Sovalon Royals: The Complete Series

by Leslie North

  Marcus was waiting for her with a host of staff.

  “Again, I’m so sorry for the inconvenience,” she said and gestured to Ava. It had been embarrassing to have to text him to ask if her niece could tag along, but he’d been incredibly gracious about it. And now, seeing them, Marcus’s face lit up with a welcoming smile.

  “No trouble at all,” he assured her. “I’ve had your rooms prepared, and I even hired a chef to make some kid-friendly food. I hope she likes chicken nuggets.”

  “I love chicken nuggets!” Ava exclaimed.

  “Good thing,” Marcus said and tousled Ava’s hair.

  “I never met a real live prince before.” Ava stared up at Marcus, squinting her eyes in estimation. “You don’t look like a prince.”

  “Ava!” Kyra began to scold her niece, but Marcus laughed.

  “What do I look like then?” he asked playfully, and Kyra couldn’t help but notice how good he was with kids.

  “Just regular,” Ava said and ran into the house.

  “She’s something,” Marcus said, still laughing.

  Kyra shook her head and gave Marcus the full story about her sister’s purported weather troubles in Barcelona. She rolled her eyes. “Convenient, right?”

  “I heard about that on the news on the way here in the car, actually,” Marcus said. “Something about the winds and storms wreaking havoc with the train schedules.”

  A strong wave of nausea nearly bowled Kyra over. She could barely concentrate on Marcus’s words. “Where’s the bathroom?” she asked.

  With the door locked, Kyra emptied the contents of her stomach in the toilet, hoping Marcus hadn’t heard her retching. After cleaning herself up, she decided it was time to take that pregnancy test.

  “Are you alright in there?” Marcus called, as Kyra waited anxiously for the result to appear.

  When the little plus sign glared back at her from the test strip, her first instinct was to cry.

  But she didn’t.

  Instead, she walked out of the bathroom, and without a word, handed the test to Marcus.

  His eyebrows furrowed as he took the test from her. A moment later, all color drained from his face.

  “Am I okay?” she asked. “No, not really.”

  Marcus’s head spun.

  Pregnant? How?

  Well, he knew how, but damn. What did this mean?

  “Is it…?” he stumbled over his words, unsure how to ask her. “Am I—?”

  Kyra placed a hand on his arm. “Relax, Marcus,” she said. “Yes, you’re definitely the father, but I don’t expect anything from you. This doesn’t change anything.”

  Marcus stared at her. She was wrong. This changed everything.

  “Look,” Kyra said, “I’ve been sick for days, and while I waited until today to take the test, I’ve been thinking things through the whole time. There’s no reason things can’t go on just as they are now.”

  “I need to sit down,” Marcus said. He walked unsteadily to the sitting room and fell into an easy chair as Kyra continued, her voice sounding superimposed above his thoughts.

  “I’m totally capable of raising this baby on my own,” she said. “We’ll finish the shelter project, and I’ll return to the US. I’m not interested in co-parenting or anything like that so don’t worry.”

  Marcus didn’t even know how to respond. On one hand, he was happy Kyra wasn’t a gold digger out for his money or for the celebrity of having a royal baby, but on the other he felt kind of rejected. He told himself he should be glad she wanted to be so independent, but a different feeling was nagging at him. Rejection.

  Kyra was brushing him off just like everyone else did. He thought she took him seriously, at least on a professional level, but obviously she didn’t believe he was good enough to be a decent father.

  “You don’t have to do this alone, Kyra,” he told her. He wouldn’t shirk his responsibilities as the father of this child. “I can help.”

  Kyra released a long breath. “I know you can, but like I said, I want to do this on my own. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, Marcus.”

  Her eyes pleaded with him, and reluctantly he agreed, but he felt completely blindsided.

  It didn’t have to be a big deal?

  She’d said the words, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was way off.

  It was a big deal—the biggest deal of his life.

