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.
; So he did what any self-respecting baby would do in the circumstances. He opened his mouth and he howled.
Michales.
Her baby.
Reality slammed home. She pulled away from Alex as if he were burning her. Which pretty much explained how she was feeling.
She lifted Michales, she hugged him against her and she held him tight, as if he were a shield.
She’d been out of control. Again. After all she’d been through. After all her vows. This man just had to touch her and here she was, tumbling into trust again.
Trust meant heartache. Trust meant betrayal and grief.
Do not trust this man.
This had to stop—now.
Had he messed it up entirely?
He’d come here with a business proposition. He’d never imagined he could seduce her into doing what he wanted.
Was that what she was thinking?
Who knew what she was thinking? She looked dazed.
He felt dazed.
He had to get this back on an impersonal footing.
‘That’s just what we don’t want,’ he managed.
‘Sorry?’
‘That wasn’t meant to happen. We need to keep this impersonal or we’ll mess this up entirely.’
‘Right,’ she said, as if she didn’t understand a word he’d said. Which was exactly how he felt.
‘I’ll come again tomorrow,’ he said, struggling to sound brisk and businesslike. ‘Meanwhile, will you do some research? Discover what I’ve said is true?’
Her face had become…blank? It was as if she’d just terrified herself and was struggling back from the abyss. Struggling to hold on to what she knew.
‘I don’t know why I did that,’ she whispered. ‘It was crazy. I didn’t mean it. I don’t want it. I don’t want you to touch me.’
She was lying. They both knew it. But there was fear behind her words. He didn’t understand it.
She’d come to him last time with joy. Had being pregnant changed something so fundamental that she was afraid of his effect on her?
‘I want my freedom,’ she said, a flat statement, unequivocal.
What sort of a need was that?
But freedom was the one thing he was more than prepared to give. After all, wasn’t that what he wanted himself?
‘You can have it,’ he said. ‘But marry me first.’
‘I can’t.’
‘I believe you can. For Michales’s sake.’
‘You…don’t want Michales for him. You just want him for your island.’
He hesitated, letting himself look at the little boy who gazed placidly back at him. These were his own eyes?
You just want him for your island.
This was way too complicated.
‘It’s a business decision,’ he said flatly, trying to move on. ‘Look, that kiss was an aberration. It has to be. If we let sentiment get in the way it’ll never work. I don’t want to pressure you but I must. It’s not our lives, Lily. It’s the fate of an entire country, possible three.’
‘Right.’
‘It is,’ he said. ‘Will you think about it?’
‘Yes. Just go away.’
Just like that. He had her agreement.
There was nothing else to stay for. Was there?
‘If I agree…’ she whispered. ‘If I was stupid enough to say yes…Could we still be independent? I do not want to fall for you again.’
‘Did you fall…?’
‘Shut up,’ she snapped. ‘Fall? Of course I fell. I was an idiot over you. I turned my life into a mess, all because I acted like a lovesick teenager. You kiss me and I turn into that stupid teenager again. If what you say is true…if there really is this huge moral need for me to marry—then we do it as a business deal. Nothing more. I’m not letting you touch me again.’
‘I’d rather not…’
‘Touch me? Then don’t.’
‘Lily…’
‘Enough,’ she snapped. ‘I’ll think about it. I’ll do the homework. And then, if I must, I’ll outline conditions. But kissing doesn’t come into it.’
‘That’s a shame,’ he said and tried a smile but she glowered.
‘Don’t you turn that charm on me. I know it. I let you kiss me once to see if what I was afraid of was true, and it is. Now I know where I stand, that’s the end of it. If we have to get married then we do exactly what the law requires and nothing more. If I have to do anything that even remotely resembles conjugal rights…’
‘Conjugal…’ he said cautiously and ventured a smile.
She didn’t smile back. ‘Enough,’ she said. ‘Get out. Conjugal or no conjugal, and don’t you push me, Alexandros Mykonis—you know exactly what conjugal means.’
‘Right.’
She was glowering at him. She’d promised to think about it. There was nothing to be gained by staying.
He’d got what he wanted.
Hadn’t he?
She heard his steps fade to nothing. She closed the door and leaned on it, and her whole body shook.
Marriage. Alex.
No and no and no.
Marriage to almost any other man wouldn’t be as bad. Because marriage to Alex…it’d be surrender.
