The Prince's Secret Baby Read online

  “That’s the general assumption. She’s a guest at the palace. It would be pretty unforgivable of me to let her find out in the tabloids that I’m already married.”

  “Pretty unforgivable?”

  “All right. Simply unforgivable. As I said before, she’s like a sister to me. While a man doesn’t want to marry his sister—he doesn’t want to see her hurt, either.”

  “I understand that.”

  “Sydney…” He tried to wrap his arm around her.

  She dodged away from his touch. “Why, exactly, is she expecting you to marry her?” She looked at him then. Those green eyes that could be so soft and full of desire for him, were cool now, emerald-bright.

  “I told you, she’s always believed herself to be in love with me, ever since we were children. She’s looked up to me, she’s…waited for me. And as the years have gone by and I never married, it has been spoken of, between our two families, that I would need to marry soon due to the laws that control my inheritance. That Lili would be a fine choice in any number of ways.”

  “What ways?”

  He suppressed an impatient sigh. “Ways of state, you might say. Over the years, there has been conflict, off and on, between Montedoro and Alagonia.”

  “Wars, you mean?”

  “No. Small states such as ours rarely engage in wars. In Montedoro, we don’t even have a standing army. But there has been discord—bad feelings, you could say—between our two countries. The most recent rift occurred because King Leo, Lili’s father, wanted to marry my mother. My mother didn’t want to marry him. She wanted to rule Montedoro and she wanted, as much as possible, to protect our sovereignty. If she’d married a king, he could so easily have encroached on her control of the throne. Plus, while she’s always been fond of King Leo, she didn’t feel she could love him as a husband. And she wanted that, wanted love in her marriage. She managed to avoid a situation where Leo might have had a chance to propose to her. And then she met my father.”

  “Don’t tell me.” At least there was some humor in her voice now. “It was love at first sight.”

  “So my mother claims. And my father, as well. They married. King Leo is known for his hot temper. He was angry and even went so far as to put in place certain trade sanctions as something of a revenge against my mother and Montedoro for the injury to his pride. But then he met and married Lili’s mother, an Englishwoman, Lady Evelyn DunLyle. The king loved his new wife and found happiness with her. He gave up his vendetta against my mother and Montedoro. Leo’s queen and my mother became fast friends. Though Queen Evelyn died a few years ago, relations between our countries have been cordial for nearly three decades and we all think of Lili as one of our family.”

  “You’re saying that if you’d married the princess, it would have bolstered relations between your countries. But now that you’ve essentially dumped her, if she goes crying to her father, your country and her country could end up on the outs again.”

  “I have not dumped her.” He felt his temper rising, and quickly restrained it. “A man cannot dump a woman he’s never been with in any way. I swear to you, Sydney, I have never so much as kissed Liliana, except as a brother would, chastely, on the cheek.”

  “But she thinks you’re going to kiss her for real. She thinks you’re going to be with her. She thinks that she’ll be married to you before the twenty-fourth of June.”

  “Yes.” He said it resignedly. “I believe she does.”

  “You realize that’s kind of pitiful, don’t you? I mean, if you’ve never given her any sort of encouragement, why would she think that you’ll end up proposing marriage—unless she’s a total idiot?”

  “Lili is not an idiot. She’s a romantic. She’s more than a little…fanciful.”

  “You’re saying she’s weak-minded?”

  “Of course not. She’s a good person. She’s…kind at heart.”

  Sydney shook her head. “You strung her along, didn’t you?”

  “No. I did no such thing. I simply…failed to disabuse her.”

  “Come on, Rule. She was your ace in the hole.” Those green eyes were on him. He had the rather startling intuition that she could see inside his head, see the cogs turning as he tried to make excuses for what he had to admit was less than admirable behavior. “You never encouraged her. But you didn’t need to encourage her. Because she’d decided you were her true love and she’s a romantic person. You figured if you never met anyone who…worked for you, as a partner in life, you could always marry Lili when your thirty-third birthday got too close for comfort.”

