The Royal Nanny Page 26

  He slammed his lips on hers in a flash. The fierceness of the kiss took her breath away. He continued to drive into her tight heat with powerful thrusts. Leyah curled her toes inside her heels. Each stroke feels better than the last. Leyah moved her eyes over Alastair’s face and noticed his clenched jaw. He was on the edge, and without needing to ask, she knew he was waiting for her to come again, before he let himself go. He thrusted up into her and growled, tendrils of icy heat spread throughout her body and Leyah pressed her head back into her pillow. She loved him so much. And it was that truth that screamed into the air as her orgasm careened through her, bursting inside her chest, and spreading through every muscle, nerve, and pore. Her walls suck at Alastair’s cock, trying to keep him inside of her, or to break it off and hold it within her forever, she didn’t know which. Her body quaked around his shaft and Alastair slammed his hips harder and faster, the headboard slamming into the wall behind him as he grunted and cursed above her. There was no more holding back, they both crashed over the edge together. Alastair’s roar of release echoed her own scream, as he pumped his seed deep inside her. Leyah’s body shakes and shivers course up and down her spine, Alastair faring no better as he quivered, gasping in an effort to catch his breath. Long moments later, Alastair’s weight pressing her deliciously into the mattress, he lifted his body from hers, and slid gently from within her. Pressing a kiss to her lips, he began to unwrap the rope from her body. Leyah hissed as tendrils of prickly pain moves through her limbs, and she moaned happily as Alastair rubbed her fingers, arms, neck, and body, bringing her down from the blissful high she’d been on. Collapsing onto the bed next to her after the rope had been removed completely, and she’d received a lovely massage, Alastair tugged her body into his. He wrapped her in his arms and held on tightly. Leyah pressed her face into his chest, snuggling his skin for a moment, the tendrils of hair tickling her nose. She laughed and smoothed her hands over his pecs. There were so many things she wanted to say. So many questions she had to ask, so many things she needed to confess, but Alastair’s hands on her body prevented her from doing so.

  They lay in silence for a while before Alastair tugged her head back, his hand fisting in the veil and her hair. “I love you,” he said.

  Leyah smiled and cuddled closer to him. “I love you as well, my Prince.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  T hey made love twice more that evening, only stopping when Alfie laughingly dropped them off plates of food from the reception, “to keep their strength up.” Leyah fell asleep with Alastair’s arms wrapped tightly around her. She’d felt so protected. So safe. So, loved.

  She should have known that it wouldn’t last.

  Early the next morning, weeks after they’d gotten married, after making love for the second time upon waking, there was an insistent knock at their suite door. Leyah groaned and rolled over in bed, letting out a yelp when Alastair smacked her naked ass, and rose from the bed.

  “I’ll see who it is,” he told her.

  “And send them away. We are still technically on our honeymoon, even if we are still here at the palace,” she insisted.

  “Yes, my love,” he responded with a chuckle.

  They’d decided to stay in Malvidence due to the threats, accidents, poisonings, and attacks the royal family had endured. Guilt constantly haunted and ate away at Leyah’s conscience. She’d yet to tell Alastair her real identity, or the details of her arrival and employment in the Malvidencian palace. The uneasy knot in the pit of her stomach gave her the sickening feeling that her time was up.

  She turned over in bed and listened to Alastair’s voice. It sounded amused, but after a few moments, it turned shocked, and then angry. She tried to hear who he was speaking to, and her stomach dropped when she heard Danorian’s voice, and then that of Prince Andreas. She rose out of the bed and grabbed her robe, slipping it on and belting it at the waist. She stepped lightly to the bedroom door and strained to listen.

  “Mexoria Źeylήia, I know how upsetting this is to you,” Danorian’s voice filled with false remorse reached her ears. “She is—or rather, was—a family friend. I have known her since she was a child. When she reached out to me, she told me that she’d abdicated the throne of Waldakan and had come here to seek a new way of life. I did not question it, and for that I shall be forever sorry. I had no idea that she planned to kill your parents and take the throne from you. If I had, I would never have brought her here or recommended her for such a sensitive and important position as the nanny to the Crown Prince and Princess’s children. I most assuredly would never have allowed her to marry you.”

