Page 198 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

It’s your fault and you know it.

Maude’s jaw ached. She felt like she had at thirteen, when she’d had her one and only rebellion, and had sneaked out to a party given by one of the older kids at school. Her grandparents had somehow found out and her grandfather had come to get her, taking her by the scruff of the neck and marching her to the car. Then there had been an interrogation in his study the next day, with her grandmother standing beside his desk, arms folded. They’d had identical looks of disapproval and disappointment on their faces as they’d explained to her that she couldn’t do the things that other children could. That she had her mother’s wild blood in her and she had to be careful. She had to watch herself, had to learn to take responsibility for herself, had to learn self-control. They’d always made it clear that they were doing this for her own good, because they loved her, and so she’d tried. God knew how she’d tried, and mostly she’d succeeded.

But that night, none of the lessons had stuck.

And look what happened. Perhaps you’re just like your mother after all.

Maude ignored the snide thought. ‘I didn’t know you’d run after me,’ she said, knowing she sounded as if she was making excuses and, well... She was.

‘Yes, you did,’ he snapped. ‘You wanted me to. You wanted me to catch you, too.’

‘I was a virgin. Was I supposed to be carrying condoms, or—?’

‘I thought you were a guest. All guests had personal responsibility for their own birth control. Condoms were also provided.’

‘But not in the middle of the forest, clearly.’

He said nothing, dark eyes still burning with anger, the muscle in the side of his jaw flexing. The white stripe in his hair seemed brilliant in the sunlight, making the rest of the ink-black strands seem even darker, and she had the oddest thought that he looked like an angry badger.

‘What are you smiling at?’ he barked.

Maude hadn’t realised she was, in fact, smiling, and stopped. ‘Nothing.’

‘I’m glad someone finds this situation so amusing.’

‘It’s not that. I just... Well, you looked... For a minute... Like...an angry badger.’

He blinked. ‘A badger,’ he repeated blankly.

‘Yes. You know, with the stripe in your hair and—’

‘I’m familiar with what badgers look like, thank you very much.’ He tilted his head back slightly, looking down his aristocratic nose at her. The fury in his eyes had abated somewhat but the embers of it were burning still. ‘And as much fun as this conversation is, I think we’ve come to the end of what we need to say to each other about that night.’

Relief washed through her. ‘Oh, that’s great. Okay, well, I’ll just nip back to the—’

‘You will come back to the manor with me, Miss...’ He paused and frowned. ‘What the hell is your name?’

She was very tempted not to give it to him, but that would be pointless considering he could find out very easily anyway. ‘Maude,’ she said. ‘Maude Braithwaite.’ She took a breath. ‘And I’m sorry, but I’m not coming anywhere with you.’

Dominic couldn’t remember ever being so furious. Furious enough that during the conversation with the nymph—Maude—he’d done a terrible job of keeping a grip on his temper.

That never happened to him. Normally he allowed himself to care just enough to be mildly peeved when things didn’t go his way, but certainly not enough to provoke rage. Then again, ‘normally’ wasn’t a word that could be attributed to his current situation, since there was nothing normal about it.

She was pregnant and the child was his, andof coursethe child was his. The fact that she’d even had a stab at pretending otherwise had incensed him, and he wasn’t even sure why.

He wasn’t sure how she managed to get under his skin so badly, but she did. There was something about the way she’d looked at him, all suspicion with an edge of wariness, and a slight hint of disdain that just...needled at him. Then that had faded to be replaced by anger, the gold in her eyes glittering bright, only for that then to vanish and be replaced by, of all things, amusement. Then anger again. So many emotional currents moving through her lovely eyes and flowing over her delicate features like a fast-moving stream.

If he hadn’t been so furious himself he would have watched them move, captivated. But he was furious. Furious that she’d kept this pregnancy from him, and furious at himself that a) he hadn’t used any kind of protection that night in the forest, and b) he’d suspected she wasn’t a guest and he hadn’t bothered to find out who exactly she was.

When problems occurred, Dominic dealt with them swiftly, since problems left unsolved usually compounded themselves, and so he was very aware that he had to deal with this particular problem just as swiftly.

He also didn’t want to deal with it standing beside the waterfall, staring at Maude’s T-shirt clinging damply to her body, making him remember how she’d looked standing naked in the water. She’d had a forget-me-not stuck to her skin just above one soft pink nipple and he couldn’t get the sight of it out of his head.

With five months of celibacy weighing heavily on him and his grip on his temper not what it should be, being here alone with her was a bad move and one he needed to rectify.

‘Do you really want me to chase you again?’ he asked, ruthlessly tempering his tone. ‘Because we both know what happened the last time I did that.’

Her golden brows drew down and there was a long moment of silence. Then she said, ‘Okay, fine.’

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