The Queen's Nine-Month Scandal (4 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

S
LOWLY
,
AS
IF
in treacle, Analia turned around and the man who had been haunting her every waking and sleeping moment stood just feet away. Gone was the beard and overlong hair. He was clean—shaven, but no less devastating. He was all in black: black jeans, black top that hugged his chest and a battered black jacket. His eyes were cold gray. He looked murderous. Yet her heart was pumping with a mixture of excitement, joy and trepidation.

Fearing she was going mad, she whispered, ‘Are you real?’

He smiled grimly and drawled, ‘Oh I’m very real sweetheart, as you well know.’

Analia blushed to recall how
real
he’d felt surging between her legs. She tingled there and squeezed her thighs together. As if aware of her movement, Daniel’s eyes dropped momentarily down her body and then back up.

‘How did you get in?’ she croaked, still not entirely sure if she was dreaming.

His mouth was a hard flat line, not the wickedly sensuous curves she remembered. ‘Let’s just say my years as a war photographer gave me the ability to get into secured spaces, and that I’ve exposed a hole in your security detail.’

He stood as still as a panther but she sensed his restless energy. Analia’s hands twisted in front of her her, a nervous habit.

His voice was cold. ‘That was quite the spread in the papers. I take it the royal clinic nurse who leaked the story is no longer in your employment?’

Analia blanched. She was unaware of how huge her eyes looked in her face. Her voice felt tight. ‘I was planning on getting in touch.’ It sounded weak to her ears.

Daniel folded his arms, eyes narrowed unforgivingly on her. ‘Now that you have a reason.’

Analia winced and hid away the very secret part of her that had fantasized about seeing him again. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, ‘I didn’t mean for you to find out like that. I didn’t mean for any of that to happen.’

His look turned dark. ‘Didn’t mean for what exactly not to happen?’ He answered before she could, ‘Undoubtedly you mean that night when faced with this current crisis.’

Analia instinctively put her hand over her belly. She felt fierce in her rejection of his words but couldn’t articulate it to this cold stranger.

He started pacing, energy crackling between them like electricity. He stopped and faced her again, head thrown back, the patrician line of his nose pronounced. ‘What was it, Analia, or should I call you
Alexandra?
Should we perhaps stick to our pseudo names? Were you just looking for some willing stud to help you offload your virginity? Did you realize time was running out and you couldn’t bear the thought of a chinless prince pawing at you in the marital bed?’

Daniel was so angry and full of explosive emotions mixed with intense desire that he could barely see straight. He wanted to alternately throttle Analia and kiss her senseless, and then take her right here in these opulent surroundings, until she screamed her pleasure the way she had before. He wanted to rip open the cream silk shirt she wore and push up the oh-so-pristine pencil skirt that showed off the slim perfection of her body. He wanted to undo the fussy chignon so that her hair fell into his hands.

But then he noticed the way she’d blanched, going parchment white. And her eyes, those stunning sapphire eyes, were huge in her face. Incredible pain made his chest tighten and he breathed out, ‘That was it wasn’t it? You were just looking for someone who would relieve you of your burden. Your innocence.’

The pain made Daniel lash out, ‘Did you get a taste for it Queen Analia? Did you court more experiences in the meantime, making up for lost time? Is the baby even mine? Tell me, did you use a mask each time to protect your precious identity or did they have the pleasure of knowing who you were—’

‘Stop it!’ Analia was trembling all over. She crossed her arms in a bid to hide it. ‘It wasn’t like that.’

As cold as ice Daniel said, ‘What
was
it like?’

She hated that he was glaring at her so fiercely. Shakily she admitted, ‘That night I was feeling restless. I didn’t set out to sleep with someone, but I’ll admit that the thought of the future stretching ahead of me made me feel stifled, claustrophobic. I knew no matter what happened I’d have no choice but to go forward with an arranged marriage.’

Daniel’s face hardened even more. ‘Until you became conveniently pregnant.’

Analia protested vociferously. ‘
No
, I would never have done that.’

‘Yet you did,’ Daniel said flatly. Was there a bleakness to his voice or was it her fanciful imagination?

‘But you used protection.’ Analia pointed out.

‘It split.’ Daniel didn’t like to be reminded of how he’d used this as an excuse to look for her. When his reasons had been much less altruistic, and much more personal. Carnal. And the worst of it, when face to face with her now, was the knowledge that she’d known who he was. Something dark compelled him to confirm it. ‘You looked at my passport before you left, didn’t you?’Unmistakable guilt flashed across that exquisite face and she looked down. ‘Yes.’

