The Reluctant Prince

by Candice Gilmer

  To the side, I saw a very steep set of stairs leading down to the water, and leaning over the railing, I could make out the outline of a boat dock. But whether there was a boat in it or not, I couldn’t be sure, because of the roof on it.

  I had seen this house before.

  “We’re in one of the houses,” I breathed out the words, unable to believe it.

  “The houses?”

  “When I was a kid, we’d camp and water ski Table Rock. And when I’d ride in the boat, I’d see the houses, the ones that were nestled in the hills around the lake. Not like the little clustered coves like around Shell Knob, but the singular houses that sat overlooking the water—some high, some low, right down on the water. I always dreamed of living in one of the houses.”

  A smile quirked up on my mouth, memories taking hold of a place when I was younger—when life was simpler. My biggest worry was whether or not Amy would pass me a note during Social Studies. Or whether Brian liked liked me.

  He wrapped an arm around me. “Well, you’re here now. And you can come here whenever you want.”

  My eyes brimmed with tears as I looked down at the water. It was too warm to be frozen, and the waves churned in the wind, making tiny white caps on the water.

  Here the bad things couldn’t get to me.

  Here Jim couldn’t find me.

  Here, I could be safe.

  “Thank you.”

  He leaned over and placed a kiss on my eyes, brushing away the tears. “You’re welcome,” he whispered against my brow.

  Hadrian had carried his own bag to the bedroom, along with Sydney’s. She carried her overnight bag, insisting that she could carry at least that. Hadrian and Robert had carried the rest of her clothes and stuff.

  Which irritated him.

  Women weren’t supposed to be lifting things when they were pregnant.

  While he put away his toiletries, he started doing some math in his head. It had been about eight weeks since they’d met in Vegas. Counting on his fingers, he figured she’d probably have the baby sometime in September.

  “Syd, do you know your due date?” he hollered from the bathroom.

  “What?” she said, coming to the doorway.

  He looked up and saw her in the mirror. Her short hair was frazzled and rumpled, but it still looked really cute. And her long neck looked even longer when she tilted her head to the side like she was doing.

  He wanted to taste it…

  “What did you want?” she asked, jarring him from his fantasy of licking her neck.

  “Do you know your due date?” he asked. Nothing quite killed the mood like baby talk.

  She bit her lip before speaking. “September 29th. Though the doctor said that was a rough guess.”

  That was about what he figured. September-ish.

  “How’s your stomach?”

  She shrugged. “It’s okay. Better now that we’re not on those crazy curves.”

  He smiled. “Sorry.” Not that he could do anything about the curves of the road, but it seemed apropos to say. He’d seen her hanging on for dear life. Robert had the same problem with the curves. His nausea, though, was from being a pansy. Some of the roads in Koros weren’t any different, but they never bothered Robert there. Probably because Robert was usually driving.

  “Sorry if I scared you. I’ve driven them enough that the curves don’t intimidate me.”

  “When I was a kid, they were great.” She stepped into the bathroom with him, pulling her overnight bag. “Of course, I was in the camper of a pick-up, so I didn’t get a front-row seat to the treachery that was the crazy curves.”

  “Bet that was fun.”

  Their gazes met in the mirror.

  “So, are we going to talk about this?” she asked. A smile tipped the corner of her mouth. “I’ve been trying to convince myself this was a really amazing extended vacation so I don’t wind up screaming in your front yard, because, well, let’s face it, you practically kidnapped me.”

  “I didn’t kidnap you!”

  “Not by legal standards, no. I mean, I wasn’t tied up, and there were no weapons, that I saw anyway. And technically, I wasn’t forced to come. Coerced, maybe. But not forced.”

  “You don’t want to be here?” he asked. He’d been on the whole must-protect-Sydney emotions. He never bothered considering that she wouldn’t want to come.

  She set a few things down on the counter. “It’s not that. I’m glad to be with you.” She stalled, pulling out a few more things. “It’s just, well, all things considered, it really wasn’t that bad.”

