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Authors: Maisey Yates

Tags: #Contemporary romance, #Fiction

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BOOK: His Pregnant Princess
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CHAPTER FIVE

“Y
OU

RE
SURE
?”
HE
asked, his expression so still it might have been carved from stone.

“No, Liam, I’m not. I thought it best to sound the false alarm before I was certain. Yes, I am certain
.
As certain as one can be when all one has done is relieve oneself on several little white sticks and not gone in to see a doctor. And there’s the matter of me being a week late.”

She didn’t know how he could be so damned serene, not when she felt as if everything was changed. As if everything was wrong and right all at the same time. Perfect and utterly destroyed. How could he look calm when the world was its most beautiful and most terrifying? She certainly wasn’t calm.

She was two more quick breaths away from full-on hyperventilation. Which could not be good for the baby.

Oh, dear Lord, the baby.

His baby.

“I see.”

He was so stoic. It was unreal. As if they were having two different conversations. Or as if he didn’t believe....

“You’re the only man I’ve been with,” she said.

“I would never have questioned you on that,” he said, his tone sharp.

She blinked rapidly. “All things considered, I suppose I couldn’t have blamed you since I am engaged to another man now.”

“And what is to become of that?”

“I have three options, Liam,” she said, her voice trembling as she fought to get out the speech she’d rehearsed earlier. “And the option I choose is not entirely up to me, but to those around me. To you. That is my life as a princess. I am a human and a commodity. And then...you share in this. The baby is yours, too, and I feel you must be involved in making decisions.”

“Go on,” he said, bracing himself on her dresser, his knuckles white as he gripped the dark wood corner, his fingers tracing the ornate scrollwork. She could happily stop talking now and simply watch his hands caress things all day.

But that wasn’t an option.

“There are three options that I can see. I quickly seduce Damien and hope that he doesn’t pay attention during prenatal visits regarding dating.” The very idea made her queasy, but she had to voice it because it was a possibility. “The second option is that I tell him and count on my position to keep him with me. That I tell him the wedding must be moved forward as I’m pregnant and I do not desire my child to be the subject of malicious gossip. Or to be born a bastard.”

“He would raise my child?” Liam asked slowly.

“In that scenario, yes, he would. You could never claim him. You could never...” Her throat tightened and she could barely force out the next words. “You could never hold him.”

“And the third option?”

“We tell the truth.”

“And?”

“And I will be the first in the Bowen family to wed a commoner.”

“Is there a chance it will bump you from succession?”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Yes. I’ve done just a bit of research on the subject, and there is that chance. If my spouse is deemed a liability or the marriage a danger to the traditions or good standing of Brynland, then yes.”

“That is not possible.”

“Afraid it is.”

“I mean we cannot allow it to happen,” he said, teeth gritted.

“Can we not? When the alternative is for me to marry another man and for our child to never know that...to never know his real father?”

“I do not see another way, Alys. If I so much as try to claim our child and it goes wrong, and you end up losing your position...”

“Then my cousin steps in. It’s not so bad.”

“Your cousin Duncan is a weed.”

“Perhaps. But...but...he is more than capable. It isn’t as though he would...wreck anything. He’s as strong a contender as I am”

“He isn’t you.”

Pain lashed at her and she found she couldn’t speak again. She wanted Liam—it was that simple. She didn’t want to marry Damien, no matter how sensible it might be. No matter that it would protect the throne and ensure the line went on as it should with no scandal attached to it.

She wanted. Desperately and deeply. It was the thing that had gotten them into this in the first place and she had no idea what would get them out.

“We will make no decision,” she said, her voice soft. “Just...not for a couple of days.” “It seems that time is of the essence.”

“Perhaps,” she bit out, “but I’ll be damned if I allow emotions and a tight timeline to force me into making decisions that will direct the rest of my life. Fine for you, Liam. You aren’t the one who would have to marry—”

And suddenly he exploded into motion, pacing the room, his muscles tight, speaking of barely leashed violence. “Fine for me?” he asked, his voice rough. “Because I am only deciding whether or not I will ever hold my son or daughter, or if I will spend my life protecting the man who is raising her as his own while never allowed to touch a hair on her head. Yes, that is fine for me, Alys. Just fine.”

“That isn’t what I meant. But you can go on and choose someone else. Have children with someone else that you want and I will...”

“But I won’t.”

“Why?”

“I had never planned on marrying again. I don’t see why I would change those plans.”

A weight hit her hard in the stomach. That was something she’d never considered. That he might mourn the loss of the child in his life, but not of her.

