by Annie West
Raul’s mouth tightened as the chopper lifted.
Thrilled! Luisa Hardwicke had been anything but. Just as well he’d told her only about her inheritance, not the more challenging aspects of her new role. She’d been so skittish it was wiser to break that news later.
He’d never met a more stubborn woman. She’d all but thrown him out!
Indignation danced in his veins and tightened his fists.
Something motivated her that he didn’t know about. He needed to discover what it was. More, he had to discover the trigger that would make her change her mind.
For an instant back there he’d been tempted simply to kidnap her. The blood of generations of warriors and robber barons as well as monarchs flowed in his veins. It would have been easy to scoop her up in his arms and sequester her till she saw reason. So satisfying.
An image of Luisa Hardwicke filled his mind. She stared defiantly up with flashing cerulean eyes.
Raul recalled her shirt lifting when she reached for a glass, revealing her lusciously curved bottom in snug jeans. The feminine shape outlined by her shirt when she moved. A shape at odds with his original impression.
Fire streaked through Raul’s belly.
Perhaps there would be compensations after all.
Luisa Hardwicke had a wholesome prettiness that appealed far more than it ought. He’d made it his business these last eight years to surround himself only with glamorous, sophisticated women who understood his needs.
He grimaced, facing a truth he rarely acknowledged. That if he’d once had a weakness it had been for the sort of forthright honesty and fresh openness she projected.
The sort he’d once believed in.
Sordid reality had cured him of any such frailty. Yet being with her was like hearing an echo of his past, remembering fragments of dreams he’d once held. Dreams now shattered beyond repair by deceit and betrayal.
And, despite his indignation, he responded to her pride, her pluck.
It was an inconvenience that complicated his plans. Yet perversely he admired the challenge she represented. What a change from the compliant, eager women he knew! In other circumstances he’d applaud her stance.
Besides, he saw now, a spineless nonentity would never have been suitable for what was to come. Or so surprisingly appealing.
Raul tugged his mind back to business. He needed a lever to ensure she saw sense. Failure wasn’t an option when his nation depended on him.
‘Lukas, you said the farming co-op is in debt?’
‘Yes sir, heavily so. I’m amazed it’s still running.’
Raul looked back at the tiny speck that was her home. A sliver of regret pierced him. He’d wanted to avoid coercion but she left him no choice.
‘Buy the debts. Immediately. I want it settled today.’
The roar of a helicopter brought Luisa’s head up.
It couldn’t be. After rejecting her inheritance yesterday there was no reason for her path and Prince Raul’s to cross again. Yet she was drawn inexorably to the window. It couldn’t be but it was. Prince Raul—here!
To Luisa’s annoyance, her heart pattered faster as she watched his long, powerful frame vault from the chopper.
Twenty-four hours had given her time to assure herself he wasn’t nearly as imposing as she remembered.
She’d been wrong.
Luisa had searched him on the web yesterday, learning his reputation for hard work and wealth. The reports also referred to discreet liaisons with gorgeous women.
Yet no photos did justice to his impact in the flesh. Her breath caught as he loped up the steps. Good thing she was immune.
‘Luisa.’ He stood before her, wide shoulders filling the open doorway, his voice smooth like dark chocolate with a hint of spice as he lingered on her name.
A tremor rippled through her as she responded to the exotic sound of her name on his tongue. It maddened her that she should react so. She pulled herself together, fiercely quelling a riot of unfamiliar emotions.
‘Your Highness.’ She gripped the door hard. ‘Why are you here? We finished our business yesterday.’ Surely he had VIPs to see, deals to forge, women to seduce.
He bent over her hand in another courtly almost-kiss that knotted her stomach. She had to remind herself not to be impressed by surface charm. Been there, done that.
Yet her gaze riveted on his austerely handsome face as he straightened. The flash of green fire in his eyes sent tendrils of heat curling through her. His fingers squeezed and her pulse accelerated.