  “All right.” He threw up both hands. “Yes. That’s what I did. That is exactly what I did.”

  She gave him a look that seared him where he sat. “And it was crappy what you did, Rule. It was really crappy.”

  “Yes, Sydney. It was…crappy. And I feel accountable and I want to apologize to her in person.”

  “I should hope so.” She huffed out a disgusted breath.

  And then there was silence. He stared straight ahead and hated that she was angry with him.

  And by God, if she was angry over Lili, what was he in for when she found out about Trevor?

  He couldn’t stop himself from pondering his own dishonesty. About Trevor. About Lili. He was beginning to see that he wasn’t the man he’d believed himself to be. That he was only an honest man when it suited him.

  Such thoughts did not make him proud.

  Plus, he found himself almost wishing he’d told her another lie just now, given her some other excuse as to why he had to go back right away to Montedoro. He hated this—the two of them, so late on their wedding night it was already the next morning, sitting side by side on the edge of their marriage bed, not looking at each other.

  “We’ll leave right after breakfast,” she said. “You can go straight to Montedoro. I’ll get a commercial flight for Lani and Trevor and me.”

  “I will take you to Dallas,” he said.

  “Really. It’s fine. I’ll—”

  “No.” He cut her off in a voice that brooked no argument. “I will take you to Texas. And then I’ll go straight on from there.”

  * * *

  A half an hour later, they lay in bed in the darkness together, but not touching, facing away from each other. Sydney knew it was the right thing, for him to go, to make his peace with the woman he’d kept on a string.

  She knew it was the right thing…

  But she didn’t like it one bit. She was disappointed in Rule. And more than a little angry that because of him, their wedding night had ended in such a rotten, awful way.

  Here she’d married her prince, literally. She’d been so sure he was the perfect man for her—and the day after their wedding, he had to leave her to fly back to his country and apologize to the woman everyone had thought he would marry. A woman Rule said was like a sister to him, a woman who was pretty and delicate and romantic at heart. Sydney was none of those things. Not pretty. Not the least delicate.

  Okay, maybe she was a bit of a romantic. But she’d never had the luxury of indulging her romantic streak—not until her own personal prince came along.

  Maybe her prince wasn’t such a fine man, after all. Maybe she should have slowed things down between them, at least a little, given herself more time to make sure that marrying him was really right for her. She’d been hurt before, and badly. She should have kept those past heartaches more firmly in mind. Ryan and Peter had proved that she didn’t have the best judgment when it came to giving her heart. And yet, after knowing Rule for—oh, dear God, under forty-eight hours—she’d run off to Vegas and married him.

  Sydney closed her eyes tightly. Was she a total fool, after all? She’d followed her heart yet again. And look at her now, hugging the edge of the bed on her wedding night, curled into a tight ball of pure misery.

  And then the truth came to her, cool and sweet as clean water poured on a wound. Rule wasn’t Ryan or Peter. He hadn’t lied to her or manipulated her.

 
He’d told her the truth about Princess Lili on Saturday night before he’d asked her to marry him. And when his father had called him home to make peace with Lili, Rule hadn’t lied to her about what was going on. Even though he so easily could have, he hadn’t taken the easy way, hadn’t made up some story for why he needed to get back. After all, she knew he had responsibilities in Montedoro and she would have most likely accepted any credible story he’d told her about the sudden necessity for him to go.

  But he hadn’t lied. He’d taken the hard way, the way that proved his basic integrity. He’d told her what was really going on, and told her honestly. Told the truth, even when the truth didn’t show him in the greatest light.

  All at once, her stomach didn’t feel quite so tight anymore. And her heart didn’t ache quite so much.

  Carefully, slowly, she relaxed from the tight little ball she’d curled herself into. She stretched out her legs and then, with a sigh, she eased over onto her back.

  She could feel him beside her, feel his stillness. A concentrated sort of stillness. She couldn’t hear his breathing. He must be awake, too. Lying there in misery, hating this situation as much as she did.

