The King's Convenient Bride / The Illegitimate Prince's Baby
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There was no way he would just leave her.
Her distress must have shown, because Miss Pryce looked suddenly alarmed. “If it’s an emergency—”
“No. No emergency.” She forced a smile. The last thing she wanted was for her assistant to know how deeply her feelings had been hurt. “It can wait until he returns.” Hannah gestured to the sofa. “Shall we get started?”
Hannah sat, and Elizabeth lowered herself stiffly beside her. Apparently it was going to take time for her to relax in Hannah’s presence. Baby steps.
“So, what’s on the schedule for today?”
“You meet with the decorator at eleven o’clock, followed by a luncheon at one with the wives of the heads of state.”
“That sounds nice.” She would be sure to skim the files Elizabeth brought so she could pluck at least a few of their names from memory. “What next?”
She went on, but Hannah was only half listening. Her mind was still stuck on Phillip’s abrupt disappearance. Was it possible that he wasn’t hunting at all? That he might be with another woman? And what if it was the mystery woman who wouldn’t stop staring at her?
She dismissed the thought almost as quickly as it formed. Now she was being paranoid and silly.
She wasn’t so naive as to believe that Phillip had saved himself for her. But he’d had the decency to keep that aspect of his life quite discreet. Which told her that he was a man of integrity. And men of integrity were faithful to their significant others.
Finding suspicion with his every action would only make her life miserable.
She was sure that if he had to leave, it was for a good reason. Though Phillip was her fiancé, and would later be her husband, he was a king first and foremost. A servant to his country. That was a fact she would have to accept.
This brief absence would just make them appreciate each other that much more when he returned.
This is just a hiccup, she assured herself. Everything would work out just the way she’d planned.
Phillip stood on the steps leading to the garden, an unseasonably warm breeze ruffling the collar of his shirt, his attention on his future wife.
She sat on a blanket in the shade of a tree whose leaves had just begun to change, legs folded underneath her, hair tumbling in silky chestnut waves down her back. She wore a simple slip dress the exact shade of amber as the turning leaves.
He stepped down onto the grass and walked toward her, finding himself mesmerized by her beauty, intrigued by the intense desire to be near her. To touch her again. In profile, her features looked finely boned and elegant. Regal and confident, with a hint of softness that he found undeniably appealing.
Fine breeding stock, his mother had assured him when the pairing had been suggested and he had yet to meet Hannah, or even see a photo of her. He recalled thinking at the time that his mother could have been describing a head of cattle, not a future member of the family.
Beside her on the blanket sat a pile of binders, and one lay open across her lap. She was so engrossed in whatever it was she was reading, she didn’t hear him approach.
“Good afternoon.”
She let out a squeak of surprise and the folder tumbled from her lap onto the ground. When she looked up and saw it was him standing there, she scrambled to her feet, which he noticed were bare.
“I’m sorry,” she said and executed a slightly wobbly curtsy. “You startled me.”
As she straightened, her hair slipped across her shoulders, thick and shiny, resting in loose spirals atop the swell of her breasts. It all but begged to be touched and his fingers itched to tangle in the silky ribbons. From that day forward he would insist that she never wear it up again.
“If I startled you, perhaps I should be the one apologizing,” he said.
She clasped her hands in front of her, her lip clamped between her teeth, but behind it he could see the shadow of a smile. “You’re back sooner than I expected.”
Despite that, he would have anticipated her to be angry with him. Seeing as how he had left so abruptly. Instead, she seemed genuinely happy to see him.
It had been selfish and insensitive of him to leave her alone, but a lesson she needed to learn. It was best she understand that he had no intention of changing his habits simply because he had a wife. This was an arrangement, a business deal of sorts. The sooner she realized and accepted that, the better off they would both be.
Which did little to explain why, as she’d pointed out, he was home three days early.
“I had to cut my trip short,” he told her.
