Free The Prince's Scandalous Baby by Holly Rayner Page A

child is going to have brothers and sisters?”
     
    The King’s eyes narrowed, as though he couldn’t tell if she was serious or not.
     
    “I only said that other women have come here claiming the same. Who knows? It might be true. My son might have a whole stable full of children. Or, it might not be. You might be telling the truth, or, you might not be.”
     
    He didn’t know her. He didn’t where she was from or how she had been raised. He didn’t know how insulting he was being. Juliette tried to keep this in mind as her anger fought her sense of propriety.
     
    The King, for his part, just shrugged. “I am not an unkind man. I understand the impulse. If you are going to have a child, why not go through the men you’ve seen recently and pick the best. And my son may be a lot of things, but he is a prince. A golden opportunity. I don’t think most of the girls do it on purpose. I don’t think they are so calculating.”
     
    Something about the way he said it made Juliette feel like he was targeting her with that last phrase, but she didn’t rise to the bait. He wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t worth any of the emotions that were rocking through her body.
     
    “In any case, it does not matter. We have wealth, and privilege, and if the cost of that wealth or privilege is that whatever little flower my son feels like spending a night with wants to show up later claiming she has a souvenir, then that’s just the way it is. Paying for such a thing, whether it’s right or wrong, just makes good business sense to me.”
     
    The King held out his hand, and another servant appeared. Juliette couldn’t tell for sure if it was the same one, or another one. Her attention was drawn to the slip of paper that the man put in the King’s hand.
     
    “This is the standard amount. It is non-negotiable. We will not haggle with you. If you cash this check, you will be agreeing to certain non-disclosure contingencies.”
     
    This time there was a servant at her elbow, instead. This one was a woman. Juliette wondered if it were the same woman who had spoken to her on the phone, but it wasn’t the time to ask.
     
    The woman gave her a pen and a clipboard with papers on it. Juliette didn’t want to read it. She didn’t even want to entertain the notion.
     
    “Payment for what?” she asked hesitantly. “You want me to…”
     
    The King looked shocked. “We want you to do nothing except what is the best for you and the baby. Raise it however you wish. Tell the child its father was whoever you see fit—anyone except for the Prince.”
     
    She was angry, now, but she remembered what her anger had brought her last time she was here. She’d been foolish, and made a decision she regretted. She owed it to herself not to do the same again.
     
    She could at least read the document, she thought. It would be foolish not to. But she only got as far as the first line before she had to stop.
     
    “That’s a lot of money,” she said, her mouth left hanging open when the words had left her mouth.
     
    The corner of the King’s lip twitched, just slightly. “Maybe for you.”
     
    He didn’t need to be so snide, she thought. But she wasn’t in a position to argue.
     
    The money would mean a lot. It would change her life. Far beyond just covering the costs of raising the child, it would mean getting out of her student debt, as well as the debt she’d taken on by making this last-minute trip. It would give her a chance she could never hope to have without it. It would open up all her possibilities.
     
    But even as she let her eyes flow over the rest of the document, she couldn’t help but think of the look on the Prince’s face when he was offering her his car to go back into the city, and asking her to meet him later, once she’d calmed down. If he’d really wanted nothing to do with her, why did he go to the fountain? Why did he wait?
     
    “Does the Prince know you’re here? Does he know you’re offering me