Page 108 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 5-8

I’ve never wanted a woman with this much ferocity. I’ve never felt this much possessiveness over one.

But now I don’t have to hide her away in order to keep her safe. I don’t have to remove her or the child from me in order to keep them from being harmed.

That means I can keep them with me.

I walk up the stairs, head toward her room. She probably isn’t awake yet, but I don’t wish to wait.

I push the door open, and there she is, sitting at the foot of the bed, her blond hair a tumble over her face. She looks up, and the way her curls cascade down reminds me of a classic movie star. She’s beautiful in such a unique, significant way. Something that goes beyond her features. Down to the very essence of who she is.

I choose not to spend too much time thinking about that. “It’s done.”

“What is?” she asks, blinking.

“The deal. Everything has changed now. You are no longer my prisoner.”

She stands up, tightening her robe, and all I can see is that moment last night when I removed it from her body. Exposed her curves to my hungry gaze.

Made her mine in every way.

“We’re not being hunted down anymore?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“What about the police? Law enforcement. Surely there’s got to be some consequences for—”

“No one in the British government will ever touch me. The same is true for Italy. I know where all the skeletons are buried. Every corrupt person within the government has their fingerprints all over the cash from my father’s empire. And I know it well. There’s no way they’ll come for me.”

“Oh.”

A strange feeling surges through me. Freedom. Is that what this feels like? I went from my father’s enslavement to the indentured servitude of my grandfather. And then I became a knight to my own cause. Serving at the expense of everything in order to accomplish this. Now it is done, and what is left?

I do have business interests. They have never been my primary focus, but I have investments. I have a net worth that surpasses what most people could possibly imagine. And I know that I can take all of that and expand my investing. Create a new focus. A new mission.

But first.

I’m going to have a child.

I resisted thinking about myself as a father. Mainly because to me a father is nothing good. A father is nothing more than the man who attempted to destroy every life around him for the joy of his own control.

A father is nothing more than a maniacal megalomaniac.

But I am going to be a father. I’m going to have to find a new definition for the word. A new thing to be.

Perhaps the kind of man who might…teach a child to ride a bike.

Can hands that have taken a life do that? Can they hold new life, shape it, make it happy and content without…destroying it?

Lindsay knows how to reshape herself. Lindsay came from absolutely nothing, and created an entirely new life for herself.

I can use her to teach me.

I need her to teach me.

“You’re going to stay with me,” I say. “You and the baby.”

Her eyes widen. “What?”

“I want you to stay with me.”