by Kat Mizera
“I would have done the same thing,” Lennox said softly. “If he’d managed to kidnap me, once I was in that position, being starved to death, slowly and painfully, I would have done whatever was necessary to live long enough to fight another day. Death is final, but survival takes guts. You were strong, Elen, no matter what you’re thinking.”
“Then why doesn’t it feel like it?” I asked, swiping at my eyes.
“Because you’ve been through a traumatic experience and it’s going to take a while to process it,” Xander said, kissing the side of my face.
“And we’re all going to be here to help get you through it,” Sandor added.
“Natalia might die because of me,” I whispered.
“She signed up to protect the royal family,” Sandor said firmly. “She knew the risks. She volunteered to come with us.”
“But she wasn’t ready!” I protested. “She’s not finished with her training and—”
“And she saved our lives,” Xander interrupted me gently. “We were so focused on Omar, we didn’t see that guy come in behind us. She’s a lot more prepared to be a Royal Protector than we thought.”
My arms tightened around him as I tried to process what everyone was saying. They were right, but I still felt like shit.
“Xander…” I brought up my hand and it was covered in fresh, bright red blood. “Are you…bleeding?”
Sandor immediately leaned over and pulled up the shirt Xander wore beneath his bulletproof vest. “You ripped open your stitches,” he growled. “You need to get that looked at.”
“It’ll be fine,” he rumbled, tugging his shirt back down.
“Stitches?” I demanded. “When did you get stitches?”
“It’s a long story, Princess.” He gave me a smile. “A lot happened while you were away.”
I wanted to hear everything, but right now, all I knew was that he seemed to be bleeding pretty badly. Without hesitation, I got to my feet and looked around for a nurse.
“Elen, no,” he called as I went down the hall in search of one. I ignored him, mostly because I was worried about him, but also because I needed to keep busy. As if any activity at all on my part could make some piece of this better, or at least bearable. I was struggling with a plethora of feelings, causing a bit of emotional whiplash, and the only way I could make it through was to keep moving.
I found a nurse, who called for a doctor, who immediately sprang into action as soon as he realized who I was. Xander was taken to an examination room, stripped from the waist up, and the doctor looked him over carefully.
“This is bleeding badly,” the man told me in Limaji. “I’m going to need to clean the wound and redo his stitches.”
I repeated it for Xander and he made an impatient motion. “Do what you have to do, but local anesthetic only, please.”
The doctor nodded.
“You don’t have to stay,” Xander told me.
“I’m not squeamish,” I replied. “I can hold your hand if you’re scared.”
He chuckled. “I’m not scared, but you can hold my hand.” He held it out and I took it. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. “I was fucking terrified.”
“I knew you were coming for me. You and my brothers.”
“I don’t know how we would’ve gotten to you if you hadn’t left the house, so it’s actually a good thing that you decided to do what he wanted. Otherwise, casualties might have been a lot worse trying to get you out of there.”
I shuddered, not wanting to think about it. “I can’t even imagine.” I leaned in for a kiss just as the doctor approached us. He had a smile on his face as he told Xander to lie on his stomach.
I’d actually lied to Xander, because I was pretty squeamish in general, and looking at the recent wound on his back nearly sent me running for the nearest trash can, but I managed to hold on, breathing in deeply and focusing on his handsome face. I had a feeling his injuries had been because of me, which made me feel even worse, but I was going to have to get used to the fact that the man I loved was a Royal Protector. Danger was and would continue to be part of our lives, even now that Omar was gone. I already knew Xander loved his job and my family, so he wasn’t going to stop what he was doing, and honestly, I didn’t want him to.
“You okay?” he asked, squinting a little. “You’re pretty pale, Princess. I don’t think your stomach is as strong as you think it is.”
“I’ll be okay.” I squeezed his hand. “I’m overtired and not feeling great in general right now, but a good night’s sleep and I’ll be fine.”
He narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything.
The doctor finished relatively quickly and bandaged his back, giving me a list of instructions on how to care for the wound. Then we were alone and Xander sat up, reaching for me. His T-shirt was covered in blood, so he wasn’t putting it back on, and I took advantage of the opportunity to rest my cheek against his bare torso.
“I missed you so much,” I said, closing my eyes and breathing in his scent, even though he was sweaty.
“I missed you too.” Xander leaned down to look into my eyes. “Did he hurt you, El?”
“No. I mean, not beyond starving me and stuff. But in general, no.” I paused. “And I’m really sorry about before, telling you I needed space and all that bullshit. I don’t need space. I just need you.”
“All I want is to make you happy,” he whispered, stroking my hair. “I want to be the reason you smile every day.”
“You already are.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely. Why?”
To my surprise, he reached down and put the flat of his palm on my stomach. “I was thinking there might be something you want to tell me?”
I shook my head, shocked. “I… How did you know?”
“You think I don’t pay attention? You’ve only had a period once since we got together.”
“I…don’t know anything definite, but I suspect. I’ve got a lot of symptoms.”
“Jesus, baby. He could have hurt not just you, but our baby, too.” He cupped both sides of my face with his hands.
