Page 10 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

Ajax’s conscience pricked. His motive for coming here was far more ulterior and earthier. ‘I hear you’re doing well at your new firm. Certainly your old boss misses you.’

‘You’ve come all the way here to tell me I was a valued employee?’

Now his skin prickled with a sense of exposure. He wasn’t used to people questioning his motives. He wasn’t used to questioning his own motives. But he’d made this journey without really thinking it through—not like him. He was behaving like some sort of homing pigeon, guided by forces beyond its comprehension or control.

Erin was looking at him, waiting for a response, once again reminding him of how forthright she was. Her eyes were beautiful, brown and green, ringed with long dark lashes.

It struck him then that he was here because he was looking for some sort of connection—something he hadn’t felt since he’d been with this woman.

Erin still couldn’t believe Ajax Nikolau was standing in her small one-and-a-half-bedroom apartment talking to her. Saying...nonsense. She needed him to be gone. This situation was too dangerous. She wasn’t ready to let him know he was a father right now. She had intended to go to him and be cool and collected. Calm. Not in her stockinged feet with her baby—their baby!—just feet away.

Before she could think of something appropriate to get him to leave, he asked, ‘Why did you leave the law firm? Because of what happened between us?’

Erin swallowed. She wasn’t about to explain her emotional vulnerabilities to the man who had been responsible for them.

She managed to force out, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I took my new job because it offered better prospects.’

Then he said, ‘I haven’t had a lover since you.’

He sounded almost accusing. He was looking at her intensely, the same way he had in that elevator. Blood rushed to her skin, making it tingle. Between her legs she pulsed with awareness and it shocked her. She hadn’t felt so much as a blip of desire since the baby.

Since Ajax.

She was confused. She was afraid to think too much about what it meant that he hadn’t had a lover since her. Or how that made her feel. Slightly giddy...

Erin tried to ground this rapidly evolving situation in some reality again. ‘Why are you here?’ She was confused. Did he want her to work for him?

Ajax shook his head slightly, as if clearing it. ‘I think I came here because I haven’t forgotten what it was like... Have you?’

As if to help her, a memory flashed back of how it had felt to have Ajax’s body moving in and out of hers, skin slick with sweat, hearts pounding, straining to reach the building pinnacle of—

‘Yes,’ Erin lied desperately. ‘I’ve had other things to think about.’

Like his daughter.

Her guts churned as memories of finding out about the pregnancy flooded her brain.

She’d thrown herself so completely into her new job, to try and put what had happened between her and Ajax Nikolau behind her, that three months had almost gone by before she’d acknowledged the bouts of morning sickness that had lasted for about a month, and noticed that her already irregular periods had actually stopped.

And that the bloating wasn’t going away. In fact, it was getting worse. She could barely fit into some of her clothes any more.

And when yet another male client’s gaze had gone to her bigger than usual chest she’d had to face the fact that she ought to take a moment out of her schedule to get her symptoms checked.

Until the doctor had said those fateful words—‘You’re pregnant, almost thirteen weeks along’—she’d literally not even contemplated that possibility. Or maybe she’d been too scared to let the possibility exist.

She had a mild form of endometriosis, so whenever she was irregular or there were strange symptoms she put it down to that. And stress had always had a big effect on her periods, too, so to say finishing an affair—even short-lived—and starting a new job was stressful was an understatement.

The doctor had looked at her incredulously. ‘You really had no clue?’

Erin had shaken her head, feeling stupid.

Pregnant.

She’d been in a daze for days.

Ajax’s voice cut through the memories as he said, ‘You’re not married or engaged?’

Erin covered her hand. ‘That doesn’t mean anything. I could be in a relationship.’

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