Their Royal Wedding Bargain

by Michelle Conder

  ‘That’s always been one of your great strengths, Rafa. You speak your mind. Alexa would no doubt appreciate having someone like that in her corner when she starts her reign.’

  ‘Father didn’t.’

  ‘No. But he was an ass.’

  Rafe gave a short bark of laughter. ‘Not to put too fine a point on it.’

  Jag grinned, and suddenly it was as if they were teenagers again and racing each other across the sand in dune buggies.

  ‘Remember that day in—’

  ‘The mountains? Yeah. I beat you to the top that day.’

  Jag scoffed. ‘We’ll call it even. But I definitely won the—’

  ‘You wish,’ Rafe cut in on a laugh. ‘I’ve always been better than you at fencing.’

  ‘Dream on, lover boy. I’ll give you a rematch any time you’re game. But I was talking about the yacht race around the sound.’

  ‘A close call, I admit. But again, lucky.’

  Jag laughed at the outrageous call. He’d always been the better yachtsman, while Rafe had excelled at dune racing.

  He’d been wrong to dread tonight, Rafe realised with a jolt of clarity. Wrong to put so much distance between him and Jag over his guilty conscience because he had missed his brother. Missed his easy companionship.

  ‘Listen, Jag...’ he let out a slow breath ‘...I need to apologise for walking away all those years ago when you became King. I should have stayed to help with the transition.’

  Jag gave him a look. ‘There’s nothing to apologise for. I wanted you to go. You’d lived under Father’s iron rule for far too long. Staying would have stifled you even more.’

  ‘Still—’

  ‘It’s okay, Rafa. We’re—’

  Whatever Jag had been about to say was cut off when his eyes turned as hard as stone. Seconds later he was striding across the room to where Regan leant against the back of a chair, one hand cradling her belly.

  Noticing nothing out of place, Rafe followed, wondering at the tense set of his brother’s shoulders.

  ‘Goddamn it, Regan, I knew we shouldn’t have come here tonight,’ Jag said, steel lining every word, his hard gaze riveted to his wife.

  ‘Don’t swear,’ Regan admonished. ‘I got the all-clear to fly this weekend, remember?’

  Sick with dread that his brother’s seemingly solid relationship had gone the way of his parents’, Rafe was about to step between them, as he had done with his parents many times during his youth, when Regan let out a low moan. ‘How was I to know that my waters would break tonight?’

  Her waters had broken?

  Comprehension dawned on Rafe in a brutal rush.

  ‘If something happens to you,’ Jag ground out, his voice ragged with emotion, ‘I’ll never forgive myself.’

  ‘Nothing will happen. I’m in labour. I’m not dying.’

  ‘A month early!’

  ‘Babies come early all the time. It’s—’ Her breath cut off as another contraction hit her. Jag swore and lifted her into his arms.

  Acting purely on instinct, Rafe pulled his phone from his pocket, dialling the emergency services as his eyes searched for Alexa.

  Before he’d located her, he felt her hand go into his, squeezing gently. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘What you are doing.’ He brought her fingers to his lips, his worried eyes on his sister-in-law and brother. After organising emergency services he dialled another number, relieved when the call was answered on the first ring.

  A ripple went through the room as the guests started to get wind of what was happening.

  ‘The ambulance is two minutes away,’ Rafe told his brother. ‘And a friend of mine who is probably the best obstetrician in Britain will meet us at the emergency door of the hospital.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Jag swallowed hard, his eyes watering.

  ‘She’s going to be fine,’ Rafe assured him. ‘You focus on her. I’ll take care of everything else.’

  * * *

  Two hours later, Rafe felt ragged as he waited for news, any news, that Regan was okay and the baby had been delivered safe and well. He’d never felt so helpless as he had at the sight of his powerful brother brought to his knees with worry.

  This was why he wanted nothing to do with love. It churned you up inside and spat you out, battered, at the other end. It was such a stupid emotion. He had no idea why people actually sought this kind of thing out.

