Pregnant with the secret.., p.1
Pregnant with the Secret Prince's Babies, page 1
The smile that had begun to spread across his face froze. Something wasn’t right. There was something different about her.
Something very different. Her beautiful suntanned face was pale. Her bright blue eyes had shadows. But it was her new curvy body, the one with the unmistakable baby bump, that immediately got his attention. And held it.
“I don’t understand...” he began as the wheels in his befuddled brain began to turn. How could this be possible?
Well, he knew how. But why? He’d used protection. They both had.
But that didn’t matter right then. What mattered was that Summer looked as if she was about to drop.
“You need to sit down,” Alex said as he crossed the grass to where she stood and took her arm to lead her to a seat. “We both need to sit down.”
He took the seat closest to hers. He’d known that there was something wrong when Summer had become more adamant about knowing where he was going and when he was returning, but he had never imagined this.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
Dear Reader,
Sometimes we dream of visiting faraway lands while there are still places to explore in our own backyard, so last summer, I decided to take a road trip around my own state of Florida. We took the old abandoned roads that led to some great forgotten places and we made one unexpected stop for an alligator who had claimed the highway as his own.
The crowning moment of the trip was exploring the island of Key West. With a history full of adventurers, I enjoyed meeting the local people who were welcoming and eager to share their own journey to the island.
It’s these same people who make up my Key West medevac helicopter crew. Some were born on the island while others came for work and found a home. Both Alex and Summer originally came to the island for a new start and soon realized that while the island is the home they’ve always wanted, there is still something missing from their lives. I hope you enjoy their adventure to find that missing piece on their way to their own happily-ever-after.
Best wishes,
Deanne Anders
Pregnant with the Secret Prince’s Babies
Deanne Anders
Deanne Anders was reading romance while her friends were still reading Nancy Drew, and she knew she’d hit the jackpot when she found a shelf of Harlequin Presents in her local library. Years later, she discovered the fun of writing her own. Deanne lives in Florida with her husband and their spoiled Pomeranian. During the day, she works as a nursing supervisor. With her love of everything medical and romance, writing for Harlequin Medical Romance is a dream come true.
Books by Deanne Anders
Harlequin Medical Romance
From Midwife to Mommy
The Surgeon’s Baby Bombshell
Stolen Kiss with the Single Mom
Sarah and the Single Dad
The Neurosurgeon’s Unexpected Family
December Reunion in Central Park
Florida Fling with the Single Dad
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
This book is dedicated to Jacob, Abigail, Josie, Roman and Molly, who are always eager to share with their teachers that their nana is an author even though they aren’t allowed to read her books until they get older.
Praise for Deanne Anders
“This story captivated me. I enjoyed every moment [of] it. This is a great example of a medical romance. Deanne Anders is an amazing writer!”
—Goodreads on The Surgeon’s Baby Bombshell
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM MIRACLE TWINS FOR THE MIDWIFE BY LOUISA HEATON
CHAPTER ONE
“THE KING IS not happy.”
Though thousands of miles away, his brother’s booming voice ricocheted inside his pounding head like it was a pinball machine.
After spending over twelve hours on a plane, Dr. Alex Leonelli had finally made it home to Key West, leaving behind his life as Alexandro Michael Leonelli, best friend and secret half brother of Crown Prince Nicholas of Soura. The last thing he wanted was to listen to his brother try to lay a guilt trip on him. He’d more than done his duty for his brother. It was only right for Nicholas to get stuck with their father’s bad temper after all the trouble he’d been the last five months.
He punched in the code on the front door to Heli-Care’s headquarters. He was glad they hadn’t changed the code. He was even luckier that he still had a job.
“Sounds like a personal problem,” Alex said as he looked up at the clear sky overhead. The moon and stars were still putting on an early morning show for all the tourists who’d soon be heading home after their night of partying in downtown Key West.
It was so good to be back. He’d missed everything about the small island. Because while the palm trees reminded him of where he had grown up in California and the local beaches reminded him of the Mediterranean ones of his father’s small country, Key West was his home. Here he was just Dr. Alex, ER doc and medical chief of Heli-Care’s local medevac unit. He liked who he was able to be here.
“You stole out in the middle of the night like you were some common thief,” his brother said.
“And whose fault is that? Every time I mentioned heading home you suddenly had a supposed relapse. And don’t get me started on all the ways our father tried to keep me there.” He didn’t have time for this. He only had a few hours before jet lag brought him to a crashing halt. He’d been away for too long and he was ready to get back to work. It was his friend Dylan’s hard work covering for him that had helped him keep his job and he knew his crew had been in good hands. But Dylan now had a new wife and needed to get on with his own life. Just like Alex needed to get on with his.
