by Susan Meier
After walking down the slim corridor, they stepped into the large, comfortable room and Seth motioned for her to sit on the brown leather sofa. It didn’t escape his notice that she sat in the middle, making it impossible for him to sit anywhere but on the chair—unless he wanted to sit right beside her.
He glanced at her pretty red shirt, her glorious bounty of hair, her plump lips.
Yeah, as if he were going to be that stupid. He sat on the chair, feeling incredibly foolish for not being able to control a couple of base instincts that were typically controlled very well by most men.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Almost immediately after I left Miami in January, I began having bouts of morning sickness.”
“Are you telling me that you knew almost immediately that you were pregnant?”
“No. At the time I thought I had the flu. I called you one night for a little sympathy, but my assistant told me that you weren’t available.”
Seth nodded. “And we both know why she lied.”
“Yes, my father told her to do whatever she had to do to keep us apart.”
“Because he didn’t want us to be married.”
Lucy tilted her head in agreement. “For the most part. But he also didn’t want you hanging around Xavier Island too long or you would have realized something fairly obvious.”
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “And what’s that?”
Lucy drew a quick breath. “Our pregnancy predates our marriage.”
Seth almost sighed with relief. This he could handle. “Nobody blinks an eye at that anymore.”
“Well, my dad blinked because our pregnancy predating our marriage means that technically my betrothal was nullified before we got married, so the betrothal couldn’t prevent our marriage.”
Seth sat up in his seat. “Are you telling me we’re still married?”
Lucy drew another breath and Seth braced himself. Every time she needed air in this conversation, it was because she was about to tell him something horrible.
“Yes. I called a barrister this afternoon and after I told him Owen’s birthday and explained that I was clearly pregnant before we got married, he told me that according to the laws of Xavier Island, my betrothal could not be grounds for an annulment because technically the minute I got pregnant, the betrothal was cancelled. And without grounds, there is no annulment. So, yes. We’re still married.”
Seth felt his mouth fall open. He couldn’t have spoken if his life depended on it. They were still married! Married. Now he wasn’t just trying to keep his hands off the woman to whom he was unreasonably attracted. He had to keep his hands off his wife!
He put his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hands. “Dear God.” Around Lucy, the air was sweeter, the sky bluer, and every day with her he experienced a joy the likes of which he had never known. Now, she was telling him he could have it all back. He could have the laughter, the joy…the sex.
And the only price he paid was that he become a member of her family.
No. Not her family. A monarchy. And their child was to be Xavier’s next king.
Owen was already smack dab in the center of trouble. And he had no advocate. No one to fight for his rights, except Seth.
This time, Seth was the one who drew the life-sustaining breath.
If Lucy hadn’t responded so eagerly to his kiss that afternoon, Seth wouldn’t be worried. But she had responded. The spark of attraction was alive and well for both of them. And they were still married.
He bounced out of his seat and began to pace. “So what do we do now?”
Lucy watched him for a second, then said, “Well, I don’t think we should make any rash decisions.”
Seth spun to face her. “That’s a good idea.”
“After all, we have been apart for eight months.”
“Right!”
“And I have a feeling that if we don’t petition the courts to nullify the decree for the annulment filed in Xavier because of the betrothal, my father certainly won’t do it.”
“So our marriage continues to be annulled?”
“No, eventually we would have to address this.” She met his gaze. “We can’t live a lie, Seth.”
Silence fell as disappointment trembled through Lucy. She reminded herself that she had had hours that afternoon to get accustomed to the fact that they were still married and that was why she had reached the acceptance phase before Seth. But that didn’t dull the pain of realizing from his behavior that he didn’t want to be married to her anymore.
It wasn’t because he didn’t want her. She knew from his kiss that afternoon that he wanted her. Which meant her original assessment had been correct. He didn’t want to be married to a princess. In the eight months they had been apart, he had had enough time to realize the full ramifications of her being a member of a monarchy and he wanted no part of it.
He wouldn’t fight for her. He wouldn’t cross her dad for her. He wouldn’t take a title, move to Xavier or change one iota of his life for her.
Which, now that she really thought about it, very clearly said he didn’t love her. He might love her body, or maybe being with her, or even the way he felt when he was with her, but he didn’t love her.
Well, fine. She was who she was. She could not change who she was. And, when the time came, she would give him the divorce he wanted. For now, she simply intended to get out of the room with her dignity.
Pasting on a smile, she rose from the sofa. “I’m going to check on the casserole.”
“Good. Great,” Seth said, feigning a gaiety she knew he was far, far from feeling. It was killing him that he was still married to her, and that was killing her.
Because the other thing she had had time enough to figure out that afternoon after she had spoken with the barrister was that she still loved Seth.
Chapter Eight
They ate supper in complete silence, though Seth wasn’t sure why Lucy was upset. He hadn’t really said anything negative. He’d remained somewhat neutral in his reaction. So he knew he hadn’t said or done anything to upset her.
