Page 28 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

* * *

‘Go on, admit it, you hated it.’

Axel looked at Hope where she sat in the back of the car. They’d just left the cinema.

‘Actually, no, I didn’t. I enjoyed it.’ And he had. A lot more than he’d ever expected to. The high-octane action hadn’t left room for much thinking about anything else. Except how it had felt to have Hope’s body leaning in towards his in the dark and how his thoughts had veered to seriously X-rated places like how it would have felt to have her on his lap where his erection had been straining for release. An exquisite torture. Sexual frustration still bit at his insides like a hungry beast.

‘I loved it.’ Hope’s face was shining, eyes wide. ‘That car chase through the centre of Rome… It was so realistic.’

Something about Hope’s infectious enjoyment of such a relatively mundane thing was only serving to make Axel’s jagged edges feel even more jagged. ‘It was good.’

‘Well, thank you for indulging me. I really enjoyed it.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Had he ever had such a cheap date? Not that it had been a date, he had to remind himself. He had planned on going home and catching up on the work he’d pushed aside earlier, because of her.

The fact that Hope didn’t seem to be similarly distracted by him was making him feel off-centre. Things in his world were usually much more cut and dried. He didn’t find himself wondering about others and how they felt about him. Did she really not want him as he wanted her?

The boundaries he’d set around them were feeling like a provocation. Axel turned his head and stared out of his window broodingly and tried to avoid the pull of the woman on the other side of the car.

* * *

Hope was trying her best not to notice the crackling intensity coming from Axel. The way he’d just looked at her was seriously disconcerting. With such focus. As if he wanted to see everything she was hiding.

She really hoped he couldn’t see the vulnerability she felt because she was connecting to him in a way that wasn’t normal for her. Usually she kept people at arm’s length out of that fear of being rejected if she let them in too close. And until now, no one had ever tempted her to let her guard down.

But temptation was all around her. Specifically lounging like a coiled panther just a few inches away. Looking at her moments ago as if she were a juicy morsel.

It’s just lust, Hope, calm down, said a voice. She’d never felt it before. She cursed her overactive imaginaion. She was imagining him looking at her as if he wanted to devour her.

No man had ever made her want to climb him like a tree. It scared her how he seemed able to reduce her to very basic desires, bypassing her brain.

At one point during the movie she’d had both hands clamped to Axel’s arm, shamefully aware she was taking advantage of the excitement to get closer to him. He’d been like a rock. No discernible expression. But yet not pushing her away either.

They were back at the house now and Hope wanted to scramble out of the car and disappear before Axel saw the extent of her volatile emotions. She put her hands on the door handle and said, ‘Thanks again for this evening.’

‘You don’t have to keep thanking me, Hope.’

He sounded terse. She said, ‘Sorry.’ And then cursed herself. She couldn’t imagine this man apologising for anything.

The driver opened her door and she almost fell out before she could say anything else. Somehow she managed to get out without making a complete fool of herself. Axel waited for her to walk into the house. She couldn’t fault his manners.

Once they were in the foyer, Hope’s intention was to get out of Axel’s orbit asap.

‘OK, goodnight, then.’ She turned to go but thought of something and then cursed inwardly and stopped, turning around again. ‘Actually, would you mind undoing my zip? I know I won’t be able to reach it because the stylist had to help me into it.’

‘Sure.’

Axel came over and Hope held her breath as he came close behind her. All of that solid weight and heat. His smell. She braced herself for his hands touching her skin but he was taking so long that she almost asked what was wrong, but then his fingers were on the zip in the middle of her back and Hope had to repress a shiver of awareness.

She waited, but nothing happened. The amosphere thickened around them. It was very quiet but Hope could have sworn she heard her heart beating.

She looked over her shoulder. ‘Axel? Is everything OK?’

Axel took a step back. ‘Not really, no.’

Hope turned around. He was as intense as she’d ever seen him, staring at her. Her legs wobbled a little and deep down inside her, tension coiled and writhed like a live thing.

‘What is it?’