THEIR_VIRGIN_PRINCESS (32 page)

“I won’t marry them. After this, I won’t even talk to them
again.” The words sounded stupid and stubborn, but she couldn’t give in. They
deserved good lives with someone less broken, with someone who wouldn’t always
have a horde of reporters trailing after her, intent on ruining her life—and
everyone around her.

“Did you or did you not sleep with these men?” Tal asked,
though she was certain he knew the answer.

Alea knew immediately that her sweet cousin had left the
building. This was the Royal Sheikh of Bezakistan addressing her as the head of
her family, and she felt like she was five years old all over again.

“I don’t see that it matters.”

“It matters, cousin. I will not ask again.”

She felt her fists clench. “This isn’t fair. It’s not like
you, Rafe, and Kade were pure on your marriage bed. No one expected you to
marry that first girl the three of you shared.”

“This isn’t about us, cousin. This is about you. You gave
your body and, I believe, your heart to Dane, and yet you will not do him the
courtesy of talking to him. It is a disgrace and not worthy of the woman I know
you to be.”

“I guess you don’t know me as well as you thought.” It was
nothing less than the truth, but her heart broke at the thought.

Tal sighed, a weary sound. “Please, Lea. Don’t make me turn
them out.”

“It’s for the best.” God, she felt the burn of Dane’s
furious stare all over her and wanted this to be over so she could lock herself
in her rooms and scream and cry and start to mourn them.

Tal turned to Dane. “I am sorry, old friend. I cannot force
her to my will. This scandal will pass. The family will survive. The press will
turn around when the new baby is born.”

Dane had gone cold as ice, his whole body perfectly still.
His voice was frigid. “Are you talking about your child, sheikh, or mine?”

Alea felt like someone had punched her in the gut. She
turned to Dane, her feet unsteady. Oh, god, she’d thought about it, but it was
like a little whisper in the back of her mind. She’d known that she could
become pregnant. How many weeks had gone by? She’d lost count. Time seemed to
flow differently on the island, but now it was speeding up like a carnival
ride. It was making her sick.

Talib had gone an angry red. “My cousin is pregnant?”

Alea shook her head. “No. I’m not.”

Was she?

Dane’s smile was that of a man who had just tossed down the
winning hand when everyone had thought he was played out. “We were on the island
for over a month. She never had her period.”

Oh god. She hadn’t even thought of that until now.

“Perhaps you didn’t notice,” Tal tried.

“I was inside her every day, sheikh. I would have noticed.
We didn’t use protection. She’s pregnant by one of us, but I assure you, we
will all claim the child. We believed she loved us and had pure intentions. We
always intended to marry her with full respect to her culture. I understand
that you shouldn’t have been placed in this position, sheikh, but you should understand
that I have no intention of allowing my child to grow up without his fathers.
If you choose not to honor my rights as the man who impregnated her, then
Cooper, Landon, and I will be forced to petition your courts to have our rights
recognized. Since she was in a relationship with the three of us, according to
your laws, we all have rights to the child.”

Alea felt sick. She managed to stay on her feet.

Tal was still talking, his voice rough. “If the doctors
confirm a pregnancy, then the marriage will take place as soon as possible.
We’ll keep it private, but afterward, we will announce the union to the press.
In a few months, we’ll publicize the princess’s pregnancy.” Tal turned to her.
“I have no choice. You were right about our people. We could handle an affair.
The heat would be on us for a few months, but we would survive the scandal. We
cannot handle a princess with an illegitimate child. This isn’t England or
America where people just accept royalty and celebrities as human. If you don’t
marry, they will blame me for not protecting my family. It will weaken my
position. Did they rape you?”

Honesty would be her death knell. Alea knew it. Yet she
couldn’t lie. “Of course not.”

“Then you made your bed, cousin, and you will lie in it. I
know it’s not fair, but there are conservative factions in this country that
would do anything to topple my throne and set us all back a thousand years. I
cannot allow that to happen. In this, I must be the sheikh and not your cousin.
I have to keep my throne stable for everyone in Bezakistan. You will marry them
if you’re pregnant. I would offer to allow you to marry someone of your choice
and pay off these men, but I have a feeling they cannot be bought.”

