Page 14 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

It was a vast space with a four-poster canopied bed on one side, dressed in the most elegant pale linens. The decor was classic and understated in earthy muted shades. Two doors off the bedroom led into a bathroom and adjoining dressing-room.

There was also an area with a couch, armchairs and a TV. A coffee table laden with hardback photographic books and current magazines. One of Hope’s guilty pleasures was glossy magazines but she could rarely afford them. She was lucky if she got some left behind on a flight. Her mouth drooled. And then drooled even more when she saw that the bathroom was stuffed with an iconic beauty brand’s toiletries. The kind of stuff you’d find only in a spa.

An open bay window looked out over the immaculate lawns at the back of the house. You could almost be fooled into thinking you were in the centre of the countryside. It was quiet. Only the sound of chirping birds.

‘Your suitcase will be delivered presently. Can I get you any refreshments?’

Hope looked at Rachel, who didn’t seem to notice that Hope felt as if she’d just been beamed down from another planet. ‘Um, maybe just some water?’

‘Of course, I’ll have one of the staff bring some up. Please, make yourself comfortable. Mr Drakos said to let you know that he’s in a meeting at the moment but he’ll be with you as soon as he’s free. He’ll fill you in then.’ Rachel left.

Fill her in on what, exactly? wondered Hope. She was beginning to also wonder if in fact she’d made a massive mistake. This felt very real all of a sudden. There was a soft knock on the door and Hope opened it, half expecting to see Axel, but it was a young girl in a similar uniform to the housekeeper, black trousers and a dark grey polo shirt. It was only now that Hope noticed the insignia stitched into the fabric of the shirt. She recognised the Drakos Solutions logo—a serpent intertwined with the letters D and S—because it had been on the private jet.

The girl had a tray in her hands with bottles of water and glasses. Sparkling and still. Hope took it from her. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘If you need anything else just use the phone by the bed.’

‘Thank you.’ Hope brought the tray in and put it down on the coffee table and poured herself a glass of water, taking a big gulp. Maybe that might restore some sense of reality. But then she figured she might need something much stronger than water for that, and she wasn’t much of a drinker.

There was another knock at the door and it was a different girl with her suitcase. Hope took it and tried not to feel as though she were sullying the perfect decor with her battered case. She brought it into the dressing-room and opened it. Her belongings looked very meagre against the pristine backdrop. A couple of dresses, skirts, jeans and a pair of shorts. Some shirts. Trainers. Sandals. Nightclothes. Toiletries.

Another knock on the bedroom door. Hope went out fully expecting to see another solicitous staff member so it took her a second to realise she was looking directly at a waistcoated chest. A very broad chest.

She raised her eyeline to find Axel Drakos looking at her and as breathtakingly gorgeous as she remembered. More so. Here in his own milieu.

She made her muscles move and stood back. ‘I… Hello, come in.’ To your own guest suite in your own house.

But he didn’t come in. He said, ‘Actually, if you don’t mind coming downstairs to my office? We can discuss the specifics of this arrangement there.’

‘Of course.’ Hope followed his long-legged pace back down to the reception level. His scent tickled her nostrils—the same tantalising scent as yesterday. Leather and musk and something indefinable. Him. He moved with loose-limbed grace and Hope had to trot to keep up.

He didn’t bring her into the room she’d spied before, it was another room tucked down another corridor off the main hall. Hope gasped again when she walked in. His office had to take up most of an entire ground-floor wing of the house. Bookshelves lined walls stuffed with books. Huge French doors opened directly out onto the back lawns.

His desk was massive, and there was a leather couch at the other end of the room with a TV mounted onto the wall showing a news channel on mute. Newspapers were strewn across a coffee table.

Beautiful oriental rugs adorned the parquet floor.

‘Is this your office in London?’ Hope asked as she looked around.

‘No, I have an office in central London. It was more practical to work from home today.’

Hope avoided looking at him directly. It was like looking at the sun.

He asked, ‘Can I get you a coffee? Tea?’

‘Um, a coffee would be great.’ It might help her to wake up from this dream state.

He went over to a cabinet that she could see held a sleek coffee machine and a kettle and then also bottles of spirits and glasses. There was a fridge underneath.

She blurted out, ‘I feel like I should be making you a coffee. This is all wrong.’

He came towards her with a dainty cup in a saucer and handed it to her. ‘You need to get that out of your head, Hope. If we do this, then we’re equals.’

Hope took the cup and saucer at that moment and they trembled in her hands. Equals! She’d never heard anything so ludicrous in her life.

‘Please, come and sit down.’

Axel led her over to a chair on the other side of his desk and Hope sat down gratefully, putting the cup and saucer onto the flat surface before she upended it all over herself. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have form in this area.