Page 11 of Twins For His Majesty (Royally Tempted #1)

She flinched. She hadn’t expected him to feel that way.

‘That is my child,’ he gestured towards her, ‘and that child is a Prince or Princess of Castilona. Their place is here.’

Her skin paled. It was everything she’d been most afraid of—that he would take her baby and raise him or her with his perfect princess wife. But now there were two babies to consider. She dropped her head a moment, sucking in air.

‘Our babies’ place is with me,’ she struggled to say.

Silence crackled in the room. She waited on tenterhooks for him to say Yes, of course . To say anything that would calm her anxiety. But he held the silence, simply staring at her until her stomach was in too many loops to function.

‘When did you find out?’

She closed her eyes on a wave of feeling. ‘Does that matter now?’

‘When?’ His response was taut, flattened by stress.

What was there to gain from obfuscating? ‘A couple of days after the last time…’

He swore again. ‘That’s six weeks ago.’

Yes. Six long, lonely weeks. She ignored the traitorous thought.

‘And you didn’t once think it would be appropriate for me to know I had helped to conceive a child?’

‘I’ve explained that. After the way you spelled out your life’s plans, how could I think you’d want to know about this? It would ruin everything for you.’

‘That was not your decision to make.’

‘Given that I was the only one who knew about the pregnancy, it was precisely my decision. And I did it for you . For your life, for your future, your family’s position in the country, for all the things you made so abundantly clear mattered most to you.

Why should a meaningless fling lead to a lifetime of consequences for you? ’

‘But it should for you?’

She floundered.

‘I—am not royal,’ she said after a beat.

‘I am not betrothed to some prince. I’m a free agent, and while being a single mum is definitely not what I had planned for my life, it’s not like I have other plans that this is getting in the way of.

’ Her voice cracked a little, because she was so close to admitting how off the rails her life had become.

The breakdown of her relationship with Christopher had shaken her off-track, and then not being able to find her father had made it all so much worse.

She felt completely alone in life, and now she wasn’t.

Her hand curved over her belly, connecting with the little lives in there.

‘Are you telling me this decision was purely altruistic? That no part of your choice came down to the fact you were insulted by my proposal that day?’

‘That was not a proposal, it was a proposition, and it was disgusting. But as angry as I was with you, that didn’t guide my decision-making.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘That’s your prerogative. It doesn’t matter. None of this matters.’

‘It matters a hell of a lot to me. You should have told me.’

She swallowed past a lump in her throat.

‘Well, would you like me to tell you something now, Octavio?’ She felt her sanity slipping.

She felt the shock of that day all mounting up inside of her, forming a wall that was hard and cold yet cracking all over.

‘News that will really give you something to shout about?’

His nostrils flared. She knew she should stop, take a breath, try to calm down but her blood was firing at the unfairness of all this.

How dared he be angry with her ? ‘The hospital director insisted on me getting a full check-up today.’ She stood then, needing to feel at more of a level with him. ‘I had my first scan.’

Something shifted in his expression. Emotion. Feeling.

‘I should have been there.’

‘Oh, yes, of course. Because that would have caused no scandal whatsoever.’ She rolled her eyes in a childish gesture that felt wonderful in that moment.

‘And?’ he demanded, voice like ice.

‘And what?’

‘The baby is fine?’

‘Oh, the baby is fine. In fact, both babies are fine,’ she snapped, almost maniacally now. ‘It’s twins,’ she added, and then she sobbed, lifting a hand to her mouth to stop the torrent of emotion from pouring out in a large wail.

Silence cracked around them but she barely noticed. She was shaking now, processing the truth of the scan, the reality that lay before her.

‘Well, then.’ His voice was low and silky, as though she hadn’t just told him they were going to have two babies in a matter of months. ‘That makes our decision even easier.’

‘What decision?’ she asked, whirling around to face him. Did he think she was going to have an abortion? Her skin paled and she looked for something to grab hold of, landing on the edge of a large bronze pot.

‘There is no way on earth you are leaving the country whilst pregnant with my children, so forget about returning to New Zealand.’

