The Secret That Shocked De Santis

by Natalie Anderson

  Because when she’d left him that afternoon she’d not looked back.

  Yet now, despite his iciness, that sensual intensity still emanated from every inch of him. And in seconds she was close to succumbing to it again.

  That scared her too.

  But she couldn’t peel her gaze off him. Never had she met such a wildly attractive man. Never had she wanted a man in the way she’d wanted him. The memories she’d tried to bury for so long now burst into her shock-weakened mind. For a split-second she saw him as he’d been that afternoon, naked and slick and braced above her, his gaze brilliant and fierce, his body both punishing and protective, while she—

  ‘Stella.’

  Heat surged into her cheeks and she banished the scorching image—mortified that she could lose control so quickly. She lifted her chin, bracing herself—because that was a warning tone if ever she’d heard one.

  He walked closer, his gaze never leaving her face, restraint evident in his too-measured movements and the compression of his mouth. But for a second he’d looked furious.

  It was only with supreme self-discipline that she suppressed the instinct to step back. Her stupid body turned schizophrenic. Instead of freezing, she was burning. Just beneath her skin her blood simmered, almost humming in delight from his nearness. It was insane, and she hated her foolishness. How could she be so weak when the result of this want had just ruined her world? Yet that wilful, wicked, reckless part of her only wanted him to touch her again. Touch her and make her forget the world, as he’d done so easily once before.

  Mercifully, he didn’t. He stopped a single pace away, his muscles taut, his stance wide and predatory—as if he suspected she might try to escape any second.

  ‘Stella Zambrano,’ he said softly, but through gritted teeth. His intense lapis lazuli eyes sharpened, hardened, chilled. And his words stabbed. ‘Welcome to Secreto Real. We will be married here tomorrow.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  MARRIED? STELLA LAUGHED. As if.

  She was a disgraced soldier. He was a partying pirate prince. The idea of him marrying her was preposterous.

  ‘Did you hear what I said, Stella?’ Shadows darkened his blue eyes. ‘Do you understand?’

  Why was he talking to her as if she was a two-year-old?

  ‘You’re not getting married,’ she said. He was a playboy. And when he finally settled down—at least five years from now—it would be with one of the stunning minor European royals with an aristocratic seal of approval.

  ‘I am. To you. Tomorrow.’

  She shook her head. ‘There’s no need. I’m not pregnant.’

  He caught her wrist. ‘Do not lie to me. Ever.’

  She flinched, squeezing to stop her cells sizzling at his touch. ‘I’m not.’

  She couldn’t be pregnant—surely she’d know if she was? Wouldn’t she have symptoms? She struggled to remember her last cycle, but other memories—whispered mentions of her mother—crowded her mind. Confused her. Scared the hell out of her.

  Her skin burned. The edge of her vision wobbled and blurred.

  ‘You’re saying the report is wrong?’ he prompted.

  ‘I’m saying I don’t know.’ She frowned, trying to focus.

  ‘Well, I am saying that if you are pregnant we marry immediately. I am not having my child born illegitimately and left to live on the fringes of society, with none of the benefits he or she should rightly have.’

  Royal benefits.

  Stella refused to believe this was happening. She refused to allow control to be taken over every aspect of her life. She’d find an escape. Immediately.

  ‘Even if I am pregnant...who’s to say it’s yours?’ she challenged, breathing hard to fill her constricted lungs.

  Deadly silence followed.

  His grip on her wrist tightened painfully, then he grasped her chin with hard fingers and tilted it. Defiantly she held his gaze.

  ‘Try saying that again,’ he muttered, through lips that barely moved.

  She couldn’t answer. She couldn’t breathe. Her heart hammered loud and hard, as if trying to smash free from its cage.

  ‘I remember,’ he said, low and harsh and so very angry. ‘I remember everything.’

  They both knew the truth.

  They’d both been aware of her feverish fumbling. Of her physical reaction—the resulting stain of surrendered innocence that couldn’t be feigned. She’d been with no other man before and no man since.

  If she was pregnant, Prince Eduardo De Santis was the only possible father.

  ‘We used protection...’ she whispered unhappily.

  ‘It was your condom.’ He suddenly released her.

  His cool attack sent a sharp edge of alarm scurrying down her spine. ‘Army issue,’ she snapped back.

  Issued years and years ago. And it had been in her wallet ever since—surviving heat, travel, cold, time. At least she’d thought it had survived those things. Did condoms have ‘best before’ dates? Dread washed over her—surely she couldn’t have been so stupid?

  ‘I didn’t...’ She breathed hard but her words remained a mere whisper. ‘I didn’t know.’

  ‘You didn’t know I was going to be there because I didn’t know. Taking a walk on the beach that day was a spontaneous decision. An unfortunate one, as it turns out.’

  Had he wanted to think she’d somehow schemed her way into this situation? But he couldn’t. Because it was a spur-of-the-moment decision of his that had caused this. As if she would ever want to become pregnant!

  He watched her relentlessly as reality began to sink in.

  She turned, breaking free of his intense gaze to stare sightlessly at the floor. She’d just lost her job. The one man she’d never ever wanted to see again was insisting she marry him tomorrow. And if she was having a child it would need shelter and food and warmth. If she was pregnant she’d have to do what her mother hadn’t. She’d have to survive childbirth.

  Her whole world darkened and spun.

  With a muttered oath he grabbed her hand again and guided her a couple of paces across the room. She hated herself but her skin burned—her cells aching for his closer touch, for him to pull her all the way towards him, to tuck her against his body and press her close.

  As if she hadn’t got into enough trouble.

  ‘Take off your sweatshirt,’ he ordered as he pushed her into a large plush armchair.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You’re flushed,’ he explained dismissively. ‘You need to cool down.’

  He tugged at her sleeves. Stella quickly pulled away, slipping her sweatshirt over her head to stop him from doing it and humiliating her completely. Because the look in his eyes was controlled and blank. Unaroused. He didn’t want her that way any more. He was livid and she didn’t blame him.

  She scrunched her sweatshirt into a ball in her lap and stared down at it, thinking furiously. She heard him walk away, heard a clinking sound. And then he was back.

  ‘Here.’ He held a crystal tumbler out to her. His frown deepened as she hesitated.

  ‘It is only water,’ he muttered impatiently, taking her hand and curling her visibly trembling fingers around the glass.

  Stella sipped a small amount and determined to pull herself together and straighten out this mess. ‘We’re not getting married. This is another of your whims.’

  ‘My whims?’

  Slowly she nodded. ‘Like seducing strange women on the beach.’

  ‘You were the one swimming when you shouldn’t have been. You’re just as spontaneous. You said yes.’

  ‘I’m saying no now. This is my life.’

  ‘I am well aware of it,’ he countered. ‘It is not what I wish for mine either. But that is not the point.’

  Stupidly, his words w
ounded her. Yeah, this is no fairy tale.

  ‘There is a doctor present.’ Eduardo leaned against the large reading table near her. ‘He will examine you.’

  ‘Pardon?’ She nearly smashed the glass of water on the floor.

  ‘A doctor. Your condition must be assessed.’

  Here and now? He had to be joking.

  One look at his implacable expression told her he wasn’t.

  Control over her life was slipping further from her grasp and her outrage over his high-handed treatment grew. She wanted to see her own doctor in her own time and in private. She straightened. ‘I will not be subjected to this...invasiveness. You have no right.’

  ‘I have every right.’

  ‘It is my body.’

  ‘And my baby,’ he shot back.

  ‘Mine too,’ she whispered, suddenly afraid. So very, very afraid—of now, of what it might mean for tomorrow and for a few months’ time.

  Even assuming everything went okay, he had such power and she had none. He could take her baby and send her away if he chose. Banish her. He would be able to. He could sell the world any kind of story. He had such charm he could sell the moon and the stars to the heavens.

