Falling for the Princess (16 page)

R
ebecca sat on the balcony and watched as the sun rose above the sea, turning the ocean golden, seeming for a moment to light it on fire. At a slight sound, she turned to watch Logan stroll out carrying two steaming mugs. He handed one to her before pulling a second chair close to hers and sitting down, resting his arm along the back of her seat.

“You were right about coming here.”

“I knew you'd admit it eventually,” he said with a wink.

Because he knew her too well. When he'd suggested coming back to New Zealand for a break, she'd argued against it. Their wedding was only two months away and the preparations were gaining pace, almost frenetically so. But that, he'd said, was precisely why she needed the break. Despite the occasional unnecessary panic by a staff member, everything was under control back home. Her schedule had been rearranged. She could be spared for
a week. All the major decisions had been made long ago and the small ones could be dealt with by other people, or when they got back. And leaving the rain drenched fall back home for a crisp, sunny spring was a bonus, too. The hillside behind them rang with a chorus of birdsong.

Rebecca looked back out at the sunrise and breathed deeply. “Everything's so beautiful,” she whispered, awestruck. “So perfect.”

“Especially you,” he answered, sounding just as amazed. She turned to see him studying her. She never got tired of the way he looked at her, and her body never ceased to respond—whether they were alone like this, or in the midst of a crowded room at a royal function. She lit up for him like the ocean had for the sun. And he knew, and used shamelessly, the effect he had on her.

But the balance of power wasn't all in his favor. She had the same effect on him. She'd been able on more than one occasion to distract him from what he'd claimed was pressing business. She delighted in that power.

Today he wore faded jeans and a dark T-shirt, the same as he'd worn that first morning they'd both been on this same deck of Colleen's B & B. So male, so appealing. Despite how good he looked in a tuxedo, the jeans and T-shirt combination was her favorite. Other than when she stripped that T-shirt, and then the jeans, off him.

“Come and sit here.” Logan patted his lap and grinned. She went to him—she always did—and sat, reveling in the feel of his broad chest behind her and his powerful thighs beneath her. He wrapped his arms around her, held her to him. “Have I told you I love you, today?”

“Yes.” And she had told him the same.

She leaned back against his chest. “You're sure I'm not too heavy for you?”

Behind her, she felt him shake his head and then press a kiss to the side of her neck. “Never.”

“Never?”

“Never.” He kissed her again.

“What if I was pregnant? I don't think I'd fit.”

“You'll always fit. There will always be room for you.” She heard the hint of curiosity in his voice, and the arms that had held her tight shifted. He moved his hands till they rested over her abdomen, still flat beneath her jeans. “Especially when you're pregnant.”

They'd been planning on having children soon after they were married and had been careful. But there had been occasions when enthusiasm overrode care.

His hands shifted again, and he lifted and turned her so that she sat sideways across his lap rather than with her back to his chest. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

She nodded. “I saw my doctor yesterday.”

Logan's jaw dropped and myriad emotions flitted through his eyes and across his face. For the first time since they'd known each other, she saw a hint of tears in his beautiful eyes.

He placed a hand over her stomach again, gentle yet possessive. “When?”

“Just over eight months. It's very early yet. Too early to tell anyone else. Especially because the first trimester is the most tenuous.”

“The flight?” he said, a note of panic in his voice.

“Pregnant women fly all the time. It's fine.” She slipped her arms around his neck, loving how this man, so confident in every aspect of his life, looked suddenly uncertain. But gradually that uncertainty faded from his face and was replaced by joy and pride.

“I won't even be showing in my wedding dress. But people will be able to do the math once he or she is born.”

“Who cares?”

“You don't mind that it's so soon?”

“Mind? After your ‘I love you' and your ‘yes' to my proposal, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard you say.” His eyes drifted closed as he held her to him, one hand still on her stomach as though trying to sense the life they'd created growing there.

He opened his eyes. “How will your father take it? The timing?”

“Initially he'll be a little put out. He does like things to be done ‘properly.' But hard on the heels of that reaction will be joy at another grandchild. What with Bonnie already with a stranglehold over his heart he won't stand a chance.” Rafe and Lexie's little girl was the light of her father's life. Time and again she'd watched her father turn from being a reigning monarch to a sappy, doting grandfather the moment he set eyes on Bonnie. “All it needs for Dad's world to be complete is for Adam to find someone he loves.”

“How's Adam going with that?”

“He's giving it his best shot. Doing everything he ought. But…I don't know. Adam's always been too academic about things, thinking he can analyze and then control how life ought to unfold. I'm worried he'll pick someone because she meets a list of criteria he's drawn up for himself rather than someone who gets beneath his skin and into his heart even though on paper she might not be right for him.”

“Like you did to me,” he said. His hand shifted from her stomach to her thigh.

“And you to me.”

“Adam's a smart man. He'll figure it out.”

“Not so smart about everything.”

“He'll figure it out. Besides, he's got Rafe and Lexie and now us showing him how it ought to be done.”

“Maybe you're right.”

“You know I am. But I didn't bring you here to talk about your brother.” His hand curved around her thigh. “Do you remember the first time I saw you in jeans?”

How could she forget? They'd made love that night for the first time. “Yes.” She brushed a kiss across his lips.

He reached for her head, brought it close again so that he could return the kiss, deepening it.

He pulled back and she looked into his beautiful eyes, watched his lips curve into the smile she loved so much. With one mind they stood. Leaving the sunrise, and their drinks on the table, they headed back inside.