Page 17 of Crowned for His Son

‘I wanted my memories to return,’ she continued. ‘To be absolutely sure.’

He suppressed the peculiar sensation whistling through him at being so forgettable to a woman—an unheard-of thing before this one, whether by design or accident.

Instead, he dwelled on her answer. Commended her for it, in fact.

Because he knew what she meant.

There were those who knew better than to pick a fight with the powerful Domene family and a kingdom like Cartana. But a few had tried to slap false paternity on Azar, thinking they could use the widely known circumstances of his birth to their advantage. They’d soon learned the folly of that.

He was secretly thankful that Eden had waited. The last thing he needed with his father’s ill health was for his grandson’s paternity to be gossip fodder.

‘A wise decision. It’ll prevent any unpleasant publicity.’

Unreadable emotion flicked across her face, then she turned away to fuss over their son. The urge to cup her chin and redirect her gaze bit at him. He forestalled it, plucking out his phone and placing the first of many calls in the fifteen minutes it took them to arrive at the discreet entrance of his five-star hotel.

Once he had the nod from Ramon, he plucked his son from the car seat and entered the private elevator that shot them up to a floor reserved solely for his use.

‘About damn time you turned up.’ The deep voice echoed from the royal suite’s living room. ‘Not sure what you’re playing at, but pulling a no-show isn’t cool. I don’t care if you’re the Crown Prince or not.’

Azar stifled a groan. He’d forgotten about his brothers and their brunch plans today. Hell, he’d relegated every damn thing to thego to helllist the moment he’d seen Eden and the toddler at the cemetery.

Now, as he carried his son into the room, he watched his brothers’ shrewd gazes flit from him to Eden to Max. Then stay on Max. Lingering for long moments and seeing the exact thing he had the moment he’d seen his son up close.

They both grew slack-jawed with shock.

‘Holy—’

* * *

‘Watch it. Young ears and curse words don’t mix, brother.’

Eden watched the slimmer of the two men shove at the hand that had covered his mouth before he’d released the curse.

Azar Domene’s half-brothers—the ones the Crown Prince had spent most of last night with out on the terrace during his birthday party. The two other parts of the trio every red-blooded woman had ogled and whispered feverishly about throughout the event.

Their combined magnetism had cautioned her to stay away from them the moment she’d spotted them on arrival. And she’dalmostsucceeded.

She couldn’t remember their names, but she’d come across many articles about them on the internet while looking up Nick’s accident—especially the talkative one who ran a renowned haute couture label.

She recalled him being a little wild—a playboy who attracted women likes flies to a feast. Not that the identical brother didn’t command the same attention, but his was a brooding, jarring sort of intensity, unlike the Crown Prince’s fiery, magnetic force field that gripped and compelled and didn’t let go no matter how much you tried.

‘Are you just going to stand there,Your Highness? Or are you going to introduce us?’ the Playboy muttered.

He hadn’t taken his eyes off Max, and a peculiar expression drifted over his face when Azar moved closer to them.

It seemed anyone who met her son was completely enthralled by him. She understood the sentiment. Hadn’t she fallen deeply in love the moment the doctor had placed him in her arms? But their infatuation didn’t diminish the apprehension spiking through her.

She’d seen Azar’s reaction the moment he’d touched Max.

Had known without a shadow of a doubt that he was making irreversible plans where her son was concerned.

Just as she had seen and hadn’t been able to dismiss the clear resemblance between father and son…the inescapable reality that her suspicions last night had been correct.

Crown Prince Azar Domene of Cartana was the father of her child.

Which meant she’d had sex with this man at some point three years ago!

‘I know. He has the same effect on most women.’

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