Old pain rose up inside Daniel like a spectre. ‘Perhaps that was it? I’m not good enough for a queen? The neglected son of a poor alcoholic Irishwoman and a disgraced Russian who had been cast out of his family? One who took his own life rather than deal with grief and pain?’

‘
No
,’ Analia denied, but felt shame lance her when she remembered thinking that Daniel, with his reputation, would be the worst possible person for her to have been seen with. But that had paled in significance in the face of the incredible pain in her heart to walk away from him.

He admitted grimly, ‘I recognised you as soon as I saw your picture. We would have met sooner or later, somewhere.’

Analia was pained. ‘I was afraid that might happen.’

Daniel felt stark and empty inside at her words—at her confirmation that she’d never wanted to see him again. ‘You would have married into your inbred German royal family and got on with your life?’

Analia felt sick. She’d dreaded being in a marriage of convenience and meeting Daniel again because it would have torn her apart. She willed him to try and understand. ‘I had no choice—my whole life has been set up for this moment. I have to have heirs and continue my line.’

Bile rose from Daniel’s belly to think of that scenario. Analia lifted her chin in an unmistakably regal gesture and it mocked Daniel when he thought of noticing it before. ‘You’re the father of this child. I haven’t been with anyone else. Only you.’

Daniel asked coolly, ‘Is it true that if you don’t name and marry the father of your child you’ll be forced to abdicate?’

Analia’s throat ached with emotion. A hard ball seemed to be lodged in her chest. A fledgling dream, deep inside her, shattered to pieces at his dispassionate delivery. ‘Yes, unless my people want to keep me on the throne by a referendum vote.’

Daniel came close to Analia and with every step his heart beat faster, the desire surged, but with iron control he pushed it down. The feeling of exposure was back and overwhelming. It took all his effort to push it down, deny it.

‘Well then, Queen Analia, I hope for your sake that your people vote to keep you on the throne because I am not about to offer my services as a husband of convenience just because of a rash mistake.’

He reached out and trailed a finger down her cheek and to her jaw, and he hated that he was trembling. To hide it he slid his hand around the back of Analia’s neck and pulled her closer, seeing her eyes widen. Desire rose up like a ravenous beast inside him and giving into a temptation stronger than he could resist, he bent his head and took her mouth in a brutal, electrifying kiss.

The urge to keep going when he felt her hands on his chest was so overwhelming that Daniel pulled back with effort, breathing harshly. He meant nothing to this woman. He’d been a pawn. She would never have contacted him again if not for the child growing in her belly. His seed. Daniel felt so conflicted and tortured right then that he all but pushed her away from him, making her stumble a little.

He stepped back and felt like he was falling. He couldn’t stay here when his emotions were so high. He had to get away.

‘If the baby is mine then I will be back but I will not make this easy for you.’

He backed away again and Analia felt a wild surge of grief within her. Her lips burned after that angry kiss. Her skin was hot. She wanted him.
She loved him
. The knowledge was immediate and incinerated any doubts she might have had over the past few tumultuous weeks that it could have happened so fast.

He turned to leave and a sob rose up in her throat. ‘Wait,’ she got out painfully.

He stopped at the door but didn’t turn around. He couldn’t leave like this. She had to let him know. Her voice felt raw. ‘It
wasn’t
a rash mistake for me. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you I wouldn’t regret that night. I’m glad you’re my baby’s father. That night only happened because I met
you
...I never believed I could have what I wanted, until I met you. I never wanted it, believing it was selfish. Walking away from you tore me apart.’

Her voice grew thick with emotion. ‘I didn’t want to walk away. I had no choice. For my whole life my wants and desires have come second to my responsibilities. The thought of being married and seeing you again...was nearly more than I could bear...when I found out I was pregnant, I was happy...and relieved. It meant I could find you...but I was scared too, that you wouldn’t care, that that night had meant nothing to you.’

Please turn around
, Analia begged silently, her eyes stinging with unshed tears. But after a long weighty silence, Daniel just turned the knob on the door, opened it and left. The sob Analia had been holding back emerged. She clapped a hand to her mouth as if that could contain the pain of her heart shattering into a million pieces.