  ‘Ours,’ he answered, his tone more measured. ‘But you were going to leave San Felipe. Why?’ He trained his fierce gaze on her. ‘Where were you going to go? What were you planning to do?’

  ‘Nothing, I—’ She broke off. She’d had no plan other than to get away and think. What did he think she’d been going to do?

  She hated the look of suspicion and condemnation in his eyes. Why was Eduardo determined to think the worst of her?

  ‘You did not turn to your father?’ he said.

  She’d tried, but her father had turned his back. And when the General found out the whole story he’d be even more furious.

  ‘He’s not pleased,’ Stella mumbled.

  Eduardo’s nostrils thinned and he finally glanced away from her.

  ‘He does not know who I was with,’ she added in a low voice, her embarrassment excruciating. ‘No one does.’

  Eduardo turned back to her. ‘You have not told anyone?’

  ‘Have I boasted that I bedded one of San Felipe’s princes on the beach? No. I have not.’ Her flush scorched her skin.

  ‘Your discretion is a credit to you.’

  She nearly rolled her eyes. As if his approval was anything she wanted!

  His intense scrutiny softened and he almost smiled, as if satisfied at something. ‘You will see the doctor now.’ He walked to the door, opening it and calling in a low voice.

  Stella set the glass down and steeled herself. Were there other people here who knew? She’d never felt shame over her action that afternoon, but she’d wanted to keep it close—just her one private memory to treasure. But now the world was going to know how reckless she’d been.

  ‘You feel unwell again?’ Eduardo had returned to stand right in front of her, looking angry again.

  ‘I feel shocked,’ she corrected miserably.

  She was angry too. Mostly with herself. That she could have been such a fool.

  ‘Prince Eduardo?’ A man spoke from the doorway.

  ‘Dr Russo.’ Eduardo turned so he stood beside her chair. ‘Please come in. I’d like you to meet Stella.’

  Stella didn’t even glance at the doctor. She was too surprised by the charming, ‘glossy-pages prince’ look that suddenly lit up Eduardo’s face.

  ‘I understand there may be good news today?’ The doctor couldn’t quite hide the excited note in his voice as he quickly crossed the room.

  ‘We hope so.’ Eduardo placed a hand on her shoulder in a mockery of a loving gesture.

  ‘That is very exciting.’ The doctor smiled as he put his bag on the big desk and opened it. ‘I’m sure you’re desperate for confirmation, so shall we do that right away?’

  The man lifted out a small box and turned to her, still with that smile. But his eyes were wide and sharp and prying.

  ‘You know how to use this?’ He handed her a commercial pregnancy test.

  ‘Yes.’ Mortified, Stella wanted to hide.

  ‘This way, Stella.’ Eduardo took her hand and pulled her out of the chair. He wrapped his arm around her waist and walked her to the doorway. ‘There is a powder room second door on the left,’ he murmured, but there was steel beneath the soft tone. ‘One of my assistants will help you if you can’t find your way back.’

  This wasn’t pleasant courtesy. He was issuing a warning. She was under surveillance and she couldn’t escape.

  ‘Why don’t you just wait here for me?’ she whispered back snappily.

  ‘Good idea.’

  He walked with her right to the bathroom door. For a horrified second she thought he was actually going to go into the room with her, but he paused and she shut the door in his face.

  Her palms were damp and she grimaced, but the indignity of doing the pregnancy test paled in the light of what the result might show. In her heart she knew her army medical tests wouldn’t have been mixed up. The San Felipe army was too good for such a mistake to be made. It was Stella who’d made the mistake and the result could be catastrophic.

  * * *

  Eduardo De Santis leaned against the wall and waited, furious and impatient that he’d found out so late. That she’d nearly escaped from the country. Where had she been going to go? What had she been planning to do? He couldn’t figure it out. Couldn’t figure her out.