  As if reading his thoughts, Alexa glanced at him from across the room. Two steps and she’d be in his arms and he’d feel one hundred times better, but he resisted the urge. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want to rely on someone else to make him happy.

  But wasn’t that already what had happened? All week he’d talked with her, laughed with her, held her in his arms and danced with her and that was exactly how he’d felt. Happy. Content. Complete.

  Two of Chase’s top security operatives stood to attention at the door of the waiting room, four more coordinating with Jag’s special envoy outside the building and outside the delivery suite.

  ‘I’m sure she’s fine,’ Alexa offered tentatively, a wary expression clouding her eyes. She was only trying to make him feel better so why wasn’t he holding her? Comforting her? Taking comfort from her?

  ‘Coffee.’ Milena returned, bearing three steaming mugs. ‘The café is closed at this time, so it’s vending machine only, I’m afraid, but what can you do?’

  ‘Alexa doesn’t drink coffee at night,’ he said absently.

  ‘I will tonight,’ she said, straightening to go to his sister. ‘I think I’d drink anything right now. Thanks for thinking of it.’

  ‘I needed to do something and since Sherlock here—’ Milena gestured to the Chase security expert Rafe had asked to stay with her during the whole proceedings ‘—wouldn’t let me go for a walk, or go find a decent café, that’s it.’

  The security operative’s expression didn’t change as he handed over a bag of snacks to Milena.

  She took it begrudgingly. ‘And snacks. Anyone want one?’

  Remembering how much fun he’d had feeding Alexa chocolates they’d bought that day at the market, his eyes cut to hers. As if her mind had deviated down the same path, her eyes turned smoky.

  Breathing hard, he deliberately turned to his sister before he pulled Alexa into an unlocked supply closet and rid himself of all this tension with something stronger than coffee.

  When he glanced back, Alexa had her bottom lip between her teeth and was staring at the floor. Before he could go to her a nurse pushed through the glass door.

  Rafe’s heart rose to his mouth.

  The nurse smiled. ‘It’s a girl,’ she said. ‘And mother and baby are both healthy and doing well.’

  A noisy breath shuddered out of his lungs. His sister whooped with joy and Alexa had a hand on her heart.

  ‘Can we see them?’

  ‘Of course. Her Majesty asked for all of you to come through.’

  Almost dazed at the notion that he was an uncle, Rafe followed his sister and wife into the delivery suite.

  The room was quiet as they entered, Regan reclining in the bed while Jag held a small bundle wrapped in white. For a woman who had just given birth, Regan looked awfully good. Not that Rafe had ever seen a woman straight after giving birth before.

  ‘Oh, my... She’s adorable,’ Milena cooed. ‘Congratulations.’

  Grinning from ear to ear, Jag handed the precious bundle to his sister.

  ‘I’m so grateful, Rafe,’ Regan said, her brown eyes tired but filled with joy. ‘Your brother completely lost it in my hour of need. If you hadn’t stepped up I probably would have given birth on the dessert trolley.’

  Jag scoffed at the very idea and Rafe turned away from the loved-up couple—only to freeze when he saw Alexa.

  At some point Milena had passed
the newborn over to her and she had his niece cradled against her chest, an adoring expression on her face.

  A tight fist wrapped around his heart and squeezed. For a moment he couldn’t breathe. Her long hair had drifted over one shoulder, glossy and black, her face a mask of serenity. It was like the time he’d first set eyes on her, another bolt of lightning hitting him square between the eyes, followed quickly by the sure knowledge that he could look at this woman for the rest of his life and never grow tired of it.

  ‘Do you want to hold her?’

  Somehow, Alexa was in front of him. Rafe frowned. For the rest of his life?

  He saw her eyes widen. ‘You’ve gone pale. If you don’t want to...’

  ‘No.’ He kept his gaze on the baby in her arms. ‘I’ll hold her.’

  As if he was standing on the outside looking in, he took the baby and cradled her in his arms. She was so tiny. So dainty. This perfect little being that was both vulnerable and needy. Taking in the glow on both her parents’ faces, he knew that she would always be loved. She’d never have cause to feel insecure or abandoned by those she needed the most.

