by V Vee
At least, Leyah hoped it was endlessly, because she would have to tell Alastair the truth and that had the possibility of destroying everything they’d established between them. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her stomach roiled within her. Her gut churning with fear, anxiety, and sadness. She looked at Alastair through the blur of her tears and prayed that she would die. Right there. In his arms. So, she wouldn’t have to face his parents or have to confront the disappointment of her people when she married him, and every media outlet reported on it.
The sting to her ass cheek from Alastair’s hand caused Leyah’s head to pop up from where it lay on his chest. She stared at him in shock.
“What. The. Fuck?” she panted. When Alastair didn’t respond, and merely gave her another resounding smack to the opposite ass cheek, she hopped up from his lap and stood over him, her hands on her hips.
“What do you think you’re doing, Alastair? Why are you spanking me like I’m… like I’m a child?” she asked angrily.
Alastair didn’t respond merely smirked at her and stretched his arms along the back of the sofa where he sat. Leyah huffed and tossed up her hands.
“Well? Are you going to answer me?” she questioned him with narrowed eyes.
“Glad to see you’re not having a panic attack anymore and can actually talk to me,” he told her with a dark chuckle.
“Why you little piece of sh—wait! Oh, my gods,” Leyah gasped. He was right. In the midst of her righteous indignation, her surprise, and the shocking pleasure she’d received from the sting of his hand on her bottom, Leyah had completely forgotten all about trying to breathe and had simply… breathed. Her panic had receded. Her fear abated, or merely dissipating slightly. And her mind had become sharp and focused on something new. Something tangible. Something that or rather someone who didn’t scare her.
Alastair.
She shook her head at him. “How did you do that?”
Alastair rose from the sofa, wrapping his arms around her waist and gave her a peck on her lips, careful to not smudge her lipstick. He leaned back slightly, so he was looking her directly in her eyes and smiled softly at her. Leyah was humbled by the emotion that softened his gaze. She wanted to look away, but his fingers grasping her chin kept her focus on him.
“I was able to do it, because while you haven’t recognized it yet, there’s a part of you that trust me. Trusts me to handle things for you. To take control in situations that seem too stressful, too harrowing, or too dangerous for you. Your mind consciously was trying to fight the battle on your own, but your subconscious, your spirit, your soul? It needed me. Someone that you felt comfortable putting your trust in. Someone you knew you could turn over your control and power to, and they would not abuse it. They would respect it and you. This person would take care of the situation and you at the same time, without making you feel as if you were less than. As if you were not equal to that person.” He kissed her again. “Perhaps you finally realized that person is me?” he asked her with a lift of his eyebrows.
Leyah weighed his words and a warm feeling spread throughout her limbs. She settled into the truth of Alastair’s statement and nodded. She kissed him back when he lowered his head that time to take her lips with his own. Leyah lifted her arms and sank her fingers in Alastair’s dark hair. The strands felt like silk on her skin and Alastair’s lips were pillow soft against her own. The heat of his mouth encapsulated her tongue and she battled for dominance with Alastair’s own tongue, until she submitted to him after a moment. She trembled as Alastair trailed his fingers down her spine, to her hips, squeezing them gently, before drifting down to her ass. He took the globes in hand and clenched them with his large hands.
Leyah felt desired. Wanted. Cared for and sexy.
She felt as if she were his.
Just as she made to climb Alastair like the tree out in front of the palace back in Waldakan, the sound of someone clearing their throat… loudly… reached her ears. She jerked away from Alastair’s kiss and turned her head to her still open suite door. Standing just beyond her open doorway were Alastair’s brothers. Prince Alfie stood in the hallway with a petite redhead, freckles dotting her face, and bright blue eyes. Prince Andreas stood, wearing all black, his massive arms folded across his even more massive chest. He was scowling at them with his lips, but Leyah could see a bit of amusement in his dark blue eyes. Prince Augustus stood just beyond Prince Andreas, his arms wrapped around Princess Valerie’s friend Helen. Though he was looking at them, he was continuously kissing the back of Helen’s head. Helen for her part, looked genuinely happy to find Leyah and Alastair kissing. She was absolutely stunning in a baby blue dress, that fell in waves to the floor, her dark brown hair pulled up into a bun at the back of her head, tendrils escaping to frame her face. Leyah could definitely see why Helen had been a model for a time and had been approached to continue modeling even after college.
