Kitabı oku: «Marrying His Majesty: Claimed: Secret Royal Son», sayfa 3

CHAPTER FOUR

HE WAS off balance. He shouldn’t have entered Lily’s apartment. It made him feel like a criminal.

What Spiros had said made him feel like a criminal.

Leaving Lily alone with a child…

How the hell was he supposed to have known?

He heard heavy boots on the stairs. Lily’s boots? The door swung open. He turned to face her but she ignored him, making a beeline for the cot.

Michales was still asleep.

Alex waited. He still didn’t look at the baby. He couldn’t. This was still too big to take in.

Lily though… He could watch Lily. She’d been doing hard manual work. Building boats. He’d heard it before and he’d been hearing verification all week but until now he hadn’t believed it.

Mia’s sister?

Finally satisfied her son was safe, Lily turned to the woman.

‘Thanks, Eleni,’ she said. ‘I can take it from here.’

Then, as the woman gave him a cold stare and huffed her way out of the door, she turned to him. ‘So,’ she said, coldly formal, ‘what right do you have to walk in here?’

She was angry! There were two sides of that coin.

‘I might ask the same of you,’ he snapped. ‘Entering my palace, stealing the Crown Prince.’

‘He’s not the Crown Prince and you know it.’ She tugged her cap further down over her short-cropped curls. It really was… ridiculous.

‘You had no right… ’ he started, but she crossed her arms over her breasts as Eleni had and glared, lioness guarding her cub.

‘I have every right. You can’t have him.’

‘I’m not saying I want him.’

‘No,’ she said, and then again, ‘no.’ Defiance turned suddenly to uncertainty. ‘I don’t… ’

‘Know what you want? That makes two of us. Would you mind telling me what the hell is happening?’

‘Why should I?’

‘For a start, you’ve implied I’m this baby’s father. Am I?’

‘Yes,’ she said, as if it didn’t matter.

It mattered. He’d been working on this, the worst-case scenario, all week, but it still made him feel ill.

Again he couldn’t look at the cot. He just… couldn’t.

‘So you sold him to Giorgos and Mia.’

‘I’d never sell him. He’s mine, and if you think you’re taking him… ’

‘I’m not here to take him, but I have the right to know what’s going on,’ he snapped back and she made an almost visible effort to get a hold on her anger.

‘Just tell me,’ he said. ‘You owe me an explanation.’

‘I owe you nothing,’ she flashed, and then closed her eyes. ‘Okay,’ she said at last. ‘Not that you deserve an explanation, but here goes. I met you, I slept with you and I got pregnant. But I couldn’t care for Michales so Mia took him. She and Giorgos told the world he was theirs. I thought they were adopting him. They didn’t even do that, which has made my task of reclaiming him a whole lot easier.’

‘You’re saying you didn’t even check what they were doing?’

‘That’s right,’ she said flatly, not even bothering to be defensive. ‘I was ill during the pregnancy and I trusted Mia to care for him. I was a fool. Take it or leave it. It’s the truth.’

He couldn’t believe it. It didn’t make sense. ‘Mia told the world she was pregnant months before Michales was born.’

‘Did she?’ She sounded uninterested.

But he was working things out in his head. ‘Mia said she didn’t want anyone to know of her pregnancy until she was sure she wouldn’t miscarry,’ he said slowly. ‘By the time it was announced, she was five months gone. She was staying in the most exclusive private hospital she could find—abroad, as far from Sappheiros as she could get. Was that so she could bribe people to say your baby was hers?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t care.’

What the hell… ? ‘Lily, I’ve had enough,’ he snapped. ‘To be party to such a fraud… ’

‘Am I supposed to explain?’

In the cradle behind her, Michales was stirring. Whimpering.

Michales.

He had a son.

He’d known for a week. But he needed more time to take it in. A year or so. More.