“Xander?” I paused, sucking in a nervous breath as I stared up at him. “Are you, uh, okay with this? The possibility that I’m pregnant?”
37
Xander
I didn’t know how to answer her because I was more than okay with it if she was pregnant. I hadn’t thought about it much until we’d had our bout of unprotected sex, but now that it was a reality, I loved her so much I couldn’t wait to have kids together. I wanted to marry her and carry her off into the sunset. Metaphorically anyway. But we had a lot of logistics to talk through to make that happen.
“Like I said, I want to be the reason you smile every day,” I said slowly. “If you want babies, I want babies. If you want to get married tomorrow, I want to get married tomorrow. I want whatever you want.”
“But that’s not how it’s supposed to work,” she protested. “Is it? Shouldn’t the things you want matter too?”
“That’s just it—they do. As far as I can tell, all the things you want are things I want too. Granted, getting married tomorrow is nowhere on my radar, but I’d do it because it’d be the beginning of the life I want us to have together.”
“Is it? Do you want to spend your life with me?” Her eyes were filled with uncertainty and I wanted to kiss it away, along with every other thing that might possibly hurt her.
“Of course it is. I love you, Princess. More than anything.”
“I don’t want to get married tomorrow,” she whispered.
“Soon?”
“It depends. If I’m not pregnant, then I’d like to wait so Sandor and Lennox have their big day without any distractions from us. If I am, well, we’ll have to talk about it. I definitely don’t want a big spectacle like they’re having.”
“Are you sure? Because I think my favorite princess loves all the spectacles.”
She smiled. “Sometimes, bu
t this is different. I want to get married on the beach in Tahiti, with Samaria and Fetu and the kids. My family too, of course, but mostly I want to be surrounded by people I love most in the place I love most. I don’t want to share it with the Limaji people because, frankly, I share almost everything else with them. Something like this, well, I want it to be private.”
“Are you proposing to me, Princess?”
She looked startled for a minute and then chuckled. “Maybe? I was kind of hoping you’d do it, but after everything I’ve been through in the last week, I don’t care about tradition. I just want us to be together.”
“I was planning to propose as soon as I got you back,” I admitted. “Just haven’t had a chance yet. But now that you’ve beat me to the punch, what if we went ring shopping together?”
She smiled. “I’d like that. I’m pretty high-maintenance, though.”
“And like I keep telling you, I’m okay with that.” I leaned in and kissed her, harder than I intended, my tongue seeking out hers as I pulled her roughly against me. We hadn’t gone a week without making love since the first time and I’d missed her both physically and emotionally. I could live without the sex, but not being close to her, touching her, loving her.
My hands skimmed her still-flat stomach and I was suddenly desperate to find out. “We should talk to someone here at the hospital. I bet they could do a test right now. Tell them you’re lightheaded and you’re concerned.”
“You think?” She wrinkled her nose. “You want to do it here?”
“I want to do it now.” I wrapped one arm around her waist.
“Okay.” She smiled. “Let’s go find that nice doctor.”
It was a long night, sitting in the waiting room through Natalia’s surgery. The bullet had done extensive damage, according to the surgeon, and her recovery would be long and slow. She was young and healthy, though, so he was optimistic. Sandor made arrangements for her to be moved to the hospital in Hiskale as soon as she was strong enough to be taken there by helicopter, and sometime close to midnight, we filed out of the hospital to head to where the helicopter awaited us.
“I’ll stay with Natalia,” Ace said. “Even though Omar’s gone, I don’t think it’s safe for her to be alone.”
“Absolutely.” Sandor nodded. “And if the doctor gives the okay, we’ll move her to Hiskale tomorrow.”
Elen was half-asleep and I would have carried her had the doctor not warned me not to rip my stitches again. Instead, I kept my arm around her waist as we boarded the helicopter and took off for home. She fell asleep almost instantly, resting her head against my shoulder.
“She okay?” Sandor asked quietly. “I saw her go into an exam room with a nurse.”
I hesitated slightly and then smiled. “They’re fine.”
Sandor raised his eyebrows and smiled back. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
He didn’t say anything else, and neither did I, since Elen probably wanted to tell the rest of the family herself. We had a lot to do, plans to make, people to talk to, but first we needed to rest. Both of us. Now that I had her back, I was ready to give my kidney and ribs a break, because I’d been in a ton of pain. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but this wouldn’t be sustainable long-term, so I’d be good about giving my body time to recover.
I was just so fucking happy to have Omar out of our lives for good.
When I woke up in the morning, Elen was already awake, doing something on her phone. I reached for her, pulling her against my chest.
“Whatcha doin’?” I asked her.
“Checking email. I have a million of them, so I’m trying to at least delete the ones that don’t require my attention. I’ve eliminated a hundred and twenty so far.”
“That sounds too much like work,” I murmured.
“Apparently, Senator Novak was not responsible for what happened with Omar. He was interrogated and it turns out it was one of his interns, getting info about me and feeding him ideas on ways to fuck with me. Damn. I was hoping he was guilty so my brothers would fuck him up. Now I have to deal with him in Parliament every day.”
