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‘I do.’
She answered so quietly he wasn’t quite sure he’d heard her. He combed her hair back from her face with his fingers and looked into her shining eyes. Luminescent. Honest. Giving. That playfulness, that power, was emerging again.
She’d echoed her vows only a few hours ago. At the time he’d been so intent on having her it had been all he could think about. In truth, it was still mostly all he could think about.
I do.
Now those words moved him differently. This woman he barely knew was his wife. That wild idea had seemed like the best thing at the time. He’d given in to impulse as always. Duty underlay it, sure, but now an unexpected tension coiled within him.
Wife.
The ramification hit—permanence. Because this couldn’t be over in a few days. They’d have to see it through until the birth of the baby and a bit beyond that at least. Pretty much a year, minimum.
Oddly there was no panic—only a hint of regret. For her. She had no idea what he’d set her up for.
This island fantasy would end and reality would return. His reality. No prince and princess fairy tale, more a ‘scary’ tale. And he didn’t have long to prepare her for what she was going to face.
* * *
Stella silently walked barefoot along the beach and then climbed up to the palace. She showered and shrugged on the silk robe left on her bed, then went to find Eduardo.
‘Is this your favourite room?’ she asked as she explored the trinkets on the shelves in the library.
He nodded. ‘I like the view. The books. My chair.’
She chuckled. ‘Old man.’
‘Let me guess—your favourite room is the gym.’ He rolled his eyes.
‘Oh, no.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘I prefer to be outdoors.’
‘So do I—when it’s sunny and warm. So sit here.’ He gestured to a large seat. ‘At least here you can see outside.’
It was a beautiful room. At first glance she’d thought it impersonal and opulent. Now she saw the personal treasures. The old blanket on his favourite chair. It was his nest.
He took the chair beside hers. ‘When we get back to San Felipe...’ He cleared his throat. ‘They’re going to ask questions. They’re going to ask everything.’
‘They?’
‘Everyone. So tell me ten things I don’t know about you.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yes.’
She frowned. ‘I thought you knew everything from my personnel file?’
‘That’s like saying you know everything about me from the gossip magazines.’
Amused appreciation sparkled within her. ‘So you’re saying we know nothing about each other?’
‘What I know about you so far is not something I can share with reporters.’ He leaned back, wickedness oozing from his pores. ‘We need to fix that. We’re under no obligation to answer any media questions, but the public will ask and I refuse to ignore them. We need to work on some closed answers.’
‘“Closed answers”?’ she echoed with a half-laugh. ‘You’d be the expert.’
‘I mean it, Stella, we need to talk.’
He was suddenly serious. This was the side of Eduardo she knew least.
‘What do you want me to do?’ she snapped. ‘Fill in an online dating questionnaire or something?’
‘You’ve tried online dating?’ He raised an eyebrow.
‘I was twenty-four and still a virgin. Of course I looked into it.’
‘I thought you were all about the army?’ He cocked his head.
‘It was a weak moment.’
‘You were lonely?’ He sent her an unreadable look. ‘Did you go on any dates? It can be risky, meeting an online acquaintance.’
‘No riskier than having sex on the beach with a stranger,’ she pointed out.
‘You knew who I was.’ He shrugged.
‘But you didn’t know me.’
‘I’m working on it,’ He grinned shamelessly. ‘And now I know you tried online dating.’
‘I didn’t try it.’ She threw up a hand grumpily. ‘I thought about it for two minutes. Dismissed it. Because you can’t get to know someone just by interviewing them. People give you the answers they think you want to hear.’ It was actions that revealed a person. What they did or didn’t do.
‘But this is all we can do in the time we have,’ he argued. ‘They’re going to ask lots of questions.’
‘Fine. Then I’ll ask the questions they’re going to ask and you answer them. I’ll remember the answers and repeat them as necessary,’ she said practically. ‘How would we have met?’
‘On a beach,’ he answered promptly. ‘Always the truth, where possible. But it will have to be more than a few months ago. Then we met in private, at the palace. When you were supposedly meeting your father.’
Well, there was a flaw in that story already. ‘I didn’t come to the palace that often.’ About twice since her return to San Felipe.
‘That’s because Antonio was opposed to us dating. A prince is only supposed to marry a princess, or at least a lady, and you’re a soldier—’
‘Is he really that uptight?’ Stella asked curiously. Or was this as much fiction as the rest of the fairy tale Eduardo was concocting?
