Page 47 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

She’d groaned. ‘I’m literally dumbing you down.’

Axel rose to his feet now in an athletic fluid motion. He held out a hand. ‘We’ve rested enough since eating—time for a swimming lesson.’

Hope put out her hand and let Axel pull her up. She was becoming very proficient at the doggy-paddle and had managed to swim a whole length of the pool at the villa unaided. But she hadn’t been in the sea, apart from at the very edge. The waves terrified her slightly.

But the waves at this beach were more gentle. Axel led her into the water and it was deliciously cool on her hot skin. The water got higher and higher and she felt nervous. ‘Axel, I’m almost out of my depth.’ It occurred to her that that was true for her emotions as well. She pushed that revelation aside.

He turned to face her. ‘OK, so start swimming. Follow me.’

Hope’s mouth opened. ‘Just…start?’

Axel let her go and floated onto his back, chest gleaming under the sunlight. ‘Come on, follow me.’

Hope took a breath and let the buoyancy of the water help her to become weightless and at first she panicked, scrabbling into doggy-paddle and splashing water everywhere, but Axel said, ‘You’re doing great, just slow down—you won’t sink.’

Hope did and realised that she was managing to float without much effort. She experimented with trying to put her feet down and couldn’t touch the bottom. She felt that momentary panic again but used her arms and legs to propel her back towards Axel.

She finally caught up to him and he reached for her and she clung to him with arms and legs around his waist. He grinned at her. ‘You did it.’

The beauty of the surroundings and the fact that this man had taken the time to teach her rudimentary swimming skills made her chest swell so much that she pressed her mouth to his to try and contain the feeling.

He kissed her back, long and luxuriously, and then Hope forgot why she’d kissed him in the first place.

They floated in the sea for a while, hands linked. And then Axel said, ‘We should get out. I don’t want you to burn.’

Hope rolled her eyes. He’d made sure she was so slathered in factor fifty that she was fairly sure she was safe, but she let him tow her back in by her hands.

When they returned to the villa later that afternoon, Axel disappeared to make some calls and Hope went to shower. Her skin felt like silk after the natural exfoliation of the sand. When she looked at herself in the mirror there was an explosion of freckles across her nose and cheeks. She grimaced. She looked like a wholesome country farm girl, not the sophisticated, elegant girlfriend of a billionaire.

She sighed. There wasn’t much she could do about that. Nor Axel. They were bound together now after those photos had hit the papers. She’d seen them online when she’d checked the news sites on her phone.

She felt as if people wouldn’t really believe they were together. And yet those photos from the market showed them looking at each other as if no one else were around. It had looked so cringingly obvious to her how fascinated she was by him.

It had made her think of that night in Manhattan, after the event where she’d met his parents, when he’d undressed her and washed her and put her to bed.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the tenderness Axel had shown and the generosity, giving her pleasure but taking none for himself.

It meant nothing, she’d told herself stoutly the morning after. But in these last few days in his idyllic place, and after seeing a different side to Axel—more relaxed, open—she couldn’t help but fantasise that maybe their time together was changing him. Changing his perspective. Making him want more…making him want her, outside this whole arrangement. This situationship.

Hope knew that was a very dangerous line to follow so she put it all out of her mind now and changed into a loose maxi dress and went downstairs to see what could be cobbled together for dinner.

But deep inside, a little flame of hope had been lit and, with the best will in the world, she couldn’t snuff it out.

* * *

‘Baros has obviously seen the pictures online,’ Michalis said approvingly. ‘His people have been in touch to make sure you’re coming to his party. He’s carved out time to talk to you. This is it, Axel, it’s working.’

Michalis’s voice came over speakerphone into the room. Axel waited for a sense of triumph and anticipation to hit him and it did…but it felt lacklustre. As if he couldn’t care less.

Michalis continued, ‘Are you coming back soon? I mean, it’s working, whatever you’re doing, but you’ve never been anywhere with a woman for a week.’

Axel didn’t need that reminder. He’d been losing track of time and days, indulging in a wholly new experience of abdicating all responsibility. He’d come back into the villa home office to find emails and missed calls. Mostly from Michalis.

He said a little tetchily to his friend and advisor now, ‘That was the aim here, to show Baros that I can settle down.’

‘And are you? With Hope Smith?’ Michalis’s tone was sly.

‘Don’t be absurd,’ Axel responded quickly. Too quickly. ‘She’s completely inappropriate for the long term and for continuing the Drakos line.’ But even as he said that, Axel felt acid reflux inside him. Everything he’d based his existence on—making sure his brother’s struggles hadn’t been in vain, and shoring up Drakos Solutions and making it more successful than ever—suddenly felt as if it was starting to crumble.