Page 22 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
Her eyes flew to the deck doors, but the stewardess had closed them again and she turned back to him. ‘No,’ she corrected. ‘You’ll be jointly responsible for the baby once it is born…that isifthere’s a baby. You’re not responsible for me in any other way.’
Sebastian dropped down beside her in an elegant careless sprawl, long legs sheathed in taut denim stretched out in front of him. ‘You need to relax about this or we’re going to be arguing constantly. I’ve organised a blood test for you tomorrow morning, so that we’ll know whether or not we’re about to become parents.’
‘No,’ Bunny countered quietly. ‘When I do a pregnancy test I will choose the time and the place and I’m not ready to cross that bridge yet. Anyway, it’s too soon.’
‘No, it’s not and the sooner we know, the better.’ Sebastian closed a big hand over hers where it was clenched tight on the table top. ‘Stop burying your head in the sand.’
‘I’m not but I won’t be railroaded into something I don’t want.’ She finished the biscuit, which had turned to sawdust inside her mouth, and stood up. ‘I’m never likely to be a fan of you taking charge of everything—even stuff that isn’t, strictly speaking, any of your business. But as far as you’re concerned, if I’m pregnant, the baby doesn’t exist until it’s born and everything prior to that is totallymyprivate business.’
Sebastian caught her hand to tug her down on his lap before she could move out of reach and a startled little gasp of dismay parted her lips. ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded, taken by surprise and struggling to rise off his lean, muscular thighs again.
Long fingers tipped up her chin, his gaze collided with her angry green eyes. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’
Sparks were flaring in his dark eyes and yet when his mouth came down and ravished hers, it was tantalisingly sweet and sensually tender. Her body ignited, programmed, it seemed, to still respond to him. Her nipples were tight, her breasts swelling, her breath ragged and the space between her thighs ached. But she lifted her hands and thrust them hard against his shoulders to push him back and detach herself.
‘No!’she told him fiercely as she scrambled awkwardly and clumsily upright again, grasping the edge of the table to steady herself.
‘No?’ Sebastian queried in apparent surprise, which inflamed her even more.
‘Thatis the past, this is the present. We had a fling and now it’s done. Nobody was more blunt than you about the fact that we were over the minute we got off the island!’ she reminded him. ‘You said you would be walking away…well, Iwalkedtoo, Sebastian. And after you offered to bribe me not to talk about you to the press, I didn’t just mentally walk. I freakin’ sprinted in the opposite direction!’
Faint colour darkened his blade-sharp cheekbones but his bright dark eyes flashed like lasers against the night sky. ‘So, we’re done…but how can we be if you’re preg—?’
‘I can be the mother of your child without that including any further intimacy. You know what the real problem is?’ Bunny prompted furiously. ‘It’syou, naturally devious and twisty, suspicious you. If I’d clung to you and tried to attach strings, you’d be at the far end of your stupid pretentious yacht right now,avoidingme like the plague! But I didn’t cling and because I chose to move on fast, now you’re offended.’
‘I’mnotoffended,’ Sebastian grated in raw interruption.
Bunny rolled her eyes because he was totally offended by her rejection. ‘I’m going to turn in now, because if I stay we’re going to fight.’
‘You’d back down before it got that far.’
In a real temper now, Bunny planted her hands on her hips. ‘No, I wouldn’t. Why can’t you decide what you want? You said you were walking away…why aren’t you?’
Sebastian shrugged a wide shoulder. He couldn’t answer that question and he admired her in silence. He still wanted her, the same way he had wanted her the day before and the day before that. His need to keep her close only intensified around other people and that was a shock to his system while landing him on unfamiliar ground. He had believed he could walk away and had discovered different. Even the prospect of her moving out of his sight set his teeth on edge. It wasn’t logical and it disturbed him, but he couldn’t escape those feelings, those urges.
In addition, it astonished him that he had once written her off as merely pretty, because, even without making the smallest effort, she was beautiful. Golden hair shining beneath the lights, her delicate face flushed, green eyes ablaze, soft pink lips lusciously full, her slender little body taut with tension. She was as addictive as a drug. He got within a yard of her and all he wanted to do was pin her to the nearest horizontal surface,touchher,holdher. That need was a complete novelty to him. No other woman had ever had that effect on him.
‘I can’t walk away if you’ve conceived,’ he reminded her, wondering why it had become so important that he kept her close. Habit from the island? Had he become attached to her in some way? He didn’t get close to women, yet the prospect of even going to bedwithoutBunny was a new challenge.
‘No, but you can back off until the baby’s born…if there is one,’ she said drily.
‘Is that what you want?’
‘Yes, in the circumstances it would be wiser,’ she said stiffly. ‘We both have to move on. I’ll inform you if I have any news to share.’
‘Okay.’ Sebastian heard himself agree to what he didn’t want and he was troubled by the knowledge. Being reasonable struck him as a fool’s game. Yet logic sat at the very heart of him and he could not understand his own behaviour. For some reason he didn’t feel logical about Bunny. What he wanted he didn’t want to label.
Her brothers walked her back to her cabin and joined her inside without invitation. ‘Has he asked you to sign an NDA?’ Luke asked. ‘He’s asked us and we agreed because we’re staying on this yacht.’
‘No, he hasn’t asked me yet but I’ll probably say no,’ Bunny admitted. ‘I’ve no plans to talk about him but it was my experience too and I will retain the rights to my side of it.’
John grimaced. ‘He’s very possessive of you. Are you involved with him?’
Bunny sighed. ‘Iwasbut it’s over now.’ She had no intention whatsoever of getting into the possibility of her being pregnant and decided to shelve that for another day.
Her eldest brother looked relieved. ‘That’s probably for the best. I’m no pop psychologist but, with his background, he’s got to be messed up to some degree.’
Bunny held her breath, waiting for him to elaborate but he didn’t, and she watched her brothers depart in frustration. She got ready for bed, paced the floor, wondering what her feelings were for Sebastian. Whatever, those emotions were powerful and shehadto know why he might be messed up. She didn’t want anyone else’s slant on his secrets either, nor, once she had the means to do so, did she want to look him up online, but the idea of snooping struck her as disrespectful.
