Page 34 of His Hidden Royal Heirs

He made a sound perilously close to a growl. “It is the appropriate course of action.”

“Have you been talking to my father? You sound just like him.” Which was possibly only an insult inhermind. But onethat showed her just how stupid she could be. Leave it to her to be so consumed by a man as obsessed with control as any king.

He pulled on his pants, somehow looking perfectly businesslike and in control while she no doubt looked like a ridiculous potato wrapped in his blanket.

He seared her with a look. “You cannot take me to your bed and oppose marriage.”

“I think you’ll find that not onlycanI, but I do.”

“You are being contrary for the sake of it.”

She shook her head, even though a little voice in her head whispered,Aren’t you?But as contrary as shecouldbe, this wasn’t about anything like that. Because it wasn’t about her. It was about their future, and how she could ensure it was the right one for their children.

“No, Cristhian. I will not go from one controlling ogre to another. I will have some say in my life, and so will my children.”

“Our children.”

“Ourmeans we share.Ourmeans there are two people involved.Ourmeans you don’t just get to...order things and have them be so.Ouris a compromise.”

He held his jaw so tight now it was a wonder he didn’t crush his own teeth to dust. Anger simmered in his eyes, but when he spoke, he sounded very calm. Very cool.

“It is interesting that you feel qualified to give lectures on whatourmeans, when everything you demonstrate is that you are only interested inyou.”

It shouldn’t hurt. She shouldn’t let him fool her into thinking they were more than strangers. A few days of meals and conversations didn’t mean you knew someone well enough to...

It didn’t matter. Whatever she thought or didn’t, he clearly saw her as someone too selfish to understand anour. “Is thatwhat you think of me?” she asked, trying to use his calm, cool tone.

He did not answer right away. He stared at her, his entire body seemingly taut like it was ready to explode. But he didn’t do that, she’d give him some credit there.

“I was hoping that you would be willing to be reasonable,” he said after a long, strained moment of silence.

“You were hoping that good sex would lead me to believe we were in love and should be married immediately.” Which nearly made her want to cry. That he’d just been using it as a weapon, not this irresistible need she had felt it was. “What you fail to understand is that I already knew the sex was good, Cristhian.Thatis not the concern.” She pointed at the rumpled bed. “This isn’t some new experience that was about to change my mind about anything.”

His expression went...arrested, almost. Like she’d stabbed him straight through and he was surprised to find it hurt. She didn’t know what to think of that, or why it should make her feel small and hurting.

Then he smoothed it all out. Back to in-control, certain Cristhian Sterling who ruled the world. “I will contact your father immediately and inform him that you have been found, and we will be married.”

It was absolutely ridiculous that she was shocked.Hurt. She knew better. But somehow...he’d fooled her. “What happened to the possibility of love?”

He eyed her, like she was some...piece of gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe, as if gum would dare. “I thought you could be reasonable. I thought, perhaps, therewasa possibility that underneath the pampered princess veneer, there was a woman who could see beyond herself to the life she could give her children. Now that I see that I was wrong, we will proceed my way.”

She was struggling to breathe normally, to keep the tears that wanted to fall in check. She would be strong. For those children he didn’t think she cared about. Because she would not be a doormat. She would notbendfor him. Because Zia knew, deep and personal, that a mother like that wasn’t a good mother at all.

“I won’t say yes.”

“I won’t need you to.” And with that, he left her room with quick, certain strides. So fast she couldn’t even find the words to argue with him.

He couldn’tforceher to marry him. No matter what he said.

I will call your father.

What had happened? She sank onto the edge of the bed, at a total loss. How had sex turned into this...this? How had thinking they could find some common ground flipped so quickly?

What had she done so wrong?

She shook her head. No, she wouldn’t blame herself. Well, not fully. She had made mistakes, yes. She had let her guard down, and then she had let something as foolish as chemistry cloud her good judgment.

Because itwasgood judgment to not want to jump into marriage. If they married, he would have all the say. Over her, over the children. There would be no compromise.

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