Page 152 of My Five Daddies

Slowly, Julian rolls over onto his back, breathing heavily. Nolan nods at the soldiers and they lower their guns, though they don’t moveaway.

“Concede,” Nolan saysagain.

“I won’t just go away,” Julian says, his voice hoarse. “I’ll come for you again. I won’tstop.”

“Good,” Nolan says, grinning wildly. “I look forward toit.”

He turns to me and smiles. I smile back, and the two of us leave Julian’s office. The guards follow, bringing up the rear. People are standing in the halls, staring at the group of us, and I grin at them as wepass.

I feel so fucking alive. I can’t believe Nolan just stormed in there and took what he wanted from Julian. He showed Julian who the real man is, and now he’s destroyed. Julian is going to concede, and Nolan is going to become the crown prince, and one day he’ll be theking.

We leave Julian’s offices and as soon as the door shuts, Nolan waves off the guards. Once they head back toward the queen, Nolan pulls me against him and kisses me deep andhard.

Passion floods through me, but so do questions. I don’t know what this means for the two of us. We were married to make his father happy, but now that we know his father doesn’t care, Nolan has no use for me. He doesn’t need to get me pregnant anymore. He doesn’t need to keep mearound.

He pulls back from the kiss and looks into my eyes. “I have one more thing to do today,” he sayssoftly.

“What’sthat?”

“I love you,” he says. “You’re stronger than I ever imagined. You make me a better man, I need you to knowthat.”

I bite my lip. “I love you too,” I say, realizing, that it’s true. “But you don’t need meanymore.”

He laughs, shaking his head. “I need you more than you evenrealize.”

“How?” I ask. “Your father doesn’t care that you’re married. Julian is stepping down. What else do youneed?”

“I wouldn’t have done any of this if it weren’t for you,” he says softly. “You have to realize that. I was floating through my life, making the best of things. I planned on coming here and doing what I could, but I never really imagined… I never thought I could doit.”

I watch him, my eyes wide, and I think I see the truth in what he’s saying. I don’t think I really did anything special, but because he had me, he felt like he could pushforward.

“It’s true,” he says. “You helped me win this. And now I want to offer you one morething.”

“You’ve given me enough,” I saysoftly.

“Become my true wife. None of this Wife Consort shit. Let’s make itreal.”

I hesitate, and my heart starts hammering. I thought I was going to go home, live my life back in America, become the person I thought I would become. But now I realize that I was foolingmyself.

I’m already the person I should become. With Nolan, I’m so much more than myself. We bring out the best in each other, and I can’t imagine walkingaway.

“Okay,” I say to him. “Yes, ofcourse.”

He grins and kisses me again, and I realize that this is my husband, my real husband. And I’m actually aprincess.

“Now we have one more thing to do,” he says after we break off thekiss.

“What’s that?” Iask.

A grin slowly spreads across his face and I feel it, deep down inside of me. “We have to get you pregnant,” hesays.

And he kisses meagain.

29

Hazel

“The baby is really going crazy,”I whisper to him. “Seriously, I think he likes all thisattention.”

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