“Bad weather?” she asked. And, to his look of confusion, added, “Miss Pryce said you don’t like to hunt in bad weather.”
The weather on the opposite end of the island where the hunting cabin was located had been much like it was here. Idyllic. Clear skies and temperatures ten degrees above the usual for late September. And though the company had been equally adequate—he looked forward to trips with his cousin, when he could relax and just be Phillip—this time he’d felt restless and bored.
“Stop acting like an ass and go home to your fiancée,” Charles had urged after having his head all but snapped off for the umpteenth time in two days.
Indignant at first, Phillip was now glad that he’d listened. Best he enjoy the novelty of this relationship while it lasted.
And just for fun, he planned to test the values to which she clung so firmly.
“If you prefer,” he said, “I could go back.”
“N-no, of course not, I just…” She noticed his wry grin, and flashed a somewhat shy smile of her own. “You’re teasing me.”
He nodded.
“I’m glad you’re home.”
Oddly enough, so was he.
He gestured to the work she’d abandoned on the blanket. “Sorry if I disturbed you.”
“Not at all. I had some spare time and thought I would catch up on my reading. And take advantage of the mild weather.”
“They’re keeping you busy?”
“Swamped. It seems as though I’ve had more meetings in the past three days than in the last two years. And I’ve met so many new people, their faces and names all blur together. Every time I get a free minute or two, I try to study the profiles.”
“I was thinking, since it is such a beautiful day, that you might like to take a walk around the grounds with me.”
“I would love to, but…” She glanced from him, to the palace, then to the delicate gold watch on her left wrist.
“Is there a problem?”
“I have a meeting with the decorator in fifteen minutes, then the wedding coordinator after that.”
“Not anymore.”
She blinked with confusion. “Pardon?”
“I told Miss Pryce to clear your schedule for the rest of the afternoon.”
“You did?”
He nodded. “You’re free for the remainder of the day.”
“Is that okay?” she asked. But before he could answer, she held up a hand and said, “I know, you’re the king. You make the rules.”
He smiled and held out his hand, found himself eager to touch her again. “Shall we?”
She hesitated, probably remembering her no-fooling-around-until-after-the-wedding rule. But he had no intention of waiting until their wedding night to take her to his bed.
And he would seduce her so cleverly, she would believe it had been her idea in the first place.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
She shook her head, gazing at his hand as though it were a poisonous creature poised to attack.
“Surely you don’t find holding hands with your fiancé inappropriate.”
“Not exactly.”
“Do I frighten you, then?”
“Not in the way you might think. It’s more a matter of trust.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I don’t trust me. Women have desires, too, Your Highness.”
Her candor both surprised and impressed him, and told him that, despite her resolve, she was as good as him. He’d yet to find a woman able to resist his charms. He doubted that Hannah would be any different.
She finally slipped her hand in his, and he could swear he felt her shiver.
This was going to be too easy.
Five
Though Phillip’s leaving had been a blip in her carefully laid plans, the instant his hand slipped around her own, the second his fingers threaded loosely through hers, as far as Hannah was concerned, things were back on track.
Dressed in slacks, a plain white button-down shirt and a caramel cashmere sport coat, he looked casual, but carried himself with an air of supremacy that was almost intoxicating. A woman could feed endlessly off the energy he exuded.
They took a long, leisurely stroll through the gardens and, for the first time since she’d arrived, she felt as though she could finally relax. She had begun to feel as though she were being pulled in ten directions at once. Then Phillip appeared, snapped his fingers and made it all go away. Somehow she knew deep down that, no matter what, he would take care of her.
They walked across the pristinely maintained lawn—she’d seen golf courses that didn’t look this good—in the general direction of the woods bordering the estate.
“Did you have a successful trip?” she asked.
“You mean, did I kill anything?” he replied, and she nodded. “Not this time.”
“What’s in season here this time of year? No, wait, let me guess. You’re king, so you make the rules. You can kill whatever you want, whenever you want.”
