The orders were given in an even voice but with all his years serving Angus, Ewan was apt to see through Angus’s impassivity—after all, he had trained the boy himself—and he was proud. Not only of Angus’s composure, but also for Angus’s feelings. Even if he hadn’t acknowledged it still, for Ewan, it was clear the king of Lektenstaten had fallen in love.
“Yes, Sir.” Ewan let a small smile grace his lips and nodded. “Consider it done.”
32
Awareness came in flashes. Being carried up the stairs. Softness surrounding her. And his voice— Angus’s voice—had been there, even in the middle of restless dreams. It made a muffled murmur in her ear until the disquiet fell away and she drifted off.
Siobhan’s eyes snapped open. Someone had taken off the blue silk gown she was wearing—along with her bra and panties—and dressed her in a light, comfortable nightgown.
When she raised her head from the pillows, she wasn’t the least surprised to see Angus lounging on the sofa on the other side of the hearth with Sunny on his lap.
Dressed in black pants and a steel-gray shirt open at the throat, he wasn’t looking at her or her cat. His hair not as flawlessly combed as usual, he was staring out at the lights of the night-cloaked city, one of his legs raised and bent at the knee.
There was something starkly distant about him at that moment. “Angus?”
His attention jerked to her, a smile curving his lips. He wasn’t distant and unknowable any longer.
“So, my sleepy angel is awake.” He put Sunny on a pillow, stood and walked to the bed, climbing in and taking Siobhan in his arms. “Have a good rest? Are you feeling better?”
“I slept like the dead.”
“Or like a comatose Snow White, perhaps,” he countered with a chortle. “Dr. Singh stopped by, did a brief assessment, and told me sleep was the best remedy for you. I changed your clothes. And you snored all the way through it.”
“I don’t snore, Dragon.” She slapped his arm playfully and he pulled her tighter in his arms.
Angus cradled her while they listened to the crackling of the seasoned oak in the hearth, and watched sparks dance and rise. She relaxed in his lap, her head resting against his heartbeat.
No one had ever held her so close, so gently, for so long, just for the sake of holding her.
Creaks and settling noises came from the house’s bones as the night deepened.
“Why do old houses creak so much?” she asked idly, playing with his hair, braiding it and drawing the silky end across her cheek.
“When all the warmth fades at night, it makes the old boards contract and slip against each other.” He wrinkled his nose when she brushed the end of the braid over it.
“You were left to your own devices in this place for too long.”
“I had Kerr, Ewan, a bunch of employees—and sometimes my mother, when she was not with one of her lovers—to watch over it.”
“But there was no one to watch over you.”
A sense of uneasiness came over him, as it always did whenever he reflected on his childhood. It had seemed as if his very survival had depended on never complaining or drawing attention to himself as a person, because as the king of Lektenstaten he had heaps of attention on himself. “There were lots of employees, Kerr and—”
“You said that already, but what I didn’t understand before, was how alone you were.” It resonated deep inside her. “All little boys need to feel safe and wanted.”
Angus looked up at her and snorted “In a perfect world. And the world is not perfect.” His hand charted the shape of her hip and followed the line of her stomach and stopped there. “When we were in London, you told me that our worlds were very different—”
“Yes, they are.” But maybe not so much anymore…
“My world is much larger now than it was before. And you’re the most important person in it. You’re safe and wanted now, Siobhan. In time, you’ll become used to that, and you won’t worry.”
As she turned her face against his chest, he lowered his mouth to her ear. “We’re bound to each other,” he whispered, “for as long as the world exists. Remember that.”
Siobhan rubbed her cheek against his shirt. “We haven’t made our vows yet.”
“We did. Many times. Each time you were in bed with me. That’s what it meant.”
His fingers slid beneath her chin, coaxing her to look at him. Amusement deepened the faint whisks at the outer corners of his eyes. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but there’s no getting rid of me.”
Desperately she stared at the face above hers, all strong, stark angles and shadows, a striking framework for those compelling golden eyes.
Angus hid nothing, letting her see the tenderness that was reserved for her alone. She felt the overwhelming pull between them, like the force of gravity between twin stars.
Angus adjusted her higher on the pillows.
She was breathtaking and vibrantly alive.
“Angus?”
“Hmm?”
“Would you have really laid down your life to protect me if that bull had me cornered?”
“That wouldn’t have been necessary,”—arrogantly, he raised a black eyebrow—“since I smote the bovine down anyway.”
“You are right,” she laughed, “you smote it.”
He would die for her, a thousand deaths if he had to. And a strange pressure settled in his chest at the thought of his precious Siobhan being hit by the massive bull.
Shit. Get a grip, man. Toughen up for hell’s sake. Angus grunted in annoyance. “I’m a badass, remember? It insults my manhood you can even doubt me. Clearly, I will have to prove my virility to you at a later date to restore my reputation.”
She grinned. “You’re such a guy.”