  5

  While Kyra and Ava retreated to their rooms to put away their things, Marcus was still reeling from Kyra’s news. After he’d reluctantly agreed to let her deal with the pregnancy on her own terms, she’d asked him to show her around the estate. She’d seemed genuinely pleased with all the work he’d put in, and that made him feel better, but the pregnancy was blaring background noise to Kyra’s words of approval. The outcome just wasn’t sitting well with him.

  As Marcus sipped at a glass of water, his cell phone rang.

  “Marcus.” His father’s gruff voice was in his ear. “How are things going out there in Havershire?”

  Marcus cleared his throat. “It’s really great, Dad. Repairs have been made. Everything is up to code. It’s all good.”

  “Really?” the king asked. Marcus detected a note of sarcasm in his father’s voice but chose to ignore it.

  “Yeah. I’m here now at the estate. I’ll be staying here a few nights to evaluate the accommodations.”

  The king scoffed audibly. “Just remember that this is business, son. You’re not out there on a pleasure cruise.”

  Marcus rolled his eyes. Of course his father still didn’t take him seriously. “I’m on it,” he said.

  “I know all about your little fling with the American,” King Hanson said.

  Shit.

  “I have eyes and ears all over the kingdom, and so help me if you land in the papers with another international scandal…” He didn’t finish his sentence, leaving Marcus cringing at the thought of his father discovering the pregnancy.

  “I promise I’m on top of this,” he said.

  “Don’t screw up, Marcus.”

  As he bid goodbye to the king, a sight from outside the window caught his eye. Kyra had Ava in the rose garden. She was radiant in the afternoon sunshine. He’d heard that pregnant women had a certain glow about them. Could she already have it this early in the pregnancy?

  Marcus walked out onto the back deck, his father’s warning wafting around him. He knew King Hanson had been referring to the project when he’d told Marcus not to screw things up. But, as Marcus stared longingly at Kyra in the rose garden just below him, his father’s words went much deeper.

  He couldn’t screw this up.

  He had to do things right this time.

  Kyra looked up from the beautiful flowers to see Marcus’s gaze fixed on her. Her heart jumped a little in her chest. Even though she’d told herself time and again there was to be no more funny business with him, she still couldn’t shake her attraction. He was so incredibly handsome. His dark wavy hair, always just a bit out of place, his chiseled arms and chest called out to her. She had to just keep trying to ignore his appeal.

  “What’s with the creepy stalking?” she asked, a semi-joking grin on her face.

  His dark eyes crinkled with laughter. “I’m not stalking, just watching.” Marcus’s stare travelled the length of her body, and Kyra wanted to melt into his eyes. She pinched herself instead. “Ava seems like a great kid,” he said.

  “She is,” Kyra replied. “I’ve helped raise her since she was a baby.”

  A wistful look passed over Marcus’s face. “You’ll make a great mom,” he told her.

  “Thanks,” she said, wondering if the revelation of her pregnancy was going to make Marcus get all gooey-eyed and go deep on her. God, that was the last thing she needed to deal with today. She’d rather him just remain the sexy eye candy that tempted her endlessly. That she could handle.

  “I could make a great dad,” he went on.

  And there it was.


  “Marcus, I told you,” she began, but he interrupted her.

  “Hear me out, Kyra. We’re going to be here for a few nights, and with Ava here, I can prove to you that I am good father material. That I have what it takes to be the man you need.”

  She caught herself silently twirling her hair, her nervous habit.

  “What do you have to lose?” he asked. “Worst case, nothing changes from the original plan, but best case, maybe you don’t have to do this alone after all? Maybe we both can find something that’s been missing in our lives.”

  Kyra found herself enraptured by Marcus’s voice, his lips. And, damn it, his logic. He made some good points. It would be so easy to let him in, but, she reminded herself, they’d only had a one-night-stand. And she had her career on the line here.

  “I just don’t know, Marcus,” she said and looked away.

  He walked down the porch steps and into the garden so that he was beside her.

