‘She is beautiful, like you,’ he said, the words thick as he placed the bundled-up child on his wife’s chest.
Exhausted but delirious, Frankie stared at her daughter, emotions welling inside her. ‘She’s so like Leo was,’ Frankie murmured, a smile on her lips, tears on her lashes. ‘The same little nose and look, your dimple,’ she said, looking up at Matthias. Her heart exploded at the sight of the big, strong King with suspiciously moist eyes of his own.
‘She is divine,’ he agreed, the words thick with feeling. ‘A princess for our people.’
‘A sister for Leo.’ Frankie grinned, stroking their baby’s dark pelt of hair. She pressed a kiss to Emilia’s forehead and then relaxed back against the bed. ‘How perfect she is.’
‘How perfect you are,’ Matthias corrected, kissing Frankie’s cheek. ‘A true warrior queen.’
* * *
Their marriage was blessed with three more children—a family of seven—and each birth was rejoiced at and celebrated by the people of Tolmirós, just as the country cheered when Leo, a young man of twenty-eight, announced his engagement to an Australian doctor. His parents were beside him when he married, and by the time Leo welcomed his first child onto this earth, Matthias’s life was so rich and full, his family so
extensive, that he loathed to think of a time when he had almost turned his back on what could have been. He remembered, of course, the instinct to push Frankie away, to close himself off to love because he had lost so much once before.
But brave warrior Queen Frankie had seen through that and she’d fought for what they were, regardless of her own fears and insecurities. And for that he loved her almost more than anything.
Fairy tales generally ended with the idea of people living happily ever after, but Matthias no longer thought about endings—he thought about each day as it came, and he lived with gratitude and peace. Come what may, he had been blessed, and blessed again—more than all the fairy tales in all the land.
* * *
If you enjoyed Shock Heir for the King by Clare Connelly you’re sure to enjoy these other Secret Heirs of Billionaires stories!
Demanding His Secret Son
by Louise Fuller
The Sheikh’s Secret Baby
by Sharon Kendrick
The Sicilian’s Secret Son
by Angela Bissell
Claimed for the Sheikh’s Shock Son
by Carol Marinelli
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Keep reading for an excerpt from Greek’s Baby of Redemption by Kate Hewitt.
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