Their Royal Wedding Bargain Read online

  Obliging her this time, he lowered her to the carpeted floor in one of the side rooms off the ballroom.

  ‘Thank you.’ She smoothed her hands down her dress, aware that she was in danger of placing meaning on his actions that probably didn’t exist. ‘What I need is to know what you’re doing here. And why you look like you haven’t had any sleep in a week.’ Because this close, she could see that his eyes were not as bright as they usually were.

  He grimaced. ‘You and Milena should form a club. She thinks I look terrible as well.’

  ‘I didn’t say you looked terrible...but...why are you here, Rafe? What do you want?’

  ‘Are you so desperate to get rid of me?’ he asked softly.

  No. She wasn’t desperate to get rid of him. On the contrary she wanted him to stay. She wanted—

  ‘Actually you have Milena to thank for my presence here tonight.’

  ‘Oh.’ A shaft of disappointment speared into her chest, bursting the little bubble of hope she’d been nursing that he’d come to Berenia for her. ‘I’m not sure I understand. Does she need something from me?’

  ‘No, Princess.’ Rafe gave her a faint smile, his eyes so dark they were almost black. ‘Milena doesn’t want anything from you. She came to my office today and pointed out that I’m an idiot.’

  ‘Rafe, I’m sure she didn’t mean—’

  ‘She did.’ He took her face between his hands. ‘Because she knows that I’m totally and utterly in love with you.’

  Oh, God...

  Alexa groaned softly. She knew Milena would have meant well, but she really wished the other woman hadn’t interfered. ‘I’m sorry she said that.’ She shook her head, her hands trembling. ‘She mentioned the same thing to me at Jag’s party but I knew not to believe her. I knew—’

  ‘You should have believed her.’ Rafe placed a finger against her lips. ‘Because she’s right. I do love you.’

  Alexa’s eyes flew to his. ‘How is that possible? At the hospital, when I handed you Princess Jana, you looked at me as if you never wanted to see me again.’

  ‘That was shock. When I saw you holding the baby all I could think about was how it would feel if Jana had been ours.’

  ‘You did?’ Her eyes turned watery because she felt so emotional hearing him say that. ‘But you said you don’t need love in your life.’

  ‘I didn’t want love in my life,’ he corrected. ‘Which is why I didn’t go after you when you left. It was easier to let you go than to face how much I had come to need you. Especially since my mother left in the middle of the night and I woke the next morning to find her gone.’

  ‘Oh, Rafe, I’m so sorry I reminded you of that. I didn’t know what else to do. I was so afraid I’d blurt out how I felt and that you’d... It was cowardly.’

  ‘I didn’t exactly give you a lot of reasons to stay. I am now.’ His hand smoothed over her jaw, tilting her face up to his. ‘Tell me what you didn’t want to blurt out last night.’

  Alexa’s smile was tremulous. ‘That I love you, of course. That I think I’ve always loved you.’

  Rafe crushed her lips beneath his, and for a moment all Alexa could do was cling to him. Then reality intruded with a thud.

  ‘Rafe, wait...’ Her voice shook and her knees threatened to give out as she eased back. ‘This can’t work. You know it can’t. Your life is in London and I’m the future Queen, and unless I abdicate to my cousin I—’

  ‘Abdicate?’ Rafe took her face between his hands. ‘Princess, nobody’s abdicating. You’re perfect for this role.’

  ‘Then what are you suggesting? That we have a long-distance marriage?’

  ‘Alexa, you’re my wife. You’re going to stay my wife, and I’m going to be your husband and support you in any way that I can. In Berenia.’

  ‘You’ll move to Berenia?’

  He gave her a wide smile. ‘What can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment. But my life is no longer in London. It’s wherever you are.’

  ‘But your business, your clubs...’

  ‘I can run my business from anywhere if I choose to but seriously, Alexa, you’re not hearing me. If you want it, my life is with you and wherever you are.’