“Not for anything, sheikh,” Dane confirmed, his face grim
but resolute. “We will not back down and we are united in this.”

“As brothers should be.” Tal reached out and shook Dane’s
hand. “We’ll sit down and talk about all the details this evening after dinner.
Alea, I’ll send the doctor up to you in a bit. You should rest until then.”

“You can’t do this to me, Talib. You can’t do this to them.”
Her voice sounded small and lost.

“You chose to sleep with them, knowing how they felt. You
chose to not use protection. And now you’re throwing a fit because there were consequences
to your actions. I have to take charge because you’re acting like a child and
not a woman about to become a mother. You’re still clinging to the pain and the
guilt like they’re security blankets. I know because I did the same thing, but
I cannot allow it now. I’m not stupid, Alea. I know your refusal has something
to do with what happened to you, and I am so sorry it is being dragged up
again, but your time to hide is over. You have to face what happened and decide
if you are going to allow it to defeat you or if you will grow beyond it and
move on. I love you, my cousin. I pray you can heal and embrace the future.” He
walked away, pulling out his chair and sitting behind that big desk where his
fathers once worked.

“Tal?” She’d just lost something precious and she hadn’t
meant to. Tears threatened.

He didn’t bother to look up. “You’re dismissed, Alea. I have
to prepare for the meeting with the investigators and then I must start the
paperwork for your marriage. It’s a matter of state, after all.”

She felt tired. So weary. She’d been trying to protect them,
but it had blown up in her face.

Dane wouldn’t look at her. He kept his attention on Tal. “I
will see you in the meeting, sheikh.”

“Cousin, please. You’re family now, Dane. Address me as Tal
or cousin as is your right and my privilege. Let Cooper and Landon know I
expect the same from them.”

Well, it was great that they were getting along. She felt
more on the outside than she’d ever felt in her life.

“Alea, we’ll see you in our room. I believe you’ll find one
of Talib’s personal guards waiting outside to escort you. Obey him. And I
wouldn’t attempt to lock us out if I were you. I will kick the door in. This
wasn’t the way I wanted to start our marriage.” Dane walked away without
looking back.

Alea watched him go and then went to join her guard, her
heart heavier than ever. She placed a hand on her belly. She could pretend all
she liked, but she knew the truth. She could tell herself that she had been
trying to protect them, but she’d really been protecting herself. It had been
easy on the island because she didn’t have to deal with reality. She could
simply be. No future. No past.

But the future was knocking at her door, and she couldn’t
lock it out.

“I understand the impulse to push them away, Alea,” Tal said
from his desk. “I really do. I thought it would be best to push Piper away. I
thought I was too damaged for her, too dark. She was far smarter than I was. I
wasn’t too dark for her. That broken part of me was no match for her love. Her
love was far stronger than any torture I’d ever endured.”

“You weren’t getting savaged by the press when you married
Piper. Would you put her through this, Tal?”

Her cousin’s eyes grew misty, and he took a long breath.
“Yes. I wouldn’t have said it at the time, but now I know the truth. If you
love those men, if you want to share a life with them, then you owe them the
chance to stand by you. Would you walk out if one of them was in trouble this
way?”

God no. She wouldn’t. Couldn’t. But she hadn’t given them a
chance. “No. I love them.”

“Then honor them by sharing all of your life. This is
marriage, Alea. It’s good and bad and everything in between, and it only works
if you’re in it together. Learn from my mistakes. Don’t waste a minute of your
time. Go upstairs and see the doctor and wait for your men. Talk to them. Be
honest.”

She nodded, but couldn’t seem to make her feet move.

“Alea?” Tal was softer now. “Alea, do you need help?”

They had been asking for over a year.
Do you need help?
She’d seen it as pity then, viewed her silence as
strength. But all she’d done was shut out the people who loved her and closed
herself off. “Yes, Talib. I believe I do. I would very much like to see the
counselor again. If you could make the appointments, I would appreciate it.”