‘Call me Raul.’
It went against the grain but to refuse would be churlish.
‘Raul.’ It was crazy but she could almost taste his name in her mouth, like a rich, full-bodied wine.
‘Aren’t you going to invite me in?’ One dark eyebrow rose lazily as if her obstinacy amused him. She bit down on a rude response. He must have good reason to return. The sooner she heard it the sooner he’d go.
‘Please, come in.’ She led the way to the lounge room, ignoring the jitter of nerves in her stomach.
Instead of making himself comfortable, he took up a position in front of the window. A commanding position, she noticed uneasily as premonition skittered across her nape.
She didn’t like the glint in his eye or his wide-legged stance, as if claiming her territory for his own. She stood facing him, refusing to be dominated.
‘You haven’t changed your mind?’
She lifted her chin a fraction. ‘Not if the cash comes with strings attached.’
Desperate as she was for money, she couldn’t agree.
She’d spent yesterday afternoon consulting her solicitor. There must be a way to access some of the money she was in line to inherit without giving up her life here. She didn’t trust Raul, a man with his own agenda, to be straight with her on that.
It was too soon to know, but the possibility she could negotiate enough funds to give the co-op the boost it needed had given her a better night’s sleep than she’d had in ages. It buoyed her now, strengthening her confidence.
‘Can I persuade you to reconsider?’ His mouth turned up in the barest hint of a smile, yet even that should have come with a health warning.
Her breath sawed in her throat and her pulse quickened.
Luisa thought of the enquiries being made on her behalf.
She’d be a fool to give in to his preposterous suggestion. ‘Absolutely not.’ The very thought of accepting made her ill.
‘That’s unfortunate.’ He paused so long her nerves stretched taut. ‘Very unfortunate.’ He looked grim.
Finally he reached into his jacket pocket. ‘In that case, these are for you.’
Bewildered, Luisa accepted the papers. ‘You want me to sign away my inheritance?’ She’d sign nothing without legal advice.
He shook his head. ‘Take your time. They’re self-explanatory.’
Confused, she skimmed the papers. Unlike yesterday’s, these weren’t rich parchment. They looked more like the loan documents that were the bane of her life.
Luisa forced herself to concentrate. Hard to do with his stare on her. When finally she began to understand, the world spun around her.
‘You’ve bought the co-op’s debts.’ Disbelieving, she shuffled the papers, eyes goggling. ‘All of them!’
And in one day. Each paper had yesterday’s date.
Was it even possible?
Bewildered, she looked up. The gravity of his expression convinced her more than the typed words.
Luisa sank abruptly onto the arm of a chair, her knees too wobbly to take her weight, her breath choppy.
What strings had he pulled to manage that in a single day? Luisa couldn’t conceive of such power. Yet, staring up at the man before her, she realised he wielded authority as easily as she managed a milking machine.
The realisation dried her mouth.
‘Why?’ Her voice was a hoarse rasp.
He paced closer, looming between her and the light from the window.
‘On the day you sign the documents accepting your inheritance, I’ll make a gift of them. You can rip them into confetti.’
Relief poured through her veins so suddenly she shook.
He was so obstinate! He still didn’t accept her rejection. No doubt he thought it embarrassing that the heir to a royal title was neck-deep in debt.
It was a generous gesture. One she’d compensate him for if she found a way to access the funds.
‘But I’m not going. I’m staying here.’
‘You won’t.’
Had anyone ever denied him what he wanted?
Impatient energy radiated off him. And that chin—she’d never seen a more determined face.
Luisa stood. She needed to assert herself and end this nonsense. It was time he accepted she knew her mind. ‘I’ve got no plans to leave.’
He held her gaze as the seconds stretched out. His expression didn’t change but a frisson of anxiety skipped up her back, like a spider dancing on her vertebrae.
‘Knowing how committed you are to the well-being of your family and friends, I’m sure you’ll change your mind.’ His voice held steel beneath the deep velvet inflection. ‘Unless you want them to lose everything.’
