by Dani Collins
“You didn’t know about the mistress,” he said in wonder.
“Before we left Volyarus, no I did not. In fact, I did not discover her existence until a few years ago.”
“And realizing he maintained that relationship put a different complexion on his actions with you and your mother fifteen years ago.”
“Yes. I realized that he expects everyone but himself to sacrifice for the sake of his throne.”
“Isn’t that a bit harsh? He has a whole country’s well-being he must take into account.”
“Not if it means giving up the woman he loves, but not enough to marry. If you can call the sort of selfishness that drives him love at all.”
“You judge him harshly.”
“I paid a high price for his pride, but Mama, who had already paid a terrible price for being married to my father, was forced to give up even more.” And Nataliya wasn’t sure she would ever forgive her King for making her mother pay that price.
“The Countess seems to have built a good life for herself in her exile.”
“Mama has, but she should not have had to learn to live without her family and friends. It wasn’t fair.”
“Do you feel that way about the contract? That it is not fair?”
Nataliya thought about that for a minute, never having put the contract in those terms.
“I think me being pressured to sign it and accept the terms when I was eighteen was not fair. I would fight tooth and nail to stop my own child from doing the same.”
He nodded but said nothing. Still waiting it seemed for her to answer the core of his question.
Did she think it fair that she was contracted to marry him?
Instead of answering that, she offered some truth of her own. “I did a deep dive into your life last night.”
“I thought you looked tired.” He took both her hands in his and smiled down at her, obviously not worried about her investigation. “Did you get any sleep?”
“A few hours.” She licked her lips, her gaze caught on his mouth, wanting to taste.
His gray gaze darkened with desire. “A nap might be in order this afternoon.”
Was he offering to take it with her? She shook her head. No, of course not.
“Is that all you’re going to say?” Nataliya asked, stunned he wasn’t offended.
“What do you want me to say? I cannot claim I did not expect you to use your skills to discover if I have any skeletons in my closet. Your main concern about marrying Konstantin was his tendency to have uncommitted sex with women.”
“He wasn’t in a relationship, not like my father.”
“But it still gave you pause.”
“You know it did.”
“You would not have found anything similar in my background.”
“Not even a discreet long-term mistress.”
“I am not King Fedir either.”
“No. You are kind of an anomaly among powerful men. I’d wonder if you had a repressed libido, but I felt the evidence of your arousal in the car last night.”
Far from being insulted by her remark, he laughed. “I can assure you, my libido is everything you will want it to be.”
“I don’t doubt it.” She looked to their tour guide-slash-carriage driver and only now realized he had earbuds in.
She probably should have noticed he wasn’t giving a running commentary, but Nataliya had been so caught up in Nikolai, for once in her adult life, she hadn’t paid the utmost attention to the situation around her.
His smile said he knew. “Just noticed he’s in hear-no-evil, or rather private discussion mode?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not like you.”
“I thought we were doing a tour.”
“The commentary will start when I give him a signal.”
“Your guards are in the pedicabs ahead of and behind us, aren’t they?” She’d just noticed that too.
“They wanted to be riding their own horses, but you would not believe the regulations governing any and all activity in Central Park.”
“Even a king has to submit to red tape.”
He nodded, his expression rueful. “If I’d had more time...”
He’d had time enough to buy gorgeous matching horses and a carriage.
He did some more of that thumb brushing, this time on both of her palms and she shivered.
“You wouldn’t have been sure of me, if I hadn’t kissed you last night.” He sounded very pleased with himself.
“Maybe. I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I kind of see you as this larger than life man. Yes, you are a king, but you’re not a despot.”
“You don’t think so?” he asked, like her opinion actually mattered.
“You’re the kind of king that makes me not worry about you not having a parliament, unless I’m worried about you taking too much on and not having anyone else to help carry the burden.” Why was she being so honest? She’d never have been this open with anyone else.
Nikolai’s expression could be seen as nothing less than satisfaction. “King Fedir?”
“Would benefit a lot by having some checks of power in his life.”
“So, you think I am a good king?”
“Yes.”
“And a good man?” he asked.
“Yes.” She’d always thought so, but she’d had to be sure.
“You have no questions about things you may have discovered last night?”
“I didn’t discover anything. That’s the point, isn’t it? Were there things to discover?”
“About me? No.”
“Then about who?”
“Does it matter?”
If his father, or brother, or someone else had done something she might have questions about? “No. I don’t think it does, but you would tell me, wouldn’t you, if there was something that would affect me?”
“Yes.” Nikolai looked so stern when he said that, but not shifty.
So, she believed.
