Page 10 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

Hope didn’t have a huge array of shoes but her flatmate did, so she went into her bedroom and picked out a pair of eye-wateringly high stilletos. She held them out. ‘Will these do?’

‘Can you put them on for me? I want to demonstrate something.’

Hope slipped off the court shoes and lifted each foot in turn to put on the high heels. She stood in them and almost felt dizzy, they were so high. Axel Drakos came and stood beside her and said, ‘Look in the mirror.’

Hope did and what she saw gave her another jolt. With the shoes she came up to Drakos’s shoulder so she didn’t look so minute in comparison. She looked very blonde and pale next to him but she didn’t look…totally out of place. In fact, next to him she seemed to stand straighter. They were light and dark but it was a contrast that made her wonder what her skin would look like next to his.

She shook her head to dislodge such disturbing ideas and addressed Drakos’s reflection in the mirror. ‘I’m not sure where you’re going with this, Mr Drakos.’

‘Axel.’

‘I can’t call you that. It feels way too inappropriate.’

‘It’s not inappropriate at all. And as you can see, we match up better than you think. I’m hoping that next time you’re on that plane it’ll be as my guest.’

Chapter Three

Axel could see her throat work as she looked at him. Eventually she said, ‘You really are serious.’

‘I don’t joke about my business, Hope. A contract will be drawn up to protect both our interests and lay out the parameters.’

Axel had to try and dampen the heat in his blood. Just watching her take off those ugly court shoes and lift a foot behind her to slip on the higher heels had been more erotic than… His mind drew a blank. He hadn’t found much erotic at all lately.

Anyway. This had nothing to do with eroticism. He didn’t want her for that. He wanted her to help him advance his cause with Baros because this deal had assumed a kind of talismanic importance and Axel knew it wasn’t just about the material or reputational gains. It was about advancing to a place of success where maybe he didn’t feel a dull ache every time he thought of his estranged brother.

Because maybe by then he’d have done enough to feel some measure of peace. Atonement. For not doing more to protect Ares.

Hope backed away from the mirror and went into the living-room again. Axel leant against a doorframe and watched her from behind. He couldn’t fail to notice how the shoes thrust her forward slightly and made her legs look longer. The pencil skirt outlined the length of her thighs and the high perfect curve of her ass.

His cock twitched and he straightened up. What the hell was wrong with him? He wasn’t usually at the mercy of his hormones like this.

Hope turned around to face him and folded her arms across her chest, as if she could pick up on his unwelcome lusty thoughts.

She said, ‘No matter what you say, we aren’t a match. Not physically or socially. Why do you think this would work?’

Axel knew that he should be listening to her logic. And welcoming the fact that she wasn’t seizing on his interest to feather her bed. And he should just tell her he’d lost his mind momentarily, apologise for taking up her time and walk away and find someone else who could be his plus-one in the interim.

But…he wasn’t doing any of that. His feet were welded to the ground. It was precisely because she wasn’t behaving like everyone else that he wasn’t walking away. And because her background was a blank slate. And because…

‘You’re different.’ The words came out of his mouth before he’d even registered them in his head.

She rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t need you to tell me that.’

‘In a good way. Refreshing. I think I intimidate you but you’re not scared of me, or all that impressed.’

Now she looked uncomfortable. ‘My flatmate, Claire, tells me I need to work on my facial expressions.’

Axel shook his head. ‘I don’t mean like that. I mean I can be brutally honest with you and tell you that if we do this it doesn’t mean that anything more is promised. With any other woman, she’d see an opportunity to take advantage.’

‘Maybe that’s more about the kind of woman you surround yourself with.’

He inclined his head to acknowledge her point. ‘I move in circles that tend to entice a certain type of…person.’ Then he asked her abruptly, ‘What is it you want most in life?’

She blinked at him. ‘I barely know you, Mr—’ She stopped and said, ‘Axel.’

Hearing his name on her mouth had a direct effect on his body, igniting a surge of heat. He exerted iron control.

‘I think it’s fair to say we’ve transgressed several boundaries.’