He grinned and she felt an honest-to-goodness flutter in her heart. She would call his smile beautiful, had he not been so utterly male.
“I have to follow the laws of the land like everyone else,” he said. “Right now we’re hunting small game and birds.”
“Could I go with you sometime?”
“Hunting?”
She nodded, and he looked genuinely surprised.
“My father and I went every year up until his death.” A knot of emotion rose up and clogged her throat, the way it always did when she talked about him. Losing him so unnecessarily had left a laceration on her heart that, a year later, was still raw and bleeding.
Everyone kept telling her that it would get easier, but the truth was, each day it seemed to hurt a little bit more. For her anyway. Her mother, it would seem, had little trouble moving on.
“You were close with your father,” Phillip said. A statement more than a question.
She nodded, and he gave her hand a squeeze. It was a simple gesture, but it meant everything to her. “He was my hero.”
“It was a car accident?”
“His car was hit by a drunk driver. He was killed instantly. Of course, the other driver walked away with barely a scratch. The worst part was that it wasn’t the first time. He had three prior convictions for DUI and was driving on a revoked license.”
“The laws here are much tougher on repeat offenders than in the U.S.”
“It’s tough enough losing someone you love, but for it to be so…senseless. It’s just not fair.”
“No, it isn’t,” he agreed.
She realized that recently losing a parent was one thing they had in common. “Reports of your mother’s death said she was sick, but they never really specified what she died of.”
“She had cancer of the liver.”
“It must have been quick.”
“She was given six months when she was diagnosed. She only lived three.”
“There was nothing they could do?”
He shook his head. “It was too far advanced.”
She searched his face for a sign of remorse or loss, but there was none. When he spoke of her, he sounded almost…cold. “Do you miss her?”
“I barely knew her.” He glanced over at her. “She was cold, overbearing and heartless.”
Her parents certainly hadn’t been perfect, but she never once doubted their love for her. “That’s sad.”
He shrugged, as though it didn’t bother him in the least. They stopped at the edge of the woods, near the base of a barely perceptible and frightfully narrow path cut through the trees flanked with thick underbrush. “I’d like to show you something.”
“Okay.”
“It’s untended, so watch your step.”
He tugged her along after him, the woods swallowing them up, transporting them instantly into a world that was quiet and serene, and rich with the scent of earth and vegetation. Even the sun couldn’t penetrate the dense canopy of leaves overhead.
“I’m going to assume there are no dangerous wild animals out here,” she said, ducking under a low-hanging branch.
“I assure you, we’re perfectly safe.”
She followed him for several hundred feet, and could swear she heard the sound of running water. The deeper they descended, the louder it became. Finally they reached a clearing and bisecting the forest was a quaint, bubbling brook. It was like something out of a storybook.
“It’s lovely!” she told him.
“My sister and I used to play here when we were children,” he said, releasing her hand so she could investigate. “It was forbidden, which made it all the more appealing. We would sneak away from our nanny and spend hours investigating.”
And so would her and Phillip’s children.
She made her way to the water’s edge, and though it probably wasn’t proper, she couldn’t resist toeing off her sandal and dipping into the chilly water. “You were close? You and Sophie?”
“When we were small. But now Sophie and I are very…different.”
“How is that?”
“You’ll find that my sister is something of a free spirit.”
“She’s independent?”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
She might have been imagining it, but she could swear he sounded sad. Maybe he missed the relationship they’d had. If his mother was as cold as he’d described, maybe they were all the other had.
“I always wanted a brother or sister,” she told him.
“And ironically, I always wished I were an only child. Siblings are highly overrated.”
Somehow she doubted that. “You have a brother, too.”
“Half brother.” His response was so full of venom, his eyes so icy, it gave her a cold chill. Maybe this was a subject best left alone for the time being. She was sure that once they got to know each other, he would open up more.
One step at a time, she reminded herself.
She slipped back into her sandal, a sudden chill making her shiver. Goose bumps broke out across her arms and she rubbed to warm them.
