Page 206 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

Her eyes narrowed, her hand still curled protectively over her bump, which angered him for reasons he couldn’t articulate. Did she really think he was dangerous? That he would hurt her or their child? He would never do that.Never.

‘I want paid maternity leave for when I have the baby,’ she said flatly.

Normally he would have loved that she’d joined in his negotiation, giving him demands of her own, but there was something about the way she still had her hand over her stomach, protecting their child from him, that incensed him and, worse, made him feel ashamed of himself.

‘Naturally.’ He tightened his grip on his temper that kept on lunging like a rabid dog on a short leash. ‘I’m not a monster. The child is mine, after all.’

She studied him for a moment, chewing her bottom lip, and he didn’t like that at all. He had his armour, the facade of the jaded, bored playboy that he’d been wearing so long it had become part of him. But now she was looking at him as if that armour wasn’t there at all, as if she could see through him, all the way to the small, angry, hurt boy he’d once been.

‘Well?’ he demanded, the word sharp as a pistol shot.

‘So, what?’ She was seemingly oblivious to his mood. ‘You’ll sell Darkfell after the birth?’

Dominic snarled inside his head and choked the life out of his temper. Give nothing away, that was key to this, the key to any good deal. Maintain a good poker face.

He shrugged. ‘Perhaps. And perhaps not.’

It was only marginally satisfying to see how that needled her and it must have, because she scowled abruptly. ‘What does that mean?’

‘It means that, unfortunately for you, I’m the owner and I get to say whether I sell it or not.’

‘Why do you want to sell it?’

‘None of your business.’ His temper was still there, snarling behind the bars of the cage he’d set around it, which meant that probably the best thing for him to do right now was to leave. ‘Well?’ he asked, with the merest hint of his usual insouciance. ‘Do we have a deal?’

She wrinkled her nose. ‘I suppose so,’ she said at last.

Normally he would have reached out and shaken her hand, sealing the deal between them and leaving her with a sensual reminder of his touch. But her hand was still guarding her stomach and her gaze was wary, and for some reason that was food for an anger that had no reason for being and no outlet, and he was tired of it. Tired of her getting under his skin. Tired of being here in this house and her hand over her stomach as if he was a threat.

So he didn’t shake her hand.

He only gave her a sharp nod, then turned on his heel and walked out.

CHAPTER SIX

AWEEKLATERMaude sat at the kitchen table in the manor, glowering at her laptop screen and all the emails she hadn’t responded to. It was the Your Girl Friday team all wanting to know what was happening with her and why she hadn’t been sending anything to the group chat.

It made her feel tired.

She really should let the others know that she was okay and that everything was fine, and sheshouldtell them that she was pregnant, but she couldn’t face it. Not when all she could think about was Dominic Lancaster storming out of the manor sitting room in a huff the week before.

And yes, hehadbeen in a huff.

She wasn’t sure what she’d done to annoy him so much, but it had been something. He’d been all barely repressed heat right up until the moment he’d started bargaining with her about the manor and then, quite abruptly, he’d gone cold. At least his voice had been cold. His dark eyes, on the other hand, had been full of banked embers, as if she’d offended him in some way.

Perhaps he wasn’t used to people talking back to him. Then again, John and Polly had never had a bad word to say about him, and they were pretty free with their opinions if they didn’t like something.

He’d certainly been angry when she’d told him not to use their child as a bargaining chip. In fact, that was when his voice had turned to ice, so in retrospect, yes, shehadoffended him.

Maude bit her lip, annoyed with herself. Why was she thinking about him? She had a million tasks to do today and not one of them included thinking about Dominic Lancaster. Yet she hadn’t been able to get him out of her head. The bold white stripe of his hair. The touch of his fingers as he’d gently chafed her wrists. The heat in his eyes as he’d bargained with her, only for that to disappear in a flash of temper as she’d put her hand on her stomach protectively.

He really hadn’t liked her accusation or her being protective of the baby, and she suspected he hadn’t liked that because... Well, the only logical assumption was that she’d offended him by assuming their child needed protection from him.

Maude leaned on her elbow, hand tucked beneath her chin as she stared sightlessly out of the large kitchen windows and into the walled garden beyond.

He hadnotappreciated her assumption that he was a threat, and she supposed she could understand that. In her defence, though, she didn’t know him and their little confrontation in the sitting room had been one shock after another. All she’d been able to think about was protecting her child—that had been instinct. She didn’t believe he’dactuallyhurt her or anything else, yet...

The god of the forest will claim his due.

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