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She frowned. “You told me you were going to cut it off.”
“I hadn’t given myself an end date, Sofi´a. That says something.”
“Oh, it certainly does,” she growled. “I was a possession you wanted to hang on to a bit longer. My expiration date hadn’t come up. And now you want to do the same but this time because I’m carrying your child.”
“No. Because I love you.” He tightened his fingers around hers. “You asked me that night to figure out whether I have a heart, whether I could share it with you. I honestly didn’t know. I’ve kept myself closed off for so long I didn’t know what I had left in me. And then you threatened to walk away and I knew. I knew I didn’t want to do this without you. That I loved you. Yes, I want our baby, but it’s you I need, Sofi´a.”
Her eyes darkened to almost black, a suspicious brightness forming in them. “What about the next crisis? And the next? I can’t keep going through this vicious cycle with you.”
“You won’t have to. I exorcised some demons today. That need to prove myself to my father you pointed out? My need to live up to my brother’s memory? Everything led to that, you were right.” He shook his head. “I’m never going to be perfect, but I know now I can move on. I can focus on the present. You,” he said huskily. “Our baby. A future I never thought I’d have.”
A tear slid down her cheek. “I have been so miserable the past couple of weeks. I thought you were done with us. I thought we were over.”
“We are never over,” he growled. “I had to make sure my head was on straight before we had this conversation. I didn’t want to make promises I couldn’t keep.”
“And you’re sure now?”
He pulled her closer, his hands settling against her silky, bare back. “Sure. Take one more jump with me, Sofi´a. I promise you won’t regret it.”
She drifted closer to him, her dark eyes softening into that molten brown fire he loved to watch. “Is that an order, Your Highness?”
He shook his head. “No more orders. I just need you to love me.”
She stood on tiptoe and brought her mouth to his. “I do, Nikandros Constantinides. More than I should.”
He took her lips in a soft, seductive caress that promised her everything he had. When he lifted his mouth, she was breathless. “You still, however, need to be punished.”
She frowned. “For?”
“Your Highness...”
She started to laugh, a sound he’d never been so happy to hear. “Later. We’re late.”
He picked her up by way of response and deposited her on the dresser. Kissed her again. This time their kiss was needy and hot, their mouths and fingers rediscovering sacred territory. He cupped her backside and pulled her to the edge of the dresser, needing to seal their pledge with the shattering intimacy only they could produce.
“Nik,” she breathed, “we can’t.”
“Can’t,” he said, “is not a word in my vocabulary.”
Her fingers found his belt buckle. Pulling it open, the button and zipper on his pants followed.
“I love you,” she whispered as she arched her hips and took him deep.
He rested his forehead against hers and said those three words to her again and again until her body contracted around his and she took him to heaven.
He’d been given a second chance. He didn’t intend to waste it.
* * *
Nik and his queen-to-be slipped into the cocktail hour with the other international leaders fifteen minutes late. Their absence and the blush on Sofi´a’s cheeks were duly noted, as was her gown, which was another smash hit.
Nik stood back and watched his fiancée shine as the paparazzi flashes went mad. Her dazzling smile made his chest tighten. The king had found his heart and it was standing right in front of him.
EPILOGUE
SOFÍA RAMIREZ MARRIED Nikandros Alphaios Constantinides on a bright, sunny, perfect Akathinian day in October in the breathtakingly beautiful royal chapel that had blessed every set of royal nuptials since the monarchy’s inception over two centuries ago.
Five months pregnant in her Francesco Villa strapless white satin wedding gown, featuring a three-tiered, hand-appliquéd lace overlay of different shades of ivory, HRH Queen Sofi´a, Duchess of Armendine, made her way down the chandelier-lit marble aisle to join her intensely handsome groom, dressed in full military regalia.
