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He frowned. “You’re going to keep it?”
“No! I was going to have Tasha take it to the city dump. Although... I wonder if they burn?”
“Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?”
“After what you just said about the press and Julian and Fiona, I can’t believe you’re not offering to light the match! I’m not being paranoid. Peoplehavegone through my trash. Can you imagine the headlines if this got out? I didn’t even purchase the test. Bennie keeps a stash, and she had an assistant drive it up to me.”
He hadn’t considered that. A headline touting their pregnancy scare made his skin crawl. And if the palace had seen it without him giving them a heads-up...
He wrapped his arms around her. He hated that she’d done it alone, without him.
And he needed to know.
“Are you happy about the outcome?”
“Are you?” she asked, a slight tremble in her voice.
He took her hands. “I would love to have children with you... someday. We’re not ready. For all the reasons behind our agreement times a million. You’re getting ready to start your new partnership with Genesis—”
“And you have to figure out your situation with your family.”
“My family. Can you imagine? Are you ready for what would happen if you were actually carrying a potential heir to the throne? At the same time as Fiona?”
“I guess we got lucky.”
He wasn’t buying her airy tone. Theywerefortunate. But in all the discussions they’d had, they’d never discussed the prospect of children.
“Do you even want kids?”
She moved off his lap. “I don’t know. I never thought about it.”
“Never?” he pressed.
“I mean, I’ve thought about it enough to make sure it didn’t happen. But nothing beyond that. Do you?”
“Yes.”
He knew that with a certainty. He’d always accepted it as something that would happen, but he’d assumed he’d raise them on the margins of the royal stage. It had never occurred to him that he wouldn’t have children. Or that he and his partner might be raising them in front of the entire world.
“My parents weren’t ready to have me,” she said, “and I don’t want to repeat that same mistake. I have goals to achieve. Goals that won’t be helped by having a child right now.”
He understood and agreed.
Then why are you bothered because she didn’t unequivocally state she wanted to have children with you?
But she wasn’t finished.
“What I do know is that when we start a family, it won’t be somepublicity stunt to detract from bad press. It’ll be because we’re ready and want to bring our beautiful babies into this world.”
He loved her so much. “And you won’t be alone. I’ll be there every step of the way. I’ll even make sure I’m not—how did you put it?—‘fashionably put together’ when it’s our turn on the hospital steps.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “We’re gonna have to talk about them steps.”
However he felt about his uncle, Fi’s pregnancy was good news for everyone, including Jameson. The fanfare from another royal baby was news the queen could capitalize on for a long time.
Meaning, she wouldn’t need him.
One thought formed just before Dani reclined flat on the couch and he prepared to lose himself in her:
