Page 191 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

‘I need more than softness, Sebastian,’ she said. ‘I need your love.’ She swallowed. ‘I want your heart.’

‘And it is yours. It was always yours,’ he confessed. ‘I knew it from the moment I saw you. I know that now. I understand I was too afraid to call it love. To name it. Claim it. I was scared that if I loved you as I loved Amelia, I would have to forever lock you inside a room to protect you. I would suffocate you with my love. So I sent you away. Both of you.’ His nostrils flared. ‘But I love you, Aurora. More than the air in my lungs. I am sorry I sent you away. I am sorry I pushed you away so many times when you only wanted to hold me. Let me hold you now, Aurora,’ he begged. ‘Let me love you.’

Her heart bloomed as she held the baby against her breast with one hand, and she held the other open for him to join them.

‘Come to me,’ she said, and his eyes glistened as he did just that. Leaned into her. Moved his mouth until it sat a hair’s breadth away from hers. He breathed, ‘I will always love you, Aurora. You were made for me to love. And I will love you with everything I am for the rest of my life.’

Gently he feathered his lips against hers. ‘If you still want me to?’ he asked roughly. His voice raw. ‘If you can still love me?’

‘I’ll always love you, Sebastian.’ She reached up to his face, and the air stilled. As did her heart. ‘You were made for me to love. I was made for you to love.’

‘Aurora…’

She didn’t know who moved first. And she held his face, cradled it, as he gave to her all that was inside him.

His love.

His heart.

‘I love you,’ he breathed into her mouth.

And she understood time had reset.

Theirs was just beginning.

EPILOGUE

Six Months Later…

BLACK PILLAR LAMPPOSTSof knotted metal with glass tops lit the space. Dew clung to the leaves. Newly emerging buds lifted upwards to meet the sun. And the fireflies danced on the walls.

He’d replicated it perfectly. And yet it was different. They would not meet in the dark. He had all the lights on. There was no key in the gold lock. The black iron gates, bracketed by headed stone pillars, were wide open.

He was not hiding in the shadows of the colonnade.

He stood on the stone path, and he waited for her.

He would see her. She would see him. And they would meet here, in the gardens, where it had all begun.

Sebastian let his gaze wander over the walled garden of wild flowers. They had been trimmed and harnessed to allow for the small gathering of white chairs tied with silver bows. For the arch of wild flowers they’d meet beneath. But it was still wild. And he recognised it now, saw it. Its beauty. Because in all things wild, there was a stillness. A harmony.

Aurora was his stillness. She was his harmony. He was calm. He wore no other skin than his own. And he did not feel wild or tamed. He felt…whole. Seen.

His throat tightened.

His eyes fell on Esther and her wife. Their only guests. Together, they held his son for him. Protected him with their love for him, their love for each other, and their love for…Sebastian. And he accepted it. Esther’s loyalty. Her love. And he gave it back tenfold. She was…theywere…his family.

He was loved, and he loved. Deeply. He accepted that now. Accepted what he hadn’t been able to accept for twenty-five years—that he was not cursed to kill with his love. He was not blinded by feelings. His feelings made him stronger. His love was the precursor to everything he’d never had, but all he would have now with Aurora. A family.

All the air left his lungs in a hiss.

Through the iron gates, she came to him.

And Sebastian watched her. Pearls dotted her black hair, which was tied in a loose knot at the side of her head. A few silken locks fell forward to kiss her cheeks. Strands of smaller pearls hung from her ears. The white fur cape hanging from her shoulders moved in time with her white satin shoes. Her dress, sculpted to her body, was made of the iridescent pearls of the sea.

His siren had returned, and he would go with her willingly.

Because wherever she was, he was home.