  “You know,” he began, “my dad just called to berate me for not taking this project seriously. He hasn’t been out here to check on it and see what I’ve done, but he assumed it’s been close to nothing.” Marcus sighed and shook his head, and Kyra could feel the shame and frustration rolling off of him in waves. “My father and everyone else have always seen me as utterly incapable, but that’s only because nobody has given me a chance to prove I can be more than that.” He dug deep into Kyra’s eyes, seeming to reach her soul. “Please. Give me that chance?”

  Kyra thought about the way she’d seen people treat him at board meetings. It seemed to be true that no one thought him capable. And while she knew there was probably some reason for that reputation, she’d seen how people took their judgments too far, doubting everything he said even when he made good suggestions or offered good ideas. As a woman of color, she’d had her own experiences with people discounting her abilities based on their own prejudgments. She didn’t want to be like them. Especially when Marcus seemed so sincere.

  “Okay,” she finally said, and to her surprise Marcus picked her up off her feet and whirled her around. She smiled cautiously at first, then let herself sink into his strong arms. Something about them felt just about right.

  “You have made me a very happy man,” he said.

  Kyra set her head against Marcus’s shoulder, hoping that she hadn’t opened a floodgate she would never be able to close.

  6

  Even after the revelation that Kyra was pregnant, and the upsetting phone call from his father, Marcus thought the first night at the estate was a success. The next morning, he, Kyra and Ava had shared a lovely breakfast together, Kyra thrilled by the pancakes the chef had made just for her. When Kyra had expressed that she felt tired, he’d seen his opportunity.

  “Why don’t you take a nap,” he suggested. “I’ll play with Ava for a few hours while you rest.”

  Kyra had taken him up on it, and he was enjoying playing LEGOs with Ava.

  “What are you building?” Marcus asked the little girl.

  “A castle,” she told him. “Do you live in a castle?”

  “Nope,” he said. “Do you?”

  She giggled. “No, I live in an apartment.”

  “Me too,” Marcus said. “Neato.”

  Ava giggled.

  The doorbell rang, and Marcus got up to answer it.

  “Delivery for Marcus Ashton,” a man in uniform said.

  “That’s me.”

  The man began carrying packages of toys, clothing and shoes, sized for women and children, and Marcus realized this was their first shipment of donations for the shelter.

  “Let me help you,” he said. “Ava, you want to play outside for a minute while I make sure everything gets unloaded properly?”

  “Sure!” she said and followed Marcus out to the driveway.

  He tasked two of his assistants with helping unload the vast array of items, then stood taking inventory of everything.

  “Wow, check this out,” Marcus said as he discovered a box of skateboards and placed them on the driveway. Ava made her way over to have a look. “My brothers and I used to ride these when we were kids.”

  “Cool,” Ava said. “Can I try?”

  “I’ll show you how it’s done,” he said and hopped on one of the boards. He’d forgotten how much coordination was required and quickly fell to the ground on his first two tries. Finally, he made it down the driveway.

  “That was awesome,” Ava said. “My turn.”

  “Okay.”

  Marcus helped her climb onto the board and spent the first half-hour teaching her how to balance herself by putting her arms out to the side and stepping off the board if she felt she was about to fall. Ava was a great student.

  “You want to try it on your own?” he asked when he felt she was ready.

  She nodded and excitedly hopped onto the board. Halfway down the driveway, she fell sideways and let out a loud cry. Marcus hurried to her.

  “Can you stand up?” he asked after inspecting the ankle that appeared to be injured.

  “It hurts,” she cried and tears poured out of her eyes, slaying him with guilt. He never should have allowed her on that board.

  “I think we need to get you to a doctor,” he told her. Should he wake Kyra? Tell one of the staff? He didn’t know what to do but felt time pressing in on him.

  Marcus scooped Ava into his arms and placed her in the backseat of his sports car, alerting one of the servants to the situation. On the way to the emergency room, he called Kyra, but her phone went to voicemail.

