Page 104 of Modern Romance May 2026 Books 1-4
She put her hand to his shirt and said, ‘I guess I should return this.’
The air between them was suddenly charged. Caius glanced at the door. There was a lock. His blood started to sizzle. This was so unexpected…so illicit. And yet a moment of weariness caught at him to recognise that if he was to pursue this feeling of electricity in the air, if he was to try and seduce this woman, this stranger, he would be living up to the reputation that had settled like concrete around him. People would expect nothing less of the playboy prince.
But right now all he could see when he looked back washer. Looking at him from under that mask. All at once provocative, and so alluring. And he knew that once he chose a queen, moments like this would be few and far between because he would have to conduct his private liaisons with military-level discretion. He wasn’t going to follow in his parents’ footsteps and conduct marital affairs to inflict maximum pain on his spouse.
But right now he didn’t have a queen. He had this moment to seize.
Caius said with a smile, ‘I could leave you in my shirt and wear yours but somehow I don’t think I’d look as good in your shirt as you look in mine.’
Colour turned her cheeks pink. She was blushing? Definitely not a reaction Caius was used to.
Then she said, ‘Are you saying you like what you see?’
The air got thicker. Caius’s cock thickened and grew hard.Deus.He wanted her. He nodded, looking down over her body, taking his time. Almost insolent. Leaving her in no doubt what he meant when he said, ‘Yes, very much.’
King Caius Mansur de Roche, the man who had declared that she wasn’t his type, wanted her. She could see it in his eyes. They were even more piercing. She couldn’t help her gaze dropping and her pulse sped up when she saw the unmistakable bulge pressing against his trousers.
He was hard for her. Her heart pounded and her skin felt tight. Poppy was so tempted right now to behave more audaciously than she’d ever behaved. For once her security weren’t breathing down her neck; they’d been instructed to stay in the lobby of the hotel. So she was alone in a room with the sexiest man she’d ever met and he wanted her.
The advantage that she had in knowing who he was meant that she also knew that this kind of liaison was common for him. It would mean nothing.
She wouldn’t ever marry this man but she could know him in the most intimate way. She could do this and walk away and he would never even know who he’d had sex with. As if he’d even remember her anyway, among the hordes of his other lovers.
Sex.Her heart pounded. Was she really contemplating this? Giving her innocence away before marriage? Oh, she was under no romantic illusions. The chances of her marrying for love—even if that did exist—were slim to none.
Not that she ever aspired to being in love. The thought of being vulnerable enough to lower her emotional guard and allow a man to hurt her was anathema. But so was the thought of still being a virgin on her wedding night. She wasn’t some medieval princess. She was a modern woman and she would have slept with someone by now if the oportunity had afforded itself.
It hadn’t. Until now. There was also something deliciously ironic about giving her innocence to a king. To the king who had essentially called her boring.
Before she lost her nerve Poppy said, ‘Are you saying you want me?’
A muscle in his jaw bulged. ‘Do I really need to spell it out?’
He wasn’t used to answering questions. She got that. Someone in his position rarely had to justify or clarify. But she needed to be clear. She had no intention of being made a fool of, or exposing herself.
Displaying a confidence she really wasn’t feeling, Poppy said, ‘Tell them we don’t want to be disturbed and lock the door.’
His eyes flared and her pulse thundered. She wondered if she’d stepped over a line. But he was walking towards the door now, every movement fluid with animalistic grace. Confident. He opened the door, issued a command she didn’t hear and then closed the door and locked it.
He turned around and rested back against the door for a moment. ‘Now you have me here all to yourself.’
Poppy suddenly felt nervous, on the verge of giggling at the audacity of her actions and also deadly serious. ‘Come here,’ she said, feeling a creeping vulnerability.No.There was no need for vulnerability. She was just taking something for herself. Something she could bring with her as she stepped into her future. A secret she would never share.
Caius came back towards her. Bare chest gleaming in the low lights. He stopped a foot away. She looked up at him. His eyes were very blue. He said, ‘Take off my shirt.’
For a second as she looked at his bare chest taking up most of her vision Poppy didn’t understand what he meant and then it clicked. His shirt,on her. Oh.
She looked down and realised that the shirt was gaping a little because she’d done the buttons up wrong. She slipped them through the holes until they were all undone and the shirt fell open but not all the way. Hanging off the edges of her breasts.
‘May I?’
She looked up at Caius. She wasn’t sure what he was asking but she nodded. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them. And then he put his hands out and pulled apart the shirt.
Poppy heard his indrawn breath and saw the way his eyes widened. She felt a surge of very feminine pride. She knew she wasn’t anything spectacular but under his gaze she felt as though she might be something a little more than average.
He breathed out, ‘You are stunning.’
Poppy felt her cheeks heat. She knew she was more womanly than the fashionably stylish ideal. She’d never fitted into sample sizes and working with Clotilde was the first time she’d had a stylist who got who she really was. Even down to her underwear, forcing Poppy to throw out the far more serviceable items she was used to wearing.
