Page 211 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

‘No.’ This between them was vital, unstoppable. She’d take this moment for herself and tomorrow, when sanity returned, she’d face the consequences.

Her hands went to his shorts and with one ruthless tug, dragged them down.

Their hands collided, tangled. She reached for him as he began to sheath himself. His breath hissed and her lungs grabbed as she brushed velvet softness over rigid heat. Then he nudged her hand away and she let him. She couldn’t bear any more delay.

Dido was pulling up her dress, bunching it high, when hard knuckles skimmed her inner thigh.

‘Just a sec.’ She shifted her weight, tugging her dress out from under her. Long fingers stroked between her parted legs, discovering damp cotton, before curling around the edge and dragging it aside.

Did fabric tear? She didn’t care, because now there was pressure right there, at her core, where she needed it. Large hands pushed her thighs wider as Panos moved close.

Her head tipped up. He was watching her face as if waiting for permission or for her to change her mind.

As if! Never had she wanted anything as much as this. Here, now, with this man.

Only Panos.

Did he read her mind? He nudged closer and she felt that remarkable sensation of her body opening for him. His heat, his flesh and power, merging with hers.

Stars sparkled in her bloodstream as they held each other’s gaze and came together at last. It felt like a miracle, impossible yet indescribably perfect.

Under the bright kitchen lights she saw every plane and angle of his face, the sharp tension gathering in the hinge of his jaw and drawing the flesh tight across his cheekbones. The same tension that made her arch her back and wind her hands around his neck, pulling his head down to hers.

But he stopped a heartbeat away from her mouth, just far enough to hold eye contact as he pushed home to the very heart of her, anchoring them together.

She’d thought she remembered but memory paled against reality. So many sensations, all exquisite.

Her soft puff of breath feathered his lips and she felt his next, sighing exhalation like a phantom kiss.

They trembled together on the brink, neither moving, as if the slightest change would shatter their fragile communion.

Dido saw need in his face, a desperation that matched hers, and something even more powerful that made jubilation rise.

He lifted one hand to stroke her cheek, throat, then down to cover her breast. It was enough to break their stasis. On a moan of pleasure, she pressed into his hold, triumphing when he gritted his teeth and withdrew before bucking hard.

Her hands tightened around his neck as she tilted her hips to meet his thrust, every nerve ending rioting at the glorious friction.

The stars weren’t only in her blood now. They prickled her skin and spangled the perimeter of her vision as Panos thrust again—slow, sure and deep.

‘Yes,’ she hissed as she read changes in his body that matched her own rising excitement. ‘You need this too.’

His nostrils flared. Everywhere they touched his flesh was burning hot, his body a symphony of steely masculinity. And suddenly the sensations were too much, a sensual overload that started deep inside and exploded, making the world splinter.

Only the solidity of his touch and the power of his gaze anchored her as the crisis hit and she jerked in his hold, lost in euphoria. A second later she felt the hard pulse of him spilling deep inside and finally closed her eyes, clinging to him as the rapture rolled on and on.

His head settled in the curve of her shoulder, her hands clutching him close. She felt his lips move against her skin.

‘Only with you, Dido.’

Her battered heart soared.

But she was no longer an impressionable innocent. Even through her elation she knew she’d imagined those words because they were impossible. He must have said something else.

She told herself that didn’t matter. For now this was enough.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DIDO RETURNED TO the bedroom from checking her sleeping daughter to discover Panos getting out of bed, naked.