Page 68 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

Although he hadn’t moved an inch, his eyes seemed to regard her with even more probing intensity, as though trying to discern her every flicker of answering emotion. As the threatened beats of her heart began to subside, Serena nodded slowly. ‘Alright.’

A small furrow cut into the space between his dark brows, as though he hadn’t expected such easy agreement and Serena quickly realised that he had been watching—hoping for?— the opposite reaction.

‘And when these tests prove that I am pregnant with your child, what then?’ she asked, because it was clear that he preferred the idea that this was some crazy scheme rather than that she was actually carrying his child, and that he would in all likelihood walk away, even once he had his confirmation.

‘Let’s just take this one step at a time, OK, Serena,’ he said, through lips suddenly tight with tension.

His unwillingness to commit to anything disappointed her, even though it was what she’d known would happen. ‘Shall we get going then?’ she said, getting to her feet, eager to move on.

The sooner they got this over with, the sooner he could go on his merry way and leave her to carry on picking up the pieces of her life and putting them back together to create a new and hopefully far happier one.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘We should arriveat the airfield in about forty minutes, sir.’

‘Good. Thank you.’ Caleb nodded his gratitude to his driver as he settled himself into the luxurious interior of the car, his departure from London not coming a moment too soon. He couldn’t wait to put this whole sordid pregnancy ordeal behind him and never think of it again.

Never think of Serena Addison again either.

And how are you going to do that? You’ve been trying to put her from your mind for weeks without any success, and seeing her again in the flesh certainly hasn’t helped!

Tenison buzzed through Caleb’s veins, too much truth within that burst of thought for him to dismiss it as easily as he wanted to. Seeing Serena again yesterday had stirred a greater reaction than he had been prepared for, igniting a fire in his blood that had continued to smoulder long after they had parted ways…

Watching from the darkened window of the car, his intent had been to observe her unvarnished reaction to his presence, but the moment she had exited her office building, unmissable with her striking long legs and slim body and that sexy tumble of strawberry hair, he hadn’t wanted to do anything except stare. Devour the sight of her because she was even more beautiful than he had remembered. Heat had kindled low in his stomach, and the tug of awareness deep in his groin had been fierce, so potent that the anger churning through him ever since reading that damned email and burning so hotly he hadn’t slept at all on the journey to London, had been stilled into near submission.

The wave of desire had been so strong that for a moment he had forgotten—actually forgotten—his reason for being there as his mind flooded with heated imaginings of those long legs locked tightly around his waist and his face buried in the sweet-smelling, and even sweeter-tasting, hollow of her neck as he drove himself deep into her body. Wrenching himself from the sensual daydream had taken supreme effort, and even then, tendrils of smoky heat continued to curl through his bloodstream, threatening to pull him back under should he lose control for even the barest of seconds. The frustration he’d felt with himself for that lapse, and the continuing weakness where she was concerned, had only made him even more unyielding when they had finally stood face-to-face. Because as much of a nuisance as his undying desire for her was, it was an even greater aggravation hat he was burning up inside for someone who could be trying to dupe him.

However, the longer he’d spent with her, the harder it had been to keep his suspicions burning. Nothing about her seemed deceitful, and she had agreed easily to all that he’d asked, as though she truly had nothing to hide.

The conundrum of it had kept him awake into the early hours, uncomfortable with his assumptions about her. Yet he just couldn’t accept the other option—that she was being honest and he was going to be a father.

A notification alert on his phone drew his attention, and withdrawing it from his inner pocket, Caleb was happy to see it was the results of the pregnancy and DNA test. Finally, the matter could be put to bed for good, and before he reached the South of France so he would be able to proceed with the urgent matters on the new Saint-Tropez beach club without any distractions. Except…

His heart thumped uncomfortably and the air in his chest grew thin. Tight.

Serenawaspregnant.

And the test confirmed that he was the father.

Caleb shook his head. It was impossible. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t…and yet it was, he accepted, glancing again at the test results, which he had been assured were 97 percent accurate.

He was going to be a father. There was shock and disbelief spreading at an alarming speed across his chest, but amongst that turbulence there was also an unassailable clarity and, although he was suddenly in a situation he’d never wanted to find himself in, Caleb knew exactly what he had to do.

‘Turn the car around.’

The driver startled, eyes flicking to the rearview mirror. ‘Sir? I thought you had a flight you needed to…’

‘What I need is to go back into the city,’ Caleb snapped impatiently. ‘Turn the car around now!’

The queue of traffic heading into the capital was far greater than the line heading out, so the car crawled for long stretches of time, but Caleb barely noticed, too lost in his own web of thoughts.

There were many reasons why he’d never entertained the notion of fatherhood. He was selfish, for starters. He worked ridiculously long hours and rarely spent more than a year in one city before moving on again. He had no stellar example to emulate. His father had often worked so late into the night that he’d slept at his office and left the rearing of his son to a rotation of highly qualified nannies. And having spent the majority of his life studiously avoiding getting close to anyone and feeling anything, to prevent the mess of emotion and pain that had stained his childhood, it was now less of a habit and more of an ingrained way of being that Caleb wasn’t sure could be changed. Or that he particularly wanted to change.

However, all of those reasons paled in comparison to the main motive, the one that was never far from his mind, that whispered its fearful prophecy in his ear whenever his father instigated another of his imploring conversations about continuing the family line and securing their future legacy—the chilling knowledge that, should he let someone into his life, someone who could grow to care about him, he would only end up hurting them.

Just as he had hurt Charlotte.

He may not intend to, but it was inevitable that he would. Hurting Charlotte was the last thing he’d wanted, but it had happened. Just by being himself.