  ‘If I want it?’

  ‘Yes. Do you? Do you want to spend the rest of your life with me as much as I want to spend the rest of mine with you?’

  ‘Yes.’ Finally giving into the insane level of happiness welling up inside her, Alexa laughed. ‘Yes, yes, yes.’

  She let out a shriek as Rafe wrapped his arms around her and swung her into the air. ‘Rafe, I love you so much it scares me.’

  ‘Only because you haven’t come to trust how I feel yet. But you will. I plan to tell you every day so that you’ll never feel insecure about your self-worth ever again.’

  ‘I can’t quite believe this,’ she said, holding him tight. ‘You were supposed to be the most unsuitable man on the planet.’

  Rafe eased back so that he could look down into her face. ‘And now?’

  ‘Now I never want to let you go.’ Giddy with emotion, she reached up onto her toes to kiss him and then pulled back at the last minute. ‘We shouldn’t. You’ll catch my cold.’

  ‘Princess, I don’t think you have a cold. Your nose isn’t even red.’

  ‘My nose doesn’t have to be red to have a cold. But I am sick. I feel dizzy sometimes and my stomach is unsettled a lot.’

  ‘Have you seen a doctor?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then you should because I don’t think you’re ill. I think you’re pregnant.’

  ‘No, I’m not. I...’ Alexa’s eyes widened incredulously; her mind swung back to when her last period was due. She was late but in her misery she hadn’t even noticed. ‘I can’t be.’

  ‘There were a couple of times I didn’t put a condom on right away.’

  Alexa stared at him wide-eyed. ‘Oh, God.’ She clapped her hand over her mouth. ‘What will we do?’

  Rafe gave her a half smile. ‘We’ll have a baby.’

  ‘I mean, will you mind if it’s true?’

  ‘Absolutely not,’ he said huskily. ‘I need to catch up to Jag, but...’ His eyes grew wary. ‘Do you want a baby?’

  Knowing by the tense set of his shoulders that he was no doubt remembering his own childhood, Alexa clasped his face in her hands. ‘If we have made a baby together I’ll be the happiest woman in the world. I love you. I want to have your babies, and I intend to smother them in love and attention for ever.’

  Rafe gave her a slow grin. ‘Then how about you take me your room now, just in case I’m wrong. We can get to work immediately.’

  Alexa threw her arms around his neck. ‘With pleasure.’

  EPILOGUE

  RAFE HADN’T BEEN WRONG. Exactly two hundred and seventy days after their wedding Zane and Tobias had been born. Now they were rambunctious one-year-olds.

  ‘Milena, can you grab Jana and Zane before one or both of them climb into the fountain again?’ Rafe asked, scooping his remaining twin up and tucking him under his arm in a football hold before he could think about joining his brother and cousin.

  ‘On it!’ Milena yelled, pretending to be a wicked witch as she ran after the two children, making them squeal with delight.

  Seeing the fun his twin and older cousin were having, Tobias let rip a loud squeal of indignation.

  ‘Looks like you have your hands full!’ Jag laughed, burping one of his own newborn twins against his shoulder. ‘Where’s Alexa?’

  ‘Grabbing a coffee with Nasrin while she checks in with her father. Okay, buddy.’ Rafe swung Tobias to the ground and waited for his little legs to steady beneath him. ‘Go pull some more of Aunty Milena’s hair out. We don’t like the colour right now anyway.’

  Tobias let out a war whoop and took off as fast as his legs would carry him. Rafe gav
e a loud sigh of relief. ‘This parenting gig is harder than tending to a room full of Berenians with a chip on their shoulder.’

  ‘Well, he is half Berenian,’ Jag observed, patting his daughter’s back.

  Rafe gave him a bemused glance. ‘Lucky for you that they are. Thanks to me, everything has completely settled down between our nations now. The Berenians love me.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ His brother grinned back. ‘And, speaking of Berenia, how’s the new business venture?’

