Page 25 of Impossible Heir for the King

‘They lived separately?’

‘No, it was occasional escapes. My grandmother was a rigid, stern woman who thought that everyone should be able to meet her very exacting standards. She did her duty and expected everyone else to do theirs too with no question. Obligation to the crown was everything and she couldn’t understand why her new daughter-in-law couldn’t handle the sacrifices required.’

But his mother had been a woman who tried to champion everyone and who exhausted herself in the process. Wanting to be the best she could. Never accepting that she was already enough. Never taking the breaks that she needed. Working herself around the clock to try to please his grandparents. The high standards that no one could ever possibly meet. She’d ached for their approval. She’d wanted to please everyone. And that was impossible.

Niko wasn’t asking any woman to attempt that on his behalf.

‘Your grandmother sounds formidable. Washersa love match?’

‘She’d been my grandfather’s betrothed since they were very young,’ he said, letting all the cynicism colour his tone. ‘Arranged marriages don’t always work well either.’

Maia looked at him. ‘No?’

‘My grandfather was not faithful. He was not expected to be. Not even by her. She turned a blind eye to certain infractions. To ensure stability I suppose.’ He sat back. ‘She dove into being the best queen she could be. But she grew inflexible and bitter.’

Both wives had been failed. But nothing was as bad as what had happened to Aunt Lani, his grandfather’s firstborn child. She’d been betrayed—unacknowledged. She’d beenused.

He looked down at the table. It was his family duty to provide heirs to the nation. But arranged marriages could hopefully be managed. He’d wanted to make his the shortest he could, which was why he’d planned to delay getting married for as long as possible. Then he’d marry someone with her own life. A minor royal from another island nation maybe. His counsellor of state had kept him apprised of possibilities and he hadn’t exactly been disappointed when a couple on his list of possibilities had married other men. But a love match would be even worse.

‘So you don’t want to marry at all,’ Maia said.

Somehow she’d had him spilling family stuff he’d never spoken of. Like a mysterious nymph, drawing him into lowering his guard. Yet into danger at the same time. All innocence and confusion and fire.

‘I’ve been delaying it for as long as possible.’ He nodded. But now he had no choice and he wasn’t going to let her try to convince him otherwise. ‘Unlike my grandfather I’ve always been scrupulous in my use of birth control measures. I’ve never had a possible incident before now.’

Something flickered in her face. Distaste? Jealousy? It pushed him to provoke her more.

‘And just so you know, I’ve never brought a woman here, Maia. It’s too personal a place for me.’ He leaned towards her. ‘You’re my first.’

She stared at him and his pulse thudded at the smokiness clouding those mysteriously deep eyes. ‘Am I supposed to feel honoured?’

Feelingfinally flowed again. Even if it was a dangerous complication, it was better than the numb emptiness of before. He wanted the tantalising heat and the tempting risk of her explosion. So he dared her again with a drawl of pure intentional arrogance. ‘Don’t you?’

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘I’MUNDERNOillusions, Niko. You only brought me here because I tried to run away and it’s the one place you could bring me that was secure—other than the palace dungeons. And the dungeons wouldn’t do in this day and age. Not for someone in my delicate condition. You’d be universally condemned and that wouldn’t do for the popular playboy king, would it?’ She lifted her chin. ‘SoIam not honoured at all.’

But that this place was toopersonalfor him to bring his lovers intrigued her more than she liked. He didn’t like to share certain parts of himself with anyone. She wondered why—his parents’ troubles, perhaps. It certainly didn’t sound like his childhood at the palace had been blissful.

He came here because he needed time and space to himself. Perhaps he was more of an introvert than his charming facade suggested. Perhaps he needed to recharge and refresh here, where he could soak in the sea and stride to the top of the mountain and feel utterly at peace. At home. Hell, naked if he felt so inclined. She totally understood—and it humanised him too, too much.

A tight smile curved his lips but those angles of his mathematically perfect features sharpened. ‘It’s getting late. You’ll want to go to your room and stay there, Maia. There are sea snakes and other biting creatures that hunt here at night.’

‘Maybe I’ll bite them back.’

He lifted his hand and showed the mark she’d inflicted had all but disappeared. ‘You can’t even break skin. Stay inside.’

‘What are you going to do?’

He stared at her for a long moment. ‘You sure you want the answer to that question?’

She stared right back at him. He didn’t intimidate her, heexcitedher. And that was the problem—but it was the one she couldn’t resist. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘If I’m to be stuck with you then I expect to know what you’re doing, when you’re doing it and who you’re doing it with.’ She pushed back from the table and took a couple of paces towards the pool to expend some of the energy coiling too tightly within her. ‘I’m not going to be quietly content and remain in complete ignorance of my husband’s assignations.’

His gaze intensified as he looked up at where she stood in the moonlight. ‘So you agree that we’ll marry then?’

‘I’ve agreed to nothing. Yet.’ Something sparked within her. She didn’t believe for a second that he would actually hurt her. Quite the opposite. She had the intuition that he could make her feel something unlike anything or anyone else in the world. ‘I’m still considering my terms.’

‘Your terms?’ He watched her. ‘What more do you want?’ He shot her a wolfish smile as he listed the bare necessities he’d provided for her. ‘You have food, shelter, clothing—’

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