And into his jumble of emotions came Lily. She was aggressive and uncooperative. But underneath…

There was a reason he’d fallen for her, he thought. Beneath her anger she looked… vulnerable. And very, very desirable. Despite the overalls and the crazy cap. Despite the steel-toed boots.

She made him feel…

Yeah, that was what had got him into this mess in the first place, he told himself savagely. Leave feelings out of it. Find out facts.

Like why she hadn’t told him she was pregnant.

‘Did I deserve this?’ he asked slowly into the silence. ‘That you not tell me you were expecting my child?’

‘I tried to tell you.’ She sounded tired. Flat.

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘I phoned. Three weeks after we’d… ’

‘Had sex?’ he said crudely and she winced.

‘If you like,’ she managed. ‘Maybe that sums up our connection. Dumb, sordid sex.’

It had been more than that. They both knew it. That was what was messing with his head.

‘I tried to find you,’ he told her.

‘Like I believe that. You only had to ask Mia for my address.’

‘I did ask Mia. She told me to leave you alone—she was blunt and aggressive and gave no details. But I did end up here. Spiros has told you. And then you phoned.’

‘I did,’ she said coldly. ‘You can’t remember what you said?’

‘No. I… ’

‘If you can’t, then I can. It’s the sort of conversation that sticks in a girl’s mind. You find out you’re pregnant. You’re sick and confused and scared, but finally you work up courage to contact the baby’s father. And his line is… “Lily. Great to hear from you. You’re not trying to slap a paternity suit on me as well, I hope.”’

He stilled.

He’d said it. God forgive him, he’d said it.

He remembered, all too clearly.

He was a prince, a bachelor, titled and eligible. He’d made a fortune himself, and as Giorgos’s heir he stood to inherit much, much more. As such, he’d endured the most blatant attempts to… get close.

The morning Lily had called he’d just fielded a call from the mother of a Hollywood starlet. Vitriolic and accusing.

‘You slept with my daughter and now she’s pregnant. You’ll marry her or you’ll pay millions.’

He’d never slept with the girl. He couldn’t remember even meeting her. But obviously the girl was pregnant, and she’d named him as the father.

It happened.

And about ten minutes after that, Lily had called.

He had slept with Lily. He’d been angry that she’d left, frustrated that he hadn’t been able to find her—and, despite his precautions, pregnancy was possible, though unlikely. So he’d come out with his glib, joking line…

‘You’re not trying to slap a paternity suit on me as well… ’

She’d said… what was it? ‘Get lost.’ And cut the connection.

He remembered staring at the phone, feeling bad, thinking he should trace the call. And then thinking of Mia and how much he disliked her—how much he loathed Lily’s connection to royalty. And how much attachment hurt. How love ended in grief. How a sister of Mia’s could never be worth that hurt. And it had sounded as if she clearly didn’t want him anyway.

And he’d made the conscious decision, there and then, not to make any further attempt to contact her.

‘You could have tried again,’ he said, but her face was grim now, and drawn.

For over a year now he’d tagged this woman as just like her sister. He’d treated her accordingly. His response to her phone call had been glib and cruel, but if it had been Mia he’d been talking to, maybe it would have been justified.

She wasn’t Mia.

And now? She was expecting him to walk away. No, she was wanting him to walk away. With or without paternity payments, he thought. The fact that she wanted nothing to do with him was obvious.

Unbidden, he remembered Lily as he’d first seen her. Dressed simply in a little black dress. Very little make-up. Those glorious curls.

He’d said something sardonic about their surroundings—the glitz of the royal ballroom—and she’d chuckled her agreement. ‘I do like a bit of bling,’ she’d said. ‘Mind, these chandeliers are a disappointment. I’d prefer them in pink. Plain crystal is so yesterday’s fashion. Like stove-pipe pants and shoulder pads.’ She’d eyed him up and down—in his tuxedo. ‘And tuxedos,’ she’d said, and she’d said it like a challenge.

He’d been entranced.

