by Maisey Yates
“You’re an ass.”
“I told you it won’t help.”
“I don’t care—it had to be said.” He turned toward his bedroom door. “You aren’t just walking away from me,” she said. “You’re walking away from your child.”
“I am doing what I must to keep you both safe.” And then he walked through the adjoining door and closed it behind him.
Alys wanted nothing more than to surrender to misery. But she couldn’t do that. Couldn’t give in to the tears that were building behind her eyes, or the ache in her chest.
Because she had to come up with a plan. Because right now none of her three options seemed at all acceptable.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“SO THAT’S DONE, then,” she said into the silence of her room. She was likely the official Bowen black sheep now, but she didn’t really care. A lifetime of utter obedience destroyed with two simple words: I’m pregnant.
She was going to have a child out of wedlock. She had broken up her engagement to Damien.
It was option four, and it was impossible. Except, she’d decided it was what she was going to do.
So not as impossible as one might have thought.
Breathing was bit more difficult to do when one had a broken heart, but she was managing that. Along with making decisions for her life, so all things considered she felt quite accomplished.
She sat on the edge of her bed and tried not to cry. Or think too much about the future. Her father had been...stoic. He hadn’t had much of a reaction to the news of her pregnancy or the broken engagement. While she’d been very clear the baby wasn’t Damien’s, she had not been forthcoming about who the father was. She wouldn’t take Liam’s position from him.
But that presented her with another option. Now that she’d gone and created option four, she seemed to have more options flowering off it at rapid speed.
The option that meant Liam could potentially have some contact with his child as a father.
Of course, he might not take it if it endangered his precious job.
“If only you wanted to protect my heart as much as you seem to want to protect my body.”
Her bedroom door opened and Liam walked in without knocking.
“Excuse me!” she said, her face heating. She didn’t exactly relish the thought of him catching her talking to herself. Or rather, pretending to talk to him.
“I needed to see you.”
“I did not summon you.”
“No,” he said, “you did not. You have not for days, and I found I could not wait.”
“Have you come to reiterate just how much you do not want to marry me?”
“Quite the contrary. I’ve come to tell you that if you marry that man I will not be responsible for what I do to him. And if you allow him to play the part of father to my child... If he is to be allowed to play husband to you,” he said, his voice getting rougher, “God help me, Alys, I don’t know what I will do.”
“What? I don’t...I don’t understand.”
“You are so strong. The way you carry out your life. The way you were willing to sacrifice your happiness for duty. But that’s not what reached me. It’s not what changed me. It was your bravery. The moment you told me you would leave it behind, that you would change your entire future, all for love. All for me, and for the baby. It is a strength that humbles me. It’s a love I’m not worthy of, but one I desperately want.”
“Is this a declaration?” she asked, holding her hands tightly in her lap. So tight she thought she might break a finger. She was afraid to hope. Afraid not to hope. Her throat ached so fiercely that taking a breath was excruciating. “I mean...I suppose it is. Of violence, at the very least.”
“And more,” he said, his voice choked now.
“What more?” She stood slowly, the room fading away, everything fading away but Liam. And just as she’d told him, with none of the trappings, with nothing but him, he was what she wanted.
“I...I have tried not to love you. From the moment I first saw you, I tried. And I have been failing slowly since that day. With every smile. Every touch of your hand. Every thought I had for you. And since I was protecting you, there were so many thoughts that grew and wove together until you were all I could think of. I made the mistake—not a conscious one, but a mistake—of marrying another woman because deep down I was convinced I would never have you. You were right, Alys—I was afraid. I am afraid. I have been for so long, because if I never admitted how much I needed you then when I found out for sure that I could never have you, I wouldn’t hurt. It wouldn’t destroy me. But that was a lie. I wanted to protect you instead of love you because it seemed easier.”
He crossed the room and cupped her cheek, his palm warm against her skin, his eyes intent on hers. “It’s easier to take a bullet for you than to bare my soul to you. Than to expose all of this. To tell you I have loved you for years but couldn’t face it because I knew... I knew I could never have you. And then when you offered, I refused. Because I’m a fool. Because I’m a coward. I hid behind my need to protect you, and I do need you to be protected, Alys, but I can do that as bodyguard or husband. I was just using it as an excuse. And if I’ve lost you forever, I understand. It’s no less than I deserve. But I had to come and try. I had to come and say that if your proposal still stands, my answer is now yes.”
“Liam...you idiot. You complete and utter ass. You haven’t lost me. You never could. I...I told my father already, and I’ve told Damien, as well, that the engagement is off. I also told my father about the baby.”
“Did you mention me?”
She kissed him. “No,” she said, rolling her eyes, “because I didn’t want you to lose the job you went and sacrificed our love for. I was ready to take whatever dishonor and garbage from the press I had to, but I was not going to allow another man to raise your child, and I was not going to take another man as my husband. I basically planned to spend the rest of my life seducing you into acquiescence.”
“That sounds...not so bad.”
“I may still do it,” she said. “If you prove to be too difficult, I’ll have no choice.”
“Then I’ll have to endeavor to be difficult.”
“Oh, Liam, for you I doubt it will be an endeavor.”
He kissed her, deep and hard, and she pulled him back onto the bed with her. “I love you,” he said. “Instead of trying to deny it every day, I should have told you every day.”
“Yes, you should have. That means you have a lot of catching up to do.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. But there’s the matter of my father.”
“I love you. We’ll deal with him later. Tomorrow perhaps.” Liam was already taking her clothes off her, not that she was complaining.
“Good plan,” she said. “We can celebrate our engagement and worry about practicalities later. Because I warn you—I’m marrying you, no matter what he says.”
“I love you,” he said again. “And I am marrying you. No matter what.”
“Excellent. Anything else before the lovemaking commences?”
He laughed and the sound sent a thrilled through her body. An arrow of happiness that lodged in her heart.
“I love you. I love you. I love you,” he said.
“Just keep saying it. And keep showing me, and I’ll do the same. And then no matter what happens, I think we’ll be okay.”
“Darling Alys,” he said, “I tried so hard to keep it all inside, to simply not feel it. It will be a relief to spend all of my days simply letting myself love you.”
EPILOGUE
PRINCESS ELERI WAS born to much media fanfare. The story of Princess Alys and her bodyguard had become the stuff of fairy tales, not just for Brynland, but for the whole world.
It had taken a while for the king to come around, but the people had supported their princess from the first moment her new engagement and upcoming baby were announced. Love trumped duty in the eyes of the people.
Alys
lay back in bed and watched her husband holding little Eleri against his chest.
“I was right,” she said.
“What about?”
“You are gentle. And wonderful. And being titled quite suits you.”
“I’m not sure about the prince nonsense. But there are two titles I’m very happy with.”
“And those are?”
“Husband. Father.”
She smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a happier moment. Because I’ve never loved two people so much, and I have you both, right here.”
“Always,” he said, looking at her. “And did I tell you yet today? I love you.”
“You tell me every day, Liam, but it never hurts to hear it again.”
He smiled, her favorite smile in the whole world. She’d finally lost count of how many smiles he’d given her, because there had simply been too many. The Liam Smile Book overflowed.
“I love you.”
* * * * *
Don’t miss the other titles in this fantastic collection that celebrates Royal Babies all over the world!
Scorsolini Baby Scandal by Lucy Monroe
His Royal Love-Child by Lynn Raye Harris
The Accidental Heir by Susan Stephens
The Queen’s Nine-Month Scandal by Abby Green
Sheikh’s Baby Bombshell by Melanie Milburne
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ISBN: 9781459252158
Copyright © 2013 by Maisey Yates
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