Page 32 of His Highness's Hidden Heir

Oh, she wanted to hate him for his cool logic and supreme detachment. At the same time, she hurt for him. He must have wanted to crawl out of his own skin when he learned the truth.

“Then you understand why I don’t want to be your wife.”

“Princess,” he corrected drily. “Queen, eventually.”

“Now you’re mocking me, which tells me I don’t even have your respect.” She pushed her own salad away.

“I’m speaking the truth. You might not think those titles have value, but they do.”

She offered a distracted smile when their plates were removed, but on the inside she was a fractured mirror, everything offset and webbed with cracks.

“You said this pregnancy was your fault,” she reminded him. “But I know you’re suspicious of me. Do you realize that you need trust between players to make a role convincing?” Her eyes were hot, her heart heavy. “How could I pretend we’re happily married when our marriage doesn’t even have the most basic foundation? We havenothing, Magnus.”

“Lexi.” He set his hands on the tablecloth between them, palms up. Then he waited patiently for her to get the message that he expected her to give him her hands.

It was pure weakness on her part, but she couldn’t resist touching him.

The moment she hesitantly settled her fingers into the heat of his palms, a sensual jolt traveled up her arms and into her chest where it rang like a bell.

He closed his grip before she could reflexively pull away.

“You know what we have.” He squeezed again, as though deliberately causing that jolt of power in her chest. Her breath grew tight and the spark in his gaze flew into her, setting her heart alight.

“Passion doesn’t last forever,” she whispered.

“Nothing does.” His thumbs swept across the backs of her wrists. He might as well have caressed her from head to toe, given how her whole body felt brushed by velvet. “That’s why we should enjoy it while we can.”

Her pulse was skipping under the caress of his fingertips.

“I don’t know—” she had to clear the rasp from her throat “—if I can do that.”

The doctor had said there was no physical reason she couldn’t have sex, but Lexi wasn’t sure if she wanted to. She wasn’t the svelte woman Magnus had lifted onto his shoulders and pinned to a wall. She felt unlike herself. Awkward and far too vulnerable to withstand that kind of intimacy, especially when she couldn’t shake the feeling of being rejected.Unwanted.

At least, that’s how she felt before he chided, “You think I didn’t ask?” in a way that sent a sensual shiver down her spine. “There’s no physical reason you can’t.” His expression sobered and he released one of her hands so he could tenderly sweep a tendril of hair behind her ear. “I’ll let that be your choice, though. I’m ready when you are.”

“You left it in my hands last time,” she reminded him on a choke of humorless laughter, sitting back and settling her hands on her bump. “I think that’s your way of absolving yourself of responsibility.”

“No. I meant it when I said the fault was mine.”

“I don’t want anyone to be at fault.” She scowled, disgruntled at his continued use of that word. “That makes it sound like this baby is a mistake and I won’t call them that.”

“Fair enough.” He sat back, too. “I do respect you, by the way. Otherwise, I would have restarted our affair in Monte Carlo and forced you to hide it.”

Her heart swerved. She searched his deepwater eyes, then shook her head with uncertainty.

“No. You had already decided in Paris that I wasn’t someone you could trust.” She swallowed the lump that rose into her throat as she recollected that.

“You know what I think is strange?” His brows came together in puzzlement. “You say deeply personal things about yourself so it seems like you’re an open book, but your actions tell a different story.Youdon’t trustme. That’s why you don’t want to marry me. You don’t want to rely on me. You’re terrified to trust me. Aren’t you? Be honest,” he warned in a hint of taunt. “So we can start building this trust we need.”

“No, I don’t trust you,” she admitted, feeling as though the admission peeled the skin from her chest, leaving her heart exposed. “I don’t trust anyone. Everyone I’ve ever known has let me down or betrayed me. An hour ago, the man I paidseven figuresto protect me broke my confidence and told you I was pregnant.”

“Because you didn’t pay him,” he said with an ironic curl of his lip. “I told him not to take your money. But I hear you.” He nodded, pensive. “I’ll work on it. You’ll need to be in Isleif for me to do that. Are you hungry? Or should we be on our way?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

BYTHETIMEthey were seated in his jet, the paternity result had come in. Magnus glanced at the wordPositiveand handed the tablet back to Ulmer.

“Send it to the queen.”

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