  What would it be like if this was his child? His and Alexa’s?

  Emotion, thick and unwelcome, clogged his throat. Those feelings he’d had for her earlier increased tenfold. Feelings he’d never had for a woman before. Previously, his life had always seemed so clear-cut. One thing had led on to another and he’d never questioned it. He’d just gone with it and cared little about the outcome. But he cared now, he realised. He cared very much.

  * * *

  Alexa had never felt more like running than she did right now. When she had passed the baby to Rafe all she’d thought about was how it would feel if that tiny angel belonged to both of them. The chilly expression on his face told her that he most definitely had not been thinking the same thing.

  As a result the car ride back to the apartment had been quiet, as if they were both lost in their own thoughts. But it wasn’t a happy quiet as it should have been after the safe arrival of a baby. It was fraught with unspoken emotions. It was as if all the closeness of the past week had fallen away as if it had never existed. And perhaps it hadn’t outside her own imagination.

  As soon as they arrived at the apartment Alexa didn’t wait around to see what Rafe intended to do; instead she headed for the spare room she’d been allocated and pulled her suitcase out of the walk-in wardrobe.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  Heart thumping, Alexa turned and blinked at him. His eyes were unreadable as he took in her suitcase and the clothing in her hands.

  ‘Packing.’

  ‘It’s nearly midnight.’

  ‘I know.’ She flashed him a bright smile. ‘Your odd hours must have rubbed off on me.’

  Intensely aware of him watching her, she kept her movements smooth and unruffled as she folded a shirt and placed it in the case.

  ‘I thought you were staying an extra week.’

  ‘I was but then I remembered that I have a number of meetings booked in for Monday that I can’t miss.’ She knew she was rambling but she couldn’t seem to take a breath deep enough to oxygenate her brain.

  ‘Get your father to attend them.’

  ‘I can’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t think it through enough when you asked me to stay earlier. How beautiful is your niece, though? I love the name, Jana. It really suits her.’

  ‘Forget the baby,’ he growled. ‘And leave the damn clothes where they are.’ His hands descended on her shoulders as he turned her to face him, his jaw tight. ‘I need you, Alexa. I need to touch you. I need to make love to you.’

  There was something in his eyes Alexa had never seen before. A depth of emotion she knew had come from experiencing anxiety about the unexpected birth of his niece. It had affected her too, making her want to find space so she could process everything. But she could no more deny Rafe than she could stop the cycles of the moon.

  Gazing up at him, she let her eyes drift over the hard planes of his face. This was what happened, she reminded herself brokenly, when you opened yourself up to uncertainty. You got hurt.

  Because she had to go. She had to return to Berenia and pick up the reins of her normal life. She had to get back to what she knew, not only because it was what they had agreed upon from the start, but because she would only be staying an extra week in the vain hope that Rafe’s feelings for her would change.

  And she wouldn’t torture herself like that. Not a second time. And not with a man who already had too much of her heart, little did he know it.

  ‘Stay.’ He cupped her face in his hands.

  Alexa’s heart felt as if it had just cleaved in two at the look in his eyes, the anguish of her own emotions like a chokehold around her throat. She so desperately wanted to tell him how she felt, tell him that if he needed her she’d be his for ever, but fortunately he kissed her and she stopped thinking altogether. Stopped trying to make this into something that it wasn’t and gave into the passion between them, winding her arms around his neck and holding him tight for the last time.

  * * *

  When he woke in the morning Rafe knew she was gone. There was an emptiness in the room, a silence in his apartment he hadn’t felt since before she had arrived.

  An icy feeling of disappointment entered his heart, followed by a hot rush of anger. Of course she had left like this. Stealing away in the middle of the night as if she’d never even been here. He’d known she’d wanted to go, and yet he’d asked her to stay anyway. No, begged her to stay. A futile exercise.

