by Annie West
Luisa wasn’t used to having doors opened for her. That was why she flushed.
She inhaled a subtle, exotic scent that went straight to her head. Luisa bit her lip as tingles shot to her toes. None of the men she knew looked, sounded or smelled as good as Raul of Maritz.
‘Please, take a seat.’ She gestured jerkily to the scrubbed kitchen table. Luisa hadn’t had a chance to move the buckets and tarpaulins from the lounge room, where they’d staved off the leaks from the last downpour.
Besides, she’d long ago learnt that aristocratic birth was no measure of worth. He could sit where her friends and business partners met.
‘Of course.’ He pulled out a chair and sank into it with as much aplomb as if it were a plushly padded throne. His presence filled the room.
She lifted the kettle, her movements jerky as she stifled hostility. She needed to hear him out. ‘Would you like coffee or tea?’
‘No, thank you.’ His face was unreadable.
Luisa’s pulse sped as she met his unblinking regard. Reluctantly she slid into a chair opposite him, forcing herself into stillness.
‘So, Your Highness. What can I do for you?’
For a moment longer he regarded her, then he leaned forward a fraction. ‘It’s not what you can do for me.’ His voice was deep, mellow and hypnotic, holding a promise to which she instinctively responded despite her wariness. ‘This is about what I can do for you.’
Beware of strangers promising gifts. The little voice inside sent a tremor of disquiet skidding through her.
Years before she’d received promises of wonderful gifts. The future had seemed a magical, glittering land. Yet it had all been a hollow sham. She’d learned distrust the hard way—not once but twice.
‘Really?’ Her face felt stiff and she found it hard to swallow.
He nodded. ‘First I need to confirm you’re the only child of Thomas Bevan Hardwicke and Margarite Luisa Carlotta Hardwicke.’
Luisa froze, alarm stirring. He sounded like a lawyer about to break bad news. The voice of warning in her head grew more strident. Surely her ties with Maritz had been completely severed years ago.
‘That’s right, though I can’t see—’
‘It pays to be sure. Tell me—’ he leaned back in his seat but his eyes never wavered from hers ‘—how much do you know about my country? About its government and states?’
Luisa fought to remain calm as painful memories surged. This meeting had a nightmare quality. She wanted to scream at him to get to the point before her stretched nerves gave way. But that glittering gaze was implacable. He’d do this his way. She’d known men like him before. She gritted her teeth.
‘Enough.’ More than she wanted. ‘It’s an alpine kingdom. A democracy with a parliament and a king.’
He nodded. ‘My father the king died recently. I will be crowned in a few months.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ Luisa murmured, struggling to make sense of this. Why was he here, interrogating her? The question beat at her brain.
‘Thank you.’ He paused. ‘And Ardissia?’
Luisa’s fingers clenched as she fought impatience. She shot him a challenging look. He was like a charming bulldozer, with that polite smile barely cloaking his determination to get his own way.
‘It’s a province of Maritz, with its own hereditary prince who owes loyalty to the King of Maritz.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘My mother came from there, as I’m sure you know.’
She shivered, cold sweeping up from her toes and wrapping around her heart as bitter memories claimed her.
‘Now, my turn for a question.’ She planted her palms on the table and leaned forward, fixing him with a stare. ‘Why are you here?’
Luisa waited, her heart thudding hectically, watching him survey her beneath lowered brows. He shifted in his seat. Suddenly she wondered if he were uncomfortable too.
‘I came to find you.’ His expression made her heartbeat speed to a pounding gallop.
‘Why?’
‘The Prince of Ardissia is dead. I’m here to tell you you’re his heiress, Princess Luisa of Ardissia.’
CHAPTER TWO
RAUL watched her pale beneath her tan. Her eyes rounded and she swayed in her seat. Was she going to faint?
Great. A highly strung female!
He thrust aside the fact that anyone would be overcome. That his anger at this diabolical situation made him unreasonable.