He briefly met her eyes, a glint of ironic amusement in his. ‘Yes. And you’re supposed to be learning about me—not my brother.’ His smile tightened and that quirk of softness disappeared into a frown. ‘And your father...how will he take it?’
‘I don’t know,’ Stella muttered.
‘You’re not close?’
‘He’s a good man.’ She avoided answering directly. ‘He wants to do what’s right. And he’s very good at his job.’
Eduardo regarded her for a moment. ‘Would you have had him escort you at our wedding?’ he asked. ‘Will he be hurt by that oversight?’
Oversight? ‘You’re only wondering about that now?’ She fiddled with her drink, running a finger around the rim of the glass.
‘There are many things of concern right now. Your relationship with your father is only one of them. Should we summon him to my apartment at the San Felipe palace? We can meet him there before seeing Antonio.’
‘No.’ She didn’t want to deal with her father yet, and she certainly didn’t want to give orders to him. That was his world and no longer hers. If he wanted to know how she was he’d have to step out of service mode.
Neither of those things he ever did.
The truth was she had no real relationship with her father. She’d always disappointed him and he’d dismissed her—in every way possible. There was nothing more she could do.
‘Will he back up our story?’
Stella looked up at Eduardo’s quiet question, realised he was watching her closely, a frown knitting his eyebrows. She pasted on a cynical smile. ‘He would never comment to the media or anyone. He’s utterly dutiful.’ He’d act the part because he always followed the rules and kept up appearances. ‘My father is the perfect emotionless soldier, doing what’s best for the greater good.’
He sacrificed the personal in order to serve the Crown Prince. Every. Time.
‘Is he why you were so determined to succeed in the army?’ Eduardo stood up from his chair and paced to the wide windows, looking out at the sunset.
‘Of course.’ She shrugged and sent her husband a sharp look. ‘I’ve spent my life trying to please him.’
He turned his back to the window and looked down at her. ‘Sarcasm doesn’t suit you. Anyway, some of what you say is the truth.’
It was. But it wasn’t the only truth. ‘I loved my job. I wouldn’t have stuck at it so long if I hadn’t.’ She’d loved the freedom and the strength she got from it. She missed it. ‘My father was almost fifty when I was born. When my mother died he grieved long and hard, and he was left with a child he had no idea how to raise.’ She sighed, suddenly tired. ‘He did the best he could.’
He was still her father. She would always defend him. Because even though his distance and disappointment hurt her she still loved him.
‘He sent you away?’ Eduardo said softly.
Stella frowned. It wasn’t that simple. ‘He ensured that I had an excellent education and that I came to know my mother’s country. That I was well cared for.’
‘By boarding school matrons?’
‘They understood the needs of a young girl better than he ever could.’ She nodded.
‘But you came back? To prove yourself in his world?’ he persisted.
She paused.
‘Because you wanted his approval.’ Eduardo stepped towards her and lifted her chin, forcing her to look into his beautiful eyes.
‘That’s only part of it,’ she whispered, hating this analysis. Life was so much more complicated than he made it sound. ‘I’m not that pathetic.’
‘It’s not pathetic. It’s normal,’ he countered. ‘All children crave the love and approval of their parents.’
‘Did you?’
‘Of course,’ he said simply. ‘My parents were very proper, and it was all just how it always was...but they were there. They loved us both.’
‘And then they died.’ She looked at him, guessing that was a deep-running wound—as it was for her. It was one she could barely think about.
He nodded.
‘You’re not close to Antonio?’
He paused, and she could almost feel him withdrawing. ‘He is very busy. I’m the lucky one. All the weight rests on his shoulders.’
‘Maybe you’re not as carefree as you make yourself out to be.’ She studied him. ‘You couldn’t continue with law...’
He waved his hand dismissively. ‘There are limitations on everyone—many others have worse. Some face huge struggles just to get the right to go to school.’
Yes, but that didn’t necessarily reduce his personal regret or resentment. ‘What else would you have liked to do that you couldn’t?’ she asked.
There was another hesitation. Then he suddenly straightened, looking her in the eye. ‘Your father wouldn’t let me serve in the army. Not on active duty.’
That surprised her. ‘You wanted to be a soldier?’ She knew just how that was—that blanket refusal.
