Page 3 of Impossible Heir for the King

‘I’m aware,’ she gritted.

Was she supposed to curtsey? Because that wasn’t going to happen. Every muscle had gone into shock and she couldn’t actually move a millimetre. The impossibly handsome, popular royal was her total opposite. Hadhesummoned her to be brought before him? Surely not. How would he have evenheardof her? Her poor heart pumped even harder.

‘You may call me Niko.’

Why would she call him by his first name? There was no reason for her to have that privilege.

He casually strolled closer with the assured, panther-like grace of a man well used to the effect he had on ordinary people. Especially women. And yes, that included her.

‘I apologise for your unexpected journey,’ he added smoothly. ‘I understand it was a little rough.’

He ‘understood’? As he neared she could only stare like a stunned fool at his beauty. His face gleamed with vitality. Well, except foronepatch of his skin just above his jaw which seemed slightly muddied. Maia blinked as her suspicions—now confirmed—stalled her breath. She breathed a little deeper and caught the slight scent—

Thearrogance!

Her brain fuzzed. Hewasthe one who’d pressed her so tightly to his body! He was the one who’d whispered those reassurances in her ear. He was the one who’d carried her so easily. But suddenly his looks didn’t have the same ‘stunned mullet’ effect on her. Sure, she was growing hotter by the second but now it was anger, not latent lust. Did he think he could get away with anything if he suavely offered some minimal, meaningless apology?

Probably. No doubt he’d been doing it his whole life—doing whatever he wanted. But right now he waslyingto her because he knew exactly howunexpectedher journey had been. Exactly how rough. Because he’d been right there all along.

‘You’ve not quite cleaned all your war paint off.’ She bristled, pointing to a spot on her cheek, mirroring where the smear of black was still stuck on him.

His gaze sharpened and his mouth twitched as he leisurely lifted his hand and rubbed the mark away.

But Maia glared pointedly at the hand he’d kept in his pocket all this time. ‘Did I break your skin with my bite or merely leave a bruise?’

‘Did you know it was me all along or only just work it out now?’ That smile broadened to genuine amusement. He wasn’t at all ashamed that she’d caught him out.

Maia was stunned into stillness all over again. She shouldn’t feel anything but outrage but her body decided to do its own thing. Her breasts tightened and her breathing shortened and she was shocked to realise the tension she now felt was fully sensual in nature. She obviously hadn’t been around any attractive men recently, so her body had decided to flare up in front of the first one she saw. But it was unacceptable. This entire situation was unacceptable.

‘It seems you need to practice your abduction skills,’ she snapped.

‘Perhaps I do.’ He gave another flash of that unrepentant smile.

But this king had no need to abduct anyone. He was a wildly popular playboy who’d ascended to the throne five years ago after the death of his grandfather—the crown skipping a generation because of the tragic death of Niko’s father when Niko was in his teens.

‘Forgive me for being stunned that you’ve run out of suitable women to sleep with and must now resort to stealing perfect strangers from their homes in the middle of the night,’ she said.

‘I’ll forgive you anything.’ He lazily nodded. ‘And you are indeed a perfect stranger. But the truth is I have no need to abduct women to sleep with me. That’s not why you’re here.’

Of course it wasn’t.

Humiliation slithered from the cesspit of queasiness roiling in her lower belly and spread across her skin in a heated blaze. He probably wanted her to be a maid—to make his coffee and fresh pastry and bring it to him and his lover-of-the-day in bed.

But that didn’t explain why’d he brought her here under the cover of darkness. Why he’d not just asked her, nor told anyone else on the boat his intentions. But maybe he’d ensured no one had seen her journey and her arrival at the palace because she wasn’tworthyto be seen here. She glanced down, deeply aware of her dishevelment. Shame sloshed. She felt hot and clumsy and ugly in her worn galley clothing. She was nothing like the beautiful women Niko was always photographed with when he was abroad. And she was not Piri-nu society worthy.

She was the illegitimate child of a waitress and a gambler. Her mother had run off before Maia had turned four, unable to fight her father’s controlling nature anymore. Unfortunately, she’d left with a man who’d turned out to be even more controlling and he’d not wanted another man’s child. He’d made her mother cut contact with Maia completely. Most of the time Maia didn’t think about it, but right now she was alone and afraid. And her father would never try to rescue her from this, he’d be far more likely to try to extract something for himself. Such as money.

So she would face this obvious mistake down and she would survive all by herself. She was good at that.

‘WhyamI here?’ Maia pushed through the mortification and asked.

His smile had faded and his razor-like cheekbones made him look starkly sombre. ‘Because I’m afraid you might be pregnant with my baby.’

She stared at him, nonplussed. ‘Youwhat?’

‘I think you’re pregnant. With my child.’

The man was mad. Certifiable. Maia laughed. Except it veered dangerously close to hysterics in a nanosecond. She gasped, biting the emotion back. She refused to fall apart in front ofanyoneand certainly not this entitled, arrogant piece of work.

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