He’d kissed her and she’d surrendered, just as she’d surrendered a year ago. Had she learned nothing?
Alex.
She’d have to do the research.
If she was Mia she’d just walk away.
‘I want to be Mia,’ she whispered, but she knew it wasn’t true.
She wanted…she wanted…
Life.
Her body wanted Alex.
She crossed to the window and looked out. He hadn’t gone far. He was just below her window, talking to Spiros.
Was he making her boss this crazy proposition already? To relocate Spiros’s boatyard to Sappheiros?
Spiros would love it. He and Eleni had come to this country because Spiros dreamed of making his living building the boats he loved, but if he thought he could do it on Sappheiros he’d be there in a minute.
It could happen—if she said yes.
If she promised to marry Alex.
She wanted to lean out of the window, yell at them that this was some crazy proposition by a madman. It was emotional blackmail. She had the right to walk away.
When had she ever had a choice?
She sank onto the floor with Michales and hugged her knees. She felt very tired, alone and afraid.
Alex had kissed her.
And that was what she was most afraid of. He exposed her for what she was. Vulnerable and wanting.
‘Love’s crazy,’ she said. Then, as Michales looked seriously at her, she tugged him onto her knees. ‘It only causes trouble. It caused…you.’
Her son would be heir to the throne of Sappheiros. He’d be the legitimate heir, following in his father’s footsteps.
It was unbelievable. It was…terrifying.
She rose again and went back to the window. Alex was still there. Spiros was smiling—more than smiling. He was looking incredulous. He was glancing up at her window and she drew back into the shadows.
This was worse than blackmail. He’d placed the islanders’ fate in her hands. He’d placed Spiros’s fate in her hands.
What if it was a lie? In this day and age, for a marriage of convenience to be the only path to prevent disaster…It was inconceivable.
But she’d promised to do the research, and if it was true…
This was like jumping off a cliff and not knowing what was below. Only knowing that, whatever was at the end, by the time she landed she’d be going so fast the force could kill her.
CHAPTER SIX
Sappheiros Times headlines
14th August:
‘Royal Scandal—Secret Baby’
‘Queen Uses Sister’s Baby to Keep Throne’
16th August:
‘After the Lies, Prince Regent Is Ruling Crown Prince’
21st August:
‘Islands Reve
rt to Ancient Lineage’
‘Three Principalities From One Kingdom: Islanders’ Joy’
23rd August:
‘DNA Proves Baby Still Heir! Alexandros Confesses Affair’
‘Prince to Wed Queen’s Sister’
‘Prince Declares Lily a Worthy Princess’
‘Wedding By End of Month’
Two weeks. It was only two weeks since she’d been hit with this crazy proposition and it had moved from crazy to terrifying. She was standing at the entrance to the cathedral, ready to be a bride.
Was she out of her mind?
Maybe she was, but she’d done the research. Everything she’d read confirmed and reconfirmed what Alex had told her. Giorgos and his forebears had brought the Diamond Isles to ruin. The only way they could be saved was for them to revert to their original states; for their original ruling families to take their care into their hands. But there was such distrust…
She’d looked at it from every conceivable angle and there was no escape. From the moment she’d seen Spiros’s face, full of incredulous hope, she’d known what she had to do.
Alex had come back the next day and she had her answer ready.
‘Yes,’ she’d told him. ‘For a year. No more. And you touch me and the deal is off. It’s a marriage in name only. Is that clear?’
‘It’s what I want,’ he’d told her. Then, watching her, clearly unable to figure out her response, he’d added, ‘It’s a marriage, Lily. It’s not the gallows you’re walking into.’
‘It’s a trap,’ she’d said. ‘I’m doing it but I don’t have to like it.’
‘It’s not a trap of my setting and I don’t like it either,’ he’d said.
And then he’d left. There was financial chaos in Sappheiros, he’d told her, and he had to sort it out. But the wedding was to take place by the end of the month.
And then the roller coaster began. Or the avalanche. Or whatever it was, but it made her so giddy she thought surely she must still be drifting in and out of the same nightmare world she’d been in before.
Arrangements, arrangements, arrangements. Curt, formal telephone calls with Alex, interspersed by longer calls from officialdom, arranging everything from her bridal gown to a white teething ring for Michales so he could chew his gummy way through the ceremony and still look…bridal?
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