The Pregnant Bride

by Susan Mallery

  “The reality is, you can hire someone else,” she continued. “Someone who isn’t pregnant.” Maybe someone who would be smart enough not to fall in love with him.

  She couldn’t think about that, she reminded herself. That was her vow. That she wouldn’t allow herself to get into her feelings until she was safely on a plane back to Aspen. Then she would have a small but tasteful breakdown and really feel the pain. It would probably frighten the other people on the flight, but they would have to deal with that.

  “I do not want someone else. I want you.”

  His words settled on her like a warm, cozy blanket. She held them close, hardly able to believe that he was actually—

  “You are easy to talk to. We share a sense of humor and excellent chemistry. I am unlikely to find that again and it will not be convenient for me to look.”

  She leaned back against the sofa and closed her eyes. Not only did he know where to slide in the knife, he knew exactly how to twist it for maximum effect.

  Not that she should blame him. Qadir had no clue as to her real feelings so he couldn’t know how he was hurting her.

  “Qadir, I really think that I—”

  “I have decided there is only one solution,” he said, interrupting her. “We will be married.”

  Maggie sat up. “Excuse me?”

  “We will be married. My father wants me to be married and I have no interest in someone he will thrust upon me. As I have stated, you and I get along well. I understand this match will have many advantages for you, which is also a good thing. It will be more difficult for Jon to see his child regularly, but you mentioned he could have the child for summers and I would not object to that.”

  “I… You…” She stared at him, too stunned to form sentences.

  “It is a great honor,” Qadir said kindly. “You are surprised at my generosity. I am confident we will both be happy in this marriage. While my father may take a while to convince, he will be pleased that you are a known breeder.”

  Her brain was blank. Totally blank. Which was probably a good thing because if she had actual use of her functions, she would be forced to hit him over the head with a lamp.

  “A known breeder?” she ground out.

  He smiled. “That was meant to be humorous,” he told her. “What do you say, Maggie? It is an excellent solution for both of us.”

  “Solution? To what problem? You’re the one who has to get married, not me. No one is pressuring me to take a husband.”

  She hurt all over. She loved him. She could imagine nothing more amazing than having him say he cared about her and wanted to be with her always. But that was just a fantasy. The reality was Qadir wasn’t interested in being emotionally connected to anyone. He wanted a companion he liked and someone to have great sex with.

  “Why are you angry?” he asked. Damn him, he actually looked confused. “I am doing you a great honor. I am Prince Qadir of El Deharia, Maggie. You would be my princess. A member of the royal family. Your children with me would be part of our history.”

  “Not bad for a car mechanic from Colorado, right?” she said bitterly, then held up her hands. “Never mind answering. I know you don’t get it. Most of the time you’re almost a regular guy. I started to forget the whole prince thing. But that’s a part of you, too.”

  His gaze narrowed. “Are you saying that is something you do not like?”

  “It’s not my favorite characteristic.”

  Too late she remembered his ex-fiancée, Whitney, who wouldn’t marry him because she didn’t want to deal with the restrictions of being a princess.

  “It’s not just that,” she said quickly. “I’m not going to marry you to better my financial situation. That’s not who I am. And I’m not going to marry you because it’s convenient. I wouldn’t marry Jon and he thought he was doing the right thing.”

  “Do not compare me to him.”

  “Why not? You’re both interested in getting me to marry you for reasons that have nothing to do with me and everything to do with yourselves. That’s not what I want.”

  She hurt all over. Her chest ached when she breathed and she just wanted to be alone.

  She stood and walked to the door. After pulling it open, she shook her head. “Look. I know you think you’re doing me this big favor, but I don’t see it that way. I want something different. Something you can’t give me. And I’m not going to settle for anything less.” She opened the door a little wider. “You should go now.”

  * * *

  Maggie lay curled up on the bed, crying so hard, her whole body shook. She knew she should stop, that this much emotion couldn’t be good for the baby, but she didn’t know how.

  “It’s all right,” Victoria said, stroking her back. “I’ll go online and find someone to beat the crap out of Qadir. That will help.”

  “Not much.”

  “But a little. Right?”

  Maggie reached for another tissue and blew her nose. “I can’t believe he did that. I can’t believe he proposed that way. What was he thinking?”

  “He wasn’t. I have no idea. Men can be really, really stupid. Even princes.”

  “Especially princes. He told me it would be an honor for me to marry him.”

  “What a jerk.”

  Maggie nodded and looked at her friend. “I love him.”

  Victoria gave her a sad smile. “I figured that out. Unfortunately he didn’t.”

  “I don’t want him to know. Then he’d only pity me. It’s better that he doesn’t understand me. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.” More tears filled her eyes. “I just don’t know how to get through this.”

  “One second at a time. You keep breathing, keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

  “I want to go home. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I want to make sure it’s okay for me to fly with the baby and all, and then I’m gone.”

  “I’ll miss you,” Victoria said.