  “Kyra, please don’t worry, but Ava hurt her ankle. I’m taking her to the hospital.”

  After explaining what had happened and exactly where they were heading, he wondered if he’d made a huge mistake. Maybe taking care of Ava or any child was too big an undertaking for him.

  Maybe he shouldn’t have tried to prove himself worthy.

  Because maybe he just wasn’t.

  As the limo pulled up at the hospital, Kyra didn’t even bother to wait for Marcus’s driver to come around and open the door. Instead, she burst from the backseat and rushed inside.

  What had she been thinking, leaving Ava in Marcus’s care?

  She hurried to the registration desk.

  “I’m looking for a little girl,” she sputtered nervously. “Ava Rogers?”

  “Of course,,” the woman replied, smiling. “The one with the handsome prince.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Kyra said and rolled her eyes. She was totally unimpressed by the handsome prince at the moment.

  “I’ll call for a nurse to take you back to her room.”

  Kyra charged into Ava’s room and began firing questions.

  “What happened?” she asked. “Are you alright?”

  She noticed Ava’s foot was in a cast. “What the hell?” The words exploded from her lips, and her eyes fell on Marcus, who was sitting next to Ava, close to her bed, holding her hand.

  “Get out,” she said to him and pointed to the door.

  “Kyra—” he began, surely ready to spout some dumbass excuse, but Kyra didn’t let him finish.

  “Out!” she yelled.

  Marcus squeezed Ava’s hand, which enraged Kyra to no end, and left the room, looking forlorn.

  “Baby,” Kyra said, tears in her voice. “Are you okay? Tell me what happened.” She couldn’t cry. She didn’t want to upset Ava further.

  But Ava didn’t look upset. Ava looked happy as a clam.

  “I’m okay, Auntie Kyra,” Ava told her. “I have a broken anchor,” she said, and Kyra let out a strained laugh.

  “A broken ankle you mean?”

  “Yeah.” Ava nodded and pointed to her cast. “The nurse lady put a pink cast on it, and lookie what Marcus made for me.”

  Kyra’s eyes followed Ava’s finger to the image of a goofy-looking dog that Marcus apparently had drawn on her niece’s cast.

  “He barks when you scratch his nose,” Ava said and scratched her cast. “Well, the prince makes him b
ark, I guess.”

  “How did you get hurt, baby?” Kyra asked.

  “Oh, me and that prince were having the time of our lives,” she said, her smile growing. “He was teaching me to ride on a skateboard, and he told me what to do if I started to slip, but I forgot—and then I fell.”

  “Oh no.”

  “Yeah, but then I got to ride in his fancy car, Auntie Kyra. It’s the fanciest car I’ve ever been in in my whole entire life. But it didn’t have pop in it like the limo. If it did, it would have been perfect.”

  “Were you scared?”

  Ava shook her head. “That prince talked to me the whole way to the hospital, and I almost forgot that my anchor hurt.”

  “Ankle,” Kyra said, laughing in spite of herself.

  “Yeah. He kept me safe,” she said. “I really like that guy. Do you like that guy?”

  Kyra smiled at Ava, feeling guilty for going off on Marcus.

  “I don’t know him very well—but yes, I think I like him. I’ll be right back, okay, Ava?”

  She got up and walked out into the hallway, where Marcus eyed her nervously.

  “Kyra, I’m so sorry—” he began, but she waved a hand at him to stop.

  “It was an accident,” she said. The twinge of guilt grew inside of her. “I’m sorry I freaked out at you and refused to listen to your explanation. I shouldn’t have kicked you out of the hospital room or yelled at you.”

  He brushed away her apology. “It’s totally understandable. You were worried and upset. There I was supposedly taking care of Ava, and she gets hurt on my watch.”

  Kyra shook her head. “No, you did everything right. Kids get injured sometimes—that’s just part of life. What matters is that you were there for her, and you acted quickly to help her as soon as she got hurt. If you hadn’t gotten Ava to the hospital, who knows if her injury could have gotten worse?”