Page 78 of Modern Romance May 2026 Books 1-4
He chuckled. ‘So you were reduced to joining us.’
She’d never thought she’d actually be offered the job. ‘Derek encouraged me to apply. My quitting will let him down.’
She felt bad at that prospect. Derek had been happy for her to stay while she’d succeeded at the track, but now might be different. Now he and Jean mightn’t want to see her anymore. She couldn’t have a baby in the caravan anyway. She would need her own place. Independent from everyone—especiallyMassimo.
‘You don’t need to quit,’ Massimo said, all teasing tone gone. ‘Sure, you might need a break when you’re too pregnant to fit beneath the car, but there’s more than one job you could do at Hearnshawe.’
‘I’m not interested in anything I haven’tearned,’ she muttered. That would be worse. Only tolerated in the factory because he’d knocked her up? That would be horrendous.
‘No nepotism?’ he said quietly. ‘As little help as possible?’
She stared at him. He was still acting as if their wedding was a foregone conclusion. Driving the boat straight towards the iceberg with unbelievable, unrelenting arrogance and optimism, so certain he would get his way. But marriage was a step too far for her. She knew love had to be constantly earned and could easily be withheld—or worse, lost forever. Nothing was guaranteed. Just because she was having his baby didn’t mean they had to betogether. Just because they had chemistry now didn’t mean it would last. Just because he was interested, patient,amusing…
She worried she wasn’t capable of earning anyone’s love, let alonekeepingit. And worst of all, she didn’t want tohaveto earn it. She just simply, baldly, wanted it no matter what.Herheart wasn’t strong enough to cope with anything less than unconditional—and that was pure fairy tale.
‘I need my independence,’ she said.
‘The thing is if you marry me you’ll have more independence than you’ve ever known.’
She laughed abruptly, hiding the hurt welling up within her because she was finally beginning to see that he and she had completely different ideas about what marriage even meant.
‘You’re the bossiest person I’ve ever met,’ she said. ‘Which ought to be impossible given how domineering my dad is.’
‘I won’t be bossy once you agree,’ he tempted. ‘You’ll have the freedom to do anything you want—you could have your own garage, Lily.’
‘Freedom within a framework?’ she mocked. ‘No. Total independence is my default setting.’
‘Settings can be adjusted,’ he said. ‘Why not change gear? Rebuild even?’
Because you couldn’t rebuild something that had been completely broken.
Chapter Nine
MASSIMO GLANCEDUPas a shadow broke the light, impeding his vision. ‘You shouldn’t be awake.’
‘I think that’s my line,’ she countered dryly. ‘You realise it’s three a.m.’
He gestured to the table. ‘I had some work to do.’
‘Yeah, the three-screen setup doesn’t give it away at all. So much for taking a break, or am I the only one required to do that?’
Massimo silenced the incoming call and flipped his phone screen side down. Somehow, he would fit all the damned demands in, but the only ones hewantedto deal with this second were hers.
‘Don’t you need to answer it?’ She moved closer.
Not when she was all fiery challenge. ‘I’ll phone them back later.’
‘You should have more free time than anyone. You could have any number of managers in place.’
‘I do, but there are a lot of companies to oversee and ultimately the buck stops with me.’
‘Or maybe you like being so busy there isn’t time for anything else.’
No, generally, there wasn’t anything else he wanted to do. He didn’t like to stop, definitely not be left with nothing but his thoughts. But Lily, as always, provoked him. ‘I like being with you.’
That was the irony. That was why he was up working now. Her calling him on it made him confront the fact that he didn’t want to miss a moment during the day with her. For the first time, work wasn’t his entire life; it was interfering with it.
‘You like havingsexwith me,’ she corrected.
