Page 29 of His Highness's Hidden Heir

His flinty gaze flickered to the monitor and he seemed to choose his words carefully.

“I wish things were different, Lexi. I do. But that’s not just any baby. You knew that the moment you found out you were pregnant. That’s why you’ve been hiding it. You didn’t want to admit what that means.”

“It doesn’t have to mean anything. That’s what I’m saying. You don’t—” Hot-cold shivers of premonition were washing over her. “You don’t have to be involved.” She forced the words through her tight throat, but they came out high and desperate. Panicked. “This ismybaby. My body. Mylife.Idecide what happens to me. To us.”

He said nothing, only looked at her with pity in his expression.Pity.

Goose bumps rose on her arms and prickled down her back. Her whole life had been fishtailing on ice since she had learned of her pregnancy. No, since she had first locked eyes with him. She had thought she had begun taking control over the last months, but now a cliff seemed to loom before her, offering nothing but a huge, foggy void that she was about to plummet into.

“No, Magnus,” she whispered.

“I have a duty to produce the next ruler, Lexi. Preferably within the sanctity of marriage, but that part has been overlooked before.” His lip curled with cynicism.

“I’m not marrying you.”

He snorted.

“You don’t want to marry me,” she hurried to continue. “You didn’t even want to talk to me five months ago. The morning after, even!”

“Lexi—”

“No. It would be a disaster.You know that.” Her throat grew hot and so did the backs of her eyes. “Your people won’t accept me. Your queen won’t. No to everything you’re saying.No.”

“Do you think I didn’t try saying that when it happened to me?” Maybe if he had sounded patronizing, she wouldn’t have welled up, but he soundedsorryfor her.

“I’m not unreasonable, Magnus.” She was in a fight for her life. Her heart rate picked up and tension gripped her. “I will grant you some say over what happens to our baby, but you don’t get to make decisions forme.”

“I’m not making these decisions, Lexi.” He didn’t raise his voice, but it rang with power all the same.

She was trying to sink through the pillows behind her, through the exam table and into the floor. Anything to escape the invisible force that seemed to emanate out of him, pushing against her like the wall of a bubble that was going to break only enough to pull her inside it where she would be trapped forever.

She couldn’t breathe, not enough to speak. Not enough to tell him to quit talking.

“History is making this decision for both of us. People think rulers rule, but we are ruled by precedent and necessity and duty. There are perks. The royal chest can buy you all the nice things you want. Every physical need you have will be amply met from now on. What is unaffordable to me, however, and to you, is choice. We are bound by duty to the crown.”

“You might be.” She reached for a tissue and blew her nose. “I’m not. Not to your ruler or your rules. I’m not...”

“Lexi. It’s done. Unless that paternity test comes back with a negative, we started down this path in Paris. There is no fork in the road now.”

“Thereis,” she insisted, but her lips were quivering too much for her to say more.

“I’m upsetting you.” He came close enough to cup her cheek and set the pad of this thumb against her trembling mouth. “Believe me when I say I know exactly how you feel. You put up a good fight and I admire you for it. It reassures me that you’ll weather what’s coming. But save your strength for other fights because this one is over.”

“It’s not.” The tears brimming her eyes overflowed, infuriating her because she wasn’t a weak woman. “I have a p-plan.”

“Cry if you need to.” He reached for a tissue and dried each of her cheeks, expression dispassionate. “But accept it. I’m taking you to Isleif and we’re going to marry. I have to tell the queen.”

He walked out, leaving her with a scream of frustration caught in her throat.

CHAPTER SEVEN

MAGNUSRECOGNIZEDTHEirony in telling Lexi to accept their situation when he was still wavering between denial and anger himself, wondering if the paternity test would let him off the hook.

He didn’t want it to. That was the truth. Beneath the rubble of this disaster was a pulse of anticipation. Lexi would be his, whether she was prepared to accept it or not. She wasn’t wrong that her reputation was inconvenient, but the rest was tremendously convenient. Now he could have a wife who lit his sexual fire.

And yes, that fact was hellishly dangerous, considering that giving in to his lust for her had put him in this life-altering position in the first place, but he still reveled in it.

Outside her exam room, he found two of his own guards waiting for him. They must have come in with Ulmer. Magnus had asked Vijay to release Ulmer from the purgatory of waiting in the car. He and Vijay were now in the room where Magnus had been shown when they arrived. Ulmer was tapping his tablet, as usual. Both men stood as Magnus entered.

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