  He blinked. “Syd, he destroyed a baby bouquet. That doesn’t sound normal to me.”

  “Well, it’s not normal, but I really don’t think he’d harm me. He’s probably pissed off that I never got pregnant with his child.” She puffed up her chest and made her voice deeper. “I’m a guy, and my sperm is amazing. It must be her fault that she’s not carrying my spawn.”

  He shook his head. “Not all guys are like that.”

  “I know. But he was. He would have been a great polygamist. ’Course, he wouldn’t have had any children with any of his wives.” She smirked.

  “Are you happy about being pregnant?”

  She met his gaze with her big eyes. “A baby is never a bad thing. Expensive? Yes. A lifelong commitment? Yes. But not a bad thing.” She looked down at the counter, straightening up the bottles that she’d set so they were all in a neat row. “I always wanted to have a kid. Or four.”

  “Four?” He stammered. He’d never considered having that many children. One, two maybe, but never four. What else did she want that would shock him? “That’s a lot of diapers.”

  “I know.” She met his gaze again. “We need to figure out what to do about this.” Her hand stroked her stomach. “I mean, what do you want to do for visitation? Child support? If you wanted to provide stuff, like diapers and formula or whatnot, we can work it out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Hadrian, I don’t expect you to marry me because I’m having your baby.”

  “I don’t want my child growing up without his father.”

  “And how the Hell will that work? I live in Kansas. You live in LA. Sometimes in Koros. If this mess doesn’t get resolved, you’ll be living in Koros permanently. Maybe even as crown prince.”

  He glared at her. “I grew up like that, and it wasn’t a horrible way to exist.”

  “I didn’t mean…”

  “Besides, I won’t be the crown prince. Michel is healing, and his wife is having a baby boy. I’m once again bumped way back down the line.”

  “We don’t know each other,” she blurted out, a broad range of emotions flying across her face faster than Hadrian could catalog.

  “Neither do a lot of people when they get married.”

  Pivoting on her heel, she left the bathroom. “Maybe I want to know my husband.”

  He headed after her. “Syd, wait.”

  “Don’t call me that,” she muttered as she headed out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

  He caught her about halfway down the stairs, reaching out for her. She wobbled in his grip, almost tumbling.

  “Hadrian!” she screamed, her arms flailing.

  Panic seized his chest. He yanked her toward him so hard, he lost his own balance and fell backwards. He landed on the stairs with a thud, cursing as he slid down a couple before stopping, Sydney on top of him.

  “You stupid son of a bitch.” Sydney started swinging at him.

  “Stop it,” he said, trying to restrain her, but between trying to keep from sliding down the rest of the stairs and stopping her from falling worse, he couldn’t do much.

  A large, powerful set of hands grabbed Sydney and pulled her up as though she weighed nothing.

  Sydney screamed again.

  “You stupid jerk, put me down.”

  Robert held Sydney steady, her swinging arms nothing but mosquitoes to him.

  “Even in the states, you cannot
hit the duke,” he said to her.

  “I don’t care if he’s a duke or a king or a prince or the president. No moron grabs a pregnant woman on the stairs.” She jerked herself out of Robert’s arms and steadied herself against the railing, glaring at him. “Haven’t you ever seen Gone With The Wind?”

  Hadrian blinked. “No.”

  She threw her hands up in the air. “Scarlett loses the baby because Rhett knocked her down the stairs.” One of her hands cupped her abdomen.

  All the blood in Hadrian’s head dropped to his feet.

  “I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking…”

  “Obviously.”

  He leaped up. His ass was probably going to be black and blue later, but he didn’t care. “Are you all right? Do we need to go to the doctor?” He turned his head toward Robert. “Call a doctor. She needs to be checked out immediately. Here. I don’t care what it costs.”

  Robert nodded, pulling out his cell phone.

