Royal Holiday Baby

“Yes,” she whispered desperately against his lips and slid her hands upward, knocking his hat from his head.

Within seconds, he had pushed off her coat and unzipped her dress. Tina felt a draft of cool air when her dress pooled at her feet, but his warm hands replaced the fabric, quickly distracting her. She tugged at his jacket and tie then fumbled as she unbuttoned his shirt.

It seemed like both forever and no time at all before she felt his naked warm skin against hers. The sensation of her breasts against his chest made her nipples tight with need. Heat and desperation grew inside her. When had she wanted like this? When had she allowed herself to want like this?

Her brain shorted out as he dipped his head, taking one of her nipples into his mouth. Tina gasped in pleasure.

He swore under his breath. “You’re so sexy. Don’t know how long I can wait.”

“Don’t,” she urged, sliding her fingers through his hair. “Don’t wait.”

Taking her by surprise, he pulled her into his arms and carried her out of the kitchen down a hallway. In a darkened room, he set her down on a bed and pulled back. During those few seconds, she felt cold without him.

“Zach?”

“Right here,” he said, returning, leaning over her as he opened a foil packet and protected himself. “I don’t trust myself much longer.”

He slid his hand through her hair and down her face to cup her jaw. “I never thought I’d feel this—” He broke off and shook his head. He trailed his hand down over her breasts and lower, over her abdomen and between her legs where she was hot and moist. “Perfection,” he muttered. “All woman.”

Toying with her, he took her mouth in a French kiss. The desperation and need tightened inside her so she could hardly stand it. Unable to bear another second, she slid her hand down to where he was hard and big and all male. She stroked down his shaft and he gave a hiss of arousal.

“That’s it,” he said and pushed her thighs apart. One breath later, he plunged inside her, stretching her, filling her.

He swore. “You feel so good,” he said and began to pump. She moved in counterpoint to his sexual invasion, craving every millimeter of him.

She felt the first flush of a climax soar through her. She was so close, so very close, but then he plunged one last time crying out, and sank on top of her.

His weight was heavy, but somehow sweet. His breath flowed over her and she was left with a strange feeling of satisfaction despite the fact that she hadn’t gone over the top.

He struggled up to rest on his elbows, looking deep in her gaze, his eyes still dark with sex. “You didn’t come,” he said.

Surprised, a little self-conscious, she dropped her jaw. “It’s not a big deal. Not—”

“I can fix that,” he said and lowered his mouth to hers again.

Tina awakened to darkness and a man’s heavy leg trapping her lower body. A clock on the bed stand displayed the time as 3:47 a.m. She wasn’t sure what had awakened her—perhaps the unfamiliar sensation of sharing a bed with a man who gave satisfaction a completely new and wonderful meaning. Guilt and responsibility that had developed before she exited her mother’s womb. Or just the fact that her left leg was falling asleep.

Alarm rushed through her. What on earth had she done? What on earth was she doing? Her security detail would be descending on her any minute. She was surprised they hadn’t shown up already.

Oh, that wouldn’t do, she thought, cringing at the image of Rolfe, her head security man, bursting through the door. She had never caused a scandal. She was the dependable one. Her brother Stefan, the crown prince, was the one with a temper. Her younger sister was the beautiful, impetuous one with the whole family breathing a sigh of relief that she was settling down. Her other younger siblings were involved with their own lives and personal dramas. Getting them to help with royal duties was like pulling teeth from a wild boar.

Tina was the go-to princess. Someone had to be. She should leave before Zach was dragged into the craziness of her life. Her heart twisted with regret as she studied the hard planes of his face, his dark eyelashes and his dark hair, mussed by her fingertips.

He’d given her a sliver of an out-of-time, out-of-body experience. Thank goodness for these few hours, she thought. She’d never felt more like a woman. Sadness twisted through her as realization sank through. She might never feel like this again.

Sunlight seeped through the blinds of Zach’s condominium window. He didn’t open his eyes, feeling a bone-deep relaxation and satisfaction that prevented him from any muscle movement. His muscles were relaxed, his mind blessedly blank. For a full moment.

