by Jane Porter
Her eyes burned and she drew a quick breath. “What was she like? My mom?”
“Like you.” Jack’s voice deepened, roughened. “Smart. Kind. Funny. And the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life.”
Emmeline dashed away tears. “You loved her?”
“More than I can say.”
The three of them had dinner and they talked nonstop, Emmeline asking questions and Jack answering them with Makin just listening.
Now and then during dinner Emmeline would have to brush away tears and she’d look at Makin and discover him watching her and the expression on his face … the look in his eyes … it nearly broke her heart.
He didn’t just want her body. He didn’t just want sex. He wanted her.
He cared for her.
He might even love her.
Blinking back tears she turned her attention to her father who was telling her how he’d met her mother. Jacqueline had been on a goodwill tour of North America and Jack, a Texas Ranger, had been assigned to her security detail while visiting Texas.
“We fell in love somewhere between Austin and San Antonio. We made love just once. It was hurried and risky, but I loved her. I was crazy about her and had imagined appearing before her parents in Brabant and asking for her hand. But after she returned home, I never heard from Jacqueline again. I had no idea she was pregnant until one day a woman shows up on my ranch with an infant, tells me that Jacqueline has died and this is our daughter.”
“And this woman never told you there had been another baby?” Emmeline asked, leaning forward.
He shook his head. “No. Not a word, and I can assure you, that if I had known about you, Emmeline, I would have come for you. And no one, not even the King and Queen of Brabant, could have kept me from you.”
Emmeline glanced at Makin and then back to her father. “Does Hannah know about me? That I’m really her sister?”
Makin nodded. “She does now.”
“I want to see her.”
“She’s on the way,” Jack said. “She should be here in the morning.”
Later, after everyone had gone to bed and the house was dark and quiet, Emmeline turned to face Makin. “You really do love me,” she whispered. “I wasn’t sure before. I thought it was just sex you wanted, or maybe a woman like Hannah—”
“Oh, no, I definitely don’t want Hannah.” He put a finger to her lips when she opened her mouth to protest. “She is brilliant and your twin sister, but I don’t feel even a spark of attraction for her. Now you … I can’t keep my hands off you.”
Emmeline closed her eyes, lips parting as he kissed the side of her neck, her collarbone and lower, on her breast. “You’d better stop, Makin. I won’t be able to talk pretty soon.”
“Good. We’ve talked enough for tonight.”
“But there are things I have to say—”
“You don’t.”
“I do. I need you to forgive me for saying hurtful things and pushing you away—”
“I already have.” He tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear. “I love you.”
“You should hate me for hurting you, for saying unkind things.”
The edge of his mouth lifted. “I can’t hate you. I could never hate you. You were scared. I know that.”
“It’s that easy? No grudges? No simmering anger? No lingering resentment?”
He laughed softly, pulling her onto his chest, and kissed her again. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re my wife—”
“Even if it’s by default?”
He laughed again and kissed her slowly. “Not by default. This is fate, my darling. You were made for me.”
“Even with all my flaws and faults?”
“You’re not flawed. You’re just you, and real, and perfect for me.”
“I love you, Makin.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
He nodded, kissed her gently, and then again, this time deepening the kiss so that his tongue teased hers, tasting her. “Yes.”
“How?”
“Because you can’t contain your feelings—”
“I knew it!”
He laughed softly and kissed her again. “And that’s a good thing, Emmeline. I need your warmth and your energy and your passion for life. I’ve spent these past fourteen years pouring myself into my work but I’m ready to have more … I want and need more. I want and need you.”
“Why? Why me?”
“I have no idea, but no one has mattered to me here,” he said, pausing to touch his chest, just over his heart, “until I entered Mynt and saw you there in that tight little turquoise dress. And I came alive. For you.”
“You really, truly do love me!”
“I really, truly do. And we’re good together. We’re meant to be together.”
“How can you be so sure? We’ve only been together a week.”
“My father knew my mother just days before he married her. They had twenty wonderful years together.”
She exhaled carefully, her heart so full it ached. “I would love to have twenty wonderful years with you.”
