Stars for the Sheikh_A Royal Billionaire Romance Novel by Annabelle Winters

Author:Annabelle Winters [Winters, Annabelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction
Publisher: Rainshine
Published: 2017-09-05T16:00:00+00:00

33

“I will be king once I claim the throne,” he said to her as that carriage bounced through the country road, the horses heaving and pulling as she tried desperately to lace up her bodice and pat down her skirts before they arrived.

She hadn’t meant to give herself to him so easily—certainly not in the back of a carriage like some harlot from the rookeries of North London. Of course, she was no whore—though she was not an untouched maiden either. Far from it.

But it is he who was the first. And though I was married once, it is still only he who has truly had me. Yes, only he who has had me, she told herself as she straightened up in her seat and glanced over at his sharp, swarthy profile, his strong jawline peppered with a stubble more befitting a pirate than a king. He is the only man who has had me, even if he does not remember the first time.

Well, certainly he might remember, she told herself as she caught sight of the outskirts of London in the distance, smoke from a thousand chimneys rising up into the blue sky, turning it gray as if reminding her of her deceit, of her sin. Yes, he might remember that night from three years ago. He just doesn’t know that it was me that night, my hair hidden beneath a kitchen-maid’s bonnet, my mind loose from a surreptitious swig of red wine, my body even looser, my virginity taken quickly and harshly by the Lord’s personal guest at the manor—a stranger with broad shoulders and thick arms, a sharp profile and dusky green eyes. A stranger. This stranger.

She closed her eyes as the carriage slowed and took a turn, and she knew they were close now. Eventually he would know she had manipulated her way into crossing paths with him again, allowing him to seduce her again, in a way seducing him with her deception. And then what was to become of her? What was to become of them?

Most importantly, what was to become of the one who was most innocent but yet irrevocably stamped with the mark of sin? What was to become of the child? The child of sin born two years ago, born to her, born in secret.

A secret whose time has come, she thought as the carriage stopped outside the walls of the largest manor in a hamlet just outside of London, this foreign king’s temporary residence in England.

“Claim the throne,” she said as she watched the footmen step down from the carriage and steady the horses, which seemed a bit nervous, like they could pick up the tension in the air. “But are you not of royal blood? Does that not make the throne your right?”

He smiled as he glanced at his gold pocket watch and then up into her eyes. “In my homeland birthright is not enough to claim the throne, my lady. A bloodline is not enough. Sometimes it takes blood as well.

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