Prince's Son of Scandal(21)

“No.” Two nights and daily hospital visits that she’d said she didn’t need.

She had, though. She’d soaked up his duty visits like sunshine, trying not to read into the kiss they’d shared when they wed. He’d seemed to be pretending it hadn’t happened, sticking to chatting very generally about whatever meeting he’d been in or whatever political scandal was trending.

When he’d gone through her sketchbook, she’d felt very vulnerable, especially when he found the one she’d done of them. Why had she thought it was a good idea to give it to him? He’d probably thrown it out, but she had longed so badly for him to feel something about their wedding day.

He’d looked...touched? Whatever the softening in his face had been, it had caused her to moon so obviously, he’d flinched and looked away.

She was such an idiot. He was probably feeling put-upon. When they did connect over the tablet, he had seemed remote. He wasn’t impatient, but she had the sense his prevailing mood was resignation.

She was trying to resign herself as well. Years of therapy had taught her to focus on one small piece of the future at a time. When he had crushed her soul with his news that their marriage would be temporary, she hadn’t tried to imagine what her life would look like after their divorce. She had focused on making it to term with her pregnancy.

Once Tyrol had arrived, she’d come here, where she’d been able to focus on Tyrol and her recovery. Returning to Elazar and her looming divorce wasn’t something she was ready to contemplate. She didn’t even know how to handle the two and a half months left in their brief marriage!

Making a concerted effort to include Xavier in Tyrol’s progress had seemed like the right thing to do. She told herself it was her way of encouraging a bond between father and son, but she knew there was a part of her that liked having an excuse to reach out to him. She was still trying to push for something that was futile.

But just when his reticence had her convinced he felt nothing, he would surprise her by phoning to ask how things were going. He would linger on a video call after she’d run out of things to say, seeming content to stare at a sleeping baby over a screen.

Such a confounding man.

She glanced to where Tyrol slept; the one thing in all of this that made her unspeakably proud. If everything she’d been through in her life, all the pain and traumas and anguish had had to happen in order to bring her son into this world, so be it. She accepted all of it.

“Has your doctor really forbidden you to have another?”

“We talked it over several times through the pregnancy. It was my idea that she would tie my tubes during delivery, so I wouldn’t need another surgery in the future. She did. I’m not sorry, or even very sad. I resigned myself a long time ago to not being able to get pregnant. He’s truly a miracle. The delivery was such a near miss, though. I wouldn’t want to push my luck, especially now he’s here and needs me.”

Cinnia nodded. “What about a surrogate? I’m sorry. Maybe that’s not something you’d consider?”

“Gili told me years ago she would be my surrogate, but that was before Kasim.” She tucked her chin. “Can you imagine his reaction?”

“He gives her anything she asks for.” Cinnia closed her grin on her fork. “His head would literally explode trying to decide whether to be possessive or indulgent.”

“Right?” They both chuckled, then Trella sobered. “They would want to secure his heirs before even thinking of it, anyway. I don’t see Xavier wanting to wait.” There is a reason for a spare. “Maybe I’ll find a surrogate someday, but I don’t think that would change Xavier’s mind about us. It’s not just about another baby. We’re not you and Henri.” Or Gili and Kasim. Or Ramon and Isidora. “He has other considerations.”

He doesn’t want me.

She had to accept that.

It made her chest grow tight, though. Her throat ached. She ducked under the water to hide how she was tearing up. She stayed there, diving deep and crawling along the bottom until her lungs were about to burst, only coming to the surface when she reached the stairs.

“Pah!” She stood and wiped the water from her eyes.

Cinnia had come to her feet and was saying hello to someone.

Henri had returned with a striking blond man in tailored dark gray pants and a collared T-shirt that hugged the fit muscles of his shoulders and revealed his tanned gorgeous biceps.

The newcomer glared at her from his familiar, laser blue eyes. “Should you be swimming?”

Suddenly dizzy, Trella panted, “Hola, cariño. I missed you, too.”

