Page 159 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘It’s not like I had a miscarriage,’ she demurred. ‘We just didn’t fall pregnant. We’ll try again.’

‘When our staff sync our schedules?’ He couldn’t help reminding her, the words scathing.

She flinched a little. ‘Sure, why not?’

‘You don’t think that’s a little...cold?’

‘I’d rather call a spade a spade.’ She waved a hand through the air, and only the slight trembling of her fingers showed him how moved she was by their situation. ‘Why pretend this is anything other than what it is?’

‘Which is?’

‘Two people in an arranged marriage arranging to have a baby.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘You’re so angry with me you’re shaking, and I cannot work out why.’

She clamped her lips together, tried to gather her composure. ‘I’m not.’

‘Oh yeah?’

He took a step towards her, and her chest rose with the sharp intake of her breath. ‘You weren’t angry with me on the island.’

She glanced away, her throat shifting as she swallowed, visibly trying to rein in her temper.

‘Do you blame me?’ he asked, lifting a finger to the pulse point in her throat and feeling it rush against her delicate skin.

‘For what?’ she muttered, not looking at him, and not moving.

‘For not falling pregnant.’

She shook her head, her expression—what he could see of it in profile—like thunder. ‘I blame you for treating me like—’ But she zipped her lips together, cutting herself off just in time. Or frustratingly, too fast.

‘Like what?’ he pushed, so close to hearing her say whatever was bothering her and needing that.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It matters to me,’ he responded, his own voice rising a little.

She glanced up at him, her eyes darkened by resentment. ‘It’s my fault,’ she said. ‘I got carried away. I let myself believe we could be...friends. But that’s not what we are. It’s not what we’ll ever be. I’m just a body to you. Someone to have sex with when it suits, and to forget about when it doesn’t.’

He felt totally blindsided. ‘What the hell?’

‘Come on, Sebastian. There’s no need to pretend it’s not true. What else explains the way you cut me out of your life the minute we left the island? You did your bit, and tried to get me pregnant at every opportunity, in the right window of the calendar, and then you disappeared out of my life. Excellent breeding stock work—you’re a grade A bull, or stud, or whatever.’

He swore under his breath, wanting to deny it, but the truth held him quiet. He waited until he could trust his voice not to shake then said, ‘That’s what we agreed to.’

‘Right, of course,’ she snapped, pulling away from him then, stalking deeper into his house and making a sound of frustration. To his immense relief, it was Rosalind who reached up into her hair and began to remove pins, dropping each one onto the polished timber side table with obvious disdain. She continued to do so as she spoke. ‘And nothing changed on the island for either of us.’

‘Of course it changed,’ he responded. ‘We got to know each other, just like you wanted.’

‘But I got tolikeyou,’ she said, and then obviously regretted it. Yet she angled her chin defiantly, as if daring him to mock the sentiment, her eyes locked to his. ‘I got to like spending time with you. I thought that was real.’

He glanced away, his gut twisting. It had been real. So much of it. But her loyalty to the king made anything like a relationship impossible. He could explain that to her, but then they’d argue over the king, and there was no winning that fight. He simply had to accept she would always defend the man Sebastian hated.

‘And then we got back to the city, and you made it as clear as crystal that you couldn’t wait to go back to ignoring me. So, why are we here?’ she asked, running her hands through her liberated hair, pulling it over one shoulder. ‘Why bring me here under the guise of needing to talk when you have nothing to say?’

‘Fine, I don’t want to talk,’ he said, stalking towards her. ‘I miss you, okay?’

‘No, you miss having sex with me, that’s not the same thing. If you missed me, you would have called. You would have come to see me. You want to take me to bed. Right?’

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