Mum's The Word!

“You are marrying me because of my diplomacy and public image.”

“In part.” Gabriel turned over her hand and set the box on her palm. “I’m also marrying you because of your impeccable breeding and the fact that ever since the day I met you, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

Stunned by his admission, she stared at Gabriel’s gift, knowing no expensive bauble could compare to the gift of knowing he was smitten with her. “That’s lovely of you to say.”

“Now back to the bracelet. Do you know where it came from?”

His question confused her. “From you.”

He shook his head. “This is what I selected for you.”

“Then where did the bracelet come from?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

Relief swept through her. “Then you didn’t give me Marissa’s bracelet.”

“No.” He gave her a stern look. “And I’m a little bothered by the fact that you think I’d be so cruel.”

Olivia opened her mouth but had no ready response. Since dancing with him at the Independence Day gala she’d become foolish and irrational where he was concerned. With her hormones overstimulated and her emotions swinging from one extreme to the other, she shouldn’t be surprised her brain was producing nothing but gibberish.

“Someone in the palace with access to my room played a cruel joke on me.”

“Whoever it is, I don’t think they are playing. This is a very serious breach in security. One that I will address.” The determination in his voice matched the steel in his expression. After a second his gaze softened. “Please open my gift.”

Olivia did as she was told.

Unlike the previous evening’s trendy, emerald bracelet, this necklace was exactly something she would have chosen for herself. Olivia touched her fingertip to the large teardrop-shaped aquamarine, set into a frame of diamond-lined branches and suspended from a chain of faceted aquamarine beads and diamond-encrusted platinum balls. Gabriel had picked out the perfect, unique gift.

“The necklace belonged to my great-aunt Ginnie. Her husband gave it to her as an engagement present. I believe it came from his mother who received it as her engagement present.”

“I love it.” And she did. More than any million-dollar diamond necklace he could have found in the treasury. It represented tradition and love. And it demonstrated a sentimental side she would never have guessed Gabriel possessed. Feeling bold, she picked up the necklace and sat down on her fiancé’s lap. “Can you help me put it on?”

She lifted her hair off her neck and held still while his knuckles brushed her nape. The casual touch sent shivers spiraling along her nerve endings. As the drop settled against her skin, she turned and planted a sweet kiss on Gabriel’s cheek.

“Is that the best you can do?” he questioned, laughter in his voice.

Veiling her eyes with her lashes, she peered at him. “If I do much better we run the risk of not leaving this room in time to take Bethany and Karina for their first ride.”

His response was to capture her lips in a sizzling kiss. Olivia sagged against him, surrendering to the firestorm of desire that had not burned out even after last night’s lovemaking. She groaned beneath his lips as his hand found her breast, thumb coaxing her nipple to a hard point.

With a low growl, he broke off the kiss. “Perhaps you were right to be cautious.” And with that, he stood with her in his arms and carried her to the bed.

* * *

In the end, they were in time to watch the twins circle the ring on the docile, well-mannered ponies, each led by an attentive groom. Although both were equally delighted by the ride, their individual personalities shone through. Bethany chattered incessantly as she rode, her every thought voiced. Karina was more circumspect and her seat was more natural. Of the two, Gabriel suspected she’d be the better rider.

Soon the twins’ first riding lesson was done, leaving Gabriel free to turn his thoughts to the woman beside him and all that had transpired in the past twelve hours.

Since discovering last night how swiftly Olivia became aroused, he’d taken full advantage of her ardent responses and made love to her with fierce passion. Already his lust for her was dangerously close to uncontrollable. Telling himself making love to Olivia was a novelty that would soon wear off wasn’t cooling his ardor one bit. Even now, as he watched her smile as her gaze followed the twins, he felt heat rise in his blood.

It shocked him to realize that he’d happily forgo the rest of his appointments to spend the time alone with Olivia in her suite. This was how he’d been with Marissa. Preoccupied. Distracted. Obsessed.

Then again, it was early in their relationship. The time of exploration when all things were fascinating and new. Their lust would eventually burn itself out and they could settle into companionable monotony. But even as he entertained this possibility his instincts rejected it. More than his blood hummed when she was near. This was a feeling he’d never known before. Besides being beautiful, Olivia was intelligent and caring. He’d been right the first time he’d pronounced her perfect. But he’d underestimated how deep that flawlessness went.

“Gabriel?” Olivia said, returning him to the here and now. “I was just explaining to Bethany and Karina that we can’t have dinner with them tonight.”

“Because we are...” He had no idea what was scheduled that evening. How was that possible? He usually knew his itinerary backward and forward.

“Going to the ballet,” Olivia prompted.

“That’s it.” He smiled at her.

“But perhaps we could visit before we leave to read you one quick bedtime story.”

“That we can do.”

The twins’ chorus of happiness sent a bird winging off through the trees from a few feet away.

