Modern Romance Collection February 2025, #1-4

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER NINE

M AUDE CHECKED HER WATCH . It was nearly twelve-thirty, the time Dominic had told her to meet him by the waterfall. Apparently, he had a ‘surprise’ for her and she’d been thinking about it all day, conscious of a building anticipation that felt a lot like excitement.

She’d been experiencing that more and more often in the past week, since Dominic had relocated himself to Darkfell Manor.

When he’d first suggested living at Darkfell, she’d been instantly wary. She hadn’t been sure why he’d wanted to be here for a start, and then she’d wondered if it was so he could be a control freak about the baby. Certainly, after the day they’d ended up having sex on the couch in the cottage, and he’d felt the baby kick, he’d suddenly started deciding things and expecting her to go along with them.

He was a man who liked to take charge of a situation, and yes, she’d been wary about what would happen when he arrived here. Not that she’d had a choice in the matter. He did own the place after all.

She’d thought the instant he’d moved back, he’d be at her door, demanding sex, since that seemed to be the implication after he’d seduced her again on the couch. Yet...he hadn’t.

In fact, the day he’d moved in, he’d stayed in the manor all day and she hadn’t seen him at all. She hadn’t seen him the next day, either. The third day had come around with still no sign of him, and she’d felt...disappointed. And she’d hated that she’d felt disappointed, because what did it matter if he clearly wasn’t as desperate for her as he’d led her to believe? It didn’t matter. Not to her. She’d gone without sex long enough that another couple of days weren’t going to make a difference.

It wasn’t until the third night that he’d appeared on her doorstep. She’d opened the door to find him lounging against the doorframe, and all he’d done was raise an enquiring brow. That had been enough to find herself in his arms, her mouth on his, hungrily devouring him as he’d devoured her.

They’d spent the night together every night since then, and usually they didn’t talk. They gave in to their own mutual hunger and let that guide them instead, and in the morning she always woke up to find herself alone.

That was good. That was what she preferred. Living her life bound by nobody’s rules but her own.

Except she found herself looking forward to the evenings when he’d visit more and more. And sometimes, when they were in each other’s arms, she’d catch herself wondering what he was thinking. Wondering why he wanted to sell Darkfell. Why his childhood hadn’t been a happy one and why he didn’t want to talk about it.

Maybe it was a good thing to be curious about him, though. She was having his child after all, and she should know more about him than that he was a billionaire with a hugely successful investment firm, who was also very good in bed.

She didn’t know what this promised ‘surprise’ was, since this was the first time he’d wanted to see her during the day, but she could feel the familiar breathless excitement that she felt every night the moment she heard his knock on the cottage door.

Did he want to repeat their night in the forest, but during the day? Was that what the surprise was? If so, she wasn’t averse to it, not at all.

She walked along the little path that led to the grassy clearing with its waterfall and pool, the trees eventually giving way and opening out ahead of her.

Dominic was already there, sitting on a blanket that had been laid out on the grass. Also on the blanket was a wicker basket with the top open, and he was getting out various containers of food.

A picnic.

Maude usually had picnics by herself—if you could call eating an apple beside the waterfall a picnic—and preferred it that way, since it allowed her to bask in the forest silence and peace in way she couldn’t if anyone else was around.

So it was strange to feel a little shock of pleasure to find him sitting on a blanket, arranging containers of food, and she wasn’t sure why. She was hungry admittedly, so the food was welcome, but it was clear that sex wasn’t on the menu—or maybe not straight away—and that was unexpected.

He looked up as she approached and his mouth curved, and the smile he gave her was so warm and so unbelievably attractive, it felt as if her heart had turned a somersault.

‘Afternoon, nymph,’ he said and then gestured to the food. ‘Polly made far too much lunch so, of course, I thought you might like to share a picnic with me.’

Not many people in Maude’s life had ever done anything for her. Not her mother and not her grandparents. Her mother had remembered the odd birthday, and her grandparents had at least made sort of an effort for Christmas, but generally she had been expected to follow the rules and look after herself.

That Dominic had decided to put on a picnic for her, and at her favourite place in the woods, made her chest go tight for a second.

‘Oh,’ she said, trying hard to ignore how that tightness had crept into her throat. ‘This is...lovely.’

