The Queen's Nine-Month Scandal
With a calm belying his inner tumult, Daniel picked up his intercom to the pilot and instructed him to change the flight plan.
* * *
The City of Azoria’s palatial grand palace was a glorious mix of its heritage; Moorish, Greek, Italian and French. But Analia was oblivious to it. She’d just emerged from a meeting with Pierre and her chief advisors.
One had stood up and declared censoriously, ‘The engagement with Prince Wilhelm is off. Unless you can marry the father of your child then you will leave us no choice but to force you to abdicate.’
Pierre, her stalwart supporter had stood up angrily and said, ‘The people will decide what they want and they will want Queen Analia, as she is.’
The meeting descended into shouts and anger until Analia stood up and slammed her fist on the table, shocking them as much as herself. In a quiet authoritative voice she said, ‘I’m still Queen and this meeting is adjourned for now. I am well aware that we face a crisis and I will do everything in my power to avert it.’
Now she was wrung out and needed some space so she escaped to her office. Just then she heard her office door open and close behind her. She closed her eyes and said wearily, ‘Please Pierre, not now.’
A deep, infinitely memorable voice from behind her said, ‘It’s not Pierre.’
Analia’s eyes snap
ped open and a rush of adrenaline washed away any weariness. She wondered if she might be having an aural hallucination but then the voice came again. Harder.
‘Aren’t you going to say hello to the father of your child?’
CHAPTER FOUR
SLOWLY, AS IF in treacle, Analia turned around and the man who had been haunting her every waking and sleeping moment stood just feet away. Gone was the beard and overlong hair. He was clean—shaven, but no less devastating. He was all in black: black jeans, black top that hugged his chest and a battered black jacket. His eyes were cold gray. He looked murderous. Yet her heart was pumping with a mixture of excitement, joy and trepidation.
Fearing she was going mad, she whispered, ‘Are you real?’
He smiled grimly and drawled, ‘Oh I’m very real sweetheart, as you well know.’
Analia blushed to recall how real he’d felt surging between her legs. She tingled there and squeezed her thighs together. As if aware of her movement, Daniel’s eyes dropped momentarily down her body and then back up.
‘How did you get in?’ she croaked, still not entirely sure if she was dreaming.
His mouth was a hard flat line, not the wickedly sensuous curves she remembered. ‘Let’s just say my years as a war photographer gave me the ability to get into secured spaces, and that I’ve exposed a hole in your security detail.’
He stood as still as a panther but she sensed his restless energy. Analia’s hands twisted in front of her her, a nervous habit.
His voice was cold. ‘That was quite the spread in the papers. I take it the royal clinic nurse who leaked the story is no longer in your employment?’
Analia blanched. She was unaware of how huge her eyes looked in her face. Her voice felt tight. ‘I was planning on getting in touch.’ It sounded weak to her ears.
Daniel folded his arms, eyes narrowed unforgivingly on her. ‘Now that you have a reason.’
Analia winced and hid away the very secret part of her that had fantasized about seeing him again. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, ‘I didn’t mean for you to find out like that. I didn’t mean for any of that to happen.’
His look turned dark. ‘Didn’t mean for what exactly not to happen?’ He answered before she could, ‘Undoubtedly you mean that night when faced with this current crisis.’
Analia instinctively put her hand over her belly. She felt fierce in her rejection of his words but couldn’t articulate it to this cold stranger.
He started pacing, energy crackling between them like electricity. He stopped and faced her again, head thrown back, the patrician line of his nose pronounced. ‘What was it, Analia, or should I call you Alexandra? Should we perhaps stick to our pseudo names? Were you just looking for some willing stud to help you offload your virginity? Did you realize time was running out and you couldn’t bear the thought of a chinless prince pawing at you in the marital bed?’
Daniel was so angry and full of explosive emotions mixed with intense desire that he could barely see straight. He wanted to alternately throttle Analia and kiss her senseless, and then take her right here in these opulent surroundings, until she screamed her pleasure the way she had before. He wanted to rip open the cream silk shirt she wore and push up the oh-so-pristine pencil skirt that showed off the slim perfection of her body. He wanted to undo the fussy chignon so that her hair fell into his hands.
But then he noticed the way she’d blanched, going parchment white. And her eyes, those stunning sapphire eyes, were huge in her face. Incredible pain made his chest tighten and he breathed out, ‘That was it wasn’t it? You were just looking for someone who would relieve you of your burden. Your innocence.’
The pain made Daniel lash out, ‘Did you get a taste for it Queen Analia? Did you court more experiences in the meantime, making up for lost time? Is the baby even mine? Tell me, did you use a mask each time to protect your precious identity or did they have the pleasure of knowing who you were—’
‘Stop it!’ Analia was trembling all over. She crossed her arms in a bid to hide it. ‘It wasn’t like that.’