Bride by Royal Decree
Page 16
“That was pretty much your original plan, if I remember it right.” She shrugged. “Why shouldn’t it work for me?”
“You should have told me you were barking mad,” he gritted out. “I would have handled this whole thing differently.”
“I’m not mad. I am mad at you,” she retorted. She stood up then, letting her dress fall where it would. She’d chosen it carefully because it made her look like a queen and she knew it. She could see he knew it, too. “You made me into a princess. Now I want to be your queen. As promised.”
His hands were clenched into fists at his sides. He looked like thunder. But he was here. He was here, and that was what kept her standing where she was, pretending her heart wasn’t thumping and her stomach wasn’t in knots.
“You cannot force me to marry you,” he growled at her, as if that was the end of the matter. But he still didn’t leave.
Maggy only smiled at him.
“First,” she said, “it’s not up to you whether you marry me or not. It’s your destiny.” She saw the moment he realized she was throwing his own words right back at him. It made those hard rain eyes go silver, and that was when she knew this would be okay. That it would work. That the flicker of light inside of her, hopeful and bright, had been guiding her in the right direction all along. “And second, you silly man, haven’t you realized that we’re made for each other? You took a scared, beaten-down woman and made her a princess.”
“And you took a king and rendered him nothing but a man,” he bit out, but she thought he sounded less furious than before.
She’d seen that gleam of silver and she wasn’t afraid any longer. She’d already lost him, however briefly. She wasn’t doing it again. Not ever again.
Maggy moved toward him, watching that muscle in his cheek flex as she did. She didn’t stop when she drew near. She slid her hands up on his chest and she arched herself into him, never taking her eyes from his.
“I love you, Reza,” she told him, from the very depths of her. “I love the king in you. I love how seriously you take your duties. I love how deeply it matters to you that you take care of your people. But it was the man who took care of me. And I love him more.”
“Maggy...” he whispered, as if her name might break him in two. “I don’t know how to do this. My father—”
“You are not your father,” she told him, her gaze solemn on his. “And I have no desire to be your mistress. And, Reza, no one knows how to do it. I think that’s the point.”
And she watched him break. She saw his eyes flash silver and bright. She watched the ice crack and all that heat pour out of him as his arms came around her, and then he hauled her even closer.
Bringing Maggy home at last.
“You knew I would come to you,” he growled at her, his mouth so close to hers. “You knew I couldn’t resist.”
Her eyes felt much too full. “I hoped.”
“And if I marry you, then what?” he demanded. “When you strip away my control and I am rendered nothing but a man lost without you, what then?”
“Then I will come and find you wherever you’re lost,” she whispered. “Just as you came and found me. And I promise you, Reza, I won’t let you stumble. I won’t make you a worse king. I’ll try my best to make you a better man.”
His hands seemed uncertain as they moved up to smooth her hair back from her face, and she felt her tears spilling over when he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead.
“I think I’ve loved you all my life,” he told her, his voice a rough sort of velvet she’d never heard from him before. It washed through her, heat and love. “I loved you in the abstract. I mourned you. And then I saw you in that picture and I fell in love all over again.”
He kissed her then, and it was a real kiss. Wild and dark and perfect, rolling through her and making her heart swell inside her chest. He kissed her again and again, as if they were making their vows here and now. As if they were fusing themselves into one.
When he pulled away again, it was her turn to reach up and cradle his face in her hands.
“When I was first found by the side of that road,” she told him, “I dreamed of fairy tales. Kings and queens and palaces. Every night, for years, I would go to sleep and dream of fairy-tale stories filled with people I wanted so badly to believe were real.” She smiled at him. She kissed him. “But maybe they were. Maybe they weren’t dreams at all. Maybe they were the life I left behind me when that car crashed.”
He whispered her name, drawing her closer.
“Reza.” And her voice was a scrap of sound. “Don’t you see? I’ve been dreaming of you my whole life. It’s just that I forgot your name for a little while.”
His smile then was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“I will endeavor to make certain you never do again.”
“Marry me, Your Majesty,” she whispered, tipping her head back and loving him with all she was, all she would be, all she’d ever dreamed she could be. Right here in his arms, at last. “Make me your queen.”
That June, in a ceremony televised around the world and gushed over in all the tabloids, with her newfound family there to give her away and a brand-new country that had fallen in love with their king’s lost princess, he did.
And they spent all their happily-ever-after together, making their fairy tale real.
Just as Maggy had always dreamed.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
Raul Di Savo desires more than Lydia Hayward’s body—his seduction will stop his rival buying her! Raul’s expert touch awakens Lydia to irresistible pleasure, but his game of revenge forces Lydia to leave…until an unexpected consequence binds them forever!
Read on for a sneak preview of
THE INNOCENT’S SECRET BABY
Somehow Lydia was back against the wall with Raul’s hands either side of her head.
She put her hands up to his chest and felt him solid beneath her palms and she just felt him there a moment and then looked up to his eyes.
His mouth moved in close and as it did she stared right into his eyes.
She could feel heat hover between their mouths in a slow tease before they first met.
Then they met.
And all that had been missing was suddenly there.
Yet, the gentle pressure his mouth exerted, though blissful, caused a mire of sensations until the gentleness of his kiss was no longer enough.
A slight inhale, a hitch in her breath and her lips parted, just a little, and he slipped his tongue in.
The moan she made went straight to his groin.
At first taste she was his and he knew it for her hands moved to the back of his head and he kissed her as hard back as her fingers demanded.
More so even.
His tongue was wicked and her fingers tightened in his thick hair and she could feel the wall cold and hard against her shoulders.
It was the middle of Rome just after six and even down a side street there was no real hiding from the crowds.
Lydia didn’t care.
He slid one arm around her waist to move her body away from the wall and closer into his, so that her head could fall backwards.
If there was a bed, she would be on it.
If there was a room they would close the door.
Yet there wasn’t and so he halted them, but only their lips.
Their bodies were heated and close and he looked her right in the eye. His mouth was wet from hers and his hair a little messed from her fingers.
Don’t miss
THE INNOCENT’S SECRET BABY,
By Carol Marinelli
Available March 2017
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Copyright ©2017 Mills & Boon
ISBN: 978-1-474-05208-5
BRIDE BY ROYAL DECREE
© 2017 Caitlin Crews
Published in Great Britain 2017
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Har
perCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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