She flinched. She hadn’t expected that.

‘Nor will my children be born under a cloud of illegitimacy.’

Her heart almost stopped beating; his words made no sense. ‘I—don’t—what are you saying?’

‘That you must marry me—and quickly.’

His words were issued so calmly, with a matter-of-factness that almost seemed to present them as a fait accompli , implying she had no say in the matter, that there was no room to negotiate. But of course that wasn’t the case. Of course she could choose what she wanted.

‘I won’t marry you.’ She was pleased to have spoken so emphatically.

‘That is no longer a choice for either of us.’

‘Don’t be absurd. Last time I checked, I had free will…’

‘But you are pregnant with my twins, and I am the King.’

In the back of her mind, Phoebe wondered how many shocks she could endure in one day. ‘So? You might be a king but you cannot force me to marry you.’

‘That is true, but there is no court in this land that would award you parental rights over me.’

She gasped.

‘Are you saying you’d actually fight me for our babies?’

His nostrils flared. ‘That is the very last thing I would want to do.’

‘But you’d do it.’

‘If you refuse to be reasonable.’

Her eyes swept shut. ‘Are you hearing yourself? What you’re suggesting is the definition of unreasonable.’

‘It’s the definition of necessary,’ he corrected. ‘I know it is far from what either of us wants, Phoebe. I know that. But from the moment you conceived our twins, any other path was closed to us.’

She shook her head, wanting with all her heart for that not to be true.

‘I can’t marry you,’ she groaned, dropping her head into her palm. ‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because we’re not—we don’t know each other. We don’t love each other. I don’t even like you. Scratch that, I loathe you. What kind of marriage would that be?’

‘A perfect one, in my book.’

Her jaw dropped.

‘Loathing me is not ideal, but I have never sought a typical marriage. My role as King is everything to me—my marriage was always going to be about an heir. That is what I need most right now, and here you are, almost halfway to giving me not one but two .’

‘Not giving you two,’ she snapped. ‘Giving birth to them.’

‘Unimportant semantics.’

‘Not to me.’

‘Our marriage can be whatever you wish,’ he continued in the same vein, as though she had no say in this. ‘You would have some official duties but on the whole you could carve out a role for yourself that was as visible or not as you choose.’

‘Gosh, how accommodating you’re being,’ she muttered sarcastically. ‘You’re a paragon of reason.’

He expelled a rough breath. ‘What do you want me to say, Phoebe?’

‘I don’t want you to say anything. I don’t want anything from you.’ Her nostrils flared. ‘Six weeks ago you walked out of my apartment and as far as I was concerned, I never wanted to see you again.’

‘So this pregnancy changed nothing for you?’

‘The pregnancy changes everything for me,’ she contradicted sharply. ‘But none of that concerns you.’

‘How are you erasing me from our babies’ life?’

‘You erased yourself,’ she reminded him. ‘You made it abundantly clear how unsuitable I was to be anything more than your secret, shameful mistress.’

‘So like I said, this was about punishing me? Because you were offended by the pragmatic and realistic nature of my proposal?’

She stared at him. ‘Are you listening to me? You wanted to hide me away back then and now you’re saying we should get married. How would that work? You said no one would accept me as your mistress. But they will accept me as your wife?’

‘It won’t be straightforward,’ he said, voice steady. ‘You are not who I am expected to marry.’

She stood up then, anger coursing through her veins, and she was so relieved to feel it, because it was easier to manage than anxiety and nervousness. ‘You really are a gigantic horse’s ass.’

‘That,’ he enunciated clearly, ‘is precisely the kind of thing you will be expected not to say when you are Queen.’

The world tilted. Everything went hazy.

She stared at him, aghast.

Queen.

Not just his wife, but Queen of Castilona.

She pressed a hand to her stomach, moving towards one of the windows that framed a view over the city and towards the ocean.

She stared at the glittering water, made to look almost magical by the way the sun bounced off its surface.

This was an ancient and storied kingdom.

Its royal family was one of the oldest surviving in the world.

There was so much history here, so much tradition.

And he was asking her to be a part of that. To be Queen.