Leah Ashton – The Prince's Fake Fiancée (страница 9)

But it was Petra that she was feeling most uncomfortable about—more so than feeling awkward in front of hundreds of guests. Here was a woman dealing bravely with her husband’s cancer diagnosis, and Jas was—lying to her.

Marko leant down to murmur in her ear, his breath a tickle against her skin. ‘Here we go.’

Lukas gestured for Marko to step forward, and Jas stepped up right beside him.

‘And now,’ Lukas said, in English now, ‘I’d like to introduce the woman who will be accompanying Prince Marko as he takes on my royal commitments over the next three months—and who I am looking forward to welcoming into the Pavlovic family: his fiancée, Jasmine Gallagher.’

The ballroom filled with polite applause, and Jasmine just smiled and tried not to look awkward.

Marko then began to speak—again, in Slavic, and as he spoke—and he spoke well—Jasmine took the opportunity to simply watch him.

He stood tall, and powerfully—his shoulders back, his stance firm—and there was definitely no fidgeting involved. He looked fantastic in his suit, but it did nothing to hide the strength of the man, the solid contour of his biceps and the width of his shoulders evident beneath the expensive fabric. His buzz-cut hair only further enhanced the impression of a man constructed of hard edges—there was no softness to this prince.

She’d noted before that he wore his suit less comfortably than his brother, and she still thought that true. There was a tension to Marko’s posture, as if he was out of his native habitat. He’d said earlier that a royal title was just another job, and although she didn’t think it was that simple—there were some big perks to being a royal!—she understood his sentiment. And so—knowing he was a highly ranked military officer—she supposed it was army fatigues rather than a tuxedo that was his uniform of choice?

And yet, despite his incongruity in a tuxedo, and despite the tension she sensed in him—and also whatever it was she’d glimpsed in his gaze earlier—he now commanded the ballroom. His ability to do so wasn’t unexpected—since she’d met Marko it had been impossible to ignore his magnetism—but before she’d met him, she wouldn’t have expected it.

She had thought her company had been hired to protect a playboy prince—and the Playboy Prince she had expected was nothing like Marko at all.

Of course she’d seen the photos of Marko in women’s magazines. And of course she’d looked him up on the Internet again when she’d first been approached to work for him. And the photos and articles were all the same: about a man who had eschewed a royal life to flit across Europe—and who had seemingly never been photographed with the same woman twice. There he’d been, on the list of World’s Most Eligible Bachelors or the World’s Hottest Royals or whatever.

None of this had mattered to her, as it had no impact on the job she’d been hired to do.

But she’d been curious.

Even the whole fake fiancée ruse hadn’t really given her pause—she and her team had just signed the water-tight confidentiality agreement and been done with it. It wasn’t her job to judge the decisions of the rich and famous—no matter how odd or misguided they appeared to her.

Of course, it had given her pause when Marko had asked her to take Felicity’s place.

Suddenly Marko’s lie would be affecting her. And now Marko’s lie was her lie. She was no longer a bystander—she was part of this.

Ever since her impulsive decision to be Marko’s fake fiancée, the weight of that lie had only grown heavier the more real it had become.

And standing here right now, in front of hundreds of people as a man you barely knew announced you to his country as something you weren’t...well, lies didn’t get much bigger than that.

What have I done?

Were the pleas of a man who made her blood run hot enough of a reason to do something so far outside her moral compass?

His reasons at the time had seemed so compelling, the lie so harmless...

But now...

Jas’s gaze flicked from Marko back to Lukas.

As she watched he stepped back from where he’d stood beside Marko.

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