Then flashes of the night before skittered across his brain. His eyes still closed, he saw a woman with sexy, plump lips and inviting eyes and a body that made him hard. Again.

He opened his eyes. Tina. He glanced around the bed and inhaled, smelling the scent of her. Where had she gone?

“Tina,” he called, lifting up on his elbow.

Silence answered him.

“Damn,” he muttered and raked his hand through his hair. He shouldn’t have brought her here, he thought. She was Keely and Brent’s friend. He was supposed to see her safely back to their place.

But she’d been so soft and sexy and irresistible. And now she’d run out on him.

Not until he’d taken her over the edge, he reminded himself. Several times. For both of them. He couldn’t remember a wilder night. Not even with his wife.

His gut squeezed at the thought. His dead wife and his dead baby. For a little while, Tina had given him something else to think about. His elbow scraped against something. Metal, he thought, scooping up a small chain. He studied it for a moment, noting the catch had broken. He remembered the way the silver bracelet had played over her skin when she’d caressed him with her hands and mouth.

He closed his eyes, his sense of pleasure and ease evaporating quickly. His little break from pain was over, and his time of torture and self-recrimination had returned.

Twelve hours later, Tina sat in her brother’s parlor waiting for his to-do list. He usually delivered it via e-mail, but Tina suspected that since she’d ditched her cell phone for that one night at the masquerade party, he didn’t trust electronic communication. Or perhaps he just didn’t trust her.

Her brother’s assistant had already bowed in greeting a few moments ago. Standing, he waved his hand to the door to Stefan’s office. “His Royal Highness will see you now,” he said.

Tina could have pushed to eliminate the wait, but after rushed good-byes to her friend Keely, and her transatlantic flight to Chantaine, she was grateful for a moment to catch her breath. “Thank you, Pete,” she said and entered her brother’s office.

Her brother stood, even though his royal position made it unnecessary, and rounded his large, antique desk. He opened his arms to give her a quick hug. “Welcome home,” he said. “Why is it that we seem to get hit with an onslaught of royal duties every time you leave the country?”

She smiled. “It’s the same amount of duties as always. No one picks up the slack.”

“I’ve noticed that,” he said with a frown. “Both Bridget and Phillipa have finished their education. They should take on more.”

“Good luck with that,” she said. “They both have more excuses than there are grains of sand on Senesia Beach,” she said, referring to the most popular beach of their island kingdom. “I take it you tried giving them assignments.”

“They ignore me,” he said, his expression incredulous. “Turn off their cell phones, lose e-mails. If they were staff, they would have been fired ten times over.”

Tina laughed. “Tough to fire your sisters.”

He shook his head and his mouth drew into a frown. “I’m considering other measures. You’ve told me again and again about your American friends who believe in earning their way. I can put a limit on their charge cards.”

“Ouch,” Tina said. “There will be lots of screaming. You may try negotiating first.”

“I’m thinking of putting you in charge of them. They need to be trained.”

Tina shook her head. “No way. Even Mother didn’t train me. A longtime advisor taught me everything. You can bring her out of retirement for the job,” she said. If she doesn’t quit.

Stefan wrinkled his brow. “Something has to be done. With Ericka’s upcoming wedding, you’ll be busier than ever. I’m focused on plans for the economy and facilitating our diplomatic relationships with countries that can boost our GDP.”

“What do the advisers say?

“They recommend that I take a wife. I have no time for courting with my schedule.”

“You could always just accept one assigned by the advisers. That’s what you wanted me to do,” she said, unable to resist the dig. Both her father and brother had urged her to accept an arranged marriage to a man twice her age because he was an Italian count.

“You could have done worse,” he said.

“What about Princess Margherita from Italy?” she retorted.

He cringed. “I couldn’t bear her laugh for a night let alone for the rest of my life.”

“But think of your country, your duty,” she began, echoing the same words he’d used with her.

“Enough,” he said sharply, lifting his hand.

