Page 154 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

As if he wasn’t integral to her body’s functioning, and maybe even her ability to breathe.

Sebastian stared at her car for a long time, part of him wanting to go to her, even when he knew he wouldn’t.

From the moment she’d put on that damned dress, he’d been forced to remember who she was.

Who she worked for.

Who she served.

Who she loved.

She would always put the king first.

She had married Sebastian at the king’s behest, and despite Sebastian’s numerous questions, he half feared she had agreed to this plan because a baby would put the king’s mind at ease.

And he hated that.

He hated that the king was the last man on earth to deserve such loyalty, and he particularly hated that the king had it from Rosalind. Rosalind who should have known better, who should have valued herself more than to become embroiled in any of this. Rosalind who should have known her worth.

Rosalind who should have believed in fairy tales and happily-ever-afters, just as her poor mother wanted for her.

Instead, she was living in a drama that was almost guaranteed not to have a happy ending.

Nothing good could come from going after her.

It would simply be prolonging the inevitable.

Their week together had blown every single one of Sebastian’s expectations out of the water, but so what? It didn’t change anything.

When the king called, she would always go. Her loyalty would always be to him, and Sebastian couldn’t live with that. He couldn’t live with the thought of growing close to someone who didn’t see things as he did, who didn’t agree with him. He couldn’t ever really allow someone into his life who defended the man who’d made his mother so miserable, who had exiled him as a young boy.

On the island, they’d formed a truce. An agreement not to discuss the king. It was too inflammatory, too dangerous for them. But here? Here the king was everywhere, and they couldn’t continue to act as though he didn’t exist.

If Sebastian went after Rosie, if he asked her to come to his bed that night, he knew she’d agree. But in exchange, he’d want more. He’d want her to switch allegiance, to agree with him that the king was awful, to admit that his hatred was warranted.

She’d never do that, and he wouldn’t ask. He watched her drive away, knowing it was the right decision but wishing like hell he could stop time and take her back to the island, just for a little while longer.

Procuring a pregnancy test when you were a princess was not exactly as simple as popping down to the local pharmacy and simply buying one. In order to get the thing, she’d had to ask someone she trusted to buy one for her, which meant opening up to Laurena about the possibility of a baby, at least.

Laurena, who like the rest of the world, had no idea about the cause of Rosie’s mother malaise, had shrieked with excitement before Rosie had shushed her. ‘It’s just in case,’ she’d promised. ‘It will probably be negative,’ she said, keeping her fingers crossed that it was positive. Lord knew they’d given a baby every opportunity to exist with their days of dedicated trying.

And she so desperately wanted the baby to have been conceived on the island. There was just something so magical about the place, but more than that, there was something magical about who they’d been when they were there. Just two people, getting to know one another, without all of the impediments and constraints that existed here.

Laurena had taken almost two hours, because she’d explained when she returned, she’d driven to the other side of the city to shop in a place that was unlikely to have any paparazzi lurking. Rosie was grateful for her discretion.

Her fingers shook as she removed the test and read the instructions carefully, and when she took it, her breath burned in her lungs, and she found she almost couldn’t bear to look. Her excitement and hope were at such a zenith level that she knew if it was negative, she’d be crushed.

Or maybe she wouldn’t? Negative meant more trying, after all... Just the thought of that sent her heart into a frenzy. She glanced at the test. Nothing.

But it had only been a minute. She waited some more, and some more, and still there was no second line where one would be if she’d conceived.

Despite the consolation of more time with Sebastian, her heart felt as though it had been smashed into oblivion.

She wasn’t pregnant.

‘Oh,’ she whispered, wrapping the test in toilet paper and shoving it back into the box. ‘That’s that, then.’

She told herself it was okay. That it was to be expected. But a single tear rolled down her cheek as she stepped out into her bedroom and looked around. Laurena had tactfully left, and Rosie was grateful. She didn’t want to have to tell her aid, yet, that she was not pregnant after all.

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