‘Trained for two years. Then they said no to anything overseas.’
‘They?’
‘Your father. My big brother.’
So, no to his first choice of career, limitations in the second. Now he spent his time opening new tourist destinations.
‘Are you feeling sorry for me now? The spare heir, living a meaningless, untameable life? Poor Prince Eduardo!’ He mimicked the headlines that were frequently splashed over glossy magazines.
‘Sarcasm doesn’t suit you either,’ she said. ‘And there’s truth in what you say.’
‘So I am meaningless and untameable?’ He laughed at her expression. ‘I’m luckier than so many. And I accept the things I cannot change.’
‘Have you ever tried to change them?’ she asked. ‘Ever tried to do what everyone says you can’t? Thought, To hell with it... I’ll show you?’
He placed both hands on the arms of her chair and leaned down to gaze into her eyes. A funny smile quirked his lips. ‘Perhaps I am not as brave as you.’
‘Perhaps you’ve not found anything you’re that passionate about yet.’ If he’d really wanted to do it, wouldn’t he have fought harder?
‘You see?’ He released her chair and straightened, reverted back to Prince Charming mode. ‘We’re getting to know each other already.’
Not enough. She’d always known he felt some constraint in his role—now she wanted to understand more.
‘Why did we have Matteo and Giulia as our witnesses?’ she asked.
‘Because they’re the two people I trust most in the world.’ He glanced back at her. ‘And I don’t think the newspapers are going to ask us that question.’
‘Why not your brother?’ She ignored his attempt at deflection. She wanted to know more about their relationship, because while Eduardo had hinted at disharmony he was unquestionably loyal.
For a moment he said nothing. ‘Not for this, no.’ He turned and shot her a distracting smile, held his hand up as if he were holding a microphone. ‘What was it that first drew you to Prince Eduardo?’
Yes, he was very loyal. The fact that he wouldn’t discuss Antonio with her drew respect. So she let herself be distracted and smiled back archly. ‘You’re just fishing for compliments.’
‘You’re going to be asked that question a lot.’
‘No.’ She laughed ruefully. ‘I’m not. It’ll be you being asked what you saw in me.’
‘Your ego is as hungry as mine!’ He held his hand out to her and winked. ‘Come sit with me and I’ll tell you everything.’
But when she stood he stood too, then picked her up and carried her to his bedroom.
* * *
At five the next morning Stella didn’t want to drag herself out of bed, but if she didn’t she’d lose more than her inhibitions in Eduardo’s arms. She’d never felt so wanted, so desired. But aside from sex there was nothing between them. Even the desire couldn’t be as strong for him, because if she hadn’t got pregnant she’d never have seen him again.
This wasn’t real and it wasn’t going to last. Just because he was showing her one kind of affection it didn’t mean it would become more.
Carefully she slipped out from under his heavy arm and dashed to her bag.
She wasn’t afraid of many things—not of travelling to foreign places nor suffering intense physical strain. But what Eduardo made her feel... Sure, it might be easy—but it was still too good. She didn’t want to want it too much, because it wasn’t lasting.
‘What are you doing?’ His voice was arctic.
‘What does it look like?’ She fastened her bra and reached for her trainers.
‘You have a problem—you know that?’ He groaned and rolled onto his side.
‘I like a routine. You’ll get used to it.’
She averted her eyes from his tousled gorgeousness. The urge to slide back into bed was almost irresistible. But she could resist it—that was the point of this run. To prove to herself that she could control her own desire. She could have him. Or she could choose not to.
To her slight surprise—and disappointment—he didn’t try to stop her. Instead he reached for his phone.
She headed for the track.
Yes, soon enough Eduardo would be busy being Prince Eduardo, and when he was sick of the sex she’d have to settle in to her new life as his ex-wife and mother of his child.
She ran the circuit of the small island three times.
He was waiting for her on the step when she returned. He ordered her into the shower. Followed her there. His playfulness made her forget the future and unleashed her own friskiness again. She leaned into his touch.
She’d proved herself, right? She could turn her back and take time out from him whenever she wanted. She could say no to him.
She just didn’t want to right now.
CHAPTER TEN
EDUARDO WALKED TOWARDS where Stella was reading on the sofa in the library. The level of scrutiny she would soon face would be unprecedented. He wished he could keep her here, but already there had been calls and questions from San Felipe palace officials. Eduardo couldn’t hold them off much longer.
