“But you’ve had all morning,” the boy complained. “Did you tell her that I think she’s pretty? Did you tell her about being a princess?”
“Dabir!”
Mazin’s voice echoed through the trees. Dabir squeaked, then grinned. “Say yes, Miss Carson. Please?” he pleaded, then took one look at his father and headed back the way he’d come. The sound of his laughter drifted to them.
Phoebe didn’t know what to say or what to think. She felt as if she’d fallen into an alternative universe.
“M-Mazin?”
He sighed. “This is not what I had planned. We are sitting in a car. It is not romantic.” He released his seat belt and angled toward her. “Phoebe, what I have not told you is that I am more than a minister in the Lucia-Serrat government. I am Crown Prince Nasri Mazin. I rule this island. The house before us is my home. My sons are princes.”
She blinked several times. C-crown p-prince Nasri Mazin? Even her thoughts stuttered. “No,” she whispered. “You can’t be.”
He shrugged. “Yet I am.”
She stared at his familiar face, at the dark eyes and firm mouth. The mouth she’d kissed and that had kissed her back in many very intimate places. Heat flared on her cheeks. “But I’ve seen you naked!”
He grinned. “Yes. As I have seen you.”
She didn’t want to think about that. “I don’t understand. If you’re really a prince, why didn’t you tell me? And why did you want to be with me?”
He brushed a strand of hair from her face. “When I met you at the airport, I had recently returned from an extended journey. In the back of my mind had been the thought that I should find a wife. I did not expect to marry for love, but I thought I would find a woman with whom I could enjoy life. But that was not to be. The women I met bored me. I grew tired of them wanting me for my position or my money. I came home weary and discouraged.”
He shrugged. “Then I saw a pretty young woman walk into the duty-free shop. She looked fresh and charming and very unlike the other women I’d been seeing. I followed her on an impulse. That same impulse caused me to speak with her. She had no idea who I was. At first I thought her innocence was a game, but in time I discovered it was as genuine as the young woman herself. I was intrigued.”
She still wasn’t thinking straight. In fact, she wasn’t thinking at all. “But, Mazin…” She swallowed. “I mean, Prince Nasri—” She squeezed her eyes shut. This couldn’t be happening to her.
A prince? She’d fallen in love with a prince? Which meant any teeny, tiny hopes she’d had about a happily ever after had just disappeared like so much smoke.
“Phoebe, do not look so sad.”
She opened her eyes and stared at him. “I’m not. I feel foolish, which is different. I should have guessed.”
“I went to great pains to see that you did not. I arranged our travels in advance, making sure there wouldn’t be anyone around.”
And here she’d just thought it was the slow season. She’d been a fool. “I guess no one is going to believe me if I try to tell them this when I get back home.”
“Ayanna would have believed,” he said softly.
She nodded. Ayanna would have understood everything, she thought with a sigh. Because the same sort of thing had happened to her aunt. And Ayanna had spent the rest of her life loving the one man she could never have.
Pain tightened her chest, making it difficult to breathe. “You should, ah, probably take me back to the hotel now,” she murmured.
“But I have not answered your second question.”
She wasn’t sure how much longer she could sit there without crying. “W-what question is that?”
“You asked to know why I wanted to be with you.”
Oh. She didn’t think she wanted to hear that answer. It couldn’t be good. Or at least not good enough.
He put his hands on her shoulders. “You enchanted me. I do not get the opportunity to meet many people without them knowing I am Prince Nasri of Lucia-Serrat. With you, I could be myself. When you told me about your aunt’s list of places to go, I decided to show them to you. I wanted to spend time with you. To get to know you.”
That wasn’t so bad. She forced herself to smile. “I appreciate all you’ve done. You were very kind.”
He shook her gently. “Do you think kindness was my sole purpose?”
Why was he asking such hard questions? “I thought, maybe, after a while, you might want to seduce me.”
Mazin groaned, then leaned forward and kissed her on the mouth. “Yes, I wanted you in my bed, but it was more than that,” he said between kisses. “I wanted to be with you. I could not forget you. You became very important to me. I did not plan for you to meet my son, but that turned out to be most fortuitous. Dabir thinks you are very lovely and that you would make an excellent mother.”
If the world had tilted before, it positively spun now, swooping and zooming around her until she found it impossible to keep her balance. Her fingers shook as she unfastened her seat belt, then stumbled out of the car. She was going to faint. Worse, she thought she might be sick.
Mazin…make that Prince Nasri…hurried around the car to stand next to her. “Phoebe? What’s wrong?”
“You want me to take Nana’s place?”
No. That wasn’t possible. She couldn’t stay here and take care of Mazin’s child, all the while watching him with other women. She would be destroyed. Even if her heart weren’t a consideration, she had her own dreams and they didn’t involve her staying on Lucia-Serrat as a nanny.
Suddenly he was in front of her, grabbing her by her upper arms and shaking her gently. “Is that what you believe?” He stared at her face, then shook his head and pulled her close. “Don’t you know I love you, you little fool? What did you think? That I wanted to hire you as a caretaker to my child? I have that for Dabir already. What I do not have is a mother for him and a wife for myself. I do not have a woman to love—someone to love me in return.”
She stepped back and looked at him. His words filled her brain, but she couldn’t grasp them. “I don’t understand.”
“Obviously.”
And then he kissed her.
His warm, tender mouth settled on hers. As he wrapped his arms around her, she allowed herself to believe that he might have been telling the truth.
“You love me?” she asked, breathless, but with a little less heart pain.
“Yes, my dove. I suspect nearly from the first.” He stroked her hair, then her cheek. “For many years now I have been disenchanted with my life. Everything felt wrong. I loved my sons, but they could not completely fill my heart. I have traveled everywhere and never felt at home, until I met you. When I saw my island through your eyes, it was as if I had seen it for the first time. Your gentle strength, your honest heart, your giving spirit touched me and healed me. I have searched the world only to find my heart’s desire standing right in front of me.”
He kissed her again. “Marry me, Phoebe. Marry me and stay here. Be mother to my sons, be princess to my people. But most of all, love me always, as I will love you.”
“A p-princess?”
He smiled. “It’s a very small island. Your duties would not be taxing.”
“I wouldn’t mind the work. I just never imagined anything like this.”
“Will you say yes?”
She gazed into his dark eyes. She didn’t care that he was a prince. What mattered to her was that he was the man she loved. This wasn’t her dream…it was something much bigger and better. It was her heart’s desire.
“Yes.”
He drew her close and hugged her as if he would never let her go. “For always,” he promised. “We will live life to the fullest, with no regrets. Just as your Ayanna would have wanted.”
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459223592
THE PATERNITY PROPOSITION
Copyright © 2012 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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l works as follows:
THE PATERNITY PROPOSITION
Copyright © 2012 by Merline Lovelace
THE SHEIK’S VIRGIN
Copyright © 2002 by Susan Macias Redmond
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The Paternity Proposition Page 23