  Leyah’s heart pounded in her chest. No. It couldn’t be. Danorian wouldn’t betray her this way! Yes, he’d been upset because she’d decided to abandon their original plans to dethrone the king and queen of Malvidence. He’d seemed disappointed, not enraged, when she’d informed him that she was marrying Alastair and would eventually share the truth of her identity with him. But never, in her wildest dreams would she have expected him to turn on her. To place all of the blame on her shoulders. To accuse her of things she hadn’t done.

  “I don’t believe you,” Alastair’s tone was hard, angry.

  Leyah felt even more love and guilt swarm through her, battling for dominance. Alastair’s love was causing him to ignore whatever proof Danorian was attempting to present him. She loved him even more than she had before. She also felt more regret than she’d ever experienced, because Danorian spoke a half-truth.

  “Bruthrar,” Andreas’s tone was apologetic, soft, yet unyielding. “I have a picture of the Princess of Waldakan. Her name is Aa’Leyah Zameer… Leyah Meer? That was not a coincidence. Her picture is here in this magazine. Also, here is a letter that Danorian found among her things to be moved from her suite to yours. It is a letter planning every attack that has occurred on the palace grounds, along with others. And she even admits to only marrying you to get closer to the crown.”

  Leyah shook her head as she listened to way Danorian twisted the truth and mixed it with lies. She’d never written such a letter, and she’d married Alastair because she loved him. No other reason. Had he forged her handwriting?

  “Leyah!” Alastair’s roar shook her, and Leyah began backing away from the bedroom door, her hand covering her mouth as tears filled her eyes. The bedroom door slammed open just as she’d reached the center of the room. Alastair pointed at her.

  “Are you Princess Aa’Leyah Zameer of Waldakan?” he asked her, his face flushed red with rage.

  Leyah glanced over Alastair’s shoulder and saw Danorian watching her with a smirk on his face. She lifted her chin, refusing to give Danorian, or any of the men who watched her the opportunity to see her grovel. She would not plead for her life. She was guilty of entering the palace under false pretenses. She was guilty of positioning Waldakans within the kingdom of Malvidence so that they could overthrow the ruling family and regain their homeland. She was guilty of not revealing her true identity to Alastair sooner. For loving him and marrying him without him knowing who she truly was. She was guilty of so much, she wasn’t guilty of trying to kill any member of the Smythe family, but her quest and thirst for revenge had set the wheels in motion.

  She did not shy away in fear when Alastair stormed over to her and took her shoulders in his massive hands. He shook her and looked desperately into her eyes, his pleading with her to lie to him and tell him she wasn’t the princess of Waldakan.

  “Tell me!” he ordered. “Tell me who you are!”

  Leyah lifted her chin higher, took a deep breath, and stared directly into Alastair’s eyes.

  “I am Queen Aa’Leyah Zameer-Smythe. Now that I am married, I am the Queen of Waldakan, and a Princess of Malvidence. I am your wife, your princess. I am Waldakan’s queen.”

  “You are under arrest,” the head of the palace guards said as he stepped forward and Leyah’s heart broke.

  Alastair stood watching as the palace guards arrested Leyah, or rather, Princess
Aa’Leyah Zameer. He folded his arms across his chest, his brothers surrounding him like angry sentries. He refused to acknowledge the ache in his chest as his heart broke. He couldn’t believe he’d been fooled by her. For months she’d worked closely with his family, caring for his nieces, had access to their inner workings. She’d married him and fucked him repeatedly, for God’s sake! She’d seemed so innocent, so incapable of any wrongdoing, to now know she’d not only been hired under false pretenses, but that she’d had an ulterior motive behind it all? A part of him admired her dedication to her people, to her cause. But another part, a bigger, angrier, more emotional part wanted to rage against the heavens. He wanted to throw shit around the room, curse. He wanted chaos and destruction to rain down from the heavens, just as they raged within him.