“I think if I were a different woman, raised in a different way, I might think the contract was unfair,” she said, finally answering his initial question. “If you were a different man, you wouldn’t feel the need to fulfill its terms on behalf of your house.”
“Perhaps.”
“But I am who I am. And honestly, I wasn’t raised to believe in fairy tales and happy endings. I don’t remember Mama ever suggesting she hoped I found true love.” More like Solomia had hoped her daughter would not end up married to a man who would physically hurt her.
But even with that hope, Mama had still encouraged her daughter to sign that contract ten years ago, with no idea about what kind of man Konstantin was.
“I don’t think the contract itself is unfair.” Nataliya acknowledged as much to herself as to him. “I did sign it. I did agree to the terms. I never expected to marry a man I loved, but I won’t marry a man I cannot trust.”
“My brother is trustworthy.”
“Maybe, but his double standard about dating and sex make it hard for me to see him that way.” She didn’t want to talk about his brother. “Regardless, if we marry and are blessed with children, then believe their well-being will be more important to me than that of Mirrus.”
“But that is not how a royal thinks.”
“Then I guess you’d better make sure I never have to choose between duty and my children.”
“That’s a heavy promise you want me to make.”
“No. My promise to you is that if you don’t succeed at that, I will not be browbeaten into doing something that could hurt those I love. Period.”
“That is the perspective of the common man.”
“A perspective you said the royal family needs.”
“Yes.”
“So, that implies you are going to take my opinion
s into consideration when making decisions for Mirrus.”
“It does, yes.”
“But you hardly know me.”
“You are not the only hacker available to dive deep into someone’s life.”
“Plus your family has had me under surveillance for ten years.” Someone paying attention could know a great deal about her.
“That is true.”
“You’ve read the reports?” she couldn’t help asking.
“All of them.”
All of them? “That’s a lot of reading.”
“Deciding to enforce the contract and fulfill its terms was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. I do not make those.” He said the last like his own warning.
“I believe it.” Though at first that was exactly what she’d thought he’d done. “You came to Volyarus intending to put yourself forward as the Prince of your house referred to in the contract.”
“I did.”
“Did Konstantin know?”
“No. It is not my habit to take others into my confidence.”
“I think I’ll expect you to take me into your confidence, if I marry you.”
“We are separate people. Our duties will live in harmony but not always overlap.”
“Are you trying to warn me that I won’t see much of you if I marry you?” That might actually turn out to be the deal breaker nothing else had.
His jaw went taut. “That will be up to you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, her brows drawn together in confusion.
“Though I travel some for diplomatic reasons, all business travel is Konstantin’s purview. I spend most of my time in Mirrus.”
“Wouldn’t your wife do the same?”
“Tiana did not. She found life in Mirrus stifling and preferred traveling with friends in warmer climates.”
That made no sense. No more sense that he would tolerate it. “But she was the Queen. Surely her duties precluded long vacations in Jamaica.”
“Monaco was her favorite haunt, but as to her duties, she found those stifling, as well.”
Nataliya didn’t know what he thought about that. His expression revealed nothing.
“I am used to working long hours,” she offered.
“Will you expect to continue with a career after marriage?” Something about that question made him so tense, she couldn’t miss it, despite how he was so careful to maintain an expressionless mask.
“If I were to marry a king, I think the job of being his Princess would keep me sufficiently busy.”
“Not all women would agree.”
“Really? I can’t imagine a single woman of my acquaintance who would attempt to maintain a full-time career as well as the full-time job of Princess.”
“So you do see it as a job.”
“Being a wife is a role, but being a princess? That’s definitely a job.”
“I’m very glad to hear you say that.”
What else didn’t she know about his marriage to Tiana? Nataliya had not known that Tiana spent so much time away from Mirrus, but she’d been careful in her research to respect Nikolai’s personal privacy. Other than confirming that Tiana had not had a bunch of visits from the Palace Physician for unexplained injuries, Nataliya had purposefully not looked too deeply into his marriage.
Just because she could find out just about anything about a person’s life, didn’t mean she would do that. It was a matter of her own personal integrity.
They spent the rest of their tour talking about their families, getting to know each other on a level that no amount of reading investigative reports could achieve. Nikolai never did indicate their tour guide start his commentary.
And she didn’t mind at all.
She wasn’t surprised she enjoyed the King’s company.
Nataliya always had.
He was the guy she’d had her first crush on and being older and wiser only made those feelings seem deeper. But she didn’t love him.
Would not let herself.
She felt something for him though, that would make refusing marriage to him impossible.
Not that she was sharing that revelation with the arrogant King.
CHAPTER SIX
NATALIYA DID END UP taking a long nap that afternoon because their dinner reservations weren’t until eight.