  No, she didn’t forgive him, exactly. Not yet, anyway. She couldn’t just melt into his arms, just send him off to Princess Lili with a big, brave smile and a tender kiss goodbye.

  But she could…understand the position he was in. She could sympathize.

  The sheet between them was cool. She flattened her hand on it, and then moved her fingers, ever so slowly, toward his unmoving form.

  He moved, too. Only his hand. His fingers touched hers and she didn’t pull back.

  She lay very still. No way was she going to let him wrap those big, warm arms around her.

  But when his fingers eased between hers, she let them. And when he clasped her hand, she held on.

  She didn’t let go and neither did he. In time, sleep claimed her.

  * * *

  Rule had a car waiting for them in Dallas. He exited the jet to say goodbye to them as their bags were loaded into the trunk and airport personnel bustled about, preparing the jet for the flight to Montedoro.

  Trev went eagerly into his arms. “Bye, Roo! Kiss!” And he kissed Rule’s cheek, making a loud, happy smacking sound.

  Rule kissed him back. “I will see you very soon.”

  “Soon. Good. Come see me soon.”

  “You be good for your Mama and Lani.”

  “I good, yes!”

  Rule handed Trev over to Lani and turned to Sydney. “A moment?” he asked carefully. Lani left them, carrying Trev to the open backseat door where the driver had already hooked in his car seat. Rule brushed a hand down Sydney’s arm—and then instantly withdrew it. She felt his touch like a bittersweet echo on her skin, even through the fabric of her sleeve. He said, “You haven’t forgiven me.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Have a safe trip.” She met his eyes, made her lips turn up in a fair approximation of a smile.

  He muttered, low, “Damn it, Sydney.” And then he reached for her.

  She stiffened, put her hands to his chest, started to push him away. But then he was kissing her. And he tasted so good and he smelled like heaven and…

  Well, somehow, she was letting her hands slide up to link around his neck. She melted into him and kissed him back. A little moan of frustrated confusion escaped her, a moan distinctly flavored with unwilling desire.

  And when he finally lifted his head, she couldn’t make up her mind whether to slap him or grab him around the neck, pull him down and kiss him again.

  “Kisses don’t solve anything,” she told him tightly, her hands against his chest again, keeping him at a safer distance. She should have jerked free of his hold completely. But he would be gone in a minute or two. And she’d already kissed him. She might as well go all the way, remain in the warm circle of his arms until he left her.

  “I know they don’t. But damned if I can leave you without a goodbye kiss.”

  Okay, he was right. She was glad he had kissed her. Sometimes a kiss said more than words could. She lifted a hand and laid it cherishingly against his lean cheek. “Tell the princess I…look forward to meeting her.”

  He turned his lips into her palm, kissed her there, the way he had that first night, in their private alcove at the Mansion restaurant, his breath so warm and lovely across her skin. “I’ll return for you. Within the week.”

  A week wasn’t going to cut it. He should know that. She reminded him, “I told you I would need a month, at least, to tie up loose ends at the firm—and that’s with you giving my partners a few rich clients as a going-away present.”

  “I will do what I said I would. And I’m still hoping you can be finished faster.”

  “Well, that’s not going to happen. Get used to it.”

  “I’ll try. And when I return, you’re going to have to make room for me at your house.” He added, so tenderly, “Because I can’t live without you.”

  His words softened her heart and she wasn’t sure she wanted that. She was all turned around inside, wanting him so very much, not wanting to be vulnerable to him. She rolled her eyes. “Can’t live without me. Oh, right. Kissing up much?”

  He took her by the arms. “Correction. I don’t want to live without you. I’m wild for you. And you know that I am.”

  Well, yeah. She did, actually. She relented a little. “Of course you’ll be staying at my house. I don’t want to live without you, either, no matter how angry I happen to be with you.”

  “Good.”

  “After all, we’re only just married—we only just met, if you want to get right down to it.”

