Wedded for His Royal Duty

by Susan Meier

  It was ridiculous. They’d had two stupid kisses. One he instigated to prove a point. And the engagement dance tradition kiss that he’d started and she tried to finish but she’d stopped too soon.

  He’d recognized days ago that he’d made too much of that first kiss, and maybe that was the problem? Maybe if they had one normal kiss, he’d see there was nothing different about her.

  The small crowd of family had swallowed her up, as if protecting her, and perhaps they were. At least Alex knew Dom and his father were.

  He managed to wiggle his way through the crowd and tap her shoulder. She turned, her face flushed. Her smile radiant.

  “I think you and I need a minute together.”

  “Sure.”

  Preventing her from getting away from him or getting sucked into another vortex of well-wishers, he grabbed her fingers, and wove through the happy dancers with her. He walked her down one corridor, turned left and walked her down another. At the end of that hall, he opened the French doors and led her into a private garden.

  Before she could say a word, he caught her by the shoulders and pressed his mouth to hers. This time there was no hesitation. No innocent pause. This time, her lips lifted to meet his.

  Good. This was what they needed. A real, honest-to-God kiss that would prove to them both they were nothing special.

  He deepened the kiss, nudging her mouth open with his tongue, and she responded. He pulled her closer. She slid her arms up his shoulders and looped them around his neck. Her breasts nestled against his chest. Their tongues twined—

  Need exploded through him. His heart rate tripled. He ran his hands down her bare back and luxuriated in the silkiness of her skin before he realized he was in deep, dark trouble. Her kisses weren’t innocent. They were greedy. And made him hungry for everything he knew she wanted to offer.

  Kissing her hadn’t accomplished what he’d set out to prove. He might have even made things worse.

  He broke the kiss and bumped his forehead against hers. “Sorry.”

  “No woman wants a man to say he’s sorry he kissed her, Alex.”

  The way she said his name caused a jolt in his stomach. Brought a fresh avalanche of desire. They’d shared so many secrets, spoken so honestly because of the ruse, that there was an intimacy between them now that made him feel he had a right to her.

  “But I am sorry.”

  “Because you don’t like me.”

  He pulled away, looked into her eyes. “Because I do like you. I like everything about you. Including the fact that I can be me with you. There’s never been any pretense between us.”

  Her eyes studied his. “That’s good then.”

  “No. It isn’t. You’re someday going to find the right guy. I don’t want to screw that up for you.” He tried to step away, but she caught his hand, stopping him.

  “I know all this confuses you, but I sort of like you.” She shook her head fiercely. “No. I don’t sort of like you. I really like you. A lot. Including the fact that I can be myself with you.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  Exasperation trembled through her voice. “Why not?”

  “Because I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to fall in love. And if you’re as smart as I think you are, you know that.”

  To his chagrin, she laughed. “How do you know you can’t fall in love?”

  “If you have to ask, you don’t know much about me or falling in love.”

  “Alex, every day I like you a little bit more. Even when you make it clear you want nothing to do with me, I have no control over this feeling that just keeps growing no matter how much I tell it to stop.”

  He shook his head. “And there it is. The difference between us. You’re new. Innocent. The very fact that you can’t stop those feelings shows how different we are. I know how to put the brakes on those feelings. Love’s hurt me a time or two.”

  “And you don’t want to get beyond your hurts?”

  “It isn’t a matter of wanting to get beyond the hurts. It’s a matter of having almost twenty years after my mom’s death to become cool, pragmatic. I learned a lot of tricks to make it look like I’m having fun and in the game, when really I’m not.”

  “But you fell in love with Nina.”

  “And got hurt again. All falling in love with her did was prove to me that I didn’t dare let my guard down. I don’t share secrets. I don’t tell anybody my dreams. Somewhere in here...” He rubbed his chest. “There’s a ping that happens that warns me when I’m getting too close. And it stops me.” He caught her gaze. “It’s stopped me with you a million times. You’ve noticed some of them. Some of them have hurt you. This isn’t something I’m going to grow out of or change. I’m a lot harder, a lot colder, than even my dad.”

  “You talk like a guy who thinks he knows everything, but maybe you don’t.”

  “And you talk like a woman with stars in her eyes. A woman who is going to get hurt. And I won’t let it be me who hurts you.”

  “I see.”

  “Look, we have another few weeks of this, then you’re going to go back to Grennady, and I’m going to go back to who I was. You’ll get so busy you’ll forget me as much as I’ll forget you. Unless we do something stupid.”

  Her face scrunched in confusion. “Something stupid?”

  “Like get carried away. I’d say make love, but for me it would be just sex and for you it would be more. And you’d be devastated when I walk away at the end of this thing. So let’s just keep things the way they should be. Light. Fun. Nothing serious so we can both get out of this with our sanity.”

  “Alex? Eva?”

  The sound of Sally Peterson’s voice echoed around the dark outdoor space. Alex stepped even farther away from Eva.

  “Here you are!”

