Page 6 of Pregnant After One Forbidden Night

CHAPTER TWO

“COMEWITHME to the library.”

Jenna’s instincts screamed at her in warning in a voice oddly reminiscent of her mother’s. The awareness of potential danger that she had honed through her training roared to life as if she stood on a catastrophic and furious battlefield rather than beside one of the most handsome men in the country on a balcony filled with pampered rich people.

Perhaps it was that those same instincts sensed a powerful undercurrent of strength in the man beside her—an undercurrent that warned her against dismissing this capital aristocrat as playing games despite the fact that his only occupation, as far as she had ever been able to discern, was seducing women.

His exploits were infamous, most so outrageous as to be unbelievable.

Encountering him in the flesh for the first time, however, coming face-to-face with his crystalline green eyes, dark heavy brow, fashionably cut and carelessly swept-back burnished-gold hair, and cheekbones that were so hollowed-out that they looked like they had been slashed into existence by a temperamental and sensual god, she was suddenly willing to believe that every single story was true.

Perhaps that was what the alarm was about—the natural reaction of a cautious woman in the face of a handsome playboy.

He was the kind of handsome that encouraged sinful thoughts and reckless behavior, but she knew that for three very practical reasons he posed no threat to her: she was poor, she was plain and she was Priory.

Nearly three years into serving the palace after completing her training at the Capital Military Academy before that, Jenna had become very aware that those three facts disqualified her from being considered as anything other than service personnel. Just as her desire for the wider world, a faster pace of life and something more than the ordinary disqualified her from life as a good Priory woman.

Being only the second woman ever to earn a position in the royal guard didn’t help matters, either.

Unlike her partner, Helene d’Tierrza, who was so stunningly beautiful and wealthy that even being in uniform could not put off appreciative stares, Jenna’s womanhood disappeared as soon as she strapped in.

The denizens of the capital lived for the latest trends, the hottest fashions and a fast-paced lifestyle. Here, the most attractive woman in the room was the one who had mastered all of it.

That was not Jenna.

So, overriding her internal alarm systems, she nodded crisply to the handsome aristocrat.

Calculating with a private blush that the queen would be otherwise occupied for the next little while, Jenna determined that it would be no problem to offer her service to the duke—temporarily. Her first duty, of course, was to the queen.

But things like assisting wayward nobility improved the reputation of the royal guard, and kept her mind from the fact that if it weren’t for her duties guarding the queen, she would never have believed that royals would spend so much time otherwise occupied.

That kind of attraction was something she expected from ordinary people, like her parents, who had six children to show for it—not from aristocrats. The lives of the rich and famous seemed driven less by warmer, homier passions and more by a relentless drive to increase their power, status and wealth.

Of course, it was different for Queen Mina who, like Jenna, was a common woman.

Perhaps that was due the credit for the earthy enjoyment so apparent in the monarchs’ relationship.

Raising the wrist that the duke still held, his hand a strangely electric shackle, Jenna offered him a smile. “Certainly, Your Grace. However, you’ll need to lead the way as I am not familiar with the d’Tierrza estate.”

The words struck Jenna’s ears like stones, accurate though they were. The d’Tierrza estate was her best friend Helene’s home, and yet today was her first time visiting, and she was here not out of friendship but duty.

It was just another small reminder that while she lived and worked in this glittering world, even among those closest to her she would never truly belong.

But that was the price a Priory girl paid for venturing so far from home.

In that world, friends knew each other’s homes and families and gathered together as frequently as possible.

When one was best friends with a duchess and a queen, though, both of whom were also one’s supervisors, things went differently. Jenna only wished she could be satisfied with the closeness they did have, without longing for something that felt more familiar to her.

She had all the reason in the world to be satisfied with her relationships.

Jenna spent her entire days with the queen and ate dinner with Helene in the guard’s common room every night, after which she retired to the quarters she shared with Helene. The three of them virtually lived in each other’s pockets and continued to enjoy each other’s company. That had to reflect a deeper relationship than visiting each other’s houses.

Shaking herself free of this tangent, she brought her attention fully to the duke, finding it an easy thing to do with the heat of his skin a hot pulse around her wrist.

Rather than release her wrist, though, the duke briefly tightened the pressure of his fingers around her.

One corner of his mouth lifted, drawing her gaze to his sculpted lips and the carved hollows of his cheeks, where she noticed a faint hint of shadowed stubble grew.

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