She wasn’t the only one whose life had been turned on its head! For years Raul had steered his own course, making every decision. Being fettered like this was outrageous.
But the alternative—to turn his back on his people and the life to which he’d devoted himself—was unthinkable.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Of course.’ Her tone was sharp but her eyes were dazed.
They were surprisingly fine eyes, seen without that shadowing hat. Blue-grey a moment ago, now they sparkled brilliant azure. Like a clear summer sky in the Maritzian Alps. The sort of eyes a man could lose himself in.
She blinked and shifted her gaze and Raul was astonished to feel a pang of disappointment.
He watched her gnaw her lip. When she looked up and flushed to find him watching, he noticed the ripe contours of her mouth. With the grime washed away, her features were pleasant, regular and fairly attractive.
If you liked the artless, scrubbed bare style.
Raul preferred his women sophisticated and well groomed.
What sort of woman didn’t take the time to style her hair?
Pale and damply combed off her face, it even looked lopsided. Anyone less fitted for this—
‘I can’t be his heir!’ She sounded almost accusing.
His brows rose. As if he’d waste precious time here on a whim!
‘Believe me, it’s true.’
She blinked and he had the sense there was more going on behind her azure eyes than simple surprise.
‘How is it possible?’ She sounded as if she spoke to herself.
‘Here.’ Raul opened the briefcase Lukas had brought. ‘Here’s your grandfather’s will and your family tree.’
He’d planned for his secretary, Lukas, to take her through this. But he’d changed his mind the moment he saw Luisa Hardwicke and how unprepared she was for this role. Better do this himself. The fewer who dealt with her at this early stage the better.
Raul suppressed a grimace. What had begun as a delicate mission now had unlimited potential for disaster. Imagine the headlines if the press saw her as she was! He wouldn’t allow the Maritzian crown to be the focus of rabid media gossip again. Especially at this difficult time.
He strode round the table and spread the papers before her.
She shifted in her seat as if his presence contaminated her. Raul stiffened. Women were usually eager to get close.
‘Here’s your mother.’ He modulated his tone reassuringly. ‘Above her, your grandfather, the last prince.’
She lifted her head from examining the family tree. Again the impact of that bright gaze hit him. He’d swear he felt it like a rumbling echo inside his chest.
‘Why isn’t my uncle inheriting? Or my cousin, Marissa?’
‘You’re the last of your family.’
Her brow puckered. ‘She must have been so young. That’s awful.’
‘Yes.’ The accident was a tragic waste of life. And it altered the succession.
She shook her head. ‘But I’m not part of the family! My mother was disinherited when she fell in love with an Australian and refused to marry the man her father chose.’
She knew about that? Did that explain her animosity?
‘Your grandfather blustered but he never disinherited her. We only discovered that recently when his will was read.’ The Prince of Ardissia had been an irascible tartar but he had too much pride in his bloodline to cut off a direct descendant. ‘You’re definitely eligible to inherit.’
How much easier life would be if she weren’t!
If
there were no Ardissian princess he wouldn’t be in this appalling situation.
‘I tell you it’s impossible!’ She leaned forward, her brow pleating as she scanned the papers.
The scent of lavender wafted to him. Raul inhaled, intrigued. He was used to the perfectly balanced notes of the most expensive perfumes. Yet this simple fragrance was strangely appealing.
‘It can’t be right.’ She spoke again. ‘He disinherited me too. We were told so!’
Startled, he looked down to find her eyes blazing up at him. Her chin was angled in the air and for the first time there was colour in her cheeks.
She looked … pretty. In an unsophisticated way.
And she knew more than he’d expected. Fascinating.
‘Despite what you were told, you’re his heiress. You inherit his fortune and responsibilities.’ He summoned an encouraging smile. ‘I’ve come to take you home.’
‘Home?’ Luisa shot to her feet, the chair screeching across the floor. ‘This is my home! I belong here.’ She gestured to the cosy kitchen she’d known all her life.
