Marrying His Majesty

CHAPTER FIVE

FOR a moment he thought she’d faint. The colour bleached from her face. She stared at him in incredulity. Instinctively his hands caught Michales and held.

She was so stunned she let her baby go. He stood, holding his son. Not sure how to hold him. Not sure where to go from here.

‘Maybe I didn’t do that too well,’ he said at last. Then he said dryly, ‘Maybe I should go down on bended knee.’

‘Or maybe you shouldn’t.’ Colour washed back, a flush of anger. Better, he thought. Angry was good.

He could deal with anger.

‘I think you need to leave,’ she said. ‘I’m talking about getting on with the rest of my life. You’re talking fairy tales.’

‘I’m not.’

Michales wriggled in his arms. He looked up at Alex and he smiled, a wide, toothless grin that made Alex feel as if the rug was being pulled from under his feet.

He had to keep hold of his anger. He couldn’t think while holding… his son.

He laid him on the square of carpet under the window. The little boy pushed himself into a sitting position and crowed with delight.

Alex gazed down at him in astonishment. ‘He can almost sit up. He wasn’t doing that in Sappheiros.’

‘As if you’d have noticed.’

‘I did notice,’ he told her. ‘Even before Mia left I was worrying about him. The nursery staff were worrying about him. His mother seemed to be ignoring him.’

‘Yeah,’ she said, sounding dazed. ‘Alex, go away.’

‘I can’t,’ he said soberly, and instinctively he caught her hands. They were cold. Too cold. She didn’t pull away, though—she didn’t move.

Okay. Get this right, he told himself. Stay logical and unemotional.

‘It’s politics,’ he told her. ‘If we leave things as they are, if he stays here with you, the islands will be in a mess. They’ll see me as a usurper, and rebellion is a real possibility. But if we marry… ’

She tugged her hands back in instinctive protest, but he didn’t let her go. He had to impart the urgency of the situation, and at the same time he was trying to figure how to take the blank look from her face.

She looked… battered. It might be a front, but he needed to back off.

He needed to talk a language they both understood.

‘You obviously don’t understand,’ he said. ‘But I’m talking money.’

And here it was. He’d come prepared.

‘There’s a cheque in my pocket for more money than you can dream of,’ he told her. ‘Call it paternity payment if you like, but it’s yours the moment you marry me.’ Then, as she stared at him in stupefaction, he ploughed on. ‘This is not personal. Think of it as a business proposition. The proposal is that you marry me—a real wedding to reassure everyone that we stand together—you stay on Sappheiros for at least a year so our marriage can’t be annulled, and then we can be seen as gradually drifting apart. Once the island is stable we can divorce. You can do what you want. You’ll be rich and you’ll be free. I can put democratic reform in place so the Crown is titular head only, and you can do whatever you want for the rest of your life.’

And, before she could respond, he produced the cheque and handed it to her.

She took the cheque without saying a word. She stared at him. She stared down at the cheque—and she gasped.

It’d be okay. Money talked. He had this covered. As long as he married her.

He had no choice.

‘This… this is for real?’ she whispered.

‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘We’ve thought of every option and this is the only one we believe can work.’

She was staring at him as if she’d never seen him before. She was staring at him as if he was a lunatic.

‘There’s more,’ he said into the silence. ‘We’ve done a lot of digging in this last week. My researcher knows all about you and the people you work with and we’ve come up with a package deal. Apparently the only strong connection you seem to have is with Spiros and his team. We’ve learnt that Spiros’s boatyard is struggling. As an inducement—because it would be best for everyone if Michales does stay on the island, and thus you, too—I’m also offering Spiros something he can’t refuse. We’ll relocate this boatyard to Sappheiros, with every cost taken care of. We’ll give him transport of boats between the Diamond Isles and the rest of Europe. We’ll give him blanket international advertising. My researchers tell me Spiros has been fighting to make a living here, and he’s homesick. He and his wife want to live somewhere they can speak their native Greek. So all you need to do now is agree.’

She said nothing. She was staring at the cheque as if she couldn’t believe it.

She was so shocked. She was so…

Beautiful?

Don’t go there, he told himself sharply. This was a business proposition—nothing more, nothing less. His lawyers had worked it out as a done deal. ‘There’s no way she’ll knock back this offer,’ he’d been told, and for good measure, thinking of Mia’s greed, they’d added another zero to the cheque.

As Crown Prince, Alex would inherit all Giorgos’s wealth. The lawyers’ thinking was that he should use a fraction of this to ensure the island’s future. This marriage of convenience was necessary. Michales’s continued presence on the island was desirable. So pay her and get it sorted. But…

‘Get out,’ she said.

He didn’t move.

‘Get out.’ She was breathing too fast, her eyes flashing daggers. ‘How dare you… ?’

‘Propose marriage to the mother of my son?’

‘He’s not your son.’

‘You said… ’

‘By birth, yes. You want him back on the island for you? For you? Michales hasn’t come into this discussion once except as a tool to keep the monarchy safe. Neither have I. For you to manipulate me… to find out about Spiros and use him as a tool… Get out and stay out.’

