Page 212 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 5-8

And just like that, the tone shifted in the bedroom. He was right. What they’d had was far more complicated than friendship. They certainly weren’t friends now, either. She might be angry with him, but she still wanted to kiss him. She wanted to lose herself in the pleasure of so much more than a kiss. Livia attempted to pull herself together.

“Tell me how you became involved with Edvin,” he said suddenly, and she had to wonder if he was distracted by the same thoughts.

“The story behind it is short and rather dull,” she said, too brightly. “It was arranged between my father and your father before Edwin and I had met, so there wasn’t much romance about it.”

His expression was unreadable, but he said nothing. Still, she felt the urge to defend herself. “It was a deal—money for a title, a tradition that seems to be sustained, no matter what else changes in the world.”

“Where did you meet?” His voice was cooler now, distant.

“Your father was hosting a state dinner to welcome the other Nordic royalty, and he invited me.”

“And you were immediately charmed?” Gustav gave her a look filled with irony.

This simple discussion was more uncomfortable than she had expected it to be. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Gustav. I was trying to make the best of the situation.”

Gustav looked far from satisfied. “I saw photos from the state dinner, where you danced until late into the night. You looked like you were quite enjoying yourself.”

There was anger behind this comment. It felt like an accusation, and she supposed it was. The truth was that the event had been better than she expected. And there was a part of her that did enjoy it, at least for a while. But that feeling melted away the moment she thought about the costs of a royal life, literal and otherwise.

“You said you hated this kind of unearned privilege, and then you chose to put it at the center of your life.”

“I was playing a part,” said Livia, ignoring the poisonous arrows of his comment. “Though I appreciate your compliments on my training. Weronica, my royal tutor, would be proud.”

“Why?” he asked. He could have been referring to anything, and yet she knew. Why did you agree to marry into royalty when you rejected me for the same reason? He wasn’t going to spell it out for her, and yet that had been at the heart of all of these discussions, hadn’t it? She might have talked around it more, but there was real pain in that question. And she couldn’t stand to hear it anymore. Though he had done plenty to throw her off the course of her own plans, he hadn’t known that he was sabotaging anything more than her wedding to his brother.

She still wasn’t willing to make her sister vulnerable, but Livia was ready to sacrifice herself. It was better than continuing to hurt him. At the beginning, she had felt a sort of self-righteous satisfaction in keeping her secrets close, but now it just felt terrible.

“I wasn’t going to go through with it,” she whispered. “I just started down the path until I could figure out how a plan to get myself out of it.”

Gustav stilled, and she couldn’t read his expression. “You were going to leave Edvin at the altar?”

“Ideally, a little before that,” she said. “That property in Greece that I insisted on keeping ownership of? That’s what it was for. I have been quietly putting money away so I could break free from all of this.”

She swallowed, and her heart thumped harder. He was quiet for so long, and she found that she was holding her breath.

“And why should I believe you?” he asked.

“You know me, Gustav. You knew this from the beginning, that it made no sense for me to want to marry any prince,” she said.

And when his jaw tightened, she slid onto his lap, bridging the physical distance, letting the tension between them grow unbearably strong. But she didn’t back away. She had managed to tell this story without involving her sister, and none what she had just said was a lie. She looked at him with clear eyes, pleading.

“You know me,” she whispered.

And though there were many, so many things that he still didn’t know about her, she felt the core of the truth of this statement. He knew a vulnerable part of her that she had gotten so skilled at tucking away. He knew the groundskeeper’s daughter who wanted a different world than the one she lived in. Even if he hadn’t known her social status until the very end, he had known her.

Gustav’s hand brushed against her cheek, the way he had more than once, as if he were confirming she was real. She leaned into his touch.

“It’s me,” she whispered.

The last two words seemed to push him over the edge. His mouth was on hers for a kiss, hard and possessive. Livia kissed him back, letting herself want him, letting the past and the present come together in a new ripple of pleasure. She clung to him, weaving her hands into his hair. He shifted her dress so the rough calluses of his fingers found her bare skin. She rocked against him, and he let out a low groan. And then she was on her back and he was over her again, and everything felt right. He looked down at her, as he dragged his thick erection against her core. She shuddered with need.

“You are mine, Livia,” he said, his voice, a dark rumble that set off another ripple of hot pleasure inside her. She could hear the unleashed jealousy had turned into something new, something she hungered for. “Don’t ever let me think otherwise again.”

And before she could reply, he was kissing her again on her lips, down her neck, and over the swell of her breast. He lifted her breast to his mouth and sucked on her nipple through the silky material of her thin dress, sending a ripple of exquisite pleasure from the friction. He teased one breast, then the other, each sweep of his tongue sending a new sensual pulse straight to her core.

He pulled back, and she caught sight of the thick erection that pressed against his trousers. He stood up and unzipped them, leaving them with the rest of his clothes on the floor. He climbed back on the bed, his thick cock distracting her thoughts. He eased off her panties, and she felt the calluses of his hand up her thigh, teasing her. He urged her to sitting and lifted her dress over her head, and they were naked. Together. She reached desperately for him, and he let out a low rumble of a laugh. “I’ll take care of you.”

Don’t break my heart, she wanted to say, but then his mouth was between her legs, dissolving all thoughts, teasing her, stoking her pleasure. She moaned and cried and sighed until it was both too much and not enough.