Harlequin Romance February 2016 Box Set

by Barbara Wallace

  And what would he have done while she was in labor? Coached her? Helped her? Or held himself back because he didn’t want to give her false hope? He’d have ruined that moment for Ginny every bit as much as his father had ruined it. Maybe more because she’d see him there, but feel the distance between them, the tangible reminder that he didn’t want her in his life.

  Which was a lie.

  He did want her in his life. The feeling of fury that thundered through him when he realized what his father had done hadn’t just shocked him. It had been so pure, so total that Dominic hadn’t had a chance to mitigate it. In that moment of blazing-hot anger that resulted from white-hot pain, he knew what it was like to miss out on something so important he couldn’t even describe it.

  His father was right. Dom never would have felt this if his dad hadn’t orchestrated it. He’d have covered, hidden, pretended, postured—whatever it took to fool himself into believing he was fine.

  But faced with the raw truth of having those moments snatched away from him—he felt it all. The pain. The loss.

  And he knew that pain, that loss, that horrible empty feeling truly was the result of the life he’d built.

  He also knew that if he wanted Ginny back, all he had to say was that his bastard father had kept him from seeing the baby’s birth, from being with her, and he’d be free in her eyes. She loved him. She’d believe him. She’d take him back with open arms.

  He fell to the corner of the big, big bed in the outrageous jet that he could use because he would someday be a king.

  The only problem was his dad was right. Even if he’d known his baby was being born, he wouldn’t have rushed to Ginny’s side. He might have seen the final few minutes of the baby’s birth. But even then he would have raced back to the war room.

  But what his father had done hadn’t just opened his eyes. It had changed him. And he didn’t want Ginny to take him back on something that wasn’t quite a lie, but was a way to get out of being honest.

  He had to be honest with her. He wouldn’t even hint that she should come home—that he intended to love her—if he didn’t know for sure he wouldn’t hurt her again.

  And that he couldn’t promise.

  * * *

  After hours of combing through real estate sites, Ginny heard Artemus enter her room again. Staring at the computer screen, she said, “How big of a house should I get? I mean, should there be rooms for all of you or does the crown pay for separate quarters for you?”

  “We pay for separate quarters.”

  Hearing Dom’s voice, she spun around on her seat. His chin and cheeks bore dark shadows, evidence that he hadn’t shaved in days. His eyes looked pale and hollow from lack of sleep—even though he’d just had a ten-hour flight, which was perfect for catching up on sleep. But the killer was that he wore jeans and a T-shirt.

  The desire to tease him almost outweighed the desire to jump into his arms and weep. Except this was the man who didn’t love her. Who hadn’t thought enough of her to come out of a bunker when apparently he could have. Who hadn’t been with her for the birth of their child.

  This was also the man she’d have to fight for their child. If he thought he’d just fought a war, he was in for a rude awakening because she was about to show him what real war was.

  “Get out.”

  He peered beyond her to the bed, where their son lay in the bottom drawer of her mom’s dresser. “Is that my son?”

  His voice was soft, reverent.

  She tensed her face to stop the muscles from weakening or tears from forming in her eyes. She would not be weak in this fight. Her child would not grow up afraid to love.

  Still, they might ultimately get into a battle over this child, but Dom also had a right to see his son.

  “Yes. That’s our baby.”

  He caught her gaze. “You didn’t name him.”

  “I didn’t think James Tiberius Kirk was your final answer.”

  He laughed. She didn’t.

  He took a few steps closer to the bed. “Oh, my God. He’s so little.”

  She had to fight the tremor of emotion that ripped through her at the awe in his voice.

  “You would know that if you’d been there for his birth.”

  He took another step toward the bed. “My father didn’t tell me you were in labor.”

  That sucked the air out of her lungs. “What?”

  He paused and faced her, preparing to answer her, but her heart ached for him. His ridiculously pompous dad had kept his baby from him? She saw the anguish on his face. Knew there might be bigger reasons he hadn’t shaved, hadn’t slept and suddenly wore blue jeans and a T-shirt.