He spoke so matter-of-factly it took a moment to register the threat.
Luisa’s face froze and a gasp caught inside as her throat closed convulsively.
Blackmail?
She opened her mouth but no sound emerged. Paper cascaded to the floor from her trembling hands.
‘You … can’t be serious!’
Slowly he shook his head. ‘Never more so, Luisa.’
‘Don’t call me that!’ The way he said her name, with the same lilting accent her mother had used, was like a travesty of a familiar endearment.
‘Princess Luisa, then.’
She took a furious step forward, her hands clenching in frustration. ‘This has to be a joke.’ But no humour showed on his stern features. ‘You can’t foreclose! You’d destroy the livelihood of a dozen families.’ And her father’s dream. What she had worked for most of her life.
After she’d returned home to nurse her mother, Luisa had never found time to go back and finish school. Instead she’d stayed on to help her father, who’d never fully recovered from the loss of his wife.
‘The decision is yours. You can save them, if they mean as much as you claim.’
He meant it! The grim determination in his granite-set jaw was nothing to the resolution in his glittering eyes.
‘But … why?’ Luisa shook her head, trying to find sense in a world turned topsy-turvy. ‘You can find another heir, someone who’d be thrilled to live the life you’re offering.’ Someone happy to give up her soul for the riches he promised. ‘I’m not princess material!’
The gleam in his eyes suggested he agreed.
‘There is no one else, Luisa. You are the princess.’
‘You can’t dictate my future!’ Luisa planted her hands on her hips, letting defiance mask her sudden fear. ‘Why are you getting so personally involved?’
When her grandfather had made contact it had been through emissaries. He hadn’t come to her. Yet Raul as crown prince was far more important than her grandfather.
He took her hand before she could snatch it away. Heat engulfed her, radiating from his touch and searing her skin even as his intentions chilled her marrow.
‘I have a stake in your future,’ he murmured.
Automatically she jerked up her chin. ‘Really?’ The word emerged defiantly.
‘A very personal stake.’ His grip firmed, all except for his thumb, which stroked gently across her palm, sending little judders of awareness through her. ‘Not only are you the Ardissian heiress, you’re destined to be Queen of Maritz.’ He paused, eyes locking with hers.
‘That’s why I’m here. To take you back as my bride.’
CHAPTER THREE
LUISA watched his firm lips shape the word ‘bride’. Her head reeled.
There was no laughter in his eyes. No wildness hinting at insanity. Just a steady certainty that locked the protest in her mouth.
Her lungs cramped from lack of oxygen as her breath escaped in a whoosh. She lurched forward, dragging in air. He grasped her hand tight and reached for her shoulder as if to support her.
Violently she wrenched away, breaking his grip and retreating to stand, panting, beside the window.
‘Don’t touch me!’
His eyes narrowed to slits of green fire and she sensed that behind his calm exterior lurked a man of volatile passions.
‘Explain. Now!’ she said when she’d caught her breath.
‘Perhaps you’d better sit.’
So he could tower over her? No, thank you! ‘I prefer to stand.’ Even if her legs felt like unset jelly.
‘As you wish.’ Why did it sound like he granted her a special favour in her own house?
He had royal condescension down to an art form.
‘You were going to explain why you need to marry.’ For the life of her, Luisa couldn’t say ‘marry me’.
His look told her he didn’t miss the omission.
‘To ascend the throne I must be married.’ At her stare he continued. ‘It’s an old law, aimed to ensure an unbroken royal lineage.’
A tremor scudded through her at the idea of ‘ensuring the royal lineage’. With him.
It didn’t matter how handsome he was. She’d learnt looks could hide a black heart. It was the inner man that counted. From what she’d seen, Raul was as proud, opinionated and selfish as her detested grandfather.
The way he looked when she challenged him—jaw tight and eyes flashing malachite sparks, was warning enough.
