by Kristi Gold
“Maybe not, but I really want to do it, not only for you, but for me. We barely caught a glimpse of him tonight. Besides, I’ll only have him a little longer, while you’ll have him the rest of your life.”
Piper’s words filled Adan with unexpected regret. Regret that, in a matter of weeks, he would be forced to say goodbye to an incredible woman. In the meantime, he would make the most of their remaining hours together and grant her whatever her heart desired, not only as the provisional mother to his son, but as his temporary lover.
He rolled to face Piper, leaving nothing between them but bare flesh. “Since you have presented such a convincing argument, we will see to Samuel together. Before this, could I convince you to spend the next few hours in some interesting ways?”
She laughed softly. “I thought we were going to sleep.”
Bent on persuasion, he skimmed his palm along her curves and paused at the bend of her waist. “We could do that if you’d like.”
She draped her arm over his hip. “Sleeping is definitely overrated, so I’m willing to go wherever you lead me.”
And she was leading him to a place he’d never been before—close to crashing and burning with no safe place to land. Tonight, he wouldn’t analyze the unfamiliar feelings. Tonight, she was all his, and he would treat her as if she always would be.
* * *
What an incredible night.
A week ago, Piper would never have believed she could find a lover as unselfish as Adan. She also couldn’t believe her inhibitions had all but disappeared when they made love.
As she supported her cheek with her palm and studied him in the dim light streaming through a break in the heavy gold curtains, she wanted him desperately—even if she was a bit miffed he’d failed to wake her to help care for Sam. Apparently she’d been so relaxed in the postcoitus afterglow, she hadn’t heard the baby’s cries through the bedside monitor. Some mother she would make.
When Adan stirred, she turned her complete focus on him as he lay sleeping on his back, one arm resting above his head on the navy satin-covered pillow, the other draped loosely across his abdomen. She loved the dark shading of whiskers surrounding his gorgeous mouth, envied the way his long dark lashes fanned beneath his eyes and admired the intricate details of his hand as he slid his palm from his sternum down to beneath the sheet and back up again. The reflexive gesture was so masculine, so sexy, she fought the urge to rip back the covers and climb on board the pleasure express.
Then he opened his eyes and blinked twice before he presented a smile as slow as the sun rising above the mountains. “Good morning, princess.”
Didn’t she wish. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
“Always with you in my bed. How did you sleep?”
“Too soundly. I didn’t even hear Sam last night, and evidently you either didn’t wake me to help, or couldn’t.”
He frowned. “I didn’t hear him, either.”
Simultaneous panic set in, sending them both from the bed and grabbing robes as they hurried out of the bedroom. They practically sprinted toward the nursery and tore through the door, only to find an empty crib.
Piper’s hand immediately went to her mouth to cover the gasp. “Someone took him.”
“That is impossible,” Adan said, a hint of fear calling out from his gold-brown eyes. “The palace is a virtual fortress. If someone kidnapped him, it would have to be an inside job. And if that is the case, I will kill them with my bare hands.”
“No need for that, cara.”
They both spun around to discover Elena sitting in the rocker in the far corner of the lengthy room, the baby cradled in her arms, her expression tinged with disapproval.
Weak with relief, Piper hung back and immediately launched into explanation overdrive. “We never heard him last night. We were both very tired and—”
“The bloody monitor must not be working,” Adan added. “Is he all right?”
Elena continued to calmly rock Sam in a steady rhythm. “He is quite fine. And judging from the weight of his diaper when I changed him, I would guess he simply slept all night.”
Adan narrowed his eyes and glared at her. “You should have said something the moment we walked into the room.”
“You should learn to be more observant of your surroundings when it comes to your son, Adan,” she replied. “A hard lesson learned, but one that needed to be taught. When he is toddling, you must know where he is at all times.”
Piper, in theory, didn’t disagree with the governess’s assertions, but she did question her tactics. “We were both expecting to find him in the crib, and needless to say we were shocked when we didn’t.”
Adan clasped his hands behind his neck and began to pace. “I’ve been in treacherous military situations less harrowing than this.”
Elena pushed out of the chair and approached him. “Settle down, Adan, and hold your baby.”
He looked as though he might be afraid to touch him. “I have to prepare for my duties today, but I will return to check on him before I depart for the base.”
And with that, he rushed away, leaving Piper alone with the former nanny.
“Well, I suppose I should put this little one to bed for a nap,” Elena said, breaking the awkward silence.
Piper approached her and held out her arms. “May I?”
“Of course.”
After Elena handed her Sam, Piper kissed his cheek before carefully lowering him to the crib. She continued to study Sam’s sweet face slack with sleep, his tiny lips forming a rosebud. He’d grown so much in only a matter of days, and in only a few weeks, she would say goodbye to him—and his father—for good. “He’s such a beautiful little boy.”
The woman came to her side and rested her slender hands on the top of the railing. “Yes, he is, as his father was at that age.”
