Page 207 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

The thought whispered through her head, sending little prickles of heat flooding over her skin. His hard thigh between her legs, pressing insistently against her...

Her mouth dried and she swallowed.

No, she couldn’t allow thoughts like that. And she especially couldn’t allow him to see his effect on her, to think he got under her skin, because she had a feeling that if she allowed him any quarter, he’d take all of it. He’d take everything and she had little enough as it was.

All this week she’d been uneasy, waiting for him to text or to call or email or contact her in some fashion, to talk about these ‘custody arrangements’ he’d mentioned the week before, yet she’d heard nothing.

A doctor had turned up a couple of days after Dominic had left and had given her a thorough examination, which she’d allowed since that was what she’d promised. The doctor had also asked if she wanted to know the gender of her child and she’d automatically said yes without really thinking about it.

A boy, apparently. She was going to have a son.

Dominic should know, of course, but she’d decided to wait until he came back to Darkfell so she could tell him face to face, and instructed the doctor accordingly.

But the uneasy feeling wouldn’t leave her, and she wasn’t sure why. She couldn’t settle to any task, not fully, and even walking in the forest, which usually soothed her, hadn’t helped. She felt like Damocles waiting for the sword to fall.

Abruptly, she pushed the laptop shut and leaned back in the chair, folding her arms.

She needed to make a decision. She needed to figure out just what she wanted when it came to the baby and his demands to be part of the child’s life, because when he did come back, he’d no doubt try to steamroll her into doing whatever he wanted, and that wasn’t going to happen.

She’d had years of being told what to do, of having to bend herself into the shape other people expected of her, and she wasn’t going to start doing it again for him.

So. The first thing she was going to insist on was that the child be brought up here, at Darkfell. The forest was where he had been conceived and that and the manor were part of their legacy, and Dominic Lancaster would sell it over her dead body.

She was responsible for, not only the child, but the forest as well and she’d protect them both, no matter what he wanted. Of course, if that was her position, then she was going to need to think of how she could get him to agree.

She needed some kind of leverage, something that he wanted that she could use to extract a promise from him that he wouldn’t sell Darkfell. And why did he want to sell it anyway? The manor was lovely, and the gardens around it were amazing. How could anyone get rid of it?

She glanced around the kitchen, which had been renovated very recently and very sensitively, she thought. There was lots of light and big windows. White cabinetry and polished wooden floors. A lovely, airy space.

Him wanting to sell, not only the house, but the forest too, mystified her. She’d asked him why, but he hadn’t been in any mood to tell her, that had been clear. Was it money? Had he made bad investments somewhere? Then again, the articles she’d read about him all pointed to him being exceptionally good with money, so maybe not that. But what other reason could it be?

Not that she was interested. That was a side issue. All she needed was his agreement not to sell it, and in order to get that, she needed to find out what he wanted. Except the only thing she could think of was the baby, and she couldn’t—wouldn’t—use her child in that way.

Perhaps she could guilt him into it by pointing out that Darkfell was his child’s legacy, and getting rid of it was wrong. Surely, he couldn’t argue with that. But...what if he did? What other things could she use?

Maude continued to stare fiercely out of the window as her thoughts spun.

What could she use to nudge him in the right direction? What did she have that he wanted, apart from the child?

You know damn well what he wants.

Her breath caught. Lying under him on the couch, her wrists tied with her own T-shirt, his dark eyes full of hunger as he looked down at her...

Her. He wanted her.

Heat returned, prickling over her skin once more as her thoughts spun a little faster, and this time she didn’t force herself to stop thinking about it.

Could she use their chemistry to get him to keep Darkfell? Use his physical response to her in some way? Perhaps seduce him into keeping Darkfell? It was certainly worth considering. He had all the power here, that was the problem. He was her boss and a well-known, infamous billionaire playboy, while she was just a contract worker. Still, she wasn’t without weapons. She wouldn’t use the baby, but she could certainly use her femininity.

She’d never thought of her sexuality in that way before, mainly because she hadn’t cared about her sexuality before. It had felt like one of those traps her grandparents had warned her about that could lead her down the wrong path if she gave into it. At that stage, she’d still been trying to be what they wanted, so she’d been a good girl and had concentrated on her schoolwork instead of boys. Then, when she’d gone to university and met the other Your Girl Friday women, the vagaries of sex and dating had felt too complicated. Sex had just seemed to make people unhappy and, anyway, she’d much rather be out in the woods than in some bar trying to pick up some guy.

But things were different now. He’d made them different. He’d woken something in her, something dark and hungry, and the thought of using that hunger to make him do whatever she wanted held a certain...appeal.

Careful. It might backfire on you.

Yes, that was a risk. She wanted him, too, and the tricky part was that, while she was fairly confident she could seduce him, she had no experience of staying in control herself.

And she had to stay in control. That was the only way with a man like him. He’d bound her hands that moment in the sitting room, and she’d felt strangely safe rather than afraid, but she didn’t want that to happen again. Didn’t want her own hunger to take the reins. She couldn’t cede him any control, because once she did that, well...

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