“But Omar is dead and you can handle one nasty old man,” I said, tugging her on top of me.
“It’s almost noon,” she said, laughing lightly as she pressed her lips to mine.
“And we have the day off,” I said, exploring her mouth with interest. I hadn’t touched her in a week and that ended now.
“Xander…” Her voice came out in a breathy little rush.
“Shh.” I slid my hands down her back, reacquainting myself with her silky skin and shapely ass. “Take off your nightgown.”
She sat up a little and pulled it over her head. She had nothing on beneath and I took a moment to appreciate her beautiful body. My beautiful princess. I’d never imagined marrying royalty, but now I was all in and couldn’t wait to go ring shopping. But first, I was going to make her come a few times because it had been far too long.
“Why don’t you scoot up here,” I murmured, pulling her closer to my head.
“What?” She looked down in confusion.
“Come on, Princess…I’m hungry.” My eyes met hers playfully until understanding finally dawned.
“Oh, well, then, by all means.” She moved forward until her sweet pussy was positioned above my face and I lifted up for my first taste. Damn, she was hot. I stroked my tongue between her folds and put my hands on either side of her hips to keep her steady. I pulled her down even lower, until I could slide my tongue up inside of her, and she let out a little squeak.
If she was being this quiet, I wasn’t doing my job, so I brought one hand around and gently spread her open until I found her hard little clit. I closed my lips around it, sucking on it until she started to squirm and her breath left her in a heated rush.
“Xander!”
“Mmhmm.” I kept at it, sucking, stroking and licking until she was riding my face like a rodeo queen. She was so wet, her musky womanhood driving me almost to the brink myself. When she came, my name exploded from her lips and I held her firmly until the spasms passed.
“Holy crap.” She collapsed to the side, her chest rising and falling as she caught her breath. “Can we do that for breakfast every day?”
“Sure.” I held out my hand and she put hers in it.
“I have so many things to do but all I want to do is lie here with you.”
“We can do that too,” I said simply. “We don’t have any mandatory commitments. Not today anyway.”
“I’d really like to check on Natalia, though.”
“Yeah, and I blew off Parker mid-conversation the other day… He’s texted me at least a hundred times.”
We laughed together.
“How about we shower, order something to eat, and then take care of a handful of absolutely essential things before we crawl back to bed?” she suggested.
“Okay.” I sat up and winced, my stitches sorer than before.
“You’re hurting,” she said quickly, sitting up and leaning over me to look at my wound. “Let’s get you in the bathroom so I can clean that for you.”
“It’s fine,” I said.
“Don’t make me call the doctor,” she told me.
“Yeah, yeah.” I got to my feet and followed her into the bathroom.
An hour later we’d eaten brunch, I’d checked in with Parker and told him I’d call him tomorrow, and Sandor told Elen Natalia was being flown to Hiskale this afternoon. She was still in serious condition, but doing well, so we were grateful for that.
“Are we going to talk about babies and weddings and stuff?” I asked her when we’d finished eating.
“If you want.” She met my gaze. “Look, we don’t have to get married right away. We were in the middle of a crisis and probably both said a lot of stuff that we wouldn’t have said if things hadn’t been so crazy. I’m pregnant, but I don’t care what people think about having a baby without being married, and the last thing I want to do is rush into so
mething we might regret.”
“You done?” I asked, scowling.
“I guess?” She looked confused.
“Princess, if you’d asked, I probably would have married you after the first time I made love to you. There’s nothing I want more than for us to be together. And while I don’t care what other people think about us not being married and having a baby, it matters to me. I want to marry the woman I love, the mother of my kid. I want us to start our own little family.”
“I want that too,” she whispered.
“Then let’s do it. Just tell me where and when.”
“Tahiti. Immediately. We have to do it now because Sandor and Lennox’s wedding is coming up in four weeks and I have to be back from our honeymoon at least a week before the wedding because she needs help finalizing all the things that have to do with royal traditions. I can’t abandon her at the last minute.”
“No, of course not.” I nodded. “Then you need to get on the phone with Samaria and I’m going to go downstairs and call a meeting with the security team because taking the whole family to Tahiti in the next week is going to take some planning.”
She smiled. “Are you sure?”
“I’m positive.” I kissed her and got to my feet. “I’ll be back in a few.”
Epilogue
Elen
We were married just before sunset in Tahiti eight days later, surrounded by the people we loved, including Xander’s mother and brother, my entire family, and most of our circle of friends from the palace. Ace and Shannon had stayed behind with Natalia, and they’d watched the ceremony via video, but it was a fun, low-key event. I wore a white sundress and left my hair down, a wreath of flowers from Samaria’s garden adorning my head. Xander wore a white button-down shirt that was untucked and khakis rolled up to his calves. We were all barefoot, including the guests, and Samaria and Fetu stood up for us.
Afterward, we had a fabulous meal at the resort and then we were roasted and toasted until most of the adults started to dance and many of the children started an impromptu game of Frisbee in the sand.