by Abby Green
* * *
Daniel woke up with a pounding head and a dry throat. He cursed loudly into the quiet of the hotel suite. Too angry to leave Azoria yesterday, he’d booked into a plush Azorian hotel, then found a dive of a bar and had proceeded to drink himself into oblivion. Anything to try and block out the parting words of Analia and the way her voice had sounded so raw.
He opened his eyes and winced at the bright sunlight streaming in through the windows. The alcohol had numbed him yesterday but it couldn’t help him now. He felt tight inside. He couldn’t believe what she’d said. She was desperate. She needed a marriage to save her monarchy and he was the convenient lay who had given her her one night of hedonistic freedom, because she’d felt claustrophobic.
He had tried to forget how isolated she’d looked when he’d first seen her at the party in Venice. He’d tried not to imagine what it must be like to bear that yoke of responsibility all your life, so that you knew nothing of personal freedom or choice.
And most of all he’d tried not to believe what his heart so desperately wanted to believe...that it was true. That something magical had happened that night between them. That she felt the same. That she had ached for him as he ached for her.
A sound broke through Daniel’s consciousness and he realized that the TV was on a local news channel. He must have switched it on last night when he’d come in, a reflex from when he’d been a reporter. He sat up and groaned and then stood up. He headed for the bathroom, reaching for the TV control switch as he did, about to turn it off. When he stopped dead.
Analia. Dressed casually in dark tailored trousers and a white silk shirt. Flat shoes. Hair pulled back into a low ponytail. And more beautiful than any other woman he’d ever seen. His heart clenched hard. She looked fragile in the middle of a group of big burly guards and officials as she left the palace.
Something inside Daniel rose up, making him clench his fists. He had an overwhelming need to pluck her out of that crowd. To protect her from being jostled. She seemed intensely vulnerable at that moment and for a second her eyes looked straight at the camera and she looked...hunted. Immediately he thought of the moment in Venice when she’d looked exactly the same, just before she’d tried to leave. And he’d stopped her.
The camera zoomed in then on the preppy blonde reporter who was saying, ‘Queen Analia will give a press conference this afternoon to inform the world as to her response to this incredible scandal. Unless she names the father of her child and announces a marriage, the country will vote in a referendum if she should remain on the throne. Queen Analia is much beloved but can she weather a scandal of this size? Will this be the end of one of the longest ruling dynasties in Europe? And what will happen—’
Daniel flicked off the TV, his face impossibly grim. Analia hadn’t tried to persuade him to marry her. She’d said nothing of exposing him as the father. She was willing to put her role as Queen in jeopardy with a referendum. Something hard inside him started to break apart. He felt as if he was standing in front of a huge gaping black void. The sum of his experiences stretched out behind him and a gateway before him. The question was, could he trust enough to step through the gateway when he’d long ago lost the ability to trust anyone but himself?
CHAPTER FIVE
ANALIA’S BELLY WAS in knots. The numbness that had descended over her yesterday after Daniel had left was gone, but now she felt nothing but indescribable emotional pain.
She was sitting at a table with a stoic Pierre by her side, facing a wall of cameras and reporters from all over the world. And she’d never felt more alone. She cursed Daniel in that moment, for having ever given her the tantalizing sense of protection.
The hubbub of the press finally abated and an expectant hush settled over the room. Analia’s skin prickled. She felt sick.
The first reporter was singled out and asked, ‘Queen Analia, are you going to name the father of your child?’
She took a breath. ‘No I am not. Unless he wishes to be named.’
‘So you’re saying that you’ll go to a referendum and possibly lose your crown before you’ll identify the father?’
Analia crushed the quiver of emotion inside her, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. He doesn’t want to be involved. Not like that.’
‘Then how does he want to be involved?’
Analia opened her mouth and closed it again. She pictured Daniel’s stern and cold face. She pictured having the baby alone and informing Daniel after the birth.
‘Truthfully... I don’t—’
‘I’d like to know if you meant what you said yesterday?
Analia’s mouth was still open from when she’d been cut off. His voice. But it couldn’t be. She looked around wildly, trying to place where it had come from. Maybe she was hearing things. And then suddenly her eyes clashed with his stormy gray ones, and the breath left her body in a whoosh.
He was standing head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, arms crossed. Completely unreadable.
Scrabbling for time to get over the shock, Analia stuttered, ‘I’m sorry...could you repeat the question?’
Daniel took a step forward. ‘I’d like to know if you meant what you said yesterday?
