Modern Romance Collection February 2025, #1-4

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX

A WEEK LATER Maude sat at the kitchen table in the manor, glowering at her laptop screen and all the emails she hadn’t responded to. It was the Your Girl Friday team all wanting to know what was happening with her and why she hadn’t been sending anything to the group chat.

It made her feel tired.

She really should let the others know that she was okay and that everything was fine, and she should tell them that she was pregnant, but she couldn’t face it. Not when all she could think about was Dominic Lancaster storming out of the manor sitting room in a huff the week before.

And yes, he had been in a huff.

She wasn’t sure what she’d done to annoy him so much, but it had been something. He’d been all barely repressed heat right up until the moment he’d started bargaining with her about the manor and then, quite abruptly, he’d gone cold. At least his voice had been cold. His dark eyes, on the other hand, had been full of banked embers, as if she’d offended him in some way.

Perhaps he wasn’t used to people talking back to him. Then again, John and Polly had never had a bad word to say about him, and they were pretty free with their opinions if they didn’t like something.

He’d certainly been angry when she’d told him not to use their child as a bargaining chip. In fact, that was when his voice had turned to ice, so in retrospect, yes, she had offended him.

Maude bit her lip, annoyed with herself. Why was she thinking about him? She had a million tasks to do today and not one of them included thinking about Dominic Lancaster. Yet she hadn’t been able to get him out of her head. The bold white stripe of his hair. The touch of his fingers as he’d gently chafed her wrists. The heat in his eyes as he’d bargained with her, only for that to disappear in a flash of temper as she’d put her hand on her stomach protectively.

He really hadn’t liked her accusation or her being protective of the baby, and she suspected he hadn’t liked that because... Well, the only logical assumption was that she’d offended him by assuming their child needed protection from him.

Maude leaned on her elbow, hand tucked beneath her chin as she stared sightlessly out of the large kitchen windows and into the walled garden beyond.

He had not appreciated her assumption that he was a threat, and she supposed she could understand that. In her defence, though, she didn’t know him and their little confrontation in the sitting room had been one shock after another. All she’d been able to think about was protecting her child—that had been instinct. She didn’t believe he’d actually hurt her or anything else, yet...

The god of the forest will claim his due.

The thought whispered through her head, sending little prickles of heat flooding over her skin. His hard thigh between her legs, pressing insistently against her...

Her mouth dried and she swallowed.

No, she couldn’t allow thoughts like that. And she especially couldn’t allow him to see his effect on her, to think he got under her skin, because she had a feeling that if she allowed him any quarter, he’d take all of it. He’d take everything and she had little enough as it was.

All this week she’d been uneasy, waiting for him to text or to call or email or contact her in some fashion, to talk about these ‘custody arrangements’ he’d mentioned the week before, yet she’d heard nothing.

A doctor had turned up a couple of days after Dominic had left and had given her a thorough examination, which she’d allowed since that was what she’d promised. The doctor had also asked if she wanted to know the gender of her child and she’d automatically said yes without really thinking about it.

A boy, apparently. She was going to have a son.

Dominic should know, of course, but she’d decided to wait until he came back to Darkfell so she could tell him face to face, and instructed the doctor accordingly.

But the uneasy feeling wouldn’t leave her, and she wasn’t sure why. She couldn’t settle to any task, not fully, and even walking in the forest, which usually soothed her, hadn’t helped. She felt like Damocles waiting for the sword to fall.

Abruptly, she pushed the laptop shut and leaned back in the chair, folding her arms.

She needed to make a decision. She needed to figure out just what she wanted when it came to the baby and his demands to be part of the child’s life, because when he did come back, he’d no doubt try to steamroll her into doing whatever he wanted, and that wasn’t going to happen.

She’d had years of being told what to do, of having to bend herself into the shape other people expected of her, and she wasn’t going to start doing it again for him.

So. The first thing she was going to insist on was that the child be brought up here, at Darkfell. The forest was where he had been conceived and that and the manor were part of their legacy, and Dominic Lancaster would sell it over her dead body.

She was responsible for, not only the child, but the forest as well and she’d protect them both, no matter what he wanted. Of course, if that was her position, then she was going to need to think of how she could get him to agree.

She needed some kind of leverage, something that he wanted that she could use to extract a promise from him that he wouldn’t sell Darkfell. And why did he want to sell it anyway? The manor was lovely, and the gardens around it were amazing. How could anyone get rid of it?

