Page 41 of Modern Romance July 2025 #4-8

CHAPTER NINE

R EBECCA DID NOT wake up to any trays of food, which was a shame. The room was still dark, she realized. She reached out for her phone on the nightstand.

Four thirty in the morning.

She supposed it made sense she’d be up early. Despite all the upheaval yesterday, she had spent a considerable time sleeping . The bath last night had relaxed her right into sleep fairly early, all in all.

The bath and the orgasms preceding it, you mean.

She shoved that thought away. She needed to focus less on her body and its reactions and more on her brain . On Theo’s brain. They needed to get to know one another.

She did not believe that meant falling in love and marriage would follow, but she liked to think if they could understand each other, they could build a solid, co-parenting partnership.

Difficult across countries, but the man was a billionaire .

He could work it out. And maybe this heavy-handed way of just whisking her off to places was unacceptable, but there was the strangest lack of meanness to it.

He was stubborn and hardheaded, but she got the impression he was those things because he didn’t realize he shouldn’t be .

Like a willful horse, he would need to be taught a thing or two about cooperation. That’s how she’d start approaching him. As a difficult mount.

She couldn’t think about mounting , though. Not right now. Not when she had to focus. Better to imagine him as a horse. The silly image brought a smile to her face.

She dressed in her last clean outfit she’d packed. She’d need to do some laundry before the day was out. She was going to need…more of a plan. But first she needed something to drink. She’d love more of that cool ginger drink she’d had in the car yesterday. Maybe some bland toast.

Her stomach wasn’t quite as riotous this morning, but she knew better than to think that meant anything. If she could sneak around and find the kitchens, she could get the normal processes started before Theo even woke up.

The halls were dimly lit, and she roamed, enjoying the solitude to study her surroundings.

Like she’d said last night, this was a home.

So far it still missed the personal touches like photographs of actual people, but there were colors here.

Vibrant and muted depending on what part of the house she was in.

All sorts of windows, in all shapes and sizes, each one with a view of the sea.

Alcoves were dotted with potted plants and pretty bowls, vases and the like—all of which looked old and interesting.

Paintings on the white walls were often huge, gorgeous landscapes.

If he had chosen the art himself, he was drawn to the vast . Seascapes and wide-open spaces. Skies that seemed to never end. There was a sense of freedom in every piece.

Interesting for a man who was outwardly so controlled.

Except in bed.

Honestly, she despaired of herself and her reaction to him.

She heard the faint sound of movement eventually. And the smells of something baking. She moved toward it. Through a large, sprawling dining room and into a brightly lit and spacious kitchen.

One woman bustled around inside of it, moving from oven to refrigerator to counter in graceful movements. She upended a bowl on the counter, and a fat roll of dough fell onto it with a plop.

Everything smelled divine, and Rebecca’s stomach did only a little questionable turn as she stepped fully into the room.

The woman looked up, startled a little bit, but recovered quickly. “ Kaliméra , Ms. Murphy. You are up early. Breakfast will be ready shortly. Can I get you something to drink? Perhaps you’d like to sit in the dining room and get off your feet? Mr. Nikolaou will join you shortly.”

“He’s awake?”

“Oh, yes. Mr. Nikolaou is quite the early bird. Always down in his gym before we even get started here. Breakfast is always at five sharp.” The woman looked up from where she worked.

“For him . You are welcome to set your own schedule, of course.” The woman’s gaze dropped to Rebecca’s baby bump for just a moment before she looked back down at the dough she was kneading.

“I don’t suppose you’d have something along the lines of ginger ale?”

The woman gave a little nod. “Carbonation feels good when things are upset, doesn’t it?

And you’ll need something to go along with it.

Just to settle it all.” She tossed her dough into a bowl, draped a cloth over it, then hummed to herself as she bustled around the kitchen.

“Go on into the dining room. I’ll bring you everything you need. ”

“May I just sit here?”

The woman hesitated again, but her smile didn’t dim. “If that’s what you wish.”

Rebecca settled herself on a stool at the counter and the woman settled the food and drink in front of her. “Here you are, Ms. Murphy.”

“Please, call me Rebecca. And what should I call you?”

“I am Acacia. I handle the kitchens for the most part. Elias is my assistant.” She nodded toward the window.