Suddenly a whisper broke out amongst the crowd, someone had recognized Daniel.
All Analia could see was him. She was unaware of anyone else. ‘Why didn’t you leave? Her heart was beating erratically.
Daniel looked impossibly stern. ‘I believe I asked you a question.’
Analia recalled looking at Daniel’s back the day before, willing him to turn and face her. He wasn’t done punishing her. She shook her head minutely, ‘Please...don’t do this.’
He stepped forward again and this time the crowd parted to let him through. There was utter silence now in the room.
Daniel repeated the question again. ‘Did you mean what you said? It’s a very simple question, Analia.’
She felt as if she was being sucked into the gray depths of his eyes. Helpless under this sustained attack, Analia finally whispered, ‘Yes. I meant it.’
His jaw tightened. ‘What is it that you want, Analia?’
She frowned. ‘I don’t...what do you mean?’
‘Exactly that...what do you want?’
Analia just looked at him. No one had ever asked her that question in her life. She felt scared, disorientated. ‘I want my people to be happy. And safe. Secure.’
Daniel shook his head. ‘No, I want to hear what you want.’
Analia felt a kind of panic rising, a well worn urge to deny herself. ‘I told you...I want what’s best for my people. That’s always been my first priority.’ Her conscience slapped her. Until she’d gone looking for adventure in Venice.
Daniel shook his head again, his eyes flashing. “What do you want, Analia? Just for you?”
What he was asking was huge. She felt cornered. Her vision started blurring, her throat ached. ‘I’m not allowed to want. It’s not about me.’
‘So you’re ready to give up everything you’ve ever dreamed of and everything you’ve worked so hard for just because you’re afraid to admit to human frailty? Why shouldn’t you be allowed personal happiness too?’
A ball of emotion was growing in Analia’s chest. ‘Why are you doing this?’
As relentless as a steam train bearing down on her emotions, Daniel merely asked again, ‘What do you want, Analia?’
Something finally broke apart inside her. Letting out a small sob she gripped the table and said, ‘I want everything. I want it all. I want love. I want you.’
A collective gasp went through the crowd of seasoned hacks but Analia was unaware of it. Something like relief crossed Daniel’s face and he came right up to the table, walking around it and up to Analia where he gently tugged her out of the chair to stand. The chair fell behind her. The bodyguards took a step closer. But neither noticed those things. Analia couldn’t feel her legs. She could only look up into that gorgeous face.
‘Tha
t’s good,’ he said softly, eyes blazing with an emotion that Analia couldn’t dare to let herself believe in. ‘Because I need you and want you too. But I want more.’
Analia’s voice was choked, ‘You do?’
He nodded. ‘I want it all too and I want nothing less than your heart.’
Analia could only look at him, wide-eyed. Daniel’s hands were strong around her waist, anchoring her. She had a moment of déjà vu back to the boat in Venice when he’d lifted her in and she’d had that sense of something deep passing between them.
‘You’ve had my heart since the moment I saw you...’
He lifted a hand and cupped her jaw, making her breath hitch. ‘So it wasn’t just me then?’
She shook her head. Mesmerized. Floating.
Without her realizing what he was doing, he maneuvered them away from everyone by a few feet. He shook his head and spoke in a low voice, just for her ears, ‘It killed me that you’d known who I was but hadn’t contacted me. It killed me to think that you’d just used me like some kind of a pawn for a night of personal hedonism. It killed me to think that you would only have contacted me because of the baby.’
Analia reached out and touched his jaw, reverently, her heart swelling with love and wonder. ‘I wanted to contact you, so much. I dreamed of you. I’ve put myself second for so long that I didn’t even dare to believe I could have you...and then I found out I was pregnant. I was going to tell you, but I was scared...that I’d meant nothing to you.’
Daniel shook his head and declared softly, ‘When I woke up and you were gone I felt as if you’d ripped my heart out of my chest. But I couldn’t believe it, because I’ve never allowed my heart to breathe before now. I was so concerned about protecting myself from the pain of rejection because it was all I knew.’
Analia hiccuped softly, ‘I was so lonely until I met you. I’d always felt as if a part of me was missing.’
He stroked her cheek, cupped her jaw. ‘Together we’re whole.’
He cupped her face in his hands then and slanted his mouth over hers. Desire, hot and instant, engulfed them and the only thing that broke through their bubble of intimacy was the loud, persistent coughing of Analia’s grand vizier who was desperately trying to maintain some semblance of control.