  She rose from her chair, took the baby out of the drawer and watched his little face scrunch as he woke. “Hey, little guy, here’s your daddy.”

  She presented the child to Dom and he stared at him. “Wow.”

  “Yeah, wow.” She smiled. “Hold him.”

  “He’s just barely bigger than my hand.” He caught her gaze. “Won’t I break him?”

  She laughed. “I’m going to trust you to be careful.” She nudged the blanket-wrapped baby to him. “Put your one hand under his bum and the other under his head.”

  Dom did as he was told and took the baby. He bent and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Ginny stepped back, unable to handle the sweetness of the meeting anymore. Or Dom’s confusion. He was so new to the baby business that it would have been fun to watch him learn and grow with the baby—their baby. But even though his dad had kept the news that she was in labor from him, he’d always said the kingdom would come first. And they’d just lived the reality of what that meant.

  She deserved better than that. Her baby deserved better than that.

  He caught her gaze. “My dad said something about complications.”

  “He was just small, so they monitored him.”

  “You know his birth hasn’t even been announced.”

  “No. Not at first. Eventually my mom told me.”

  “It seems my dad was teaching me a lesson.”

  The pompous old windbag.

  “I’d always said the kingdom came first. I’d said I’d never love anybody.” He glanced over at her. “I said I wouldn’t do what he did when my mom died. Apparently that insulted him. So when the war and you going into labor just sort of happened, he saw it as a chance to show me what my attitude really meant.”

  “Oh.” So maybe the king wasn’t so much pompous as interfering. Not good, but at least not god-awful. She wanted to ask Dom if he’d learned anything. But he looked so sad and so broken. And she didn’t want to soften to him.

  “I missed the birth of my son.”

  “If you’d known I was in labor, would you have come out of that bunker? In those first hours before you knew the threat wasn’t as bad as you and your dad had believed...could you have come out?”

  “I’d have pushed it.” He unexpectedly hugged the baby to him. “I’d have given instructions for the hospital to let me know when you were close—”

  “So you might have missed it anyway?”

  “Maybe.”

  His honestly hit her like the swell of an ocean wave. The king might have kept the news from him, but he probably would have stayed away anyway. “Well, that certainly shines a light on that.”

  “That’s why my dad’s lesson was such a good one. I had to see what it felt like to have all my choices taken away from me. When I thought...knew...he was behind my not seeing the baby’s birth, I felt the unfairness of it and ridiculous anger. But flying over on the plane, I realized what I just told you. That I might have pushed it back and put it off until I missed it by my own doing. I would have been disappointed but I would have made those crazy royalty excuses about duty, and I’d have forgiven myself. I had to experience it this way to feel the real loss.”

  He met her gaze again. “It gave me a totally new perspective.”

  Her heart jumped a bit. “So you’re going to be a good dad?”

&n
bsp; He laughed. “Yes.”

  And suddenly her war with him lost some of its oomph, too. Even as his changing attitude made her glad for their baby’s sake, it also made her very sad. Very tired. Technically, she and Dom were back to where they were when they made this silly deal.

  She said, “That’s good,” but her heart absolutely shattered. She’d have loved to have raised her baby with this Dom.

  “Can you forgive me?”

  “For missing the baby’s birth? Since it means you’re going to be a better dad? Yes.” She tried to smile but just couldn’t quite do it.

  “What about for the other stuff?”

  “Like...” The man had been sweet and kind. Attentive in a way that might not have been romantic, but he’d been good to her the whole time they were together. He’d always told her he didn’t want to fall in love. She was the one who’d pushed. “...what?”

  “You wanted me to love you.”

  Oh, great. Just what she wanted to talk about again. How he didn’t love her.

  “It’s okay.”

  “Not for me. If you decided you don’t want me to love you anymore, I’m in real trouble, because I realized flying over that ocean that I’ve probably always loved you.”

