Page 45 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

The words were barely out of her mouth before he was launching himself at her, dropping to his knees to wrap a demanding hand on her nape to direct her mouth to his. ‘Is this what you want, you saucy little witch?’ There was a bite to the question, even as he caught her lower lip between his teeth.

‘Y-yes.’

Another edgy curse, and he was lowering her onto the warm deck, impatiently parting her legs with his stronger ones. He tugged a condom from his pocket, loosened the tie of his joggers, then drew out his impressive shaft and sheathed himself.

It was her turn to swallow and fight not to beg. Because he was breathtaking. ‘Jario...’

Smug that the upper hand he rarely relinquished had been reclaimed, he breathed in deep, stroking himself as he watched her struggle.‘Sí?’

Please.

She caught the word at the edge of her tongue but parted her thighs helplessly. When his chest rose and fell, when he continued to tortuously stroke himself but made no move towards her, Willow shoved at the lingering vestige of insecurity, danced her hands down over her belly, paused for one provocative second, then slid her finger into her wet folds.

Lightning fast, Jario’s hand lashed out, seizing hers. ‘No touching what’s mine,tesoro. Or there will be consequences.’

Her breath shuddered out then as he raised her captured hand, drew her fingers into his mouth and sucked, his lust-hooded eyes darting between her face and core.

‘Consequences?’

‘Look at me.’

The moment she did, Jario thrust hard and true inside her, a deep groan surging up his throat at the sublime sensation.

‘Oh, God...oh, God.’

He shook his head, cursing the near-mindless nirvana of being inside her. Then he was gritting his teeth, the need to retain control eroding fast.

Had he ever felt like this? Not in recent memory. Sweat beaded his temple, drifted down his face. ‘You feel...’Dios. Why couldn’t he speak the words? ‘Incredible.’ He ground the word out at last, his fingers tightening their grip on her as he searched her gaze.

A gaze that widened for a moment, before turning a little hazy with desire. ‘You, too,’ she whispered.

For a nanosecond, he wished there was nothing between them. As foolish as it was, he couldn’t bat it away. It drilled deep too quickly, leaving him feeling jagged and incomplete. Like a breath that didn’t quite catch properly. A slammed door that didn’t quite shut.

‘Please...don’t stop.’

Her hitched breath, the tightening of her hot channel around his steel length, the glaze of lust in her eyes... It was too much for a man on the very edge of his endurance.

And,sí, it was simply easier to abandon thinking about it as he thrust home, bottomed out with a thick groan and heard her cry out in pleasure.

Spreading her wider, Jario struck a fast and blinding rhythm, bliss like he’d never felt before drowning him in under a minute. The very naked, conceited fear that this would be over before he’d given her the release she craved and deserved, made him finally slow down.

To suck one nipple into his mouth, savour it while he teased the other, then kiss his way back up her neck to the corner of her mouth, flicking his tongue there until she opened up for him. Then, their tongues duelling as he slid slowly in and out of her, he listened for the rapid change in her breathing, those nails digging deeper as her pleasure built. Until tearing her mouth from his, she screamed in magnificent climax.

Watching her unravel was Jario’s most mind-altering experience to date.Dios, he never wanted it to end. Never wanted that biting urgency and the confusion already snapping at his heels to gain any more momentum.

So he redirected his hold, rested on his knees and swept her up to straddle him. Tugging her arms around his neck, he dragged his lips up her neck to her ear. ‘Ride,mi linda. Ride.’

And then he exulted in watching a woman at the tail end of one climax tumble into another. Then another. Taking him along for the most intense carnal journey of his life while he barely hung on, groaning and grunting until a roar ripped his release from his soul. Until his vision turned black and senses detonated.

Leaving behind sublime pleasure that was far too soon flooded by an unnerving sensation that the want he’d brazenly sought to conquer was far from defeated.

That the cracks had only grown wider, turned intoneed, wrapped in despair.

Because far from detangling himself, all he was capable of doing was rising, with Willow held tight in his arms, and heading towards his suite.

Because he was nowhere near done with her.

CHAPTER SEVEN