  She threw her arms up in the air. “I’m fine. No pain, nothing. I’m fine.” She proceeded to go to the bathroom and shut the door.

  “Really, Highness,” Robert said, glaring at him. “You couldn’t have waited until she’d gotten to the bottom of the stairs?”

  Hadrian opened his mouth to speak.

  A scream echoed from the bathroom.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I’m going to kill him.

  I swear. I will friggin’ kill Hadrian Drake.

  I laid on one of the guest beds, a sheet over me, while an old country bumpkin doctor examined me. This room, while more comfortable than an actual doctor’s room, still felt like an exam room.

  It didn’t help that it was full dark outside, and that only made the little bedroom seem even smaller.

  What a day.

  Wasn’t I in this position this morning? Hell, it had been so long ago, I couldn’t remember. Between the doctor’s appointment, going to see the house, Jim’s damn bouquet and packing up to come out here…

  Well, shit.

  It’s a miracle I was still awake.

  I shuddered as the doctor began the exam. I’d never quite appreciated how my doctor warmed up the duckbill things he used to open me up until today.

  This doctor didn’t bother warming his up.

  “You’re fine,” the doctor said as he pulled the sheet back down over my legs. He’d probably seen lots of pregnant women in his time. I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear he’d delivered my grandmother.

  But he knew what he was talking about. That much was obvious.

  Especially after the tongue-lashing he gave Hadrian when he arrived.

  Good for him.

  “The blood in your panties wasn’t a miscarriage. When the baby and placenta get situated inside, sometimes a bit of blood is squeezed out. Some women see splotches of blood. Some get cramps.” He leaned back, resting his hands on his knees. “The timing is incredible, I must admit. Falling down the stairs before this happened? One of God’s little jokes, I imagine.”

  “Well, I’m not liking His sense of humor at the moment.”

  “Maybe He was trying to tell you something else.”

  “Like what?”

  The old man shrugged. “Maybe the path you were going down wasn’t where you needed to be, and you needed a, what do the kids call them?”

  “Reality check?”

  “That’s it—a reality check. You needed to adjust your focus.”

  I really didn’t like the implications of this conversation. Because I was still mad at Hadrian.

  The doctor, who said to address him as “Doc,” stood and started packing away his things. “Now, you see any more blood over the next couple of days, you call right away. I don’t think you will. The bad signs are cramping and enough blood for a monthly. But just to be on the safe side, keep your feet up for the next forty-eight hours, and I’ll be back to check on you.”

  I nodded as he walked out the bedroom door so I could get dressed.

  Whether this doctor regularly did house calls, I didn’t know. But I imagine the call from a duke or prince or ambassador, or whatever the Hell Hadrian was, was enough to bring a doctor running.

  Well, that and whatever fee Hadrian paid him.

  I dressed quickly, and went out to see if the doctor had anything else to tell me.

  The door was incredibly quiet when I opened it, and I could hear the doctor talking to Hadrian.

  “She is fine, stop worrying.”

  Hadrian paced around the room. “And you’re sure? No miscarriage?”

  “No. There won’t be either, boy, as long as you take good care of your wife. She’s delicate right now. Going to have her keep her feet up for a couple of days.”

  Hadrian’s jaw tensed at the words.

  The doctor either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “No walks along the water, nothing strenuous. This is merely precautionary, though. She should be fine soon. No sex for at least five days.”

  Hadrian nodded, and he glanced at Robert. “We’re going to need to go to the store and get food.”

  Robert nodded. “When you’re ready, tell me.”

  The doctor looked back and forth from Hadrian to Robert. “Now, I won’t be called out here for any other incidents like this, will I?” The man puffed himself up to his full height, and while he was a lot closer to a hundred than he was to forty, he still carried enough form to intimidate.

  “Of course not,” Hadrian replied.

  The doctor nodded. “Son, she’s pregnant. She’s not going to make a lot of sense. One minute she’ll be crying, the next she’ll be dancing around. She’ll want popcorn one minute, and by the time you get it made, she’ll change her mind again. It’s all part of it. Don’t let her temper get to you.”