But it was Prince Algerone and Princess Valerie’s expressions that Leyah had the hardest time meeting. Valerie looked at Leyah with a chastising glance, before smiling over at Alastair, while Algerone glared at his brother the entire time.
“Las, what did I tell you?” Algerone demanded through gritted teeth.
Alastair held up his hand. “Hold on there, bei bruthrar,” Alastair said, his tone brooking no argument. “Leyah will not be your nanny any longer, well, not in two weeks. So, you may act snippy all you want now, but I told you that I would have her and make her mine, and I have, and I did.”
Leyah looked back up at Alastair wondering what he meant by that. He merely smiled down at her before turning his attention back to his eldest brother. “I would thank you to treat both Leyah and me with respect from here on out. After all, I am your family, and soon Leyah will be as well.”
Leyah’s eyes widened as the other three women gasped and they looked from her to Alastair, their eyes shining with excitement. Their joy was contagious and soon Leyah found herself smiling back at them. She held up her hand and showed them the engagement ring she’d found on the ring finger of her left hand when she’d woken up from her nap. She’d hidden it away from Valerie and Algerone when she’d gone back and finished her duties for the day, but her mind had been focused on her giant engagement ring the entire time. She’d wanted to put it back on her finger and just stare at it.
Or be wearing only the ring while she thanked Alastair properly.
However, they had things to do first. Namely, Leyah had to meet the King and Queen of Malvidence.
“Announcing the arrivals of Their Highnesses: Prince Algerone and Princess Valerie. Prince Augustus. Prince Alastair and…” the footman cleared his throat and glanced at Leyah out of the corner of his eyes. Alastair felt himself stiffen in anger. A rage only soothed when Leyah rubbed her along his bicep with her left hand, while her right hand remained holding on.
“Nanny Leyah,” the footman continued. Alastair heard his younger brothers snickering behind him, and after throwing them a glare over his shoulder he stepped forward to lead Leyah to her seat next to him. He ignored the footman as the man announced his two younger brothers and Alfie’s new girlfriend, who was really his ex-girlfriend, Ramona Poppington.
Alastair cut his eyes in his youngest brother’s direction and shook his head. He knew the youngest Smythe prince was hurting after Laeticia’s rejection, but Alfie was being stupid. To be honest, Laeticia was as well. The American woman had decided she didn’t want to be seen dating a prince, or to be fodder for the media, and so in her fear she’d fed Alfie a stupid line about wanting them to stay friends. Whereas Ramona was a known gold-digger, only wanting Alfie because of his money. She was just like Lady Taylor, except less conniving and deceitful.
I’ll need to speak to Augustus later, Alastair thought to himself. His face a stoic mask as he ignored his mother’s disapproving looks in his direction, and his father’s hard glare. I need to see if anything further has taken place with Lady Taylor and figure out if it’s something I need to handle.
>
Alastair finally sighed and looked at his mother, then over to his father. Their first course had been served, and he knew his parents expected an explanation before the second one. His brothers ignored the obvious tension at the table and dug heartily into their bowls of soup, but neither Alastair, Leyah, nor his parents picked up their spoons to eat the soup that had been placed in front of them, and Valerie looked back and forth from him, to Leyah, to his parents, even as she delicately took sips of hers.
“So, Dath, is there something you would like to tell us?” his mother asked him, censure in her tone.
“Yes, Las, what—or rather, whom—have you brought with you to dinner this evening? She looks remarkably like your brother’s nanny,” his father remarked, lifting his spoon and setting it down gently into his soup.
“That’s because she is,” Algerone muttered, before returning to his soup.