She saw the chance to learn more about Adan from one of the biggest influences in his life and took it. “Was Adan a good baby?”
“Yes. He was very little trouble, until he turned two, and then he became quite the terror. He climbed everything available to him, and I didn’t dare turn my back for more than a second or he would have dismantled something. I would try to scold him over his bad behavior, and then he would give me that charming smile, and all was forgiven.”
Piper could absolutely relate to that. “He was lucky to have you after losing his mother.”
Some unnamed emotion passed over Elena’s careworn face. “I was fortunate to have the opportunity to raise him. All the brothers, for that matter.”
Time to broach the subject of the paternal presence. “Was the king involved in his upbringing?”
Elena turned and crossed the room to reclaim the rocker, looking as if all the energy had left her. “He did the best that he could under the circumstance. Losing his wife proved to be devastating to him, yet he had no choice but to postpone his grief in order to serve his country.”
Piper took the light blue club chair next to Elena. “Adan has intimated the king was a strict disciplinarian.”
“He could be,” she said. “He wanted his sons to be strong, independent men, despite their wealth and their station. Some might say he was too strict at times.”
“Would you say that?”
“Perhaps, but it was not my place to interfere.”
“I would think you had every right to state your opinion in light of your relationship.”
Elena stiffened and appeared quite stunned by the statement. “Has Adan spoken to you about myself and the king?”
Piper smelled a scandal brewing. “Not at all. I only meant that since you were in charge of the children, you should have had some say in how they were treated.”
Elena relaxed somewhat, settled back against the rocker and set it in motion. “The king was stern, but fair.”
; “I’m not sure how fair it was for Adan when he shipped him off to boarding school at such a young age.” And she’d probably just overstepped her bounds by at least a mile.
“He did so to protect him.”
The defensiveness in her tone did not deter Piper. “Protect him from what?”
Elena tightened her grip on the chair’s arms. “I have already said too much.”
Not by a long shot, as far as she was concerned. “Look, I don’t know what you know, and frankly I don’t have to know it. But Adan deserves the truth.”
“It would be too painful for him, and would serve no purpose at this point in time.”
She wasn’t getting through to the woman, which meant she would have to play the guilt card. “Have you ever asked Adan if he would prefer to be kept in the dark? I personally think he wouldn’t.”
“And you, Ms. McAdams, have not known him all that long.”
Touché. “True, but we have spoken at length about his father. Even though he’s reluctant to admit it, Adan has a lot of emotional scars, thanks to the king’s careless disregard for his youngest son’s needs.”
She saw the first real hint of anger in Elena’s topaz eyes. “Aahil...the king loved Adan. He gave him the very best of everything money could buy, and the opportunity to do what he loved the most. Fly jets.”
A perfect lead-in to confront the crux of the matter, yet asking hard questions could be to her detriment. But if Adan could finally put his concerns to rest, it would be worth the risk. “I personally believe he failed to give Adan the one thing he needed most, and that would be a father who paid more attention to him, instead of shipping him far from his home. For that reason, Adan honestly believes the king isn’t his biological father.”
Elena glanced away, a very telling sign she could be skirting facts. “That is a wrongful assumption.”
Piper wasn’t ready to give up just yet. “Are you being absolutely honest with me, Elena? And before you speak, keep in mind Adan deserves to know so he could put that part of his past to rest.”
“I swear on my papa’s grave that the king was very much Adan’s biological father.”
Even though Elena sounded resolute, Piper couldn’t quite help but believe the woman still had something to hide. “Then you need to tell him that, Elena. And you’ll have to work hard to convince him, because he’s certain something isn’t right when it comes to his heritage.”
Elena gave her a surprisingly meaningful look. “Do you care for Adan, Ms. McAdams?”
It was her turn to be shocked. “It’s Piper, and yes, as one would care for a very good friend.” Now she was the one hiding the truth.
“Then I suggest you not worry about things that do not concern you for Adan’s sake.”
Piper’s frustration began to build. “But in some ways they do concern me. I want to see Adan happy and at peace. He can’t do that when he knows full well people are protecting secrets from the past. And no offense, but I believe you’re bent on protecting the king and his secrets.”
“Are you not protecting Adan and Samuel by masquerading as his wife?”
She had her there. “That’s true, but this pretense isn’t causing either one of them pain.”
“Give it time, Piper,” Elena said in a gentler tone. “I can see in Adan’s eyes that he cares for you, as well. Perhaps much more than he realizes at this point. But when the fantasy ends and you leave him, reality will be a bitter pill for both of you to swallow. Adan is not the kind of man to commit to one woman, or so he believes.”
If Adan did care for her, but he could never be more than her lover, that would possibly shatter her heart completely. But she could still foolishly hope that the man she was dangerously close to loving might change his mind. All the more reason to give him the gift of knowledge, whether he came around or not. “Elena, if you ever cared for Adan at all, I’m imploring you to please consider telling him what you know. Isn’t it time to put an end to the mystery and his misery?”
