Page 92 of Modern Romance Collection Books (5-8)

She just was and he never thought about her.

Except...she wasn’t just Freddie anymore. She was the woman he’d had that unspeakably erotic night with in Al Da’ira, and he was at a loss to explain his reaction to her. Was it because she was forbidden? Was that what it was? Or did it have something to do with her pregnancy?

The thoughts had gone around and around in his head the day before, and he hadn’t been able to come to any conclusions. For hours he’d simply been incandescently angry. Firstly at himself for not realising it had been her to start off with and then at her for not saying anything. There were so many questions, and he knew that he was going to have to confront her, but he’d been too furious.

He had to be careful with his emotions. He couldn’t afford to indulge in anger, for example, because his control wasn’t as good as it once had been, and he didn’t want to hurt her by saying something he didn’t mean in the heat of the moment.

So he’d waited until today, when he was calmer.

Of course, sleeping poorly the night before hadn’t helped, but a few hours in the stables with the horses had. Their undemanding presence had soothed the jagged edges of his emotions and now he could face her. Face her and discuss the things that needed to be discussed because there were decisions to be made.

She was wearing that same cheap black stretchy skirt that she’d worn the day before, since she obviously hadn’t bought herself any maternity clothes, and one of her plain blouses—a pale blue one this morning.

Her dark brown hair was pulled back in its usual tidy bun, and there wasn’t anything else about her that was different to any other day.

Yet everything—everything—had changed.

The pulse at the base of her throat was beating very fast, and he couldn’t stop looking at it. He’d put his mouth right there and tasted it. As he’d tasted the shadowed valley where her blouse gaped slightly, revealing the full curves of her breasts. He’d tasted those too and the heat between her thighs. He’d made her scream, hoarse ragged cries of ecstasy...

And there, right there, is the consequence.

The gentle swell of her stomach, where her child lay.

No.Hischild.Theirchild.

There was a pressure in his head, the start of a headache pressing down, and the glare of the sun didn’t help. Neither did the hot simmer of anger in his gut that combined with the raw pull of desire into something vicious and aching.

He gripped tight to his control, refusing the tug of his emotions. He could be cruel when he let himself have free rein, and she didn’t deserve that, no matter what she’d done.

Her mouth opened, but nothing came out, shock evident in every line of her.

‘Well?’ he demanded, all of this rubbing him raw in every conceivable way, fraying the grip he had on his anger. ‘When were you going to tell me, Freddie? At what point were you going to inform me that I was going to be a father? Were you even going to tell me at all? Presumably since you’re now visibly pregnant, you decided to keep it, so what then? Were you going to have my child in some secret little hospital and then discreetly get rid of it? Sell it, perhaps, on the dark web? Or were you going to be a single mother, have my child running around in the palace never knowing he or she was the heir to the throne?’ His anger twisted inside him, dark and toxic, yet no matter how hard he tried to claw back his control over it, the words kept on coming out. ‘Did you think it was funny, perhaps? That the King of Isavere didn’t know he had a child? Did you laugh when you realised that I didn’t know who you were that night? Did it amuse you the next morning? Or did you know that I wouldn’t remember, perhaps? Did you think you could blackmail me even? Use the child against me to—’

‘No!’The word was hoarse and full of anguish. She was shaking, her hands at her sides. ‘No. None of those things are true. None of them.’

Some lost, forgotten part of him tightened at the raw note in her voice and the pallor of her skin, at the dark circles under her eyes. She clearly hadn’t slept either.

She’s pregnant with your child and she’s exhausted, and you’re shouting at her. Get a grip.

He tried to corral his recalcitrant emotions, get a leash on the anger that burned inside him. Yet it was difficult. He didn’t want to feel sorry for her. He didn’t. She’d lied to him, no matter that it had been a lie of omission. She’d known about this for months and hadn’t told him, and despite all his good intentions, he was furious about it.

‘Explain,’ he snapped, unable to keep the sharpness from his voice. ‘Explain to me why you didn’t tell me it was you that night. Or then inform me that I was the father of your child.’

She was still trembling, her hands now clasping themselves in front of her. She looked as if she was trying to hold herself together to keep from flying apart, and beneath the hot churn of anger, protectiveness stirred.

But he didn’t move. He was on a knife edge already and her explanation for this whole farce of a situation might send him over at any minute.

‘I didn’t know I was in your bed,’ she said desperately. ‘It was late and I was...tired after the flight, and the palace hallways all looked the same. I thought I was in mine. And then you...touched me. And I—I...’

‘You what?’

‘I heard you speak.’ Her voice was ragged. ‘And I knew I was in the wrong place, and I knew it was you, and I...’ She took a breath, the colour returning to her cheeks. Her chin lifted a little. ‘I wanted you.’

A shock went through him, as if she’d laid a live wire against his skin. She’d never betrayed a hint of that before. ‘What do you mean you wanted me?’

She flushed a deeper pink. ‘I was attracted to you. And your reputation—’

‘Ah, you wanted to see if my reputation was deserved, is that it?’ A bitter edge had crept into the words, an edge he couldn’t stop. And he wasn’t even sure why. There had been an honesty between them that night, an intensity he couldn’t put into words, as if they’d stripped away more than just their clothes. It had felt real to him, more real than any other sexual encounter had ever been and yet... All she’d wanted was to test his reputation?

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