The Prince's Secret Baby (12 page)

Sydney couldn’t believe it. It was really happening. She was getting the office wedding shower she’d been so certain she’d never have.

She thanked them and made a little speech about how much they all meant to her and how she would miss them. And then she ate two pieces of cake, sipped one glass of champagne and did the rounds of the room, her spirits lifted that her colleagues had made a party just for her.

It was nine at night when she left the office. She was seriously dragging by then. Sleep had been in short supply for five days now—since last Friday, when her whole life had changed in an instant, because she’d gone into Macy’s to buy a wedding gift for Calista Dwyer.

At home, Lani helped her carry in the gifts from the party. “You look exhausted,” Lani said. “Just leave everything on the table. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”

Sydney dropped the last box on the stack and sank into a chair. “How was your day?”

“Fabulous. Trevor took a three-hour nap and I got ten pages done. And then later, we went to the park. He seems to have slacked off on the endless knock-knock jokes.”

“That’s a relief.”

“I so agree—he asked twice about ‘Roo.’ He wanted to know when Rule was coming to see him again so they could play trucks.”

Sydney was happy that her son was so taken with his stepfather. She only wished she didn’t feel edgy and unsure about everything. But it had all happened so fast between them, and now he was gone. A sense of unreality had set in.

She told Lani, “He said he’d be back in a week.”

“Well, all right. Good to know—and is everything okay with you two?”

Sydney let her shoulders slump. “There are some issues.”

Lani knew her so well. “And you’re too wiped out to talk about them now.” At Sydney’s weary nod, she asked, “Hungry?”

“Naw. I had takeout at the office—and two pieces of cake at the party. I think I’ll go upstairs and kiss my sleeping son and then take a long, hot bath.”

Forty-five minutes later, Sydney climbed into bed. She set the alarm for six-thirty, turned off the light and was sound asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Rule didn’t call that night. Or the next morning.

Apparently, he really was “brassed off” at her. She thought it was rather childish of him, to cut off communication because she’d pissed him off. Then again, nothing was stopping her from picking up the phone and calling
him.

She felt reluctant to do that, which probably proved that she was being every bit as childish as he was. And she did wonder how things had worked out with Liliana, if he’d done what she’d asked him to do and found someone for the poor woman to talk to.

And okay, she hadn’t
asked.
She’d more like
commanded.
And he hadn’t appreciated her ordering him around.

Maybe she shouldn’t have been so hard on him. Maybe she should have…

Who knew what she should have done? She was totally out of her depth with him. She’d only known him since Friday and now they were married and already he was halfway around the world from her. No wonder they were having “issues.”

She hardly knew him. And how would she
get
to know him, with him there and her here?

All she knew for certain was that she ached with missing him. The lack of him was like a hole in her heart, a vacancy. She needed him with her, to fill that lack. She wanted him there, with her, touching her. She wanted it so bad. She wanted to grab him in her arms and curl herself into him, to hold on so tight, to press herself so close. She wanted to…somehow be inside his skin.

She wanted the scent of him, the sound of his voice, the sweet, slow laugh, the feel of his hands on her, the touch of his mouth…

She was totally gone on him. And he’d better return to her in a week, as he’d promised, or she would do something totally unconstructive. Track him down and shoot him, maybe. Not fatally, of course. Just wing him.

At the office the next day, she got calls from a couple of oil company executives, representatives of two of the companies Rule had said he could deliver to her firm. The calls eased her mind a little.

Okay, he hadn’t been in touch the way he’d promised that he would. But he was moving ahead with his plans to help her get away from Texas gracefully. That was something. A good sign.

Before the end of the day, she’d set up the first getting-to-know-you meetings between her partners and the reps from the oil companies.

Thursday morning at six-thirty, at the exact moment that her alarm went off, the phone rang. Jarred awake, she groped for the alarm first and hit the switch to shut it off.

Then she grabbed the phone. “Hello, what?” she grumbled.

