Читать книгу Marrying His Majesty - Marion Lennox - Страница 11

HE WAS off balance. He shouldn’t have entered Lily’s apartment. It made him feel like a criminal.

What Spiros had said made him feel like a criminal.

Leaving Lily alone with a child…

How the hell was he supposed to have known?

He heard heavy boots on the stairs. Lily’s boots? The door swung open. He turned to face her but she ignored him, making a beeline for the cot.

Michales was still asleep.

Alex waited. He still didn’t look at the baby. He couldn’t. This was still too big to take in.

Lily though… He could watch Lily. She’d been doing hard manual work. Building boats. He’d heard it before and he’d been hearing verification all week but until now he hadn’t believed it.

Mia’s sister?

Finally satisfied her son was safe, Lily turned to the woman.

‘Thanks, Eleni,’ she said. ‘I can take it from here.’

Then, as the woman gave him a cold stare and huffed her way out of the door, she turned to him. ‘So,’ she said, coldly formal, ‘what right do you have to walk in here?’

She was angry! There were two sides of that coin.

‘I might ask the same of you,’ he snapped. ‘Entering my palace, stealing the Crown Prince.’

‘He’s not the Crown Prince and you know it.’ She tugged her cap further down over her short-cropped curls. It really was… ridiculous.

‘You had no right… ’ he started, but she crossed her arms over her breasts as Eleni had and glared, lioness guarding her cub.

‘I have every right. You can’t have him.’

‘I’m not saying I want him.’

‘No,’ she said, and then again, ‘no.’ Defiance turned suddenly to uncertainty. ‘I don’t… ’

‘Know what you want? That makes two of us. Would you mind telling me what the hell is happening?’

‘Why should I?’

‘For a start, you’ve implied I’m this baby’s father. Am I?’

‘Yes,’ she said, as if it didn’t matter.

It mattered. He’d been working on this, the worst-case scenario, all week, but it still made him feel ill.

Again he couldn’t look at the cot. He just… couldn’t.

‘So you sold him to Giorgos and Mia.’

‘I’d never sell him. He’s mine, and if you think you’re taking him… ’

‘I’m not here to take him, but I have the right to know what’s going on,’ he snapped back and she made an almost visible effort to get a hold on her anger.

‘Just tell me,’ he said. ‘You owe me an explanation.’

‘I owe you nothing,’ she flashed, and then closed her eyes. ‘Okay,’ she said at last. ‘Not that you deserve an explanation, but here goes. I met you, I slept with you and I got pregnant. But I couldn’t care for Michales so Mia took him. She and Giorgos told the world he was theirs. I thought they were adopting him. They didn’t even do that, which has made my task of reclaiming him a whole lot easier.’

‘You’re saying you didn’t even check what they were doing?’

‘That’s right,’ she said flatly, not even bothering to be defensive. ‘I was ill during the pregnancy and I trusted Mia to care for him. I was a fool. Take it or leave it. It’s the truth.’

He couldn’t believe it. It didn’t make sense. ‘Mia told the world she was pregnant months before Michales was born.’

‘Did she?’ She sounded uninterested.

But he was working things out in his head. ‘Mia said she didn’t want anyone to know of her pregnancy until she was sure she wouldn’t miscarry,’ he said slowly. ‘By the time it was announced, she was five months gone. She was staying in the most exclusive private hospital she could find—abroad, as far from Sappheiros as she could get. Was that so she could bribe people to say your baby was hers?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t care.’

What the hell… ? ‘Lily, I’ve had enough,’ he snapped. ‘To be party to such a fraud… ’

‘Am I supposed to explain?’

In the cradle behind her, Michales was stirring. Whimpering.

Michales.

He had a son.

He’d known for a week. But he needed more time to take it in. A year or so. More.

And into his jumble of emotions came Lily. She was aggressive and uncooperative. But underneath…

There was a reason he’d fallen for her, he thought. Beneath her anger she looked… vulnerable. And very, very desirable. Despite the overalls and the crazy cap. Despite the steel-toed boots.

She made him feel…

Yeah, that was what had got him into this mess in the first place, he told himself savagely. Leave feelings out of it. Find out facts.

Like why she hadn’t told him she was pregnant.

‘Did I deserve this?’ he asked slowly into the silence. ‘That you not tell me you were expecting my child?’

‘I tried to tell you.’ She sounded tired. Flat.

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘I phoned. Three weeks after we’d… ’

‘Had sex?’ he said crudely and she winced.

‘If you like,’ she managed. ‘Maybe that sums up our connection. Dumb, sordid sex.’

It had been more than that. They both knew it. That was what was messing with his head.

‘I tried to find you,’ he told her.

‘Like I believe that. You only had to ask Mia for my address.’

‘I did ask Mia. She told me to leave you alone—she was blunt and aggressive and gave no details. But I did end up here. Spiros has told you. And then you phoned.’

‘I did,’ she said coldly. ‘You can’t remember what you said?’

