His Pregnant Princess by Maisey Yates Page B

alone.
    No wife wanted to share her husband with another woman. And that’s what she’d been doing.
    It was what any woman in his life would be doing. Even if he never touched Alys, she would always be a part of him.
    Because Alys had his loyalty first. And always. Which was why he was staying single. And why it was becoming harder to ignore his attraction to the beautiful princess.
    Three years of celibacy was taxing on a man’s self-control.
    He pushed open the bathroom door and walked out into his room, his hand on the towel. And he froze. Before he saw her, he knew she was there. Because he could feel her. It was one reason he was able to protect her so easily. He always knew where Alys was. What she was doing. If she was breathing.
    She was here now. And she was breathing very hard.
    He looked into the corner of the room and saw her sitting in one of the wide armchairs. In an instant, he took in every detail, as he was trained to do. He evaluated the danger. Her curves were barely covered by a cream silk bathrobe, nipples visible through the thin fabric, her strawberry-gold hair loose, damp and curling. Her makeup was gone, her skin pink as though it was freshly scrubbed.
    Yes, he evaluated the danger and found it to be very, very real.
    “What are you doing in here? Is everything all right?”
    She shook her head, her eyes wide.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked, crossing the room and moving to the door that connected his suite to hers. “Is someone...”
    “Nothing like that, Liam. The gates haven’t been breached.”
    “Then what is it?” He turned to face her, his posture automatically going rigid, as though he were on duty. And not bare-ass naked under the towel he was clinging to for all he was worth.
    “I need to talk to you.”
    That in and of itself wasn’t so strange. They talked a lot. Especially when they were away on trips like this and sharing a room. Often they would sit in the common area and talk for hours. But not like this. Not in a bedroom. Not while he was wearing a towel and she was wearing a robe that allowed him to accurately judge her cup size from ten paces.
    “It couldn’t have waited?”
    “No,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s been waiting, Liam.” Her words echoed in the room. “How much longer do we leave it? Until I’m engaged? Until I’m married and we can never speak of it?”
    “Alys...”
    “No. I was watching them, the bride and groom. They love each other and it’s a beautiful thing. But more than that...they chose to be together. I envy that, more than you can ever know. That endless, wonderful array of choices that were set out before them. A world open. Even Ferro and Julia, the business rivals, they have all these odds stacked against them and yet, they chose each other. Even though it makes no sense. I don’t have that luxury. I can never choose a man who doesn’t make any sense. I can never choose the man that I really want. And I have spent a long time pretending it didn’t matter. Prepared to do my duty. When I get back from the wedding, my father and I are meeting to discuss when exactly the engagement should become finalized. I’m twenty-four and that’s leaving things a bit too long in his opinion.” She took a deep breath. “That means that this can’t wait. You know that.”
    “What is it you’re talking about?” he asked, his entire body tight, ready to snap in two.
    “You know.”
    He knew. It had been there between them for longer than it should have been. He’d thought he’d hidden it well. He’d thought she hadn’t realized how much he wanted her. He’d even convinced himself it was one-sided, because that was far less dangerous than acknowledging that she might want him, too.
    “I’m not going to say it. And it isn’t because I’m a coward,” he said, his throat constricted, his voice rough. “It’s because I have been trusted with the task of protecting you, which means every thought I’ve ever entertained of doing