CHAPTER FIVE
“L ET ’ S GET THIS over with,” Magnus said as he strode into the queen of Isleif’s formal receiving room.
“Do not be so dismissive,” Katla said coldly. “No, you may not sit. And you. Out.” She waved Ulmer and the palace secretary, Yngvar, from the room.
Ansgar Palace was built behind the original castle, which stood on a bluff overlooking Isleif’s main port. This room of relics and modern conveniences had a sunny view past the north tower in the mornings, but today the harbor wore a carpet of mist that obscured all but the highest rigging on the container ships unloading their wares.
“I am thirty-two years old, Your Majesty,” Magnus said with pithy, exaggerated patience. “I do not appreciate being treated as though I’m two .”
“Welcome to the royal family, Magnus. It comes with expectations that you behave like an adult in order to be treated like one. When you fail to do that, you will be scolded. What were you thinking ?” Her voice was not overloud, but held enough dismay to ring in his ears.
“That I wanted to get laid—which is a very adult occupation.” His aim was to offend, but he immediately regretted his crudeness. Vijay might have handed him a bouquet of red flags where Lexi was concerned, but she had been more than a piece of tail.
“Get yourself a wife if that’s what you want,” Katla said.
“What century is this? I won’t marry for sex.”
“You’ll marry because you must.”
“No.” Despite the way they locked horns, he didn’t hate his half sister. He hated the way he had found out about her. He hated the world she had dragged him into. He hated the power she had over him, not because of her title, but because he liked and respected her. He hated that she held him to a higher standard than he wished to adhere to. He hated that he hated to disappoint her. He hated that she was almost always right .
“I can’t have children, Magnus. I have tried.” Her voice was pitched between the weariness of having to repeat herself and the steely tone she used when her emotions were riled. “It falls to you.”
“Why?” he demanded, also weary with this conversation. “You were considering adoption before you found me. Why is that not still an option? You want children.”
“I’m too busy with the colicky infant I have, aren’t I?” She rose in a rustle of her bespoke pantsuit, walking away to hide her expression. “I have continued to hope that I could somehow...” Her voice trailed off, then resounded with heavy fatalism. “They won’t let me try another surrogate. My frozen eggs have been deemed unviable.”
She was fifty-four and had spent the better part of three decades trying to produce an heir. A twinge of pity had him backing down. Katla wanted children, truly wanted them. Not for the crown, although that was expected, but for herself and her husband, Prince Sorr.
Magnus didn’t really understand the impulse. Yes, he had fond memories from his youth, but he mostly remembered a desire to hurry those years. He’d been impatient to grow up so he could pursue his own interests. His younger siblings, with their shorter legs and dependence on his greater maturity, had been an encumbrance who had held him back.
An old spear of guilt went through him at taking them for granted. He would go back to those days in a heartbeat if he could, but he still didn’t understand the urge to take responsibility for another human life. Katla already held responsibility for all the lives in a kingdom. Who the hell would want to raise a child with the expectation that they must shoulder the same burden? Given all Magnus had learned about duty to a crown, bringing a child into this role struck him as an act of cruelty.
As though Katla knew what he was thinking, she said, “You of all people should not be advocating I snatch a child from the street and turn them into my heir. No, Magnus, that is your cross to bear.”
He knew. He could fight it all he wanted, but it had been drilled into him from the time his DNA had proved he came from the Thorolf bloodline that he would continue that line.
“Could you have chosen anyone more unsuitable with which to dally?” she grumbled.
“Shall I try?”
“I have already made a career of apologizing for one man’s behavior.” Katla turned to him, tall and regal and firm. Her expression was dispassionate. “Do not make your inability to keep your libido in check my cross to bear.”
“It was one night,” he said through his teeth. “As far as the world is concerned, we danced once .” Thanks to Vijay and his concisely worded threats to hotel management, any proof that Magnus had done anything more with the notorious Lexi Alexander was firmly erased, suppressed and filed under “unfounded gossip.”
“Ulmer tells me you’re paying for her security detail?”
“Why do you employ a man who can’t keep his mouth shut?” He turned to face the window. “File it under charitable donations,” he added in an ironic drawl.
“You can’t support her, Magnus. You had an affair, fine. It’s done. But let it be done.”
“Paying for her protection is the most expedient way to ensure my own. As long as I’m footing the bill, I’m as much Vijay’s client as she is.”