She glanced around the kitchen, which had been renovated very recently and very sensitively, she thought. There was lots of light and big windows. White cabinetry and polished wooden floors. A lovely, airy space.

Him wanting to sell, not only the house, but the forest too, mystified her. She’d asked him why, but he hadn’t been in any mood to tell her, that had been clear. Was it money? Had he made bad investments somewhere? Then again, the articles she’d read about him all pointed to him being exceptionally good with money, so maybe not that. But what other reason could it be?

Not that she was interested. That was a side issue. All she needed was his agreement not to sell it, and in order to get that, she needed to find out what he wanted. Except the only thing she could think of was the baby, and she couldn’t—wouldn’t—use her child in that way.

Perhaps she could guilt him into it by pointing out that Darkfell was his child’s legacy, and getting rid of it was wrong. Surely, he couldn’t argue with that. But...what if he did? What other things could she use?

Maude continued to stare fiercely out of the window as her thoughts spun.

What could she use to nudge him in the right direction? What did she have that he wanted, apart from the child?

You know damn well what he wants.

Her breath caught. Lying under him on the couch, her wrists tied with her own T-shirt, his dark eyes full of hunger as he looked down at her...

Her. He wanted her.

Heat returned, prickling over her skin once more as her thoughts spun a little faster, and this time she didn’t force herself to stop thinking about it.

Could she use their chemistry to get him to keep Darkfell? Use his physical response to her in some way? Perhaps seduce him into keeping Darkfell? It was certainly worth considering. He had all the power here, that was the problem. He was her boss and a well-known, infamous billionaire playboy, while she was just a contract worker. Still, she wasn’t without weapons. She wouldn’t use the baby, but she could certainly use her femininity.

She’d never thought of her sexuality in that way before, mainly because she hadn’t cared about her sexuality before. It had felt like one of those traps her grandparents had warned her about that could lead her down the wrong path if she gave into it. At that stage, she’d still been trying to be what they wanted, so she’d been a good girl and had concentrated on her schoolwork instead of boys. Then, when she’d gone to university and met the other Your Girl Friday women, the vagaries of sex and dating had felt too complicated. Sex had just seemed to make people unhappy and, anyway, she’d much rather be out in the woods than in some bar trying to pick up some guy.

But things were different now. He’d made them different. He’d woken something in her, something dark and hungry, and the thought of using that hunger to make him do whatever she wanted held a certain...appeal.

Careful. It might backfire on you.

Yes, that was a risk. She wanted him, too, and the tricky part was that, while she was fairly confident she could seduce him, she had no experience of staying in control herself.

And she had to stay in control. That was the only way with a man like him. He’d bound her hands that moment in the sitting room, and she’d felt strangely safe rather than afraid, but she didn’t want that to happen again. Didn’t want her own hunger to take the reins. She couldn’t cede him any control, because once she did that, well...

You’d be powerless again.

A memory returned, of her standing by her grandparents’ car where she’d been told to wait while they talked to her mother. Of her not knowing what was going on and trying to ignore the growing suspicion in her gut that, whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good. No one had told her what was happening. All she’d been told was that her grandparents were taking her out for an ice cream, and she was to go with them and not cause a commotion.

She’d stood by the car and watched as her mother had glanced once at her, shrugged, then walked away.

That had been the last time she’d seen Sonya.

Her grandparents had bought her the promised ice cream but then they’d told her that she would be living with them from now on. Then she’d been thrust into a new living arrangement, in an unfamiliar environment, with people she’d barely known. She’d cried, of course, heartbroken at being taken away from the commune and her mother. Her grandparents had ignored her the way they always did when she ‘made a fuss’. She’d never felt so powerless and she was not going to let that happen again.

Just then, Polly came bustling into the kitchen, breaking the train of Maude’s thoughts.

‘Well, Mr Lancaster is on his way,’ Polly said as she began opening cupboards and putting things away. ‘He’ll be staying a couple of nights.’

Maude was conscious of a little shock arrowing down her spine. ‘H-he is?’

‘Yes, just got a text from him.’ Polly straightened and gave her a concerned look. She was a motherly woman and Maude liked her quite a bit. ‘You’re looking a bit peaky, love. Are you quite all right?’