That he would want fatherhood without marriage. Although in their position they both knew it was impossible.

“Well, then. Well.” She stiffened and tried to look imperious. But she’d never been that good at imperious, and in front of Liam, who knew everything about her, from her favorite color to what she looked like without knickers on, it seemed beyond a joke.

What she needed was a break, time away. But of course she couldn’t have time away, not alone. When she went somewhere, even if there was no one else present, she always had to bring...

She looked up. “Liam, I am planning on taking a short holiday to the family chalet.”

* * *

Liam cursed her fine ass a thousand times as he followed her into the chalet. It was impossible to keep his eyes from lingering there. She was in a fitted brown jacket that was designed to insulate her from the cold, and in tight matching pants that hugged her perfect behind in such an intimate fashion that the pants might as well have read “Liam, keep your eyes on this spot.” It would have been redundant, however, because they said it anyway.

And he was stuck up here with her. His pregnant princess, in a remote home up in the mountains. It was by no means empty. There were staff everywhere, just as in the palace, but as far as someone like Alys was concerned, someone who was accustomed to letting employees blend into the background, this was quite alone.

Alone as they’d been the night in the hotel. The night he had taken advantage of his position, of her, and had altered the course of their lives forever.

Yes, it was far too much like that.

The door to the massive home opened and a woman dressed in a black-and-white uniform greeted them with a nod of her head. “Princess, we were expecting you.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I trust my room is made up?”

“Yes, Princess.”

“And a room for my bodyguard, as well. I should like him to be near to me.” She looked at him, her eyes luminous and filled with mischief.

If he hadn’t known her so well he might have missed the mischief.

“Of course, Princess.” The woman kept her tone bland but Liam had a feeling she suspected something. Of course, she would never voice it. That was how she’d come to her position, he was certain. By being circumspect in all things. And never questioning the commands of a royal. “Shall I give you adjoining doors?”

Oh, yes, she definitely suspected.

“For my safety,” Alys said, her eyes still on him, burning a hole through him, “I think that would be a very good idea.”

CHAPTER SIX

H
E
OPENED
THE
adjoining door between their rooms at 11:01 p.m. He hadn’t been able to take it anymore. She’d gotten them adjoining rooms for a reason—she’d brought them here for a reason. She was scheming, and he knew it.

She was seducing him, and she knew it.

But to what end?

And then, when it was after eleven and she still hadn’t come to him, he hadn’t been able to stand it for another moment. His body was hard and aching, his heart thundering, jumping at the slightest movement.

He felt like a teenage boy instead of an experienced man in his thirties. But then, where Alys was concerned, that had always been the case.

She had always affected him. Always.

He stepped into her room and saw her sitting on the edge of the bed in the dark. She lifted her face, the shaft of light coming from his room spilling across her features. Beautiful golden eyes, pert nose, full pink lips. Lips that haunted his dreams, and had done for far longer than he cared to admit.

“What’s your game?” he asked.

“What is my
game?

“You have us put in adjoining rooms, after you’ve brought me up here to this remote location, and then you don’t use the bloody door? What game is that?”

She smiled slowly. “I suppose I was hoping you would use it. I put myself out there already. I took a chance on you once. I thought it might be nice to see if you would risk yourself.”

He laughed, humorless, the sound pulled from him by a force he couldn’t control or understand. “You wanted me to risk myself? Alys, you foolish girl, I risked myself the first time I ever thought of touching you. Do you have any idea of the risk? Of what your father could have done to me? I grant you we don’t live in medieval times, but it would not be a stretch to prove that I had somehow taken advantage of my position of authority.”

“I’m a princess,” she said stiffly. “I have the authority.”

“No, you don’t. And you know that. That is the part of this relationship, bodyguard and client, that becomes tricky. Because if you do not do what I say in a dangerous moment, it could be the end for both of us. That’s why when it comes down to it, though your family may pay my bills, in so many ways I call the shots. I am the man you must look to in situations where threats are involved, and that makes it... It makes it inappropriate for me to have touched you as I have. It was more than a risk. It was against my honor. Against the code I live my life by. It was disrespectful to you, as we both knew nothing could come of it.”

“I wanted it—how was it disrespectful?”

“You might have wanted it, but did you want the consequences? I should have been the one making sure we were safe, and I did not.”

“We weren’t planning on having sex that night, not with anyone. I think we both happily blocked the existence of condoms from our minds so we could have what we wanted.”

“You were a virgin,” he said.

“So? I know what a condom is. Prevents pregnancy and STDs. I may be able to claim innocence, as such, but not ignorance.”