Elena sighed and stared off into space for a few moments before regarding Piper again. “This truth you are seeking will forever change him. He might never accept the mistakes the people in his life have made, even if those mistakes resulted in his very existence.”
Finally they were getting somewhere. “Then it’s true the queen had an extramarital affair that resulted in Adan’s birth.”
“No, that is not the case, but you are on the correct path.”
Reality suddenly dawned on Piper. “The king had an indiscretion?”
She shook her head. “He had the desire to give the queen what she could not have. A third child. That decision required involving another woman.”
“He used a surrogate?” Piper asked, unable to keep the shock from her voice.
“Yes. In a manner of speaking.”
“And you know the mother,” she said in a simple statement of fact.
Elena knitted her hands together and glanced away. “Very well.”
She doubted she would get an answer, but she still had to ask. “Who is she, Elena?”
The woman turned a weary gaze to her and sighed. “I am.”
Eight
Piper’s brief time in Bajul had been fraught with misunderstanding and mysteries and more than a few surprises. But this bombshell trumped every last one of them. “Who else knows about this?” she asked when she’d finally recovered her voice.
Elena pushed slowly out of the rocker and walked to the window to peer outside. “No one else until now.”
All these years, Adan had been living under the assumption that he was another man’s child. A supposition that had caused him a great deal of pain, though he had downplayed his burden. But Piper had witnessed it firsthand, and now she wanted nothing more than to finally give him the answers he’d been silently seeking for years. “You have to tell him, Elena.”
She turned from the window, a despondent look on her face. “I have pondered that for many years. I still am not certain it would be wise.”
Wise? Surely the former nanny wasn’t serious. “Adan deserves to know the truth from the woman who gave him life.”
“And he will hate me for withholding that truth for his entire life.”
“Why did you withhold it?”
Elena reclaimed the chair and perched on the edge of the cushioned seat. “The king requested that Adan’s parentage remain a secret, for both my sake and his.”
“You mean for the king’s sake, don’t you?” She hadn’t been able to tamp down the obvious anger in her tone, but she was angry. Livid, in fact.
“For all our sakes,” Elena replied. “And for the benefit of the queen, who was already suffering from the decision Aahil made to give her another child.”
“But I thought she wanted another baby.”
“She did, yet after Adan was born, she could not hold him. In fact, she wanted nothing to do with him. What was meant to give her solace only drove her deeper into depression.”
Piper was about to step out on a limb, even knowing it could break the revelations wide-open. “When Adan was conceived, was it through artificial means?”
Elena shook her head. “That process would have included medical staff, and we could not risk involving anyone who might reveal the truth.”
“Then Adan was conceived—”
“Through natural means.” Once again her gaze drifted away. “And after all was said and done, I am somewhat ashamed to say Aahil and I fell in love during the process, though he continued to be true to the queen until her demise. We remained devoted to each other until his death, and until last year, I kept our relationship a secret.”
That meant the king had slept with the governess for the sake of procreation to please his queen, resulting in a decades-long affair. A twisted fairy tale that needed to
be untangled. “You said ‘until last year.’ Does that mean Adan knows you were involved with his father?”
“Yes,” she said quietly. “All the boys know. But they do not know I am Adan’s true mother.”
“It’s not too late to rectify the deception, Elena, especially now that Adan has a son. A grandson whom you can acknowledge if you’ll just tell Adan the whole story.”
Elena’s eyes began to mist with unshed tears. “I could not bear to tell him the rest for fear he’ll hate me.”
Piper leaned forward and clasped Elena’s hands. “You’re the only mother Adan has ever known, and it’s obvious he loves you very much. He might need time to adjust, but I’m sure he’ll eventually forgive you.”
“It is because of my love for him that I want to protect him from more pain. And you must promise me, Piper, that you will say nothing to him.”
The woman drove a hard bargain that could force a wedge between Piper and Adan should he ever learn she’d continued the ruse. “I’ll allow you to tell Adan, but—”
“Tell me what?”
Startled by Adan’s sudden appearance, Piper quickly shot to her feet. “We were just discussing...actually...”
“We were discussing Samuel’s care,” Elena said as she gave Piper a cautioning look.
“Am I doing something wrong?” Adan asked, sounding somewhat frustrated.
The lies would surely taste as bitter as brine going down. But it honestly wasn’t Piper’s place to enlighten him. “You’re doing a great job. I basically asked Elena to keep encouraging you when I’m no longer here.”
His expression turned somber. “We will discuss that following your departure. At the moment, I need to say goodbye to my son.”
Piper remained rooted to her spot as Adan walked to the crib and laid a gentle hand on Sam’s forehead. He looked so handsome in his navy flight suit, sunglasses perched atop his head and heavy boots on his feet. He also looked like the consummate father. And when he turned and came to her side, she desperately wanted to blurt out the truth.
Instead, she maintained an overly pleasant demeanor that inaccurately reflected her mood. “I guess we’ll see you tomorrow evening, right?”