He gave her a faint smile and planted a playful kiss on her mouth. “Yeah, thank God for that.” She watched as his features softened and to her stunned surprise, slowly his face inched closer until he nuzzled her belly and turned his head to the side so his cheek was resting on her belly, as if she were his favorite pillow.
His eyes closed, and again he turned his head to nuzzle her.
“What are you doing?”
He pressed his warm cheek to her skin, a soft purr rumbled out of him, and he just stayed there.
“Angus?” Her voice quivered. “What are you doing?”
He lifted his chin and his eyes opened. There was something terrible and painful in their depths. Something that knotted her stomach and made her want to soothe some of the torment she sensed within him.
“I want my child safe and loved.”
“He, or she, will be both, there is no need to worry about that,” she assured him.
The flecks of bright gold dusting his dark-golden eyes beneath thick sooty lashes hinted at pleasures untold, laughter, and, yes, pain. She had seen it once or twice, but tonight it was there unveiled, clear in the golden depths. “Marry me, Siobhan.”
She wanted this man. She wanted more of him, his skin, his taste, his body inside hers. His love.
Wanted him with an unreasoning hunger that far surpassed even her desire for a loving mother, for a loving lost father.
Dizzy with everything that had happened—and what had not happened, but could have—she linked her hands around his neck.
She decided, then and there, that she was going to make His Majesty, the King of Lektenstaten, Angus Augustus Braxton-Lenox, or rather her Dragon, fall in love with her.
“Yes, Dragon, I will marry you.”
33
Monday, April 11, 2016
1:05 p.m.
“When are you going to face the facts?” Angus crouched before Siobhan, taking her hands in his. “You must be guarded. You’ll get used to it. In time you’ll scarcely notice them.”
He gestured at the dozen brawny men standing outside the Green Room.
She shot a withering glance at her elite guard, standing with legs wide, arms folded across broad chests, wearing those ridiculous black suit
s, black glasses, with black earpieces. More like a black guard. Implacable, stony faces, and all of them with physiques that would make Atlas consider shrugging half his weight over. Where do they breed these kinds of men?
She snorted her disgust. “What you don’t understand is that if you’re so busy protecting me, the assassin is going to get whoever they’re really after.”
Angus raked his hand in his hair several times. “And who do you think they are after? Me?”
“Yes, of course! I’m a nobody, Angus!”
That made him stop, fear galloping through his heart. “You’re my fiancée—you’ll be my wife in a month—and you’re pregnant with my heir,” he whispered his reasoning, as if not saying it out loud would keep her safe. And you’re a royal in your own right.
They had talked at length about what Catriona discovered and had surreptitiously told her, trying to drive Siobhan away from Angus. He had also told Siobhan about the tampering of the gate and his suspicion his mother was trying to kill her as he suspected Catriona had done to Lilian.
But to Siobhan, the fact Catriona used this information, believing it would send her away on her own, was reason to doubt that Catriona had it in for her.
“Why do you refuse to accept reality?”
Irritated by his logic, she put her hands on her hips and said, “You’re stubborn.”
“I bow before you, my lady. The queen of willfulness.” He stood up to his full height and towered over her, his stare hard. And then in a softer voice, he reinforced, “Reality is someone wishes you dead. Reality is I am only trying to protect you. Reality is you are going to be my wife, and I will always keep you safe from harm.”
He was leaning closer as he spoke, punctuating the word reality with a sharp stab at the air directly in front of her, which Siobhan compensated by shrinking deeper into the haven of feathered pillows of the chaise lounge she was sitting in.
“It is my duty, my honor, and my pleasure,” he continued. His eyes swept her upturned face and darkened with desire. “Reality…ah…reality is that you are exquisitely beautiful, Lieben,” he said in a voice suddenly roughened.
His voice conjured images of sweet cream blended with fine Scotch, tossed over melting ice cubes. Smooth and rough at the same time. It unnerved her, flatly shattering what little composure she’d been hugging tightly around her. When he wet his lower lip with his tongue, her mouth went dry as a desert.
His gold-flecked eyes were a smoldering promise of endless passion. A look that set her body and soul on fire, and didn’t allow her to think straight. Needing space, she rose from the chaise and walked to the door, closing it firmly shut in the faces of her bodyguards.
“Perhaps, I should go on a trip, visit Jaxon in London, or even better, go on a visit to Aragon.” The thought had weighed heavily on her heart and her mind since she had found out who she truly was and she did not want to put the visit off any longer.
The passionate stare was gone in an instant. “No.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “No? You would deny me the chance to meet my relatives?”
He stepped closer. “Someone nearly killed you. I am not about to let you go gallivanting to England, or to any other country, when I can’t even keep you safe in my own!”
Siobhan wasn’t fazed by his worry. “Angus, surely you understand the need.” It was a soul-wrenching need to figure out what kind of person her father had been, his new family was, and, more importantly, what kind of person she was meant to be.
It would give her a place to belong, a sense of home that hadn’t been forced on her like the others had been.
And right now, as much as she loved Angus, Siobhan was feeling like a prisoner. “Please?”
