Page 168 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

‘I’m getting into bed.’

And she did.

He looked at her lying beside him.

‘Hold me,’ she said. But she kept her head where it was. Her head on the pillow. Her eyes pointing at the wall. ‘I need you to holdus.’

His body roared.

How could he deny her? He’d promised to meet all her needs. Physically at least.

He couldn’t help it. His body wouldn’t listen to his demand to stay still. To keep his hands away from her.

He flipped the light off. Slipped his hips down the bed and turned. Moulded his body to the shape of her.

She grabbed his wrists, his hands, and wrapped them around her. Aroundthem.

He closed his eyes. ‘Aurora—’

‘Don’t talk. You don’t have to say anything else,’ she told him. ‘Just hold me and know I’m right here with you.Weare.’

Tears filled his eyes.

He wouldn’t shed them.

‘Tomorrow, we’ll find a way to honour the boy you were. The children like you,’ she whispered. ‘Tomorrow, we’ll find a way to honour Amelia.’

‘There is no honour to be found.’

‘Sleep, Sebastian.’

And with his heart hammering, Sebastian closed his eyes. Let his mind only hear her. Her breathing. He did not examine the intimacy of the moment she was giving to him. But he knew it was the most intimate moment he’d ever had.

In this moment, he was closer to her than he’d ever been to anyone.

She understood he would not let her soothe him, and so she had asked him to soothe her. And she knew he wouldn’t refuse her request, because…

She knewhim.

She knew what he was, what he’d done, and still she wanted him here.

The knowledge shattered him. He felt raw. Broken open, and all that kept him together was her. Her body pressed against his. The rhythmic lull of her soft exchange of air calmed something inside him. Her soft, small hands on top of his. She was holding their babywithhim.

It was everything he shouldn’t have.

Everything he didn’t deserve.

But here it was.

Here they were.

His family.

And he held them both in his big, greedy hands. Because he was a glutton.Selfish.

But he couldn’t let go of her.

He would never let them go.