Tina could tell by the flicker of the tiny muscle in his jaw that she’d pushed a little too far for his comfort. Stefan struggled with his temper, especially when he felt as if things were out of his control.

“The purpose of this meeting is not to discuss your marital prospects or mine,” he said. “The purpose is to discuss where you disappeared to for over eight hours last night. Rolfe said he couldn’t reach you by cell and that your hostess refused to name your whereabouts when asked.”

Tina felt a twist of irritation. “Rolfe is a tattletale.”

“He was doing his job,” Stefan said. “You know better than this. You must always remain available via your cell. You must always have protection.”

“How many times have I been unavailable?” she demanded.

“None to my memory, but that’s not the point.”

“For that matter, how many times has Ericka been unavailable?”

“Do you really want to be compared to someone who spent two stints in rehab? Thank God, she’s clean now. And who would have thought she would bring a French movie director into the family?” he marveled. “But we count on you to be mature and dependable. You understand your obligations and duties.”

“Maybe too much,” she whispered to herself, glancing toward the window, feeling more trapped than she’d ever felt in her life. She rubbed her bare wrist, wondering where she’d left her favorite bracelet. She would search through her luggage again for it.

“Valentina,” Stefan said in his ruler voice. “Where were you?”

In the past, she would have felt intimidated or at the least, guilty for causing trouble. For some reason, this time she didn’t. This time she felt impatient with Stefan’s demands.

“I was out,” she said, meeting his gaze dead-on.

The muscle in his jaw began to tick again. “These next three months, the eyes of the world will be watching our country in anticipation of Fredericka’s wedding. I need you to act with utmost maturity and responsiveness. Ericka will be under enormous pressure now that she’s placed in the spotlight. Of all our family, Ericka will trust you.”

Tina shook her head. “I can’t promise miracles. She needed rehab.”

“But even you talked her into that,” Stefan said. “I need you to be supportive of her. Keep her together.”

“I told you I can’t perform miracles.”

“Just be your best self,” he said. “That’s more than almost everyone else on their best day.”

She couldn’t hold back a semi-smile. “Flattery,” she said. “You must be desperate, your highness.”

Chapter Three

Zach paced the dentist’s office as he waited for his longtime housekeeper to get her broken tooth fixed. Hildie was no wimp. She’d been known to face down two intruders at once with only a frying pan as her weapon. She’d even confronted a brown bear that came a little too close to the house.

Under usual circumstances, Hildie would drive herself to the doctor if she were sick. Hildie had helped deliver babies. She wasn’t squeamish at all. Dentists, however, were her waterloo. She’d procrastinated going to the dentist and now the poor woman winced every time she breathed.

Zach had insisted she go in and Hildie agreed only if he would take her and wait for her. They never knew which sedation the dentist would use. It was all determined by Hildie’s anxiety level, which today, hovered at one hundred on a scale of one to ten.

Bored, Zach sank onto one of the chairs and checked his BlackBerry. His brother wanted him to cover for him in Dallas while he took a scuba diving trip. No problem. Zach was always around. It wasn’t as if anything exciting was going on in his life, and he preferred it that way. Particularly in his personal life.

He couldn’t deny, at least to himself, though, that ever since that night with Tina, he’d almost asked his friends how to get in touch with her. Every time he was tempted, however, he remembered the tragic ending of his marriage.

No. He wasn’t ready to have a woman in his life. He didn’t know if he would ever be ready. Restlessness nicked at his nerve endings and he rolled his neck to release some tension. Desperate to distract himself, he picked up the trashy gossip rag on the table and skimmed the front page.

The theme of the day seemed to be babies. He felt his gut clench at the memory of the loss of his own child, but shook the paper and kept reading. Senator’s love child living in an igloo in Alaska. Movie stars adopt three more children. Dog helps deliver baby. Pregnant Princess? Who’s your daddy?

He almost tossed it back onto the cheap table holding the rest of women’s magazines. But as he flipped through the pages in disgust, an image of something he’d seen before flashed before him. A young curvy woman with brown hair. In the photo, she wore a hat and a loose-fitting dress. Her belly was amplified in a photo insert.

