Page 32 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
‘I’m sorry that I’ve disappointed you,’ Bunny murmured unhappily in the long tense silence. ‘I assumed that you’d be busy working so it wouldn’t matter to you if I was working as well.’
‘You’ll have to have a bodyguard with you when you’re out doing those library stops,’ Sebastian told her grimly. ‘I don’t want you alone in quiet places, at risk from any passing pervert or psychopath.’
Bunny rolled her eyes and Sebastian dealt her a slashing glance of reproof. ‘These things happen and I won’t have it happen to you…or our baby.’
Discomfiture writhed through Bunny as it occurred to her that such a devastating, unforeseen incident had happened to him as a child. ‘I wanted to work my notice rather than walk out because who knows what’s in the future? I don’t want a big black mark on my CV if I were to seek work in the library sector again.’
‘Do I really deserve another pessimistic forecast from your corner? Even if we part unmarried, I will make a very generous settlement on you and our child. In all likelihood you will never work for a living again…unless you choose to do so.’
At that information, which merely increased her insecurity about their future as a couple, Bunny hovered uneasily, trying to read his shuttered expression and failing. ‘What would I have done with myself anyway while you were working on your business trips? Did you think of that?’
‘No,’ Sebastian admitted in a roughened undertone. ‘I simply wanted youwithme.’
‘And you’ve got me now for the whole weekend,’ Bunny reminded him.
‘Aren’t I fortunate that you don’t work on Saturdays?’ he sniped.
At his most basic, he just wanted her with him and that was a compliment, an expression of need and want he would never make more openly. Her heart clenched, sudden tears striking the backs of her eyes, and she cursed those pregnancy hormones turning her into a dripping tap.
‘I would’ve preferred to be with you too,’ she muttered, moving closer in slow steps. ‘Nothing would have made me happier, but I won’t let people down unless I have no other choice. I won’t be selfish like that.’
She closed her arms round his still figure, drinking in the rich scent of him like the addict she was. Man and musk, a hint of cologne, and that incredible underlying familiar scent that washed over her in the most enervating, satisfying way. Her hands ran up over his strong back, feeling his slight movements in the ripple of his muscles, registering the instinctive surge of her own response: the tight nipples, the racing heartbeat, the heated ache between her legs, the physical craving that never stopped.
‘Thee mou…I want you,’ he groaned rough and low into the springy depths of her hair. ‘I wanted you every night, every morning…’
‘So, do something about it,’ she whispered in helpless encouragement.
He said nothing. He simply lifted her up into his arms like a caveman and ravished her mouth with raw, demanding hunger. Her fingernails raked and bit into his broad shoulders as she steadied herself as the same urgency rocketed through her like a heat-seeking missile. He carried her out of the library and started up the stairs, talking the whole time.
‘I had this fantasy about you last night while you were being so correct and well behaved in front of your family,’ he confided. ‘You were wearing a corset and black stockings, usually not my thing but stuff like that would suit you…must buy you some.’
‘You’re much more experienced than me,’ she sighed. ‘I’ve never done the lingerie parade for a guy.’
‘I’d enjoy it…occasionally. You can be whoever you want to be with me. There are no restrictions. ‘
‘You surprise me. You’re such a bossy-boots,’ she told him.
‘You surprised me the first night. You weren’t too shy to go after what you wanted…and you wanted me. It made me feelamazing,’ he admitted thickly. ‘It wasn’t the money or the Pagonis name, it was only me as I am and thatdidit for me.’
‘Did it really?’ she teased as he elbowed his passage into a wainscoted room where the autumn gloom was brightened by lamps with a fire crackling some place out of view. He leant her back against the door and began to inch up her skirt.
‘It’s too tight for that,’ she warned him. ‘There’s a zip.’
‘Should’ve noticed that,’ he grumbled, running down the zip until the fitted skirt puddled at her feet and he lifted her out of it. It took about thirty seconds for the shirt to fall and then he was tracing the prominent buds of her nipples, fingertips light over the swollen buds visible through the lace of her bra. He tugged down the straps on her shoulders, eased the cups down and bent his dark head. Her head threw back against the door as a moan exploded from her lungs, his tongue lashing the sensitive peaks, need tugging at her feminine core with velvet claws.
Sebastian dropped to his knees, long fingers skimming down the panties she wore, swiping them out of his way. And then he found her with his mouth where she was swollen and damp and throbbing. As he devoured her, she gasped, head falling back again, pleasure seizing her in a fierce grip for long timeless moments until the ultimate high detonated throughout her entire body and she cried out in climax. As her legs buckled, his big hands closed over her hips and he lifted her to lower her down onto a soft, comfortable bed. He detached her bra, cast it aside, smoothed both of his hands up to cup the pouting flesh. His fingers found the sensitised buds, strummed and teased until her back was arching.
Sensation sizzled through Bunny in spasms of tormenting bliss, her body building up, the intense craving tightening again like a knot inside her, making her buck and squirm in delight. She had missed him, she had really, really missed him, not only the sex but the intimacy of being with him, waking up beside him in the morning, falling asleep in his arms. As she writhed, her head tossing on the pillow, she was moaning, gasping his name like a mantra, and then the whole intensity of the experience sent her flying up into the stars in the hold of another breathtaking climax.
‘Still with me?’ Sebastian purred with his irreverent grin, leaning down over her to kiss her breathless.
‘You’ve still got all your clothes on!’ she complained.
His eyes darkened. ‘Not for long,’ he assured her as he began to strip.
And she watched while the shirt was peeled off, the shoes kicked aside, the jeans tossed aside. It was one of her favourite activities: enjoying the sight of Sebastian’s beautiful body naked. Her heart raced a little faster, her inner muscles clenched in anticipation. He came down to her, all trace of his earlier dissatisfaction gone.
‘Am I forgiven yet?’