  “She’s not even fighting them,” Alfie remarked, admiration tinging his words.

  Alastair scoffed. “Because she knows she’s guilty.”

  Algerone hummed and tilted his head to the side. “I don’t know.”

  Alastair turned to look at his brother incredulously. Algerone raised his hands in surrender. “I’m not saying what she did wasn’t fucked up. It totally was. What I am saying is that, she’s been here this whole time, she had ample opportunity to kill one of us,” he pointed at Alastair. “To kill you. Especially these last few weeks as your wife. So why didn’t she?”

  “Doing so would have seen her killed,” Andreas stated simply.

  Though Alastair was furious with her, the thought of Leyah being killed by lethal injection, on trial for crimes against the Crown, made his blood boil and want to protect her against anyone who wanted to see harm come to her. Even his own brothers. She’d been trying to honor her parents’ wishes. Trying to serve her people and fulfill a centuries old request from her ancestors. Could he really fault her? Would the anger he felt inside stay and rage on forever?

  As his gaze connected with hers one last time, and he saw her remorse, her sadness, but, surprisingly, no longer any guilt reflected within her eyes, he knew he could fault her. Oh yeah, his anger would last. Especially if she couldn’t admit fault. If she wouldn’t deny the charges levied against her. If she wouldn’t… reach out to him.

  Just call out to me, he pleaded internally. Let me know it wasn’t all a game for you.

  When she merely turned her head and allowed the guards to lead her away, after changing into a green, shift dress, Alastair huffed angrily and stomped away, refusing to acknowledge the breaking of his own damn, stupid heart. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he needed to release his rage on something, or someone, and he couldn’t unleash it on Leyah. She was still his wife. And while it was the worst time to realize it… he loved her. He had to protect her from his fiery wrath and that of his family. She was still his princess. Still his.

  For now.

  The Incarcerated Princess

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Three Weeks Later

  L eyah opened her eyes at the sound of the prison door opening. She pushed herself up shakily in the bed. The room was dim, only a few lightbulbs glowed in the cavernous hall. She listened to the heavy tread of footsteps, trying to figure out who it was coming to visit her. She was sure it wasn’t Alastair, or any of his brothers. And it couldn’t be Valerie, not with those footsteps. She narrowed her eyes, and her lips thinned as Danorian came into view.

  She huffed and folded her arms across her chest, looking away.

  “Come now, Princess Aa’Leyah, or should I say Queen Aa’Leyah, you cannot be mad with me,” he taunted her. “Your relationship with Prince Alastair puts our entire mission in danger. I did what I thought was best.”

  Leyah snorted and gazed back at him with a glare. “By framing me and having me thrown in jail for conspiracy to commit murder and treason?”

  Danorian shrugged. “Your parents taught you that the people of Waldakan come first. You know this! And yet?” He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “You put your lust,” he spat the word, “before our people.” He shook his head. “I could tell you were in danger of revealing all to Alastair. That just wouldn’t do. Not at all, so I did the thing you were unable to do. I had you go down for the attacks on the palace, so I could retain my place as a trusted member of the guard. It will probably take me some time to reclaim the full trust of the royal family, but I will, and once I do, they will be eliminated.” He twisted his lips in a sardonic smile. “Perhaps by that point you will have come to your sense and you will be fit to lead our people again.”

  Leyah spit in his direction, then turned her back and lay back down. She heard Danorian chuckle evilly before he walked away. She listened to his footsteps as they drifted away from her cell, growing distant before disappearing all together.