  ‘Great. The new university is so popular we have to build more student accommodation to cope with demand.’

  ‘You don’t miss the nightclub scene?’

  Since moving to Berenia, Rafe had sold off most of his clubs, keeping a few that Hannah had stepped into running for him. He now worked on restoring old buildings and returning them to their former glory and loved it.

  He’d also opened up to his sister and brother, forging a bond with them that was deeper than ever.

  ‘Everything is great,’ he said, and meaning it.

  ‘And you wouldn’t swap it, right?’

  Knowing Jag shared his sentiments, Rafe shook his head. ‘Not in a heartbeat.’

  ‘Where are the twins?’

  His wife’s voice from behind had Rafe swinging around. ‘Princess.’ Immediately at ease with her by his side, Rafe drew her into his arms and kissed her. ‘The twins are over by the fountain with Milena. How’s your father?’

  ‘Determined to reign until he’s ninety.’

  Rafe laughed, kissing her again. ‘I’m okay with that. The more time I get you all to myself the happier I am.’

  ‘You’ll always have me to yourself,’ she promised huskily.

  Jag mumbled something about finding his own wife before heading inside, but Rafe only had eyes for Alexa.

  Kissing her again, he felt her move against him and groaned softly against her lips. ‘You know accepting your marriage proposal was the best bargain I ever made, don’t you?’

  ‘You didn’t accept my proposal,’ Alexa scoffed. ‘My father forced you to marry me.’

  ‘Did he?’ Rafe gave her an enigmatic look he knew would drive her crazy.

  ‘Yes.’ She glared at him. ‘He did, didn’t he?’

  Rafe’s grin widened. ‘Have you ever known me to do anything that I didn’t want to do?’

  ‘No.’ Her green gaze narrowed menacingly. ‘Are you saying you wanted to marry me back then?’

  ‘Let’s just say no other man was ever going to have you after the way you kissed me that night.’

  ‘You mean the way you kissed me,’ she huffed.

  ‘Want to argue about it inside?’ he asked suggestively.

  Alexa glanced anxiously over at the twins. ‘How long do you think we have before the boys need us again?’

  Rafe grabbed her hand and tugged her towards the Summer Palace. ‘Long enough for me to show you how much I love you.’

  ‘Oh, good.’ Alexa’s grin made his heart catch. ‘My favourite thing.’

  * * *

  If you didn’t want Their Royal Wedding Bargain to end, you won’t be able to resist these other stories by Michelle Conder!

  Defying the Billionaire’s Command

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  Bound to Her Desert Captor

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  Available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from A Shocking Proposal in Sicily by Rachael Thomas.

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  A Shocking Proposal in Sicily

  by Rachael Thomas

  PROLOGUE

  SHE’D HAD HER FREEDOM. Freedom which now needed to be paid for. The last five years of resisting the urge to fulfil the archaic traditions of her country counted for nothing. Her duty to Ardu Safra could no longer be ignored. Or avoided.

  Kaliana Benhamed stood outside her father’s office. She knew exactly why he’d demanded she return from London. From the new life she’d carved for herself after the tragedy of five years ago. Why he’d insisted she leave a job she loved, as campaign manager for Charity Resources. It didn’t concern him she’d have to say goodbye to Claire, a friend who knew everything about her but still treated her like an everyday girl. With that one command, her father had all but brought her world crashing down around her, leaving her no option but to return to her homeland and face him. Face her duty.

  Kaliana stood taller, taking a deep breath, desperate to quell the churning of her stomach, her heart pounding hard and fast at the thought of the discussion to come. She swallowed down the nerves she couldn’t allow her father to see. She was a different woman from the one who’d left Ardu Safra after the nightmare of losing the man she’d loved. Since then, she’d found her independence and happiness. She’d pushed aside her dreams of love and happy ever afters. Made a new life for herself. A life she wasn’t about to relinquish easily.

