The Royal House of Niroli: Innocent Mistresses: Expecting His Royal Baby / The Prince's Forbidden Virgin. Robyn Donald

appointment.’

      ‘I appreciate the fact that he’s busy …’ When was Nico not busy? ‘I’m prepared to wait if I have to, but would you mind telling him that I’m here?’

      ‘Why can’t I help you?’ The girl’s gaze sharpened as she looked at Carrie.

      ‘Are you going to call him? Or shall I go straight in?’ Straightening her back, Carrie left the girl in no doubt that she would.

      ‘It won’t help you to go—’

      The girl moved faster than Carrie could have imagined, leaping in front of her to bar the way to Nico’s office. ‘He isn’t here,’ she said smugly.

      Carrie’s shoulders slumped. The news was a real blow.

      ‘Carrie!’

      Carrie’s heart lifted as she turned to see an older woman advancing on them like a galleon in full sail.

      ‘Great to see you, Carrie! What are you doing here?’ Linking arms, she led Carrie away.

      Carrie couldn’t believe her luck. Sonia Farraday was one of her favourite people. Legend had it that Sonia came with the building, but Carrie knew that Sonia was the hub around which everything in Nico’s London office revolved when he was away.

      ‘Let me get you a hot drink—you’re soaked through,’ Sonia insisted. ‘Come into my den. And, Shelley …’ Sonia’s voice hardened ‘.find a cloth and dry off Carrie’s suitcase.

      ‘Honestly,’ Sonia added as she bustled Carrie into her pin-neat room, ‘young women these days!’ Her gutsy laugh proved exactly why Carrie liked her so much. ‘Now then, what can I do for you?’ Sonia demanded once they were both seated.

      ‘I need to speak to Nico, Sonia.’

      ‘Hmm.’ Sonia sat back. ‘That’s not so easy. Nico isn’t in London and he won’t be back for some time. As soon as he’s tied up all the loose ends on his latest project Nico’s going to visit his family in Niroli. There are rumours he may stay there indefinitely,’ she confided with a meaningful glance.

      ‘In Niroli?’ Carrie paled.

      ‘He doesn’t share everything with me. Nico keeps his private life private, as you know. He’ll tell me what he intends to do when he’s ready and not before.’ Sonia’s shrewd gaze sharpened as it rested on Carrie’s face. ‘Why don’t you let me get you that drink now? You look worn out. When I come back we’ll have another chat, and then I’ll make some calls and see if I can help you….’

      Carrie nodded dumbly as Sonia left her. Nico living in Niroli was a complication she hadn’t factored into her thinking. And now she had aroused Sonia’s curiosity, and she didn’t want to confide in her. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Sonia, but Nico had to be the first to know about their baby.

      As she sat waiting in the office Carrie stared thoughtfully at the computer. Nico’s address in Niroli would be there somewhere, and if her password hadn’t changed she could bring it up on the screen….

      It only took her a few minutes and then she sat back stunned by what she had discovered. Nico didn’t have an address in Niroli; not as such—he kept an apartment at the palace. She had known Nico was the king’s grandson, but perhaps because he had never made anything of it she had always thought of him as a lesser royal, a man whose connections to the glittering court were so distant as to be insignificant. But now she knew better. Nico Fierezza was not only a member of the ruling family of Niroli, he lived in the palace.

       Her baby’s father lived in a palace!

      It made her mission to find Nico a lot bigger challenge, but not impossible, Carrie determined as Sonia bustled back into the room with a tray of coffee. ‘Now, drink this up,’ Sonia told her warmly. ‘You look as if you’ve seen a ghost. Are you sure you’re looking after yourself properly, Carrie?’

      Sonia was fishing, Carrie realised. ‘I’m doing fine. It’s just so cold outside.’

      ‘You should be back in this nice warm office. We miss you.’

      It was another prompt, Carrie realised, but she couldn’t accept the opening Sonia was giving her. She could never work for Nico again after what had happened between them.

      When they had finished their coffee Sonia was as good as her word, and it only took a couple of calls for her to establish that Nico was in Niroli.

      Niroli. The island was a legend. It was a smarter and more glamorous world than she could ever imagine. Nico belonging there made him seem more remote and unapproachable than ever.

      Sensing Carrie’s reluctance to talk, Sonia didn’t press her, but when the time came for her to leave, Sonia insisted, ‘You mustn’t walk to the underground in this weather, Carrie, or you’ll catch your death of cold. I’m going to call a cab for you. Are you still at the same address?’

      As Sonia’s hand hovered over the telephone receiver Carrie accepted that what the older woman had told her changed everything, but she couldn’t embroil Sonia in her difficulties. She had a child to protect now and must stand on her own two feet. ‘If you could call a taxi that would be great, but if you don’t mind I’ll decide where I’m going when it gets here….’

      CHAPTER TWO

      IT WASN’T as if she had any ties holding her in England, Carrie reflected as the plane banked steeply on the final approach to Niroli and, in spite of her apprehension, she couldn’t suppress her excitement at the thought of seeing Nico again. Her hands tightened around the in-flight magazine in which she had found pictures of the palace taken from the air. Just the thought of trying to gain entrance to somewhere so splendid made her heart race. The question was, could she do it?

      She had to do it, Carrie determined, stuffing the magazine back in its net. Staring out of the window, she tried to distract herself. She could see the bright blue ocean far below dotted with tiny boats and, in the distance, the coastline of Niroli, edged with pale golden sand. The island looked so tranquil from the sky she didn’t want to think about the drama that was about to unfold, but she wouldn’t dodge it, either. There was some irony in the situation. When Nico had hired her he’d said it was her quiet perseverance that had brought her to his notice, and now that same determination was about to be turned against him….

      She was pregnant because they’d had sex at the office party. It was such a cliché, she could hardly believe it herself, but she had always been ready for Nico; he’d only had to look at her a certain way. She had been hovering on the fringes of the party with a wineglass in her hand. She wasn’t good at small talk, the words would never come quickly enough, and if they did, they were invariably the wrong words. People couldn’t be bothered to wait while she tried to find something witty or fascinating to say. She hadn’t drunk a lot, just a glass or two of wine. In fact, she had been wondering how soon she could slip away without causing offence. It had been during one of those ‘poised for flight’ moments that Nico had sought her out.

      ‘All alone, Carrie?’

      Her heart performed a perfect somersault. Nico Fierezza had never spoken to her outside office hours. Yet he’d been there standing right next to her, so close she could smell his cologne and could separate each complex note: musk, sandalwood, vanilla and an additional edge of something that hinted of warm water and toothpaste and long, hot, soapy showers—

      ‘Daydreaming?’ He’d broken into her thoughts with that low, husky voice that’d always made her tremble inwardly when she was taking notes for him.

      ‘That’s not like you, Carrie,’ he’d observed.

      The note of censure had made her stare up into slateblue eyes she had never felt brave enough to study before. Then she’d seen they had a striking pewter ring around the iris and that the whites were very white against his tan.

      ‘I’ve been watching you….’

      The