It took him until after eight, when they were bathing Owen for bed, that Seth realized that Lucy wasn’t upset but unhappy. The only reason he could think of that she would be unhappy would be that she had expected him to respond differently to her announcement that they were still married.
Which puzzled him. Never in a million years would he even have considered that she wanted to be married to him. Sleep with him, yes. Live with him, maybe. But not be married. After all, when the chips were down, when Lucy’s father instigated the scheme to prevent them from getting back together, neither one gave the other the benefit of the doubt. Both instantly assumed the other had gladly given up on their relationship. People who loved each other didn’t jump to those kinds of conclusions. So, they didn’t love each other. They shouldn’t have married. And both should have common sense enough not to repeat the mistake. Even if he didn’t have to protect Owen, he would have serious second thoughts about staying married. She should, too!
After sliding Owen into a sleeper, Seth kissed his son’s forehead and left the room so Lucy could feed him a bottle before putting the baby to bed. He went to his den and tried to focus on work, but he couldn’t. It was ridiculous for Lucy to want to be married again.
Frustrated, he tossed his pencil to his desk and went to look for her. He found her in the kitchen, cleaning up the supper dishes.
“It’s a little late to be doing dishes.”
She didn’t turn around, but kept stacking dirty plates into the sink, which was rapidly filling with soapy water. “Then why didn’t you do them before this?”
He smiled to himself. She had a point. “I’ll help.”
“Don’t bother.”
He grabbed a dish towel anyway, deciding it was good that they had something to do while they talked. They had to venture into the subject of their marriage. He had to tell her he believed it was ridiculous for them to even c
onsider staying together.
“Okay, look,” he said, when the first dish slid into the drainer a little too roughly. “I think I know why you’re mad.”
“I’m not mad.”
“Okay. Maybe you’re not mad, but you are unhappy and you’re not treating me normally. I think it’s because I didn’t react the way you thought I should when you told me we were still married.” He put the dish he’d just dried into the cupboard to his right. “But the truth is. I didn’t really react. I wasn’t positive or negative. I was neutral.”
“Of course you were. That’s your answer to everything. Wait and see.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said, then wondered why he was doing this. She was angry. Talking was making her more angry. It seemed insane to go any further. Still, he couldn’t stop himself. “What the hell kind of comment is that?”
“It’s the truth.”
“It’s not the truth! I face things head-on.”
“Oh, yeah?” she said, pulling her hands from the dishpan with such force she splashed soapy water on him. A small mountain of bubbles peaked on his chest. “Then why have you been away for the past five weeks?”
He glanced away from the suds to glare at her. “For business!”
“Are you sure it’s not because you were afraid of how our visitation discussion would turn out, so you simply avoided it?”
“Yes. I’m sure.”
“I think that’s a lie. The whole time you were gone, I sensed something of a conspiracy behind why you were staying away…”
“Okay, Princess, you want the truth? Here’s the truth. There was a conspiracy behind why I was staying away. But it wasn’t fear of discussing visitation. It was fear of making you mad.”
“Making me mad?” This time she shoved her hands into the water with too much force, but the result was similar to when she had pulled her hands from the dishpan too quickly. Seth got splashed with soapy water.
He didn’t think she was doing it on purpose, but nonetheless he was careful when he said, “Yes, I was afraid of making you mad and having you leave before we really had a chance to work anything out.”
She gaped at him, but in the way that combined royal arrogance with female disbelief. If the conversation wasn’t so serious, he might have laughed.
“Do you think I’m that spoiled, or is it that you think I’m prone to temper tantrums?”
If she had hit him with soapy water again, he would have thought her prone to temper tantrums. Since she didn’t, he decided to officially declare the first two splash episodes accidents.
“How the hell am I supposed to know what to think about you? I knew you two weeks before we got married. We were married for two weeks. Then your dad summoned you and, Poof! you were gone.”
When she caught a handful of suds and tossed it at him, he took back his earlier assessment. She was mad and she really was grabbing the only available weapon. He was glad they weren’t stacking wood.
“And you never came after me! You were free to travel. I was not. Yet you never bothered to try to see me.”
He ducked the next handful of bubbles. “Yes, I did! But I couldn’t get into the palace. Hell, I couldn’t even get onto the road that led to the palace. They were waiting for me at the airport. I was taken into a small room where I sat for two hours until a representative from the monarchy arrived and told me that I wasn’t welcome. They virtually escorted me onto the next flight to New York.”
She finally faced him. “Really?”
The relief in her eyes was so intense that Seth’s breath caught. His not coming after her—or her not being told that he had tried to come after her—clearly had hurt her greatly. He thought she had wanted out of the marriage, so he envisioned her dancing at balls and playing tennis with dukes and earls. Seeing that she had been hurt squeezed his soul and he couldn’t let her go on believing he had inflicted that kind of pain on her.
“Yes. I came after you. What we had was…” Great. Wonderful. Perfect. But he couldn’t tell her that because then he would have to explain why he didn’t want it anymore. He would have to tell her that he hated the world she lived in and intended to protect Owen from getting sucked into it. Or, maybe more to the point, he felt compelled to protect Owen from being exploited by her monarchy. If he was getting soaked for the little disagreement over why he had been gone for five weeks, he was fairly certain she would drown him if he told her he viewed her family as the enemy.