Nataliya expected to be taken to an exclusive five-star restaurant with a month-long waiting list for dinner.
Because so far Nikolai had pulled out all the stops for this courtship.
So, she was a little surprised to find herself at Central Park for the second time that day. An eight-person security team surrounded them as they exited the limousine.
“What are we doing back here?”
“Having dinner.”
“I thought we had reservations.”
“I said dinner was at eight. And it will be.” He sounded so complacent, almost smug, like he knew what he’d planned was going to please her.
She couldn’t help wanting to push his buttons a little. Laughing, she said, “I’m not exactly dressed for a picnic with hot dogs from a local vendor,” she teased.
The look of horror on his face was worth the tease. “Trust me—that is not what we are having for dinner.”
“You’re such a snob.” She found herself reaching for his hand and having to pull hers back before the telling movement gave her away.
He made it so easy to forget they weren’t really dating. That this courtship was the result of a contract signed a long time ago.
“I am a king. I would and have eaten grubs in order not to offend my hosts in both Africa and Australia, but if the choice of venue is up to me? We are never eating from a food truck.” He spoke with the conviction he usually reserved for matters of real import.
It made her smile. “I’m not sure hot dog carts are considered food trucks, but I get your point. Thousands of foodies would tell you that you don’t know what you are missing though.”
“I will live with the loss,” he said dryly.
She shook her head, her smile undimmed. “You just watch. One day I’ll convince you.”
“Watch yourself, kiska. You are sounding dangerously like you are considering a future with me.”
“Perhaps you should be the one watching out. Maybe I am,” she admitted, some things having solidified inside her while she’d slept and rejuvenated that afternoon.
“I am very glad to hear that.” He was the one who reached for her hand, bringing it to his mouth to kiss the inside of her palm.
She gasped, that small salute sending tingles of pleasure right to the core of her. It was not a carnal act, but her body’s reaction was as basic as it got. Nataliya craved Nikolai like she’d never desired another man, and the more time they spent together the stronger that craving got.
It scared her and excited her at the same time.
Knowing that she was developing a need for him that only he would ever be able to fill frightened her, but the knowledge he wanted to marry her mitigated that fear.
If he were a man like her father, she’d run fast and far from both her feelings and him, but Nikolai would never betray her as the Count had betrayed Nataliya’s mother over and over again.
They came into a clearing and unexpected tears pricked her eyes at what she saw.
It was so over-the-top, but even at first glance the amount of thought that went into setting it up was obvious.
Standing lanterns surrounded a table set with the official linens she’d only seen in the Mirrus palace. Eggshell white, they were embroidered in gold and navy blue with the coat of arms for the House of Merikov. Fine white bone china with the same design sat atop gold chargers she had no doubt were pure precious metal and the crystal on the table sparkled elegantly.
The eight-person security detail, rather than his
usual four, suddenly made sense. The table settings alone were worth thousands, if not tens of thousands and the centerpiece looked like a vase Oxana had in her sitting room. Mama had told her as a child not to touch it because it was priceless.
When royalty used that term, they meant it.
But beyond the opulence of the setting was how much care had been taken to bring a taste of Mirrus to New York. A small, ornate, gold-leafed trinket box sat next to one of the place settings.
It didn’t take a computer genius to know what was in that box. The official betrothal ring of the House of Merikov.
“It’s beautiful,” Nataliya said in a hushed voice, that trinket box taking her breath away.
Nikolai led her to the table, relinquishing her hand to pull Nataliya’s chair out himself. “I have pleased you. I am glad.”
“You’ve been pleasing me this whole courtship, and you know it.” She made the mistake of looking up and found herself frozen by the molten depths of his gaze.
“I have tried.”
Oh, man. She needed to get a hold of herself. Forcing herself to look away, she settled into her chair. “Enough with the false humility, Nikolai,” she mocked, though she felt like doing anything but mocking. “You are a king. You do not consider failure as an option.”
That ornate trinket box to the left of her plate affirmed that truth as much as it stole the very breath from her body.
He moved around the table and took his own seat, his attention fixed firmly on her. “And yet, to succeed, ultimately I need your cooperation.”
“It’s nice to hear you finally admit that.”
His left brow rose in sardonic question. “I have never denied that your agreement is necessary.”
“But you have acted like you assume you already had it.” And why it should strike her that that kind of arrogance could be sexy, she did not know.
“You signed the contract, but only you can decide if you are going to fulfill its terms.” He flicked his hand to signal someone.
A waiter came out of the darkness around them to shake out Nataliya’s napkin and lay it smoothly across her lap before doing the same for Nikolai. Moments later, water and wine were poured in their crystal goblets and a starter of fresh prawns was served over a bed of arugula.