‘Lily, look at the amount on that cheque,’ he said urgently. ‘You can’t possibly knock back what I’ve just offered.’

‘Watch me,’ she said and she ripped the cheque in half, in half again and then kept on going until it lay in shreds round her feet. She snatched Michales up and stalked to the door. ‘Out!’

‘You’re being ridiculous. If you want more… ’

‘You’re being ridiculous,’ she snapped back at him. ‘Don’t you understand? I have everything I want, right here, right now. I have something you and Mia and people like you can’t understand. I have enough. I can stay working on the boats I love, and I can raise my son. I have my future and I’m free. Why would I possibly jeopardise that by diving into the royal goldfish bowl?’

Free? How did free come into it? She spoke as if she’d just come out of prison.

He had to make her see sense.

‘And Spiros?’

‘He’s happy here.’

‘He’s not. Any minute now this business is going to go belly up. Ask him.’

‘That’s nothing to do with you.’

‘It’s everything to do with you. You have to marry me.’

‘I don’t have to marry you.’ She opened the door. ‘Get out,’ she said again.

‘I can’t,’ he said, trying to figure where the hell to take it from here. ‘Lily, you have to do this. The islanders are facing ruin. If I don’t get this succession sorted, the titles belonging to the Crown will be forfeit to outside business interests. Sappheiros will become an exclusive resort for the rich, and my people will be exiles. The other two islands will face a similar fate.’

Her face stilled. For the first time, she hesitated.

He paused.

Was he going about this the wrong way? Was it possible that this woman had the heart that Mia lacked?

She’d given away her baby. The assumption had been she’d done it for profit, for greed. But now…

She looked pale and sick. And suddenly that was how he was feeling. Sick.

He was starting to feel… smirched. As if he was acting as Mia and Giorgos had acted. Buying her baby. Buying her.

‘Get out,’ she whispered again, and this time he nodded.

‘I’m going. But… ’ He hesitated but it had to be said. ‘Lily, this is too fast. It’s urgent but it’s not about us. I suspect I’ve misjudged you, and if I have then I’m sorry.’

‘That’s kind of you.’ She was trying to sound sardonic but her voice was shaking.

She swayed, just a little.

He moved, crossing the few steps to her in an instant, holding her shoulders. Steadying her.

‘Don’t… don’t touch me.’

But she didn’t pull away. She couldn’t. She was holding on to Michales with one arm, with the other the door handle. ‘Please leave.’

Hell, how ill had she been? ‘Lily, are you okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ she managed and steadied. She tugged away and he released her with real regret. She seemed suddenly… frail?

It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense.

He’d walked into this room feeling nothing but anger at the mess this woman had got him into. Determined to act with honour, no matter what the cost. Now, stupidly, all he wanted was to protect her.

It didn’t make sense to her either. She was looking at him with a mixture of fear and something else. Something he couldn’t pinpoint.

Regret? The word slipped into his mind and stayed.

Regret for what he’d done to her? Regret that she couldn’t take up his offer?

Maybe she had used him. Maybe the pregnancy had been planned. But this was… deeper.

He thought of how she’d been little more than a year ago. She’d danced with him, she’d teased him, she’d mocked him and he’d been enchanted. What had happened to knock the spirit from her?

‘Lily, I’ll leave,’ he said and flinched inwardly as he saw relief flood her face. Was she so afraid of him? ‘I’ve come at you too fast, too hard.’

‘Yes,’ she said blankly.

The pieces of the cheque were still scattered on the floor. There were far too many for her to gather and reassemble after he left.

But she’d seen his glance—and she guessed what he was thinking.

‘I won’t,’ she said, her face flushing with anger again.

‘I know you won’t.’

‘You don’t know anything about me.’

He was starting to know more.

From Lily’s arms Michales was watching him with interest.

He was his son…

How could he have been convinced that a simple cheque could fix things? It seemed so ridiculous now.

If Lily hadn’t been Mia’s sister—if he hadn’t assumed this had been set up as a con—what would he have done?

Appeal to a conscience he’d assumed she couldn’t have?

If she did have a conscience, there was nothing to lose—and everything to gain.

‘Do you have access to the Internet?’

His simple question caught her off guard. ‘I… yes… ’

‘Then I’ll leave you. But I need you to do something. I want you to look up the websites of our local newspapers.’ He pulled out a card and scribbled addresses on it. ‘Then contact these men. They’ll give you their own references. What they’ll do—I hope—is convince you that what I say is true. The islands are facing ruin. Only my marriage to you can save them.’

‘But I don’t want to be married. I want to be free.’

‘Free?’

‘Yes, free.’ Her colour suddenly returned in force, surging behind her anger. ‘I’m free,’ she said, sure now. ‘For the first time in my life I can move forward, where I want, when I want. You think I’d go from that to marriage… ’ She said the word as if it were some sort of hell. ‘How can you ask it of me? You have no right.’

Was the thought of marriage to him so appalling? It didn’t make sense.

He wasn’t that bad. Was he?