* * *

Daniel woke up with a pounding head and a dry throat. He cursed loudly into the quiet of the hotel suite. Too angry to leave Azoria yesterday, he’d booked into a plush Azorian hotel, then found a dive of a bar and had proceeded to drink himself into oblivion. Anything to try and block out the parting words of Analia and the way her voice had sounded so raw.

He opened his eyes and winced at the bright sunlight streaming in through the windows. The alcohol had numbed him yesterday but it couldn’t help him now. He felt tight inside. He couldn’t believe what she’d said. She was desperate. She needed a marriage to save her monarchy and he was the convenient lay who had given her her one night of hedonistic freedom, because she’d felt claustrophobic.

He had tried to forget how isolated she’d looked when he’d first seen her at the party in Venice. He’d tried not to imagine what it must be like to bear that yoke of responsibility all your life, so that you knew nothing of personal freedom or choice.

And most of all he’d tried not to believe what his heart so desperately wanted to believe...that it was true. That something magical had happened that night between them. That she felt the same. That she had ached for him as he ached for her.

A sound broke through Daniel’s consciousness and he realized that the TV was on a local news channel. He must have switched it on last night when he’d come in, a reflex from when he’d been a reporter. He sat up and groaned and then stood up. He headed for the bathroom, reaching for the TV control switch as he did, about to turn it off. When he stopped dead.

Analia
. Dressed casually in dark tailored trousers and a white silk shirt. Flat shoes. Hair pulled back into a low ponytail. And more beautiful than any other woman he’d ever seen. His heart clenched hard. She looked fragile in the middle of a group of big burly guards and officials as she left the palace.

Something inside Daniel rose up, making him clench his fists. He had an overwhelming need to pluck her out of that crowd. To protect her from being jostled. She seemed intensely vulnerable at that moment and for a second her eyes looked straight at the camera and she looked...hunted. Immediately he thought of the moment in Venice when she’d looked exactly the same, just before she’d tried to leave. And he’d stopped her.

The camera zoomed in then on the preppy blonde reporter who was saying, ‘Queen Analia will give a press conference this afternoon to inform the world as to her response to this incredible scandal. Unless she names the father of her child and announces a marriage, the country will vote in a referendum if she should remain on the throne. Queen Analia is much beloved but can she weather a scandal of this size? Will this be the end of one of the longest ruling dynasties in Europe? And what will happen—’

Daniel flicked off the TV, his face impossibly grim. Analia hadn’t tried to persuade him to marry her. She’d said nothing of exposing him as the father. She was willing to put her role as Queen in jeopardy with a referendum. Something hard inside him started to break apart. He felt as if he was standing in front of a huge gaping black void. The sum of his experiences stretched out behind him and a gateway before him. The question was, could he trust enough to step through the gateway when he’d long ago lost the ability to trust anyone but himself?

CHAPTER FIVE

A
NALIA
’
S
BELLY
WAS
in knots. The numbness that had descended over her yesterday after Daniel had left was gone, but now she felt nothing but indescribable emotional pain.

She was sitting at a table with a stoic Pierre by her side, facing a wall of cameras and reporters from all over the world. And she’d never felt more alone. She cursed Daniel in that moment, for having ever given her the tantalizing sense of protection.

The hubbub of the press finally abated and an expectant hush settled over the room. Analia’s skin prickled. She felt sick.

The first reporter was singled out and asked, ‘Queen Analia, are you going to name the father of your child?’

She took a breath. ‘No I am not. Unless he wishes to be named.’

‘So you’re saying that you’ll go to a referendum and possibly lose your crown before you’ll identify the father?’

Analia crushed the quiver of emotion inside her, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. He doesn’t want to be involved. Not like that.’

‘Then how does he want to be involved?’

Analia opened her mouth and closed it again. She pictured Daniel’s stern and cold face. She pictured having the baby alone and informing Daniel after the birth.

‘Truthfully... I don’t—’

‘I’d like to know if you meant what you said yesterday?

Analia’s mouth was still open from when she’d been cut off. His voice. But it couldn’t be. She looked around wildly, trying to place where it had come from. Maybe she was hearing things. And then suddenly her eyes clashed with his stormy gray ones, and the breath left her body in a whoosh.

He was standing head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, arms crossed. Completely unreadable.

Scrabbling for time to get over the shock, Analia stuttered, ‘I’m sorry...could you repeat the question?’

Daniel took a step forward. ‘I’d like to know if you meant what you said yesterday?

Suddenly a whisper broke out amongst the crowd, someone had recognized Daniel.