Daniel pulled back and looked at Analia’s flushed face. It took her a second to open her eyes and they shone brilliantly, like two sapphires. The love he felt for this woman almost scared him with its intensity and he could see the same wonder reflected in her eyes.
He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. He could see that she’d forgotten where she was and that the world’s media had been witness to almost every word except for their last exchange.
He led her around so that the table was behind them and got down on one knee in front of her. Her eyes widened even more. Suddenly reality impinged on her. She glanced at the wall of media and then back at him. She’d gone pale. ‘Daniel..?’
He looked up at her and felt every single vestige of his old emotional armour fall away. He’d never been so exposed but he’d never felt so invincible. He held her hand in his and said loudly enough for everyone to hear, ‘Queen Analia, as the father of your child, would you do me the honour of marrying me?’
She looked down at him and he could see tears in her eyes making them glitter like brilliant gems. Her voice shook, ‘You don’t have to do this...just because...just because—’
‘Just because I love you?’ he finished for her. ‘Oh yes I do. Now, I asked you a question...will you marry me?’
Daniel could see the final vestige of her own fears and willed her to trust, like he did. She let out a shaky breath and then said, ‘Yes...I’ll marry you, Daniel Petrovsky.’
She bent down to kiss him and Daniel pulled her onto his knee, enveloping her in his arms, mouths open, tongues tangling in heat and lust. Before it could get too out of control Daniel pulled back reluctantly. Keeping hold of Analia’s hand, he stood up and pulled her up with him.
In a smooth move he caught her under her legs and lifted her up into his chest making her squeal.
Analia’s chest felt so full it hurt. She saw the stunned crowd of press, most with open mouths. Daniel’s arms were tight around her and she wrapped hers around his neck.
He looked out over the crowd and said in a deep authoritative voice, ‘I’d like to use this opportunity to announce that the City of Azoria will be the home of the Petrovsky Philanthropic Foundation, and as we’ve established that I am the father of Queen Analia’s baby and she’s agreed to marry me, I believe that any discussion of abdication is now irrelevant.’
Analia caught Pierre’s smug look to the old council member who had attacked her the day before and an incredible lightness bubbled up inside her. She knew she should care that Daniel had her held high in his arms and that he’d just kissed all her make-up off in front of her entire nation, but she couldn’t drum it up.
‘If you’ll excuse us now, I’d like to have a private meeting with my fiancée. We have matters of the state to discuss.’
Feeling drunk, Analia giggled and buried her head in Daniel’s neck as he strode through the crowd and out of the room. He went straight to the elevator where an open-mouthed attendant held it open for them.
By the time the press had got over their shock and raced out to follow them, Daniel was opening his hotel bedroom door and shouldering his way in, kicking the door shut behind him. They’d been followed by security who now took up positions outside the hotel room.
Daniel walked to the bed and laid Analia down. She looked up at him and bit her lip, everything that had just happened hitting her. ‘Daniel...’
He came down over her and kissed her and drew back. ‘Yes, my love?’
Analia looked up at him and the truth and love blazing from his eyes melted away any last doubts.
She reached her arms around his neck. ‘About those matters of state...we could be here for some time, they’re very complicated...’
Daniel interspersed his words with kisses as he undid the buttons on Analia’s shirt and pulled it open. ‘The more complicated the better...’
When he pulled open her shirt, he bent his head and pressed a kiss to her belly where their baby grew, before covering it possessively with his hand.
He looked at Analia. ‘If it’s a girl I vote for Alexandra Sasha.’
Analia smiled. ‘And if it’s a boy Alexander Sasha.’
* * *
Ten months later, Crown Princess Alexandra Sasha Penelope Petrovsky of Azoria was christened with great pomp and ceremony. When Queen Analia and Grand Prince Daniel emerged smiling from the church, their daughter held securely in her father’s arms, the crowds cheered and roared.
The Crown Princess merely blinked in the sunshine, revealing huge dark blue eyes ringed with gray, and then promptly went back to sleep.
The video footage of Queen Analia publicly declaring that she wanted love had become a viral sensation all over the world. The picture of her being kissed by playboy Daniel Petrovsky adorned the walls of romantic teenagers’ rooms all over Azoria.
Lip readers had tried in vain to decipher what had passed between them in those few moments when they’d had a hushed conversation just before he’d kissed her passionately and then proposed. But no one had figured it out so far, and it looked likely to remain a romantic mystery forever.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781459253810
Copyright © 2013 by Abby Green
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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