  She finally emerged and walked back to the library. She held the test tightly in her fist and wouldn’t meet his eyes. Wouldn’t speak either.

  She barely came to his shoulder. Her blonde hair was scraped back into a straggly ponytail, her skin was shiny and her loose clothes old. He still thought she was beautiful. And dangerous.

  She placed the test on the desk by Dr Russo. Eduardo watched as the result was revealed. It didn’t take the two minutes it was supposed to. The word was illuminated almost immediately.

  Pregnant.

  The last hint of colour drained from her cheeks. Her lashes lifted and she looked up at him. The intense emotion in her expression struck deep and burned hot within his belly.

  Stark fear.

  She was right to be afraid. He’d never felt so angry—not since the last time he’d seen her. Was her wide-eyed, wounded reaction all an act? Had she somehow planned this? He knew that was impossible, but there was something he couldn’t trust in her.

  It took him a moment to simmer down enough to think—though he’d been doing nothing but thinking since his aide Matteo had phoned this morning, to relay information about a certain young lieutenant Eduardo had asked him to keep tabs on.

  Inexplicably, as that burst of anger settled, another ferociously hot feeling surged in its place. Satisfaction? As if he were some Neanderthal, proud of his success in procreating and preserving the species—the family name.

  His name.

  But Eduardo did not have the same liberty as others. He could not do entirely as he wanted. He was part of the royal family and with that came restrictions, responsibilities and requirements not to get in trouble. He was the public ‘face’ of his country, and one day he would have to marry.

  He was eighteen months off thirty. Palace aides had been dropping hints about a royal wedding for the past year. They’d even gone so far as to invite every European society princess or supermodel to the upcoming annual autumn ball, in the desperate hope that one might catch the princes’ eyes. They were dreaming if they thought any would interest Antonio. And if Eduardo had to marry eventually, what better bride than the woman already carrying his baby?

  So was it any surprise that the plan had come to him half formed as soon as he’d found out this morning? Now it only needed to be enacted—quickly, quietly, inco
ntrovertibly.

  He took her hand in his. Her fingers were freezing. Instinctively he tightened his grip and rubbed this thumb over her knuckles.

  ‘Darling,’ he muttered roughly. ‘I’m so pleased.’

  Startled, she choked on a gasp. He leaned close and kissed her temple, so his head hid her suddenly astounded—and angry—expression.

  He had absolute faith in the discretion of his physician, but Dr Russo was also his brother’s doctor. Patient confidentiality might not hold when it was the Crown Prince asking questions. Eduardo had to sell this as a love match—starting now.

  When he drew back a flush of colour had returned to her cheeks, but she still looked so slim and vulnerable.

  He knew she wasn’t. Those apparently skinny biceps could support her entire body weight, and her legs could wrap around a man and lock him in close. She was strong, powerful, and he wanted to kiss her properly—her mouth, her body. Latent and unwelcome desire rippled in his gut—like a beast beneath the surface of an eerily still lake.

  ‘You are in good health?’ Dr Russo turned to Stella.

  Eduardo listened impatiently as the doctor asked her preliminary questions. He wanted the man to do his job, but he also wanted him gone so he could ensure his control over Stella and this situation.

  Stella nodded.

  ‘Do you have any idea of the date of conception?’

  Precisely. But Stella didn’t answer.

  Eventually Eduardo did. ‘Possibly late July.’

  There was a startled look in the doctor’s eyes as he worked out how far along Stella must be, but the man was wise enough not to comment. He kept asking his routine questions. ‘You’ve had no morning sickness?’

  ‘No symptoms at all. I have an irregular cycle,’ she said in a strangled voice. ‘Apart from that I’ve always been very healthy.’

  ‘From your army medical file it seems that indeed you are,’ the doctor said jovially, apparently ignorant of the tension swirling in the room. ‘So there’s nothing else—no family history that we ought to be aware of?’

  Her eyes dropped. Inside his, her hand had curled into a fist.