All Analia could see was him. She was unaware of anyone else. ‘Why didn’t you leave? Her heart was beating erratically.

Daniel looked impossibly stern. ‘I believe I asked you a question.’

Analia recalled looking at Daniel’s back the day before, willing him to turn and face her. He wasn’t done punishing her. She shook her head minutely, ‘Please...don’t do this.’

He stepped forward again and this time the crowd parted to let him through. There was utter silence now in the room.

Daniel repeated the question again. ‘Did you mean what you said? It’s a very simple question, Analia.’

She felt as if she was being sucked into the gray depths of his eyes. Helpless under this sustained attack, Analia finally whispered, ‘Yes. I meant it.’

His jaw tightened. ‘What is it that you want, Analia?’

She frowned. ‘I don’t...what do you mean?’

‘Exactly that...what do you want?’

Analia just looked at him. No one had ever asked her that question in her life. She felt scared, disorientated. ‘I want my people to be happy. And safe. Secure.’

Daniel shook his head. ‘No, I want to hear what
you
want.’

Analia felt a kind of panic rising, a well worn urge to deny herself. ‘I told you...I want what’s best for my people. That’s always been my first priority.’ Her conscience slapped her.
Until she’d gone looking for adventure in Venice.

Daniel shook his head again, his eyes flashing. “What do you want, Analia? Just for you?”

What he was asking was huge. She felt cornered. Her vision started blurring, her throat ached. ‘I’m not allowed to
want
. It’s not about me.’

‘So you’re ready to give up everything you’ve ever dreamed of and everything you’ve worked so hard for just because you’re afraid to admit to human frailty? Why shouldn’t you be allowed personal happiness too?’

A ball of emotion was growing in Analia’s chest. ‘Why are you doing this?’

As relentless as a steam train bearing down on her emotions, Daniel merely asked again, ‘What do you want, Analia?’

Something finally broke apart inside her. Letting out a small sob she gripped the table and said, ‘I want everything. I want it all. I want love. I want
you
.’

A collective gasp went through the crowd of seasoned hacks but Analia was unaware of it. Something like relief crossed Daniel’s face and he came right up to the table, walking around it and up to Analia where he gently tugged her out of the chair to stand. The chair fell behind her. The bodyguards took a step closer. But neither noticed those things. Analia couldn’t feel her legs. She could only look up into that gorgeous face.

‘That’s good,’ he said softly, eyes blazing with an emotion that Analia couldn’t dare to let herself believe in. ‘Because I need you and want you too. But I want more.’

Analia’s voice was choked, ‘You do?’

He nodded. ‘I want it all too and I want nothing less than your heart.’

Analia could only look at him, wide-eyed. Daniel’s hands were strong around her waist, anchoring her. She had a moment of déjà vu back to the boat in Venice when he’d lifted her in and she’d had that sense of something deep passing between them.

‘You’ve had my heart since the moment I saw you...’

He lifted a hand and cupped her jaw, making her breath hitch. ‘So it wasn’t just me then?’

She shook her head. Mesmerized. Floating.

Without her realizing what he was doing, he maneuvered them away from everyone by a few feet. He shook his head and spoke in a low voice, just for her ears, ‘It killed me that you’d known who I was but hadn’t contacted me. It killed me to think that you’d just used me like some kind of a pawn for a night of personal hedonism. It killed me to think that you would only have contacted me because of the baby.’

Analia reached out and touched his jaw, reverently, her heart swelling with love and wonder. ‘I wanted to contact you, so much. I dreamed of you. I’ve put myself second for so long that I didn’t even dare to believe I could have you...and then I found out I was pregnant. I was going to tell you, but I was scared...that I’d meant nothing to you.’

Daniel shook his head and declared softly, ‘When I woke up and you were gone I felt as if you’d ripped my heart out of my chest. But I couldn’t believe it, because I’ve never allowed my heart to breathe before now. I was so concerned about protecting myself from the pain of rejection because it was all I knew.’

Analia hiccuped softly, ‘I was so lonely until I met you. I’d always felt as if a part of me was missing.’

He stroked her cheek, cupped her jaw. ‘Together we’re whole.’

He cupped her face in his hands then and slanted his mouth over hers. Desire, hot and instant, engulfed them and the only thing that broke through their bubble of intimacy was the loud, persistent coughing of Analia’s grand vizier who was desperately trying to maintain some semblance of control.