“I think it’s time to head back to the palace,” Olivia said, shaking her head as the girls began to protest. “Your father has work to do.”

Gabriel was impressed how well she managed the toddlers. The twins were darling but rambunctious. Marissa had done a fine job of blending discipline with love for they seemed to take direction well and had none of the fits of temper he had grown accustomed to with their mother. Despite losing Marissa recently, they were adjusting nicely to life in the palace. Of course, they had each other, something he could relate to with two brothers of his own. Sometimes it had seemed as if it was him, Nic and Christian against the world when in truth it was probably more reasonable to say it had been the three of them against their parents.

After leaving the twins in the hands of two young maids, Gabriel walked Olivia to her meeting with the wedding planner and bussed her cheek in a chaste kiss goodbye. He had fifteen minutes before his first meeting of the day and went in search of Christian.

His brother was nowhere near the palace. Christian had an office in the city that he usually preferred to work out of, claiming fewer distractions. Gabriel suspected he liked working without the king’s or queen’s “subtle” influence. With two brothers ahead of him for the throne, Christian had always enjoyed a lot of freedom. So had Nic. The middle brother didn’t even live in Sherdana. He’d gotten his education in the States and resided in California while he pursued his dream of privatizing space travel.

Gabriel envied them both.

And he wouldn’t trade places with, either. He’d been born to rule and had never wished to do anything else. But being king came with a price. He belonged to the people of Sherdana and owed it to them to do what was best for the country, even at the expense of his own desires. Breaking off his relationship with Marissa was only one of many sacrifices he’d made for Sherdana, but it had been his hardest and most painful.

It was why he was marrying a woman he admired instead of one he loved. And yet, hadn’t last night and this morning proved that life with Olivia at his side would be the furthest thing from hardship?

Grinning, Gabriel headed into his father’s office where the energy minister had come for a briefing.

* * *

Olivia yawned behind her hand as she surveyed Noelle’s drawings for the twins’ dresses for the wedding. It was almost midnight. She’d just returned from another event, this one raising money for an arts program for underprivileged children.

She wasn’t insensible to the irony that what she intended to pay for these two dresses could probably fund the program for a year.

Behind her the door to her suite opened and closed. Her skin prickled in anticipation as muted footsteps advanced toward her. The faint scent of Gabriel’s aftershave tickled her nose a second before his hands soothed along her shoulders.

“Waiting up for me?”

Gabriel placed a kiss on her neck, his lips sliding into a particularly sensitive spot that made her tremble.

Was it possible that less than a week ago their every private encounter had been stilted and awkward? Now she spent her days as a tightly wound spring of sexual anticipation and her nights in Gabriel’s arms soaring toward the stars.

“Of course,” she answered, setting aside the sketches and getting to her feet. She’d already dressed for bed in her favorite silk pajamas. They covered her from neck to toe. Not exactly seductive, but Gabriel never seemed to care.

“I’m leaving early in the morning,” he explained, pulling her into his arms and dropping a sweet kiss on her lips. “And I will be gone for four days. I wanted a private moment with you before I left.”

Four long days. And nights. She’d gotten accustomed to cuddling against his side, her cheek on his bare chest, his heartbeat lulling her to sleep.

She adored his intensity—making love with Gabriel was like being consumed by the sun—but these moments of stillness had their own rewards.

“Just a moment?” She tipped her head to grant him better access to her neck and ran her nails along his nape the way he liked.

“Did I mention I’m leaving very early in the morning?” Tender mockery filled his voice. He nudged his hips into her, letting her feel his erection. She smiled, no less turned on despite wanting to do nothing more than stretch out on her mattress and sleep for twelve hours.

“Of course,” she murmured. “I just thought that perhaps you could give me a few minutes to say goodbye properly.”

“Just a few minutes?”

Olivia’s bones turned to water as he drew his tongue along her lower lip, tasting, but not taking. With his hands warm and strong on her lower back, she leaned into his powerful chest and savored the tantalizing slide of his mouth against hers.

“Take as many as you need.”

She’d grown accustomed to sharing her bed with him and hated the thought of sleeping alone these next four nights. Every morning, after he woke her with kisses and made love to her in the soft light before day, she fell back to sleep wondering if once they were married, once she became pregnant, if he would share her bed every night. She already knew that a suite of rooms was being prepared for them in the family wing. They would each have their own space. Their own beds after the wedding. That wasn’t what she wanted.

Olivia wasn’t surprised when Gabriel swept her off her feet and carried her to the bed. The chemistry between them had skyrocketed in the days since they’d first made love. With their clothes scattered across the mattress, Olivia clutched at Gabriel as he brought her to orgasm twice before sliding into her. Being filled by him was a pleasure all its own and Olivia wrapped her thighs around his hips and held him close while he thrust into her.