But there was no trace of that humour now. Her gaze was glacial.

‘I don’t have to tell you more,’ she said. ‘You’re not King here.’

‘I’m not King anywhere.’

‘Or Prince Regent.’

‘It seems I’m not Prince Regent either,’ he told her. ‘If Michales isn’t Giorgos’s son… ’ He hesitated, trying to find words to clarify what he’d figured over the last week. ‘If we can get this sorted without calamity, the Diamond Isles will be split into three again. I’ll be Crown Prince of Sappheiros and Khryseis and Argyros will be ruled as separate countries.’

‘So can you get this sorted?’ she asked, but she didn’t sound interested.

‘Maybe. No thanks to you.’

‘On the contrary, it’s all thanks to me,’ she snapped. ‘If I hadn’t claimed Michales you’d still be ruled by my sister’s lie. So now you can be whatever sort of prince you want and you can get out of my life.’

‘There’s the small issue of my son… ’

‘You need to earn the right to be a father. I’ve seen no evidence of it.’

‘I didn’t know he was my son!’

‘You’ve known for a week. So what did you do? You disappeared. You went away and did anything rather than come here and say this is my son and I want him.’

‘I didn’t know… ’ he started, but then he paused, unsure where to go.

‘You didn’t know what?’

‘I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel,’ he snapped. ‘I needed time.’

‘Like I needed time when I saw the thin blue line,’ she retorted. ‘Parenthood isn’t something you can think about and then decide ooh, maybe I’d like a little bit.’

‘Isn’t that exactly what you did?’

‘I had no choice.’ She moved still closer to the cot, putting her body between him and her baby. It was a gesture of defence as old as time itself.

‘So why did you give him up?’ he demanded, trying to keep his focus on indignation. Trying not to think how beautiful she was when she was angry. How vulnerable. How… frightened? ‘How much did they pay you?’

‘Millions!’ The word was a venomous hiss.

Okay, not millions, he conceded.

What, then? Had she simply offered her son to her sister instead of having him adopted?

Had she really been ill?

His eyes flew to her baseball cap. She’d covered her curls at the coronation, too.

Cancer? But Lily didn’t have that look. Soft curls were escaping from under the cap—short, yes, much shorter than last year, but not regrowth short.

‘Just how ill were you?’

‘It’s none of your business.’

‘Your hair… ’

‘I had an operation,’ she snapped. ‘I’m fine now.’

He got the message. Ask no more questions. Move on.

Okay, he would. But maybe here there was an explanation.

The consequences of illness, even if relatively mild, might well have been catastrophic. If she didn’t have insurance, medical expenses could be huge.

If Mia and Giorgos had paid her expenses and in return taken a child she could ill afford to keep… A child she didn’t really want, until Mia’s abandonment had given her second thoughts…

It didn’t absolve her from blame, but it might explain it.

Maybe something of what he was thinking was apparent.

‘Don’t even think about pushing into what’s my business,’ she told him coldly. ‘Let’s get this sorted. If you want to deny Michales is your son, that’s fine by me. I don’t need or want financial aid. If you want access I won’t block it—as long as he stays with me. But that’s my bottom line. He stays with me.’

‘I can’t let him stay here.’

‘He will stay here.’ She sounded blunt and cold and definite. But, underneath, he heard the beginnings of fear.

There was no way he could allay that fear.

‘I have to take him back to Sappheiros.’

‘You’re taking him nowhere.’

‘Michales has to be my son.’

‘So he is,’ she snapped. ‘Move on.’

‘He has to be my legitimate son.’

That confused her. ‘Excuse me?’

‘Can you imagine the furore there will be if he disappears? The islanders are upset enough now that you’ve taken him. For you to keep him… ’

‘He’s mine!’

‘The islanders think he’s theirs.’

‘He’s not.’

‘He is,’ he said. ‘You and Mia and Giorgos gave him to the island. The islanders have taken him to their hearts. I won’t take him away from them.’