Daniel pulled back and looked at Analia’s flushed face. It took her a second to open her eyes and they shone brilliantly, like two sapphires. The love he felt for this woman almost scared him with its intensity and he could see the same wonder reflected in her eyes.

He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. He could see that she’d forgotten where she was and that the world’s media had been witness to almost every word except for their last exchange.

He led her around so that the table was behind them and got down on one knee in front of her. Her eyes widened even more. Suddenly reality impinged on her. She glanced at the wall of media and then back at him. She’d gone pale. ‘Daniel..?’

He looked up at her and felt every single vestige of his old emotional armour fall away. He’d never been so exposed but he’d never felt so invincible. He held her hand in his and said loudly enough for everyone to hear, ‘Queen Analia, as the father of your child, would you do me the honour of marrying me?’

She looked down at him and he could see tears in her eyes making them glitter like brilliant gems. Her voice shook, ‘You don’t have to do this...just because...just because—’

‘Just because I love you?’ he finished for her. ‘Oh yes I do. Now, I asked you a question...will you marry me?’

Daniel could see the final vestige of her own fears and willed her to trust, like he did. She let out a shaky breath and then said, ‘Yes...I’ll marry you, Daniel Petrovsky.’

She bent down to kiss him and Daniel pulled her onto his knee, enveloping her in his arms, mouths open, tongues tangling in heat and lust. Before it could get too out of control Daniel pulled back reluctantly. Keeping hold of Analia’s hand, he stood up and pulled her up with him.

In a smooth move he caught her under her legs and lifted her up into his chest making her squeal.

Analia’s chest felt so full it hurt. She saw the stunned crowd of press, most with open mouths. Daniel’s arms were tight around her and she wrapped hers around his neck.

He looked out over the crowd and said in a deep authoritative voice, ‘I’d like to use this opportunity to announce that the City of Azoria will be the home of the Petrovsky Philanthropic Foundation, and as we’ve established that I am the father of Queen Analia’s baby and she’s agreed to marry me, I believe that any discussion of abdication is now irrelevant.’

Analia caught Pierre’s smug look to the old council member who had attacked her the day before and an incredible lightness bubbled up inside her. She knew she should care that Daniel had her held high in his arms and that he’d just kissed all her make-up off in front of her entire nation, but she couldn’t drum it up.

‘If you’ll excuse us now, I’d like to have a private meeting with my fiancée. We have matters of the state to discuss.’

Feeling drunk, Analia giggled and buried her head in Daniel’s neck as he strode through the crowd and out of the room. He went straight to the elevator where an open-mouthed attendant held it open for them.

By the time the press had got over their shock and raced out to follow them, Daniel was opening his hotel bedroom door and shouldering his way in, kicking the door shut behind him. They’d been followed by security who now took up positions outside the hotel room.

Daniel walked to the bed and laid Analia down. She looked up at him and bit her lip, everything that had just happened hitting her. ‘Daniel...’

He came down over her and kissed her and drew back. ‘Yes, my love?’

Analia looked up at him and the truth and love blazing from his eyes melted away any last doubts.

She reached her arms around his neck. ‘About those matters of state...we could be here for some time, they’re very complicated...’

Daniel interspersed his words with kisses as he undid the buttons on Analia’s shirt and pulled it open. ‘The more complicated the better...’

When he pulled open her shirt, he bent his head and pressed a kiss to her belly where their baby grew, before covering it possessively with his hand.

He looked at Analia. ‘If it’s a girl I vote for Alexandra Sasha.’

Analia smiled. ‘And if it’s a boy Alexander Sasha.’

* * *

Ten months later, Crown Princess Alexandra Sasha Penelope Petrovsky of Azoria was christened with great pomp and ceremony. When Queen Analia and Grand Prince Daniel emerged smiling from the church, their daughter held securely in her father’s arms, the crowds cheered and roared.

The Crown Princess merely blinked in the sunshine, revealing huge dark blue eyes ringed with gray, and then promptly went back to sleep.

The video footage of Queen Analia publicly declaring that she wanted love had become a viral sensation all over the world. The picture of her being kissed by playboy Daniel Petrovsky adorned the walls of romantic teenagers’ rooms all over Azoria.

Lip readers had tried in vain to decipher what had passed between them in those few moments when they’d had a hushed conversation just before he’d kissed her passionately and then proposed. But no one had figured it out so far, and it looked likely to remain a romantic mystery forever.

* * * * *