“Not me. I want at least forty.”
She had to blink back the hot rush of tears. “That does sound better.”
“At least forty,” he repeated. “We can watch our children grow, marry and have children. How does that sound?”
“Like the very best happily-ever-after ending I’ve ever heard!”
EPILOGUE
Seven months later
IT WAS a bright winter morning in Nadir, at the city’s best hospital in the wing reserved for the Al-Koury royal family. It had been a long night for those in the labor and delivery room, though, and Emmeline had been grateful for her husband’s and sister’s support.
Nineteen hours of contractions had left Emmeline exhausted and the pain was just getting worse.
Gripping Hannah’s hand tightly, Emmeline cried out as the latest contraction gripped her belly. The contractions were right on top of each other now with no rest time anymore. “Hurts,” she choked, perspiration beading her brow, body trembling uncontrollably.
“You’re almost there,” the nurse said soothingly.
Emmeline shook her head. “Really hurts.”
Makin glared at the nurse. “Give her something for the pain, now!”
“Too late,” the nurse answered crisply, stepping around the sheikh and checking the monitor that tracked Emmeline’s and the baby’s heart rates. Both were doing just fine.
“What do you mean, too late?”
The nurse stepped around Makin again. “The baby is crowning. He or she is here.”
But Makin was beside himself. “And where the hell is the doctor?”
“On his way. But your little one is impatient to see the world and has decided not to wait.” The nurse gave Emmeline a calm, encouraging smile. “Your Highness, on the next contraction you are going to take a deep breath and push—”
“Without giving her something for the pain?” Makin demanded.
“No, Makin, she can’t,” Hannah snapped at him from the opposite side of the bed, exasperated by his bellowing and the only one in any condition to tell him to pull himself together. “You insisted on being in here,” she added tartly, pointing to the door, “but you’re not helping Emmeline when you roar like that. So help her, or go.”
Makin’s jaw hardened as he swallowed, but his expression softened the moment he glanced down at Emmeline. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, smoothing her hair back from her damp face. “I hate seeing you in pain.”
“I’m okay.”
“Not okay,” he corrected, leaning over to kiss her. “You’re amazing.”
“All right, Your Highness,” the nurse said, watching the contractions build on another machine. “It’s time to meet your little one. Take a deep breath and push. Give me everything you can.”
With Hannah squeezing one hand, and Makin holding the other, Emmeline focused all
her energy on bringing her baby safely into the world.
“That’s it,” the nurse exclaimed. “You did it. Your daughter is here.”
And then the baby cried, a loud piercing cry.
“Oh, Emmie, she’s gorgeous!” Hannah exclaimed, leaning over to kiss her sister’s cheek. “Congratulations!”
A girl, a daughter, Emmeline silently repeated as she glanced from the nurse who held the squalling infant, to her husband, Makin, who only had eyes for the newborn.
“May I hold her?” he asked the nurse gruffly.
“Do you want to wait until I clean her up?”
“No. I’ve been waiting forever to meet my daughter.”
Emmeline’s eyes filled with tears as the nurse handed the slippery, shrieking baby to Makin. He held her close to his chest, his big arms cradling her securely, as if that’s what his arms were made to do. “Jacqueline Yvette,” he said softly, and the baby stopped kicking and crying.
“What do you think of the name?” he asked Emmeline, carrying the tiny infant around the foot of the bed and over to meet her mother for the first time.
Emmeline gazed down at her naked baby daughter nestled in Makin’s powerful arms. She was a red-faced little thing with a thatch of dark hair and a big strong kick. “It’s perfect,” she said huskily.
Makin leaned over to kiss her. “Just like her mother.”
Blinking back tears, Queen Hannah Jacqueline Patek quietly slipped out of the room to go tell her husband that the next generation of beautiful royal princesses had just been born.
* * * * *
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II BV/S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
® and TM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
First published in Great Britain 2012
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.
Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Jane Porter 2012
ISBN: 978-1-408-97402-5
Table of Contents
Cover
Excerpt
About the Author
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
Copyright
