Page 52 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

She nodded. ‘Yes.’ She walked towards Axel and he stood back and gestured for her to precede him out of the villa, down the steps and into the car. She noticed that he was careful not to touch her. Had the mistake of forgetting about protection spooked him?

There was space separating them in the back of the car. Hope had to curl her hands into fists to stop from reaching out to touch him.

Something a little wild was rising up within her. She needed to know if last night had impacted him. ‘Axel, last night—’

‘Was amazing.’

Hope’s mouth shut. Then opened again. ‘But the protection… I should have noticed.’

He shook his head. ‘I should have noticed. That’s never happened before. And it won’t again.’

Hope felt hollow. No. Certainly not with her anyway. She said now, ‘I don’t want to let you down this evening.’

‘You won’t.’ Axel reached for her, tugging her closer, and Hope went with shameless eagerness. At this point she was dangerously close to revealing the true depth of her feelings, a recklessness rising inside her, but she knew that he was focused on this evening. After all, this was the culmination of their whole charade. That had stopped feeling like a charade some time ago. For her.

It wasn’t long before they joined a steadily moving stream of cars that entered gates similar to the ones on Axel’s property. A wide driveway led up to a huge house on at least three levels. It was modern, with a flat roof and lots of steel and glass. Totally different from Axel’s more traditional villa that Hope preferred.

The car stopped and staff jumped forward to open doors but Axel helped her out, taking her hand. Hope took a deep breath and they went up the steps and into a vast reception area with polished concrete floors. Hope could see all the way through the house out the other side to lush greenery as far as the eye could see.

Women in evening dresses and men in tuxedoes mingled. At least this was a paparazzi-free zone. Hope felt far too raw for pictures being taken, sure that all of her emotions would be laid bare for everyone to see.

‘There he is.’

Hope followed Axel’s eyeline to see a tall, distinguished-looking man. Silver hair, with a woman by his side. Dark hair going grey. She was smiling and looked friendly. Very attractive. They were greeting guests and soon it was Axel and Hope’s turn. The man looked at Axel, and Hope could have sworn there was a glint in his eye, as if to say he knew exactly what Axel’s motives were. She liked the couple on sight.

‘Drakos. Glad you could make it.’ He looked at Hope. ‘And is this the woman who has managed to tame the perennial bachelor?’

Hope felt Axel’s arm tighten around her waist. ‘This is Hope Smith.’

Hope smiled but felt a little queasy. She felt bad about the deception even though she and Axel had certainly turned their fake relationship into a real one, against the odds. A real one with no prospects.

They shook hands and Baros’s wife—Maria—engaged Hope in small talk. Hope was surprised to find that the couple seemed to be more down to earth than she’d expected. Maria was telling her about their family, six children.

‘Six?’ Hope repeated.

Maria nodded, smiling. ‘Six. A lot of years were a blur, I won’t lie. And that was with help. But they’re all grown now and they all work in some aspect of the family business.’

Hope smiled and confided, ‘That’s amazing. I’ve always wanted a big family. I was…alone. No siblings.’ She didn’t need to go into the gritty details.

The woman touched her arm. ‘Oh, my dear, you poor thing.’

Hope forced a smile. ‘It was what it was.’

Maria slid a glance to Axel. ‘Well, I must admit I’m pleasantly surprised. Whenever we’ve met Axel before, he always seemed so driven, like a lone wolf, and that makes my husband nervous because a lone wolf has nothing to lose.’

Hope jumped to Axel’s defence. ‘Oh, but Drakos Solutions is everything to him. It’s his life’s work to build it up for the next generation.’

‘Is that right?’

The woman looked at Hope with interest and Hope swallowed, wondering if she’d said too much. She vowed to keep her mouth closed now and let the other woman do the talking.

* * *

Axel was talking to the man who he had wanted this one-on-one with for weeks and weeks and yet he wasn’t fully focused when he should be. He was aware of Hope beside him talking to Damian’s wife. He was aware of the man’s wife smiling and looking at him and he was wondering if Hope was OK, or freaked out or—

‘I can understand why you’re distracted. She’s lovely and…not your usual type.’

Axel looked at Baros. He’d literally zoned out. The man was talking about Hope. Axel said, ‘Yes, I know.’