Page 49 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

But he had that sense again that what he’d been working so hard for was somehow…futile, in spite of achieving the success he had. That dream of including his siblings in the business felt far too nebulous. And did he really want to hand this toxic chalice on to another generation? He’d ruled out any other options so long ago that he genuinely couldn’t see a way out…

And now Hope was reaching right into him where all these thoughts were tangled up and getting tighter and tighter, drawing into knots in his gut.

And through it all he still wanted her with a fierce hunger that couldn’t be sated, no matter how much he had of her. He closed the distance between them and saw how her cheeks flushed and her eyes widened.

In that moment he wanted to punish her for making him want her, for making him break every rule he’d ever lived by. For making him question everything that had been so solid.

He reached for her, hands circling her small waist. She put her hands on his chest. He could feel the current between them, as strong as ever. Pulsing. Urgent. But he forced himself to say, ‘You really don’t need to concern yourself about me. I’m perfectly happy.’

* * *

Hope knew better than to argue. But as her body came alive under his hands like a musical instrument attuned to only his touch, a sense of anger and frustration arose. She hated him in that moment for bringing her here, for showing her this paradise. For dangling it in front of her and tempting her to have dreams and for bringing her to life…

‘There’s only one thing I need right now,’ Axel said.

Hope didn’t have to ask what. It crackled between them. And she needed it too—to eclipse everything she was feeling. She needed it to push down the pain of knowing that she’d goaded Axel into spelling out explicitly that he didn’t want her in any other part of his life except for here, like this.

She reached up to him and said, ‘Damn you, Axel Drakos.’

He smiled and it was bleak. ‘I was damned a long time ago, moro mou.’

And Hope had never felt sadder even as she went up in flames under Axel’s mouth and hands, telling herself that she was an idiot because this would only mean more pain in the end.

* * *

Athens glowed under a pink dawn sky as Hope stepped off the plane wearing light cotton trousers and a loose shirt. The latent heat of the day ahead was already in the air.

A car was waiting for them, a driver standing by the open back passenger door. Hope sat in the back seat and Axel joined her on the other side. He was dressed in one of his three-piece suits and he already looked more remote.

A mobile phone was clamped to his ear. He’d been on the phone or working on his laptop more or less solidly since they’d left the Caribbean villa almost fifteen hours ago, stopping for a brief layover and change of plane in New York. Hope had slept on the journey across the Atlantic but she still felt a little fuzzy and a little raw.

After that conversation the day before, she and Axel had made love long into the night, with an intensity that had left her wrung out. Early the following morning, as dawn had broken, they’d got up and, without even saying a word, Hope had known they were leaving.

They’d packed and Axel had driven them to the local airfield where a plane had been waiting.

Before leaving, Hope had taken one last look at the view—she’d always been careful not to get too attached to places and things after moving around so much as a child, but that beautiful island and villa had got under her skin and she’d told herself that, even though she knew she wouldn’t see it again, she really hoped that Axel would come back and find some happiness there.

She knew now that she’d fallen hopelessly in love with him and the thought of what was to come terrified her. She’d truly believed—naively—that she could exert some control over who she would love, so that she wouldn’t be left again, like an unwanted package.

And yet that was exactly what would happen any day now when Axel’s event was over and he’d achieved his aim. Because she had no doubt he would.

You could take control and leave first, suggested a little voice. And that called to her strongly because a huge motif in her life had been a feeling of being at the mercy of a system bigger than her.

But Hope knew that, while she could leave now and feel some modicum of taking control back, she wouldn’t do that to Axel. Because she loved him and wanted him to succeed. She loved him.

As if hearing her thoughts, Axel put out his hand. Hope knew she should really be enforcing some distance but her body was already reaching for him and moving close as if it had a mind of its own.

Instantly the tumult in her head lessened. But not her heart.

Hope pulled apart a little from Axel only when they were in Athens itself and she lowered the window on her side to get a view of the city. Ancient momuments appeared in between modern buildings. Off a roundabout. In a park opposite a hotel. Hope was mesmerised. And then she saw the Acropolis and sucked in a breath. It was majestic. Standing on its own hill above the city.

The car started climbing up winding uphill roads that led back out of the city a little until it stopped at a set of huge iron gates. The gates opened and they swept into a long driveaway lined by trees with views of verdant lawns that led up to a stunning white neoclassical villa. Hope could already see that it had views of the city down below.

‘Is this the Drakos family villa?’ she asked, suddenly imagining his parents appearing at the front door.

Axel shook his head. ‘No, it’s mine. I had the main family villa sold some years ago. It was barely in use and my parents spend most of their time in New York.’

‘Was it hard to sell the family home?’