That’s why Vijay had given him the report that had raised all of Magnus’s suspicions around her motives. In his quest to detach himself from her, Magnus had expected every reaction from wheedling to defensive anger. She’d only been insulted. Hurt. And pale with shock over what she’d learned about her family.
“I haven’t spent the last two decades restoring peace and prosperity so you can set us back by chasing skirt.” Katla’s demeanor turned regal. This was no longer a discussion. It was a decree. “People need to see stability and continuity. You must marry, Magnus. Produce children. Show them what the future looks like.”
It was not a future he longed for. Why would it inspire anyone else?
“I’ve asked Ulmer to prepare a list. Introductions will begin in the next few weeks.” She rang the bell to dismiss him.
It might as well have been the rattle of a guillotine blade coming down.
Over the next eight weeks, Lexi leaned heavily on the small but mighty team that Vijay had put in place for her. They were astonishingly competent, giving her the fairly simple task of stalling Hadley and any other calls from the agency while they quietly set up a chain of events like dominoes.
Thank goodness they were good at their jobs, because she was a wreck. She blamed her forgetfulness and moments of emotional tearfulness on the upheaval of realizing her family had absolutely no regard for her, but the deeper ache was Magnus.
Which was stupid. She’d spent one night with him, whereas Hadley and Janet were fixtures in her life. There had always been animosity there, though. With Magnus, for at least a few hours, she’d thought there’d been accord. Synchronicity. Something powerful that was—
An illusion , she reminded herself harshly.
Sex. They had had sex. It was good sex, which was nothing to be ashamed of. The shame was in her pining for a man who had wondered after the fact if she had singled him out for her own gain.
She was the one who had been used. Did he really believe she would do that to someone else?
Apparently, he did.
I have a vested interested in keeping my name out of it.
She felt sick, literally nauseous, every time she thought of that horrible morning.
Don’t think of it.
Today was a big day. Not only did she finally have a meeting scheduled with Bernadette Garnier, but Lexi’s new lawyer would walk into Hadley’s office this afternoon and present her brother with the one-two punch of informing him that she was leaving as a client and also wanted to sell her share in the agency. Hadley had the right of first refusal, but she knew for a fact that her leaving the roster would impact the agency’s value, especially if bad press followed.
Hadley had a decision to make. Did he want to sign an NDA and settle things quietly? Or cause them both to suffer financially by making it public that she was leaving? She had a very unflattering statement prepared on how poorly he’d treated her. He would want to think twice about starting a PR war.
At this point, Lexi didn’t care how much money she came away with, so long as she was free. She hated herself for trusting Hadley as long as she had. It undermined her confidence in herself and her own decisions.
She also hated that she had Magnus to thank for bringing Vijay’s shrewd assessment into the picture. It meant that she couldn’t paint Magnus as a heartless villain and absolve herself of responsibility for their night together.
No, she’d been a very willing participant and she was a weak-minded fool for wishing she could have had more time with him.
With a frustrated groan, she left her walk-in closet, startled to find her mother setting up at the dressing table.
“What’s wrong?” Rhonda asked.
“Nothing. I didn’t realize you were here already.” Lexi threw a handful of blouse selections onto the bed.
“Are you nervous?” Her mother waved at the seat. “Is that why you called me to do your makeup instead of using Sharla? You’re going to be great, doll. You always land these things.”
Not true, but Rhonda had never let Lexi wallow in discouragement. She was a faithful cheerleader, but she had also pushed her daughter too hard from too early an age.
“I hadn’t seen you lately,” Lexi prevaricated. “This was a good excuse to catch up.” And she no longer trusted Sharla, who was yet another technician booked through the agency.
Lexi hadn’t told her mother she was leaving X-Calibur. Rhonda still had a lot of ill will against Lexi’s father. Lexi had learned a long time ago not to bring up her father’s family at all with her mother if she could help it.
“How are things with Wayne?” she asked instead, listening as Rhonda complained about the car her boyfriend had bought her. He was twenty years her senior and had a very nice house in Malibu that her mother had moved into. Her mother had always known how to take care of herself.
“Why are you so pale?” Rhonda asked as she blended the foundation across Lexi’s forehead and cheeks.
“I can’t even go onto the balcony for sun. There was a drone out there the other day.”
“Hmm. Well, I don’t want you to look like you’re trying too hard. I’m using a light hand. Wear the pink top.” She flickered her gaze to the bed. “That will put some color into your face. But if I didn’t know better...” She turned Lexi’s face in each direction, expression concerned.