The Harrises didn’t know about her pregnancy. No one knew except the doctor and Dominic Lancaster, and Maude didn’t particularly want to tell Polly now. Not when there were so many things undecided.

‘I’m a bit tired.’ She pushed the chair back and stood, picking up her laptop. ‘I might go and have a lie-down.’ She paused a moment. ‘He won’t want to see me, will he?’

Polly shook her head. ‘Oh, no, I shouldn’t think so. Not sure why he’s here. Probably something to do with the sale.’

Maude stilled. ‘You know he’s planning on selling?’

‘Oh, yes. He’s been talking with John and me about it for a couple of months. A good thing if the manor goes to someone who will actually live here.’ Polly pulled open the dishwasher and began unloading it. ‘The house needs a family and Mr Lancaster isn’t about to start one any time soon.’

Maude found her hand was creeping to her stomach again. ‘You don’t think he will?’

‘No, love,’ Polly said, her attention on the dishwasher. ‘He’s not a family man.’

She should go, let Polly continue cleaning up, but she didn’t move. ‘Do you...know him well?’

If Polly found her curiosity startling, she didn’t show it. ‘Known him going on about ten years now,’ she said, methodically unloading some teacups. ‘When John and I took over management here. This was his childhood home, apparently, but he never visits. He only comes for his midsummer parties and that’s it.’

Maude’s curiosity deepened. She hadn’t known he’d grown up here at Darkfell. Interesting. And perhaps another thing she could use to get him to keep the place.

‘Do you know why he’s selling it?’ she asked.

Polly shut the dishwasher. ‘No and it’s not my business either. John and I are due for retirement, so I won’t be sorry. It’s a big place to look after with just us.’

As if on cue, the rhythmic thump of helicopter rotors came drifting through the air, and Maude was conscious of a sudden electric thrill pulsing through her.

‘Oh, that’s him,’ Polly said. ‘Better get on with airing out the bedroom.’ And she vanished out of the kitchen door.

Maude took a breath as the sound of the helicopter came closer and closer.

He was coming and he would want to talk to her, in which case she’d need to prepare herself, as well as decide what demands she was going to make. Because there would be some demands.

She just hoped he’d be prepared for them.

As his helicopter settled on the grassy lawn at the front of Darkfell Manor, Dominic stared grimly out of the window and wondered for the millionth time just what the hell he was doing.

He didn’t need to visit his childhood home physically. He could have rung Maude and talked to her or sent her an email or even a text. Except he hadn’t. He’d organised his helicopter and here he was, and he still didn’t understand why.

He’d spent the past week keeping busy with client meetings and investigating a couple of new investment opportunities—something he normally loved doing. He’d also thrown himself into attending multiple parties, including the opening of an exclusive new club in London. There had been the usual celebrities, socialites, a few royals and captains of industry all in attendance. Again, usually something he enjoyed.

Yet as he’d sat in the VIP area with more than a few beautiful women all vying for his attention, he’d felt...dissatisfied. And, worse, bored. The same boredom that had been dogging him for months, along with the same restlessness. It was infuriating.

He’d wanted to enjoy himself with a few casual liaisons, yet every time he even looked at a woman, all he could see was the challenging glint in Maude Braithwaite’s brown eyes and the way her hand had curved over her stomach. All he could think about was the feel of her in the forest that night, and how then she’d looked up at him when she’d been beneath him on the couch, her face flushed with heat and passion...

None of the other women he’d met had that same glint in their eyes, and while they definitely looked at him with heat and passion, it didn’t move him. It didn’t make him hard.

His nymph had put a spell on him and now she was all he thought about.

Ringing her to discuss the baby hadn’t even occurred to him. Neither had simply sending her an email or a text. All he’d thought was that any discussion with her had to be conducted face to face, so he’d let Polly know he’d be visiting, and now he was here, he wondered if he’d made the right choice.

Then he wondered why the hell he was doubting himself, when he never had before.

It was her that was the issue. It was all her and the baby.

He’d thought about the baby, too, in the past week. About how he was going to be a father and what that would look like. Not like his own father, that was for sure. He wouldn’t keep his child secreted away like an afterthought. He wouldn’t go away and leave them for weeks and months, rattling around in this big ancient house. And he certainly wouldn’t be presenting them with itemised bills for their own upkeep or making them negotiate for everything they wanted.

