Page 40 of Vows to a King
“I don’t have lingering affection for him,” she said without hesitation. “He’s a spiteful man who tormented my mother. I just don’t want him to come for us. Especially when our family is growing.”
Adonis stilled, as if he’d been suddenly rendered into one of those marble busts littered about the palace. When Jemima looked into his eyes, it was to find disbelief and an ache flashing there.
“What are you…” he turned her to face him fully, his fingers gripping her arms painfully, “do you mean…”
It seemed he couldn’t finish the thought.
Jemima nodded. “My period is late by almost three weeks.”
He shot to his feet, nearly tumbling her to the cold marble floor in the process as he muttered, “And why the hell haven’t you consulted the palace physician for that long?” His hands instantly steadied her as she wobbled.
She tried for a shrug that didn’t quite materialize. “I…”
“Jem? Talk to me.”
Whatever he sensed in her, he gathered her to him in an embrace that brought tears to her eyes. “The first week, I just waited because you never know with my period.”
“And after that?” he prompted.
“After that, I was scared that it might not be what I thought. Then about how desperately I wanted it to be true.”
Jemima could feel his tension in the way his sinewed strength tightened against her, could see his confusion in how he tightened his jaw, as if he couldn’t betray himself in front of her.
“I…want this, Adonis,” she said, whispering the words into his chest. “So badly. I want this child, our child. I want this family we’re building. I want this more than anything I’ve ever wanted. And I’m afraid that it might all crumble into…dust.” Just speaking of it made her shiver.
“Don’t be afraid,yineka mou. I promise you, Jem, nothing will touch you or Zayn or us. Ever.” When she sniffled, his words turned stern again. “Be happy,agapi. That’s an order from your king, Jemima.”
What if it was you that ruined this?she wanted to say.You who won’t share your pain or your torment with me? You who took this kingdom on to prove that you belonged? You who cannot fully love me as I do you?
The unsaid words twisted her from inside out.
And when she couldn’t calm her thundering heart or the anxiety that surged up through her body, making her break out in shivers, he gave her the thing she needed.
His mouth. His kiss. His utter possession of her where no fear or worry or anticipatory tension for the future could touch her.
As he pushed her back into the lounge, pushing her thighs wide and burying his face between them, Jemima wondered if her king would always know what she needed. And if he would so readily offer it to her if he knew it was his heart she craved, with a scary intensity.
* * *
Bracing himself on his elbow, Adonis shifted to his side and studied the woman who had, in a bare seven weeks, transformed his life.
His queen. His wife. And now the mother of his growing child.
A sudden, overpowering emotion choked him with a forceful intensity as he planted his palm on her belly. He wanted to run away, escape the sheer overwhelming intensity of it.
He wanted to wake her up from her peaceful slumber and have her tell him, for the hundredth time, that it was true.
Instead, he pulled away from the yoke of her lush arms and the easy lure she cast and made his way to his private offices.
He might resist the urge to submerge the emotion that surged through him in some outrageous stunt, but he couldn’t let it own him either.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE CALL FROMQueen Calista came in the last week of August when dawn’s deep clutches had Adonis peacefully asleep.
The call was routed to his private cell phone, the number which only four people in the world had in their possession. The shrill ringing had woken Jemima first and her soft, sleep-husky voice, laced with confused urgency, had woken him.
With the French doors open, the midnight air was warm and tinged with the briny scent of the Aegean. Even the view of the moonlit ocean, its surface shimmering like silver, couldn’t ground his worry.
