PRINCE DARIUS MARTEN CONSTANTIJN of the Royal House of Ambria, presently deposed and clandestinely living under the name of David Dykstra, was not a heavy sleeper. Ordinarily the slightest unusual sound would have sent him slipping silently through his luxury penthouse apartment with a lethal weapon in hand, ready to defend his privacyâand his life.
The sense that his life might be under threat was not outrageous. Since he was a member of an overthrown monarchy, his very existence was a constant challenge to the thuglike regime that now controlled his country. And as such, he had to consider himself in constant jeopardy.
But tonight the instinct to defend his territory had been muted a bit. Heâd hosted a cocktail party for fifteen rowdy London socialites and theyâd all stayed much too long. That had a consequence he didnât suffer from often anymore, but its effects were not unfamiliar to him. Heâd had too much to drink.
So when he heard the baby cry, he thought at first that he must be hallucinating.
âBabies,â he muttered to himself, waiting to make sure the room had stopped spinning before he risked opening his eyes. âWhy canât they keep their problems to themselves?â
The crying stopped abruptly, but by now he was fully awake. He listened, hard. It had to have been be a dream. There was no baby here. There couldnât be. This was an adult building. He was sure of it.
âNo babies allowed,â he murmured, closing his eyes and starting to drift back to sleep. âVerboten.â
But his eyes shot open as he heard the little rule breaker again. This time it was just a whimper, but it was for real. No dream.
Still, in his groggy state, it took time to put all the pieces of this mystery together. And it still didnât make sense. There was no way a baby could be in his apartment. If one of his evening guests had brought one along, surely he would have noticed. And if this same ill-mannered person had left that baby behind in the coat room, wouldnât they have come back for it by now?
He tried to shrug the whole thing off and return to peaceful slumber, but by now, that was impossible. His mind was just awake enough to go into worry mode. Heâd never go back to sleep until he was sure he was in a baby-free abode.
He groaned, then rolled out of bed, pulled on a pair of jeans he found in a pile on his chair and began to stalk quietly through his set of rooms, checking one after another and wondering grumpily why heâd leased a place with so many rooms, anyway. The living room was littered with cocktail napkins and empty crystal wine goblets. Heâd sent the catering crew home at midnightâa mistake, he now realized. But who knew his party guests would stay until almost 3:00 a.m? Never mind, the cleaning lady would arrive in just a few hours and make everything clean and sparkling again.
âNo more parties,â he promised himself as he turned back to his search, kicking a long feather boa someone had left behind out of the way. âIâll just go to shindigs at other peopleâs homes. I can still maintain my information sources and let others deal with the hassle.â
But for now he had an apartment to search before he could get back to bed. He trudged on.
And then he found the baby.
It was asleep when he first saw it. He opened the door to his seldom-used media room and there it was, tucked into a drawer that was serving as a makeshift crib. The little mouth was open, the little round cheeks puffing a bit with each breath. It looked like a cute kid, but heâd never seen it before in his life.
As he watched, it gave an involuntary jump, its chubby little arms lurching upward, then falling slowly back again. But it didnât wake. Dressed in a pink stretch jumper that looked a little rumpled and a lot spit up on, the child seemed comfortable enough for now. Sleeping babies werenât so bad. But he knew very well what happened when they woke up and he shuddered to think of it.
It was pretty annoying, finding an uninvited baby in your home and it was pretty obvious who was to blameâthe long, leggy blonde draped rather gracelessly across his cantilevered couch. Heâd never seen her before, either.
âWhat in blazes is going on here?â he said softly.
Neither of them stirred, but he hadnât meant to wake them yet. He needed another moment or two to take in this situation, analyze it and make some clear-headed decisions. All his instincts for survival were coming alert. He was fairly certain that this was no ordinary sleepover heâd been saddled with. This must have something to do with his royal past with its messy rebellion history and his precariously uncertain future.