Pregnant with a Royal Baby!(32)

This was also the man she'd have to fight for their child. If he thought  he'd just fought a war, he was in for a rude awakening because she was  about to show him what real war was.

"Get out."

He peered beyond her to the bed, where their son lay in the bottom drawer of her mom's dresser. "Is that my son?"                       
       
           



       

His voice was soft, reverent.

She tensed her face to stop the muscles from weakening or tears from  forming in her eyes. She would not be weak in this fight. Her child  would not grow up afraid to love.

Still, they might ultimately get into a battle over this child, but Dom also had a right to see his son.

"Yes. That's our baby."

He caught her gaze. "You didn't name him."

"I didn't think James Tiberius Kirk was your final answer."

He laughed. She didn't.

He took a few steps closer to the bed. "Oh, my God. He's so little."

She had to fight the tremor of emotion that ripped through her at the awe in his voice.

"You would know that if you'd been there for his birth."

He took another step toward the bed. "My father didn't tell me you were in labor."

That sucked the air out of her lungs. "What?"

He paused and faced her, preparing to answer her, but her heart ached  for him. His ridiculously pompous dad had kept his baby from him? She  saw the anguish on his face. Knew there might be bigger reasons he  hadn't shaved, hadn't slept and suddenly wore blue jeans and a T-shirt.

She rose from her chair, took the baby out of the drawer and watched his  little face scrunch as he woke. "Hey, little guy, here's your daddy."

She presented the child to Dom and he stared at him. "Wow."

"Yeah, wow." She smiled. "Hold him."

"He's just barely bigger than my hand." He caught her gaze. "Won't I break him?"

She laughed. "I'm going to trust you to be careful." She nudged the  blanket-wrapped baby to him. "Put your one hand under his bum and the  other under his head."

Dom did as he was told and took the baby. He bent and pressed a kiss to  his forehead. Ginny stepped back, unable to handle the sweetness of the  meeting anymore. Or Dom's confusion. He was so new to the baby business  that it would have been fun to watch him learn and grow with the  baby-their baby. But even though his dad had kept the news that she was  in labor from him, he'd always said the kingdom would come first. And  they'd just lived the reality of what that meant.

She deserved better than that. Her baby deserved better than that.

He caught her gaze. "My dad said something about complications."

"He was just small, so they monitored him."

"You know his birth hasn't even been announced."

"No. Not at first. Eventually my mom told me."

"It seems my dad was teaching me a lesson."

The pompous old windbag.

"I'd always said the kingdom came first. I'd said I'd never love  anybody." He glanced over at her. "I said I wouldn't do what he did when  my mom died. Apparently that insulted him. So when the war and you  going into labor just sort of happened, he saw it as a chance to show me  what my attitude really meant."

"Oh." So maybe the king wasn't so much pompous as interfering. Not good,  but at least not god-awful. She wanted to ask Dom if he'd learned  anything. But he looked so sad and so broken. And she didn't want to  soften to him.

"I missed the birth of my son."

"If you'd known I was in labor, would you have come out of that bunker?  In those first hours before you knew the threat wasn't as bad as you and  your dad had believed...could you have come out?"

"I'd have pushed it." He unexpectedly hugged the baby to him. "I'd have  given instructions for the hospital to let me know when you were close-"

"So you might have missed it anyway?"

"Maybe."

His honestly hit her like the swell of an ocean wave. The king might  have kept the news from him, but he probably would have stayed away  anyway. "Well, that certainly shines a light on that."

"That's why my dad's lesson was such a good one. I had to see what it  felt like to have all my choices taken away from me. When I  thought...knew...he was behind my not seeing the baby's birth, I felt  the unfairness of it and ridiculous anger. But flying over on the plane,  I realized what I just told you. That I might have pushed it back and  put it off until I missed it by my own doing. I would have been  disappointed but I would have made those crazy royalty excuses about  duty, and I'd have forgiven myself. I had to experience it this way to  feel the real loss."

He met her gaze again. "It gave me a totally new perspective."

Her heart jumped a bit. "So you're going to be a good dad?"

He laughed. "Yes."

And suddenly her war with him lost some of its oomph, too. Even as his  changing attitude made her glad for their baby's sake, it also made her  very sad. Very tired. Technically, she and Dom were back to where they  were when they made this silly deal.                       
       
           



       

She said, "That's good," but her heart absolutely shattered. She'd have loved to have raised her baby with this Dom.

"Can you forgive me?"

"For missing the baby's birth? Since it means you're going to be a  better dad? Yes." She tried to smile but just couldn't quite do it.

"What about for the other stuff?"

"Like..." The man had been sweet and kind. Attentive in a way that might  not have been romantic, but he'd been good to her the whole time they  were together. He'd always told her he didn't want to fall in love. She  was the one who'd pushed. "...what?"

"You wanted me to love you."

Oh, great. Just what she wanted to talk about again. How he didn't love her.

"It's okay."

"Not for me. If you decided you don't want me to love you anymore, I'm  in real trouble, because I realized flying over that ocean that I've  probably always loved you."

Tears stung her eyes. "Really? Because I've told you that."

He chuckled. "I know you did. But just like the lesson my dad gave me, I  sort of needed to lose you-lose everything-before I could realize what I  had."

He laid the baby in the makeshift bed. "We're putting a future king in a dresser drawer."

She tried to laugh but a sob came out. He walked over and enfolded her in his arms. "I am so sorry."

She wanted to say, "That's okay," but she couldn't stop sobbing. She'd  been alone for days, making decisions she didn't want to make, trying to  get food in a house that was way too small. And she'd missed him. And  felt betrayed. Alone.

He let her cry until her sobs became hiccups. Then he whispered, "Shouldn't you be in bed, too?"

"I'm fine."

"Right. Just like you were fine right before you fainted in front of  poor Marco." He shifted the baby drawer to one side of the bed and  pulled down the covers. "Come here."

She did. He helped her lie down, took off her shoes, pulled the covers  to her chin and she fell into her first sound sleep in days.

When she woke, it was to the sounds of her son crying.

Dom lay beside her on the bed, watching her. "I think our son wants to be fed."

"Sounds like."

"We are going to have to name him sometime."

"I'm starting to think of him as Jimmy."

"He'll be King James...like in the Bible."

"Better than captain of the starship Enterprise."

She slid out of the bed, got James from his drawer, opened her shirt and began to nurse.

Some of the strain appeared to be gone from Dom's face. "You napped?"

He stretched and said, "A bit."

"Do we have to go home right away?"

His eyes leaped to hers. "You're coming with me?"

"We are raising a king together."

"Yes, we are."

"And your dad is nuts with his rules and his tests."

"I think he's going to let us alone with the tests."

"Yeah, wait until you see the dress I'm going to have made for his next  formal dinner. He's not the only one who can push people's buttons.  Except this time I owe him."

He laughed and for the first time in days, Ginny felt normal. She nudged  her head, indicating he should join her and the baby. "Come watch."

"Really?"

"Sure. He's cute. It's fun to watch him eat like a little horse."

Dom scooted down the bed and looked at their baby suckling. He waited a  few seconds, then his gaze rose to meet hers. "There is one thing we  haven't sorted out."

She smiled. "What?"

"I love you."

She closed her eyes, savoring the words, then she laughed. "You already said that."