He’d thought she would open up more, but it turned out that his wife was reticent as he. She talked about books, movies, food and places she’d travelled to; she had wild, gorgeous sex with him, but she offered little detail on anything too personal.
And now he didn’t just need to know more—he wanted to.
‘What do you do for fun?’ He wrapped his arm around her ankles and lifted her legs so he could steal in beside her on the sofa. ‘Or what did you do before I introduced you to the delights of rampant lust?’
‘Very funny.’
‘Well? What?’ Chuckling, he massaged her sleek calves. ‘What did you do when you were on leave? Don’t tell me you just went for runs all the time?’
Beneath his hands her muscles stiffened. ‘I like running.’
Clearly. She’d left him in bed at some awful hour this morning and gone for her laps around the island. Her discipline and determination irritated him. And turned him on.
‘What else do you like?’
‘Working. I like my job.’
‘Okay, let’s do this another way.’ He stopped touching her—it was the only way he could keep thinking. ‘What if for the next twenty-four hours we could go anywhere and do anything? Tell me—where do we go and what do we do?’
She just looked at him.
‘Broadway, New York...?’ he suggested with a waggle of his eyebrows. ‘A shopping spree in Paris and all the rides at Disneyland...? Give me a destination and I can make it happen.’
‘You’re talking hypothetically?’
‘No. If you want to go to LA we can go to LA. The jet is on standby.’
Her eyebrows arched. ‘Just like that?’
‘Yes.’ He shrugged, a little embarrassed by her amazement. ‘So, what do you want to do?’
She glanced out of the window and down the length of the small coast. ‘I like the privacy here.’
He was pleased that she loved the island. ‘So do I.’ He studied her, wishing like hell that he could see into her mind. ‘How about we do something I think is fun?’
She turned back and sent him an arch, ultra-sarcastic look. ‘Haven’t we been doing that day and night?’
Yes, and it still wasn’t enough. But the public’s appetite for information on her was going to be voracious. He had to prepare them both.
‘You think that’s the only kind of fun I know how to have?’
Her chin lifted at the challenge in his voice and her eyes gleamed. ‘Okay, then—show me Prince Eduardo–style fun.’
‘As my Princess wishes...’ He inclined his head, mocking her formal address.
‘I’m not a princess,’ she muttered.
‘To me you are.’ He leaned forward and kissed her, delighting in the shiver that shook her.
‘You’re a silver-tongued pirate,’ she breathed, but she kissed him back.
He broke away before his plans went awry. ‘There was me, thinking you liked what I do with my tongue.’
‘Still so arrogant.’ Her eyes gleamed like stunning, sleepy sapphires.
‘And you like it.’ But he wasn’t letting her derail him with her wiles. Not this time.
Half an hour later he led her down a small boat ramp and handed her a life jacket from the pile of gear his aides had left for them.
Stella had already spotted the yacht.
‘What kind of boat is that?’ She looked at the small, sleek beauty, roped to the moorings.
‘She’s a Tempest. She’s vintage. Even starred in a few regattas a while back. Her name is Miranda.’ He laughed at his own silly pride.
‘Of course it is.’ Stella leaned out and peered onto the deck. ‘But we’re not going to get shipwrecked, right?’
‘Not unless you steer us onto the rocks.’ He fastened his jacket, amused that she’d got the Shakespeare reference.
‘You usually sail it alone?’
‘Yes, but it’s a two-crew vessel. You up for it?’ He didn’t know why he’d bothered asking—she’d already stepped on board. ‘You’ve sailed before?’
She shook her head. ‘Kayaked, rowed, but never sailed.’
‘Then let’s do it.’
She was a natural athlete and a quick learner, and it wasn’t long before she was anticipating his instructions and they were working as a team. Her physicality matched his, and he pushed her more than he’d planned to. The yacht skimmed over the water. Time flew, as it always did for him when he was sailing.
‘You love it, don’t you?’ She turned to look at him, breaking the silence.
‘Yes.’ He couldn’t tear his gaze from her. She was radiant. Soft when it counted, strong when she needed to be. And so into it.
‘I feel like this when I’m running.’ She glanced up at the sails.
‘Like what?’
‘Free. Powerful.’
And she didn’t feel like that the rest of the time? She should. She was amazingly powerful.
