Page 6 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

But because he had made certain that she would not pursue him in any way, he had decided that he could not go and see if she was all right himself. It would be unwelcome. Itshouldbe unwelcome. He was not even certain where the urge to check up on her had come from. Everything about Dioni was...disruptive. He could not make sense of it.

Alceu had therefore done what any man in his position would have done, and he’d had one of his men track her down and follow her to gather the necessary information. He had not told this man what he’d been looking for, because he hadn’t known himself. He’d simply...wanted to see if she was all right.

An unaccountable urge by any reckoning.

He had been sitting there alone, in the folly of a castle that exemplified everything he detested about his family, when he’d seen the pictures of her.

Of Dioni—for it was clearly Dioni—

He had seen all the pictures, but he hadn’t believed it until now.

Alceustillcouldn’t believe it.

He’d watched her walk all the way down the length of the street, and it had clearly been her from the moment she’d turned the corner. He’d tried to convince himself otherwise, but it hadn’t stuck. It wasn’t as if she wasunrecognizable.

Not with that face that had haunted him for months now, a face that he imagined could have given Helen of Troy a run for her money.

But he could not accept that what he was seeing was true, not even with her standing right here in front of him.

Because Dioni Adrianakis was pregnant.

Six months pregnant, almost to the day, if he had to guess.

But he didn’t have to guess. He knew.

She was studying him now as if she had tried not to recognize him, too, and everything about her...was infuriating.

She was dressed as if she was anyone. Anyone at all.

A pair of casual jeans. A T-shirt with a fox on it. Both stretched over her belly, so he had seen hints of a swath of her skin as she walked. It wasn’t that he minded casual clothes, but this was Dioni Adrianakis and it should not have been possible to simply...come upon her like this. Where was her security? Where was her understanding that she was currently carrying the heir to two fortunes?

Then, of course, there was theDioniof it all.

Her dark hair was clipped to the back of her head, but it never stayed there. Tendrils were falling as they would, and, as ever, she seemed wholly unaware of it. Her eyes were dark and fathomless, though even now they seemed to tip over into merriment a little too easily for his liking.

Pregnancy clearly agreed with her, and he hated that too.

She looked ripe. Sweet.

And the temptation of her mouth that he had managed to resist was right there. Much too close.

She was looking at him as if he’d said something outrageous.

“What is there to explain?” she asked.

There were many things Alceu wanted to say to that. He wanted her to explain what had happened that night, because he still could not account for it. He still could not understand how she had somehow managed tobecomethat storm to him.

It had been bad enough in that sitting room, where she had been far more potent than the whiskey he’d pulled out in honor of his friend’s lowest point yet. And instead had found himself discussingkissingwith Dioni Adrianakis, of all people.

He would like her to explain how, when he’d left that room because he’d refused to be swept up in anything he couldn’t control, no matter who it was or who was involved, he had somehow tossed open the wrong door and walked out onto a terrace drenched with rain.

And had been somehow unsurprised to find that she had followed him.

That, worse still, they had then locked themselves out.

The staff have all been sent on their way until later, she had told him, in that merry way of hers that he told himself made him livid, even in retrospect.And I am not going to be the one to interrupt my brother at a time like this. Someone will come and open the door soon enough.

He would like her to explain how sitting out a rainstorm had turned to sharing a bottle of the local handcraftedraki—far too potent—and ill-advised dancing.

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