Page 8 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
Bunny froze and then spun round, a smile lighting up her face. ‘Where have you been?’ she demanded automatically. ‘I mean, what is there to do out there? Where is there to go?’
Sebastian grinned with intense pleasure. ‘Is this what being married feels like?’
A wash of pink swept over her expressive face and she turned away. ‘I’m sorry, I—’
Amusement quelled, Sebastian rested his hands down on her narrow shoulders and turned her back from the sink where she was draining rice. ‘It’s okay. I was only teasing. You’re very sensitive, aren’t you?’ he murmured, staring down at her with dark eyes lit by shades of caramel in the sunlit kitchen. ‘Don’t be that way with me. I’m…outspoken, loud, abrasive but I don’t mean any actual harm.’
For an instant, Bunny was absolutely frozen where she stood, lost in the hold of those lustrous eyes of his and the kindness she saw there that he had not shown an ounce of onMerry Days. It made her feel all warm and soft inside, it made her want to stretch up and kiss him, a prompting that shook the life out of her and made her pull free and return to the rice.
‘You’re just in time to eat,’ she muttered, shocked by the butterflies in her tummy, the clenching deep down inside. ‘I’m afraid it’s not cordon bleu exactly, it’s tinned frankfurters and sauce and rice.’
‘I’ll go fishing for us.’
‘That sweater needs washing,’ she scolded. ‘Although I doubt you’ll ever get the bloodstains out of it.’
Sebastian laughed. ‘Could I care less?’ He tilted his head to one side, amusement glittering in his eyes and the curve of his mobile mouth. ‘I don’t think so but there is a washing machine in the utility area.’
‘What utility area?’
As she was putting the food out, Sebastian crossed the kitchen to pull open the hidden door in the wall panelling. She finished setting the plates on the table and walked through. A complex array of levers, buttons and controls almost covered one entire wall and on the other sat a washing machine. ‘So there’s enough water here to use it freely?’ she asked.
‘Yes, it’s a very expensive system, which I got working.’
‘You did?’
‘The power was off when we arrived and the water pump.’
Bunny nodded as she sat down at the table. ‘So, you know how to work that kind of stuff?’
Sebastian shrugged rather than admit that he had been taken aback by how immediately he had grasped how everything worked, that he evidently knew and understood a lot about sustainable energy and, also, tech stuff. Last night he had dreamt of an algorithm that was somehow crucially important and his fingers had been flying over a keyboard. Piece by piece, who he was ten years on was emerging.
‘I’d have been lost. I’m great with books, not so great at the practical stuff.’
He frowned. ‘Books?’
‘Yes, I’m starting my first job as a librarian when I get home… Gosh, it’s only days away,’ she voiced in consternation. ‘Do you think they’ll hold the job for me if I don’t turn up?’
‘You need to relax for now. I doubt if anyone even knows we’re missing yet,’ Sebastian said and, although she had thought the same thing herself, it still cast her down to hear his confirmation of it.
‘My family will be worrying. They’re used to hearing from me every day.’
‘Everyday?’ Sebastian said in wonderment at such family attention and affection as he lifted his knife and fork. ‘You’re British, aren’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you’re this far from home and they’re still expecting to hear from youeveryday?’ he prompted. ‘What age are you?’
‘Twenty-three.’ Bunny had flushed with embarrassment. ‘We’re just a very close family.’
Sebastian quirked an eloquent ebony brow. ‘Did I sleep with you on that boat?’ he asked without the smallest warning and with the utmost casualness.
Bunny almost choked on the food in her mouth. ‘Er…no, that would be a definite no, Sebastian. In fact we didn’t take to each other at all at first meeting.’
And then immediately he had to know all about that and she wished she had kept her tongue still in her mouth and said nothing, because she was forced to recount that story.
A faint flush highlighted his stunning cheekbones. ‘I was rude to you…why?’
Bunny actually grimaced. ‘Apparently you got the impression that I was attracted to you and you didn’t like that.’