  Tears stung her eyes. “Really? Because I’ve told you that.”

  He chuckled. “I know you did. But just like the lesson my dad gave me, I sort of needed to lose you—lose everything—before I could realize what I had.”

  He laid the baby in the makeshift bed. “We’re putting a future king in a dresser drawer.”

  She tried to laugh but a sob came out. He walked over and enfolded her in his arms. “I am so sorry.”

  She wanted to say, “That’s okay,” but she couldn’t stop sobbing. She’d been alone for days, making decisions she didn’t want to make, trying to get food in a house that was way too small. And she’d missed him. And felt betrayed. Alone.

  He let her cry until her sobs became hiccups. Then he whispered, “Shouldn’t you be in bed, too?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Right. Just like you were fine right before you fainted in front of poor Marco.” He shifted the baby drawer to one side of the bed and pulled down the covers. “Come here.”

  She did. He helped her lie down, took off her shoes, pulled the covers to her chin and she fell into her first sound sleep in days.

  When she woke, it was to the sounds of her son crying.

  Dom lay beside her on the bed, watching her. “I think our son wants to be fed.”

  “Sounds like.”

  “We are going to have to name him sometime.”

  “I’m starting to think of him as Jimmy.”

  “He’ll be King James...like in the Bible.”

  “Better than captain of the starship Enterprise.”

  She slid out of the bed, got James from his drawer, opened her shirt and began to nurse.

  Some of the strain appeared to be gone from Dom’s face. “You napped?”

  He stretched and said, “A bit.”

  “Do we have to go home right away?”

  His eyes leaped to hers. “You’re coming with me?”

  “We are raising a king together.”

  “Yes, we are.”

  “And your dad is nuts with his rules and his tests.”

  “I think he’s going to let us alone with the tests.”

  “Yeah, wait until you see the dress I’m going to have made for his next formal dinner. He’s not the only one who can push people’s buttons. Except this time I owe him.”

  He laughed and for the first time in days, Ginny felt normal. She nudged her head, indicating he should join her and the baby. “Come watch.”

  “Really?”

  “Sure. He’s cute. It’s fun to watch him eat like a little horse.”

  Dom scooted down the bed and looked at their baby suckling. He waited a few seconds, then his gaze rose to meet hers. “There is one thing we haven’t sorted out.”

  She smiled. “What?”

  “I love you.”

  She closed her eyes, savoring the words, then she laughed. “You already said that.”

  “Yes, but I wanted to say it by itself. You know...so you get the real meaning.”

  She laughed again. And the quiet, two-o’clock-in-the-morning world of Terra Mas, Texas, righted itself.

  EPILOGUE

  THE DAY GINNY and Dominic returned from Texas, the baby’s birth was announced in the papers. It was reported that he’d been born in the time of crisis for the country, and to keep him safe, his birth had been concealed. Most of their subjects had agreed that keeping his birth a secret had made sense. Others yammered on and on about it on talk radio.

  Ginny didn’t care. Her life was perfect. She just wanted one more promise from her husband.

  Rolling Jimmy into a tiny onesie, she said, “This is our last lie.”

  Dom pulled his sweater over his head before he said, “It isn’t a lie. Technically, Jimmy was born in an insecure time for the country. Technically, my dad had been working to keep him safe. Technically, I had been too involved to leave to witness his birth.”

  “Now you’re stretching things.” She picked up the baby and he cooed with delight. “I think he likes these pj’s.”

  Dominic put a quick kiss on her lips. “Or he likes his mom.”

  “He’d better. It’ll take me decades to get my figure back.”

  “I like you a little rounded.”

  She sniffed. “Right.”

  Carrying the baby, she walked to the sitting room, Dom on her heels.

  “Sally says it will look better if I hold the baby while we’re standing on the balcony, waving.”