Queen Araminta gasped and turned a wide-eyed gaze toward Alastair, then narrowed her eyes at Leyah.
“Alastair why is one of Al’s nannies having dinner with us?” she asked, her tone mild but a hint of steel layering it.
“Because in two weeks she won’t simply be the nanny. She will be a princess. My princess. My wife,” he declared, his own tone firm and his gaze steady as he looked at both parents.
“Isn’t she Waldakanian?” his father asked, a note of disgust evident in his words.
“Yes,” Alastair answered.
“No,” Leyah replied at the same time.
Alastair turned to look at her in surprise. She lifted her chin and stared directly at his father.
“King Callum, while I would like nothing more than to have your approval and have you like me, I’m afraid I won’t care about either if you cannot speak of my heritage in the proper way. I know you are aware that the proper term is Waldakan. I have heard you use it in interviews and read it in articles about you.” She shook her head. “I am aware that both you and your wife, Queen Araminta are opposed to any type of involvement between Prince Alastair and myself. I can assure you that were my parents still living, they would be in total agreement with you.”
Alastair frowned as he considered her words. Her parents wouldn’t approve of her being with him? But he was a prince! He was a billionaire. Using the money, he’d inherited at the age of twenty-one, he’d invested it and turned the money into billions, that wasn’t even including the money he’d made from his various businesses and the club. All of which were extremely profitable and million-dollar money makers.
So why did Leyah think her parents would disapprove of him? As a matter of fact, she didn’t sound as if she were speculating. She sounded as if she knew, her parents would find him wanting. He stared at her intently. In his… rather unorthodox courtship of her, he’d neglected to ask her what her parents’ names were. He would have to do that after dinner was over.
“However, the difference between my parents and yourself, is that my parents would never have insulted Prince Alastair at the table, in front of guests, other family members, or those who… served.” Leyah hesitated over the last word, a fact which Alastair found interesting. Had her parents been servants to one of the wealthier society families? It would explain a lot. “They would have simply asked me if I was sure, given Alastair a threatening promise that if he ever hurt me they would kill him, then they would give us their blessing and help in any way they could. Later, when we were alone, they would share their true feelings about Prince Alastair with me but preface it by saying they trusted my judgement.”
She shrugged, and it was then that Alastair realized the entire table had grown quiet. “I don’t know. I just assumed the King and Queen of Malvidence would hold themselves to the same level of grace and openness as my parents. Forgive me if I do not meet your standards, but I do not apologize for my heritage, my culture, or my upbringing. Not even my current position in your household.”
“Go ahead Ley-Ley!” Valerie cheered when Leyah finished. Valerie’s eyes widened, and she curled her lips in, her expression shocked, as if she couldn’t believe she’d just exclaimed out loud.
Alastair’s father continued staring at Leyah, his eyes never leaving her as he brought his spoon up to his lips and blowing on the already cool soup, then placed it in his mouth, swallowing the liquid. He took another sip of the soup with his spoon, his eyes glancing over at his wife. After long moments of no one at the table speaking, and only his mother and father eating, King Callum finally spoke.
“No one in this palace, or this kingdom would deign to speak to me in such a way.” He held up his hand when both Alastair and Leyah opened their mouths to respond. “I find that I respect you more for doing so, Leyah.” He nodded. “You have my blessing to see… wed, my son,” he corrected.
Alastair exhaled and grabbed Leyah’s hand beneath the table.
“Thank you, Kothrar,” he said softly.
King Callum inclined his head and snapped his fingers for the next course to be delivered. However, before he could take a bite of the salad set before him, the king clutched his chest and slumped forward.
Alastair stared at his father in shock even as the sound of screaming pierced his eardrums.
“He’s dead! Oh my god, someone has killed the king!” Alastair’s mother screamed. “Someone has killed my husband!”
The king was not dead. However, he had been poisoned. The palace was on high alert, the royal cook questioned, the footmen and maids interrogated, but no one knew where the poison had come from, or whom had administered it. And so, the entirety of the kitchen staff had been fired, and a new cook and staff hired.