Which was why he’d headed to Heli-Care’s base, instead of heading home, or at least that was what he was telling himself. It had absolutely nothing to do with the petite blond registered nurse who, according to the crew schedule, was on an overnight shift right now.
Summer. What was going on with her? With them? And how was he going to fix it?
“It’s that girl, isn’t it?” his brother said, as if he had just read Alex’s mind.
“Just because you bounce between one woman to another doesn’t mean that everyone is happy with that life.” Alex had never understood his brother’s insistence on playing the bad-boy crown prince when he could do so much more with his life.
“You could be if you’d let yourself. And I think she made it pretty clear that she has moved on even if you haven’t. How many times does a woman have to refuse your calls for you to get a hint?”
“Shouldn’t you be working on your rehab instead of worrying about my love life?” His brother was right, but Alex wasn’t ready to admit it. Not yet. Summer had cut all contact between them the moment he had left Key West. When she’d refused his calls and hadn’t returned any of his texts, he’d been surprised. Summer wasn’t someone who liked a lot of drama in her life. If she was angry, she told you. Her not returning his calls didn’t make sense. But he’d had to put aside all of that until his brother’s life was out of danger.
“I just hope she’s worth making our father angry. You have to know that he’s looking for a reason to out you.”
“What?” Alex’s hand froze on the door handle.
“He wants to acknowledge you as his son, Alex.” His brother’s voice gave no hint about how he personally felt about his father’s plan.
“Isn’t it a little late for that? I’ve played the game of hiding who I am too long to change my life now.” And he didn’t want to change. Living in Key West as a simple doctor was the life he had dreamed of. No cameras, no reporters, no paparazzi. No one wanting to highlight and criticize everything he did. It was the perfect life for him.
“Besides, we both know the scandal would be bad for all of us,” Alex said. If he could only get his brother on his side, maybe they could get his father to see reason.
“Maybe for our father and your mother. But for us? I’d say the benefits will balance out the burden of the media attention,” his brother said with his usual nonchalance.
“And what benefit would that be?” His father and brother had never understood his life. Bringing media attention into his life would have direct consequences for his job. How could he work out in the open if he constantly had to be worrying about the paparazzi showing up?
He stepped into the building and entered the multiuse room, where he’d spent many an hour with his crew watching movies and gaming. It was empty—not surprising at this time of the morning. The overnight crew would be catching some downtime before being dispatched to the next call, or the morning crew came in.
The thought of giving up this place, these people, was impossible to consider.
This was where he belonged. Not stashed in some palace with his only patient being a grouchy royal. He rubbed his temples as the aching in his head seemed to magnify with that thought. Leaving the palace when he had had been the right thing for him. He would have lost his mind if he’d stayed another day.
And his timing was perfect. He would have enough time to catch up on some emails before shift change. Then he could see his staff and let them know he was back.
And then there was Summer. He needed her to see that he had returned, just like he’d promised all those months ago. He could only hope that her seeing he had kept his promise to return would help make things right between them.
And if she wanted the details on why he had been gone so long? How would he answer her questions? He’d wanted to tell her about his other life for months before he’d left, but he’d always hesitated, afraid that it would change things between them.
“It’s time, Alex,” his brother said, startling him. The pounding in his head doubled.
“For what exactly?” He couldn’t keep the irritation out of his voice. All of this was his brother’s fault. The Crown Prince of Soura should have been taking care of his royal duties instead of chasing his latest daring thrill.
Which was why he had ended up in a critical-care unit with half of his ribs broken, a punctured lung and both his femurs fractured, and as a result, Alex had left Key West without any notice. His lack of explanation meant that Summer had cut all communication between the two of them.
Alex couldn’t blame his father for calling him and demanding that he come to his tiny Mediterranean kingdom of Soura immediately. His brother had needed him.
But so had Summer.
And he didn’t understand that. Not really. Summer had always been so independent and so understanding about his job and the crazy hours he worked. He couldn’t understand why she had reacted so differently that day. His father’s phone call had left no doubt of how urgent it was for him to get to his brother. He’d had no choice. Jeopardizing his job and running out on his crew was not something that he would have ever dreamed of doing. She’d known that. Just like she’d had to have known that he wouldn’t have left her if it hadn’t been urgent. If he’d only had more time to figure out what had been going on with her. But he’d panicked. He could see that now. After working in an emergency room and with a flight crew, he’d imagined the worst. And he’d been right to.
While the public knew that Nicholas had been involved in an accident, the king had left out the details. Only the medical staff and Alex’s father knew that it was touch and go right after the accident.