  Hot tears filled her eyes. So many times, she’d been tempted, convicted, to confess everything to Alastair, and yet her duty to her people, her misplaced need for vengeance on the part of her parents, her fear of losing him, had kept her silent. When everything was said and done, she was guilty. She could have prevented the attack on the palace. Put a stop to everything, and yet she hadn’t, and she’d lost Alastair in the end, anyway. It was why she didn’t fight the charges. Why she didn’t struggle against the Malvidencian guards as they arrested her. Why she didn’t plead with Alastair for him to listen to her. To give her a chance to explain. There was nothing to explain. She would spend the rest of her days in this cell, regretting every moment she’d betrayed Alastair and his family.

  She sniffled and wiped the wetness from her face.

  “Now you cry?” Alastair’s voice drifted into her cell, angry and harsh.

  Leyah gasped and sat up, turning to face him.

  “Alastair!”

  Alastair held up a hand, clenching his jaw. “Prince Alastair of Malvidence,” he corrected her.

  Leyah swallowed and nodded. “Prince Alastair. I-I didn’t expect you to come and see me,” she admitted.

  “Yeah, well,” Alastair grunted. “I had no intention of coming to visit, but, I can’t move past this without some answers.”

  Leyah glanced down, intertwining her fingers. “What would you like to know?”

  “Why?” Alastair’s voice was hushed, his anger, disappointment, and hurt shining through his words like a beacon in the night.

  “Why what?” Leyah hedged though she knew what he was asking her.

  “No.” Alastair shook his head. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to play stupid with me. Not now. Not. After. Everything! Why did you lie? Why did you attack my family? Why did you use me to exact revenge? Why did you pretend to want me? To marry me? To love me, if all you were going to do was betray me in the end?”

  Leyah’s eyes flew up to Alastair’s face. She was taken aback by the raw emotion and hurt she saw reflected there. She stood slowly and walked towards the bars of her cell, pain lancing through her when Alastair stepped away. She stopped and curled her fingers around the bars.

  “I never lied about loving you, Alastair. Prince Alastair,” she corrected. “I never lied about wanting you. I didn’t lie about liking your family—well, not your father, I lied about wanting his approval—but the rest of it? It was all real for me. By the time we were married, by the time you’d convinced me to be your wife, your princess, it was more than real for me.”

  Alastair shook his head and rushed the bars of the cell. Leyah refused to cower in the face of his anger. “You lie! If that was all true, then why didn’t you protest or dispute the charges lobbied against you? Why allow the guards to arrest you? Why didn’t you try to explain? If you’re really innocent of what you’ve been accused of, why would you quietly allow them to take you?”

  Leyah sighed and bowed her head again as tears flowed down her cheeks. She was heartbroken and knew Alastair was as well, even if he were trying to hide it. She’d accepted her fate, however. Accepted her responsibility in all of it. She clenched her fingers around the steel bars which held her captive and inhaled deepl
y.

  “Because I am guilty, Your Highness,” she confessed. “I could have put an end to things. Especially after talking with Valerie and getting to know your mother. I could have ceased the entire mission when I fell in love with you. When I fell in love with your family, but I didn’t. A part of me, smaller and much quieter than what it was when I first arrived, still felt as if I owed my parents. Owed King ZwooZa.” She looked up at Alastair. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but this land, where this palace sits, where your people live? It was all stolen away from my people. Taken by the threat of violence. My ancestors lost almost everything. And yes, they made a new home for themselves in our new country, but they never forgot. They never stopped wanting their land back. Their country back.” She sighed brokenly. “Their homeland back. I felt it was my duty to return it. I am the last of my line. If not me, then who? If not now, then when? I had to do something.”

  Alastair stared at her for so long that Leyah grew uncomfortable, then without a word, he turned and walked away.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Three months and one week later

  A lastair didn’t know why he kept going back to visit Leyah. Over and over again he tortured himself by going to the prisons and talking with her. Hearing her excuses. Hearing her tell him that she loved him over and over again. His anger had subsided now, and all that remained was his broken heart. Something he wasn’t sure would ever be fixed.