Page 219 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

Except she found herself looking forward to the evenings when he’d visit more and more. And sometimes, when they were in each other’s arms, she’d catch herself wondering what he was thinking. Wondering why he wanted to sell Darkfell. Why his childhood hadn’t been a happy one and why he didn’t want to talk about it.

Maybe it was a good thing to be curious about him, though. She was having his child after all, and she should know more about him than that he was a billionaire with a hugely successful investment firm, who was also very good in bed.

She didn’t know what this promised ‘surprise’ was, since this was the first time he’d wanted to see her during the day, but she could feel the familiar breathless excitement that she felt every night the moment she heard his knock on the cottage door.

Did he want to repeat their night in the forest, but during the day? Was that what the surprise was? If so, she wasn’t averse to it, not at all.

She walked along the little path that led to the grassy clearing with its waterfall and pool, the trees eventually giving way and opening out ahead of her.

Dominic was already there, sitting on a blanket that had been laid out on the grass. Also on the blanket was a wicker basket with the top open, and he was getting out various containers of food.

A picnic.

Maude usually had picnics by herself—if you could call eating an apple beside the waterfall a picnic—and preferred it that way, since it allowed her to bask in the forest silence and peace in way she couldn’t if anyone else was around.

So it was strange to feel a little shock of pleasure to find him sitting on a blanket, arranging containers of food, and she wasn’t sure why. She was hungry admittedly, so the food was welcome, but it was clear that sex wasn’t on the menu—or maybe not straight away—and that was unexpected.

He looked up as she approached and his mouth curved, and the smile he gave her was so warm and so unbelievably attractive, it felt as if her heart had turned a somersault.

‘Afternoon, nymph,’ he said and then gestured to the food. ‘Polly made far too much lunch so, of course, I thought you might like to share a picnic with me.’

Not many people in Maude’s life had ever done anything for her. Not her mother and not her grandparents. Her mother had remembered the odd birthday, and her grandparents had at least made sort of an effort for Christmas, but generally she had been expected to follow the rules and look after herself.

That Dominic had decided to put on a picnic for her, and at her favourite place in the woods, made her chest go tight for a second.

‘Oh,’ she said, trying hard to ignore how that tightness had crept into her throat. ‘This is...lovely.’

He patted the blanket next to him. ‘Sit and I’ll get you something to eat. It’s all pregnancy friendly, I made sure.’

She settled down on the blanket where he’d indicated, sudden anxiety clutching at her. ‘Did you tell Polly about—?’

‘No, I didn’t.’ His dark eyes searched her face. ‘Not yet anyway. Are you worried about people knowing?’

She didn’t want to be worried, and yet she still hadn’t told anyone and she supposed there was a reason for that. A reason she hadn’t wanted to talk about it with anyone else yet.

‘I suppose I am,’ she said after a moment. ‘My grandparents at least. They’re very old-fashioned and very strict. Mum was a single mother and they didn’t like that, so I’m very sure they won’t like me being one either.’

He took a delicious-looking sandwich out of a container, put in on a plate, then handed the plate to her. ‘Why do you care?’ he asked. ‘It’s your life and being a single mother isn’t an issue these days.’

Good point. She didn’t know why she cared. It wasn’t as if they’d been very understanding of her growing up. They’d tried to do their best for her, she knew that, but still. They’d taken her from her mother on the pretext of wanting to give her a better life, yet she hadn’t been happy. Apparently happiness wasn’t included in a better life.

‘They promised me a piece of land as a rewilding project,’ she said, picking up the sandwich. ‘And I’m pretty sure if they find out I’m pregnant, they’ll change their minds about giving it to me.’

He gave her an enigmatic look. ‘You can find a piece of land anywhere to rewild. You don’t need that one, do you?’

She took a bite out of the sandwich and chewed slowly. It was indeed as delicious as it looked. ‘It’s a gift,’ she said after she’d swallowed her food. ‘I don’t have money enough to buy my own.’

Dominic’s gaze remained enigmatic.

He was casual today, in black jeans and a loose sweatshirt the same deep green as the forest behind him. The colour suited his olive skin and the deep, dark brown of his eyes. He looked on the surface like a civilised man having a picnic in the grass and yet there was another man who looked out from behind his eyes. Passionate, raw. Possessive and feral almost.

The man he was in her bed every night.

She could see that man now, glittering in the blackness of his eyes. In the subtle curve of his mouth. In the long-fingered hand he had propped on his knee. In the crackling electricity of his presence.

It made her want to know more about him, the reasons Dominic kept him so locked down.

‘Ah, yes,’ he said. ‘Money is an issue. But there are solutions to that.’

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