‘No. I… ’

‘If you can’t, then I can. It’s the sort of conversation that sticks in a girl’s mind. You find out you’re pregnant. You’re sick and confused and scared, but finally you work up courage to contact the baby’s father. And his line is… “Lily. Great to hear from you. You’re not trying to slap a paternity suit on me as well, I hope.”’

He stilled.

He’d said it. God forgive him, he’d said it.

He remembered, all too clearly.

He was a prince, a bachelor, titled and eligible. He’d made a fortune himself, and as Giorgos’s heir he stood to inherit much, much more. As such, he’d endured the most blatant attempts to… get close.

The morning Lily had called he’d just fielded a call from the mother of a Hollywood starlet. Vitriolic and accusing.

‘You slept with my daughter and now she’s pregnant. You’ll marry her or you’ll pay millions.’

He’d never slept with the girl. He couldn’t remember even meeting her. But obviously the girl was pregnant, and she’d named him as the father.

It happened.

And about ten minutes after that, Lily had called.

He had slept with Lily. He’d been angry that she’d left, frustrated that he hadn’t been able to find her—and, despite his precautions, pregnancy was possible, though unlikely. So he’d come out with his glib, joking line…

‘You’re not trying to slap a paternity suit on me as well… ’

She’d said… what was it? ‘Get lost.’ And cut the connection.

He remembered staring at the phone, feeling bad, thinking he should trace the call. And then thinking of Mia and how much he disliked her—how much he loathed Lily’s connection to royalty. And how much attachment hurt. How love ended in grief. How a sister of Mia’s could never be worth that hurt. And it had sounded as if she clearly didn’t want him anyway.

And he’d made the conscious decision, there and then, not to make any further attempt to contact her.

‘You could have tried again,’ he said, but her face was grim now, and drawn.

For over a year now he’d tagged this woman as just like her sister. He’d treated her accordingly. His response to her phone call had been glib and cruel, but if it had been Mia he’d been talking to, maybe it would have been justified.

She wasn’t Mia.

And now? She was expecting him to walk away. No, she was wanting him to walk away. With or without paternity payments, he thought. The fact that she wanted nothing to do with him was obvious.

Unbidden, he remembered Lily as he’d first seen her. Dressed simply in a little black dress. Very little make-up. Those glorious curls.

He’d said something sardonic about their surroundings—the glitz of the royal ballroom—and she’d chuckled her agreement. ‘I do like a bit of bling,’ she’d said. ‘Mind, these chandeliers are a disappointment. I’d prefer them in pink. Plain crystal is so yesterday’s fashion. Like stove-pipe pants and shoulder pads.’ She’d eyed him up and down—in his tuxedo. ‘And tuxedos,’ she’d said, and she’d said it like a challenge.

He’d been entranced.

But there was no trace of that humour now. Her gaze was glacial.

‘I don’t have to tell you more,’ she said. ‘You’re not King here.’

‘I’m not King anywhere.’

‘Or Prince Regent.’

‘It seems I’m not Prince Regent either,’ he told her. ‘If Michales isn’t Giorgos’s son… ’ He hesitated, trying to find words to clarify what he’d figured over the last week. ‘If we can get this sorted without calamity, the Diamond Isles will be split into three again. I’ll be Crown Prince of Sappheiros and Khryseis and Argyros will be ruled as separate countries.’

‘So can you get this sorted?’ she asked, but she didn’t sound interested.

‘Maybe. No thanks to you.’

‘On the contrary, it’s all thanks to me,’ she snapped. ‘If I hadn’t claimed Michales you’d still be ruled by my sister’s lie. So now you can be whatever sort of prince you want and you can get out of my life.’

‘There’s the small issue of my son… ’

‘You need to earn the right to be a father. I’ve seen no evidence of it.’

‘I didn’t know he was my son!’

‘You’ve known for a week. So what did you do? You disappeared. You went away and did anything rather than come here and say this is my son and I want him.’

‘I didn’t know… ’ he started, but then he paused, unsure where to go.

‘You didn’t know what?’

‘I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel,’ he snapped. ‘I needed time.’

‘Like I needed time when I saw the thin blue line,’ she retorted. ‘Parenthood isn’t something you can think about and then decide ooh, maybe I’d like a little bit.’

‘Isn’t that exactly what you did?’

‘I had no choice.’ She moved still closer to the cot, putting her body between him and her baby. It was a gesture of defence as old as time itself.

‘So why did you give him up?’ he demanded, trying to keep his focus on indignation. Trying not to think how beautiful she was when she was angry. How vulnerable. How… frightened? ‘How much did they pay you?’

‘Millions!’ The word was a venomous hiss.

Okay, not millions, he conceded.

What, then? Had she simply offered her son to her sister instead of having him adopted?

Had she really been ill?

His eyes flew to her baseball cap. She’d covered her curls at the coronation, too.