  “Yes. We’re here.” He pushed back his shoulders and gave Sally his full prince stare. “May I ask what you’re doing, following me?”

  “Your father noticed you were missing. I volunteered to look for you.”

  Eva sneaked another peek at him. In all the confusion of wanting to kiss her for real to straighten all this out in his head, he’d forgotten there was a potential threat against her life.

  No wonder his father had sent someone to look for them.

  He caught Eva’s hand, said, “We’re fine,” and headed through the garden, into the palace and down the hall toward the engagement party again, glad they’d had the honest talk.

  Unless they did something stupid, they could both walk away from this. But if they followed through on these unwanted feelings that he knew were more physical than emotional, they’d both be sorry.

  And part of him absolutely revolted at the thought she’d be sorry she met him. If he couldn’t love her, if nothing else, he wanted to be the guy she remembered and smiled.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  EVA MANAGED TO make it through the engagement party with her head high and a smile on her face. The next day, she happily accepted congratulations from her mom on the success of the event.

  But when there was a quick knock on their door and Alex walked in, her stomach plummeted.

  He didn’t want her. Not because he didn’t like her, but because he did. But the boy who’d lost his mom and a man who’d lost his first love had built walls. Even if they did fall in love, there would always be walls, a distance between them.

  She saw it all the time in the way he related to her. The way he could walk away from kisses. The way he used protecting her as a convenient distraction so he didn’t have to talk to her.

  He walked into their living room, caught her shoulders and put a soft kiss on her cheek. She suspected he’d done it for the benefit of her mother, but the unexpectedness of it stole her breath, made her heart ache all over again.

  “Sal
ly has informed me that gifts have begun arriving.”

  Her eyebrows rose, but her mother clapped her hands together with glee. “Oh, that’s marvelous.” She faced Eva. “This is the most fun part of getting married.”

  Alex laughed. “Really? Getting gifts is the best part of a wedding?”

  “It’s not about being materialistic.” Her mom sniffed. “Gifts are kind of like a way to see what people really think of you.” She tapped Alex’s arm. “Trust me. You’ll know who your friends are by what they get you.”

  Eva shook her head in shame at her mom’s one true vice. She liked presents. “Sorry, Alex.”

  Alex shrugged. “Maybe she has a point. Maybe it will be fun.”

  “It’ll be a blast,” Karen assured him. “Are you going down now to start weeding through?”

  “We could.” Alex caught her gaze. “Or we could get some lunch. I’m kind of hungry.”

  Realizing he wanted time alone for a private discussion, maybe even to explain his staff’s plan to return the gifts since there really wasn’t going to be a wedding, Eva said, “Great. I’m hungry too.”

  “There’s a wonderful little bistro that serves the best salads.”

  She glanced down at her jeans and top. “Is this okay?”

  He smiled. “You’re with me, remember? The Prince of Scruffiness.”

  She laughed. “That’s not exactly what I called you.”

  “But it’s close,” he said, directing her to the door.

  They said goodbye to her mom, then walked in silence through the echoing corridor to the elevator.

  When the door closed behind them, she said, “So what’s up?”

  “Up?”

  “What do you need to talk about?”

  He frowned. “Nothing.”

  “You didn’t ask me to lunch to talk?”

  “No. I asked you to lunch because I’m hungry.”

  “At the engagement party, you said—” She stopped herself. “Never mind.” He might have said they were seeing too much of each other two days ago, and he might have warned her off at the engagement party, but today, the day after a real kiss and their honest conversation, he’d asked her to lunch for no reason except that he was hungry. And she was not questioning it.

  He drove the Mercedes to a bistro so far out of the way she knew it wasn’t a haunt for tourists but somewhere locals ate, drank and had fun together. Bodyguards escorted them to the restaurant, but instead of Alex opening the door, he pointed at a cluster of tables on the sidewalk bathed in hot sun and the breeze coming off the ocean.

  She frowned. “Outside?”

  “Among friends,” he said, guiding her to a table in the corner. The wall of the restaurant was at their back. A clear view of the ocean was on their left. The other diners were to the right and in front of them.

  “Prince Alex!” A tall man wearing a white apron scurried out to greet them.

  Alex rose to shake his hand. He faced Eva. “This is Angelo. He owns the place. And this is—”

  “Your beautiful bride,” Angelo said before Alex could finish.

  She smiled at him. “Thank you.”

  “Lunch is on me!” Angelo said effusively.

  Alex laughed. “No. You cook. I pay.” He took his seat again. “Amaze us with a salad that will fill us up, but not make us fat.”

  Angelo happily raced away, and Eva sucked in a long drink of the sea air.

  Alex laughed. “You’re getting a tad too comfortable with our weather.”

  “I know.” She shook her head. “I’m in for so much culture shock when I get home.”

  Alex glanced around. “You mean when we get home.”

  She nodded, realizing she’d forgotten the charade, but ready to pick up the ball and do her part. “You know we’ll live in a wing of Grennady’s palace the way Dom and Ginny do.”