The child would live with him in London and he’d give he or she whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. And as for Maude, well, she could come and live with them too. He hadn’t had a mother, since his own had up and vanished, and he’d never known why she’d just walked away—his father had never mentioned it and Dominic had never asked—but maybe his life would have been less lonely, less difficult, if she’d stayed. He certainly wanted his own child to have their mother around.

One thing for certain, though: neither of them would live here.

The helicopter settled and Dominic leapt out, heading for the path that led to the groundskeeper’s cottage rather than the manor, since he might as well get this meeting with Maude over and done with, and as soon as possible.

The cottage was a ridiculously picturesque brick building on the edge of the forest, not far from the manor house. It was small, with a slate roof and ivy climbing up the sides and pots of lavender just outside the front door.

He hadn’t been here for years, he realised suddenly as he approached the cottage. Not since he was a boy. Craddock, who’d been his father’s gamekeeper, had lived in it, and Dominic had loved visiting him, though Jacob had disapproved. He hadn’t liked his son mixing with the staff.

Jacob would have a fit now, Dominic reflected as he knocked on the door, if he’d known that his son was now having a baby with said staff.

There was a pause, and he was about to knock again, when the door opened and Maude stood on the threshold, her warm brown eyes meeting his.

And he felt it again, that gut punch of desire, leaving him breathless, his heart racing in a way it hadn’t raced for any of the women he’d surrounded himself with back in London.

His fingers itched to shove the door open, grab her and pull her close, press his mouth to hers and taste her again. But he crushed the urge. This was not about sex. This was about the child.

‘May I come in?’ he asked, when she didn’t say anything.

‘You didn’t tell me you were coming,’ she said, eyeing him.

‘No,’ he agreed. ‘I didn’t. Do you really want to have this discussion on the doorstep?’

She stared at him a moment longer, then turned without a word, and went down the little hallway. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him, then followed her through another doorway and into the tiny living area.

It was a cosy little room, with a sofa facing the fireplace and an armchair to the side. There were throws of various brightly coloured fabric draped everywhere and lots of mugs on the small coffee table in front of the sofa. Books were stacked in piles on every available surface, as well as magazines open at the crossword section. A comfortable room, full of cheerful clutter, that made him feel at ease, though he wasn’t sure why.

Maude stood in front of the fireplace, her arms folded, regarding him warily. Her hair was loose and she was wearing a flowing, wraparound dress of deep scarlet that shouldn’t have been so sexy, since it was very plain. Yet somehow it drew his attention to every one of her feminine curves, including the generous swell of her breasts and her little bump, making him feel once again that primal sense of possession.

Yours. She is yours.

He gritted his teeth, ignoring the thought. The baby was his. She wasn’t.

‘Why didn’t you warn me that you were coming?’ she said, as if he were the problem.

He sat on the arm of the sofa, ostensibly casual, trying to find his usual lazy, bored facade. ‘Should I have?’

‘I would have appreciated some preparation.’

‘Preparation for what?’

She opened her mouth as if to speak, then, clearly thinking better of it, she shut it. But he didn’t miss the way her gaze darted down over his chest and lower, before returning once again to his face. Colour bloomed in her cheeks and the little glints of gold in her eyes gleamed brighter, and the rush of possessiveness and desire tightened its grip on him.

She wanted him too, that was obvious.

‘So,’ she said after a long moment of silence. ‘Are we going to have a discussion about the baby? Since I assume that’s why you’re here.’

Straight to business, was it? Probably a good thing, considering the attraction that he’d hoped would have eased in the week he’d been away apparently hadn’t eased at all.

It irritated him, dug beneath his facade, made him want things he shouldn’t and now he was starting to regret coming here. Why had he thought face to face was better? This could have been a phone call.

‘There will be no discussion,’ he said flatly. ‘I have made my decision. The child will come to live with me in London.’

Hot temper leapt in her gaze. ‘Absolutely not. You will not be taking my baby away from me.’

‘I’m not going to be taking the baby away from you,’ he said. ‘You’ll be coming too, naturally.’

Her arms dropped and she took a step towards him, every line of her radiating anger. ‘No,’ she snapped. ‘I’m not going anywhere. The baby should be brought up here, in Darkfell, close to the forest, not in a city. Not in London.’

‘As I said, this is not a discussion.’ He tried to keep his tone mild and his expression bored. ‘My son or daughter will be with me and since I will not be living here, neither will they.’