“Absolutely. I can have her here this evening.” He got to
his feet. “Lea, I love you. I know where you are. I don’t want this life for
you.”

This life she’d been living could hardly be called a life at
all because it allowed for no love, no future, just an endless stream of
meaningless todays with no tomorrows. The past was an anchor that never allowed
her to move on.

This was the life of a victim. But Piper’s words of wisdom
came back to her again. Suddenly she realized that her cousins’ wife was right.
She could choose. She could move from victim to survivor. Her choice. Her
rules. She could defeat the bastards who had stolen her innocence by refusing
to allow them to steal her future.

“I don’t want it either.” How long had it been since she’d
asked herself what she wanted? She wanted her men. She wanted this baby, and
suddenly she began counting days and was almost sure that she was pregnant.
What they had found on that island couldn’t possibly have been left there. No.
The love they had made had purpose and meaning, and she was full.

Alea rushed to her cousin and threw her arms around him like
she had when she’d been a child.

“Welcome home, Alea.” Tal held on to her, his arms
tightening and his voice shaking. “I know I call you cousin, but you’re my
sister. Welcome home.”

Alea cried because she’d been gone for so, so long.

Dane forced his feet to move, but he couldn’t really feel them.
He couldn’t feel anything but this horrible aching knot in his gut. The scene
with Alea played through his brain like a horror movie. Yeah, he’d gotten what
he wanted, but he didn’t like the price he’d been forced to pay.

He’d hated the look in her eyes when he’d shown her how far
he would go. He was going to have to start his marriage by forcing his bride to
a wedding. God, he’d never imagined it would play out this way.

He stalked across the marbled floors of the palace, well
aware that everyone was giving him a wide berth. It was a damn good thing
because he really wanted to take someone’s head off.

He’d realized a few days ago that Alea was very likely
pregnant, but he’d wanted to give it time, to be sure, before they had to deal
with the fact that they were on an island with no medical care. He’d been
standing by the fresh water pool Lan had discovered, watching her smile and
swim and kiss his partners and he’d just…known. She was carrying a child.

When they’d been rescued, he’d planned to keep his mouth
shut until she figured it out. It was a woman’s right to tell her men that she
was pregnant, giving them the gift of a family.

He’d been so happy. Something deep inside him had settled as
though he’d found a piece to his puzzle that had been wrenched out of place and
had finally been made right. His child. His, Lan, and Coop’s with Alea. And
she’d looked perfectly horrified at the idea of being pregnant. Like it was her
worst nightmare.

What the hell was wrong with his eyes? He stopped, the room
turning blurry.

Fuck all. He was not going to cry. He didn’t cry.

“Dane? Is Lea coming to the meeting?” Cooper asked, his
voice drifting up from behind Dane.

Dane took a long breath and banished the unwanted emotion.
He should have stayed calm, should have given her more time, but the idea that
she thought they would be better apart had made him insane. Dane turned. “No.
She’s gone to her rooms. We can fill her in afterward.”

“I thought she would want to come.” Lan joined them in the
vestibule that led from the residences to the section of the palace that held
staff offices and conference rooms. The early evening air filled the vestibule,
and he could smell the scent of jasmine from the gardens where he’d wanted to
take Alea and propose when the time was right. They’d talked about it, the
three of them. It was traditional for the royal family to become engaged in
view of the gardens. The gardens were blessed once a year and had been for the
last two hundred years. They were said to be a lucky place for love and peace.

Coop stopped, his eyes widening. “What the hell happened to
put that look on your face?”

He’d lost his temper, and now he had to tell his brothers
how screwed they were. “We had an argument.”

Lan’s jaw became a harsh line, his arms going over his
chest. “She changed her mind about us. We’re back here now, and she doesn’t
want to be with a bunch of broken down old soldiers, right?”

His brain had gone there at first, too. He couldn’t blame
Lan. “I don’t think that’s the problem, but she did ask to have us removed as
her guard and basically told Talib that it would be best if she didn’t see us
again.”