Page 42 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8
You’re aware that’s the knee-jerk position of a loser,sí?
Those words reverberated through her, soothing her right along with the music until, her fingers starting to cramp, she played the last tune.
Then tiptoeing over to him, she plucked a cashmere throw from the stack nearby and draped it over him. He stirred, and she froze until he settled again, his head lolling to the side.
Releasing her breath, she contemplated her next move. Leave him to sleep or stay with this man who disrupted her emotions with one hand then soothed her with another? Who compelled her like no other.
She knew which was the saner, safer option, but her feet refused to move. Almost on automatic, she fetched another throw, chose the lounge seat farthest from him and stretched out.
His demons rose, jibing and howling, making him twitch in his sleep. Curiously, though, where previously they’d flooded every inch of his memory and churned fresh nightmares, this time they remained at a distance, as if caged in and staved off by the warmth surrounding him.
Warmth that filled his starving lungs with hints of lemongrass and his arms with a supple, welcome weight.
A soft sigh escaped the bundle in his arms.
Right before reality pierced through the warm fog.
Jario’s eyes cracked open and immediately fell on the piano, minus its enthralling pianist. A glance down showed where she’d relocated, the encroaching dawn through the wide windows proving how long he’d been asleep.
Dios mio, she’d done it again.
He couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed with her effortless power over his previously unbeatable insomnia or be grateful. As for how she’d curled so trustingly into his arms, his deep pleasure at having her there...
He tensed as she stirred, his arms tightening of their own volition.
Dios.
He should be doing the opposite, should be—
‘Good morning.’ Beautiful, sleep-sexy eyes drifted from his face to the view and back again. ‘You slept.’
The pleased lilt in her voice, as if his peaceful sleep meant something to her, struck alien discord within him. When was the last time anyone had cared how he’d slept? Whether he was well or not? Not since before his father died, and his mother—
His teeth clenched against unearthing that memory. ‘You believe you’re the cure for my insomnia?’
She shrugged, and where others would’ve been wary at his gruff tone, she replied, ‘That’s twice now you’ve fallen asleep with me. So I’m either magic or I bore you so hard it puts you right to sleep.’
It was technically three, but he didn’t feel like offering that risky admission. Just as he didn’t feel like admitting that he’d found himself admiring her last night for finding a way through her own battles with her music.
While he threw ineffectual axes.
‘What else can you cure?’
Another shrug bared a few more inches of her silky skin, and his groin stirred harder. ‘Tell me what else ails you and we’ll see.’
The need to expose his dark shadows struck for several heartbeats, eager to bask in her illusionary light, but he ruthlessly doused the urge. So she’d succeeded in somehow granting him more hours of sleep in the past few days than he’d known in years. She was just a novelty that would lose its sparkle soon enough.
He let his eyes rake her face, unable to throttle back the hunger clawing through him as they settled on her pink sensual lips, sending untamed need surging through him.
Jario saw the moment she recognised it, luxuriated in the reciprocal hunger of her sharply drawn breath, the budding of her nipples beneath the soft satin of her nightie. In the flush climbing into her cheeks, and the splayed hands slowly drifting up his chest.
When she licked her maddeningly beautiful mouth, gave a catchy little moan and restlessly undulated her hips, Jario cursed under his breath and gave up the fight.
Flipping their positions, he laid her flat on the sofa.
Gleaming brown eyes widened with that flash of innocence but she didn’t protest when he nudged her slim thighs open and made space for himself exactly where his body yearned to be. One hand moved up to her caramel-blond hair that was spread out in luxurious temptation, raking his fingers through before clenching a handful, while the other grabbed her hip, then rolled his savage erection on that covered heaven between her thighs.
Her choppy moan was sweet music to his ears, almost matching the sublime pleasure...the peace she’d evoked on his piano last night.