Still, he didn’t need to tell her that. He only had to be careful about how he described their time together. He caught her gaze and quietly said, “What we had was very special.”
This time, the handful of water she threw bounced across his cheek. “Special!” She gaped at him “You expect me to be happy that you think we were special? You told me you loved me! You told me you had never felt about anyone the way you felt about me…” She paused, her eyes narrowed; then some kind of realization dawned and she gasped. “You stereotypical American playboy! You used me!”
“I didn’t use you!” He hadn’t. He had meant every word he had said to her. Hell, he was so smitten with her he could have written sonnets. “But it won’t do any of us any good to rehash our relationship.”
“Why not?”
“Because.”
Waiting, she crossed her arms on her chest and Seth’s attention tumbled to her breasts. Vivid images and memories came back to him. And he knew that all he had to do was say the right words now and they could be sleeping together tonight.
But then he really would be using her because he knew he couldn’t stay married to her.
He drew a noisy breath. “Come on, Lucy, we can’t be married. We really can’t. I don’t fit into your world. And you…” He almost said, “don’t fit into mine,” but the truth was she fit perfectly. Standing by his sink, wearing jeans and a red top that was sexy without even trying, she could have been any American wife, doing the dishes with her husband. Unfortunately, she wasn’t allowed to fit in his world. And any day now her father could arrive and take her away.
“And you can’t stay in mine.”
He expected her to realize the truth of that and her eyes to fill with tears at the hopelessness of their situation. Instead, her spine straightened and her eyes darkened with anger. “So you’re making all the decisions?”
From the day he’d met her, she’d stood up to him and gotten her own way more than he had gotten his. Her being assertive now brought back some memories of other times she’d taken control and, unfortunately, those also involved bubbles, except those were in a bathtub with the two of them in it.
He forced the memories out of his head. “I have to make the decisions I think are right for me.”
Grabbing a dish towel and drying her hands, Lucy took the two steps that separated them. She was so close he could feel the heat of her anger.
“Without consulting me?”
Response to her nearness rattled through him. He never could be within a hundred feet of this woman without thinking about a dark room and silk sheets. She was playing with fire by pushing him right now.
“At this point, it’s not wise for me to consult with you.”
“Why?”
“Because if I consult with you, we’re going to get too close and if we get too close we’re going to…” He didn’t bother finishing his sentence. He bent his head and kissed her.
Her lips tasted like heaven. The body he hauled against his felt like home. And he finally understood that they were fighting not just because they were on opposite sides of the fence, but also because they were both tired of battling the attraction that raged between them.
He couldn’t stop his hands when they decided to roam across her back, down the curve of her waist or to her breasts, but he felt the answering exploration of her hands on his back, his torso and his chest. Every brush of her hand was charged with meaning. Her slight sighs of pleasure rolled through the room like thunder, alerting him that things were getting out of control. Every t
ime they kissed, something like a nuclear explosion went off in Seth and he couldn’t seem to stop the resulting ripples of reaction. He kissed. He touched. He tasted. He wanted. He wanted everything.
But did he want all this at Owen’s expense? His son was an innocent baby who would be exploited by a heartless juggernaut of a monarchy. And Seth was his only line of defense.
He pulled away. “That’s why I have to stay away from you.” With that, he turned from their embrace and walked out the door without caring that the dishes weren’t finished. Having her tell the neighborhood ladies that he’d skipped out on kitchen cleanup was the least of his worries. Saving his son, protecting his son, was the greatest. And he wasn’t going to fail.
The next day, upset about her argument with Seth, Lucy couldn’t stand being cooped up anymore and she put Owen in a stroller, locked Seth’s house and pushed her son the short distance to Main Street. In spite of the fact that it was the last day of October, Halloween in the United States, the day was warm, almost muggy. She stopped to remove her cardigan sweater, glancing at the houses around her.
The homes on Seth’s street where all new. Rambling two-story houses with decks, skylights and sunrooms, they spoke of the extra money Bryant Development had brought into the community. The homes on the next street were mostly split-level and ranch houses. They would have been built right about the time Bryant had begun to employ people, from what Audrey had told her. The next street held Cape Cods. Older houses built in a time that wasn’t so prosperous.
Main Street was a mishmash of old and new buildings. The fast-food restaurant and convenience store were new. But the diner, hardware store and dollar store were decades old. It was clear from the town’s layout that Bryant Development had taken great pains to assure that Porter didn’t grow too quickly to lose its charm.
As she walked down Main Street knowing that Seth and Ty Bryant had been behind most of the improvements she saw, Lucy suddenly realized something that she hadn’t really understood before this. Seth and Ty weren’t born to wealth and privilege. They had created it. And not just for themselves, for their entire town. Seth had the sophistication to fit into her world, even if he didn’t believe it. But he had responsibilities here. In Porter.