  A waiter arrived with a plate of appetizers and Alex plucked a piece of cheese and popped it into his mouth. “I suspected as much.”

  He ate another piece of cheese then said, “As heir, do you have duties?”

  She shrugged. “Not really. About once a month I’m briefed on what’s going on in the country. Four or five times a year I’m needed for photo ops.”

  He considered that. “That’s very different from what Dom does. He’s actually in on the politics. He has jobs.”

  “Your country’s very different than ours. We don’t have access to a cash cow like oil. We also aren’t open to attack from enemies as you seem to be. We’re rural. Our subjects mostly make their livings from farms.”

  “So you’ve said.”

  She stiffened. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Nothing.”

  But she’d heard something in his voice. Something condescending. “Oh, so the playboy prince suddenly knows government?”

  “I’ve heard about government around our dinner table since I was in diapers. I’ve picked up a thing or two.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as, it’s a big booming world out there. With the internet, everybody can be educated. Your father hasn’t considered that the generation coming up might want more from their lives than what their parents had?”

  She took her napkin from the table, opened it and set it on her lap, busying herself so she didn’t have to look at him. “Our country’s claim to fame is that we are small and comfortable.”

  He leaned back, settling on his chair, as Angelo rushed out with two heaping plates of salad.

  Alex complimented the owner, who blushed with pleasure at the praise, and they began eating.

  But though the conversation had ended, Eva had a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. A feeling that wouldn’t let him get away with saying part of something and not finishing it.

  Finally she said, “So what would you do?”

  With a forkful of salad halfway to his mouth, Alex said, “Do?”

  “About the next generation in my country?”

  He drew in a breath, thought for a second, then said, “If I were in charge of a country like yours, a place that’s quiet and peaceful, I’d probably try to lure an internet company into making its home there. You could provide hundreds if not thousands of jobs when you consider that ancillary businesses would shoot up. Not to mention extra jobs from the restaurants, shops and auto mechanics needed to support the population that would migrate to wherever the company settled.”

  “Most corporations want a warmer climate.”

  “Internet companies don’t necessarily want a warmer climate. They want ambiance. Your country has it in abundance. Skiing. Snowmobiles. Snowboarding. Sleigh riding. And in the summer, hiking and horseback riding. Rock climbing. Your country has enough ways to commune with nature, which internet companies believe inspires creativity, to entice just about anybody you want.”

  She drew in a breath. “Impressive.”

  He laughed. “Impressive that I can’t help overhearing conversations at dinner?”

  “You make light, Alexandros Sancho, but you’re not the player you try to make everyone believe.”

  He smiled. “There are already plenty of rulers in my family. We don’t need another.”

  * * *

  But the next day after a meeting with the royal guard, Dom asked Alex to come to parliament, and he went. Not because he someday wanted to be a ruler. But because he enjoyed the feeling of being productive.

  His mornings soon filled with meetings over Eva’s protection because designers and florists and all sorts of wedding prep people began trooping to her apartment almost nonstop for consultations.

  Every day he’d take her to lunch, then he’d return to find Dom and walk with him to parliament, to the section of their government that connected them to their people.

&n
bsp; And the whole time he wondered about Eva’s country, about Grennady. How could her father let them get so far behind the times?

  He wouldn’t let himself think about it while eating dinner with her. He was a prince supposedly marrying a beautiful princess. It wouldn’t do to have anyone overhear them talk about politics.

  But one day, when he walked in on a conference call his father was having with King Mason and Dom, it all poured into his head again. He didn’t argue when his dad motioned for him to sit in.

  He also sat in the next day and the next. He didn’t say much. He didn’t think it was his place to give advice, though it was clear King Mason needed it. He offered the idea of enticing an internet company to Grennady, then he sat and listened without comment for the next two days’ calls, until the fate of his “wedding” to Eva came up for discussion.

  * * *

  When the phone in the apartment buzzed, Eva jumped. So did her mom. The phone never rang, except to announce a wedding vendor, and they had no one scheduled for that day. Eva looked at her mom. Her mom looked back.

  “I’m guessing we should answer it.”

  Eva carefully made her way to the discreet beige phone that sat inconspicuously on a table by the sofa.

  “Hello?”

  “Good afternoon, Princess. This is Maria Gable, King Ronaldo’s personal assistant. He requests your presence in his office. A member of his guard should be arriving for you shortly.”

  “Oh.” Confusion rumbled through her, but one didn’t say no to a king, not when she was at his palace, and not when he was protecting her. Especially since he could have news about her dad.

  Three weeks had passed since her father had stashed her and her mom in Xaviera. Her father had had plenty of time to get the proof that his brother had conspired to have him killed. Plenty of time to arrest Prince Gerard. The day she’d been simultaneously praying for and dreading might be here.

  “Thank you.”

  She hung up the phone, glancing at her blue jeans and white tank top. She and Alex had decided to spend the afternoon poking around the shops in the village. Very visible again. They’d hold hands. They’d smile, and they’d talk.