‘It’s not you who’s taking him away.’ She was whispering but she might as well be yelling, it was said with such vehemence. ‘It’s me. He’s mine, and he stays with me.’

As if on cue, Michales stirred again, uttering a small protesting whimper. She scooped him from his cot and held him against her. He snuggled into her and her fingers stroked his hair.

The sight… watching her stroke the little boy’s hair did something to him he didn’t begin to recognise.

This was getting harder. He’d come here fuelled with anger against this woman. He’d come here to try and sort a solution.

What he hadn’t counted on was how she made him feel. He’d slept with Lily over twelve months ago and his body still knew why. He was reacting to her as he had then—with a desire that was inexplicable but inarguable.

And Michales…

He’d never thought of himself as a father. This child had nothing to do with him.

Except… He had the look of him. His son.

His world was shifting into unchartered territory.

Just say it, he told himself again, feeling cornered. Lay it on the line.

‘Lily, this is hard,’ he said. ‘But you need to listen. The islanders have lived with such uncertainty that when the truth comes out about Michales’s parentage their likely reaction will be disbelief. And why wouldn’t it be? They’ve been lied to by Mia and Giorgos. They have no reason to trust me—or you.’

‘I don’t… It can’t matter.’

‘But it does matter,’ he said forcefully. ‘We need to give them reason to believe, and the way to do that is by acting truthfully and acting with honour.’

‘Honour… ’ She filled the word with scorn. ‘Honour!’

‘I know it’s been in short supply, but this is my honour,’ he said, ruefully now. ‘I need to be seen to do the right thing.’

‘Finally.’

‘Okay, finally,’ he admitted and spread his hands in apology. ‘I concede my behaviour until now has been less than perfect. I shouldn’t have slept with you. I shouldn’t have blocked your phone call with such a response. But we… both of us… need to move on. The islanders need to be told that Giorgos and Mia lied, but they need to accept that the lies are finished. They need to know I’m to be trusted—and that I’m truly Michales’s father. Right now the island is on the brink of rebellion, but my advisors believe that it would be reluctant. We can head it off by giving the island stability, good government and hope for the future. The island needs an honourable royal family and it needs an heir.’

Lily stared at him over Michales’s small head. ‘S-so?’

But maybe she was already seeing where he was going, he thought. She looked suddenly terrified. She was a lot smarter than Giorgos, he thought. Or her sister.

‘I’m assuming you know the state of the Diamond Isles.’

‘Yes, but… ’

‘But ruin,’ he said forcefully. He couldn’t let the shock on her face deflect him from what needed to be said. ‘The islanders are poverty-stricken. The islands’ land titles are mortgaged to the hilt and there’s threatened takeover by outside interests. We’re facing destruction of our lifestyle—everything we stand for. That’s inevitable, unless these people put their faith in me and in what I can do. The islanders have to accept their new royal family—they can’t think I’m inventing this story merely to claim the throne for my own ends. Lily, I’ve thought about this all week. I’ve listened to the wisest lawyers and political advisors I can find. And they’ve come up, over and over, with the one sure answer.’

‘Which… which is… ’

‘Which is that you marry me.’

CHAPTER FIVE

FOR a moment he thought she’d faint. The colour bleached from her face. She stared at him in incredulity. Instinctively his hands caught Michales and held.

She was so stunned she let her baby go. He stood, holding his son. Not sure how to hold him. Not sure where to go from here.

‘Maybe I didn’t do that too well,’ he said at last. Then he said dryly, ‘Maybe I should go down on bended knee.’

‘Or maybe you shouldn’t.’ Colour washed back, a flush of anger. Better, he thought. Angry was good.

He could deal with anger.

‘I think you need to leave,’ she said. ‘I’m talking about getting on with the rest of my life. You’re talking fairy tales.’

‘I’m not.’