“No. I will not have you put in any more danger until I can ensure your safety. Besides, now that we know about your own royal bloodline, we have to consider the possibility that someone else—besides my mother—has also discovered this fact. Or maybe they already knew.”
His unspoken thought was it could be her own brother she was dying to meet. Maybe his public desire to find her was so he could privately have her killed. He shook his head, adjusting the cuffs of his jacket. She had been with him long enough to know it was his signal he was done with the conversation and hope withered inside of her.
“We will go there together, or maybe we can invite them here. I’ll think about it. I promise.”
He exited the room, leaving the door ajar enough for her to see the guards holding their place on the corridor, in case some idiot decided to end her life right where she stood inside her own rooms.
Siobhan snorted, balling her hands into fists as Angus disappeared from view.
“You’re quite the pompous ass right now, Dragon,” she mumbled.
Irritated, Angus pushed open the door to his office and walked directly to the bar, pouring himself a drink and downing it before he allowed himself to think.
She wants to go to her brother—brothers.
Of course, he knew she needed to do so but what she didn’t realize was that he had failed to keep her safe in his own home. She was to be his wife, the woman that was carrying his child and she had nearly died.
He couldn’t take the risk of losing her.
She wouldn’t understand it, but he was sure as hell going to enforce it.
“Why do you think he doesn’t want you to come here or go to Aragon?”
Siobhan sighed into the phone, stroking Sunny’s fur to keep her nerves under control. After her discussion with Angus, she needed to blow off steam and before she knew it, her fingers had dialed Jaxon’s number.
It was good to hear his voice, so good she nearly cried. “Because he thinks someone is trying to kill me.”
“That’s a bloody good reason then,” Jaxon said, surprise in his voice. “Is someone trying to kill you, Siobhan?”
She thought about the incidents lately. “Of course not! Who would want to kill me? I mean, I’m not worth anything.” Not that anyone knows. Yet.
“Maybe not to you, but I would wager if you died, and that baby died with you, it would kill your lover boy.”
Her hand shot to her stomach. She hadn’t thought about it in that way.
Would Angus miss me if I was gone? Or is it because of the baby? Is that what all the fuss about protecting me is really about? “I need to meet my long-lost family though.”
“I agree,” Jaxon replied. “But Siobhan, I would listen to Angus. He seems to know what he’s doing. I mean he runs a country.”
Sunny stretched out over her lap and Siobhan rubbed the cat’s ears lightly. She sighed. “I doubt he would let me within ten feet of the door before one of his guards told on me anyway.”
“Give him time to think about it,” Jaxon urged, the sound of the tube coming into the phone. “Gotta go. You take care of yourself and of this precious life you are carrying, hear me?”
“Yeah, bye,” she said and when he hung up, she threw the phone on the bed.
Sunny meowed loudly as she curled up around the pillow, the cat pressing her body against Siobhan’s growing bump.
She knew Angus had the best of intentions when it came to her and their child’s safety, and though it drove her bonkers to think she was under lock and key, Siobhan knew deep down it was because of his own anxiety of losing her—them.
She would play along for now, but he wasn’t going to keep her away from her family forever.
3:00 p.m.
“What about this one?”
Fiona looked up from the rack she was looking through at the frothy confection that Siobhan held up, shaking her head slowly. “You will look like a wedding cake gone mad.”
“You are far too picky,” Siobhan admonished as she stuck the dress back onto the rack, smiling at the attendant who hovered nearby, waiting for the next dress to go into the dressing room. “I mean, you only wear the dress once, right?”
“One time only,” Fiona said.
They had come to town to look at weddin
g gowns—just for fun, Siobhan had told Fiona, since Ewan was already contacting international designers to come and design a bespoke dress for her. But it had been more a statement of her will—something that would both get her out of the palace and away from the heavy guards that were waiting outside, daring anyone else to step in.
It was a nice change, even if she looked like she was some celebrity on a shopping spree.
Fiona sat down on the bench beside the rack, picking up her glass of champagne. “You do plan to wear it only once, right?”
Siobhan looked over at her, surprised by the question. “Of course. Why would you ask?”
“I don’t know. I know your situation is very, well, weird with Angus, and the way he’s…erm…brought you here.” Fiona shrugged. “I just thought that maybe you were attempting to pacify him for now.”
Siobhan laughed as she sat next to the woman, picking up her water, and wishing that she could drink the good stuff. “I promise you, when I decided to accept Angus’s proposal and wed him, it was with all the intentions of making it the real deal.”
No matter how angry Angus made her, or how he had attempted to take over her life, it would be all or nothing for her. She would be committed to the marriage and to the family they would raise.
That and whatever else would come with the position.
“Good,” Fiona said after a moment. “You two are a striking couple by the way. And when he looks at you, I only hope I can feel that heat from someone in my lifetime.”
Siobhan blushed as she thought of the heat that coursed through her veins when he looked at her as well. There was this attraction she couldn’t shake whenever he was around, a magnetic pull that turned her stomach inside out and had molten heat flowing through her body.