He stayed for several hours, his large hands moving with such gentleness up and down her spine. Snuggled against his chest, with their legs intertwined, Olivia let herself drift. When she awoke several hours later, Gabriel was gone and she was already lonely.

Exhausted, but restless, Olivia left the bed and slipped into a robe. Her suite faced the gardens behind the palace so she had no hope of catching a final glimpse of Gabriel, but she opened the French door that led to the terrace and wandered across to the railing. At night the garden was lit up like a magical fairy tale, but dawn was approaching and the garden had gone dark. A cool breeze carried the scent of roses to her. Olivia leaned her arms on the cool stone. Vivid in her thoughts was the night Gabriel had found her out here and demonstrated that resisting him was a pointless exercise.

And now she knew it had been all along. When she’d agreed to marry him, she’d fooled herself into believing that sexual desire and mild affection would make her happy. After several nights in his arms she’d completely fallen under his spell. It was as if all her life she’d been moving toward this man and this moment.

Recognizing that her motivation for marrying Gabriel had changed, she had to ask herself if she was no longer concerned whether one day she’d become a queen...what did she really want?

Love.

The thought made her knees weak. Olivia braced herself against the stone railing. Deflated, she stared at her hands. At the engagement ring sparkling on her finger.

She couldn’t be falling in love with Gabriel. He certainly wasn’t falling in love with her.

This was an arranged marriage. A practical union for the good of his country. A sensible bargain that would lead to stability and children. She hadn’t expected to fall madly in love with her husband or be deliriously happy. She expected to be content. To feel fulfilled as a mother and someday as a queen.

Sexual satisfaction hadn’t entered into her plans—not until Gabriel had kissed her.

Olivia turned away from the softly lit garden and returned to her suite. As she closed and locked the glass door, her gaze fell on her desk and the locked drawer where she’d placed copies of important paperwork, including a file with some of her medical information. Had those scratches always marred the lock’s brass surface? The idea that someone in the palace could have tried to break into her desk was ridiculous. And then she recalled the night the twins arrived. There’d been a maid at her dresser in the middle of the night. When nothing was missing she’d seen no reason to pursue it.

A few hours later, when Libby entered the suite, Olivia was still seated at the desk. She’d opened the locked drawer and hadn’t found anything disturbed, but with the twins’ arrival at the palace having been leaked to the press and the mysterious appearance of Marissa’s bracelet, Olivia had checked each page of her thick file to make sure it was intact.

“Why are you looking through your papers?”

“I might be mistaken, but I thought I spotted fresh scratches on the lock and wanted to make sure my medical file hadn’t been rifled.” Olivia glanced up when Libby didn’t immediately comment. “What’s wrong?”

“Prince Christian is systematically interviewing the staff about the leaks to the press.”

A chill chased across Olivia’s skin. “He thinks someone inside the palace is providing information?” She remembered the photos of Gabriel and Marissa. Those hadn’t been paparazzi shots. They had been taken among friends.

Olivia touched the lock again, wishing she could determine if the scratches were recent. If someone had gotten their hands on her medical records it could have catastrophic results. “Keep me updated on the investigation,” she said, “and see if you can find a more secure place for these.”

* * *

Gabriel was having a hard time keeping his mind on today’s biotech plant tour. For the past several days he’d been touring manufacturing plants in Switzerland and Belgium in search of other businesses that would be interested in moving their operations to Sherdana. He probably should have sent Christian to do this. His brother had made a significant amount of money investing in up-and-coming technology. Christian would have been interested in the product lines and the way the manufacturing facilities were organized. Gabriel was finding it as dry as overdone toast.

That’s probably how both his brothers felt about what went into the running of the country. These days, they had little in common. It often amazed Gabriel that three people could share a womb for nine months, communicate among themselves in their own language until they were teenagers and participate in a thousand childhood adventures together yet be so completely different in their talents and interests as they entered their twenties.

Nevertheless, this trip couldn’t have come at a better time. The past few nights with Olivia had been some of the most passion-filled of his life. She’d slipped effortlessly beneath his defenses with her eager sensuality and curious nature. He’d become obsessed with the soft drag of her lips across his skin and the wicked suggestions she whispered in his ear as he entered her.

His constant craving for her company warned him he was fast losing touch with why he was marrying her. Cool, sophisticated elegance and a warm heart. Not feverish kisses and blazing orgasms.

Gabriel cleared his throat and tugged at his collar as the head of the factory droned on. He definitely needed some space from her. Unfortunately, the distance wasn’t having the effect he’d hoped for. Being apart was supposed to cool him off. That was what he’d anticipated, but that wasn’t the result.

He daydreamed about her at the oddest moments. Him. Daydreaming. Like some infatuated fool. He’d never expected her to preoccupy him in this way. She was supposed to be a sensible mate, an able partner in governing the country, not a hellcat in bed.

