Page 128 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

She shook her head. ‘I’m tired,’ she said gruffly. ‘I’ll see her tomorrow.’

Surging frustration gnawing him to the bone, Joaquin resisted the temptation to pull the car over and demand she tell him what the hell was the matter.

Ten minutes later they drove past the gatehouse. The lights were on.

‘I think Harry is meant to be arriving tomorrow. Mum will probably be glad I didn’t drop by. She’ll be cooking and cleaning.’

Halfway up the long drive to the house a fox ran across the road in front of them before disappearing into the woods. Clemmie didn’t even react to it.

Frustration and fear scraped his nerve-endings. Whatever she had learnt at the hospital must have been pretty devastating.

The sooner she told him, the sooner he could get her the help she needed.

‘Do you want a drink?’ Joaquin asked, studying the label on the bottle he’d pulled from a cupboard before pouring himself one. He had the feeling he might need it.

In the act of putting a match to the pile of kindling someone—probably her mum—had arranged in the fireplace, she shook her head.

‘I might make myself a cup of tea, though,’ she said as she straightened up, dusting her hands on her bottom as she watched the flames flare and take hold. ‘I might get changed too,’ she added, glancing down at her silk shirt and wide-legged linen trousers. The matching jacket lay over the back of the sofa.

He caught her arm. ‘Not now.’

She sighed and nodded, not pretending to misunderstand his meaning.

‘What is wrong? You can tell me anything—you know that.’

Anything beside the fact that she...

She blinked. She couldn’t say it—she couldn’t think it.

‘After all the tests I asked the doctor about...’ She gave a self-conscious little shrug. ‘I asked him about birth control, and he said...he said—’

‘What did he say?’

‘He said that it was sensible of me to think about such things before beginning a sexual relationship.’ She watched his face for reaction. ‘I said that obviously I was already in a sexual relationship.’ She sucked in a deep, sustaining breath. ‘And then he said...’

Joaquin’s patience snapped. He was thinking the worst by this point—not that he even knew what that was. But with this sort of build-up he was imagining something devastating.

‘He said what?’

‘That I wasn’t. He said...’

‘Get to the point, Clemmie.’

‘He told me I was still a virgin.’

Her eyes were trained on her feet as she spoke, but she was aware of Joaquin across the room, downing the contents of the glass he held.

‘It was a bit of a shock.’

Joaquin laughed.Shockdidn’t really cover what he was feeling—what had glued his feet to the floor. The idea that all the passion he had always sensed in her was untapped...

‘So, this was news to you?’

‘Well, I knew I once was,obviously.’

He watched a thoughtful expression drift across her solemn face.

‘I supposethat’s one of the reasons that I was upset. I couldn’t remember my first time. I just assumed that...’ She had assumed that her first time had been with Joaquin, and somehow that had felt right...like the last piece in a puzzle slotting into place. She extended her finger to look at the dull glitter of the multiple stones. ‘Well, we’re engaged. And sex is usually pre-ring, not post.’

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