She’d looked uncomfortable. ‘My chief counsellor and I overheard your conversation with your people before we spoke on the phone. You didn’t realise that we’d connected in…’
Caius had cast his mind back and recalled talking about her, admitting that she wasn’t his type and that all he’d need from her would be heirs and then she could get on with her life and he could get on with his.
He’d had the grace to admit stiffly, ‘It wasn’t meant for your ears.’
Princess Poppy had shrugged minutely. ‘It was unfortunate timing. But that’s why I wanted to go incognito, so I could see what you were like in…person. To see if we could be compatible in spite of the way you’d dismissed me.’
A flash of heat had gone straight to Caius’s cock when he’d thought of how compatible they’d been, making it twitch. ‘I think we proved that point.’
Caius’s cock was twitching again now, just at that memory. He shifted in the plane seat as they started to descend to land at the small Valdere airport. The fact that, in spite of everything, she could still have this effect on him was deeply disturbing and unwelcome.
Especially when he now knew the real reason she’d sought him out. Because that night they’d conceived. The moment she’d told him was as brutally vivid as the other memories.
But before she’d told him, he’d found himself watching her as she’d looked around his office and out at the view. Her lustrous red hair, and that creamy complexion. Huge green eyes, like emeralds. How had he ever dismissed her as not his type? She was absolutely stunning.
Something else had replaced the shock of learning her real identity. A spurt of adrenalin. Excitement. Caius had had no reason not to deduce that if she had come to him then clearly she still wanted something.Him.Maybe she’d realised she’d been too quick to walk away. Maybe she wanted to continue what they’d shared that night.
Feeling as if he was on firmer ground since the moment she’d walked into his office—for the first time in weeks—Caius had sat back in his chair and when she’d looked back at him, he’d smiled at her and noticed how her eyes had flared and widened. A response that had merely confirmed his suspicions.
‘I’m pleased that you came.’
She’d swallowed visibly. ‘You are?’
He’d nodded, and smiled wider, a smile that had never failed him before. ‘Yes, because I haven’t been able to get you out of my head. Clearly we still want each other, and I see no reason why we can’t pick up where we left off.’
And at that moment the plane landed in Valdere with a jolt and but not even that could pull Caius from the past, because, contrary to his arrogant assumption that Poppy had wanted to see him again,thatwas when she’d dropped the bombshell, saying, ‘I came here today not because I wanted to see you again but to tell you I’m twelve weeks pregnant. With your baby.’
For a long moment the words had hung in the air between them. Benign. And then, Caius had said hoarsely, ‘We used protection.Iused protection.’
‘Evidently it failed.’
‘Not possible.’
‘Statistically, yes, it is possible. Can you be certain it didn’t fail?’
Caius had felt that sting of exposure again to acknowledge that he’d been so hot for her that he obviously hadn’t paid as much attention as he might have usually.
‘Your Highness?’
Caius looked up at the air steward. He realised he was scowling and rearranged his expression. ‘Yes?’
The steward cleared his throat. ‘Um, we’re here, in Valdere. If you want any help changing into your wedding suit, please just call me.’
Caius had arranged to have the wedding suit brought on the plane. He’d planned on changing before landing but the memories had haunted him the whole way across the Atlantic ocean.
He emitted a curse and undid his seat-belt buckle, standing up and heading for the bedroom where the suit was laid out. He could see SUVs waiting outside. Sleek. With the flags of both Sadat Sur Mer and Valdere fluttering in the warm breeze. They might as well be prison vans.
The fact that in spite of everything he was somehow still destined to be a king was ironic in the extreme. Of course, he’d challenged Poppy on the assumption that he was the father.
‘How do you know it’s even mine? You weren’t shy that night, you must have had other lovers.’
‘For your information,’ she’d gritted out, two spots of red high in each cheek, ‘you were my first and only lover.’
Caius had looked at her. And then he’d let out a bark of laughter in sheer disbelief.
She’d looked insulted. ‘What is so funny about that?’
He’d stopped laughing long enough to say, ‘Because virgins are about as mythical as unicorns. How old are you? Twenty-five? Where have you been? Under a rock? You’re a beautiful woman, it’s impossible you were still an innocent.’
