Page 213 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

‘Yes.’

‘But what about selling Darkfell? I thought you were adamant the child has to live with you.’

‘I’ll hold off selling the house for now.’ He was still standing far too close to her, and it was all he could do to keep his gaze on her face and not the neckline of her dress. ‘All of this is a moot point until the child is born anyway. We can decide what the future will look like then.’

Shock rippled over her features and he couldn’t deny that pleased him. ‘I don’t understand. What changed your mind?’

‘You did,’ he said simply.

‘But I didn’t offer you anything.’

‘You did, though. You offered me your honesty and your sincerity, and I found that a...compelling argument.’

Her forehead creased. ‘Why?’

‘Because honesty is a scarce commodity in my world. So is sincerity. It’s refreshing.’

She studied him for a long moment, the currents of her emotions shifting and changing in her eyes. ‘It wasn’t honesty that I was going to offer you,’ she said at last.

A soft husk now threaded through her voice, making everything in him go very still. ‘Oh?’ he murmured. ‘And what was it that you were going to offer me?’

Colour flushed her cheeks. ‘You changed your mind without it, so I don’t need to offer it now.’

A sharp electric jolt went through him, as if he were a hunter and had suddenly caught the scent of prey. Surely she could not be saying what he thought she was saying? ‘Now who’s playing games?’ he said softly. ‘Tell me.’

Her mouth curved in a smile that maddened him, as if she knew a secret that he didn’t, which was impossible. Because if, as he suspected, she’d been intending to offer him her body, then there was nothing he didn’t know. He’d been playing the game of sex and seduction for decades now and he knew everything there was to know about it. Certainly more than this little nymph did.

‘If I tell you, that’ll leave me with nothing to use against you later.’ Her gaze dropped to his mouth and then back up again. ‘I need to have something in reserve.’

Her skin was warm, her scent utterly intoxicating. There was something about it that seemed to grab him by the throat and not let go.

‘If it is what I think it is, then you’re not the only one with a weapon,’ he murmured, lowering his head until his mouth was bare inches from hers. ‘You have to be careful, nymph. If you play with fire, you might get yourself burned.’

Her eyes, so close to his, darkened and, as he watched, the lush softness of her mouth opened slightly. ‘I don’t mind,’ she whispered. ‘Especially if you burned with me.’

Again, there was that honesty, reaching inside him as much as her scent did. Though it didn’t grip him by the throat so much as it wrapped long fingers around his heart. And he didn’t know why.

Another woman would have kept playing with him and he would have enjoyed it. He would have won in the end, of course, because he always did, taking things to their logical conclusion, which would be in the bedroom.

But Maude wasn’t playing now. She’d given up the game, even though she’d barely started, and now had handed the win to him. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that he hadn’t won at all, that she had.

Heat glittered in her eyes, and hunger. For him. She didn’t look away and she didn’t try to hide it. She wanted him and he felt a strange sort of protectiveness well up inside him in response.

‘You shouldn’t look at me like that,’ he said. ‘You shouldn’t show any kind of vulnerability to a man like me.’

‘Why not?’

‘I already told you. I’m a businessman and I’ll exploit any weakness I find if it serves my interests and gets me what I want.’

‘Would you though? Would you really?’

It was a genuine question. He could see it in her eyes. ‘You put your hand over your stomach last week,’ he couldn’t help but point out. ‘And you told me not to use our child as a bargaining chip. So you tell me. Would I?’

She studied him for a long time, desire bright in her gaze and yet also, shining through that, a sharply acute intelligence that made something in his heart skip a beat.

You want her to say, No, you wouldn’t.

He wasn’t sure what that thought had to do with anything. Because he knew the truth, which was yes, of course he would. He’d exploit any weakness, because, like it or not, that was the lesson he’d learned from his father. That was how he’d survived.

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