Tears filled Rachel’s eyes and spilled over, shocking both Ari and Lia. She wasn’t one to cry so easily.
“These flipping hormones are driving me nuts. Fine. I can’t hold it in any longer, but please don’t say anything to Rafe or our parents until after the wedding,” Rachel said earnestly.
“You know that you can trust us,” Lia said. Ari nodded her agreement.
“I’m pregnant.” Rachel didn’t work into it, give them time to absorb it, she just spit it out and waited for their reaction.
Ari was the first to say something, since Lia was sitting there with her mouth gaping open.
“I…uh…didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”
“I’m not,” Rachel wailed, and Lia and Ari looked at each other with surprise and confusion.
“Well, it pretty much takes two people, Sis,” Lia said with a gentle smile.
“Sheesh. I know that, Lia. I had a weeklong affair with a man in Florida. It was perfect. He was perfect. Oh, my gosh, was he ever perfect! We didn’t even give each other last names, just spent the week in bed, making smoking-hot love,” Rachel said, her eyes dilating as she spoke about it.
“And you weren’t careful?” Lia gasped.
“Of course I was careful, Lia. We used protection every single time. One of them just must have failed. Either that, or he has some freaking smart sperm that managed to make a break for it and swam upstream.”
“So you don’t know how to get ahold of him?” Ari asked, fighting a grin that wanted to break forth at Rachel’s choice of words.
“Well, that’s the other thing…” Rachel said, with obvious reluctance.
“What’s the other thing?” Lia demanded.
“Well, apparently, he figured out who I was and he had some of his men keeping an eye out just in case a pregnancy did happen. He showed up on my doorstep a few weeks ago.”
“There is so much wrong with that statement that I can’t even figure out where to begin,” Lia gasped in outrage. “He had men watching you?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t happy about that, either. They must be really sneaky because I had no clue whatsoever,” Rachel told them, irritation in her voice. “One of them, it turned out, was a co-worker at the embassy, hired by the guy with the wonder sperm.”
“Does he want to be a dad?” Ari asked.
“Well, not exactly. He didn’t want an unplanned pregnancy, but he insists on being a dad,” Rachel told them.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Well, I’m not going to marry him like he demanded I do!” Rachel said, with the color that had washed from her face now suffusing her cheeks in her temper.
“He insisted you marry him?” Lia asked.
“You sound like a parrot, Lia. Quit repeating everything back to me. Yes. He showed up at my door, told me I was carrying the royal heir and that I had to marry him.”
At those words, both Lia and Ari just stared at her. Since Lia didn’t want to repeat herself, it was time for Ari to step in after a short pause.
“Did you just say royal heir?”
“Yeah, apparently my one-week stand ended up being King Adriano of Corythia, and I’m carrying the royal heir,” she said, her words thick with sarcasm.
“What if it’s not a boy?” Ari asked.
Lia and Rachel both turned to her in surprise. Of all the questions, that one wasn’t at the top of their list.
“I don’t know. There’s the queen of England, and the law of succession in England was just changed to designate the first child, male or female, as heir to the throne. Maybe girls can be queen there, too, or maybe she’d only be a princess, not Corythia’s head of state. I don’t know. He said future heir. The guy is arrogant and demanding. Maybe he’s so pompous, he thinks he will only produce boys,” Rachel said as she shrugged. “No blanks from King Smart Sperm the First.”
Several moments passed in which none of them said a word. Finally, Ari broke the silence.
“And I thought I had problems.”
Her words made both Lia and Rachel turn toward her. Suddenly the entire situation just seemed so absurd that the women burst out laughing. Five minutes later, when a clerk came to check on them, they were still guffawing noisily. The woman sneaked back out, assuming it was normal pre-wedding jitters.
“Well, Rachel, I will say this much. You know how to take away the nerves. I’m not even worried about the wedding anymore. I’m too busy trying to figure out what you are going to do next,” Ari said.
“I have no idea, Ari. I really don’t. I know I’m not getting married to that stuffy, self-important, arrogant, lying sack of sh—”
“Careful, Sis. You are speaking about a king,” Lia interrupted with a laugh.
“Yeah, yeah. Get the jokes out of the way. And get ready to curtsy, because in about six and a half months, I’ll be making you babysit,” Rachel said.
“Oh, no. I know nothing about babies,” Lia said with horror as she gazed down at Rachel’s stomach.
“Well, I don’t know anything either. I’m the baby of the family, remember?” Rachel said.
“Well, we’ll all just have to figure it out together,” Ari said.
“Please don’t say anything to Rafe. Not yet.”
“I promised I wouldn’t. Besides, I want to be far away when you tell him,” Ari said. Rafe was probably going to explode.
“Me, too. I think I’ll call him while you’re on your honeymoon, hopefully halfway around the planet.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Ari gasped.
“You’re right. I wouldn’t do that to you. I may just chicken out and let my parents tell him, though. He scares me a lot more than Dad. I’m afraid he’ll hunt the guy down and kick his ass or worse for daring to touch his baby sister.”
“Yeah, I think he wanted us to be nuns,” Lia said. “The thought of us ha**ng s*x is just too much for him to handle. He even wanted to kill Shane.”
“You’re forgetting about the bigger picture, Rachel,” Ari said, looking at her fondly.
“What’s that?” Rachel waited for enlightenment.
“You’re going to have this amazing little bundle in about seven months. This perfect child that you created. You’re going to be a mother,” Ari told her as she reached out and placed her hand on Rachel’s stomach.