  “I understand.”

  The doctor shook his head. “Not yet you don’t.”

  In a haze of sleep and wakening, Hadrian felt a warm body pressed against him. Blue hair danced in his mind, and he clenched onto the warm body, yanking it closer.

  Sydney.

  God he’d missed her.

  She fit perfectly in his arms. With everything going on, the one bright star was her—a message, a phone call, she brightened his day with so little.

  Everything was right when she was near.

  A breath of air grazed his cheek.

  He opened his eyes. Sydney was facing him. The two of them were pressed against each other from shoulder to foot, crotch to very awake and raring to go crotch.

  She was asleep. They’d both crashed not long after the doctor left, passing out with little fanfare, her in a knee-length sleep shirt and him in his boxers. They were too tired to discuss the sleeping arrangements, and Sydney still hadn’t been happy when she’d gone to bed. But she was barely asleep when she scooted over to him and entangled her legs with his.

  Evidently, they’d slept like that all night.

  He ran his hand down her side, and she quivered under the touch. A smile danced across her sleepy face.

  “Missed you,” she whispered. She burrowed more against him, throwing an arm over his waist.

  He ran his hand over her hip. “I missed you too.” Laying a kiss on her brow, she purred.

  Her eyes flipped open. “Morning.”

  “Hi.”

  She wiggled her hips against his. “My, my, it is morning, isn’t it?”

  He pressed her shoulder back, and she took the hint, lying flat down on the bed, and he lay on top of her, his hips pressed in between hers.

  “It is morning,” he said, running a hand down her cheek. She stroked his face back, and he leaned down, kissing her.

  The fusion of their mouths sent Hadrian into a world he’d never quite known. Was he hot for Sydney? Oh yes. He couldn’t imagine not being hot for this woman.

  But this was different—it was slower, steamier, something powerful that spoke more to his heart than a hot and ready screw.

  She ran her hands down his back, and the caress alone sent vibes to him,
making him certain she felt the same strange, powerful emotion he was feeling.

  A tie that binds. They were pulled together with some kind of magical force. This was a relationship they couldn’t explain away as a frenzied passion.

  Hadrian wanted to be with her forever—for as long as possible.

  This was special.

  He wondered if this was the same kind of thing his dad had told him about. It had to be.

  Yet his dad’s world and his mother’s world had not meshed very well. Royalty and commoners, no matter what the situation, didn’t always mean happily ever after.

  Would that happen to him as well?

  Granted, he wasn’t an active member of the royal family, but he had a life unrelated to Sydney—even on a cooking show, he was still somewhat Hollywood.

  Work was done in LA. And Sydney’s home was in the Midwest. How could he ask her to give up her life for him?

  Would she even consider it?

  Probably not.

  And he couldn’t work out of Kansas.

  He nuzzled her neck. I’m not ready to lose her.

  “What is it?” Sydney asked him, jarring him from his thoughts.

  “I just…” he let out a sigh. “It’s not important…”

  She stroked his cheek again. “Remembering the doctor?”

  “Huh?”

  “I figured you were remembering the doctor saying no sex for a week, that’s why you were tensing up.”

  He jerked his head up. “I forgot he’d mentioned that.” He rolled off her. “I’m sorry.”

  She smiled and reached between his legs. “We’ll have to put a posty-note on this and remind him no sex.” She let her hand run up and down his hard-on for a moment.

  “I don’t think that’s going to help him stay down.” He tipped his head back. “Especially if you keep doing that.”

  “What? This?”

  He groaned. “That.”

  She continued. “What, can’t a big tough guy like you handle a little bit of, well, of handling?”

  “God, girl,” he moaned. She didn’t stop what she was doing, and he tried once to pry her hand away from him, but it didn’t work. She was suddenly bound and determined to bring him to completion.