Page 16 of Pregnant After One Forbidden Night

Frowning, she worked her way through the buttons of her shirt.

His long hands—the wicked hands that had forever changed her—came to her shoulders, pulling them forward just slightly to angle her face up.

His expression was as shuttered now as it had been clear and readable to her earlier—handsome, yes, but inscrutable, like the moon.

She didn’t know anything about this man she had shared herself with.

But it was too late to take it back now.

“I’ll take you back to the balcony. With the alarm, the king’s guard will have ensconced her. No one ever needs to know.”

His words were barbs, even if they were practical. He spoke not of the turmoil in her heart and mind—or his—but of the matters at hand.

She opened her mouth to say as much, but no sound came out.

His expression cracked, pain and need once again raw on his face, and he too seemed on the verge of saying something, only to be cut off by the sound of rapid footsteps approaching.

Quickly, he thrust her behind him, blocking her, if only partially, from the person coming for them directly.

“I thought I’d find you here, Sebastian. It’s Hel, she’s gone—” King Zayn’s voice, crisp and concerned, had preceded him, but when he came around the corner, his hands occupied with buttoning the final two buttons of his own shirt, he saw the two of them, Jenna’s blue uniform unmistakable, and stopped.

Famous violet eyes darted between the two of them, taking in their state of undress.

Weariness and disappointment darkened his expression.

“So, this is where you were,” he said, the words clearly directed at Jenna. He sounded tired, his voice so filled with disappointment that Jenna’s heart cracked.

“Your Majesty—” she began, but the king stopped her with a palm.

“We looked for you before I left the queen with my guard. She wanted to know you were safe.”

Jenna’s heart turned to stone in her chest. “Your Majesty, I—” she repeated.

He shook his head, shoulders burdened by what she saw was coming.

The weight came, she knew, not because he respected Jenna as a professional, though he had already shown he did by appointing her to the queen’s guard in the first place, but because he knew that what he was about to do would hurt his wife. Until this moment, it had been Jenna’s privilege to come to know how deep their unspoken bond was.

The crack in Jenna’s heart fissured.

The king was the king, light-years away from those tasked with guarding him.

She had known, respected and protected him for the bulk of her career but felt no closer to him than the sun.

But the queen...the queen was her friend.

Jenna’s throat thickened with tears, but she straightened her spine, coming to full attention for what she knew would be her final address from the king.

“You know it pains me to do this, Moustafa...”

“Zayn,” the duke spoke up, the king’s given name as casual on his lips as it was on Helene’s. Every time it was uttered, it was a small reminder that while she had a role in the room, she wasn’t like the others.

With a word, he cautioned against the king’s haste, but Jenna shook her head, the gesture firm and serious. What had happened between the two of them in the alcove was between them, just as what transpired now was between her and the monarch.

And though she dreaded what was coming, she knew the king was right. Regardless of the fact that it seemed that the duke had greater access to it than most, Jenna refused to give him all of her integrity by letting him try to save her from the consequences of her actions.

“It has been an honor to serve Queen Mina. Please tell her that.” Jenna’s voice caught on please, but she would not hold the request back. Mina had to know. “And Hel—”

Her friend’s name brought the monarch’s attention back to the business that had him seeking out the Duke of Redcliff in the first place. “That’s right. Someone kidnapped Helene.”

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