  “Don’t.” He said it softly. But his eyes weren’t soft. His eyes were as black and stormy as a turbulent sea. “Please.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it and the simple touch of his mouth on her skin worked its way down inside her, into the deepest part of her. It warmed her and thrilled her—and reassured her, too. “One week,” he said fervently. “At the most. I will miss you every day I’m away from you. I will call you, constantly. You’ll be sick and tired of hearing the phone ring.”

  “I won’t mind running to answer the phone. I’ll answer and answer gladly,” she confessed in a near-whisper. “As long as it’s you on the other end of the line.”

  “Sydney…” He kissed her again, a quick, hard press of his lips against hers. “A week.”

  And he let her go. She watched him mount the steps to the plane. And she waited to wave to him, when he paused to glance back at her one more time before going in.

  Finally, too soon, he was gone.

  * * *

  Rule arrived at Nice Airport at five in the morning. From there, it was only a short drive to Montedoro. He was in his private apartments at the Prince’s Palace before six.

  At eight, Caroline deStahl, his private secretary, brought him the five newspapers he read daily—and the three tabloids that contained stories about him and Sydney. All three tabloids ran the same pictures, one of the two of them kissing, and another of them fleeing down an Impresario hallway. And all three had similar headlines: The Prince Takes a Bride and Wedding Bells for Calabretti Royal and Prince Rule Elopes with Dallas Legal Eagle.

  It was a little after 1:00 a.m. in Dallas. Sydney would be in bed. He hated to wake her.

  But he did it anyway.

  She answered his call on the second ring. “It’s after one in the morning, in case you didn’t notice,” she grumbled sleepily.

  “I miss you. I wish I was there with you.”

  “Is this an obscene phone call?”

  He laughed. “It could become one so easily.”

  “Are you there yet?”

  “In my palace apartment, yes. My secretary just delivered the tabloids. We are the main story.”

  “Which tabloids?”

  He named them. “I’m sure we’re all over the internet, as well. You are referred to by name. And also as my bride, the ‘Dallas Legal Eagle.�
��”

  “Ugh. I was hoping to explain things to my partners at the firm before the word got out. Have you spoken with Princess Liliana yet?”

  “No. But I will right away, this morning.”

  “What can I say? Good luck—and call me the minute it’s over.”

  He pictured her, eyes puffy, hair wild from sleep. It made an ache within him, a sensation that some large part of himself was missing. He said ruefully, “I’ll only wake you again if I call… .”

  “Yeah, well. It’s not like I’ll be able to go back to sleep now. At least, not without knowing how it went.”

  He felt thoroughly reprehensible. On any number of levels. “I shouldn’t have called.”

  “Oh, yeah. You should have. And call me right away when it’s over. I mean it.”

  “Fair enough. Sydney, I…” He sought the words. He didn’t find them.

  She whispered, “Call me.”

  “I will,” he vowed. And then he heard the faint click on the line, leaving him alone, half a world away from her, with just his guilty conscience to keep him company.

  * * *

  Two hours later, he sat in the small drawing room of the suite Liliana always took whenever she visited the palace. He’d been waiting for half an hour for her to appear and he didn’t know yet whether she had heard about his marriage or not. Her attendant, one of Lili’s Alagonian cousins, Lady Solange Moltano, had seemed welcoming enough, so he had hopes that he’d arrived in time to be the first to tell her what she didn’t want to know.

  The door to the private area of the suite opened. He stood.

  Lili emerged wearing all white, a pair of wide-legged trousers and a tunic-length jacket, her long blond hair loose, her Delft-blue eyes shining, her cheeks pink with excitement. She was absolutely beautiful, as always. And he really was so fond of her. He didn’t want to see her hurt.

  He’d never wanted to see Lili hurt.

  “Rule.” She came toward him, arms outstretched.

  They shared an embrace. He looked down at the golden crown of her head and wished he were anywhere but there, in her sitting room, about to tell her that a brilliant, opinionated and fascinating brunette from Texas had laid claim to his heart.