There were many suspicions that the poison had been given to the king by one of the dirty “Waldakans” who’d immigrated into the country and were in the palace. Alastair knew these rumors were meant to point a finger at his future princess, but he refused to give them any weight whatsoever. Leyah had been with him in some capacity since lunch that afternoon. And when she wasn’t physically with him, she’d been in her room sleeping, under the watchful eyes of the guards who worked on that level. Two of which were distant cousins. No, it was not Leyah.
However, when his mother, Queen Araminta suffered a devastating fall from her horse while out riding with Leyah and Valerie two days later, even Alastair had to admit that things looked particularly bad. The one thing working in Leyah’s favor was the fact that she spent most of her days either watching Algerone and Valerie’s kids, wrapped in Alastair’s arms on her sitting room couch as they made out like teenagers, or locked in his mother’s office as they planned an extravagant, but tasteful royal wedding in two weeks.
The stable master had stated that the horse’s hooves had been tampered with, which had caused the horse to throw the queen. Then he’d delivered the news that had shocked Alastair most of all and sent a tendril of dread and fear sliding down his spine and curling around to his stomach to curdle in his gut. The horse that his mother had been riding had originally been intended for Leyah, but at the last minute, his mother had chosen to ride it, since Leyah was a more accomplished rider than they’d originally thought. So, either someone knew his mother would trade horses with Leyah or…
The intended target had been his beautiful bride-to-be.
Either way, Alastair and his brothers were on the hunt. Alastair would take some time to enjoy his wedding the next day, and spending his wedding night with his new wife, but the night before he was set to say “I do” he and his brothers were comparing notes, planning, tossing out theories, and setting up security measures for everyone in the family.
Alastair refused to lose Leyah to some deranged attempted murderer. Not now that he’d finally found her. She belonged to him, and no one, no one, would take her away from him.
He would kill them first.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I t was the second most anticipated wedding of the century. After Prince Harry’s marriage to the American actress, all the world anxiously awaited the nuptials of the second Malvidencian
prince to the black nanny, an immigrant from the country of Malvidence’s enemy: Waldakan, which was currently rebelling. There was much speculation about the soon-to-be princess’s ties to Waldakan. Outlandish stories about how Leyah had escaped with her parents in the dark of night, trying to run from the rebels, the soldiers, the war criminals, the rapists, the murderers, and the like.
Leyah read the tabloid stories, and even articles from magazines and newspapers she’d once considered reputable and huffed in anger. They were depicting her home country, her beloved Waldakan, as if it were some savage, dangerous, deadly place to live. A place not even fit for an animal to live. They knew nothing of her country. They knew nothing of her. They knew nothing of the rebellion.
She tossed the newspaper she held in her hand to the side with an angry growl and plopped her head down on her folded arms, which rested on the top of her vanity. Though she was frustrated, she made sure to not mess up her makeup or shift her beautifully crafted up-do askew.
“You know, you could put an end to all the rumors, gossip, and the speculation if you just confessed to everyone, the media, the family, Alastair, who you really are,” a soft voice—Valerie’s—came from behind her. Leyah lifted her head and turned to look at the older princess. The woman she’d asked to stand with her as her matron of honor. The only member of her wedding party she actually knew well. She’d asked Valerie’s friends, who she liked, to stand as her bridesmaids, and made Chiamaka another honorary bridesmaid. The smallest of them all. It afforded Alastair the opportunity to have all his brothers stand with him, since he’d been struggling with choosing one of them.
“I know, I know,” Leyah sighed. “This guilt is eating me up inside. But, I don’t think you understand, Valerie. Just how dangerous it would be for me to confess everything. Not only to Alastair but to the rest of his family. Especially in light of what happened with the king and queen. Everyone is already on high alert. Not trusting anyone who’s from Waldakan. I am surprised that King Callum and Queen Araminta still consented to Alastair even marrying me.” She shook her head.