Page 13 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

She was still reeling at the reality that Ajax was here, that he now knew about his daughter, and that their kiss had proved he still held a power over her that she couldn’t fathom or control.

He frowned. ‘When?’

Erin forced her sluggish brain to work. ‘When she was about five months old, I called your office—they said you were in Greece. I didn’t have a personal number for you. Obviously I couldn’t leave a message with that information.’

In spite of their intimacies.

That drove home even more to Erin how inconsequential she’d been in his life.

Ajax’s face was like stone. ‘You said you tried a few times. That’s once.’

‘I wrote you a letter.’

Ajax looked as if he wanted to laugh. ‘Aletter?’

She nodded. ‘I figured that would be as good a way as any to get the message to you.’

‘Everything is electronic now. Letters are all but obsolete.’

Erin felt defensive. ‘Yes, I’m aware of that. But as I no longer had a company email address, I knew that any email I sent would most likely end up in spam. Or it would be opened and vetted by an assistant. I thought a letter would be safer and more private.’

His expression changed for a second, and then he said a little stiffly, ‘Actually, that wouldn’t have made much difference, they open all correspondence even if it’s marked private. I have nothing to hide, and I have a policy of my staff immediately destroying any such correspondence. A woman making a claim that I’m the father of their child is unfortunately seen as an easy way to get some kind of engagement with men in my position. It works more effectively when the man in question is more promiscuous than I am.’

His words came back to her.I haven’t had a lover since you.

Erin folded her arms, shutting out that reminder. So one of her messages could have got through, only to be thrown out before he’d even seen it. ‘Well, in this instance it was a genuine claim—isn’t that ironic?’

Ajax’s jaw clenched. ‘Did you try again?’

Erin nodded. ‘I went to your offices one day, to try and see you—shortly before the birth. But before I could even give them my name I started to feel pains... I was going into labour.’

The colour left Ajax’s face. ‘You went into labour with my child in my building and I had no idea?’

Erin nodded, swallowing. He looked... She couldn’t even decipher the expression on his face.

But then his expression blanked and he said, ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t aware. How did my staff not notice?’

Weakly she had to concede, ‘That wasn’t their fault. I was wearing a big coat—it wasn’t necessarily obvious that I was pregnant. But...as you might appreciate... I was occupied with a newborn after that, so telling you wasn’t high on my list of priorities.’ She finished, ‘Those were all the attempts I made.’

‘So were you going to try again...? When, exactly? In another year, maybe?’ Ajax’s tone was ascerbic.

Erin squirmed inwardly. She knew she deserved this. ‘No, I knew it had to be soon.’

About three months ago she’d prepared to make another attempt to contact Ajax, but then she’d seen him in the paper, in the society pages, pictured at an event with a beautiful woman. The urge to contact him had dissolved—she didn’t like to admit that she’d been jealous. And yet if she believed what he’d said here today, he hadn’t taken another lover. So he hadn’t slept with that woman...

His voice cut through her circling thoughts. ‘Well, wasn’t this timing serendipitous?’

‘That’s one way of looking at it.’

He emitted a frustrated sound, and then, ‘I’m not royalty, Erin. I’m not that hard to contact. It wasn’t as if you would have been a stranger trying to contact me.’

‘True. But you made it very clear after our last...meeting that no further contact would be welcome.’

The sting of that rejection was as painful and vivid now as if it had just happened. He’d said,‘This was a mistake.It won’t happen again.’

Erin pushed down the old pain. She couldn’t afford to let him see that vulnerability now.

‘That was before I knew you were pregnant,’ he pointed out.

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