“You’re cold,” he said. He shrugged out of his sport coat and slipped it around her. It was warm and soft and smelled like him.
He arranged it on her shoulders, using both hands to ease her hair from underneath it, his fingers brushing the back of her neck. She shivered again, but this time it had nothing to do with the temperature. At least, not the air. Her inner thermostat on the other hand had begun a steady climb.
It was the way he looked at her, so…thoroughly. As though he wanted to devour her with his eyes.
“I like your hair down,” he said, brushing it gently back from her face. “Promise me you’ll wear it like this all the time.”
“I have so much natural curl that when I wear it down, it tends to look kind of…untamed.”
His mouth pulled into one of those sexy, simmering smiles. “I know. I like you that way.”
Oh, boy, here we go again.
“It wouldn’t be proper.”
“Proper is also highly overrated. Besides, I make the rules. And I hereby decree that, from this day forward, you are to wear your hair down.”
She might have been offended if she thought for a second that he was serious about the royal decree thing. Besides, he was standing so close that the testosterone he was giving off was beginning to short-circuit her brain.
He cupped the side of her face, traced her features with his thumb. Her cheek, her brow, the corner of her mouth. Her internal thermometer shot up another ten degrees and her knees started to feel soft and squishy. She knew it would be best to stop him, but they had connected emotionally today. Physical affection just seemed like the natural next step.
Maybe a bit too natural.
His eyes searched her face. “You’re beautiful, you know.”
She took in a deep breath. “Your Highness, I suspect you’re trying to seduce me.”
“If I am, it seems to be working.” His thumb brushed her cheek. “You’re blushing.”
She didn’t have a snappy comeback for that one. And, oh, how she wanted to touch him. To put her hands on his chest and feel his heart beating, feel the warmth of his skin through his shirt. She wanted to run her fingers through his hair, across his face, feel the faint shadow of stubble on his cheeks.
He brushed his fingers across her cheek. “Your skin feels warm here.”
Probably because her blood was hovering just below the boiling point.
He stroked lower, down her chin and throat, his eyes following the path of his hand. Then lower still, just above the swell of her breasts. It was a move so intimate and sexually charged, and wonderful, that she went weak all over. With desire and fear and curiosity.
He lifted his eyes to hers. “And here.”
“Phillip—”
“I know, I’m breaking the no-touching rule.” He caressed the uppermost swell of her breasts with the tips of his fingers and her knees nearly buckled with the new, erotic sensation. “But as king, I make my own rules.” He leaned in closer, until his mouth was only inches from hers. “And nothing is going to stop me from kissing you.”
Well then, there wasn’t much point in telling him no, was there? Besides, what harm could one kiss do? A real kiss this time. How far could it go, out here in the woods?
“Just one kiss,” she told him, as though his demand even required a response.
He cupped her cheek and mini explosions of sensation detonated under her skin.
She was getting that weak, dizzy feeling again. “Then we stop.”
His other hand slipped through her hair to cradle the back of her head. He lowered his head and she lifted hers to meet him, her eyes slipping closed. Then their lips touched, barely more than a brush, and time seemed to stand still. It was just her lips and his lips, their breath mingling.
It was unbelievably wonderful. So sweet and gentle, as though she were a delicate piece of china he thought he might break. And while her head was telling her it was time to pull away, time to stop, her heart was telling her just a little longer. Because sweet and gentle wasn’t enough for her this time. She wanted more.
Which was why, when Phillip deepened the kiss, when she felt his tongue tease the seam of her lips, she didn’t do or say a thing to stop him. And when she gave in, opened up to him, the kiss went from sweet to simmering in the span of a heartbeat.
He tunneled his fingers through her hair, drew her against the length of his long, solid frame. She couldn’t help but put her arms around him, flatten her hands against the ropes of muscle in his back. It seemed as though her entire body, from the tips of her toes to the crown of her scalp, came alive with brand-new and intense sensations. And there was an ache, real and intense, building deep within her. A clawing need to be touched, in a way that no man had ever touched her before.
