Page 69 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

A reckoning was coming, he knew. He’d let her inside his home, his sanctuary…

She tilted her head, and he watched the heavy drag of her swallow.

‘What now?’ she asked.

Sebastian closed the door and turned the key.

He understood what they must do now.

He’d taken her. He’d brought her here. To keep her safe. To protect her from the monsters who lived out there.

And there was only one way to do it.

He’d give Aurora and their child what his mother and his sister had never known.

Commitment.

His commitment to protect her, to become her protector.

‘You will stay here, with me.’ He turned back to her and met the determined thrust of her chin. ‘Forever . ’

‘Forever?’ A chill feathered down Aurora’s spine. ‘What does that mean?’

‘What is it you don’t understand?’ He stepped closer.

The intensity of his eyes pinned her to the spot.

‘The definition of forever is for all future time,’ he said, and the tiny hairs on her body stood to attention.

‘For always, you will stay with me, and I will protect you and the baby inside you.’

Her body responded to the possessive statement. To the undeniable truth of what grew inside her. A part of him. But…

She looked at the closed door, at the key still in the lock.

All she needed to do was twist it, open it, and walk through it.

But he had locked it. He wanted to keep her inside with him.

Forever. And the commitment of his words, the confidence from him that she wouldn’t object, that she’d stay with him, always , lit a coil of longing inside her to do just that.

She lifted her gaze to his. ‘I’m to be your prisoner?’ she asked, and her heart raced.

Despite the meaning of the word prisoner , her body hummed with the definition her mind conjured for her. It was not of bars and locked doors, but to always be in the presence of a man who looked at her with such power, and made her feel things she shouldn’t.

But why shouldn’t she?

He was the father of her child.

He was a man proposing forever.

‘You are to be the mother of my child,’ he countered. ‘You are no prisoner.’

She flushed. ‘So what do you mean to do with me?’

A pulse tattooed frantically on his cheek. ‘I will do my duty to you, and the child.’

She frowned. ‘Your duty?’

‘I will give you both shelter. I will provide food. I will keep the fires burning. I will keep you both warm, and the cold world outside. I will keep you, and the baby I put inside you, safe, by whatever means necessary.’

‘I’ve never been unsafe.’

‘In New York, you were reckless.’

‘So were you,’ she countered. ‘But that isn’t my life. That night was different. It was…’

It flashed in her mind. The night that changed everything.

The warmth of him. The hardness. The fullness of him inside her.

But also, she remembered the softness of his hand claiming her wrist. She remembered the swipe of his open palm on her spine as she sat astride him, unravelling.

The warmth of his jacket, being cocooned in his scent as he draped it over her shoulders.

‘Life-altering,’ he finished for her.

‘Yes.’ Heat gathered in her abdomen. ‘But I’ve never been cold, Sebastian. I’ve always had food,’ she told him. ‘I have shelter. Safety. I can provide all of those things for the baby. On my own. So these things you offer…’ She shrugged. ‘They mean nothing to me.’

‘And yet these things mean everything ,’ he growled, ‘to me.’

The image of Michael, all alone under a winter’s sky, hungry, cold and alone, kicked Aurora in the ribs.

‘Was it so very hard to be without those things?’ she asked. ‘How did you survive out there? All alone? Without food? Shelter?’ She shivered. ‘Warmth?’

His eyes deepened with dark shadows. ‘How is not important. I’m here.’ He dipped a broad shoulder. ‘I survived. But I will never allow the hardships of life—’ he breathed heavily ‘—to harm a child of mine.’

And she understood a little of his determination to make sure the baby would never know such hardships.

‘I’ll never allow those things to harm my child either.’

‘How can you protect a child from dangers you can’t see?’ he countered. ‘Dangers you’ll never understand because you haven’t experienced them?’

‘I don’t need to experience a fire to understand it’s hot,’ she responded. ‘I don’t need to experience falling on a sharp corner to understand it must be baby-proofed.’

‘There is more to raising a baby than rounded edges.’

‘I know what’s important.’

‘And what is it, Aurora, that you believe is important?’ he asked.

‘I’ll never let them feel unwanted,’ she answered. ‘I will never ask them to be anything other than what they are. I will never throw them out simply because they upset or disappoint me. I will not disregard them, throw them away, when they find life hard, or when they make the wrong choices.’

‘All these things you tell me are about sentiment and feelings. Feelings won’t protect our child.’

‘I’ve been protected all my life,’ she summarised. ‘Fed. Clothed. Sheltered. And those things weren’t—aren’t—enough.’

His chest swelled. And she wanted to touch it. The power barely contained beneath the thin fabric moulded to every contoured muscle of his chest.

‘But that is all the baby needs.’

‘It’s not,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ve always had those needs met. But I always wanted—needed—more.’

The memory of the last time she’d demanded more was inescapable. She didn’t want to escape it. She didn’t regret her boldness six months ago, and she wouldn’t regret it now.

‘And what is it you think this more is?’

‘I don’t know,’ she confessed. ‘But it isn’t dispassionate duty.’

His eyes held hers for a beat too long. ‘Love,’ he said, and the word love was a heavy, dirty thing he spat out of his mouth. ‘Will not protect the baby.’

‘I didn’t mention love.’

‘You implied it. But I will never love you,’ he said, and it sounded like a threat to his very existence.

‘I didn’t ask you to love me,’ she said, but her heart squeezed as she imagined what it could be like to be loved by a man, loved by this man, completely. Unconditionally.

All her life she’d asked for love, begged for it.

And where had that gotten her? Playing a part in a family where she was merely a moving mouth, saying all the right words.

The words they wanted to hear. No. Never again would she say words that weren’t her thoughts.

Her feelings. Her truth. Never again would she beg for love. Ever.

‘Good,’ he replied. ‘Love isn’t a precursor to doing what’s needed. Dispassionate duty is all we can rely on.’

She bit her lip. Maybe he was right. She’d loved Michael, and that hadn’t been enough to keep him safe from harm. Her need to be loved by her parents had blinded her to the duty she had to her brother.

‘Your room is at the end of the corridor,’ he informed her, and she understood the negotiations were over. For now. But she needed a minute too. To think, to acclimatise to her new surroundings, her new life.

‘The chef will arrive at four, along with your belongings from Arundel Manor.’

Her brows knitted. ‘How have you managed that?’

He shrugged. ‘I am Sebastian Shard,’ he replied without ego.

But who was Sebastian Shard? Who was the man beneath the headlines? Didn’t she have a duty to her child to find out? She’d got a glimpse of him in New York, hadn’t she? He was a man of empathy. Passion. And today, he was a man of uncompromising duty.

‘She’ll meet with you and discuss your dietary requirements.

A personal maid and a housekeeper will also be at your disposal.

Explore the grounds,’ he said. ‘Make a list of any changes you require or anything you need, and I’ll provide it.

Any other staff you need that I have overlooked, I’ll employ. ’

Shame heated her cheeks. He was willing to change his whole life, the way he’d lived inside these walls, for her and their baby.

It was humbling.

Sebastian’s life had been hard. He’d lived on the fringes of society looking in.

All he knew was how to survive. He’d built walls so high around him that they were endless.

But life was about more than survival. She’d lived safely inside too high walls, and still she’d been alone, and sheltered from the life she wanted to live now. One without compromise.

But Sebastian had been alone too, living a life no one should live by choice.

Aurora watched him walk away without a backward glance.

And the truth hit her.

She’d let him take her because she didn’t want to be alone.

And he’d locked her inside, because neither did he.