  “You’re leaving soon, too, aren’t you? Come to Aspen. It’s beautiful and there are lots of rich, powerful men hanging around the slopes.”

  “I’m done with rich, powerful men but I will come visit you. I want to be there when the baby is born.”

  “I’d like that.” Otherwise Maggie would be alone. She knew Jon would offer to be with her, but that would be too weird.

  At least he could be talked out of it. Qadir would not. He would storm into the delivery room and demand to be a part of things. She started to cry again.

  “I wish I didn’t love him,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be like this. I didn’t want to be one of those women crushed by a man.”

  “You’re not.”

  “Look at me.”

  “You’ll get over this and be stronger for it.”

  Maggie didn’t believe her. “Why couldn’t he love me?”

  “Men like him don’t fall in love,” Victoria told her. “They take what’s offered and move on. They don’t have to give their hearts. It’s never required of them.”

  Maggie wanted to disagree and say Qadir wasn’t like that, only he was. After all, he’d been the one to come up with the idea of them pretending to be involved. He was also willing to marry her even though he didn’t love her.

  “I want a man who loves me passionately,” she whispered. “I want to matter more than anything.”

  “Not me,” Victoria told her. “Love is messy.”

  Right now messy looked pretty good.

  “Tell me the pain will get better,” she said.

  “You know it will. You’re going to heal and move on. One day you’ll look back on all this and be grateful you got away when you did.”

  Maggie hoped her friend was right, but she had her doubts.

  * * *

  The doctor’s office was in a modern building next to a hospital. Maggie showed up a few minutes early for her appointment to fill out paperwork.

  Victoria had found the female doctor by asking around at the palace and then had e
ven phoned to make the appointment. Maggie was going to miss her when she left.

  After checking in for her appointment, she took the clipboard over to one of the comfortable seats and began filling in the information. She hesitated at the line that asked for her home address, then wrote in that of the palace.

  In a few days that wouldn’t be true anymore. She already had her ticket home to Aspen. Once there, she would find an apartment to rent until she got her house back, then start looking for a job. She would have to put away as much money as possible before the baby came.

  She answered all the health questions. She had no symptoms of anything unusual and so far, no problems with her pregnancy. Still, a part of her hoped to be told she couldn’t fly for a few more weeks. Which was just dumb. What did she think? That more time would make Qadir realize he was madly in love with her? Like that was ever going to happen.

  With the paperwork completed and turned in, she flipped through a magazine before she was called in to the exam room.

  Dr. Galloway was a friendly woman in her late forties. They discussed her due date, prenatal vitamins and Maggie’s new dietary needs.

  “While everyone wants to eat for two,” Dr. Galloway told her, “you’re currently eating for yourself and something the size of a rice grain. It’s better for you and the baby if you can keep your weight down. The more you put on now, the more you’ll have to take off later.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Maggie said, knowing lately she was too sad to eat. She would have to force herself to stay healthy for the sake of the baby. “Is it all right for me to fly?”

  “Sure. There aren’t any problems in the first few months.”

  “Thanks.” Maggie tried not to sound disappointed. It appeared there was nothing keeping her in El Deharia.

  The doctor smiled at her. “It’s a little early, so I can’t promise, but would you like to try to hear the baby’s heartbeat?”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  “We’ll get set up in a—”

  There was a commotion in the hall, the sound of footsteps followed by a woman saying, “You can’t go in there. Sir, you can’t.”

  “I am Prince Qadir. I may go where I like.”

  “Sir, there are patients.”

  “Then tell me where she is.”

  Dr. Galloway rose. “What on earth is that?”

  Maggie sat up. “Um, he’s with me.”

  The doctor stared at her. “He’s the—”

  “No. Not the father. Just someone I know. He’s…” She shrugged, not sure how to explain about Qadir’s imperious proposal and impossible assumptions.

  “You can let him in,” Maggie said. “It’s okay.”

  Dr. Galloway left to get Qadir while Maggie tried to figure out what he was doing at the doctor’s office. How had he even known about her appointment? Then she remembered the date book on her desk. Had he looked there?

  She knew better than to be happy about the invasion. Qadir was here for his own reasons, but they were unlikely to be overly thrilling to her.

  The door to the exam room flew open and he stalked inside. “You did not tell me about your appointment.”

  “I know.”

  “I wish to be informed of these things.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it is not right for you to keep this information from me.”

  She sat up on the examining table and did her best to look dignified while dressed in a thin cloth gown that tied in the back.

  “This isn’t your child,” she reminded him, refusing to get lost in his dark eyes or remember how good his mouth felt against hers. “You have nothing to do with my pregnancy.”

  “I want to marry you and be a father to your child. That makes me involved.”

  “I didn’t accept your proposal. Weren’t you listening?”

  “You weren’t saying anything I wanted to hear.” He reached for her hand. “Maggie, why are you being difficult?”

  She snatched her fingers away before he could touch them. “This isn’t difficult, Qadir, it’s real. I’m not willing to be a convenience in your life. I want more.”