He patted the blanket next to him. ‘Sit and I’ll get you something to eat. It’s all pregnancy friendly, I made sure.’

She settled down on the blanket where he’d indicated, sudden anxiety clutching at her. ‘Did you tell Polly about—?’

‘No, I didn’t.’ His dark eyes searched her face. ‘Not yet anyway. Are you worried about people knowing?’

She didn’t want to be worried, and yet she still hadn’t told anyone and she supposed there was a reason for that. A reason she hadn’t wanted to talk about it with anyone else yet.

‘I suppose I am,’ she said after a moment. ‘My grandparents at least. They’re very old-fashioned and very strict. Mum was a single mother and they didn’t like that, so I’m very sure they won’t like me being one either.’

He took a delicious-looking sandwich out of a container, put in on a plate, then handed the plate to her. ‘Why do you care?’ he asked. ‘It’s your life and being a single mother isn’t an issue these days.’

Good point. She didn’t know why she cared. It wasn’t as if they’d been very understanding of her growing up. They’d tried to do their best for her, she knew that, but still. They’d taken her from her mother on the pretext of wanting to give her a better life, yet she hadn’t been happy. Apparently happiness wasn’t included in a better life.

‘They promised me a piece of land as a rewilding project,’ she said, picking up the sandwich. ‘And I’m pretty sure if they find out I’m pregnant, they’ll change their minds about giving it to me.’

He gave her an enigmatic look. ‘You can find a piece of land anywhere to rewild. You don’t need that one, do you?’

She took a bite out of the sandwich and chewed slowly. It was indeed as delicious as it looked. ‘It’s a gift,’ she said after she’d swallowed her food. ‘I don’t have money enough to buy my own.’

Dominic’s gaze remained enigmatic.

He was casual today, in black jeans and a loose sweatshirt the same deep green as the forest behind him. The colour suited his olive skin and the deep, dark brown of his eyes. He looked on the surface like a civilised man having a picnic in the grass and yet there was another man who looked out from behind his eyes. Passionate, raw. Possessive and feral almost.

The man he was in her bed every night.

She could see that man now, glittering in the blackness of his eyes. In the subtle curve of his mouth. In the long-fingered hand he had propped on his knee. In the crackling electricity of his presence.

It made her want to know more about him, the reasons Dominic kept him so locked down.

‘Ah, yes,’ he said. ‘Money is an issue. But there are solutions to that.’

Maude stared at him in surprise. ‘Solutions? What solutions?’

Again he smiled, as if he knew a delicious secret that she didn’t. ‘I’ve been thinking.’ He reached for a bottle of fresh orange juice and poured her some in a plastic glass, then handed it to her.

‘Oh, dear,’ she muttered, taking the glass. ‘You thinking is never good.’

He laughed, the sound rich and full of genuine amusement. ‘There aren’t many people in the world who get to say that kind of thing to me.’

‘Well, maybe there should be more,’ she said, unable to resist smiling back, feeling oddly pleased with herself that she’d made him laugh. ‘You could do with being taken down a peg or two.’

He laughed again and shook his head. ‘You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?’

She gave him a look over the top of her glass as she sipped her juice. ‘Should I be?’

‘Many people are. I’m very rich and quite powerful, you see.’ He poured some orange juice for himself. ‘I’m surprised you weren’t that night in the woods. I was a stranger to you, after all.’

‘You were, but...I wasn’t afraid. It was the forest. It has a...power. At least, to me it does.’ She bit her lip, wondering why she was telling him this. Her feelings about the forest always sounded stupid when she told people aloud, and they always looked at her strangely.

But Dominic was looking at her now with interest, not hiding his curiosity. ‘A power?’ he asked. ‘What kind of power?’

‘It sounds weird and you’ll probably laugh.’

‘I won’t laugh.’ His gaze didn’t flicker and he wasn’t smiling now. He meant it.

She let out a breath. ‘At the commune, Mum wasn’t around a lot, so I was left on my own. I used to hang out in the commune garden because I loved the flowers and the plants, and the woman who managed the garden would tell me what each plant was and what it was used for. But when she wasn’t there, I’d run into the forest on the border of the commune. I felt as if the trees were...watching over me. As if they were protecting me.’ She’d looked away as she’d said it, not wanting to meet his gaze, yet she couldn’t help glancing at him now. ‘It’s weird, yes.’