It was exhilarating and terrifying, and more wonderful than she could have ever imagined.
As though reading her mind, Phillip let one hand slide down her back to cup her behind. He drew her against him, and she could feel that he was just as aroused as she was. And instead of feeling wary or afraid, she felt a need for more. And she longed for the day when she didn’t have to tell him no.
Unfortunately, that was not today.
She broke the kiss and pressed her forehead against his shirt, felt that his heart was thumping as hard and fast as her own. And said the only thing she could think to say. “Wow.”
A chuckle rumbled through his chest. “Thank you.”
She looked up at him, saw that he was smiling. “It’s not completely obvious that I have zero experience when it comes to this sort of thing?”
“A little, maybe. But I think that’s what I like about you.”
“That I’m inexperienced?” She thought men liked women who knew how to please them.
“That you’re not afraid to admit it. That you embrace your values, not lean on them. You have no idea how rare that is.” He touched her cheek. “Although, I fear your honesty might get you into trouble one of these days.”
“My father always told me, nothing bad can come from telling the truth.”
“In that case, he would have been very proud of you.”
She felt the beginnings of tears prickle in her eyes and laid her head back against his chest, so he wouldn’t see. “You think so?”
“I do.”
He could really be quite sweet. When he wanted to.
“They’re bound to be wondering where we’ve disappeared to,” he said. “We should get back before they dispatch a search party.”
Though she would be content to stand here all day, wrapped up in his strong arms, just the two of them, she knew he was right. And as she backed away, she took heart in the fact that today had brought them one step closer to the ideal future that she knew they would have together. Things were falling right into place.
“Let’s go,” she said.
He reached out and took her hand, laced his fingers through hers and led her out of the woods.
“By the way, I wanted to ask you about something.” She told him about the woman who had been staring at her Monday. “She wasn’t in any of the profiles. I thought maybe you’d know who she was.”
He shrugged. “There were so many people there.”
“She would be hard to miss. Long, dark hair, very beautiful. And she never took her eyes off us.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
She couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t being honest with her. He’d been by her side the entire day. Surely he would have noticed someone staring. Wouldn’t he? Or maybe, people stared at him all the time.
Besides, what reason did he have to lie? She was probably just being paranoid again.
The walk back to the palace went far too quickly, and when they reached the steps, Phillip’s valet was waiting for them.
“An urgent call from the prime minister, sir.”
“I’ll take it in my office,” Phillip told him, then turned to Hannah. “I enjoyed our walk.”
He was wearing one of those secret, just-between-us smiles, and it made her feel warm all over.
“Me, too.”
“We should do it again soon.”
She had a feeling he wasn’t talking about the walking part. “I’d like that.”
As he started to walk away, Hannah called after him.
“Phillip.”
He stopped and turned to her.
“Would you have dinner with me tonight?”
There was a slight hesitation before he said, “I can’t.”
No explanation, no excuses. No apology.
The sting of disappointment was quick and sharp. Can’t, or won’t? she couldn’t help but wonder as he turned and walked away. Why, after they’d had such a good time together, would he not want to be with her? It didn’t make sense.
You are not going to let this bother you, she told herself as he disappeared inside, then she walked back over to the blanket where she’d left her things. Only then did she realize that his jacket still hung on her shoulders. But even that couldn’t shelter her from the chill that seemed to settle deep in her bones.
They’d taken a huge step forward today. She felt as if they really connected.
Why then, did it feel as though, for every step they took forward, they took two back?
Six
Phillip had just hung up the phone with the prime minister when the door to his office flew open and his sister barged in unannounced.
His secretary stood in the doorway behind her, looking both pained and apologetic. “Princess Sophie to see you, sir.”
Even the most loyal of servants were no match against Sophie. Phillip dismissed her with a wave of his hand, and she backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.