Outside, Rebecca could see a young man on the patio drinking coffee and looking out at the sea.

“And my son.” She rolled her eyes. “Between the two of us, whatever you need by way of food or drink, we will get for you. Right now the schedule is breakfast in the dining room at five. Lunch is at eleven on the terrace. I put together some kind of snack plate around three, then we serve dinner at seven. But, you may request different times for your own meals, whatever snacks you wish.”

“Eating with Theo will be fine.”

“You let me know if you change your mind. Growing life is a serious and wonderful endeavor.”

Growing life.

Rebecca rested a hand on her stomach without fully thinking the gesture through. Sometimes it was so easy to get caught up in pregnancy, in Theo , she forgot that on the other side of all this was… life . And she had to find a way to ensure her child’s life was a good one.

She drank the ginger soda. A little different from the one yesterday. Sweeter, as though it had been mixed with honey. It soothed and settled enough she felt up to eating the delicious-smelling roll of some kind Acacia had put in front of her.

Acacia, for her part, went about her work in the kitchens, making Rebecca feel a pang of homesickness. She should call her parents instead of just text, but she still didn’t have any clearer answers for them.

So, she needed to find some.

“Can you tell me where this gym is?” Rebecca asked.

There was a slight hesitation in the woman, but eventually she looked up with that same pleasant smile. Then she let out a sharp whistle that had Rebecca startling.

After only a moment, the young man appeared in the doorway and stepped in from outside. He set his cup down on the counter and looked at his mother.

“Elias, show Ms. Murphy downstairs to the gym,” the cook ordered.

“But—”

Whatever his objection, he swallowed it down at the cook’s sharp look. “ Naí , of course. Follow me, ma’am.”

Rebecca slid off the stool, thanked Acacia for the breakfast and the company. She thought maybe she’d be able to keep it down this morning as she followed Elias through winding hallways and down a dim staircase into a cool basement-type area.

Elias stopped at a door, looked back at Rebecca. “He doesn’t usually like to be bothered when he is doing his morning routine. Fair warning.”

Rebecca smiled at the young man. “Another reason to bother him, then.”

She watched Elias fight with a smile, but he gave a nod and then hurried off. No doubt so as not to be caught in the crossfire.

Not that there would need to be crossfire. Regardless of Theo’s schedule , they needed to talk, to plan. She couldn’t just sit around all day enjoying the pretty scenery. She had things to accomplish, and a whole life to get back to once she did.

She gave the door a perfunctory knock before going ahead and pushing it open.

She was met with the sound of pounding music.

Not blaring, just a heavy, thudding beat.

She immediately recognized the room as a kind of home gym.

She’d never liked working out all that much, but strength had been required of her when she’d ridden, so she had some familiarity with some of the machines.

Theo was not at a machine. He was lying on a bench, pushing a bar practically bending with weight up. Sweat dripped from his temples. His T-shirt was darkened in a ring around his neck. The muscles in his arms strained against the heavy weight he pushed up. Then back down. Then up again.

Rebecca watched, dumbfounded. She had understood in some way that the way he looked, the sheer strength of him, had to come from somewhere, but she hadn’t imagined…this. Or that it would stir things in her.

Then again, what about this man didn’t stir things in her?

He deposited the bar on some rack above him with a loud metal clank that had her jumping, her already over-beating heart thudding against her chest. She must have made another noise as well because he sat up and looked directly at her.

The potency of his dark gaze, the way that connection arrowed through her as viscerally as if he was touching her, deep inside, made absolutely no earthly sense to Rebecca, but there it was. And she was all but panting.

Slowly, Theo got to his feet. He did not cross to her, but he reached behind himself and pulled off the T-shirt he wore, exposing the hard ridges of his abdomen and chest. The hair that dotted both. The sheer perfection of him, as impressive as any statue.

He rubbed the shirt over his face, his hair, wiping away excess sweat, she supposed.

All she could think was he couldn’t be real, except he was. She’d been intimately acquainted with his body multiple times now.

She knew she should stop staring at his chest, at his arms. She needed to make eye contact. She needed to get ahold of herself.

“Rebecca.”

Just the way he rumbled her name was like a lit match. But she was determined to blow it out. Determined not to jump him every time she wanted to.