But he wasn’t laughing. He was looking at her in a very intent way, making all the breath go out of her. ‘It’s not weird,’ he said. ‘There were no other children there?’

‘A couple of babies, but no, no one my age.’

‘So, you were lonely.’

It wasn’t a question and a small jolt of shock hit her. Was she that easy to read? ‘What makes you say that?’ she asked, cagily. ‘I never said I was lonely.’

‘You didn’t have to.’ His tone was matter-of-fact. ‘An only child with no parent watching over them?’ He let the question hang for a moment then went on, ‘And I know this because my father used to do the same with me. He would leave me at the manor for weeks at a time, with no one here to watch over me.’

Maude was momentarily diverted. ‘You were? And you had no one?’

‘There was Craddock, the gamekeeper, who lived in the cottage you’re living in now. He used to take me hunting.’ There was an odd note in Dominic’s voice that she couldn’t quite interpret. ‘I’ll tell you a secret. I was always terrified of the forest.’

Maude blinked. ‘You? Terrified?’

‘Oh, yes.’ The corner of his mouth had curved, but it didn’t look like amusement. ‘My father used to—’ He broke off, and Maude was conscious of a sudden tension around him that hadn’t been there before.

This was painful for him. She could tell that right away.

‘Don’t feel you have to tell me if you don’t want to,’ she said quietly. ‘Just because I told you something about me.’

Dominic looked down at his plate and the sandwich sitting on it, remaining silent for a time. Then he said, ‘My father turned me out at night a couple of times. Made me sleep in the forest. I had to “face my fear”.’ He glanced at her suddenly, his eyes full of an intense expression she couldn’t quite read. ‘He said that if you didn’t control your fear, it would end up controlling you, and I suppose he was right.’ He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. ‘After the first couple of nights, I wasn’t afraid of the forest any more.’

But Maude could hear the lie in his voice. Was it really the forest he’d been afraid of? Or was it his father perhaps? He’d mentioned that his childhood hadn’t been a happy one...

‘You must have hated your grandparents then,’ Dominic went on before she could speak. ‘Taking you away from your mother and the commune.’

It was a clear change of subject, and Maude decided not to press him about it. Certainly not if it was painful for him.

‘They weren’t easy people,’ she admitted. ‘But I didn’t hate them. They only wanted what was best for me.’

‘Sounded like being left in the commune was what was best for you,’ he said evenly. ‘Did they even ask you if you wanted to go? And what did your mother have to say about any of it?’

She met his dark gaze, feeling oddly defensive of her grandparents, even though that was what she’d always thought herself. ‘They didn’t ask, no. And my mother had nothing to say about it. If I’d stayed there, I wouldn’t have had an education.’

‘Ah.’ He raised his glass and took a sip. ‘So you preferred being with your grandparents, then?’

‘That’s what was best for me in the end.’

‘That’s not what I asked.’ His dark gaze was disturbingly intense. ‘I asked if you preferred being with them over the commune.’

She didn’t like the question and how unsure and defensive it made her feel. As if she’d had a choice about whether to go with her grandparents or stay at Earthsong with her mother, which she hadn’t.

‘Does it matter?’ she said, trying to sound casual. ‘It was a long time ago.’

But that unnerving black gaze of his seemed to see right inside her. ‘I didn’t ask to make you uncomfortable. I only asked because it’s clear you love the forest here at Darkfell. And I wondered if you’d like to stay beyond the term of your contract.’

Maude stared back at him in shock. ‘Stay?’

‘Yes. Make the position permanent, so to speak.’

‘But you said you were going to sell the place after the baby is born.’

‘I did. And then I changed my mind.’

Carefully, Maude put down her plastic cup and clasped her hands together, trying to keep the sudden fearful hope inside her. ‘You’re serious?’ She searched his face. ‘You really want me to stay on here?’

‘Yes, I’m serious. However...’ He paused and she saw it again, the flash of iron in his gaze, making her heart tighten. ‘There are strings attached.’

Her heart tightened still further. Of course there were. There were always strings with him.

‘What strings?’ she asked, unable to hide the wariness in her voice.

Dominic’s dark eyes glittered. ‘I want you to marry me, Maude.’

Dominic watched the shock blossom over Maude’s lovely face, which he’d expected. He hadn’t exactly been open with her about his idea.

He’d also been wanting to give her some space. It was why he hadn’t gone to her cottage the moment he’d arrived. She was a wild creature, he’d decided, and with wild creatures you had to go slow. So he’d let her get used to him being around and only on the third night had he gone to her door.

He’d been meaning only to talk or to suggest, but then she’d thrown herself into his arms and that had been the end of that.

He’d spent every night in her bed since then, leaving in the early morning before she woke up, still wanting to give her that space. But he’d been thinking, over the course of the week, of the future and what would happen after their son was born.

It was real to him now, a future he’d never thought he’d want unrolling before him. But he did want it. He did. And he wanted her, too.

Marriage didn’t mean much to him, since it hadn’t meant anything to his parents. His mother had been his father’s lover and she’d left him not long after Dominic had turned two. He had no memories of her. Yet he’d decided that his son should have what he hadn’t, a mother and a father, and what better way to tie it all together than to be married?

The idea hadn’t bothered him as much as he’d thought it would. In fact, he liked it. Liked the thought of Maude being his wife. It would mean he’d be stuck with only one woman for the rest of his life, but he found he rather liked that thought too. It had been nearly a week and he still wanted her with as much hunger as he had that first time. Their nights together were incendiary. Of course, over time, their passion would wane because it always did, and then they might have to have a discussion about finding other partners, discreetly of course.

Until then though, he didn’t see any reason why not to make her his wife. There were certain legal protections she would enjoy and she’d certainly like to stay here in the forest. They could keep their own lives as they were doing right now... Surely she wouldn’t find it a problem?

Her warm brown eyes were wide with shock. ‘Marry you?’ she repeated huskily. ‘But...why?’

‘It would give you some legal protection,’ he said easily. ‘But more importantly, it would give our son a family.’

‘He already has a family.’

‘A family who are together,’ Dominic clarified.

She was still staring at him, shock echoing in her gaze. ‘But...you don’t love me. And I don’t love you.’

He almost laughed. ‘Of course not. But that’s not the kind of marriage I was thinking of.’

She didn’t look at all reassured. ‘So what kind of marriage were you thinking of?’

‘Our lives would go on as they are now. I’ll live in the manor and you’ll live in the cottage. We will continue to sleep together and, I have to admit, that’s another string, because I’m not staying celibate. You will have our son and he will continue to live here with both his parents.’

Maude frowned. ‘I...’

‘Nothing will change.’ He made his voice as reassuring as he could, because now that he’d put the idea to her, he realised he very much wanted her to say yes. ‘You will have your life and I will have mine. The only difference from now is that you can stay on here as the groundskeeper.’

‘I still don’t understand,’ she said. ‘If nothing will change, then why do we have to get married?’

Irritation wound through him, but he quelled it. Getting annoyed wouldn’t help his case here.

‘Why shouldn’t we?’ he said. ‘It would be better for you financially, and, as I already said, would give you some legal protection if anything happens to me.’

‘I mean...’ Her gaze narrowed in that wary, suspicious way he was coming to dislike intensely. ‘What are you getting out of it?’

He reached out and idly pushed a strand of golden hair back behind her ear, relishing the feel of the silky strands against his fingertips. ‘I am getting you. In my bed every night with any luck.’

‘But you have that already.’

‘Except you will be my wife.’

‘How is that different?’

Questions. She was all about questions. He couldn’t resent that, though. She wanted to know and he liked that she had no qualms about asking.

‘I’ve decided that I want a family,’ he said, the truth coming out of his mouth before he’d even thought about it. ‘I did think I’d never marry or have children, and I’d never wanted to. But now I’m going to be a father, I want to give my child the best start in life, and that’s with a family.’

‘Is it?’ There was a crease between her brows. ‘My grandparents were married and I didn’t have a particularly good life with them.’

‘So you had a better life with your mother?’ he couldn’t help saying. ‘Who wasn’t around, which made you lonely enough to go into the forest to find companionship?’

