Modern Romance November 2019 Books 5-8. Dani Collins

her nurse our son, was what had finally fully awakened the primitive beast inside me. The video was evidence of her strength and resilience, despite my less than stellar behaviour last year.

      Even confessing the true relationship between myself and my father—a subject I’d never discussed with another living soul—had felt…liberating. That we were both products of our circumstances had triggered an affinity in us that had in turn laid out a different way to approach what had been thrust on us.

      Perhaps it didn’t need to be finite.

      That admission to do things differently this time had surprisingly settled deep inside me.

      The Calypso I’d married had possessed a banked fire.

      The woman who’d returned from her mysterious absence was flame and grit.

      Heat I was unashamedly drawn to. Grit I wanted to explore.

      Both characteristics drove me after her.

      I arrived in the suite just as she was entering her own bedroom. I stopped her with the simple act of capturing her delicate wrist. The electricity of contact simply reaffirmed my decision.

      She waited, one eyebrow elevated.

      Theos mou, did she know how alluring she was, with her blue eyes daring me even as her agitated breathing announced that she wasn’t unaffected by this insane chemistry?

      ‘I want you, Calypso. And unless I’m wildly off-base you want me too.’

      ‘That’s it? Surely you have better negotiating skills than that, Axios?’ she taunted.

      The breathless sound of my name on her lips escalated the heat pounding through my bloodstream. I wanted to kiss her. To prove with deeds instead of words how combustible this thing between us was.

      ‘You’re not the same woman I left on Agistros last year. I see that now.’

      More than that, she had the power to walk away again if she chose.

      The strange sensation of being on slippery ground forced me into further speech, even as I questioned the wisdom of the route I was taking.

      ‘Come to my bed—not because of our agreement or because of your ultimatum. Do it because you want to. Because we can make each other feel things we’ve never experienced before.’

      Her lips parted in a soft gasp. ‘You… I do that to you?’

      I couldn’t help the hoarse laughter that was ejected from my throat. I dropped her wrist and removed myself several mind-clearing paces away.

      ‘Barely two hours ago, I was close to saying to hell with propriety and taking you on that balcony. What do you think?’

      Despite the heat flaming up her face her shoulders went back, accepting her power over me. It was all I could do to remain standing where I was and not stride across the room to demonstrate just how much the hunger inside me lashed through her too.

      But this was too important.

      I wasn’t an animal, and she needed to grant me clear acknowledgement of her desire before it would work. But it was going to work. There were no viable alternatives to allay this…this insane craving inside me save for the highly unsatisfactory avenue of self-pleasure, which I wasn’t willing to consider any more.

      ‘I’m a man with healthy appetites, Calypso. And I haven’t had sex since our wedding night. Do you know that?’

      She gave another gasp, this time a heated one that went straight to my groin. She backed against the door, as if putting distance between herself and the live wire of desire lashing us would work.

      Eyes wide, she lifted her chin in further challenge. ‘How do I know that’s true?’

      Frustration threatened to erupt. I tamped it down. ‘I don’t make a habit of lying, yineka mou. Regardless of how we came together, I took a vow I intend to honour until I’m no longer bound by it. But if you don’t believe me I can give you the number of a top investigator and you can discover the truth for yourself.’

      ‘Even if I believe you, maybe you didn’t seek another woman’s bed because you didn’t want to jeopardise your precious deal.’

      She was really good at pushing my buttons. And the curious thing was that I preferred this version of Calypso to the one who’d glided down the aisle a little over a year ago.

      I shrugged off my tuxedo, watched her gaze cling to my torso before another blush pinkened her smooth skin. ‘Whatever my reason for staying celibate, I wish it to end now.’

      ‘Because you decree it?’

      ‘Because you’re woman enough to admit you want me too. Because when you come to my bed it’ll be because your needs are as strong as mine and you’re not ashamed to give in to them.’

      Tossing the jacket aside, I gave in to the urge and returned to her, my senses jumping at the promise of decadent friction when she swallowed but stayed her ground. And then, because I wasn’t above playing dirty to get my way, I unbuttoned one shirt stud. Then another.

      Brazenly, I revelled in the tremor that went through her lush frame as her eyes followed my undressing with abashed appreciation. A layer of femininity which might have been there all along or I might have missed called to the beast in me.

      ‘I want to lay you on my bed…make you cry out my name in climax.’

      Her eyelashes fluttered before sweeping down. That tell-tale sign that she was hiding something nearly derailed me. It certainly froze me in place, congealing my insides with the knowledge that, far from being a forward-thinking man, some things were sacred to me.

      ‘Tell me what you’re thinking.’

      She remained silent for far too long. In real time it was probably a handful of seconds. But it was enough to unnerve me. Enough that when she deigned to lift those hypnotising eyes to mine all that remained in me was a frenzied roar.

      I watched her lips move but didn’t hear the words she uttered. Her eyes grew wider, possibly at my expression. She started to step back.

      I closed the gap between us and tugged her to me. With her heavy magnificent breasts pressed against my chest all I wanted was to lose myself in her. To slay this terrible need.

      Her nostrils quivered as she inhaled rapidly. Against my chest her hands fluttered, and a trembling I wanted to believe had nothing to do with sex seized her.

      ‘Axios…’

      ‘I said I want to be different, Calypso. Take this leap with me?’

      But even as her eyes widened at my words she hesitated, her lower lip caught between her teeth, taunting me with the prospect of unaccustomed denial.

      And all the while my insides churned with emotions I didn’t want to examine.

      All the while delicate tremors filtered through her body and her breathing grew more erratic with her undeniable arousal.

      I was on the very edge of my sanity when Calypso’s fingers whispered over the button above my navel, toyed with the stud for a second before fluttering away again. Eyes that refused to meet mine remained fixed on my chest.

      She released her lip and I fought the urge to lean down and bite the plump, wet curve.

      Before her wicked hands could further wreck me, I caught them in one hand. ‘Calypso, look at me.’

      After an eternity her lashes lifted. Dark blue hypnotic pools pulled me in, threatening to drown me.

      ‘Say the words. I want to hear them,’ I pressed, aware that my voice was a gravel-rough mess.

      She inhaled. ‘I’ll take the leap with you. For now.’

      I had to hand it to her—she knew how to time her negotiations to maximum effect. But I’d given my word and I wouldn’t