Yet again, she made him laugh when it felt as if nothing at all was funny. “No matter, I suppose. What happened happened.”

“And...I would like for it to happen again,” she said, the words rushed.

“Again?”

“Yes. For heaven’s sake, I’m already pregnant. I’m already miserable and sick at the thought of having to be with another man when you’re the one that I want. I might as well have you now. Until it’s impossible. Until I can never have you again, because right now there’s no marriage vow stopping me and until the moment there is...”

“You’re engaged, Alys,” he said, his voice soft.

She shook her head. “I know. And I’m pregnant with your baby. So...so what wins there? This engagement that has no feelings in it. No desire, no love...or this?” She got up from the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck, brushing her lips against his.

The touch of her mouth on his sent a bolt of lightning through him, a shock of electric need that raced from his lips to his heart, and down lower.

Just a kiss. So soft, so innocent, really, and it had the power to undo him.

That was Alys in a nutshell. The surface of her was softness, innocence and beauty. But it was the core of steel that ran through her, the strength, the cleverness, the determination, that defined her. That made her a force he couldn’t deny or resist. A force even he couldn’t stand strong against. Bullets were one thing, but Alys on a mission was another.

Of course, the bullet he’d taken had been for her. Perhaps that was why the decision had been easy. Perhaps he had wanted her even then.

Wrong to admit. She’d been sixteen at the time. And he’d gone on to marry someone else.

He’d also divorced that someone else because Alys had remained his priority. Professionally only, of course. He had never violated his marriage vows and never would have, although...although now he wondered if Alys had owned more of his heart than he’d ever realized.

It had never been half so much about duty as he’d imagined.

Certainly now, with her soft lips against his, it wasn’t about duty. It was about this great and terrible need that seemed to pull at him from every direction. That demanded he give up every part of himself. To this. To her.

And he surrendered to it.

He let himself feel it. That this was what he’d wanted for years. That she was all he’d ever really wanted.

Other desires had never been this pressing. This urgent. They had never felt as necessary as breathing, but kissing her did. Putting his hands on her skin did.

Removing her clothes, and his, so he could feel her body against his—absolutely integral to his survival.

He laid her on the bed and kissed the curve of her breast, her neck. Slid his hand down her thigh and pulled her leg up behind his back as he thrust deep inside her. She arched against him, a short cry on her lips as he rode her, drove them both to completion.

And then, afterward, he held her. Because tonight he was indulging himself, and that didn’t just mean touching her and tasting her. It meant being with her. Like this. Skin to skin with his woman, his lover.

She snuggled against him, sighing, and he let his fingertips drift over her hip, down to the curve of her breast.

“Do you know the saddest thing, Liam?” she asked.

“What?” He didn’t want to know the saddest thing. He knew too many sad things about the situation as it was.

“He’s not going to be half the father you would be.”

His gut tightened. “You think?”

“You’re so strong. So wonderful. You know just when to be hard and when to be soft. Like now.” She put her hand on his, where it was tracing patterns on her skin.

“I’ve never had any experience with children,” he said, his hands going to her stomach now. He rested his palm on her and felt a wave of emotion for the life inside her. For her. For everything he couldn’t have. “But I’ve been a husband before, Alys, and I didn’t do a very good job of it. Perhaps you should just be thankful you’ll have him as a husband instead of me.”

She wiggled away from him and sat up, on her knees, her hair spilling over her shoulders, breasts bare. “I won’t,” she said. She put her hands on his face. “Don’t you know that by now? Don’t you know that if the entire world fell away and there was no responsibility, no nations, no palaces or principalities or kings, that I would choose you every time? Don’t you know it? Always, Liam, from the moment I set eyes on you. Even when you were husband to another woman. Even when I shouldn’t have looked at you, it was always you that I wanted.”

“Alys...”

“No, that’s not fair. I’m allowed to say things even if you don’t like to hear them.” She moved to straddle him, pushing him back, her thighs on either side of his, her hands planted on his chest. “Liam Ryder, you are my fantasy made flesh and you ought to know it.”

He put his hands on her hips. “Alys, you can’t have wanted me for all that time.”

She shifted against him and he started getting hard again. Wanted to be joined to her again. What would he do when she was with another man like this? Knowing another man was touching her?

Worse than that, what would he do knowing he could never touch her again?

“I did,” she said, shifting, taking him inside her body. “I do.”

And then they didn’t talk anymore until they’d both found their way to ecstasy.

BOOK: His Pregnant Princess
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