  Thrusting back the covers, he pulled on his clothes and headed for the kitchen. She’d left a note. A pitiful piece of paper that thanked him for a wonderful week, asking him to call her if he needed her for anything.

  As if he’d do that.

  He might have had feelings for her last night, feelings that ran deeper than any he’d ever experienced before with any other woman, but that had only been because of the drama surrounding the birth of his niece. It had unlocked something inside him—some emotion that had made him think, for the barest second, that he was in fact in love with Alexa.

  Thank God he hadn’t told her that during the heat of their lovemaking during the night. Thank God he hadn’t confused sex with emotion when that was all it had ever been.

  Intense, yes. Controlling at times. But love...no. This wasn’t love. This was white-hot fury that he’d allowed a woman to get under his skin and she’d walked out on him in the middle of the night.

  Had she thought he couldn’t handle seeing her leave? That he’d try and stop her?

  He wouldn’t have. Not a second time.

  CHAPTER TEN

  RAFE GLARED AT the pile of paperwork on his desk as if the fierceness of his stare might get it done without him having to actually do anything. The promise of spring had completely left London, and rain lashed the windows of his office as if some angry god were throwing spears from the sky.

  Not that he cared. He wasn’t planning to leave any time soon and when he did he’d just be going home to an empty apartment.

  Still, the gloom of the exterior seemed to invade the office, casting a dim glow that not even the bright lights inside could drive away.

  Another email pinged into his inbox just as Hannah knocked on his door. Knowing that his EA would be harder to ignore, he turned towards the door, his jaw clenching when instead of Hannah standing in his doorway it was Milena in a bright pink coat, her hair cut into an edgy long bob.

  He’d successfully dodged his family prior to Jag flying Regan and his precious daughter, Princess Jana, home by explaining that he was coming down with something and hadn’t wanted to infect the baby. Which had been true. He’d felt like death warmed up for the past eight days. But now his sister had caught up with him.

  ‘I thought you had left for New York,’ he said pleasantly, deciding that
heading her off at the pass was his best game opener.

  ‘I had some things to finish up in Oxford before I left.’ She strolled closer and flopped down in the chair opposite his desk. ‘Then Hannah staged an intervention so here I am.’

  Rafe frowned. ‘Hannah did what?’

  ‘Staged an intervention.’ Milena’s eyes moved over his face with deliberate slowness. ‘I have to confess I can see why she did. You look awful.’

  ‘I haven’t shaved for—’ he couldn’t remember ‘—a few days. That hardly constitutes awful.’

  ‘You haven’t slept for a few days either, if the circles beneath your eyes are anything to go by.’

  ‘Forgot to moisturise.’

  ‘Ha! What’s up?’ Her voice went soft, her gaze following suit. Rafe ground his teeth together.

  ‘Work,’ he intoned. ‘Now, is there any other reason for your visit?’

  ‘How’s Alexa?’

  She reached for the glass paperweight on his desk and started fiddling with it.

  His eyes narrowed at her innocuous tone. ‘Is this one of your trick questions?’

  He hadn’t spoken to Alexa since she’d walked out of his life and he couldn’t be sure if Milena knew that or not.

  ‘No, this is me trying to ease into the conversation without getting my head bitten off.’ She gave a sigh. ‘I know Alexa is back in Berenia. Jag told me.’

  ‘Did he also tell you why?’

  ‘He told me that your marriage wasn’t all that it seemed, if that’s what you mean.’

  Rafe gave a harsh bark of laughter. ‘Always the diplomat, our brother.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘Look, he’s right. Alexa and I married for political reasons and, according to recent reports, it seems to be working. I’m considering it my good deed for Santara.’

  ‘Sorry, I’m not buying it,’ Milena said bluntly. ‘I know you, Rafe. You didn’t just marry her for political reasons. It was real. I was there. I saw you both say your vows to each other. I saw you kiss her at the altar.’

  The last thing he wanted was to remember kissing Alexa and he turned back to his computer. ‘It’s done, Milena. In three thousand, four hundred and thirty-two hours we’ll be divorced.’