  Not even to her father, ruler of Ardu Safra, a small desert kingdom on the north-eastern edge of the African continent. He’d been a strict father, but fair. Would he really force her to do the one thing she didn’t want to do? Would he force her to accept a man he’d selected, as her husband? After everything she’d endured?

  She closed her eyes briefly, sending up one last prayer for the strength to do this, wishing her mother had a more modern outlook on life. Wishing she would stand up for her only child. But those wishes were futile. Her mother was kind and loving, but of a very different era.

  Kaliana tried to shake the tension from her shoulders as she gave the command to the guards, always stationed around the palace, to admit her to her father’s office.

  The big doors swung wide and she walked across the vastness of the marble floor to the ornate desk at the far end of the room. Her father looked up from his work, watching her intently. Did he notice how different she was? How strong? How ready she was to do battle with him? To fight for her right to be a modern woman in a modern world?

  She knew she had to marry and when that happened she wanted to drag the kingdom of Ardu Safra into the twenty-first century. For the people of the small kingdom as much as for herself. But she wasn’t ready yet.

  ‘Kaliana.’ His voice was cool. Distant. As if he was addressing one of his aides, not his daughter. His only child. And that was the core of her problem. She was the only heir of Ardu Safra. ‘At last you return to your country.’

  The reproach in his voice bounced round the vastness of the ornate office, mirroring itself in his dark, watchful eyes. Warning her he wasn’t in the mood for her wilfulness, as he often called it.

  ‘You didn’t leave me much choice.’ Kaliana stopped a short distance from her father’s desk, satisfaction racing through her as he took in, with annoyance, her shorter hair. She loved the long bob style she’d opted for as part of the new Kaliana. Already she could feel her hackles rise, her indignation at the injustice surging to the fore. She battled to keep it contained. Keep it from her father. ‘You made it clear that my coming was not a request, Father, but a demand.’

  The shock of receiving the curt email directly from her father still hadn’t subsided. Neither had the knowledge that the life she’d built herself was in serious
danger. She was expected to marry and, at twenty-five, she was acutely aware he considered that duty well overdue.

  She’d stepped outside the life of Kaliana Benhamed, Princess of Ardu Safra, for five years and now it was time to go back to the life her title demanded. It was time to do the duty she’d hoped she’d never have to do. Live the life she’d tried to be free of.

  ‘What are you wearing?’ His gaze took in her fitted navy skirt and white blouse, teamed with heeled shoes. Her chosen clothes for her new work life. He wouldn’t approve of them, just as her traditionally brought-up mother didn’t. Kaliana was a big disappointment to her parents in many ways.

  ‘This is who I am now, Father.’ She lifted her chin defiantly as he stared at her, his annoyance that she’d turned her back so blatantly on her country vividly clear on his face. Once again it was clear she was a total disappointment to him. The daughter who’d brought shame to him. To the country. ‘Whatever it is you want of me, this is who I am now.’

  He stood up quickly, his heavy chair scraping noisily on the marble floor. Anger burned in his eyes as he leant on the desk. ‘What I want is for you to do your duty.’

  Kaliana wanted to step back from his fury. ‘My duty, Father?’ she asked, in a voice so light it didn’t even sound like her own. But to show her fear to him, her fear of what he now expected her to do, would be to hand him the ace card. Give him all the power.

  And it was a power she’d slowly and bit by bit taken from him over the last five years as her new life had proved she could succeed without the title of Princess Kaliana of Ardu Safra. She’d got herself a managerial job, a place to live and friends she could count on without disclosing her royal title. Only Claire knew the truth. To her employer, her colleagues and friends, she was simply Kaliana Benhamed. And the fact she’d achieved all that irritated her father far more than he let on.

  ‘Marriage.’ He hurled the word she least wanted to hear at her. ‘Marriage is your duty, Kaliana. Your duty as Princess to the kingdom of Ardu Safra. Your duty as my daughter and only heir.’