Luisa’s heartbeat pounded so hard she had trouble hearing his next words.
‘It’s tradition that the crown prince take a bride from one of Maritz’s principalities. When we were in our teens a contract was drawn up for my marriage to your cousin, Marissa, Princess of Ardissia. But Marissa died soon after.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Luisa said gruffly. She searched his features for regret but couldn’t read anything. Didn’t he feel something for his fiancée who’d died?
She pursed her lips. Obviously the heartless arranged marriage was still alive and thriving in Maritz!
‘After that I was in no hurry to tie myself in marriage. But when my father died recently it was time to find another bride.’
‘So you could inherit.’ Luisa shivered, remembering that world where marriages were dynastic contracts, devoid of love. She crossed her arms protectively. How could he be so sanguine about it?
‘My plans were curtailed when your grandfather’s will was read and we discovered you would inherit. Before then, given what he’d said about disowning your mother, your branch of the family didn’t feature in our considerations.’
He made them sound like tiresome complications in his grand design! Indignation rose anew.
‘What has the will got to do with your marriage?’
‘The contract is binding, Luisa.’ He loomed far too close. Her lungs constricted, making her breathing choppy.
‘But how?’ Luisa paced away, urgently needing space. ‘If Marissa is—’
‘Everyone, including the genealogists and lawyers, believed your grandfather’s line would die with him. The news he had a granddaughter who hadn’t been disinherited was a bombshell.’ He didn’t look as if the news had pleased him. ‘You should be thankful we were able to find you before the media got the story. You’d have had press camped here around the clock.’
‘You’re overdramatising.’ Luisa’s hands curled tight as she forced down growing panic. ‘I’ve got nothing to do with your wedding.’
One dark eyebrow winged upwards. ‘The antiquated style of the contract means I’m bound to marry the Princess of Ardissia.’ He paused, his mouth a slash of pure displeasure. ‘Whoever she is.’
‘You’re out of your mind!’ Luisa retreated a frantic step, her stomach a churning mess. This truly was
a nightmare. ‘I never signed any contract!’
‘It doesn’t matter. The document is legal.’ His lips twisted. ‘The best minds in the country can’t find a way out of it.’
She shook her head, her hair falling across her face as she backed up against the window. ‘No way! No matter what your contract says, you can’t take me back there as—’
‘My bride?’ The words dropped into echoing silence. Luisa heard them repeat over and over in her numbed brain, like a never-ending ripple spreading in a still, icy pool.
‘Believe me; I’ll do what’s necessary to claim my throne.’ His chin lifted regally, making clear what he hadn’t put in words: that he didn’t wish to marry someone so far beneath him. Someone so unappealing.
Why was he so desperate? Did power mean so much?
Luisa choked on rising anger. Twenty-four years old and she’d received two marriage offers—both from ambitious men who saw her as nothing but a means to acquire power! Why couldn’t she meet a caring, honest man who’d love her for herself? She felt soiled and cheap.
‘You expect me to give up my life and marry you, a total stranger, so you can become king?’ What century had he dropped out of? ‘You’re talking antiquated nonsense.’
His look grazed like shards of ice on bare skin. ‘It may be antiquated but I must marry.’
She jutted her chin. ‘Marry someone else!’
Something dangerous and dark flashed in his eyes. But when he spoke his words were measured. She sensed he hung onto his control by a thread.
‘If I could I would. If you hadn’t existed or if you’d already married, the contract would be void and I could choose another bride.’
As if choosing a wife took a minimum of time and effort!
Though in his case it might. With his looks, sexual magnetism and wealth there’d be lots of women eager to overlook the fact they tied themselves to a power hungry egotist!
His deep voice sent a tremor rippling through her overwrought body. ‘There’s no more time to find a way out. I need to be married within the constitutional time limit or I can’t inherit.’
‘Why should I care?’ Luisa rubbed her hands up chilled arms, trying to restore warmth. ‘I don’t even know you.’