“I woke you.”

Even half-asleep, gladness filled her. “Hello.”

“Are you still angry with me?”

She rolled over onto her back, and raked her sleep-scrambled hair back off her face. “I could ask you the same question.”

“I know I said I’d call every day…” God. His voice. How could it be better, smoother, deeper, just plain sexier than she remembered?

She corrected him. “You said you would call
constantly.
That’s
more
than every day.”

“Will you ever forgive me?”

She chuckled, a low, husky sound. She just couldn’t help it. All he had to do was call and her world was rosy again. “I would say forgiveness is a distinct possibility.”

“I’m so glad to hear that.” He said it tenderly. And as if he really, really meant it.

“I miss you, Rule. I miss you so much.”

“I miss you, too.”

“How can I feel this way? I’ve only known you for, what, five days?”

“Four days, nineteen hours and…three minutes—and you’d better miss me. You’re my wife. It’s your job to miss me when we’re apart.”

“Well, I’m doing my job, then.”

“Good.”

“And I’m sorry,” she said, “that we argued.”

“I am, too.”

“Those two oil men called yesterday. I set them up with my partners.”

“Excellent.”

She hesitated to ruin the conciliatory mood by bringing up a certain princess. But she really did want to know what had happened. “Did everything work out then, with Liliana?”

“You were right,” he said quietly. “I should have sent someone to be with her.”

“Oh, no. What
happened?
”

“When I told my mother that Lili hadn’t seemed to take the news of our marriage well, she rushed off to comfort her. Lili wasn’t in her rooms. Lili’s attendant said that she’d fled in tears.”

“Omigod. She’s missing, then?”

“No. They found her shortly thereafter. She simply turned up, looking somewhat disheveled, or so I was told, and insisting she was perfectly fine.”

“Turned up?”

“One of the servants found her in the hallway between Maximilian’s apartments and Alexander’s. She claimed she’d simply gone for a stroll.”

“A
stroll?
”

“That’s what she said.”

“Is she friends with your brothers? Did she talk it out with one of them?”

“Not possible.”

“Why not?”

“Max is with his children, at his villa. And Alex and Lili have never gotten on, not since childhood.”

“That doesn’t mean he might not have been kind to her, if he saw that she was upset.”

“Sydney, he’s hardly come out of his rooms since he returned from Afghanistan. But you’re right, of course. Anything is possible. Perhaps she talked to him, though no one told me that she did.”

“But…she’s all right, then?”

“Yes. She did end up confiding in my mother. And in the end, Lili promised my mother that she is perfectly all right and that no one is to worry that her father’s famous temper will be roused. Lili said she had finally realized that she and I were not right for each other, after all. She told my mother to wish me and my bride a lifetime of happiness. My mother believes that Lili was sincere in what she said.”

“Okay. Well. Good news, huh?”

“I believe so, yes. Lili departed yesterday morning for Alagonia. King Leo has not appeared brandishing a sword or insisting on pistols at dawn, so I’m going to venture a guess that renewed animosity between our two countries has been safely averted.”

“I’m so glad. I have to admit, I was worrying—that Liliana might have done something crazy, that her father might have taken offense. And then, when you never called, I only worried more.”

“I’m a complete ass.”

“Do you hear me arguing? Just tell me you’re coming back here to me by Tuesday or Wednesday, as promised.”

“Sorry. I can’t do that.” He said it teasingly.

Still, her heart sank. She tried to think of what to say, how to frame her disappointment in words that wouldn’t get them started fighting all over again.

And then he said, “I’ll be there tomorrow.”

She felt deliciously breathless. “Oh, Rule. Say that again.”

“You
do
miss me.” The way he said that made her heart beat faster.

“Oh, yes, I do,” she fervently agreed. “I want to have
time
with you. I want you near me. Here we are, married. We’re going to spend our lives together, yet in many ways we hardly know each other.”