  The door opened and a young woman wheeled in a monitor. She paused. “Should I come back?”

  “Yes,” Qadir said impatiently.

  “No,” Maggie told her as she scowled at him. “I want her to stay. I might be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat.”

  His expression softened. “So soon?”

  “We can try,” the technician told him.

  “I would like to stay and listen.”

  Maggie thought about fighting him, but what was the point?

  She lay back down and was hooked up to the monitor. A few minutes later, a soft, steady beating filled the room.

  It was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard and it terrified her to the bone. There really was a baby. She was going to be a mother and responsible for the life growing inside her.

  What if she wasn’t any good? What if she messed everything up? Then she remembered her father and how much he’d loved her. She wanted that for herself and her child.

  She turned to look at Qadir, to see if he understood the wonder of the moment and was crushed to find he had slipped out when she wasn’t paying attention. Apparently he hadn’t cared as much as he claimed.

  * * *

  “It was the sound,” Qadir said as he once again paced, but this time in his brother’s quarters.

  “A heartbeat?” Kateb sounded unimpressed.

  “Yes, but more than that. I cannot explain what it was like. There in the room. Proof of life.”

  “You know this isn’t your child,” Kateb said.

  Qadir dismissed the information. “Not the child of my body, but we are still connected. I will forbid her to leave. It is within my power.”

  “Not without reason,” his brother reminded him. “You could always drag her into the desert. I know places where you will never be found.”

  “Maggie would not enjoy the desert,” Qadir said, wondering why she had to be so difficult and how he could convince her she had to stay. “There must be something I am not saying to her. Something she wants to hear.”

  His brother looked at him. “You’re not serious, are you?”

  “What?”

  “You really don’t understand why she’s not happy with you?”

  “And you do?”

  Kateb stood and faced him. “She’s a woman. She wants to be loved.”

  Qadir stiffened. “No. I will not.”

  “Because you loved Whitney and she walked away?”

  Qadir ignored the question. He would not speak of her with his brother. The pain was too—

  He paused. There was no pain. Whitney had been many years ago. Perhaps she was the reason he was reluctant to fully engage his heart, but he no longer cared for her in any way. But to risk loving again…

  “Whitney didn’t stay because she couldn’t face what being your wife meant,” Kateb said. “Is that Maggie’s problem?”

  “No. She is fearless.” Feisty and determined. She challenged him. He enjoyed her challenges, especially in bed.

  “So the problem seems to be you.”

  Qadir glared. “I have proposed. She has refused. The problem is hers.”

  “Did you tell her you love her?”

  “No.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that you should?”

  He started to explain to his brother that the problem was he didn’t love Maggie, but he couldn’t seem to speak the words. Why was that?

  Did he love her? Was that why he’d wanted to grind Jon into the dust? Why he didn’t want to let her go?

  “I do love her,” he announced. “I love Maggie.”

  Kateb smirked. “Then you should probably go and tell her.”

  * * *

  Maggie left the palace in a cab. She supposed she could have gotten one of the limo drivers to take her, but somehow that didn’t seem right.

  She had the driver wait for a
few minutes, hoping Victoria would show up to say goodbye, but she did not. Her friend had disappeared, leaving only a note saying her father had unexpectedly arrived and that she would try to stop by if she could.

  Finally Maggie got in the cab and they drove away.

  She stared out at the passing city, trying to take in the beauty of it all. Anything to keep her mind off her sadness. She’d come to El Deharia with high hopes and was leaving with a broken heart. She would miss her friend. Even more, she would miss the man she loved.

  Alone, near tears, she admitted to herself that she had hoped he would at least try to talk her into staying. She’d hoped for one more annoying conversation where he told her what to do and she refused. At least then she could see him one more time. But he hadn’t bothered.

  She told herself she would get over him, even as a part of her knew that she was going to love him forever. Eventually she might be able to find a man she could like a lot, but the arrogant prince would always have her heart. Unfortunately he was too stupid to appreciate that.

  Once at the busy airport, she paid the driver and walked into the terminal. She stood in line to check in. When it was her turn, the clerk took her electronic ticket and her passport and typed into the computer. The young woman frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” Maggie asked.

  “There seems to be a problem, Ms. Collins. I’m going to have to ask you to speak with one of our security officers.”

  “What?”

  Before she could find out what was going on, she was whisked into a small room with a single desk, two chairs and no windows. An official-looking little man stacked her luggage in the corner before facing her.

  “Ms. Collins, I’m very sorry, but I’m going to have to arrest you.”

  This couldn’t be happening, Maggie thought. It was a joke. It had to be.

  “For what?”

  “Violating El Deharian law. You are pregnant?”

  “That has nothing to do with anything.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes. It is illegal to remove a royal child from the country without permission from the king. You have no such permission.”

  She sank into the chair. Disbelief warred with despair. Wasn’t her life sucky enough without this happening?