Zach frowned at the photo and quickly read the article. Princess Valentina of Chantaine has stood by the side of her fragile sister bride nonstop during the huge wedding that drew the focus of the entire world. Tina has always been the good girl in the royal family, but maybe she isn’t so perfect after all. Has Tina gained a little weight? Strange that her weight gain isn’t all over … just in her belly. Insiders report Princess Tina fought nausea throughout the wedding festivities. If the princess is pregnant, where is the baby daddy? Or did she give up on her prospects and enlist the services of a sperm bank? Time will tell.

Princess, Zach thought. What the— Princess Tina. She hadn’t mentioned being a princess. What kind of job had she said she had? Something in international relations.

He gave a cynical laugh. Cute, he thought. Real cute. He wondered how in hell Keely was friends with a princess.

Glancing at the slight baby bump, he felt a tight knot form in his chest. She couldn’t be pregnant, he thought. He’d used protection. He mentally flipped through the night they’d spent together. Every time they’d made love. And they’d made love a lot. Had there been one time when he’d forgotten or been too eager to feel her close around him or—

He had a vivid memory of feeling her wet velvet with no barrier.

“Damn,” he muttered, pulling off his hat. Was she pregnant? If so, that baby could be his.

Panic ripped through him. His heart raced, skipping and sinking. A horrible dread tugged at him, sinking to his gut and lower, dragging him down. He swore at himself ten times over. What had he been thinking?

He hadn’t been thinking. He’d been feeling. That was the problem. Feeling always caused problems.

Sucking in a long breath, he stared at her photo and that damned baby bump insert. He would find out if she was pregnant and he would find out if the baby was his. He clenched his fist in determination. It wouldn’t take him long.

For once, Tina’s sister came through for her. It was a huge switch. Although Ericka was happily busy and traveling hither and yon with her new husband, she said Tina could stay at her new home just outside of Paris. Close enough to the city, but far enough from the congestion, the new home was perfect for the respite Tina needed.

Tina had escaped just as her brother began to insist she was due for an examination from the royal doctors. Before her plane landed in Paris, rumors in the gossip rags had exploded. She’d only been away for twenty-four hours and her voice mail box was full. She didn’t even want to look at her e-mail.

She knew her brother was going to freak out, and her security man, Rolfe, was watching her every move. Thank goodness she and her sister had worked out a plan for this very situation. An older woman, Genieve, brought fresh vegetables most every morning and brought pastry treats for the staff. She usually left from the back entrance of the house around noon. Except today. Today Genieve would stay until 4:00 p.m. and watch television with one of the favorite staff members in a room upstairs while Tina dressed in dark clothes with a dark scarf covering her head and drove the woman’s car to a small, out-of-the-way museum with beautiful gardens.

There, Tina could think about her and her baby’s future. There, she could make plans.

Tina told Rolfe she planned to take a nap and didn’t want to be disturbed. As soon as he left her hallway, she took the back stairs to the back entrance and got into the ancient vehicle and escaped.

The July heat was oppressive, but the temperature inside the small museum was cool. She noticed only a few tourists, but an abundance of caution made her keep her head covered. Glancing outside, she saw no one in the gardens and walked outside to a stone bench beside a small pond. Despite the shade from the tree, the heat forced her to pull off her scarf.

She closed her eyes, craving peace and quiet for her mind and soul. She didn’t need panic in this situation. She needed to remain calm. Since everyone else was going to be emotionally jumping out of windows.

Tina could see the headlines now. Unwed Pregnant Princess. She, the one everyone counted on to be scandal-free. She laughed softly to herself, although she still struggled with a twinge of hysteria. Was she prepared to be a single mother? It didn’t matter. That’s what she would be. She stroked her abdomen, feeling protective of the baby growing there.

Tina had always put her loyalty to her position first, but there was no doubt in her mind what was most important to her now. Her child. Her pregnancy might be unexpected, unplanned and her situation not exactly optimal, but that didn’t change the fact that Tina would make her child her priority.

