Page 137 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

‘I’ll be the judge of that.’ I lift my chin. ‘I know you’re hiding something. I can’t believe you’d go to all the trouble of kidnapping me just because of an accidental pregnancy. It’s something to do with him, isn’t it?’

Again that muscle leaps in his jaw, his eyes glittering like onyx in the light. He looks dangerous, as if he might do anything, anything at all, and by rights I should be terrified of him. But strangely, I’m not. I keep thinking of his hand stroking my hair gently and the sweetness of the kiss he gave me as I came apart in his arms. He’s not going to hurt me or our baby.

‘I have nothing to say to you.’ His tone is edged and sharp. ‘I told you we’re not having this conversation and—’

‘I didn’t want to go that night in Singapore,’ I interrupt, instinct telling me that if I want something from him, I’ll have to give him something first. ‘I wanted to stay with you.’

Something flickers in the darkness of his eyes and he glances away. He knows I’m giving him a piece of myself, I’m sure of it, and if he’s any kind of businessman, he’ll know what it means.

Abruptly, he lets out a breath and glances back. ‘Very well, if you want the truth, I’ll give it to you. Yes, this has something to do with your brother. Years ago Vulcan Energy was pushing into Italy, buying up companies and ripping them apart. My family owned a wind farm. It was my father’s passion project and he’d poured a fortune into it, so it was easy meat for Zakynthos. Vulcan Energy swallowed it whole. My father tried to recover and start again, but the debts he ran up were too high, and eventually he was ruined.’

Rafael’s voice is hard and cold and flat. ‘He killed himself not long after that, leaving my mother and me saddled with his debt. My mother had a job at the local bakery, but her wages weren’t nearly enough to cover the debt, so she began to court men who had money, hoping they might pay for her…“company”.’

The bitterness in his voice becomes acute. ‘I couldn’t bear for her to do that, so I found work myself, at Atlas Construction as a labourer. It was run by theconsiglieriof the boss of one of the more powerful of theCosa Nostrafamilies and eventually I did jobs for him.’ He pauses, his gaze roving over my face. ‘When I told you I was a bad man, I meant it. The things I’ve done…’ He stops, and my heart kicks against my ribs. ‘I hold your brother directly responsible for my family’s ruin and for my own, and since he took my family from me, I’m going to take his from him.’

A long, cold, barbed thread of shock winds through me and pulls tight.

My brother is a ruthless man and I know this. I also know that he too worked for a local crime family, in Athens, making contacts and earning the money he needed to rescue me. He didn’t stop after I was rescued, though. He kept on making contacts and earning money, building Vulcan Energy, building his power so he could keep us both safe.

I never ask him about what he did in the bad old days in Athens and he never talks about it. But I know what those crime families get up to, and I can only imagine it’s the same in Sicily.

I want to tell him that it couldn’t have been Ulysses who ruined his family, but I can’t. My brother wants what he wants and he’ll go to any lengths to get it, and if that means swallowing some small family company then that’s what he’ll do.

I swallow, my mouth dry. ‘So, what? You’re taking me from him? I’m your revenge?’

He doesn’t hesitate. ‘Yes. I’d initially planned—’

‘Wait,’ I interrupt, that cold thread of shock pulling tighter. ‘You were planning this? How long, Rafael?’

The lines of his face have hardened, the fierce heat that burned in his black eyes now stone cold. ‘Since before Singapore.’

The needle of hurt that slid between my ribs that night in his hotel suite slides in again, even sharper, even deeper. ‘You approached me intentionally at the gala?’

Again, there is no hesitation. ‘My intent was to make a connection with you and then gradually get closer to you.’

I can’t seem to catch my breath. ‘And that night, in your hotel room…’

Only now does his gaze flicker. ‘That was…unexpected. I didn’t plan on that happening.’

I feel winded, as if he’s punched me in the gut. ‘But you decided to sleep with me anyway.’

‘Yes.’ He bites off the word.

So why did he send you away afterwards?

I fight through the remaining shreds of orgasm clouding my brain, because if that night had been as calculated as he said, then surely having me stay the night would further his cause more than making me leave? Or am I just clutching at straws? At anything to make me feel less used? Less of a victim?

‘So why didn’t you make me stay?’ I ask.

He is silent and for a moment I don’t think he’s going to answer. Then he says, ‘Because you were not what I expected, nor was my response to you. You were innocent, dragonfly, and I found I had more of a conscience than I thought.’

I shiver. That should make me feel better, yet it doesn’t. He still used me. I’m still the innocent, sheltered victim, too stupid to know what he was doing.

‘So why am I standing here in your house, then?’ I ask, struggling to understand. ‘Clearly you havelessof a conscience than you thought.’

‘I remembered that I hadn’t used a condom and so I wanted to be sure you weren’t pregnant. But…you were. And I am not a man who disregards an opportunity when it falls into his lap.’

I understand then, what he wants, what he’s trying to do, and it feels as if a bucket of ice water has been emptied over my head. ‘You want to marry me because I’m Ulysses’s heir,’ I say and it’s not a question. ‘And then our child will be yours, with the potential to take over Vulcan Energy.’