Billionaires: The Royal. Оливия Гейтс

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ a wave of exhaustion washed over her. She was pregnant. Kairos had all but kidnapped her and brought her to an island. He wanted to negotiate, or terminate her parental rights.

      She stumbled over to the plush bed, sinking down onto the covers. She felt weighted down by despair, as though her clothing were woven together with thread fashioned from lead. She closed her eyes, letting the bed pull her in as her clothing pushed her down. Her head was swimming with thoughts, confused, present and distant. Mainly, though, as she drifted off, she thought of Kairos. Of the day he asked her to be more than his assistant.

      * * *

      “Two weeks, Tabitha. The wedding was to be in two weeks’ time. Now there is a video all over the internet of Francesca and Andres having my wedding night without me.” Kairos’s hands shook as he relayed the story, a glass of scotch in his hand, his normally completely cool demeanor fractured.

      His dark hair was disheveled as though he had been running his hands through it, his tie loosened. She had so rarely seen her enigmatic boss appearing to be anything beyond perfectly composed that Tabitha’s resolve, built over the past three years of working for him, was tested. And was failing.

      She had become accustomed to the taciturn man who walked into his office in the morning, barking orders, setting about the workday with efficiency that was swift, brutal and beautiful to behold.

      This man, this man who seemed tested beyond his limits, was a stranger to her. Brought her right back to square one.

      “What are you going to do?” she asked.

      “You’re my personal assistant, I thought you might assist me.”

      She laughed, her stomach tightening. “Well, cheating fiancées and doomed royal weddings aren’t really my forte.”

      “I thought everything was your forte,” he said, treating her to a look that burned her down to her toes.

      “After the wedding I’m leaving. You’re going to have another assistant. You’re going to have to get a little bit more self-sufficient.” It was probably the wrong time to bring that up, but she felt somewhat desolate about it. But she was done with university now, she had a business degree and had achieved most of it remotely while acting as Kairos’s assistant, a special privilege given to her since she’d been selected for the job.

      She should be excited. Looking forward to the change this would bring. To the advantage she would have with a degree from a prestigious school and three years of work experience for the royal family of Petras.

      Instead, she felt as though she was being ripped away from her home. Felt as though she would be leaving a part of herself behind.

      “I don’t want another assistant,” he said, his voice rough.

      “That’s just the alcohol and the emotional distress talking,” she said.

      “Perhaps. But nothing says that alcohol and emotional distress aren’t honest.”

      “Probably more honest than the general state of things.”

      “Probably.” He studied her hard. “I like you,” he said, “I want you to know that.”

      Her stomach tightened further, her breath rushing from her lungs in a gust. “Well, that’s flattering.”

      “You have been the perfect assistant, Tabitha. You have more poise than many women who were raised by kings. You are smart, diplomatic, and most importantly, you have not slept with my brother. Or, if you have, it wasn’t captured on video.”

      She thought of the devastatingly handsome Prince Andres, and felt nothing. Kairos was the only man who had ever tested her resolve. And he never even tried. “I can honestly tell you that Andres has never so much as tempted me.”

      “Is there anything you do not excel at? Any skeletons in your closet?”

      “I... You read my résumé.”

      “Yes. If you recall, I read yours and that of several hundred other hopefuls. You were indeed the most suitable. Beyond that which I could have ever anticipated.” He set his glass of scotch down on his desk. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”

      She couldn’t breathe. God help her, she couldn’t breathe. “See what?”

      “Tabitha. I think you should marry me.”

      * * *

      “Tabitha, are you well?”

      Tabitha started at the sound of Kairos’s voice. It was rare for her to be woken up by him. In fact, she couldn’t recall if she ever had been. He didn’t spend the night with her. He never had.

      She opened her eyes, bright afternoon light filtering into her vision. She suddenly remembered where she was. Remembered that it was not that day when he first proposed, or any of the days in between that she’d spent as his wife. No, it was now. She was carrying his baby. They were divorcing.

      The hopeful little ember that burned in her stomach, thanks to that dream, that memory, cooled.

      “Not especially,” she said, pushing into a sitting position and scrubbing her hands over her eyes.

      Suddenly, she felt self-conscious, childish because of the gesture. She was not in the habit of waking up in front of him. For all that they had a physical relationship, they had very little intimacy.

      She dropped her hands to her sides, balling them into fists.

      “I brought your clothing up. And everything else.”

      “Did you...” She looked around the room. “Did you put it all away?”

      “Yes. I was hardly going to ask you to do it. And as I said before, there are no servants in residence here.”

      “You don’t have any service at all?”

      “I occasionally employ the services of a chef. But for the purposes of this trip, some preprepared meals were brought along with your things.”

      “It’s just you and me, then?”

      He nodded, his dark gaze unreadable. “Yes.”

      “On the whole island?”

      “On the whole island,” he confirmed.

      “Oh.”

      “What?”

      “I don’t think we’ve ever...really been alone before.”

      “We are very often alone,” he said, frowning.

      “In a palace filled with hundreds, in a building other people live in.”

      “I have never kidnapped you before either. You’ve also never been pregnant with my baby. Oh, yes, and we have never been on the brink of divorce. So, a season of firsts. How nice to add this to the list.”

      She stood up, stretching out her stiff muscles. “Where exactly do you get off being angry СКАЧАТЬ