Page 15 of Crowned for His Son

Not so much Ramon, who visibly bristled. ‘You need to address His Highness correctly when speaking to—’

Azar held up his hand. ‘We’ll let it slide this once, Ramon.’

This woman had looked after and fed his son, after all.

His gaze slid to Max, who now clung to his mother, one hand fisted in her hair. ‘Shall we?’

Another flare of rebellion lit her eyes and,maldita sea, it shouldn’t feel this hot to be locked in silent battle with her. A battle she conceded after ten seconds, her feet gliding gracefully across the floor towards him.

As he turned to head out, he was too busy suppressing his suddenly inappropriately roused libido to heed the whispered conversation between the women. But he breathed easier when Eden reassured the older woman with a murmured, ‘It’s all right. I’ll be fine.’

She might not be entirely fine—not if he discovered even a crumb of misinformation in her narrative. But that was an issue for later.

At her door, he met her intensified glare. Skin tingling, he was startled to admit he hadn’t felt this enlivened since— In a long while. The dark gloom surrounding his father’s illness had dimmed his already sombre temperament. That was why he hadn’t had a liaison in several months.

Only his brothers’ insistence on keeping their birthday tradition had placed him on the royal jet to Vegas a few days ago.

To think if he hadn’t come he would never have discovered this life-changing event that had come and gone without so much as a butterfly’s wing fluttering against his skin, never mind the sonic boom it deserved.

The enormity of it firmed his resolve.

‘You have half an hour left.’

‘You can’t just toss about edicts and uproot Max from the only home he’s ever known. I won’t allow it!’

His eyes shifted to his son and a different tingling overcame him. He wanted to touch him. Hold him. But what she’d said needed addressing first.

‘You claim you don’t remember—’

‘It’s not a claim—it’s the truth,’ she hissed, then smoothed a hand down the boy’s back when he whimpered.

He swallowed a growl of frustration. ‘Very well. You’ve had a little time to absorb the fact that he’s the future heir to the Cartana throne. But, as much as I’m sure you would prefer swathes of time to come around to the idea, unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. As we speak there will be several media entities wondering what I’m doing here. It’s only a matter of time before the paparazzi arrive and camp outside this apartment building, hounding your neighbours and digging through your trash.’

It was a slight exaggeration, since he’d been meticulous about evading the media, if only for a short time, because those bloodhounds could sniff out news buried on an asteroid circling the Milky Way. But he intended to use every tool in his arsenal to move things along quickly.

Far be it from him to turn histrionic, butdestinyitself pounded at him. And he wouldn’t be denied.

‘Is that what you want for yourself? For him?’ he prodded softly.

She sucked in a shaky breath, her eyes darkening with a swirl of emotion. Her soothing hand had worked, but his clever son could clearly sense the tension in the air, and was watching him with an intensity Azar silently applauded.

Now that he’d delivered the unsettling scenario, he was prepared to relent.Just.‘Pack what you will both need for the day. We’ll return to my hotel.’

For now.

‘Then what?’ she parried wisely.

He shrugged. ‘I’ve already delayed my return home for a day. I can probably toss in another. That should be enough time for you to wrap your head around the fact that your life isn’t going to remain the same. No matter how much you wish it.’

* * *

To her credit, she was packed in fifteen minutes. Although judging from the meagre things she’d glumly thrown into a backpack, she didn’t intend for it to be a long-term outing.

Azar stifled his objections, reminding himself that Max was his responsibility too now, and whatever the boy needed would be more than adequately provided for.

‘You don’t have a car seat?’ he asked.

Her delicate jaw tightened. ‘I don’t have a car.’

---