“Tomorrow,” he said. “It’ll be late, around ten at night, by the time I reach your house.”

“Tomorrow. Oh, I can’t believe it—and late is fine. I’m lucky to get home by nine-thirty, anyway. I’ll be here. Waiting.”

“I have work to do there, too, you know. I have to introduce your partners to any number of excellent potential clients, so they’ll realize they owe it to you to let you go right away.”

She beamed, even though he wasn’t there to see it. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re coming back now. It will be so good, to be with you every day—even if I do spend way too much of every day at work. But I’m going to change that. When I’m through at the firm, I’m going to make sure I never again take a job where I hardly see my son, where I’m rarely with my husband.”

“I do like the sound of that.”

“Good— Oh, and I forgot to tell you. Trevor will be so pleased to see you. He’s been asking for you.”

“Tell him I’m on my way.”

Chapter Ten

S
ydney was waiting at the picture window in the living room Friday night when the long, black limo pulled in at the curb. The sight of his car had her heart racing and her pulse pounding so hard, it made a roaring sound in her ears.

With a glad cry, she spun on her heel and took off for the door. Flinging it wide, she ran down the front steps and along the walk. He emerged from the car and she threw herself into his arms.

He kissed her, right there beneath the streetlight. A hard, hot kiss, one that started out desperate and ended so sweet and lazy and slow.

When he lifted his head, he said, “I thought I’d never get here.”

She laughed, held so close and safe in his arms. “But you
are
here. And I may never let you go away from me again.” She took his hand. “Come inside…”

The driver was already unloading Rule’s bags. He followed them up the front walk. Joseph followed, too.

In the house, the driver carried the bags up to the master suite and then, with a tip of his cap, took his leave.

Joseph remained. For once, he wasn’t wearing those dark glasses. But he still had the Bluetooth device in his ear. And he carried a black duffel bag.

Rule looked slightly embarrassed. “I’m afraid Joseph goes where I go.”

Sydney spoke to the bodyguard. “I hope you don’t mind sleeping in a separate room from His Highness.”

The severe-looking Joseph almost cracked a smile. “Ma’am, if you have a spare room, that would be appreciated. If not, the sofa will do well enough.”

“I have a guest room.” She indicated the doorway at the end of the hall. “The kitchen is through there. While you’re here, make yourself at home. You’re welcome to anything you find in the pantry or the fridge.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

She turned to Rule. “Are you hungry?”

His dark eyes said,
Not for food,
and she felt the loveliest warmth low in her belly, and a definite wobbliness in her knees. He told her, “I ate on the plane.”

So she led the way up the stairs and showed Joseph to his room, indicating Trevor’s bathroom across the hall. “I’m afraid you’ll have to share the bathroom with my son.”

“Thank you. This will suit me very well.”

Before joining Rule in her room, she tapped on Lani’s door and told her friend that Rule’s bodyguard was staying in the guest room.

Lani, reading in bed, looked up from her eReader, over the top rims of her glasses. “Thanks for the warning—and don’t stay up all night.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Say hi to Rule.”

“Will do.”

She went to her own room and found Rule standing in the bow window, staring out at the quiet street. “Lani says hi.”

He turned to her. “I like your house. It’s comfortable, and the rooms are large. Lots of windows…”

She hovered in the open doorway, her stomach suddenly all fluttery. “We’ve been happy here. It will be strange, to live in a palace.”

“I have other properties. Villas. Town houses. You might prefer one of them.”

All at once, the life that lay before her seemed alien, not her own. “We’ll see.” The two words came out on a breath.

He held out his hand to her. “Are you shy of me now, Sydney?”

Her throat clutched. She spoke through the tightness. “A little, I guess.” A nervous laugh escaped her. “That’s silly, isn’t it?”

He shook his dark head. “Come here. Let me ease your fears.”

Pausing only to shut the door and engage the lock, she went to him and took the hand he offered. His touch burned her and soothed her at once.

