am giving you Matty back.’
‘With no strings?’
‘He’s the Crown Prince of Alp de Ciel. Of course there are strings. Hell, Kelly…I didn’t come here to be pressured.’
‘No, you came here to pressure me. If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave. I’ll do what I think best with Matty.’
‘Which is?’
‘It’s none of your business.’
‘It is my business,’ he snapped, exploding. ‘Hell, woman, I have total control. According to the contracts you signed, I can take him back tomorrow. I thought I’d give you the choice.’
‘No, you didn’t. You thought you’d persuade me to come.’
‘You’re supposed to be meek!’
There was a loaded pause. It went on. And on. And on.
‘Funny, that,’ she said at last, almost cordially. ‘I’m not.’
‘I can see you’re not,’ he snapped, goaded.
‘You want me to be meek?’
‘I want you to be sensible.’
‘What’s sensible about living as royalty?’
‘It’s every girl’s dream.’
‘Hey, I’ve lived the dream, remember?’ she said. ‘It’s not a dream. It’s a nightmare.’
‘Which is why I don’t want…’
‘To be part of it. Neither do I.’
‘You have to be.’
‘So do you,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve been thinking and thinking, all day while I’ve been waiting for you. I know I can’t bring Matty up as I’d want him brought up here. There’ll be too much media attention when people realise who he is. I know I can’t give him a normal childhood. To haul him away from everything he knows…’
‘So you will come?’ he demanded, starting to sound relieved.
‘Only if you agree to stay permanently in the castle.’
‘That’s not fair.’
‘It is fair,’ she snapped. ‘It’s entirely fair. It’s your inheritance—Prince Regent. It’s your responsibility to take the pressure off Matty until he’s twenty-five. If he stays here, even if we buy into a gated community, he’ll be cloistered and not able to have a normal boyhood. And he’ll miss you and your mother desperately. But if he goes back to the castle and you head off back to your very important life in the States it’ll be much, much worse. So fair doesn’t come into it. We’re both having to do what we do to survive. I won’t have Matty in the limelight any more than he has to be.’
‘You mean you don’t want to be in the limelight.’
‘Of course I don’t. Neither do you, but from where I’m standing you’re the one who can take it best.’
‘You know nothing about what I can take.’
‘Ditto,’ she snapped. ‘I’m making judgements. But, the way I see it, there are two of us I’m protecting. Me and Matty. You think I’ll let you stand aside and leave Matty exposed?’
‘No, I…’
‘You came here saying I was welcome to keep Matty with me,’ she said. ‘If I did that you’d be stuck.’
‘I never imagined…’
‘That I wouldn’t jump at the chance to be princess again? I can see that.’
‘Kelly…’ He reached for her hands again and held them urgently.
‘Rafael.’
This was ludicrous. It was like some weird tug of war. But she wasn’t giving in. The thought of staying in the castle as the Princess Royal, of having all that media directed at her and her small son… She’d been through that. She never wanted to go there again.
She didn’t care about this man’s story. She couldn’t care that there might be valid reasons for him to wish to avoid the limelight. She had to make a decision now and she could only do that on the information she had.
He was gripping her hands with a strength that almost frightened her. How had that happened? With the linking of their hands he seemed almost an extension of herself—she was arguing with herself instead of him.
But…it was different. The feel of his hands on hers was doing strange things to her. It was feeding her strength, she thought obliquely. If he withdrew his hands she might falter. She might not have the strength to stand up to him.
She held on and his grip tightened still more, as if it were the same for him.
‘Kelly, you can do it,’ he said urgently and she shook her head.
‘Rafael, you can do it.’
‘I don’t…’
‘Neither do I. And my reasons are better than yours,’ she said. ‘As far as I know. Is there anything you’re not telling me?’
‘No!’
‘There you are, then.’
‘It’s blackmail,’ he snapped and she shook her head.
‘It’s no such thing. It’s sense. You bring your toys and you come home.’
Home. The word drifted between them, strangely poignant.
Rafael stared down into her eyes, seemingly baffled. She met his gaze firmly, unflinching. Did he know he was feeding her strength with his hold? she thought. Why didn’t he pull away?
She didn’t want him to pull away. She had a feeling that if she did… Well, the world was a huge and scary place. To think about going back…to relive the terror…
She couldn’t do it alone. She had to have an ally.
And this man could be an ally. She’d grown up enormously over the last five years. Men like Kass… Well, he’d taught her a hard life lesson but she’d learned it well. Never again would she throw her heart in the ring but, as well as that, she’d also learned to judge. In these last few years she’d learned who her true friends were. And this man…
This man was trustworthy. There were things in his background she didn’t understand. There were shadows—real shadows—and they must be linked to his revulsion at taking on the Prince Regent role, but the sensation that he was solid, that he was a man of his word, was growing rather than receding.
His disinclination to take on the Prince Regency did him no disservice in her eyes. How could anyone want such
