Mum's The Word!. Cat Schield

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СКАЧАТЬ should spend some time alone with them. I’m going to shower and get dressed.” With one last smile for the twins, she headed toward the bathroom.

      As the door shut behind her, Gabriel turned his full attention to the toddlers. “Have you decided what you want to eat?”

      Their green eyes steady on him, they watched and waited for some sign that he was weakening. Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest and stared back. He was not going to be outmaneuvered by a pair of toddlers.

      “Pancakes.”

      The word broke the standoff and Gabriel gestured the maid forward to serve pancakes. Having little appetite, he sipped coffee and watched them eat, seeing Marissa in their gestures and sassy attitude.

      The girls ate two large pancakes before showing signs of slowing down and Gabriel was marveling at their appetite when the bathroom door opened and Olivia emerged. Her long blond hair framed her oval face in soft waves and she’d played up her blue eyes with mascara and brown eye shadow. She wore a simple wrap dress in seafoam that accentuated her tiny waist and the subtle curves of her breasts and hips. Nude pumps added four inches to her five-foot-six-inch frame and emphasized the sculpted leanness of her calves.

      Gabriel felt the kick to his solar plexus and momentarily couldn’t breathe. Her beauty blindsided him. Desire raged in his gut. He hadn’t expected to feel like this when he proposed. She’d been elegant, poised and cool, inspiring his admiration and appreciation.

      In a month she would be legally his. But he was no longer content to wait until his wedding night to claim her. Such had been the heat of his desire for her last night that if the twins hadn’t occupied her bed, he would have made love to her.

      The strength of his desire gave him a moment’s pause. Wasn’t this feeling what he’d hoped to avoid when he chose her? Craving something beyond reason was what had gotten him into trouble with Marissa. But desire wasn’t love and didn’t have to become obsession. He should feel a healthy desire for his future wife. Surely, he could prevent himself from getting in too deep with her and repeating his past mistakes.

      He’d sunk into a black depression after his breakup with Marissa. Knowing they couldn’t have a future together hadn’t prevented him from letting himself be lured into love. He’d come through the other side of losing Marissa, but the fight to come back from that dark place wasn’t something he wanted to go through ever again.

      “Coffee?” he asked, shoving aside his grim reflections.

      He just needed to be certain that he kept a handle on his growing fascination with her. He’d lost his head over Marissa and look what it got him. Two beautiful, but illegitimate, daughters.

      “Yes.” she gave a little laugh, seeming more relaxed with him than ever before. “I’m afraid I’m in desperate need of the caffeine this morning.”

      “Rough night?”

      “The couch is not as comfortable as it is beautiful.”

      “Did you get any sleep?”

      “Maybe an hour or so.” She dished up scrambled eggs, fruit and a croissant. She caught him watching her and gave him a wry smile. “Your pastry chef is sublime. I will need plenty of exercise to avoid becoming fat.”

      “Perhaps after we speak to my parents about the girls we could take a walk in the garden.”

      “That would be nice, but I don’t think there’s time. My schedule is packed with wedding preparations.”

      “Surely if I can let the country run without my help for half an hour you can delegate some of the wedding preparations to your private secretary. We haven’t really had a chance to get acquainted, and with our wedding less than a month away, I thought we should spend some time alone together.”

      “Is that a command, Your Highness?”

      He arched an eyebrow at her playful tone. “Do you need it to be?”

      “Your mother is the one who determined my schedule.”

      Suspecting his fiancée needed no help standing up to the queen, he realized she was chiding him for his neglect during her first week in Sherdana. “I’ll handle my mother.”

      “A walk sounds lovely.”

      “Go see pony,” Bethany declared, shattering the rapport developing between the adults.

      “Pony?” Gabriel echoed, looking to Olivia for an explanation.

      “Apparently Bethany wants a pony for her birthday. I told her she was too young, but I thought maybe there was a pony in the stables they could visit.”

      “None that I know of.” He saw the bright expectation in their faces vanish and couldn’t believe how much he wanted to see them smile again. “But I could be wrong.”

      He made a mental note to have Stewart see about getting a pair of ponies for the girls. He and all his siblings had all started riding as soon as they could sit up. Ariana was the only one who still rode consistently, but Gabriel enjoyed an occasional gallop to clear his mind after a particularly taxing session of cabinet.

      “Do you ride?” he asked Olivia.

      “When I visit our country house.”

      A knock sounded on the door. Olivia’s private secretary appeared, Stewart following on her heels. They wore duplicate expressions of concern and Gabriel knew the morning’s tranquillity was about to end.

      “Excuse me a moment.” He crossed the room and pulled Stewart into the hall. “Well?”

      “The king and queen are on their way here.”

      He’d hoped to be the one to break the news to his parents. “How did they find out?”

      “The arrival of two little girls in the middle of the night didn’t go unnoticed,” Stewart told him. “When your mother couldn’t find you she summoned me.”

      “So, you felt the need to spill the whole story.”

      “The king asked me a direct question,” Stewart explained, not the least bit intimidated by Gabriel’s low growl. “And he outranks you.”

      “Gabriel, there you are. I demand to see my granddaughters at once.” The queen sailed down the hallway in his direction, her husband at her side. Lines of tension bracketed the king’s mouth. After nearly forty years as a queen, nothing disturbed her outward calm. But discovering her son had fathered two illegitimate girls was more stress than even she could graciously handle.

      “They’ve been through a lot in the last few days,” Gabriel told her, thinking she would upset the twins in her current state of agitation.

      “Have you told Olivia?”

      “Last night.” He held up a hand when his mother’s eyes widened in outrage. “They spent the night with her after she stumbled upon them fleeing their nanny.”

      The king’s light brown eyes had a hard look as they settled on his son. “And how does your future bride feel about it?”

      As СКАЧАТЬ