Cancer? But Lily didn’t have that look. Soft curls were escaping from under the cap—short, yes, much shorter than last year, but not regrowth short.

‘Just how ill were you?’

‘It’s none of your business.’

‘Your hair… ’

‘I had an operation,’ she snapped. ‘I’m fine now.’

He got the message. Ask no more questions. Move on.

Okay, he would. But maybe here there was an explanation.

The consequences of illness, even if relatively mild, might well have been catastrophic. If she didn’t have insurance, medical expenses could be huge.

If Mia and Giorgos had paid her expenses and in return taken a child she could ill afford to keep… A child she didn’t really want, until Mia’s abandonment had given her second thoughts…

It didn’t absolve her from blame, but it might explain it.

Maybe something of what he was thinking was apparent.

‘Don’t even think about pushing into what’s my business,’ she told him coldly. ‘Let’s get this sorted. If you want to deny Michales is your son, that’s fine by me. I don’t need or want financial aid. If you want access I won’t block it—as long as he stays with me. But that’s my bottom line. He stays with me.’

‘I can’t let him stay here.’

‘He will stay here.’ She sounded blunt and cold and definite. But, underneath, he heard the beginnings of fear.

There was no way he could allay that fear.

‘I have to take him back to Sappheiros.’

‘You’re taking him nowhere.’

‘Michales has to be my son.’

‘So he is,’ she snapped. ‘Move on.’

‘He has to be my legitimate son.’

That confused her. ‘Excuse me?’

‘Can you imagine the furore there will be if he disappears? The islanders are upset enough now that you’ve taken him. For you to keep him… ’

‘He’s mine!’

‘The islanders think he’s theirs.’

‘He’s not.’

‘He is,’ he said. ‘You and Mia and Giorgos gave him to the island. The islanders have taken him to their hearts. I won’t take him away from them.’

‘It’s not you who’s taking him away.’ She was whispering but she might as well be yelling, it was said with such vehemence. ‘It’s me. He’s mine, and he stays with me.’

As if on cue, Michales stirred again, uttering a small protesting whimper. She scooped him from his cot and held him against her. He snuggled into her and her fingers stroked his hair.

The sight… watching her stroke the little boy’s hair did something to him he didn’t begin to recognise.

This was getting harder. He’d come here fuelled with anger against this woman. He’d come here to try and sort a solution.

What he hadn’t counted on was how she made him feel. He’d slept with Lily over twelve months ago and his body still knew why. He was reacting to her as he had then—with a desire that was inexplicable but inarguable.

And Michales…

He’d never thought of himself as a father. This child had nothing to do with him.

Except… He had the look of him. His son.

His world was shifting into unchartered territory.

Just say it, he told himself again, feeling cornered. Lay it on the line.

‘Lily, this is hard,’ he said. ‘But you need to listen. The islanders have lived with such uncertainty that when the truth comes out about Michales’s parentage their likely reaction will be disbelief. And why wouldn’t it be? They’ve been lied to by Mia and Giorgos. They have no reason to trust me—or you.’

‘I don’t… It can’t matter.’

‘But it does matter,’ he said forcefully. ‘We need to give them reason to believe, and the way to do that is by acting truthfully and acting with honour.’

‘Honour… ’ She filled the word with scorn. ‘Honour!’

‘I know it’s been in short supply, but this is my honour,’ he said, ruefully now. ‘I need to be seen to do the right thing.’

‘Finally.’

‘Okay, finally,’ he admitted and spread his hands in apology. ‘I concede my behaviour until now has been less than perfect. I shouldn’t have slept with you. I shouldn’t have blocked your phone call with such a response. But we… both of us… need to move on. The islanders need to be told that Giorgos and Mia lied, but they need to accept that the lies are finished. They need to know I’m to be trusted—and that I’m truly Michales’s father. Right now the island is on the brink of rebellion, but my advisors believe that it would be reluctant. We can head it off by giving the island stability, good government and hope for the future. The island needs an honourable royal family and it needs an heir.’

Lily stared at him over Michales’s small head. ‘S-so?’

But maybe she was already seeing where he was going, he thought. She looked suddenly terrified. She was a lot smarter than Giorgos, he thought. Or her sister.

‘I’m assuming you know the state of the Diamond Isles.’

‘Yes, but… ’

‘But ruin,’ he said forcefully. He couldn’t let the shock on her face deflect him from what needed to be said. ‘The islanders are poverty-stricken. The islands’ land titles are mortgaged to the hilt and there’s threatened takeover by outside interests. We’re facing destruction of our lifestyle—everything we stand for. That’s inevitable, unless these people put their faith in me and in what I can do. The islanders have to accept their new royal family—they can’t think I’m inventing this story merely to claim the throne for my own ends. Lily, I’ve thought about this all week. I’ve listened to the wisest lawyers and political advisors I can find. And they’ve come up, over and over, with the one sure answer.’

‘Which… which is… ’

‘Which is that you marry me.’