Michales wriggled in his arms. He looked up at Alex and he smiled, a wide, toothless grin that made Alex feel as if the rug was being pulled from under his feet.

He had to keep hold of his anger. He couldn’t think while holding… his son.

He laid him on the square of carpet under the window. The little boy pushed himself into a sitting position and crowed with delight.

Alex gazed down at him in astonishment. ‘He can almost sit up. He wasn’t doing that in Sappheiros.’

‘As if you’d have noticed.’

‘I did notice,’ he told her. ‘Even before Mia left I was worrying about him. The nursery staff were worrying about him. His mother seemed to be ignoring him.’

‘Yeah,’ she said, sounding dazed. ‘Alex, go away.’

‘I can’t,’ he said soberly, and instinctively he caught her hands. They were cold. Too cold. She didn’t pull away, though—she didn’t move.

Okay. Get this right, he told himself. Stay logical and unemotional.

‘It’s politics,’ he told her. ‘If we leave things as they are, if he stays here with you, the islands will be in a mess. They’ll see me as a usurper, and rebellion is a real possibility. But if we marry… ’

She tugged her hands back in instinctive protest, but he didn’t let her go. He had to impart the urgency of the situation, and at the same time he was trying to figure how to take the blank look from her face.

She looked… battered. It might be a front, but he needed to back off.

He needed to talk a language they both understood.

‘You obviously don’t understand,’ he said. ‘But I’m talking money.’

And here it was. He’d come prepared.

‘There’s a cheque in my pocket for more money than you can dream of,’ he told her. ‘Call it paternity payment if you like, but it’s yours the moment you marry me.’ Then, as she stared at him in stupefaction, he ploughed on. ‘This is not personal. Think of it as a business proposition. The proposal is that you marry me—a real wedding to reassure everyone that we stand together—you stay on Sappheiros for at least a year so our marriage can’t be annulled, and then we can be seen as gradually drifting apart. Once the island is stable we can divorce. You can do what you want. You’ll be rich and you’ll be free. I can put democratic reform in place so the Crown is titular head only, and you can do whatever you want for the rest of your life.’

And, before she could respond, he produced the cheque and handed it to her.

She took the cheque without saying a word. She stared at him. She stared down at the cheque—and she gasped.

It’d be okay. Money talked. He had this covered. As long as he married her.

He had no choice.

‘This… this is for real?’ she whispered.

‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘We’ve thought of every option and this is the only one we believe can work.’

She was staring at him as if she’d never seen him before. She was staring at him as if he was a lunatic.

‘There’s more,’ he said into the silence. ‘We’ve done a lot of digging in this last week. My researcher knows all about you and the people you work with and we’ve come up with a package deal. Apparently the only strong connection you seem to have is with Spiros and his team. We’ve learnt that Spiros’s boatyard is struggling. As an inducement—because it would be best for everyone if Michales does stay on the island, and thus you, too—I’m also offering Spiros something he can’t refuse. We’ll relocate this boatyard to Sappheiros, with every cost taken care of. We’ll give him transport of boats between the Diamond Isles and the rest of Europe. We’ll give him blanket international advertising. My researchers tell me Spiros has been fighting to make a living here, and he’s homesick. He and his wife want to live somewhere they can speak their native Greek. So all you need to do now is agree.’

She said nothing. She was staring at the cheque as if she couldn’t believe it.

She was so shocked. She was so…

Beautiful?

Don’t go there, he told himself sharply. This was a business proposition—nothing more, nothing less. His lawyers had worked it out as a done deal. ‘There’s no way she’ll knock back this offer,’ he’d been told, and for good measure, thinking of Mia’s greed, they’d added another zero to the cheque.

As Crown Prince, Alex would inherit all Giorgos’s wealth. The lawyers’ thinking was that he should use a fraction of this to ensure the island’s future. This marriage of convenience was necessary. Michales’s continued presence on the island was desirable. So pay her and get it sorted. But…

‘Get out,’ she said.

