Page 44 of His Highness's Hidden Heir

He wore his long hair smoothed into its customary gather. His beard was freshly shaped. He held out his gloved hands and she went toward him without hesitation.

“I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me.” His rasped words and the glow of pride in his gaze brought tears to her eyes. “You were made for this, goddess. You were made to be mine.”

Was marrying him a huge mistake? In this moment, it felt like the best and only decision she could make. She took his arm and walked down the aisle with him, feeling as though they were giving themselves to each other. It feltright.

When she spoke her vows, she did so with care, clearly and firmly even as her chest was filled with butterflies. They exchanged rings and were pronounced married and he lifted her veil.

Everything fell away—the pomp and the crowd and even the baby swelling her middle. In that eternal space between heartbeats, they were simply a man and a woman, pledging their lives to each other. He pressed his mouth to hers and it was done.

CHAPTER TEN

THEYDIDSPENDmuch of their honeymoon in bed. At least, Lexi did. Magnus had always been a high-energy person so he went a little stir-crazy.

He swam a lot of laps while Lexi snoozed in their room at the spa, but it turned out to be a good choice. It was exclusive enough that the privacy expectations were already high. They mingled among the other guests and everyone was very respectful, but Lexi could only go in the cooler pools and she was never in them long anyway.

They made love a lot, usually with her on top which drove Magnus crazy in the best possible way. He wanted her to be comfortable and he wanted to be gentle, which meant it was slow and lazy and so delicious he nearly passed out from erotic joy.

They returned to the news that she had developed a small blood sugar issue. It wasn’t severe enough to alarm the doctors, but they were adjusting her diet and were agreeing with Magnus’s prediction that the baby would be big.

What the hell was it with people who wanted to touch her belly, though? After their honeymoon, they attended their first official function at a summit in Brussels. They were at a dinner and, in the middle of introducing her to an ambassador, the man bracketed her belly with both his hands as if he had every right to touch her!

Magnus nearly caused an international incident.

Lexi confided afterward that it wasn’t the first time. “The irony is, I thought being married and very pregnant would put a stop to the groping. Joke’s on me.”

Magnus instructed their bodyguards to step in if he wasn’t there to do it himself, but she only attended two more events before she begged to stay home.

She was still three weeks from her due date, but Magnus had an important presentation to offer at a climate conference in Dubai. He would only be gone a few days, but he was reluctant to leave her.

Her physician assured him everything was fine: her blood pressure was good, her glucose levels were under control, and her iron was exactly where it should be.

“If her body is telling her to rest then she should listen to it,” the doctor said. “She might be experiencing an urge to nest, which could account for her desire to stay home. That’s very normal, too.”

Nest? They had staff to scrub baseboards and set up the nursery, but if she wanted to refold all the towels, he supposed he should get out of her way.

He left the following morning, but he was immediately discontent. Dubai was hot and dry and going back to his suite after his first meeting annoyed him. The rooms weren’t empty. They were never empty. He was never alone, but the placefeltempty. He much preferred when he could walk into a room and find Lexi reading a book or doing her stretches. She would tell him why the book she was reading would make a good movie or ask his opinion on the list of names she was compiling. He would rub her feet and that would turn into fooling around. And even though she was up constantly through the night, disturbing him every time, he preferred to sleep with her than have the bed to himself.

He missed her. There. He had admitted it.

Now what?he thought with disgust.

He was accepting his second cup of coffee the following morning, glancing over the notes for his presentation, when she called him.

He frowned. It was only 4:00 a.m. at home.

“It’s early,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “Are you all right?”

“I think I’m in labor.”

“Also early.” That’s why he’d been persuaded to keep this commitment. The guideline was that she could deliver two weeks on either side of her due date, but that window didn’t open for another week. “Have you spoken to the doctor?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I wasn’t sure if that’s what it was. Besides, what can he do about it?”

“Help you prepare to deliver the baby?” Magnus suggested. He snapped his fingers at Ulmer. “Lexi thinks she’s in labor. Get hold of the palace and—”

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