* * *

Xavier was distantly aware of Henri retreating with his wife, but if the woman had a name, he had already forgotten it. His entire focus was eaten up by the way Trella rose from the water like Venus herself.

Water sluiced down her body, washing away the grinding aggravation that had propelled him here. He had needed to see her without understanding why. He might have labeled it homesickness if that wasn’t such a juvenile emotion and he was in Elazar, not a part of Spain he’d never seen before.

But he’d come here with single-minded determination and when he’d finally clapped eyes on her, she’d been on the bottom of the pool, trying to give him a heart attack all over again.

All his concern, pining and every other thought in his head drained away, however, as she walked toward him.

Coming here was a mistake. He saw that as clearly as he saw she wore a red bikini, the triangles of fabric tied off at her hips and between her breasts. She had been quite comely with the weight of a baby distending her middle, always turning herself out stylishly, even when she’d been in the hospital.

Keeping his mind off sex while she’d been in a delicate condition had been, if not easy, at least quickly forestalled by worst-case scenarios. He had told himself any attraction he still felt was a byproduct of his not having had sex since they’d made the baby sleeping in the cot to his left. Maybe the two kisses they’d shared had ambushed his memory when it was least convenient. Definitely, he relived their night in Paris far too often.

It all added up to an obsession he should have put behind him by now.

He hadn’t.

Her approach coiled him tight. He hadn’t seen her naked since Paris and her hourglass figure was as spectacular as his libido recalled. Better. Glittering droplets sparkled on her golden skin and her breasts were positively voluptuous, swaying as she padded toward him, bare feet slapping the tile.

His mouth watered. A distinctly male pulse tugged behind the fly of his pants. He had to resist a telltale swallow and consciously regulated his breathing. The animal, that restless beast that had been scratching and digging inside him, howled as she drew near, wanting to leap on her. Reunite.

“What are you—?” She was squeezing water from her hair, but as she met his gaze, her eyes widened in reaction, pupils exploding like fireworks. Her breath caught, expanding her chest and drawing his attention to her nipples, already sharp from the chill, but poking even harder under his gaze.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Her hand went to a nearby chair back as if she needed to steady herself.

He was acting directly against his responsibilities, despite the rationalizations he’d concocted. Angry with himself for the hunger clawing through him, he searched his brain for the reasons that underpinned his arrival.

“I’m taking you to Madrid. You’ll stay with me there.”

Her shoulders fell. “You don’t trust me?”

That wasn’t it, but he didn’t want to admit—even to himself—that he hadn’t been able to wait three more nights to see them. Not just his son. Her.

He found his gaze straying to the curve of her hips and the dip of her navel and forced his attention to drag across to the infant in a pale green onesie. The strangest yank in his chest had him stooping to pick up the boy.

The sleeping baby gave a small start of surprise, fingers splaying, then relaxed into a warm ball against the hollow of Xavier’s shoulder. He felt heavier. Sturdier.

“He’s growing.”

“He is.” She wrapped a towel around her middle, hands shaking. “Xavier, I swear I wasn’t trying to avoid coming back. The wedding is a rushed thing. Izzy’s father has been ill. It’s a big deal for him to be able to walk her down the aisle so they’re indulging him. It’s also the only chance for the bunch of us to be together for the foreseeable future. That’s why I need to be there.”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t go. But it’s your first public appearance since we married. We should be seen together.”

“Well, of course you were invited. I just didn’t think...” She was taken aback, which was justified, he supposed. “Doesn’t it send the wrong message?”

Because of the way their press release had been worded.

Given Ms Sauveterre’s preference for avoiding the spotlight, the marriage is a formality to ensure the legitimacy of Prince Xavier’s heir and won’t be continued in the new year.

“I’ve spent a month having my devotion to my family questioned. I’d like to change the optics.” There. That was the excuse he had given his grandmother and he stood by it. Their countrymen were going mad over the three photos he’d released of the young prince, but they were questioning why he wasn’t spending more time with him.