Valerie Parv – The Prince and The Marriage Pact (страница 6)

He wanted to believe he was teaching her a lesson. Instead, he was learning one. That to a point, she was right. He couldn’t change who and what he was. So why not stop trying?

“Come through to the morning room,” he said, taking her arm. He was reminded again of how slightly built she was for a woman who almost matched him in height.

“What about the soufflé?”

“It’s almost ready for the oven. I’ll ring for someone to take over here. You need to relax.”

She didn’t argue, proving his point. The morning room was his favorite room in the apartment, with floor-to-ceiling windows that wrapped around a table in the center. Presently the table was set for two. With the drapes drawn back to reveal the night sky in all its splendor, she would feel as if she was dining among the stars.

He heard her catch her breath, and shared a smile with her. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” He wasn’t sure he only meant the view.

“It’s amazing. Do the stars always seem close enough to touch in Carramer?”

“Always.” Pressing a hand to the small of her back, he moved her closer to the window. “The clarity of the air enables us to see far out into the universe.”

Gesturing with his free hand, he said, “The reddish star blazing in the northeast is Arcturus. And that one is Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo.”

“It looks more like a sickle than a lion,” she said to distract herself from the warmth of his hand against her back. “Your Regulus looks like the handle, with the blade hanging below it.”

“Very perceptive,” he agreed. “Our ancestors used to think the stars were holes in the night to let the light of heaven pass through.”

She’d been told that the prince was a keen astronomer. She hadn’t expected him to be a poet, as well. “It’s a beautiful thought, however unscientific,” she observed.

He pulled out a chair for her where she could continue to watch the stars, then left her long enough to issue orders. By the time she’d drunk a little of the excellent wine, a servant had brought their meal, served them efficiently, then left them alone. Also according to orders.

Whether it was due to the stars, the meal or his efforts to help her relax, Maxim was gratified to see some color return to her cheeks. “Feeling better now?”

“Much, thank you.” There was no reason to assume his nearness was the cause. She had eaten very little at the wedding, so her blood sugar had probably been in her boots. The soufflé had melted in her mouth. “It’s kind of you to be so concerned.”

He lifted his wineglass. “Kindness has nothing to do with it.”

“Then what?”

“Perhaps a wish to show you a more flattering side of royalty you can share with your television viewers in the future.”

“Why?”

He’d been asking himself the same thing. He settled for honesty. “I may be a prince, but I’m also a man. I find you very attractive, Annegret.”

This time he had no doubt that her heightened color was his doing. She was speechless, he saw, and suspected it wasn’t a condition she experienced often.

She recovered quickly. “You must know the feeling is mutual.”

Warmth surged through him. Was it to be so simple, then? The Champagne Pact might bind him to marry a woman of royal blood, but it didn’t stop him from enjoying the company of a commoner. That he might be playing with fire, he also recognized. Annegret struck him as an all-or-nothing sort of woman.

He replenished their glasses, deciding to test his theory. “Then all that remains is to decide what we’re going to do about it.”

Chapter Three

Annegret’s heart started to pound, and her palms felt damp, the right one throbbing under the dressing. One glass of wine didn’t justify blurting out that she was attracted to him, even if it was true.

Trying to deny it now would only get her in deeper, so she said, “We’re not going to do anything. At least I’m not.”

He toyed with the stem of his glass. “Why not?”

“If it wasn’t for the Janus lily, I would be safely back at my hotel by now, and there would be nothing to discuss.”

“You don’t feel safe here?”

He was far too quick. “I didn’t mean safe as in safe. I meant we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

His eyes gleamed as if he knew perfectly well that she had been referring to emotional safety. “However, we are having it and I, for one, have no regrets.”

She had plenty. If she had known he was interested in her, she would have insisted on returning to her hotel instead of accepting his offer to stay at the palace.

But you did know, a small inner voice insisted. She had known it the moment he set eyes on her. Her experience with the male of the species may have been limited to a few carefully chosen encounters, but she knew enough to recognize when a man found her appealing. The fact that she was now alone with Maxim in his private quarters confirmed her instinctive assessment.

So why had she agreed? She could have spent the night in the infirmary as the doctor had recommended, or arranged to be taken back to her hotel. Yet here she was, hackles rising at hearing the prince say what she had suspected all along. She couldn’t have it both ways. “I don’t regret accepting your invitation, but that’s as far as I intend to go,” she said.

“Because of who I am?”

They were interrupted by a servant clearing away their plates and placing slices of featherlight lemon gâteau on fine china in front of them. When the servant had gone, Annegret toyed with her dessert. “I make it a point never to get involved with titled men.”

“Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? Attraction can also lead to friendship.”

She felt herself flushing. As a teenager, she’d imagined her biological father saying something similar to her mother. Charming her with his aristocratic ways until Debra West was hopelessly in love. Then abandoning her without a backward glance. Annegret had no intention of letting that happen to her.

Bad enough that she had come close with Brett Colton. His father, the owner of the network that owned her show, was the nearest thing Australia had to royalty. Her pedigree, or lack of one, was the reason his father had disapproved of her. Brett hadn’t admitted it outright, but he hadn’t denied it when she asked if that was the reason he had ended their relationship.

Brett had known about her mother’s liaison with the prince’s equerry. Would things have been different if he had married her mother? Since he hadn’t, and since Annegret had wanted Brett to love her for herself rather than for her family background, she had accepted the situation with as much poise as possible. She had waited until she was alone to give way to tears over the injustice of being judged on a factor so far out of her control.

In future she would think twice about becoming involved with a man—especially one so far out of her own social league. And if anyone had a problem with her background, she’d make sure to find out before her heart became involved.

Still, she hadn’t expected to find herself enjoying a private dinner with Brett’s counterpart here. “Have you considered that I might use a friendship against you, Your Highness?” she asked the prince.

He acknowledged her use of his title with a slight nod. “In my position, that’s always a possibility.”

“Because you’d do the same thing yourself?” She didn’t really believe it, but she wanted to see his reaction. For her TV show, of course.

He put his dessert fork down. “I don’t know who you’re mixing me up with, Annegret, but that’s not the way I operate.”

“Yet you admit to being attracted to me, knowing that the terms of the Champagne Pact mean nothing can come of it.”

“It doesn’t stop me from having friends, or feelings.”

“Only from doing anything about them unless the woman has blue blood.” Abandoning any pretense to herself that the show was the reason she wanted Maxim to know where she stood, she decided to put all her cards on the table. See how fast Maxim lost his desire for her friendship then. “You may as well know that my biological father was merely a courtier to the prince of Ehrenberg.” She stretched her arm out on the pristine tablecloth, the delicate veins appearing close to the surface in the glow of candlelight. “See? Not a trace of blue blood.”

Maxim slid his index finger over her upturned wrist, resting it a moment on her fluttering pulse. He suspected his own was just as fast. He told himself it was due to her confession that she hadn’t a trace of royal blood. Not that he had any intention of taking his interest in her further than friendship, he thought, before his hormones could kick in full strength. He suspected there was something else she wasn’t telling him.

“It’s a myth that royal blood is blue,” he said, far more calmly than he felt.

“So I’m told,” she stated flatly, withdrawing her arm. “It hardly matters, since my father never acknowledged my existence. He was equerry to Prince Frederick, Ehrenberg’s ambassador to Australia. My mother met my father when she worked at the embassy as a member of the diplomatic service. Soon after, she learned that she was pregnant, the prince was recalled to his country and my father went with him. She never heard from him again.”