She flushed. ‘That’s not... It wasn’t...’

‘Nymph.’ He reached for her hands and took them in his, because fighting like this wasn’t going to help either of them. ‘What are you so afraid of?’

She’d asked him that once, as he’d tried to resist her physically, still wanting to control his hunger for her, and he’d hated the question. But he had no qualms about turning it on her, since it was clear that the idea of marriage disturbed her and he didn’t want it to.

She didn’t pull her hands away, letting them rest in his, and he brushed his thumbs across her skin, wanting to soothe her, ease away her fears, whatever they were.

‘I don’t want...to be tied down,’ she said haltingly, as if the words were difficult. ‘I don’t want to feel like I’m with my grandparents again, where I wasn’t allowed to do anything or go anywhere. I had to be quiet, sit still, and not cause a fuss.’

He could understand that. It reminded him of his own childhood, bound by his father’s rules, his behaviour forced into something that had never been natural to him. And, God, he’d told her about those nights in the forest, alone. He hadn’t meant to, not when it exposed such a weakness in him. Yet still, he’d told her.

‘I understand,’ he said. ‘But it won’t be like that, I promise you. It’ll be a legal marriage and that’s all. You won’t have to do anything or be anyone but yourself. Call it a whim of mine.’ Her fingertips felt cold in his so he rubbed them gently. ‘You can stay here. You won’t have to leave. And when we tell people about the child, you can call me your husband. There’ll be some surprise, because of my reputation, of course, but marrying me will make the announcement easier.’

She was nodding, but there was still a tightness around her eyes and her mouth, so he tugged her gently into his lap. She didn’t protest as he put his arms around her, holding her, and it came to him, slowly, that though he’d held her before, he’d never held her like this. As a comfort rather than anything more.

He’d never felt the need to comfort anyone before or even made any kind of comforting gesture. Why should he? When no one had comforted him? And he was surprised how good it made him feel when she turned her head into his neck, accepting the warmth of his body and the strength of his arms.

‘You’re a wild thing, nymph,’ he murmured softly into her hair. ‘And I know that I need to be careful with wild things. I won’t cage you, understand? But also know one thing. I will be your forest. When you’re lonely and need someone to look after you, don’t go into the woods. Come to me instead.’

She looked up at him, her brown eyes dark, and he couldn’t have said what she was thinking. Then she lifted a hand to his hair, her touch light. ‘Badger,’ she said softly.

His heart tightened in his chest at the tender sound in her voice. The press called him all kinds of things, and he’d never paid any attention to them, but this... This was a name she’d given him and he rather thought she was owed.

‘Logically I should be “satyr”, since you’re my nymph,’ he pointed out.

She wrinkled her nose. ‘No, I like badger better. Also, you’re not being particularly satyr-like now.’

‘I can be if you’d rather.’

Her fingers sifted gently through his hair, her mouth curving as she looked up into his eyes. ‘That night you were the god of the forest. And I let you catch me.’

Strange, mysterious woman. Wild and passionate one minute, stubborn and angry the next, then warm and almost tender the minute after that.

She intrigued him.

She’ll be your wife if she agrees.

The thought gripped him tight as a wave of possessiveness swamped him. Yes, she would be his wife. No one else’s, just his.

‘You did.’ He tried not to let the possessiveness bleed into his voice. ‘And you know what that means.’

Slowly, like the dawn breaking, she smiled. ‘No. What?’

‘It means you’re mine.’ This time he couldn’t stop that possessiveness from colouring his voice. ‘And the god of the forest always keeps what’s his.’

He thought she might protest at his blatant declaration of ownership, but she didn’t. Instead her eyes darkened further, the gold eclipsed. Did she like it? Did she want to be claimed?

He stared down at her, and it came to him then that it was a fine line she walked. Because yes, she did want that. Her mother hadn’t wanted her, and her grandparents hadn’t either. They’d taken her away, but it hadn’t been about her, he thought. It had been for themselves, because they hadn’t liked the way her mother had brought her up.

But that night, she’d let him catch her, because deep in her heart she wanted to be captured. She wanted to be held. Even though she fought against it and wanted her freedom, she also wanted that tether.