‘And at the mercy of the elements,’ she added with a laugh as a spray of water got her.
‘You’ve not had enough?’ he asked. ‘Not feeling seasick at all?’
‘No,’ she answered swiftly.
‘And no morning sickness?’
‘No.’ Something flashed on her face as she shut down the pregnancy talk.
‘You must do something other than running for fun?’ he asked, trying to remain relaxed. But her self-containment was irritating the hell out of him.
‘I do lots,’ she said. ‘Anything outdoors—walking, cycling—’
‘Sex on the beach...’ he interpolated.
‘That too, yes.’ She owned it with a glint in her eye.
‘So why me? Why not some guy in your battalion?’ His body thrummed. ‘Why did you wait so long and then say yes so quickly?’
‘This was your ploy? To take me miles out into the ocean and launch twenty questions at me?’
He let silence do its thing.
She gripped a rope more tightly. ‘Why should I tell you all my secrets when you won’t tell me yours?’
Did she think this was some game of chicken? Couldn’t she understand he was trying to help her?
‘What do you want to know?’ he demanded. ‘Ask me anything.’
‘What is it that you don’t want to tell me?’
She didn’t shout. She just asked softly—all wide eyes and petite strength. And she got to him in a way no one else ever had.
‘You really know how to torture a man.’
And she really knew how to challenge him.
She frowned. ‘Tell me the worst thing you’ve ever done, aside from getting me pregnant.’
‘That’s not the worst thing I’ve ever done,’ he snapped. ‘We’re growing a baby. That’s amazing.’
Her cheeks lost colour. ‘Well, what can you tell me that would make me like you less?’
‘So you like me?’
‘That would make me want you less.’
At that admission something broke within him. He wanted to know her thoughts. Because what she thought suddenly mattered.
‘I let my brother down,’ he said bluntly. ‘Many times. Too impulsive...too unreliable. Too hot-headed—’
‘You’re not that bad,’ she interrupted. ‘You’re just under greater scrutiny than most. Everyone screws up.’
‘Not the way I have.’ Soft words tumbled from him. The culmination of hurt and guilt and desperation to stop his mistakes spiralling into a mess meant he couldn’t hold back. ‘I was studying in England when our parents were killed.’
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything at his change in tone.
Eduardo couldn’t look at her any more, so he looked across the blinding blue water instead.
‘Antonio needed to concentrate on his coronation. I wanted to return home to help, but he refused. He said it would be better for me to stay studying abroad while he handled it. He didn’t want to have to worry about me.’
He glanced at her when she made a small sound and shook his head at the pity he read in her eyes.
‘Matteo was with me. I wasn’t alone. Not the way Antonio was. His girlfriend, Alessia, was already studying at Cambridge when I got there. They’d been secretly engaged since school. He wouldn’t let her come home either. He delayed announcing their engagement. He didn’t think it right to celebrate so soon after our parents’ death.’
‘I know about Alessia,’ Stella said softly.
Everyone knew about Alessia now. And that was Eduardo’s fault.
‘What is it that you know,’ he asked bitterly. ‘That she got sick? That Antonio buried his heart with her when she died?’ The old guilt and helplessness surged inside him. ‘Do you know why you know all that?’
Stella waited silently. And, stupidly, that made him madder.
‘Alessia hadn’t told Antonio how bad it was because she didn’t want to bother him at such a difficult time. She swore me to secrecy and I promised her I wouldn’t tell him.’
‘You cared about her?’
‘She was the big sister I’d never had.’ He nodded. ‘The one person who made Antonio smile. He was always serious, always burdened, but she brought him joy. And he pushed her away. I was so angry with him.’
He hadn’t been able to understand why Antonio had kept her at a distance, and he’d been angry when his brother had pushed him away too. Because he’d been too young, too impulsive, not really necessary—which was pretty much the sum total of his life. ‘Special’ but not needed.
‘I didn’t tell him and I should have. I should have made him come and see her.’
Stella frowned. ‘What happened?’
He regretted this already. But he saw the look in Stella’s eyes and the words fell from him anyway. ‘I was dating a girl from my law class. She saw me with Alessia and was jealous. I told her the truth—that Alessia was Antonio’s fiancée and that she was sick, and that was why I was visiting her. But I hadn’t realised just how sick Alessia was. And then Antonio learned that his fiancée was dying through the media.’