It couldn’t matter. All he could do was tell her the facts. ‘I have no choice,’ he said. ‘And if you have a conscience, then you don’t either.’

Her anger was palpable. Maybe if she’d had a hand free she’d have slapped him, he thought. Maybe it would have made them both feel better. What was between them needed some release—there was nowhere to go with the rising tension.

‘Just contact these people,’ he said. ‘Ask the questions.’

‘Go.’

‘I’ll come back tomorrow. Lily, we’re running out of time and you must take this seriously. Combined, you and I hold the fate of the islands, and Sappheiros in particular, in our hands. Whether we want it or not, we need to be married.’

She looked up at him in bewilderment. Anger was giving way to confusion.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said simply. ‘But we have to do this. And maybe it won’t even be too bad.’

And then—maybe it was really dumb but he couldn’t not—he lifted Michales from her arms. Once more, he set the little boy on the floor.

He took Lily’s face in his hands.

And he kissed her.

It was no deep, demanding kiss. He had enough sense for that—almost. But that night a year ago hadn’t been an aberration. His body knew what it wanted—and it wanted her.

The kiss was a feather-touch, lips to lips, sweet as honey, and a connection that felt intrinsically right. It was as if a part of him had reconnected that he hadn’t known until this moment had been cut loose.

He kissed her and she didn’t respond, but neither did she pull away.

Should he take it further?

His body was telling him to deepen the kiss, push past the barriers he could feel she’d erected.

His head was screaming the opposite. He’d pushed her too far as it was. The royal succession hung on this young woman’s decision. To push her past the point where she might run…

He shouldn’t. But kissing her felt right. It felt entirely natural. Lily…

And things were changing.

Suddenly it was Lily who was taking control.

He’d outlined a business proposition. So why was he kissing her?

She should fight him. She shouldn’t let him kiss her.

She was passive, letting him do the running, letting him kiss her…

Why had she done this? Why had she let him?

She knew why. She just had to see… if what she remembered was real.

Like beer. It was a stupid analogy but she’d thought of it a few times over the past months.

The first time she’d been given a glass of beer, it had been after a day spent working in the hold of a sun-baked boat. She’d been hot to the point of exhaustion. She’d been so thirsty her tongue was swollen, and she remembered that beer as almost like nectar.

The next time she’d tasted beer it had been an ordinary day—no heat, no exhaustion. She remembered being deeply, intensely disappointed.

So now… for all these months she’d been convincing herself that what she felt for Alex had to be a combination of time, place and mood. Nothing more.

But she had to see.

So stupidly, dumbly, she let herself try.

Alex’s kiss had been tentative, questioning. She felt the first stirrings of regret. This wasn’t as she remembered.

She should pull away while she still felt like this.

But she had to push harder. The memory was still too strong to let her release it without grief. She had to take the next step.

She put her hands on either side of his face, she pulled him closer—and she kissed him back.

And here it was again.

Magic.

She’d fallen for this man hard, and she remembered why. No. She didn’t have to remember. It was imprinted on her brain, on her body.

Heat. Aching need. Pure animal magnetism.

The crazy conversation of the last few minutes faded—everything faded, there was only this man and his mouth on hers and his body close to her. His taste, his feel, his masculine scent.

She’d remembered this man during the nightmare of the past few months and she’d thought her memories must be imagination born of illness and of loneliness.

But this was real. This was Alex.

Her Prince. Her man.

She felt her lips open and taste as she’d tasted him before. She was kissing him as fiercely as he was kissing her—and maybe consciousness didn’t come into a decision like this.

Maybe it just had to happen.

She let herself sink into the kiss. For this one sweet moment she allowed herself the luxury of believing this passion meant something to him. Her fingers twined through his hair and she tugged him closer. Closer.

For just this minute she could savour him, taste him, hold him. Pretend he was really her man, he was her future and everything would fall into place. She’d have a happy ever after.

Maybe ever-after didn’t cut it, she thought numbly. Now was the important thing. Now. Here. Alex.

He made her feel so sexy he took her breath away. Desire started deep within, and built.

She wanted him so much.

Her body was on fire, burning with a heat she’d felt once before with Alex, but never before and never since. She was aching for him, hot for him, moist for him, right here, right now, fully clothed, with the only contact being his mouth on hers.

She was helpless in the face of her body’s response. She felt herself shift, move closer, so close she was aching to be a part of him.

He could take her here, right now, she thought wildly, regardless of no protection, of no hope for a future, of nothing but burning want. She’d been ill for so long… hopeless for so long… but, within her now, life was surfacing. She was surfacing in her response to this man. A primeval need…

Alex.

His body was magnificent. Unimaginably erotic. He was holding her hard against him. His hands were strong and warm, curving into the small of her back, pressing her breasts against his chest, crushing her to him as if he wanted her as much as she wanted him…

If she could just get nearer…

She was out of control and she didn’t care.

She let herself go…

But things had changed since the last time she’d let herself love this man. She had a son. And in the end it was Michales who broke the kiss.

The baby was sitting at their feet, gazing up at the adults above him in some indignation. Michales was unaccustomed to being ignored. He needed a feed. He needed attention.