Carrying A King's Child. Katherine Garbera

bracing himself on his arms. He kissed the pert pink nipple on her left breast as he rested his head on her shoulder and tried to catch his breath.

      He got up and left her for a few moments to wash up and then came back and lay down next to her on the bed. He was aware of the time and knew he should already be at the private airport and getting on his family’s jet so he could travel with them to Alma, but he couldn’t make himself leave.

      He knew that this wasn’t love. He wasn’t going to lie to her or himself. But she was pregnant with his child and this fired him with an enthusiasm he just couldn’t muster when he thought of being king. He didn’t want the throne, but his father, who couldn’t inherit it because he’d never had his marriage annulled after divorcing Rafe’s mother, had been very clear that he thought Rafe needed to do his duty.

      He stroked his hand down Emily’s arm. She had turned on her side and had her head on his shoulder.

      “What are you thinking?”

      “That I’m glad you came here today. Did you ever think of not telling me?” he asked.

      He suspected he knew the answer, but wanted to hear it from her.

      “No. It wasn’t easy to track you down—you’re pretty secretive about this penthouse bachelor pad, aren’t you? But Harry has lots of friends who have connections. It only took him six hours to find you.”

      “Harry scares me,” Rafe admitted. The owner of Shady Harry’s bar had been fun and gregarious when Rafe had been partying and buying rounds for the entire place. But the next morning when he’d spotted the older man as he’d left Emily’s cottage, Harry had given him a look that said to watch his back. “What’s he to you?”

      “He and my mom dated for a while,” Emily said. “He’s sort of like my stepdad. Why?”

      “I have a feeling if I show up in Key West he’s going to be waiting with a shotgun.”

      “You’re not going to Key West, you’re going to Alma. I’ve seen pictures. It’s really beautiful,” she said.

      Not as beautiful as she was, Rafe thought. He leaned up on his elbow, put his hand flat on her stomach and realized he couldn’t control this any more than he could say no to the people in Alma who’d asked his family to come back and rule the country.

      “It is. They’ve had a rough time since the revolution and I guess…I have to go,” he said.

      “I know. I told you I wasn’t here to ask you to stay. I just needed you to know.”

      “Why?”

      “I didn’t know my dad. My mom has never mentioned his name to me. I asked her one time about him and she started crying. I want more than that for our baby. It’s not that I had a deprived childhood, but I always wonder. I have this emptiness inside me that nothing can fill. It’s that empty spot where everyone else has a dad.”

      He was humbled by her explanation. He knew he wanted to be more than a name and a face to their kid, though. “We need to figure this out.”

      There was a knock on the bedroom door.

      “Rafael? Are you in here? Your father is in a car waiting downstairs and if you’re not down in ten minutes he’s coming up here and getting you.” It was his personal assistant, Jose.

      Jose was his right-hand man at Montoro Enterprises and at home. He took care of all the details.

      “I have company,” Rafe said. But Emily was more than just company. She was his lover. The mother of his unborn child.

      “I am aware of that,” Jose said.

      “Tell Father I’ll be down when I’m down,” Rafe said.

      But the mood was broken and Emily was getting up and putting her clothes on. She had her jeans on and buttoned, but he stopped her before she put her T-shirt on. He pulled her into his arms. It seemed the sort of gesture that would reassure her, but since he was already thinking of everything he had to do, it felt hollow. He knew she noticed it, too, when she pulled back and shook her head.

      The mantle of being a Montoro was tightening around him. “I—”

      “Don’t. No excuses and definitely no lies,” she said. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a business card for Shady Harry’s; he turned it over and saw she’d written her name and number on the back. “If you want to know about our child, contact me.”

      “I do. I will,” he said.

      She smiled up at him. “I know that the next few weeks are going to be crazy for you, so no pressure.”

      She pulled her shirt on and then tucked her underwear into her purse and started for the door. He watched her walk out. Part of him wanted to run after her and make her stay so he could talk her into trying a relationship or maybe even marriage. Another part wanted to scoop her up and run away with her to some Pacific island where no one would know their names, far enough away from his family and everyone they knew.

      But Emily was a brave sort of woman, and running had never been his style, either, so he had no choice but to get dressed and head down to the car.

      His father didn’t speak to him the entire way to the airport. Rafael III had wanted the throne enough to try to convince his ex-wife to come back, but Rafe’s mother wasn’t interested in doing anything to help out her former husband. To say the two of them had a strained relationship was putting it mildly.

      They were a prime example of how getting married to the wrong person didn’t make for a happy family. Rafe had the childhood to prove it.

      During the ride, his cousin Juan Carlos spoke too much. Telling him what was expected of the next king of Alma.

      Juan Carlos had been orphaned and seemed to be fixated on the monarchy as a way of proving to himself and the rest of the family that he could carry on his parents’ legacy. Perhaps if Rafe’s parents hadn’t divorced and been horrible to each other, he’d have felt the same way about the family honor.

      Rafe freely admitted to himself that if Emily’s pregnancy became public knowledge it would create a scandal that would make protecting that legacy even more difficult. But Rafe tuned Juan Carlos out and tried to figure out what he expected of himself as a man.