Page 55 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

He put on his own robe and, after gathering up their discarded clothes, took Erin’s hand again to lead her up to the villa.

Halfway across the lawn, though, she stopped and took her hand away from his. He looked at her and saw she was pale. She looked back at him and said, ‘Protection. We didn’t use anything.’

Immediately the niggling sensation stopped. That was what it had been. And for a man who would usually have been zealous about protection, he found to his surprise that the thought wasn’t causing him a sense of panic.

Erin’s expressionwasreflecting panic, though. But then it cleared a little and she said, ‘Actually, I think it’s okay. I’m at a safe place in my cycle.’

Ajax didn’t want to decipher why he wasn’t feeling more relieved. ‘That’s good... I’m sorry, that was my fault. I should’ve stopped.’

CHAPTER NINE

ERIN’SHEARTWASstill pounding after what had just happened, and also with the gut-churning panic of realising they’d made love without protection. But she was pretty sure it would be okay...

Ajax’s face was hard to read in the moonlight, but Erin had the distinct impression that he wasn’t overly perturbed about the fact that they’d just had unprotected sex.

She winced inwardly. Not that having protected sex had been all that effective twenty-one months ago.

Her body was still tingling all over. She couldn’t quite believe she’d had the audacity to jump into the pool with her clothes on, and then what had ensued...

But he’d been right—she had been trying to distract him. From how it had made her feel to hear him say so casually‘let’s go home’after dinner.

Let’s go home.

As if they were a regular couple on a date night. Enjoying some alone time away from their baby and then returning to their home.

Their home.

When it wasn’t remotely her home. It was Ajax’s home. And yet in that unguarded moment she’d desperately wanted it to be her home too.Their home.The kind of place where there were two parents and one of them didn’t just get up and walk out one day, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

The fact that he’d exposed that deep-seated desire had made her feel very vulnerable. Vulnerable to the possibility that she might even be hoping for something more than she’d ever dreamed of.

So she’d acted on instinct. And diving into the pool had almost been as much about waking herself up out of that dream as anything else. But then Ajax had joined her...and madness had taken over, scrambling her mind and making her forget that she needed to stay vigilant and not be dreaming of impossible things.

Erin took a step backwards now. ‘I should go and check on Ashling...go to bed... Goodnight, Ajax.’

She turned to walk away and reassured herself that any day now the heat in Ajax’s gaze would fade, this insane interlude would end, and they’d go back to New York and—

‘Would it really be so bad?’

Erin stopped. She didn’t turn around. She was afraid she was having some sort of aural hallucination—that Ajax had probably said goodnight, but she’d heard something else. Something ridiculous.

She turned around. Ajax’s face was still in shadow. Not helping.

She said, ‘What did you say?’

He stepped forward and into the soft light coming from the villa. He should have looked ridiculous in the short towelling robe, but he didn’t. He looked sexy.

He said, ‘Would it be so bad if you were pregnant?’

It took a moment for that to really compute in Erin’s brain. For her to try and interpret the dozens of threads that question contained, all leading in directions that had alarm bells screaming.

‘Of course it would—what are you talking about?’

Ajax took another step forward, closing the distance between them. There was an intent look on his face. Erin’s sense of extreme vulnerability came back.

He said, ‘Think about it. We already have a child. We have amazing chemistry. We like each other. You and Ashling are making me think about family again, even though I swore I wouldn’t.’

We like each other.

---