Royal Affair by Laurie Paige Page B

opened her eyes. “I want to go home.”
    Max took her hand. “Not until the doctor sees you.”
    â€œThat would be me,” the doctor said, coming into the cubicle. “Ivy is my patient. Hi, what have you done to yourself?” he asked her.
    Max didn’t like the casual manner of the entire E.R. personnel. “She fainted,” he said for the umpteenth time. “She’s…she may be pregnant, so there could be a problem.”
    An odd feeling pierced his chest. He realized hefelt the possible loss of the child as a physical thing—an actual ache in his heart.
    â€œIs that so?” the doctor said, peering at Ivy.
    â€œI have an appointment with you next week,” she said, not looking at Max. “I, uh, got a test kit earlier this week. It was positive.”
    The doctor, who looked pretty young to Max, turned to the men. He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, Max noted.
    â€œIf you gentlemen will excuse us?” he said.
    The orderly ushered them into a waiting room to the right of the E.R. reception area. “I’ll call you when she’s ready,” he said and disappeared.
    â€œReady for what?” Max demanded irritably. He hadn’t liked being tossed out of the cubicle. If he’d been her husband, they wouldn’t have thrown him out.
    But he wasn’t.
    â€œWe have to be married right away,” he said to Chuck.
    Chuck’s eyebrows rose sardonically. “No, thanks. It isn’t that I don’t like you, but not that way.”
    If looks could kill, Max would have sizzled his friend into a cinder in ten seconds.
    Chuck smiled slightly. “She’s in good hands. Her water hasn’t broken so I don’t think there’s a miscarriage. I also think part of her fainting was that she didn’t want to face you, old man.”
    Max stilled at this diagnosis. He considered it from several angles. One reason Chuck was hisbest friend was that the man told him the truth as he saw it. Max hoped he was right about the child being okay.
    â€œYou think she’s afraid of me,” he concluded after mulling over the second part of Chuck’s observations. “Why?”
    Chuck went over to the coffeemaker and poured them each a plastic cup of the strong brew. He returned to his chair and handed one cup to Max. “She doesn’t know what you want from her. Maybe she’s worried you’ll try to take the baby when it comes. Mothers can be pretty protective.”
    â€œHmm.” Max paced the narrow space between the sofa and the table where the coffee setup was located. “Pregnant women can be pretty unreasonable.” He saw his friend’s quickly concealed surprise. “Or so I’ve read,” he muttered, frowning to cover the disturbing swirl of emotion that ran over him at the thought of Ivy carrying his child.
    Chuck nodded. “She seems rather independent. She also didn’t seem interested in the fact that you’re of a royal family. How are you going to convince her to marry you and return to Lantanya?”
    Leave it to Chuck to state what Max hadn’t wanted to admit. His passionate rose may have literally fallen at his feet, but she wasn’t the woman he’d kissed and made love to.
    The blood boiled through his veins at the thought of that night. He couldn’t remember the last occasionhe’d made love three times in one night with a woman. When he’d run out of condoms after the second time, he’d knowingly taken a chance, unable to resist the passion that rode him with a relentless demand for completion.
    It had been the same for her, he recalled, unable to suppress a smile as he recalled the pleasures in her lips, her arms, her supple body, the way she’d touched him and clung to him….
    â€œEarth to Max.”
    He glanced at Chuck. “What?”
    â€œThe doctor.”
    The doctor entered the small waiting room, his smile meant to be