She fought a sense of unreality. This had to be an appalling mistake.
From the moment he’d mentioned Ardissia and Maritz bitter recollection had cramped her belly and clouded her brain. It had taken a superhuman effort to hear him out.
‘Not any more.’ Across the scrubbed table he smiled.
He really was unbelievably good-looking.
Until you looked into those cool eyes. Had he thought her too unaware to notice his smile didn’t reach his eyes?
‘You’ve got a new life ahead of you. Your world will change for ever.’ His smile altered, became somehow more intimate, and to her surprise Luisa felt a trickle of unfamiliar warmth spread through her body.
How had that happened?
‘You’ll have wealth, position, prestige—the best of everything. You’ll live a life of luxury, as a princess.’
A princess.
The words reverberated in Luisa’s skull. Nausea rose.
At sixteen she’d heard those same words. It had been like a dream come true. What girl wouldn’t be excited to discover a royal bloodline and a doting grandfather promising a life of excitement and privilege?
Luisa’s heart clutched as she remembered her mother, pale but bravely smiling, seated at this table, telling her she had to make up her own mind about her future. Saying that, though she’d turned her back on that life, it was Luisa’s choice if she wanted to discover her birthright.
And, like the innocent she was, Luisa had gone. Lured by the fairy tale fantasy of a picture book kingdom.
Reality had been brutally different. By the time she’d rejected what her grandfather offered and made her own way home, she’d been only too grateful he hadn’t publicly presented her as his kin. That he’d kept her a cloistered guest during her ‘probation’ period. Only her closest family knew she’d ever been tempted by the old man’s false promises of a joyful family reunion.
She’d been naïve but no more.
Now she knew too much about the ugly reality of that aristocratic society, where birth and connections mattered more than love and common decency. If her grandfather’s actions hadn’t been enough, she only had to recall the man she’d thought she’d loved. How he’d schemed to seduce her when he realised her secret identity. All because of his ambition.
Luisa’s stomach heaved and she reached out blindly for the table, shaking her head to clear the nightmarish recollections.
‘I don’t want to be a princess.’
Silence. Slowly she turned. Prince Raul’s hooded eyes were wide, impatience obliterated by shock.
‘You can’t be serious,’ he said finally, his voice thickening with that appealing accent.
‘Believe me, I was never more so.’
Revulsion filled Luisa as she remembered her grandfather. He’d invited her to join him so he could groom her into the sort of princess he wanted. To do his bidding without question. To be the sort his daughter had failed to be.
At first Luisa had been blind to the fact he merely wanted a pawn to manipulate, not a granddaughter to love.
He’d shown his true colours when news arrived of her mother’s terminal illness. He’d refused Luisa’s tearful, desperate pleas to return. Instead he’d issued an ultimatum—that she break off all contact with her parents or give up her new life. As for Luisa’s begging that he fund further medical treatment, he’d snarled at her for wasting time on the woman who’d turned her back on his world.
That heartless betrayal, so blatant, so overwhelming, still sickened Luisa to the core.
That was who she was heir to! A cruel, ruthless tyrant. No wonder she’d vowed not to have anything to do with her bigoted, blue-blooded family.
She recalled her grandfather bellowing his displeasure at her ingratitude. At her inability to be what he wanted, play the part.
A hand on her arm tugged her from her thoughts. She looked up into a searing gaze. Black eyebrows tilted in a V and Raul’s nostrils flared as if scenting fear.
This close he was arresting. Her stomach plunged in free-fall as she stared back. Tingling sensation spread from his touch.
Luisa swallowed and his eyes followed the movement.
The intensity of his regard scared her. The beat of her blood was like thunder in her ears. She felt unprotected beneath a gaze that had lost its distance and now seemed to flare with unexpected heat.
‘What is it? What are you thinking?’ Gone was the smooth tone. His words were staccato sharp.
Luisa drew a shaky breath, disoriented by the arcing heat that snapped and shimmered in the air between them. By the hazy sense of familiarity she felt with this handsome stranger.
