Page 19 of His Hidden Royal Heirs

He pushed that thought away as she spoke.

“You see, the difference here is, I can acknowledge the great privilege you were brought up with, and still imagine that losing your parents, being bounced around without love, was difficult for you.” She stood then, and he couldn’t quite take his gaze from the pregnant belly. Where his children grew inside her.His.

Children who would not be bounced around. Who would feel love, and not have it ripped away from them by fate.

“I can have empathy for you, no matter the circumstance, Cristhian. I consider that a gift.”

He looked up at her then, at those green eyes. And he knew what he must do. “I must thank you for this little speech. It has given me clarity on how we will move forward.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“The moment we can get a minister here, we will be married.”

Zia wondered if she’d had some kind of cardiac event. She was standing, but she couldn’t feel her legs. Her breath didn’t come in and out as it should.

“I beg your pardon?” she managed.

“We will marry,” he repeated, pushing out of the chair himself. “There is no other way that truly gives our children the childhood I want them to have. Bouncing around is a no go for me, and a life without their mother would also not do.”

“What about a life without their father?”

“You should have hidden better if you wished for that.”

“Better than an isolated arctic island shrouded by polar night?” she demanded, facing off with him as if they were in a boxing ring rather than a posh dining room.

He smiled at her then, and she had to wonder what was wrong with her that his smile could still send a shimmer of sparks through her when he was being the most ridiculous man alive.

“Unfortunately for you, Zia, I would have found you anywhere.”

Which might have been romantic if he’d been the one looking for her. But no, it had been her father. Cristhian had no doubt forgotten about her the morning she’d disappeared. Hopped in the next bed and so on and so forth for the past seven months.

Which was reason enough to stop this right here, right now. “I will not marry you.”

“I did not ask. You said it yourself. Your father will insist we marry should I return you to him. I cannot really be insisted upon, if I do not agree, but in this case, it is the best-case scenario.”

“To marry a veritable stranger so we don’t have to work out a custody agreement?”

He considered this, or more likely pretended to. Then he shrugged. “Yes.”

She shook her head. She had known he wouldn’t be reasonable, but she didn’t think he’d be this. “This is ridiculous. You clearly haven’t thought this through at all.”

“On the contrary, I’ve done nothing but think since I was met with this.” He gestured at her stomach. “The options are limited with our complicated backgrounds. We must marry and prepare a united front against all that will come. We are not enemies, Zia. We will work out what is best for the children. Together.”

But he didn’t say that like some kind of promise of compromise and reason. He said it liketogethermeant her trotting along after him, doing whatever he wished. And that was exactly what she’d escaped.

She wouldn’t go back. Her children would be raised to be strong and independent and not victims to other people’s whims or power. She knew what it was like. To endure it. To watch other people endure it. She wanted morefor them. So much more.

“Perhaps I am not your enemy, Cristhian, but you are turning into mine.”

He chuckled at that.Chuckled.She wanted to slap him.

“What is it you think a marriage should be that we could not accomplish? If we are both reasonable, we can make all important decisions as a team. We have many estates to choose from. We can be as involved or as not involved in Lille as you wish. It’s actually the perfect answer to all your problems.”

“Is it?”

“You were all set to marry that duke or what have you?”

She didn’t believe for a second he didn’t know exactly who she’d been set to marry. “A crown prince,” she bit out.

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