Page 36 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
‘Maybe not but that’s what’s written all over his face every time he looks at you, so Eros must not have been listening when he put you two together. I believe in fate.’
Bunny smiled. ‘When there’s a wedding date—’ she chose her answer with care ‘—you’ll be the first to know.’
A week later they were in Greece but with far less relaxing company. Bunny wore an evening gown that would have been fit for a red-carpet appearance. Mostly black, it shone with iridescent crystals that reflected the light in a soft rainbow of colour. At her throat she wore the magnificent Pagonis emerald necklace and the matching drops in her ears and with Sebastian’s hand splayed possessively at her spine she walked like a queen, determined not to be ‘less’ in the presence of the relatives who had treated their nephew so poorly as a child and not much better since.
Everyone was icily polite. They sat down to dine in a giant town house in Athens at a table that seated forty guests. Every eye in the room rested on their every move and she could see that her existence, the underwritten knowledge that Sebastian would marry and presumably have a child someday, was not good news on their terms. But she ignored it, stayed courteous, agonised over what Sebastian must have undergone as a kid in so chilly an atmosphere, and inwardly cursed them all to hell for what they had put him through out of greed and resentment of his privileged position as firstborn of his generation.
When the evening was done, she heaved a huge sigh of relief and accompanied Sebastian upstairs to their bedroom. ‘Gosh, that was exhausting…what a horrible bunch of folk! Sorry, I shouldn’t say that about family members but when I think of how lucky I’ve been with mine and how unlucky you’ve been, it just makes me somad,’ she framed furiously.
‘You don’t need to be mad. The time when it could hurt to be treated that way is far behind me and, if it helps, we only have to see them a couple of times a year,’ he assured her wryly. ‘I’m head of the family now, like it or not, and we can always hope that the younger generation will be more accepting.’
‘Accepting of what?’ Bunny exclaimed. ‘The fact that you were born rich? That you employ them? That you’re a huge success in business? There is nothing unacceptable about you, Sebastian. They are the ones with the problem,notyou!’
In the act of wrenching off his bow tie, shedding the dinner jacket, Sebastian had paused, and slowly, as she spoke, a smile began to grow at the corners of his handsome mouth, his lean, strong face starting to lose the tension that the dinner party had roused in him.
He began to unhook her elaborate gown, smoothing her soft skin as he exposed more of it, sending a shiver of awareness through her small frame. ‘I like when you defend me with such vehemence. You’re so loyal. I appreciate that, having someone onmyside for a change.’
Bunny turned round in the circle of his arms and stretched up on tiptoe to try and kiss him but it was virtually impossible and, with a chuckle, he lifted her up to him. ‘Want something, short stuff?’
‘I’m not short. I am average. You’re the one topping the excessive scale,’ she teased back.
‘Is that so?’ Her dress, which had left her shoulders bare, fluttered in a cloud of costly fabric to the floor, leaving her clad only in her lingerie. ‘I like this view.’
‘Put me down,’ she urged.
He settled her down on the edge of the bed and studied her closely. ‘I want us to set a wedding date. I’m tired of being asked…when? I’d also like to be married before the baby’s born.’
Colour flushed her cheeks and she threaded a harried hand through the now tousled strands of her long hair, half turning her head away from his glittering dark scrutiny. ‘I—’
‘And if your answer is still no, I want to know why. We’ve been together almost a month. You seem happy—’
‘Iamhappy!’ Bunny broke in, thinking that she had never been happier in her life before. ‘But I still think it’s too soon.’
‘It’s not too soon for me,’ Sebastian countered with a roughened edge to his dark, deep drawl. ‘Why would it still be too soon for you?’
Loathing being put on the spot in such a way, Bunny got off the bed and said lamely, ‘It just is!’ As if that were an explanation, when really it was the only explanation she had that she was willing to offer.
She vanished into the en suite to take off her make-up and freshen up. The door behind her opened, framing Sebastian. Faint colour burned along the exotic line of his high cheekbones and his narrowed dark golden eyes were brilliant and focused hard on her. ‘Explain,’ he told her. ‘You didn’t foresee this problem when you suggested that we get engaged instead of married, did you?’
‘No,’ she conceded, squirming at that mistake on her part. ‘And that was very shortsighted of me. I just didn’t want to risk your idea of being with me changing. I wanted you to have more time.’
Sebastian flung his handsome head back in a sudden movement. ‘How muchmoretime?’ he demanded rawly. ‘I feel like I’m on trial here, Bunny. I asked you to marry me, which washugefor me.’
‘I know… I know,’ she began, frantically struggling to think of what to say to satisfy him.
‘I’m fully committed to you. It is not unreasonable to ask you for a date,’ he ground out.
Anger was poisoning the air, gathering round her like a dark cloud. There was a very slight shake in his dark deep voice. She knew that he was furious with her, striving to control his temper. Sebastian, who almost never lost control of his emotions. She felt like the worst person in the world for making him feel so frustrated with her. She felt as though she had let him down. And then it was as though all the air, toxic or otherwise, had been sucked away from her because Sebastian just turned on his heel and walked away.
‘Where are you going?’ she gasped, trailing after him.
‘I can’t stay with you tonight,’ Sebastian said gruffly without turning his head as he opened the bedroom door. ‘I’m out of patience. It seems like I want much more than you’re prepared to give me and I’m banging my head up against a brick wall.’
The door thudded on his departure, and, in a daze, she got ready for bed. Why couldn’t she simply agree to marry him? Was it because of Tristram telling her that he wanted her to marry him even though there had been no ring or even a mention of meeting his family? He had strung her along that way for months on end, insisting he cared for her when patently he didn’t.
Had she really withheld her consent to marriage because Sebastian couldn’t offer her love? After all, he had offered her so many other important things. Like a beautiful home at Knightsmead Court, furnished even to her preferences. He had been unashamedly emotional when he’d viewed their little blip on the ultrasound screen. He looked after her in every possible way. He was everything she wanted, everything she loved. Was she the one with the problem, rather than him? And why was that?
She lay sleepless all night working it out. She didn’t feel good enough for Sebastian Pagonis and that basic truth hit her hard. She was an ordinary girl without a pedigreed background, so why would he want her? After all, Tristram hadn’t really wanted her when it came down to brass tacks. At least, he hadn’t wanted herenough. Had she been trying to ensure that Sebastian did want her enough to stay with her for good? But how could anyone prove that in advance?