‘I’m thinking you should let me go.’
Immediately he stepped back, his hand dropping. ‘Forgive me. For a moment you looked faint.’
She nodded. She’d felt queasy. That explained her unsteadiness. It had nothing to do with his touch.
The electricity sparking between them was imaginary.
He thrust a hand through his immaculately combed hair as if, for an instant, he too felt that disturbing sensation. But then his dark locks fell back into perfect position and he was again cool, clear-eyed and commanding.
Swiftly Luisa turned to grab a glass. She gulped down cold water, hoping to restore a semblance of normality. She felt as if she’d been wrung inside out.
Finally she willed her scrambled thoughts into order. It didn’t help that she sensed Prince Raul’s gaze skewer her like an insect on a pin.
Setting her jaw, she turned.
He leaned against the dresser, arms folded and one ankle casually resting on the other. He looked unattainably sexy and a little scary. His brow was furrowed as if something perplexed him, but that only emphasised the strength of his features.
‘When you’ve had time to absorb the news, you’ll see going to Maritz is the sensible thing.’
‘Thank you, but I’ve already absorbed the news.’ Did he have any idea how patronising he sounded? Annoyance sizzled in her blood.
He didn’t move but his big body was no longer relaxed. His folded arms with their bunched muscles drew her eyes. Suddenly he looked predatory rather than suavely elegant.
Her skin prickled.
‘The money doesn’t tempt you?’ His mouth compressed. Obviously he thought money outweighed everything else.
Just like her grandfather and his cronies.
Luisa opened her mouth, then snapped it shut as her dazed brain cells finally revved into action.
Money!
In her shock that hadn’t even registered. She thought of the looming debts, repairs they’d postponed, Sam’s outdated milking machine and her own rattletrap car. The list was endless.
‘How much money?’ She wanted nothing of the high society position. But the cash.
The prince unfolded his arms and named a sum that made her head spin. She braced herself against the table.
�
��When do I get it?’ Her voice was scratchy with shock.
Did she imagine a flash of satisfaction in those dark green eyes?
‘You’re princess whether you use the title or not. Nothing can alter that.’ He paused. ‘But there are conditions on inheriting your wealth. You must settle in Maritz and take up your royal obligations.’
Luisa’s shoulders slumped. What he suggested was impossible. She’d rejected that world for her own sanity. Accepting would be a betrayal of herself and all she held dear.
‘I can’t.’
‘Of course you can. I’ll make the arrangements.’
‘Don’t you listen?’ Luisa gripped the table so hard her bones ached. ‘I’m not going!’ Life in that cold, cruel society would kill her. ‘This is my home. My roots are here.’
He shook his head, straightening to stand tall and imposing. The room shrank and despite her anger she felt his formidable magnetism tug at her.
‘You have roots in Maritz too. What have you got here but hard work and poverty? In my country you’ll have a privileged life, mixing in the most elite circles.’
How he sounded like her snobbish grandfather.
‘I prefer the circles I mix in.’ Fire skirled in her belly at his condescension. ‘The people I love are here.’
He scowled. ‘A man?’ He took a step closer and, involuntarily, Luisa retreated a pace before the fierce light in his eyes.
‘No, my friends. And my father’s brother and his wife.’ Sam and Mary, almost a generation older than Luisa’s parents, had been like doting grandparents through her sunny childhood and the darkest days. She wouldn’t leave them, ageing and in debt, for a glamorous, empty life far away.
The sharp-eyed man before her didn’t look impressed.
Had her grandfather once looked like Prince Raul? Proud, determined, good-looking and boy, didn’t he know it!
Standing there, radiating impatience, Raul embodied everything she’d learned to despise.
Determination surged anew.
‘Thank you for coming to tell me in person.’ She drew herself up, level with his proud chin, and folded his papers with quick, precise movements. ‘But you’ll have to find someone else to inherit.’ She breathed deep. ‘I’ll see you out.’