  “Drat. I was hoping to do a Princess Kate and strategically place the blanket so no one can see I still have a baby bump.”

  Diaper bag over his shoulder, Dom held the apartment door open for her. “You’re paranoid.”

  “Isabelle doesn’t think so,” she said, referring to the nanny who had just been hired by Sally. “She perfectly understands wanting to look my best in public.”

  They entered the elevator. Dom pressed the button for the second floor. When the doors opened, the king and Ginny’s mom stood waiting for them.

  Rose said, “I get to hold him first.”

  The king nudged her aside. “You held him first yesterday.”

  Bodyguards silently, expressionlessly stood by doors, glanced out windows.

  Rose sighed. “Fine.”

  Ronaldo said, “Maybe I should be the one to hold him on the balcony.”

  Dom and Ginny simultaneously said, “No!”

  “I need him and a long blanket to cover my baby weight.”

  “And Sally says my holding Jimmy will go a long way toward repairing my image for not being around for the baby’s birth.”

  The king laughed as he led the three adults to his quarters. “You’re a war hero.”

  Dom blew out his breath disgustedly. “Some war hero.”

  “Hey, you made the choice to call in the local police rather than send in the military. Technically, that was the big decision of the conflict.”

  Jimmy squirmed and began to whimper. Rose immediately took him from Ronaldo’s arms. “Come to your Grammy Pajammy, sweet boy,” she crooned, patting his back.

  Dom said, “Grammy Pajammy?”

  His father sighed. “It’s a long story.”

  Ginny rolled her eyes. “I called her Mama Pajama until I was about ten.”

  Dom laughed. “Really?” Then he frowned and glanced at his dad. “And how do you know this?”

  The king slid his arm around Rose’s shoulders. “I suppose this is as good of a time as any to come clean about our relationship.”

  Ginny laughed but Dom’s mouth fell open. “What?”

  Rose grinned. “Second chance at love, honey.” She leaned over the baby to put a kiss on the king’s cheek. “There’s nothing like it.”

  Dom stood shell-shocked, and Ginny held her
breath. She’d suspected a little something was going on with her mom and the king, but buried in their own problems, neither she nor Dom had actually seen it.

  Finally, Dom’s lips lifted into a smile. His simple heartfelt “Welcome to the family” warmed Ginny all over. So did the realization that her mom would be staying. Forever.

  She had a family.

  They walked through two sitting rooms and a den to get to the balcony. Ginny put a blanket over her arm in such a way it draped in front of her stomach, and Rose placed the baby in her arms.

  But right before they would have stepped out onto the balcony, she stopped and smiled at Dom. “Here.”

  “You’re letting me hold him?”

  “He’s yours as well as mine.” She sighed. “Besides, the bigger I look today the easier it will be for people to notice I’m losing weight.”

  He laughed and stepped out onto the balcony, but he stopped, too.

  He caught his dad’s gaze. “You and Rose come with us.”

  His dad waved a hand. “No. No. You and Ginny and Jimmy are the stars here. Have your moment in the sun.”

  “I’d rather we looked like a family.”

  Rose said, “Mmm-hmm.”

  Ginny pressed a finger to her lips to keep her still-humming hormones from making her cry. They hadn’t had a big discussion about the king keeping Ginny’s labor from Dom. When they’d returned the day before, Dom had simply said, “You were right,” and King Ronaldo had nodded. Dom wanting them to be a family spoke volumes.

  The king said, “I think that would be nice.”

  They stepped out onto the balcony to present their son to the kingdom and in the last second, Alex came racing through the door. “I heard this is a family moment.”

  Dom said, “It is.”

  Alex straightened to his full height, grinning like an idiot.

  Ginny leaned over to Dom and whispered, “What’s up with him?”

  “Our father and Princess Eva’s father are having a phone call tomorrow to talk about the wedding. He’s trying to get on Dad’s good side, hoping he’ll give him another year of freedom.”

  Ginny winced. “Do you think your dad will do it?”