He didn’t move.

‘Get out.’ She was breathing too fast, her eyes flashing daggers. ‘How dare you… ?’

‘Propose marriage to the mother of my son?’

‘He’s not your son.’

‘You said… ’

‘By birth, yes. You want him back on the island for you? For you? Michales hasn’t come into this discussion once except as a tool to keep the monarchy safe. Neither have I. For you to manipulate me… to find out about Spiros and use him as a tool… Get out and stay out.’

‘Lily, look at the amount on that cheque,’ he said urgently. ‘You can’t possibly knock back what I’ve just offered.’

‘Watch me,’ she said and she ripped the cheque in half, in half again and then kept on going until it lay in shreds round her feet. She snatched Michales up and stalked to the door. ‘Out!’

‘You’re being ridiculous. If you want more… ’

‘You’re being ridiculous,’ she snapped back at him. ‘Don’t you understand? I have everything I want, right here, right now. I have something you and Mia and people like you can’t understand. I have enough. I can stay working on the boats I love, and I can raise my son. I have my future and I’m free. Why would I possibly jeopardise that by diving into the royal goldfish bowl?’

Free? How did free come into it? She spoke as if she’d just come out of prison.

He had to make her see sense.

‘And Spiros?’

‘He’s happy here.’

‘He’s not. Any minute now this business is going to go belly up. Ask him.’

‘That’s nothing to do with you.’

‘It’s everything to do with you. You have to marry me.’

‘I don’t have to marry you.’ She opened the door. ‘Get out,’ she said again.

‘I can’t,’ he said, trying to figure where the hell to take it from here. ‘Lily, you have to do this. The islanders are facing ruin. If I don’t get this succession sorted, the titles belonging to the Crown will be forfeit to outside business interests. Sappheiros will become an exclusive resort for the rich, and my people will be exiles. The other two islands will face a similar fate.’

Her face stilled. For the first time, she hesitated.

He paused.

Was he going about this the wrong way? Was it possible that this woman had the heart that Mia lacked?

She’d given away her baby. The assumption had been she’d done it for profit, for greed. But now…

She looked pale and sick. And suddenly that was how he was feeling. Sick.

He was starting to feel… smirched. As if he was acting as Mia and Giorgos had acted. Buying her baby. Buying her.

‘Get out,’ she whispered again, and this time he nodded.

‘I’m going. But… ’ He hesitated but it had to be said. ‘Lily, this is too fast. It’s urgent but it’s not about us. I suspect I’ve misjudged you, and if I have then I’m sorry.’

‘That’s kind of you.’ She was trying to sound sardonic but her voice was shaking.

She swayed, just a little.

He moved, crossing the few steps to her in an instant, holding her shoulders. Steadying her.

‘Don’t… don’t touch me.’

But she didn’t pull away. She couldn’t. She was holding on to Michales with one arm, with the other the door handle. ‘Please leave.’

Hell, how ill had she been? ‘Lily, are you okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ she managed and steadied. She tugged away and he released her with real regret. She seemed suddenly… frail?

It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense.

He’d walked into this room feeling nothing but anger at the mess this woman had got him into. Determined to act with honour, no matter what the cost. Now, stupidly, all he wanted was to protect her.

It didn’t make sense to her either. She was looking at him with a mixture of fear and something else. Something he couldn’t pinpoint.

Regret? The word slipped into his mind and stayed.

Regret for what he’d done to her? Regret that she couldn’t take up his offer?

Maybe she had used him. Maybe the pregnancy had been planned. But this was… deeper.

He thought of how she’d been little more than a year ago. She’d danced with him, she’d teased him, she’d mocked him and he’d been enchanted. What had happened to knock the spirit from her?

‘Lily, I’ll leave,’ he said and flinched inwardly as he saw relief flood her face. Was she so afraid of him? ‘I’ve come at you too fast, too hard.’