He wasn’t sure why what she wanted mattered to him, perhaps it was merely that she was carrying their child. Regardless, he wanted to give that to her. Both the tether and the freedom.

And why not? When it suits what you want very well.

There was an element of snideness in the thought, but he dismissed it. Yes, it worked well for what he wanted too, but who cared? In the end, they both got an arrangement that suited both their needs.

Maude clearly liked the thought of him keeping her, because her fingers tightened in his hair, bringing his head slowly lower until their lips met.

Her mouth was warm and she tasted both tart and sweet from the orange juice she’d been drinking, and he could feel the autumn sun on the back of his neck, as soft and warm as her mouth and body.

‘Here,’ he murmured, easing her down onto the blanket. ‘Let me have you here. I’ve caught you, nymph, so you have to give me whatever I want.’

She was still smiling, but there was a delicate flush to her cheeks now, a sure sign of arousal. ‘Do I?’ There was a playful note in her voice. ‘And what is it you want, O great god?’

He was already pulling at her clothing, and usually he was more adept, but he felt oddly desperate and inexplicably clumsy, and so she had to help him. She laughed as she got tangled in her jeans and underwear, until he covered her mouth with his, taking her laughter for himself.

Finally they were naked and he was stretched out above her, where he preferred to be, looking down at her, this beautiful, wild, uncanny woman he’d found in the forest that night, and he felt himself teetering on the edge of a cliff he hadn’t known was there. But the feeling made no sense, so he kissed her again, relishing the way she arched beneath him, letting him know she wanted more, and then her legs wrapped around his waist and that was the sweetest feeling yet.

He guided himself into her, loving how she gasped as he pushed in slow, deep, and then he stopped, buried inside her. He lifted her hands and threaded her fingers through his, before pressing them down on the blanket, on either side of her head.

She smiled. ‘I like you like this,’ she said softly, her voice husky with pleasure. ‘Naked and in the sun. You look like you’re meant to be here. Like me.’

He shifted his hips, unable to look away, trapped by the pleasure darkening her eyes as he moved. ‘Do I?’ he asked, rough and raw. ‘Like a god, if I remember right.’

She gave a soft laugh that ended on a gasp as he drew out of her, then slid deep inside again. ‘Oh...yes...’ She sighed. ‘You are, badger.’

He found himself smiling back at her, staring into her eyes, gone molten and soft with liquid gold. ‘Don’t kill the moment, nymph.’

She laughed again, a soft sexy little laugh that had him kissing her, wanting to taste the joyous sound of it and keep it inside him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiled at someone during sex. The last time it had been playful, and teasing, and tender.

He rolled suddenly onto his back, just for a change, so she was above him, the sun turning her hair into a golden glory. Her face was alight, her hands braced on his chest, and when he gripped her hips, moving her, she sighed, her inner muscles squeezing him.

Beautiful nymph. Beautiful Maude.

A groan escaped him as she tilted her hips slightly. ‘You’re killing me,’ he murmured, the pleasure sharper, hotter. ‘I like it. Do it again.’

So she did, and he growled, making her laugh yet again, her body shaking on top of his. ‘Animal,’ she breathed. ‘You’re my favourite kind.’

He was rapidly losing the ability to think, but he paused again, deep inside, tightening his fingers on her hips. ‘I’m your favourite kind of animal?’

‘I like a badger.’ She rocked against him. ‘Move.’

‘What?’ He pretended to look surprised. ‘Me? Move? Move where?’

Another laugh and she bent forward, her hair a golden curtain around them. ‘Make me come, O great god,’ she whispered against his mouth, ‘and I’ll be your slave for ever.’

‘Oh, well, in that case...’ He gripped her harder, moving beneath her, watching the teasing light in her eyes slowly fade, replaced by the burning pleasure that they always experienced with each other.

And even though she was above him, he had the oddest impression that he was the one falling. Falling into her brilliant golden eyes.

‘You haven’t said yes, Maude,’ he whispered.

Her gaze was shadowed russet edged with gold. Darkness and light. Midnight and midsummer. The wild part of her and the joy. She kissed him, giving him a nip. ‘Yes,’ she whispered.

Then everything fell away and there was nothing in the world but the pleasure and the fire that ended it.