Page 235 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

So instead of heading back to the gorgeous ballroom, because she knew where that would lead—straight to bed—she went down to the foyer and out through the arches to the grand steps.

‘Running away?’

His voice was like a deft arrow and it halted her, but she didn’t let it fell her. She just turned around and shrugged.

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I’m just leaving the same way I arrived. Alone.’ She looked at him then. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t ask me.’ He said nothing. ‘You’ve ruined my night.’

‘How?’

‘I wanted one perfect night. A photo of us arriving together. One time. So I could look back and say,Oh, that’s the guy. And that was me.’

‘Susie, it is not ruined—’

‘But it is.’

She stared at him and then the floodgates opened, after a lifetime of being not quite enough, not fitting in, not getting to shine...

‘I wanted something just for me. For...’

Us.

She didn’t say it; she clamped her mouth closed before uttering the forbidden word.

It was silly. There was nothing ofthem. It was just that if she was having a baby, and if they were going to be bound only by lawyers or whatever, she’d wanted one memory...

And it wasn’t just about showing her family and sisters; it was so much more.

More than that...

To show their baby...

That’s your father and me.

One photo before it all turned to bitter dust.

One magical night and he had ruined it.

‘You didn’t eventhinkto ask me?’

She threw his words back at him and stood trembling with hurt as he came down the steps, all lithe and nonchalant.

‘Susie, the ball was the last thing on my mind until you arrived. You turned my head,’ he told her. ‘When you got out of that car, I couldn’t take my eyes from you.’

‘Too late.’ Her eyes were brimming.

‘It’s never too late.’ He smiled at her anger. ‘Come back to mine.’

‘You’ve got a nerve...’

‘I do,’ he said.

And he kissed her right there under the lights, his jaw rougher than she’d ever known it and his mouth hungry and skilled and utterly perfect, persuasive...

It was by far safer to kiss him than to speak. She might tell him she loved him...that they were having a baby. So much easier to sink into reckless kisses that made her forget all her problems, her every care swept away by the dark, passionate tide he created.

‘Susie...’ His mouth left hers and now he lifted her hair and kissed her neck, then her bare shoulder. ‘Come home with me...’

Her stance was wavering. One more night...she reasoned.