But that would all end soon. As soon as the crew got up, Summer would be able to see with her own eyes that he had returned just like he had promised her. Then he could explain everything to her, and they could get back to their normal lives together.
After months of living in a palace, he craved his normal life. He needed his normal life.
A dramatic sigh reminded him that his brother was still on the phone. It made Alex want to roll his eyes like a teenager as he made his way down the hall to his office. Both his brother and his father had a flair for drama. “You know the local media has been asking questions about our friendship for years,” Nicholas said. “And that little man from the local tabloid, the one that ran all the old headlines about your mother and my father—security caught him sneaking around the service entrance yesterday questioning the staff.”
Alex knew the man he was talking about. He’d tried to corner Alex more than once. But Soura and the journalist were far away now. No one would have followed him back to Key West.
“How’s the new nurse?” Alex asked. They’d both said everything there was to say on the subject of the king claiming him as his son. They would never agree.
And they didn’t need to. It was Alex’s life, something he had reminded his father and brother a thousand times in the last few months.
“The woman is a tyrant. Telling me what to eat. When to sleep,” Nicholas complained. “Did you really give her an order that I couldn’t stay up past midnight?”
“No. I told her you were to get plenty of sleep while you recuperated. I left the rest up to her.” Alex had known the moment he’d met the woman that she would be capable of keeping Nicholas in line with the regimen that was needed for his full recovery.
His phone went off with an alert. The crew was being activated.
“Tell the king that I will call soon and don’t give Ellie a hard time.” Alex could still hear his brother grumbling as he ended the call and took his seat behind his desk only a second before people began to emerge from the sleep rooms that opened into the hallway.
“Boss, you finally found your way home. It’s about time,” Casey, the first to see him, said, giving him a big smile and wave before he hurried off down the hall.
It was then that he saw her. Standing in the hallway, Summer went from half-asleep to fully awake in a nanosecond. Her eyes met his for only a second before she turned away from him. In that brief moment, he’d seen none of the pleasure he’d hoped for. Instead, there’d been nothing. Not even anger. He could deal with anger. They could talk their way through that. But nothing? He would rather she had yelled at him.
Of course, she was working. It wasn’t like she would want to get into things here at work. Especially before she went on a call.
He rubbed his aching head again. He needed sleep, but he needed to talk to Summer more. He turned on his computer and opened up his emails. He might as well get some work done while he waited for her to return.
* * *
She’d run. She’d run like a little kid caught with a hand in the cookie jar.
No. More like a scared, embarrassed teenager caught stealing a prom dress at the local department store. Her face heated with the memory.
“You know you’re going to have to talk to him at some point,” Casey said as they buckled into their seats as their pilot, Roy, started the helicopter rotors. Her queasy stomach did a small somersault as they rose into the air and headed for their small island hospital.
Choosing to ignore him, Summer opened the respiratory supply box. All the adult-size emergency equipment needed to be changed to pediatric size for the little girl they would be transporting to the children’s hospital in Miami. “Can you hand me a pediatric IV start kit?”
Casey pulled open the drawer holding the intravenous supplies. “You can’t put it off. It’s not like he’s not going to notice. He’s not blind. The two of you just need to talk it out.”
She wanted to tell the man that he was not one to give love advice, since he couldn’t see what was right in front of his own eyes. But that would mean betraying her friend Jo’s confidence and she wouldn’t do that, though it was a big temptation. She knew Casey wasn’t going to quit dogging her about Alex.
“ETA, two minutes,” Roy’s voice said over their headphones.
“I’m just saying, Alex will do the right thing,” Casey said, handing the supplies over to her.
The right thing? The right thing like her father had done by marrying her mother when he’d found out she was pregnant with her? Would he be doing “the right thing” like her father had done when he’d then left her mother when things got hard? She didn’t need anyone else to do the right thing for her. She’d learned at an early age that the only person she could count on was herself. She’d forgotten that for a short period of time while she’d been with Alex. She wouldn’t forget it again.
Her hand went protectively to her stomach. No, she wasn’t going to let history repeat itself with her. The only thing she needed was to finish this shift and get home before she had to confront Alex at the office. That wasn’t the place, and today, when she was worn out from working, wasn’t the time.
Casey was right. They would have to talk, but she knew she needed to prepare herself. Just that one look at Alex had made her want to forget the last five months. But that sounded just like something her mother would have done.
She had never been like her mother and she wouldn’t let herself become like her. Summer was responsible for more than just herself now. She would continue her relationship with Alex, but it would be with her in the lead. Alex could choose to follow or not. That was up to him.