He reached out with the hand not holding hers and shut the blinds. “I put my suitcases in your closet… .”

She moved in closer. He framed her face. She said, “It seems like forever, since you left… .”

“I’m here now.”

“I’m so glad about that.”

He kissed her. And the throat-tight nervousness faded. There was only his mouth on her mouth, his hands against her cheeks, brushing down the sides of her throat, tracing the collar of her cotton shirt, and then going to work on the buttons down the front of it.

She was breathless and sighing, pulling him closer. He took away her shirt and her bra. He pushed down the leggings she had pulled on after work. She kicked away her little black flats and wiggled the rest of the way out of the leggings.

And then he went to work on his own clothes, kissing her senseless as he ripped off his jacket, his shirt, his trousers…everything. She had only her panties on and he was completely naked when he started walking her backward toward the bed.

“Wait,” she breathed against his lips.

He only went on kissing her—until she gave a gentle shove against his chest. With an impatient growl, he lifted his mouth from hers. “You know you’re killing me… .”

She put her finger to those amazing lips of his. “Only a moment…”

“A moment is too long.” But he did let her go.

She turned around and pulled the covers down, smoothing them. “There.”

“Sydney…” He clasped her by the hips and drew her back against him.

“I’m here. Right here…” She lifted her arms and reached for him, clasping his neck, turning her head to him so their mouths could fuse once again.

His tongue plundered her mouth and his hands covered her breasts. And she could feel him, all along her body, feel the power of him, the heat. Feel the proof of how much he wanted her, silky and hard, pressing into her back.

And then he was turning her and guiding her down onto the sheets and right then, at that moment on that night, she was the happiest woman in Texas. There was only the feel of his big body settling against hers, only his kiss, only his skilled touch, on her breasts, her belly and lower.

He took away her panties and those wonderful fingers of his found the womanly core of her and she moaned into his mouth. He kissed her some more as he caressed her, bringing her higher, making her clutch his hard shoulders and press herself closer.

Closer…

And then she couldn’t wait. Not one second longer. She eased her hand between them and she wrapped her fingers around him and she guided him into place.

When he came into her, she let out a soft cry at the sheer beauty of it, at the feel of him filling her. So perfectly. So right.

He kissed her throat, and then scraped the willing flesh there with his teeth. And then he licked her. And then he blew on her wet skin and she moaned and pulled him closer again, lifting her legs to wrap around his waist, pushing herself harder against him, demanding everything of him, wanting it all.

When he held her like this, when he worked his special magic on her skin, she had no doubts at all. She would follow him anywhere, and she would be happy.

Just the two of them and Trevor. And maybe, if they were lucky, more children. Three or four. Nine or ten…

She’d forgotten how many she wanted, how many they had finally agreed on. And what did it matter how many? She would love them all, every one.

And by then, she’d forgotten everything—everything but this, but the man who held her, the man who filled her. The pleasure was building, spinning fast, and then gathering tight.

Only to open outward, a sudden blooming, so hot and perfect. She cried out again, loud enough that he had to cover her mouth with his hand.

She laughed against his fingers, a wild sound. And then he was laughing with her. And still the pleasure bloomed and grew. And all at once, they were silent, serious, concentrated, eyes wide open, falling into each other.

Falling and spinning, set gloriously free: the two of them, locked together. She was lost in his eyes. And more than happy to be so.

She whispered his name.

With a low groan, he gave hers back to her.

* * *

She must have slept for a time.

When she woke, he was braced up on an elbow, looking down at her, his eyes black velvet, his mouth an invitation to sin.

She reached up, curved her fingers around the back of his head, pulled him closer. They shared a quick, gentle kiss. “It’s so good, to wake up and find you here. I want to do that for the rest of my life.”

“And my darling, you shall. Now go back to sleep.”

“Soon. Tell me about your parents. Are they angry, that you married me?”

“No. They’re pleased. Very pleased.”

