew in a stark breath, wondering how he would react when he realised that she was a perfectly ordinary young woman with no box of bedroom tricks with which to amuse a sophisticate. Would he stay faithful then? She swallowed hard on her insecurities, censuring herself for holding such a low opinion of her own powers of attraction. Maybe sex was just sex to Leo and he didn’t look for bells and whistles as well, but it was hard to credit that a practised lover couldn’t offer much more than she could.

      ‘Leo…’ she began anxiously.

      ‘Stop fretting, Letty,’ Leo urged with his glimmering smile. ‘Don’t spoil the moment. I will also be sure to discreetly break the news to your grandfather that you came to me pure as the driven snow. That will set him back on his heels and teach him to respect you more.’

      ‘Leo, for goodness’ sake!’ Letty broke in, mortified by the idea.

      ‘No, you should be proud rather than apologetic or embarrassed,’ her bridegroom told her with conviction as he closed a hand over hers to tug her inexorably up the stairs. ‘I haven’t been with a virgin since my own first experience. I was sixteen and in the grip of first love. It was a demoralising episode.’

      ‘Why?’ Letty asked starkly.

      ‘She was lying—she wasn’t a virgin, and within the space of a week she was bedding one of my friends,’ Leo confided with a sardonic slant to his lean dark features. ‘Following on from my dysfunctional relationship with my stepmother, who was already giving me the come-on, it soured my outlook on women. I promised myself that I’d never fall in love again and I turned my back on the sentimental stuff. It was the most sensible move I ever made.’

      Letty put that little fact along with the other stuff she had garnered about Leo’s background: the licentious and vindictive stepmother he had endured in his infatuated father’s hasty second marriage, the mother he barely remembered, the disillusionment provided by his first love. Grief and hurt and distaste had made him distrustful and pessimistic and his experiences as an adult had only reinforced that outlook. Yet, at the same time, he loved his nephews and nieces enough to surrender his freedom in an attempt to give them a happier and more secure life. There were two sides to Leo, Letty acknowledged, a loving side and a dark cynical side, and she wondered which side would take precedence in their marriage.

      A practical sexless marriage about to become a real marriage. The shock of realisation that she was about to embark on that challenge shrilled through her taut length and jolted her because she was taking a risk on Leo, and Letty generally avoided risks. And Leo was a huge risk, a man only prepared to accept the concept of fidelity at the point of a gun. In a tempest of doubt, Letty turned pale and flicked at one of the dried flowers scattered across the silky bedspread.

      ‘What are these?’

      ‘Rosemary.’ Leo shrugged. ‘An ancient Greek belief in the power of rosemary to enhance fertility.’

      ‘I thought rosemary was for remembrance,’ Letty muttered uncertainly. ‘But I suppose I should mention that I’m not on the pill.’

      Leo laughed with rich appreciation, dark golden eyes alight with amusement. ‘With four little children up in that house on the hill, that’s not a risk I will take…unless, of course, you ask me to.’

      Letty coloured. ‘Er…no, thanks, not just yet.’

      ‘Relax,’ Leo purred, enclosing her taut body in the circle of his arms. ‘You don’t have to worry about stuff like that. I will take care of everything.’

      Letty bridled at that assurance, her fierce independent spirit rebelling. ‘I take care of myself, Leo,’ she said drily.

      Leo quirked an ebony brow. ‘Not any more. That’s my department now.’

      ‘We’ll see,’ Letty muttered.

      ‘No, we won’t,’ Leo contradicted, long brown fingers knotting into the breeze-blown tangle of her hair to tug her head back as he crushed her parted lips under his, every ounce of mastery in his erotic repertoire powering that kiss.

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      HEATED ARGUMENT WAS swirling in Letty’s busy brain and then she was pierced by heat of a different kind.

      A long shiver snaked through her and she trembled, desire like a living flame flaring low in her belly. She didn’t understand her response or the sudden dimming of rational thought and, being Letty, she struggled to comprehend how her physical response could overwhelm her mental reactions. And in that moment of disconcerted stasis Leo tangled his tongue with hers, skated it over the roof of her mouth and her legs literally went weak. Ultimately that didn’t matter because he was already leaning her up against him for support while tugging down the straps on her maxi dress and letting it fall to the floor.

      Eyes fluttering in dismay, Letty found herself lying back on the bed with no clear awareness of how she had arrived there. She gazed up at Leo worriedly, painfully sober, painfully aware of the size of her bare breasts, which had always been larger and more noticeable than she was comfortable with, but then bosomy women ran in the family genes and she hadn’t got a choice in the matter.

      ‘Theé mou…’ Leo groaned with unashamed appreciation. ‘You have gorgeous breasts.’

      Taken aback, Letty peered down at her attributes in bewilderment as Leo curved what could only be described as reverent hands to the bountiful swell of her breasts, shaping and moulding them, fingers grazing the stiffened peaks, lingering to rub the sensitive tips and provoke a breathy gasp from her lips as an arrow of heat ran down to her pelvis. Leo liked her body, Leo accepted her as she was, and a whole slice of her anxiety fell away in that moment. He closed his mouth to a tender pink nipple and she jerked in surprise, unprepared for the pulsing ache stirring at the heart of her body.

      A sensual daze cocooned her as a tightening sensation banded her womb, her hips pushing up for relief as he teased a swollen bud with the edge of his teeth and moved hungrily to the other. Answering heat sizzled through her quivering body before the slowly heightening delight just seemed to explode deep down inside her, sending streamers of multi-coloured fire darting through every nerve-ending she possessed and dragging a cry from deep in her throat. Stray convulsions of pleasure continued to tug at her as she flung her head back in reaction, her honey-blonde mass of hair spreading across the pillows in a silken tangle.

      ‘You’re very sensitive there, meli mou,’ Leo murmured with satisfaction, long fingers gently brushing an almost painfully tender pink nipple. ‘I love that.’

      Letty lifted a hand to frame one high cheekbone, utterly mesmerised by the smouldering