‘Why do you think living in London is better than living here?’

‘Why do you think living here is better than London?’

A moment of silence fell, tension seething in the room. She was breathing fast and he found his gaze drawn to the deep V of her neckline and the shadowed valley between her breasts. It wouldn’t take much to get her naked. Just a tug on the tie holding her dress together and it would fall open...

Get your head out of the gutter.

Dominic gritted his teeth. ‘You promised me you wouldn’t argue. I distinctly remember that.’

Her chin jutted. ‘That was when you said this would be a discussion and not just you telling me what to do.’

Taking a slow, even breath, Dominic gripped hard onto his temper. It was ludicrous that she should have such an effect on him and ludicrous that he should let her. He’d had decades of perfecting his control and he wasn’t going to let one young woman get under his skin so easily no matter how lovely she was.

‘Well, you can’t stay here, nymph,’ he said at length. ‘I will be selling the manor once the baby’s born, as I’ve already mentioned.’

Her eyes glittered with heat. ‘Polly said this was your childhood home.’

‘Yes,’ he bit out, even more annoyed now. Polly should never have said anything. ‘It is.’

‘Then why do you want to sell it? Don’t you want to pass it on to your child?’

‘No.’ The word was far more emphatic than he’d meant it to be. ‘My child will have nothing to do with this place.’

‘Why not? It’s their legacy.’

Why was she asking so many questions? He didn’t want to talk about Darkfell, especially not with the mouthful of angry, bitter words that had somehow gathered in response. In fact, it was surprising just how bitter and angry they were, considering all the time that had passed. His father shouldn’t still have such a hold on him, not after so many years.

‘It’s not a legacy I would wish to pass on,’ he said after a moment, choosing his words carefully.

She frowned, as if she found his response puzzling. ‘Why not?’

He forced himself to smile. ‘Let’s just say my childhood here wasn’t a happy one and leave it at that.’

She studied him for a long moment, the temper dying slowly in her eyes. ‘I...feel the same way about the city if you must know,’ she said, a little hesitatingly. ‘My mother used to live in a commune in Scotland, but my grandparents didn’t approve of me being brought up there so they came and took me away to live with them.’

He could have sworn he wasn’t curious about her, not in the slightest, and yet now he found himself studying her in much the same way as she’d studied him, as if she were something new and interesting he’d never seen before. Strange when there was nothing new and interesting about people in his experience. They all wanted the same things, which pretty much boiled down to money, power, or sex. He didn’t care to know about their motivation for pursuing one or all of those things, not unless it applied to a deal he was doing, so it was quite astonishing to find himself almost intrigued by what she’d said.

Clearly being taken away to live with her grandparents hadn’t been a good experience. Was that why she was resisting him taking their child to live in London with him?

‘I only want happiness for our child,’ he said slowly. ‘I don’t want to take them away from you. A child needs a mother.’

Something shifted in her eyes, though he couldn’t have said what. ‘But I don’t want to leave here,’ she said. ‘And I don’t want to live in the city.’

Frustration coiled inside him, but he crushed it. ‘Oh? Why not?’

‘I love being part of nature. It’s important. The trees and the forests, all the wild places, are important. They’re part of me. And I feel responsible for them. I want to protect them, and I want my child to learn how to protect them too.’ As she spoke, her eyes glowed, the warm brown like a sun-dappled forest pool, glinting with gold and amber.

She meant every word, he could see that. There was a passion and a sincerity in the words and in her expression too, that tugged at something inside him, something he couldn’t quite articulate.

There was no sincerity in his world, no honesty. It was all games and power-plays, all deals and money, smoke and mirrors. And as for passion, well, there was none of that either. Passion was a weakness, a vulnerability for someone to exploit for their own gain.

Looking at Maude now, all Dominic could think of was that she shouldn’t tell him these things, shouldn’t show him such a vulnerability, because—and he knew himself far too well—he’d use that passion and sincerity against her. Use them to get what he wanted, because what he wanted, he got. He didn’t know why he cared, but he did.

‘You shouldn’t tell me these things, nymph,’ he murmured softly. ‘You shouldn’t reveal your hand before you’ve sealed the deal.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Why not?’

‘Because now I know what cards you’re holding, I can use that against you. For example, you want me to keep Darkfell? Very well, I will. On condition that you and the child come and live with me in London.’