Page 39 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

People clapped and cheered. Hope turned to him as the emcee wound up the auction and thanked everyone for their contributions.

‘Why did you do that? It’s enough money to keep a small nation afloat.’

Axel felt something very alien in his chest. Buoyant. ‘It’ll go to a good charity.’

Then he said, ‘Do you know something? I’ve never taken a holiday.’

‘What? Never?’

He shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Not even for Christmas?’

‘That’s when I get most of my work done. It’s the only time people aren’t trying to reach me.’ One Christmas, Axel had been in his penthouse office here in Manhattan and he’d looked up and it had been dark outside, snow falling. He’d felt a momentary pang of yearning for company but he’d quashed it and gone back to work.

Hope said, ‘Now I’m feeling even more sorry for you. I love Christmas. It’s my favourite holiday.’

‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’

Hope made a face at him. ‘Grinch.’

Axel smiled. ‘How would you like to go to the Caribbean? Apparently I have a villa there.’

Hope gaped at him. ‘Seriously? But what about the event with that guy, the one you want to do business with?’

‘We still have time. And it’ll help to make this relationship look even more authentic.’

* * *

Even more authentic. Hope would have thought sleeping together had made it the ultimate in authentic but of course it wasn’t really. Their arrangement had strayed over the boundaries into new territory, that was all.

She hated the sense of deflation. This wouldn’t be a real holiday. She forced a smile. ‘That sounds good.’

Axel took her hand and lifted it to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the inside of her palm. It felt shockingly intimate. And suddenly she was lost in a surge of desire, just as there was a flash from nearby. Hope flinched and Axel cursed. They looked to see a photographer in a suit nearby checking his camera for the image he’d just snapped of them.

‘Did you see the photographer?’ Hope asked Axel.

He shook his head. ‘No…but I knew there were some here in an official capacity.’

Hope pulled her hand back and said, ‘I need to go to the ladies.’ She needed to gather herself before Axel saw that she was finding it hard to contain her emotions. She shouldn’t be feeling betrayed just because Axel obviously always had one eye on the opportunity to showcase this relationship. It wasn’t as if she were under any illusions. Sex might be muddying the waters but it was just sex.

He stood up to let her out and Hope made her way through the milling crowd to the bathroom. Inside the luxurious space, she put her bag down and looked at herself in the mirror. Eyes bright, cheeks pink. She was…glowing. Helped by the dress, of course. But she knew with a sinking sensation that this whole thing with Axel was blowing up in a way that she wasn’t prepared for. She cared about him. Even more since meeting his awful parents.

She stood up straight and told herself she was being overdramatic. In spite of her protestations to Axel, maybe she was just confusing sex with emotion. And once this was over and she was deposited back into her own life, she would look back on all of this like some sort of weird fever dream.

If she just focused on the sex and less on seeing all of these cracks into the person he really was, she might survive it.

And then, as if conjured straight out of her head, a tall elegant figure appeared beside her and Hope’s eyes widened at the reflection of Axel’s mother in the mirror.

‘Mrs Drakos.’

The woman didn’t smile, unsurprisingly. All she said was, ‘I don’t know who you think you are but my son will never marry someone like you. Enjoy this moment, because it won’t last long.’

A kind of fury that Hope had never experienced before rose up inside her but she forced herself to sound as calm as she could when she turned and faced the real woman. She had to look up. She smiled. ‘I know exactly who I am, and who I am is quite the person, considering everything I’ve been through. My parents may have abandoned me but at least I didn’t grow up knowing for certain they couldn’t have cared less about me. I can still dream that my mother’s choice wasn’t an easy one and that maybe she loved me. That she wouldn’t have left me at the mercy of criminals.’

The woman’s face hardened. ‘He told you about Ares.’

Hope nodded, feeling a pang of sympathy. But she forced it down. ‘Goodbye, Mrs Drakos.’ She left quickly before she could say anything else.