Page 236 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

He stared at her, his brain moving so very slowly. ‘What?’

Her gaze came to his, a deep forest pool dappled with sunshine. ‘I showed you my world. Now I’ve come to see yours.’

‘But...but...’ He stopped. He’d never been lost for words before, not since he was a child, and he just couldn’t comprehend what she was doing here.

‘I was an idiot,’ Maude said. ‘I let you walk away without a word and I’ve never regretted anything more. I was afraid, badger. I wasn’t your choice, I told you that, and neither was our baby, and I didn’t want to be a millstone around your neck the way I was with my mother and my grandparents, so I...gave you a way out.’ Her chin lifted in that stubborn way. ‘But I was wrong to let you walk away. I love you, Dominic Lancaster, and I’ve been miserable without you. You don’t have to love me back. You don’t have to do anything at all for me. But I can’t bear not being near you, so I’ve decided to move here. I can have the baby here and we can—’

‘No!’The word burst out of him without any conscious thought, and he was on his feet, his chair pushed back so violently it lay overturned on the floor. And he was coming around the side of the desk to her, full of some fierce, burning emotion he couldn’t quite comprehend.

But maybe he didn’t need to comprehend it. Maybe he didn’t need to think about it or analyse it. Maybe he simply needed to obey it and so he did.

Her eyes were shining as he put his hands on her hips and jerked her into his arms. ‘Nymph...’ His voice was so rough it was barely intelligible.‘Nymph...’And then her mouth was beneath his, so warm and sweet with that delicious tartness he’d come to hunger for more than his own breath. And his hands were in the raw silk of her hair, holding on for dear life, as if he was afraid she’d disappear again.

Hewasafraid she’d disappear again.

He was afraid of that fierce, burning feeling inside him. Afraid of what it meant. Afraid to trust it. Afraid to trust her and the heart she’d given him on a silver platter. But that heart of hers was valiant, and strong, and generous, an unbreakable tether holding him fast. Coaxing a thaw in his own, making a wild rose suddenly bloom.

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered against her mouth. ‘I’m so sorry I walked away. I was a coward and a fool, and I have been for weeks. I should have trusted what we had that night in the forest. I should have accepted it for what it was.’ He lifted his head and gazed down into her eyes. ‘I’d never met you. I’d never even seen your face. But that didn’t matter. You were my choice that night, Maude, and you’re my choice now. You’ve been my choice all along. My entire life I’ve been struggling to find a purpose and now I’ve found it.’ He slowly tightened his fingers in her hair, his heart a bed of wild roses. ‘It’s you, nymph. It’s you and our son.’

She smiled, warm as the midsummer sun, her eyes full of tenderness. ‘My forest god,’ she murmured.

He kissed her again, unable to stop. ‘I love you, Maude Lancaster,’ he said against her mouth. ‘I love you so much.’

She deepened the kiss, giving him a wordless answer that flooded him with heat and the most peculiar sensation that he had the odd feeling was joy.

A few endless moments later, he lifted his head, because, while he was desperate for her, even he had standards and taking her on his desk was not one of them.

‘Let’s go home,’ he said. ‘To Darkfell.’

But Maude shook her head. ‘No. I told you. I want to see the city.’

‘Stubborn nymph.’ He kissed her again, already reassessing his standards and thinking that maybe he could lower them just this once. ‘I hope you’re not meaning now.’

The gold in her eyes glittered, a sure sign that she was going to dig in on this. ‘Of course now. Don’t sulk, badger.’

He sighed. ‘Come on, then,’ he said, reluctantly releasing her, yet keeping hold of her hand. ‘If you insist.’

Maude’s gaze became hotter and suddenly very wicked. ‘Well... I suppose I could wait a little longer.’

But Dominic was already striding to the doors and shutting them, and locking them for good measure. Then he strode back to where she stood, and kissed her hard, letting the flames take them both.

It was going to be interesting, this new life of his. Interesting in ways he couldn’t even begin to contemplate. But one thing he was sure of.

He couldn’t wait to get started.

EPILOGUE

ITWASHOT,and she was sweating, and Maude couldn’t wait any longer.

As soon as they reached the pool, she pulled off all her clothes, climbed onto the rocks under the waterfall and dived head first into the water.

It was cool and refreshing after the baking midsummer heat, and she gave a little internal sigh of pleasure as she touched the sandy bottom of the pool in greeting to the water spirits, before arrowing back to the surface.

Dominic had stopped by the edge of the pool and had taken off the backpack with Robin, their twelve-month-old, in it. He was sitting now on the grass, holding Robin while the little boy tried to grab the white stripe of his father’s hair in a chubby fist.

Ever since he’d been born, he’d been fascinated with it. He’d been fascinated with his father too, and Dominic had been equally smitten. Watching him with their son was one of Maude’s special joys.

There was joy, too, to be had in the projects that she and Dominic chose together to invest in. Eco projects and technology, mostly, because she’d decided that she didn’t want to save just Darkfell forest, she wanted to save the world too.

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