Hope.

The tattoo drove him crazy. Its placement. Its message.

It awakened him to possibilities. He wanted to throw sensible out the window and take chances. Because of Olivia he wanted to shake up the established way of doing things. She’d awakened his restless spirit that he’d believed he’d conquered after ending things with Marissa.

Every day he was finding out that Olivia was more than he’d expected.

And he’d be a fool not to worry about the power she now had over him. Yet he was helpless to stop what was developing between them. The best he could hope for was to slow things down until he shaped the relationship into something he was comfortable with.

But was comfortable going to make him happy in the long run? Was he really going to shortchange his future all for the sake of feeling safe and in control?

* * *

A few days after Gabriel left on his trip, Olivia was scheduled to have a private lunch with the queen. Ten minutes before the appointment, she slipped pearl earrings into place and stepped in front of the mirror to assess her appearance. She’d chosen a sleeveless pink dress edged in white with a narrow white belt to highlight her waist, and accessorized with a pair of floral pumps. The feminine ensemble required a soft hairstyle so she’d left her hair down and coaxed out the natural wave with a light blowout.

This morning she’d awakened to some discomfort in her lower abdomen and wasn’t feeling on top of her game, but wasn’t about to cancel on the queen.

Drawing a fortifying breath, she entered the private dining room that only the immediate royal family used. Pale blue had been chosen for the chairs as well as the curtains framing the large windows. It was the only splash of color in a room otherwise dominated by white walls and lavish plasterwork painted gold. More intimate than many of the other rooms on the first floor, it nevertheless didn’t allow her to forget that this was a palace.

“You look lovely,” the queen said as she breezed into the room. She wore a classic suit of dusty lavender and a stunning choker of pale round Tahitian pearls. Noticing Olivia’s interest, she touched the necklace. “An anniversary gift from the king,” the queen explained, her smile both fond and sensual.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Matteo has exceptionally good taste.”

The queen gestured toward the dining table, capable of seating twelve, but set for two. As the two women sat down, a maid set a glass of soda on the table before the queen.

“Diet cola,” she, sipping the fizzy drink with pleasure. “I got a taste for it when we visited the States two decades ago. It’s my indulgence.”

Olivia nodded in understanding. She wasn’t much of a soda drinker herself, but she understood how someone could come to crave a particular item. Like a tall, bronze-eyed prince for example.

The servers placed plates of salad in front of the two women and the queen launched a barrage of questions to determine what Olivia knew about Sherdana’s current political climate and their economic issues. Although Olivia had been expecting to discuss the wedding preparations, she was just as happy to share what she knew about the country she would soon call her own.

“Does my son know how bright you are?” the queen asked, her expression thoughtful as the maids cleared the main course and served dessert. She frowned at the plate in front of her and sighed. “Oh, dear. The chef is experimenting again.”

Olivia stared at the oddest fruit she’d ever seen. About the size of her fist with a leathery hot-pink skin, it had been sliced in half to reveal white flesh dotted with tiny black seeds. A hollow had been carved out of the center and filled with yogurt and sliced strawberries.

“Dragon fruit,” the queen explained. “And from what I understand quite delicious.”

Olivia took her first bite and was surprised at the wonderfully sweet flavor. It had a texture like a kiwi with the seeds adding a little crunch to each bite.

“You look pale.” The queen pointed at Olivia with her spoon. “I expect you’ll get more rest with my son away.”

Olivia’s entire body flushed hot. The queen had just insinuated that she knew where Gabriel had been spending his nights.

“Oh, don’t look so mortified,” the queen continued. “You are to be married and my son was determined to have a short engagement. Besides, there are no secrets in the palace.”

“No, I suppose there are not.” Olivia knew better than to think her nights with Gabriel were something between just the two of them. She’d grown up surrounded by servants who knew most everything about her daily habits.

“How are the twins’ dresses coming for the wedding?” The queen had taken a few days to approve the idea of Bethany and Karina being a part of the ceremony, but Gabriel had at last persuaded her.

“They should be finished later this week. The lace Noelle has chosen is beautiful. I think you’ll be pleased.”

“Noelle is very talented. You will all look beautiful.” The queen nodded in satisfaction. “I must say, you’ve accepted this situation with Gabriel’s children much better than most women would in your position.”

“It’s hard to imagine anyone not adoring those precious two,” Olivia admitted, but she understood what the queen was getting at. “I love children. Helping to make their lives better is the foundation for all my charity work. I would be a wretched person and a hypocrite if I turned my back on Bethany and Karina because of who their mother was.” And what Marissa had meant to Gabriel.

“They certainly have taken to you,” the queen said. “And you seem to have everything it takes to be an excellent mother.”

“Thank you.”

The queen’s praise should have allowed Olivia to relax, but the tick of her biological clock sounded loud in her ears.

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