Page 17 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

It didn’t feel all that improbable right at the moment when Axel was battling a surge of lust for this sprite in front of him.

Then she sat up straight and said, ‘Actually, what exactly did you mean by making this look “as real as possible” in public?’

‘Exactly that.’ Axel folded his arms across his chest, as if that could contain the welling heat inside him. ‘We’ll have to make people believe we’re lovers.’

‘Are you going to be kissing me? In front of people?’

Axel recoiled at the thought of such a public display of affection. ‘No, I do not do that.’ Because he didn’t feel affection and because no woman had ever driven him so crazy that he had to touch her and claim her in front of people. He didn’t have to—when a woman was with him she made it pretty obvious she didn’t want to be anywhere else.

The thought of exposing himself like that made him feel clammy.

‘So just…some hand-holding, light touching?’

Axel nodded.

Hope said, ‘I tend towards being tactile. I think it comes from having been abandoned as a baby, something about needing to feel warmth. But if I’m being too handsy you can let me know.’

Axel had to reflect that he hadn’t been abandoned but he might as well have been for all the affection he and his siblings had received. He couldn’t remember one moment of warmth or benign touch from either of his parents and they certainly hadn’t shown warmth for each other.

And yet he’d never sought out tactility, no one he knew behaved like that.

Axel’s face must have been reflecting his thoughts because Hope put a hand to her mouth and then said, ‘Sorry, that’s TMI, forget I said anything. I’ll take my lead from you.’

But now Axel’s head was filled with incendiary images of her cleaving close to him, taking his hand, and suddenly he wasn’t feeling a sense of clammy horror, he was feeling hot.

Then she said, ‘So what happens now?’

He forced ice into his veins. ‘We start preparing you to look the part.’

* * *

‘Am I too pale?’ asked Hope of the friendly stylist who had arrived not long after that meeting with Axel, laden down with bags. They were in Hope’s bedroom suite, in the dressing-room.

‘No way, pale is in right now.’

Hope figured that, since she had little or no discernible fashion sense, she’d have to take her word for it. She regarded her image in the mirror. She’d wondered if the gold colour might be too garish but now that it was on her, it didn’t look garish at all. It looked…spectacular.

The dress was silk and had a halter-neck design. The bodice was slightly loose to the waist and then it came in above her hips before falling in folds to the floor. She felt naked. She wasn’t wearing a bra and her entire back was bare.

‘Put on these shoes.’

Hope slipped on a pair of gold high-heel sandals. The dress still pooled around her feet.

‘I’m too short,’ she said.

‘It’s not a problem. I’ll have the dress altered and waiting for you with the shoes and accessories. I believe you’re going to Paris?’

Was she? Hope struggled to remember what Axel had said. ‘Um, yes, I think so.’ God, she must sound so clueless. She’d only been in this realm for a few hours and she was already losing the ability to retain information. But she was still reeling from that meeting, and the contract and the NDA and the way Axel had rattled off the places they would go within just the next couple of weeks.

‘I’ll be back here tomorrow for a more thorough fitting. This was just to get you something for this evening. Now that we’ve met I have a better idea of what will suit you. You can take off the dress.’

Hope changed back into her own clothes and just as the stylist left, the housekeeper appeared and said, ‘The car is waiting for you.’

Hope looked at her blankly. ‘Car?’

‘To take you to the salon.’

Hope clamped her mouth shut to avoid sounding like a parrot. Apparently this was all part of the preparation and she should just go along with it. The car whisked her to a salon not far from Axel’s house. She probably could have walked it but she had a sense that that might be frowned upon.