‘Yes,’ she said blankly.

The pieces of the cheque were still scattered on the floor. There were far too many for her to gather and reassemble after he left.

But she’d seen his glance—and she guessed what he was thinking.

‘I won’t,’ she said, her face flushing with anger again.

‘I know you won’t.’

‘You don’t know anything about me.’

He was starting to know more.

From Lily’s arms Michales was watching him with interest.

He was his son…

How could he have been convinced that a simple cheque could fix things? It seemed so ridiculous now.

If Lily hadn’t been Mia’s sister—if he hadn’t assumed this had been set up as a con—what would he have done?

Appeal to a conscience he’d assumed she couldn’t have?

If she did have a conscience, there was nothing to lose—and everything to gain.

‘Do you have access to the Internet?’

His simple question caught her off guard. ‘I… yes… ’

‘Then I’ll leave you. But I need you to do something. I want you to look up the websites of our local newspapers.’ He pulled out a card and scribbled addresses on it. ‘Then contact these men. They’ll give you their own references. What they’ll do—I hope—is convince you that what I say is true. The islands are facing ruin. Only my marriage to you can save them.’

‘But I don’t want to be married. I want to be free.’

‘Free?’

‘Yes, free.’ Her colour suddenly returned in force, surging behind her anger. ‘I’m free,’ she said, sure now. ‘For the first time in my life I can move forward, where I want, when I want. You think I’d go from that to marriage… ’ She said the word as if it were some sort of hell. ‘How can you ask it of me? You have no right.’

Was the thought of marriage to him so appalling? It didn’t make sense.

He wasn’t that bad. Was he?

It couldn’t matter. All he could do was tell her the facts. ‘I have no choice,’ he said. ‘And if you have a conscience, then you don’t either.’

Her anger was palpable. Maybe if she’d had a hand free she’d have slapped him, he thought. Maybe it would have made them both feel better. What was between them needed some release—there was nowhere to go with the rising tension.

‘Just contact these people,’ he said. ‘Ask the questions.’

‘Go.’

‘I’ll come back tomorrow. Lily, we’re running out of time and you must take this seriously. Combined, you and I hold the fate of the islands, and Sappheiros in particular, in our hands. Whether we want it or not, we need to be married.’

She looked up at him in bewilderment. Anger was giving way to confusion.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said simply. ‘But we have to do this. And maybe it won’t even be too bad.’

And then—maybe it was really dumb but he couldn’t not—he lifted Michales from her arms. Once more, he set the little boy on the floor.

He took Lily’s face in his hands.

And he kissed her.

It was no deep, demanding kiss. He had enough sense for that—almost. But that night a year ago hadn’t been an aberration. His body knew what it wanted—and it wanted her.

The kiss was a feather-touch, lips to lips, sweet as honey, and a connection that felt intrinsically right. It was as if a part of him had reconnected that he hadn’t known until this moment had been cut loose.

He kissed her and she didn’t respond, but neither did she pull away.

Should he take it further?

His body was telling him to deepen the kiss, push past the barriers he could feel she’d erected.

His head was screaming the opposite. He’d pushed her too far as it was. The royal succession hung on this young woman’s decision. To push her past the point where she might run…

He shouldn’t. But kissing her felt right. It felt entirely natural. Lily…

And things were changing.

Suddenly it was Lily who was taking control.

He’d outlined a business proposition. So why was he kissing her?

She should fight him. She shouldn’t let him kiss her.

She was passive, letting him do the running, letting him kiss her…

Why had she done this? Why had she let him?

She knew why. She just had to see… if what she remembered was real.

Like beer. It was a stupid analogy but she’d thought of it a few times over the past months.

The first time she’d been given a glass of beer, it had been after a day spent working in the hold of a sun-baked boat. She’d been hot to the point of exhaustion. She’d been so thirsty her tongue was swollen, and she remembered that beer as almost like nectar.