“What?” Lexi demanded.
“Nothing.” Her mother dug through her case for a different brush. “You said it was only a dance. I believe you. You haven’t been seeing anyone else, have you?” She slid a sideways look at Lexi.
“Like a man? I’m not pregnant, Mom!” Lexi didn’t have to act shocked. It genuinely hadn’t occurred to her. They had used condoms.
“Good. I did my time with a baby on set. I won’t go back to it.” Her mother worked on her eyes, sweeping contouring strokes and colors over her closed eyelids. “The baby would be a prince or something, wouldn’t it? Think of the security you’d need! And custody? You know how ugly things became with your father.”
“Mom.” She caught her mother’s hand. “Please. Trust me. I’m not pregnant.” Absolutely not. It couldn’t happen. No, no, no.
But even her wildly unpredictable cycle had never gone a full two months without showing up.
A cold sweat took hold in Lexi’s lower back as she realized she hadn’t had a period since before Paris.
She couldn’t be pregnant, though. Magnus had used condoms.
And he really would hate her if that happened.
I have a vested interest...
It took all her control to pretend she wasn’t dizzy and clammy while her mother finished her makeup and did her hair.
“Break a leg, baby.” Her mother kissed the air near her cheek. “Text me later, tell me how it goes.”
“I will.” She smiled weakly.
After her mother left, Lexi rose, still feeling lightheaded. She called to make a doctor’s appointment while she dressed, then walked to her waiting car.
Her mind couldn’t seem to grasp a proper thought. The drive through the city happened without her awareness. Suddenly Ola, her favorite bodyguard, was standing on the curb outside the open back door of the SUV.
“All right, Lexi?”
“Pardon? Yes. Just thinking.”
Snap out of it , she berated herself.
But what would this mean for her chances for landing any role if she was pregnant? At least her shares in the agency provided her a small but predictable income. If—
No. She would worry about a baby if there was one. In this moment, she wasn’t pregnant. She absolutely could not be.
She walked through the lobby of Bernadette’s hotel feeling as though she walked through gelatin and found the director waiting at a table on the terrace. She was a sophisticated sixtysomething with a smooth gray bob.
The meeting went well. Bernadette had already read the book that Lexi wanted to adapt and not only saw Lexi in the lead role, she had ideas for additional financing.
Lexi walked out on unsteady legs, optimistic about her career for the first time in years. As she arrived home, she received a text from her lawyer.
X-Calibur has been notified. I’ll call later with details.
Also good news, but it didn’t stop her from running to the toilet, where she threw up every bite of food she’d eaten.
Aside from confirming with her doctor, Lexi told no one, still in a state of denial because a baby would be such a huge life change. She couldn’t understand how it had happened. Why now? No.
The morning sickness said yes, but for the rest of each day she was able to pretend it wasn’t real, which was helpful because she couldn’t fathom bringing a baby into this messy life of hers. Hadley was making a quiet fuss, trying to woo her back, but at least he wasn’t taking it to the public sphere.
That threat of a scandal and a spotlight would always be present in her life, though, which meant any children she had would also live under a microscope. Actors might bring babies onto sets these days, but she knew the downfall of growing up on one.
She also knew parenting was hard . Her mother had always had ample funds, thanks to support payments from Lexi’s father, but she had struggled in other ways. And Lexi knew for a fact that the most serene, sentimental moments of a mother holding a baby on film were achieved after hours of waiting for that baby to stop screaming its lungs out.
Parenting was not as easy and romantic as it was portrayed. This was a terrible time for her to become one.
She was pro-choice all the way so she didn’t feel she had to have the baby, but each time she considered not having it, she couldn’t hold on to the thought.
When Bernadette invited her to stay with her at her home in Nice, and said, “One of my regular investors is in Monte Carlo. You can help me charm him,” Lexi eagerly went.
Filming was at least two years away. Her pregnancy wouldn’t be a factor, but Lexi wanted to look for a new home. France had stricter privacy laws than the US and there were some very discreet maternity clinics in Switzerland.
She might be telling herself she hadn’t made a decision, but she was making decisions as though she had decided.
What would Magnus say about her having his baby, she wondered? She would hide her pregnancy as long as possible, but once paparazzi got wind of it, they would speculate the baby was his. She had to warn him before that.
