Page 6 of Impossible Heir for the King

‘You should not suffer adversely because of this incident. Your health...’

She realised he had concerns because she’d gone to the doctor in the first place. ‘It should be fine,’ she mumbled, embarrassment burning her skin hotter still. ‘It was just painful.’

‘Sex?’

She gritted her teeth, her humiliation now total. ‘No. My cycle. My periods. They’re irregular and painful.’

‘Oh, okay.’ He frowned. ‘Please be frank with the doctor. We will take every possible care of your health.’

Maia didn’t know how to answer. It wasn’t that she’d feared a pregnancy might be unsafe—she’d feared she might not get pregnant at all what with how irregular everything was. Yet now she was apparently pregnant and she hadn’t slept with anyone!

He waited, clearly wanting something from her, but she didn’t know what it was. His gaze on her intensified. ‘I would like you to have this baby, Maia.’

The thought that she wouldn’t hadn’t even occurred to her. That reply came instantly to her lips. But she bit it back. She needed to understand more. While what he’d just saidsoundedconciliatory—arequestnot an order—she suspected that was somewhat foreign to him. Sweat slid down her spine. She was pregnant with a king’s baby. What would he want from her? How did he see this moving? She needed to ascertain how far he would take his control and power over her. Because thelastthing she wanted was for her life to be controlled by another man. She’d lived too long like that already. So she gestured around the room’s palatial splendour. ‘Do I really have a choice?’

His jaw tightened. ‘If you don’t wish to have a relationship with the child once they are born, that is your decision.’

The sweat slicked over her skin turned to ice in an instant. It was like she was suffering from the instant onset of a tropical fever—running hot one second but chilled to the bone the next. And now the world pitched beneath her feet. She reached out for something to balance. The worst sea swells were nothing on this sudden rockiness.

‘Maia?’ he snapped.

His arms were around her again and it was such a relief that she collapsed, leaning in and letting him take her weight.

‘Maia?’ A gentler question this time. More like the promise he’d made to her early this morning when she’d not known who he was.

She’d missed this feeling of being safe in his embrace. As if she’d found safe harbour. Yet it was madness because she knew it was a lie. The last thing she was here wassafe. Anger surged—raw and unstoppable—and the words spilled before she could think to stop them.

‘This child ismine. I am its mother and I will be raising it.’

Her mother had left her and she would never, ever do that to her own child. So she lifted her head and furiously flung her position in his face. ‘You want this child, you get me too.’

‘Fine,’ he snapped right back at her. ‘But if this child is mine then you getmetoo.’

He glared right into her eyes. Only inches apart that faint scent of the sea and that disturbingly good spice seduced her. She felt his biceps flex and the awful thing was that with his body pressed against hers she felt even more faint. All she wanted was to stay leaning against him. Heat surged, chasing off the chill that had weakened her only moments before. Everything slowed—her pulse, her breath, time itself. For a long, long moment she gazed back into those beautiful brown eyes, watching as his long lashes half lowered as his focus fell to her mouth. She felt the attention like it were touch. He was closer. Her lips tingled, parted. Deep in her belly she felt the drive to press her hips against his. Her nipples tightened and as she breathed she felt them rub oh so slightly against his hard chest. Desire ignited.

Kiss me.

She gasped, suddenly mortified that she might’ve muttered the shockingly inappropriate wish aloud.

He blinked, his expression shuttering. ‘Are you okay now?’

‘Yes,’ she mumbled, desperately pushing herself away from him. ‘I guess I don’t have my land legs yet.’

Anything to excuse that mortifying moment of weakness. Anything to get away from him and be eternally grateful that she’d only said that in her head.

But he made sure she was entirely steady before releasing her.

As he walked to stare out the window, Maia gave herself a mental slap—pull it together.

Nikohadn’t thought anything fanciful in that moment—he just hadn’t wanted her to faint. His concern was wholly on her health and she was making a colossal fool of herself thinking she’d seen otherwise. But the tightness of his hold and the intensity of his gaze upon her had made her senses reel and therehadbeen a moment in which he’d leaned closer, breaching polite distance into intimacy. Shehadn’timagined it. But perhaps it was simply so normal for him he couldn’t help himself. He was so practiced at seduction it was second nature and he didn’t even realise he was doing it.

‘We’re in agreement, then,’ he said, finally turning back to face her. ‘You will stay here. We’re forced together through circumstance.’

She hadn’t said she would stay here. He had so much more power than she did and she knew too well what it was like to be at the mercy of someone not just bigger and stronger but with connections and money and all of the control. And they were onlyforcedtogether because he was insisting on it.

‘What was with the dawn raid?’ she challenged him. ‘Why couldn’t you just phone ahead and then board like normal?’

‘We weren’t sure of your knowledge of the situation, plus your vessel has evaded authorities in the past,’ he answered. ‘We expected the operation to be very quick.’

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