The Dare Collection September 2018. Stefanie London

spin toward the door to find X standing right behind me, though I didn’t hear him approach. He does shit like this all the time. He’s not there...and then he is. To be honest, it freaks me the fuck out.

      “Tell her,” he says again, “how you lost the last year of your life.”

      Juliet

      “Lost a year? What do you mean by that?” I snap, my voice husky with raw emotion. So much for my years of finishing school. All those tedious lessons on decorum and personal grace fly out the window. I’m reeling. It wasn’t that I expected Damien to welcome me with open arms, be ready to parent our child and live a life beside me filled with sunshine, rainbows and unicorns as we danced cheek to cheek. But... I did harbor a mad secret hope.

      At the very least, I expected him to express some basic human emotion upon seeing me, even if it was simply to be filled with regret over our ill-advised fling.

      Never could I have expected that he’d disavow me altogether. The psychological blow is too much to take in my delicate condition. Sweat sheens my forehead as my stomach roils. Here it comes. A sickening sensation that is all too familiar of late. Oh no. Not now, I think, but like it or not, I’m going to be sick, and with no notice.

      “Highness.” X hands me a white paper bag, the same receptacle that one might find on a commercial airliner. I haven’t the first clue how he procured it from thin air, but I am grateful nonetheless.

      “Thank you,” I reply as regally as possible. And then I empty out the contents of my stomach in front of an audience that includes not only my erstwhile lover but his entire family.

      I am mired in one royal mess.

      In the end, when my breakfast is folded up in the bag and taken away by a maid, I force my gaze to greet theirs. These faces are all as familiar as my own. My entire life I have been taught about our enemy to the south, how Edenvale has always competed with Nightgardin for wealth, land and reputation.

      The bigger countries in Europe might chuckle at our border squabbles, but this animosity is no joke. It runs deep and cuts to the bone.

      In Nightgardin, children are taught from the time that they are weaned from their mother’s breast to never trust a citizen of Edenvale. Perhaps I should have been a better student.

      “She is with child,” X announces gravely. “And claims the child is Damien’s.”

      The collective gasp fills the room.

      Only Damien remains unmoved. “Bullshit,” he drawls, tightening the bathrobe he wears. “That’s impossible.”

      Prince Nikolai glances to him. “Is it, brother? I wasn’t familiar you possessed so much...restraint...around beautiful young women.”

      Princess Kate places a warning hand on her husband’s arm. “Darling. Deep breaths.”

      Damien lowers himself into a plushly upholstered chair and leans back, legs akimbo. “You’re absolutely right, brother. I am a depraved, lust-filled monster. But I will still deny to my last breath that I could have fathered this child.”

      Benedict clears his throat. “Birth control isn’t foolproof.”

      “Christ.” Damien drags a hand through his thick, glossy black hair. The beard makes him look ever more the rogue, and yet I cannot deny my attraction. Damn this man.

      “Thank you for Sexual Education 101, seminary dropout,” he continues, and I wince at the way he treats his older brother. “But do you know what is foolproof? Not sticking my cock in a woman’s honey.”

      “Dear Lord! That’s why they call you the Backdoor Baron in Rosegate.” Evangeline covers her mouth with her hand. “Heavens. I thought it meant you were shy and reclusive.”

      “And I could have lived another twenty years and never heard this story,” the king mutters, face pale.

      I fist my hands at my sides. “You made love to me the...old-fashioned way,” I mumble, cheeks aflame. My parents had punished me with months of solitary confinement. But this moment is the worst I have endured. My humiliation is complete. All I have left is anger.

      “Another lie, Highness. I don’t make love,” he snarls. “I’m told I can’t even feel such a rarefied emotion, right, family?”

      “Why are you doing this?” I shout, my pulse loud in my ears. “What’s happened to you?”

      X steps forward before Damien has a chance to respond. “Prince Damien was dumped at the royal hospital two months ago. As you can see from the wounds not yet healed, he’d been severely beaten. And he appears to suffer from amnesia concerning the days surrounding his misadventure.”

      I suck in a sharp breath and turn my gaze to Damien, now understanding the earlier comment. “I thought X said you’d lost the whole year.”

      He taps his temple with his index finger. “It’s slowly returning as I heal,” he says. “The last I remember now, I’d won the Nightgardin Rally. Not long after, my body was dumped at the hospital’s service entrance. It all seems to add up. Except you, that is. I’d have remembered your pretty back door, and I guarantee you’d not be with child after such an encounter.”

      The king presses the heels of his palms to his eyes while I fight the urge to slap him silly.

      “My mother’s guards had you beaten for being with me. They weren’t exactly gentle dragging you away.”

      “You’re quite a storyteller, doll,” he snaps in a harsh tone. “Most likely I racked up too many gambling debts.”

      I stride closer to where he lounges in the chair, looking this stranger up and down. I may remember our weekend together, but certainly do not know this Damien.

      Ice and stone.

      I didn’t expect flowers and roses, but this is like being trapped in a waking nightmare.

      “I don’t know who you are, my prince. The man that I spent three magical days with was gentle and considerate.” Exhaustion permeates my every pore, and before I can topple over, X positions a small stool behind me.

      “How can we prove her story is true?” Nikolai asks as I sink down. His tone is not unkind.

      “A paternity test will take time, especially if the pregnancy is only two months along,” King Nikolai muses, stroking his clipped beard. “In the meantime, if we keep you here, your parents might well wage war to reclaim you.”

      I sigh heavily. “I know I have brought danger to all of you here, which should be reason enough to trust me. I would not risk so much for any other reason. But to carry a bastard in my belly, an Edenvale bastard at that—”

      “No niece or nephew of mine will grow up with such a stain on their future,” Benedict snaps with unusual feeling. “Brother, you will marry this woman today. Now in fact.” He looks to me again, eyes wide with realization. “Were you not meant to marry the Duke of Wartson this week?”

      I nod. “Tomorrow.”

      “Damien,” Benedict says, his voice laced with dark warning.

      “Never happening,” Damien shoots back.

      “I am not a priest, but I am a deacon in the Catholic Church, ordained to perform the sacrament of marriage. If what the princess says is true, and I sense no lie in her words, then this is how we can protect her, our own kingdom and the newest member of the royal family.”

      “I accept your proposal,” I answer in a firm, clear voice. I like this brother. He is logical and ethical.

      “His proposal.” Damien is on his feet in an instant, but not without a grimace. I force myself not to feel sympathy for his injuries, not when he so clearly wants nothing to do with me and our child. “What about me?” he asks. “My say?”

      Nikolai joins the fray. “You’ve put our