Marilyn Pappano - Romancing The Crown - Lorenzo and Anna - The Man Who Would Be King / The Princess And The Mercenary

She would have struggled up from her chair and hurried out to her truck to begin immediately looking for him, but Ursula moved lightning quick to stop her. “Oh, no you don’t! The prince can take care of himself. You’ve got other more important things to do—like taking care of yourself and the baby. I think you need to go to Montebello.”

“What?!”

“It’s the only logical thing to do,” she retorted, already picturing where she would live in the royal palace. She might even find herself a royal husband! “The king needs to know that he’s about to become a grandfather. I’ll go with you to tell him. He can see that you’re taken care of—after all, you’re the mother of his grandson. Then when his son is found, he’ll make sure he does the right thing and marries you.”

“Oh, no! I would never use the baby to force a proposal out of Joe,” she said, horrified. “He doesn’t even know I’m pregnant.”

“He’ll know soon enough when we find him.”

“No! If he loves me, he’ll come back to me without knowing about the baby.”

“But the baby could one day be king of Montebello,” she pointed out. “You have to tell the king!”

Her heart bruised and aching, Jessica didn’t care two cents about that. It was Joe she cared about, Joe she loved. She desperately needed him to return that love, and for the last few months, she’d convinced herself that he did. She’d seen the emotion in his eyes, felt it in his touch, tasted it in his kiss. But he’d left without ever saying the words, and that hurt.

“The only thing I care about is Joe,” she cried as tears once again welled in her eyes. “What if he never comes back?”

But even as she cried out in pain, memories stirred, and suddenly, she had a vague recollection of Joe talking about his duty to himself and others. And just that easily, she knew Ursula was right. He had left her to go back to his real life! And he hadn’t said a word about who he was. Why? Because he was afraid she would want something from him or his family.

Hurt, her pride stung, she wiped away the last of her tears and squared her shoulders. He didn’t have to worry about her trying to contact him, she thought grimly. It wasn’t going to happen.

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