That solid knowledge released a tension from inside her. She took a deep breath and gave into the temptation to build a perfect little world for her and her baby in her mind. The two of them could live here in France, near her sister. She would lead a simple life raising her child, serving as a patron for her favorite charities and making rare appearances in Chantaine.

Her sisters would pitch in and take over her assignments. That was pure fantasy, she thought. And her brother would marry a woman who would keep him out of her hair. More fantasy.

She inhaled again, lingering over the idyllic image in her mind.

Something fell beside her on the bench. A chain? She opened her eyes and glanced beside her, immediately spotting the bracelet she’d thought she’d lost.

“Been missing that?” a deep male voice that had haunted her dreams said to her.

She glanced behind her, directly into the hard blue gaze of Zachary Logan. Her heart stopped in her chest. Her breath froze in her lungs.

“The baby’s mine, isn’t it?”

Zach didn’t like her color. She’d gone past the pale stage and she looked gray. He handed her his bottle of water. “Here, you look like you need this.”

She stared at him without blinking, seemingly without breathing for another long moment. “Tina,” he said and squeezed her shoulder. “Drink some water.”

At his touch, she finally took a breath and looked away. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again,” she said. “How did you find me?”

“A combination of Keely and a private investigator. I’ve had a guy watching your sister’s house for every person who came and went. I tried calling your assistant, but she blew me off.”

She looked up at him in alarm. “Did you tell her you and I had—”

“No, but I was tempted,” he said, reining in his frustration from the last several days. “When were you going to tell me about the baby?”

Tina blinked. “I—I wasn’t,” she said with a shrug.

Shock rushed through him. “You what?” he nearly shouted.

Tina glanced around in alarm. “Please keep your voice down. I don’t want to draw attention. I came here to think.”

Zach’s stomach turned. “Are you saying you’re not keeping the baby?”

She looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean? Give the baby up for adoption—”

“No, I meant,” he said and stopped, his throat closing over his words. “I meant end the pregnancy.”

Shock widened her eyes. “Absolutely not.”

Some small something inside him eased and he took a quick breath. “That still doesn’t explain why you weren’t going to tell me.”

She gave a sigh of frustration. “It was a one-night stand. It didn’t seem fair to drag you into it.”

“It’s my child too,” he said in a deadly firm voice.

“Yes, but it’s not just about the baby,” she said and lifted her hands. “Dealing with who I am, who my family is, what’s expected of me and my family. Not many men can handle that. You don’t really even know me. It’s not as if we’re in love. Being involved with the baby and me would turn your life upside down.”

“You don’t think it already has?”

Her lips parted in surprise, as if she had truly believed he wouldn’t be interested in his own child. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I shouldn’t have rushed to the assumption that you would only view this as a burden.”

“There’s a difference between burden and responsibility,” he said.

She nodded. “That’s very true. I’m just not accustomed to dealing with men who know how to distinguish the two.”

“Maybe you’ve been hanging around the wrong men,” he said.

Her lips lifted in amusement. “Maybe so.”

“Do you know what your plans are?” he asked. “Are you going to live in your country?”

Tina looked down at her hands folded in her lap and shook her head. “My brother is going to freak out. He might have expected something like this from my younger sister, but never me. I know he’s in a difficult situation, but I just wish I could go away for a while. I need to get my head on straight about all this and doing that in Chantaine is going to be very, very difficult, if not impossible.”

“I have the perfect place if you need to think. My ranch,” he said.

She blinked at the recommendation. “Your ranch?” she echoed as if that possibility was last on her list.

“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “It’s no palace, but most people who visit like it. It’s quiet. You would be able to think. Plus,” he said, “it would give you an opportunity to get to know the father of your child better.”

She met his gaze and a glimmer of the night they’d shared seemed to pass through her eyes. Licking her lips, she glanced away. Zach felt a surprising bolt of sexual awareness stab at him. Where the hell had that come from?

“What do you say?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I hadn’t even considered this until this moment. I can’t make an instant decision.”

“Why not?” he asked. “You have a passport. You’re an adult. You can do whatever you think is best for you and your child.”