She wasn’t ready to face him, though. Their night haunted her, sparking every emotion from erotic thrill to wistful longing to the ache of rejection. The only thing she couldn’t seem to feel was regret.
Did he regret their affair? He might, once he learned about the baby. Would he blame her? Accuse her of orchestrating this? They’d been his condoms that he had applied. It wasn’t her fault they’d failed.
Oh, she dreaded telling him she was pregnant. That was the real reason she was pretending it wasn’t actually happening.
She would tell him when she had all the pieces in place to raise this baby alone, because that’s what she planned to do. Yes. She had decided.
Then she walked into a cocktail party in Monte Carlo and there he was.
As a teen, Magnus had aspired to become an Olympic athlete, but he’d always seen the tech industry as his eventual career. Thanks to Katla’s strategic marriage, Isleif was a growing hub of innovation. Magnus was continuing what Prince Sorr had started by attending trade conferences and high-level summits around every aspect of tech, most lately the impacts of AI, but he was also tasked with encouraging multinational tech companies to set up shop in Isleif.
Many heads of such conglomerates had homes in Monte Carlo, the most expensive real estate in the world. Going to a party there provided casual introductions and it was also a suitable place for a first date with the woman at the top of Ulmer’s list of suitable brides.
Lady Annalise was visiting her cousin in Monaco, a woman who had married into the royal family here. Annalise ticked all the boxes for a future queen: she was a blue-blooded philanthropist, cultured, and had no troublesome scandals in her history. She was stylish and had a quick wit and knew how high-society games were played. She was not averse to moving to a tiny country in the North Atlantic. In fact, their marriage had the potential to strengthen ties with the royal family here in Monaco as well as her highly placed relatives in Denmark.
Magnus really wanted to feel something for her, but she left him stone cold.
They were standing on the terrace of a villa, listening to someone drone on about winning a painting at an auction when Magnus felt the air change. Charge. It was as though a thunderstorm gathered, but the sky remained clear and the breeze stayed soft.
He swiveled his head to the party inside and took an invisible kick to his gut.
Lexi. She stood at the top of the three shallow steps that led from the foyer into the columned living room. She was looking to the right while leaned down to hear the chic, gray-haired woman beside her.
Someone moved and Magnus was able to see her gown was an ethereal blue that looked as though it had been designed by the ancient Greeks. Its one-shoulder style was held up by braided silver cord against her golden skin. A matching band underscored her generous breasts while the skirt fell in a graceful curtain that hid the navel he’d kissed. The hips he’d bracketed with his hands. The thighs he’d pushed apart, then felt grip his waist.
He never allowed himself to search her name, even though she was top of mind from the moment he woke and through his colorless days, then into his fitful, erotic dreams. The few times he had broken down for a glimpse of her, all he saw were trolls and clickbait nonsense. That made him furious on her behalf, which brought on a wave of guilt because, for a few minutes that morning in Paris, he had thought the worst of her.
Aside from early attempts by the press to link them, however, she had managed to quash speculation that they were romantically involved.
Being a card-carrying hypocrite, he was quietly furious about that, too. He wanted her to betray some hint that she was as obsessed as he was. Because he still wanted her. She was an itch within him he couldn’t scratch, one that was driving him mad.
His blood caught fire as he stared at her through the crowd.
She nodded at her friend, then cast her gaze around the party—and froze. Her pink lips parted in shock before she abruptly looked down at the steps and melted into the crowd.
There was a ripple of laughter in the people around him so he pulled his attention back to the conversation even as Annalise excused them, saying she was cold and wanted to step inside.
“Did you already know the punchline of his story?” she asked as they reentered the din of the party.
“No.” Magnus didn’t even remember what the man had been talking about.
“Oh. I thought you were bored with them. You seemed to check out on us. That’s why I said we should come in.”
What could he say? His inner beast was off-leash, stalking the crowd for—
“Oh, look! It’s Paisley Pockets!” Annalise clutched his arm with subdued excitement.
No. His adrenaline surged and he followed her gaze, locking on Lexi, but whatever came into his face made Annalise sober.
“You didn’t like her show? It’s all I watched growing up. I loved it.” Her tone panged with nostalgia.
“Are you referring to Lexi Alexander?” He glanced again in Lexi’s direction, trying to sound disinterested while swallowing her with his eyes.
She had her back to him. Her hair was loosely braided. The tail sat between shoulder blades that struck him as tense, even from across the room.
