Page 18 of His Highness's Hidden Heir

“Why?” he demanded, also weary with this conversation. “You were considering adoption before you found me. Why is that not still an option? Youwantchildren.”

“I’m too busy with the colicky infant I have, aren’t I?” She rose in a rustle of her bespoke pantsuit, walking away to hide her expression. “I have continued to hope that I could somehow...” Her voice trailed off, then resounded with heavy fatalism. “They won’t let me try another surrogate. My frozen eggs have been deemed unviable.”

She was fifty-four and had spent the better part of three decades trying to produce an heir. A twinge of pity had him backing down. Katla wanted children, truly wanted them. Not for the crown, although that was expected, but for herself and her husband, Prince Sorr.

Magnus didn’t really understand the impulse. Yes, he had fond memories from his youth, but he mostly remembered a desire to hurry those years. He’d been impatient to grow up so he could pursue his own interests. His younger siblings, with their shorter legs and dependence on his greater maturity, had been an encumbrance who had held him back.

An old spear of guilt went through him at taking them for granted. He would go back to those days in a heartbeat if he could, but he still didn’t understand the urge to take responsibility for another human life. Katla already held responsibility for all the lives in a kingdom. Who the hell would want to raise a child with the expectation that they must shoulder the same burden? Given all Magnus had learned about duty to a crown, bringing a child into this role struck him as an act of cruelty.

As though Katla knew what he was thinking, she said, “You of all people should not be advocating I snatch a child from the street and turn them into my heir. No, Magnus, that is your cross to bear.”

He knew. He could fight it all he wanted, but it had been drilled into him from the time his DNA had proved he came from the Thorolf bloodline that he would continue that line.

“Could you have chosen anyone more unsuitable with which to dally?” she grumbled.

“Shall I try?”

“I have already made a career of apologizing for one man’s behavior.” Katla turned to him, tall and regal and firm. Her expression was dispassionate. “Do not make your inability to keep your libido in checkmycross to bear.”

“It was one night,” he said through his teeth. “As far as the world is concerned, we dancedonce.” Thanks to Vijay and his concisely worded threats to hotel management, any proof that Magnus had done anything more with the notorious Lexi Alexander was firmly erased, suppressed and filed under “unfounded gossip.”

“Ulmer tells me you’re paying for her security detail?”

“Why do you employ a man who can’t keep his mouth shut?” He turned to face the window. “File it under charitable donations,” he added in an ironic drawl.

“You can’t support her, Magnus. You had an affair, fine. It’s done. But let it be done.”

“Paying for her protection is the most expedient way to ensure my own. As long as I’m footing the bill, I’m as much Vijay’s client as she is.”

That’s why Vijay had given him the report that had raised all of Magnus’s suspicions around her motives. In his quest to detach himself from her, Magnus had expected every reaction from wheedling to defensive anger. She’d only been insulted. Hurt. And pale with shock over what she’d learned about her family.

“I haven’t spent the last two decades restoring peace and prosperity so you can set us back by chasing skirt.” Katla’s demeanor turned regal. This was no longer a discussion. It was a decree. “People need to see stability and continuity. You must marry, Magnus. Produce children. Show them what the future looks like.”

It was not a future he longed for. Why would it inspire anyone else?

“I’ve asked Ulmer to prepare a list. Introductions will begin in the next few weeks.” She rang the bell to dismiss him.

It might as well have been the rattle of a guillotine blade coming down.

Over the next eight weeks, Lexi leaned heavily on the small but mighty team that Vijay had put in place for her. They were astonishingly competent, giving her the fairly simple task of stalling Hadley and any other calls from the agency while they quietly set up a chain of events like dominoes.

Thank goodness they were good at their jobs, because she was a wreck. She blamed her forgetfulness and moments of emotional tearfulness on the upheaval of realizing her family had absolutely no regard for her, but the deeper ache was Magnus.

Which was stupid. She’d spent one night with him, whereas Hadley and Janet were fixtures in her life. There had always been animosity there, though. With Magnus, for at least a few hours, she’d thought there’d been accord. Synchronicity. Something powerful that was—

An illusion, she reminded herself harshly.

Sex. They had had sex. It was good sex, which was nothing to be ashamed of. The shame was in her pining for a man who had wondered after the fact if she had singled him out for her own gain.

She was the one who had been used. Did he really believe she would do that to someone else?

Apparently, he did.

I have a vested interested in keeping my name out of it.

She felt sick, literally nauseous, every time she thought of that horrible morning.

Don’t think of it.

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