She wasn’t buying that. “They don’t even know me. You met me and married me in like, ten minutes or less. How can they be pleased with that? I mean, I could understand if you said they were…accepting. But
pleased?
”

“They know me. They know that I’m happy, that I’ve found the woman I want to be with for a lifetime. They’re relieved and they’re grateful.”

“Well, okay.” She traced the shape of his ear. It was such a good-looking ear. “I get that. I mean, they were probably getting pretty concerned, right, that you wouldn’t marry in time?”

“They were, yes.” He caught her hand, kissed the tips of her fingers.

“But if you’d married the Princess of Alagonia, wouldn’t that have made them a lot happier?”

“No. Evidently not. They told me they didn’t think Lili and I would have been a good match.”

“You’d think they might have said that earlier.”

“My response exactly.”

“Someone should change that ridiculous law.”

“My mother’s great-grandfather, who ruled Montedoro for fifty years,
did
change it. He abolished the law. And then my mother’s father put the law in place once again.”

“But why?”

“My mother’s
grand
father didn’t marry until late in life. He had eight children, but only one was legitimate, my mother’s father,
my
grandfather. Then my grandfather had just one child, a daughter, legitimate, my mother. The family was dying out. My grandfather took action. He put the law back in place.”

She laughed. “And then your mother obeyed it. She married young, brought in fresh blood and took her reproductive duties to heart.”

“Yes, she did. And look at us now.”

“Heirs and spares all over the place.”

“That’s right. So you see, the law has its uses.”

She frowned, considering. “There must be any number of ways around it. You could marry someone in time to keep your inheritance, and then divorce her as soon as your thirty-third birthday has passed.”

He nuzzled her neck. “Already planning how you’ll get rid of me, eh?”

She laughed, and caught his face and kissed him, hard, on the mouth. “Never. But you know what I’m saying, right?”

“We are Catholic. The heir to the throne always marries in the church. Divorce is not an option in the church. There is annulment, but there are specific grounds for that, none of them pretty. And you have to understand. In my family, we are raised to respect the Prince’s Marriage Law. We believe it is a good law, good for Montedoro—especially after we saw what happened when my great-great-grandfather abolished it. And we grow up committed to the spirit of that law, to finding a proper marriage partner by the required date. My parents were good parents, parents who spent time with their children, what you would call in America ‘hands-on’ parents. My mother considers each of her nine children to be every bit as important as her throne.”

“Well, all right,” she said. “I guess I can’t argue with success. But I do have a couple more questions.”

“Ask.”

“Do
we
have to marry in the church in order for you to keep your inheritance?”

“No. The heir must marry in the church. The rest of us are only required to be legally wed before the age of thirty-three. But, should I become the heir—which is most unlikely at this point—you and I would have to take steps for a church-sanctioned marriage. That would not be complicated, as neither of us has been married before.”

“Do you want us to be married in the church?”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “I do, yes.”

“Good answer.” She slid her hands up his chest and wrapped them around his neck. “I want that, too.”

“Then we shall take the necessary steps to make it happen as soon as we’re settled in Montedoro.”

“Agreed. I think we should seal it with a kiss.”

“Beyond a doubt, we should.”

So they kissed. A long, slow one. The kiss led to more kisses and then to the usual stimulating conclusion.

Rule told her again to go sleep.

She said, “Soon.”

And then they talked for another hour about everything from the success of his plan to sell Montedoran oranges to a number of exclusive outlets in the U.S., to why his brother Alex and Princess Lili had never gotten along. Alex, Rule said, had always thought Lili was silly and shallow; Lili considered Alex to be overly brooding and grim, with a definite tendency toward overbearing self-importance.

Sydney learned that his brother Max’s son was named Nicholas and Max’s little girl was Constance. And Rule told her that in his great-grandfather’s day, the economy of Montedoro was almost solely dependent on gambling revenues. His grandfather and his mother had made a point to expand the principality’s economic interests beyond its traditional gambling base.