Page 33 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
Sebastian frowned. ‘You’re here now. Only fools sweat the small stuff.’
Bunny threaded her fingers through his tousled long black hair and traced his wide sensual mouth with her fingertips. ‘I’m sorry I spoiled the plans you had made but will you please stop talking about the money you intend to give me if we break up?’
‘If you faithfully promise to say nothing more about any future you might have that does not include me,’ he bargained.
Bunny nodded and smiled at that request, and he tipped her back, rising over her with easy strength, sliding into her hot, tight channel with urgent intensity and then groaning with uninhibited pleasure. ‘What a relief it is to no longer have to worry about our lack of birth control.’
Bunny laughed, taking herself by surprise. ‘Yes, you weren’t very good at the self-denial bit.’
He shifted his lithe hips, sending fresh little tendrils of desire travelling through her, and she moaned, unashamed to show her pleasure. ‘Am I allowed to admit that I enjoyed failing?’ he confessed.
He had stoked her hunger again. As he began to move more forcefully, she gave herself up to that raw surge of passion again. In the midst of it, he momentarily frustrated her by pausing to put her into another position and then, when that change enhanced her enjoyment, she was thrilled by the wild, exhilarating ride that followed. Her heart thundered, heat and perspiration flushing her skin, excitement gathering and surging through her veins until a supernova explosion of pleasure shattered the last of her control and she slumped, absolutely exhausted.
‘That was spectacular,’ Sebastian purred in satiated conclusion, releasing her from his weight and gathering her close.
Her drowsy eyelashes fluttered and she snuggled back into him. ‘I love you,’ she mumbled, and then her eyes opened very wide in dismay and she mentally kicked herself for letting relaxation control her.
‘No, you don’t,’ Sebastian contradicted with succinct bite. ‘It’s habit, familiarity, a certain amount of affection but it’snotlove. Nobody has ever loved me.’
Bewildered, disconcerted and suddenly propelled into a new state of alertness, Bunny blinked. ‘Your mother…surely?’
‘My most common memory of my mother is of her waving as she went out. She was a jet-setter with a giddy social life. I remember my first nanny better than her.’
‘Your grandmother, then.’
‘Only when I reminded her of the late son she couldn’t mention and not so as you would notice while I was growing up without my parents. I stayed with her twice a year, at Christmas and in the summer.’
‘Why was that?’ she asked with a pained frown.
‘Everyone told her she had messed up my father by spoiling him rotten and she felt very guilty and blamed herself for what my father did. It made her take a hands-off approach with me.’
‘Was she right to feel guilty?’
‘I don’t know,’ Sebastian mused. ‘My grandfather died, leaving her a single parent of five young children. She also had a huge property empire to run. I doubt that a man would be judged so harshly for his parenting flaws.’
‘But you still think that basically you’re…what? Unlovable?’ she pressed.
‘No. I think people’s feelings change on the turn of a dime.’
‘I have parents and grandparents whose long marriages would disprove that. I think you have to work and compromise to sustain a long relationship, but I do think it’s possible,’ she countered. ‘And don’t tell me what I feel. That’s my business. Only I know how I feel but I’ll keep it to myself in future. If you’re still around when I’m seventy-five, I’ll be throwing this conversation in your face daily.’
An involuntary smile of relief softened the tense line of Sebastian’s lean dark features as her last comment lessened the tension. ‘I can imagine that.’
Of course, she didn’t love him, he reasoned. Why would she? Right now, she was on a high of great sex, affection and happiness because they were together and she liked the house. And possibly there was even a pregnancy happy hormone?Wasthere? But he had to be honest with her about where he stood and keep it real between them. Better that she understood him from the start than began nourishing hopes he couldn’t fulfil. At the same time, he was wondering if she truly believed she loved him and, if she did believe it, what did itfeellike? And wasn’t it weird in such circumstances to wonder what falling in love felt like?
Bunny reckoned that she would never tell him she loved him again. He didn’t want her love because he flat out didn’t believe in it. There wasn’t much that she could do about that. An ache stirred in the region of her heart nonetheless because she, of course, wanted him to love her back. But did love matter if he still wanted her, needed her and treated her well? Only what would keep him with her in a crisis? Their child, whom he believed hewouldlove? That suspicion made her heart sink because naturally she needed to be loved for herself and not only for the little passenger she currently carried.
There was no sleeping for her after that stirring exchange. He showed her into a massive contemporary bathroom and through a connecting door into a dressing room already packed with garments. ‘You needed clothes. I didn’t order maternity stuff because I had no idea what you would like. But there should be enough in the new wardrobe to cover most social engagements.’
Taken aback by yet another giant demonstration of Sebastian’s instinctive generosity, Bunny winced. ‘Sebastian…er, I don’t have social engagements.’
‘Your first is only a week away. Next Saturday, we’re having a party here for you to meet my friends. Dress formal. There should be a selection of evening gowns in the closets. The week after we’re flying to Greece for you to meet my family and won’t that be fun?’
‘Meaning?’
‘Half of them are trying to sue me through the courts at the minute for a share of my grandmother’s wealth.’
‘Your family’sdoingthat to you?’