She’s been in trouble with the law.
That’s what he should have said, but he couldn’t bring himself to denigrate her. To gossip like a busybody neighbor.
“Would you like to meet her?” He was being polite .
“You know her?” Annalise brightened with curiosity.
“We met briefly in Paris earlier this year.” It had been brief. Too brief.
“Will you think me ridiculous if I say yes?”
She didn’t know the meaning of the word. This was absurd , but he took her across the room to where Lexi was speaking to the gray-haired woman and a heavyset man.
Lexi was an exceptional actress because, after the slightest stiffening of shock, she beamed with courtesy and welcome.
“Your Royal Highness.” Her gaze flickered over his tuxedo in a way that made him wish it was her hands before she swept her attention back to his face. “How nice to see you again.”
“Ms. Alexander.” He held her gaze, quietly affronted by her use of his title. He was Magnus and she was Lexi. God and goddess. Or had she forgotten? “Lady Annalise wanted to say hello.”
“I was such a fan growing up,” Annalise gushed, clasping both her hands around the one that Lexi offered.
“You’re very kind.” Lexi smoothly accepted the praise before introducing her friend, a film director, and a man in town for the high-stakes poker tournament that began tomorrow.
A lively discussion of the gamble of filmmaking ensued. As everyone bantered, Magnus waited for Lexi’s gaze to come back to his, but she stubbornly looked at anyone but him, all while wearing a bright, engaged smile.
“When does filming start on your project?” he asked her directly.
“Oh. It’s, um, not confirmed yet, so a year or two at least.” Her gaze barely lifted above his bow tie and her expression remained stiff before she quickly looked to her friend. “When we do get a green light, Bernadette has a lot of work ahead of her while I—” She pressed her lips together and tucked a nonexistent strand of hair behind her ear. “My agent—My new agent.” Her gaze finally crashed into his but veered away just as quickly. “She suggested I write a memoir before someone decides to write an unauthorized biography, so I’m on the hunt for a quiet place here in Europe to, um, do that.”
Was she self-conscious about writing about herself? For anyone else it would be a vanity project, but her story of working from the time she’d been a baby was unique enough to make for an interesting read.
Everyone chimed in with location suggestions, then the man excused himself to speak to someone else.
“We should be on our way, too. We’re staying in Nice and it’s getting late,” Lexi said, glancing at Bernadette.
They had just gotten here and it was only nine o’clock. The drive to Nice took twenty minutes, thirty if you obeyed the speed limit, but okay. After polite goodbyes, the pair of women left.
“She seems so down-to-earth. I wanted to ask her for a photo,” Annalise mused.
Good God, that really would have taken this farce to a new height.
“I didn’t think it was a good idea, seeing as you’re involved with her.”
He bristled. “What makes you say that?” It was a real question because he had been concentrating on not betraying anything and Lexi had been doing an excellent job of the same.
Annalise tucked her chin, and her mouth pinched with admonishment. “It was like being between a pair of magnets that were turned the wrong way.”
His chest hardened like concrete. At the same time, he had the darkly amusing thought that Ulmer was right. Annalise would have made him a good wife. She was observant and unwilling to put up with his BS.
“I’m not involved with her,” he assured her. “It was brief and it’s over.”
“Is it?” she asked mildly. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather leave. I don’t think this will work.”
He took her home and he was still brooding on her skeptical, “Is it?” an hour later when he received a text from Vijay.
Ms. Alexander said she saw you tonight in Monaco. She wonders if you have time for a coffee while you’re in town.
The animal in him lurched against the chain that was strangling him. He wanted to make time. He wanted to gather a fleet of a thousand ships and storm Nice, bringing Lexi Alexander back to his bed by any means necessary.
They were over, though. They were impossible. If he saw her to tell her that, he would turn it into something that was liable to destroy them both.
The struggle between what he wanted and what he had to do flashed him back to those painful early days of moving into the palace at Isleif. His siblings had been as confused as he was, asking with bewilderment, “Are you ever coming home?”
It had been agony to accept that everything had changed. The painful weight of the crown forced him to put Isleif first, tearing a rift between them that he had never been able to repair, one that continued to make him ache with loss to this day.
He knew what he had to do with Lexi. He knew it would feel as though he was amputating his own limb, but he did it anyway. He texted Vijay that same brutal word.
No.
He didn’t hear from her again.