in any doubt of his desire for her.
His phone buzzed.
That last picture on page one is perfection.
Matteo commenting. Matteo knowing that Eduardo would have checked today’s papers already. Yeah... Because Eduardo always did his job very well.
But he didn’t want their relationship to be a job. And now the lack of privacy rubbed at old, unhealed wounds. He didn’t want the world encroaching on something that had become so personal. He needed time and space to find balance with Stella.
And to get that he was going to have to tell his iced-up brother the truth.
SLEEPILY STELLA REACHED out a hand, but encountered only the cool, empty sheet. She opened her eyes. Was Eduardo awake and gone already?
She checked her watch and was stunned to see she’d slept in for the first time in years. And she was still in her ballgown! She rolled onto her back, bereft of his company. She should go for her run, but for once she didn’t want to. She wished Eduardo was still holding her with such care. Her whole body ached with want for that. Her heart ached too. For once she’d felt treasured.
But she made herself move. She’d go for a swim. Water always eased raw wounds.
She stripped out of her dress, pulled on a swimsuit and robe, then stole down the stairs to get to the ground level. As she darted along the rose-covered walkway towards the poolhouse she saw the two brothers standing near the tennis court gate. And as she stepped closer, she could hear, because their voices were rising in volume.
‘This was the best—’
‘You should have told me beforehand,’ Antonio interrupted Eduardo, icily furious.
‘This is the heir, Antonio. Don’t you see that?’ he snapped back.
Stella knew she shouldn’t stay and listen. She should turn and walk away before they saw her. Or step forward so they did see her. But she couldn’t. She stayed right where she was, hidden by foliage.
‘What I see is that you’re a bigger fool than I thought possible.’
Stella realised Eduardo had just told his brother about the baby—and now the Crown Prince was more disapproving than ever. As she’d known he would be.
‘I’m not the impetuous idiot I once was. From every angle this was the best solution,’ Eduardo answered back. ‘You know I’m right.’
‘This is not what I wanted for you,’ Antonio said harshly, his voice an icy whip.
‘She’s exactly what we need her to be.’ Eduardo now sounded as ice-cold as his brother. ‘Haven’t you seen the papers? After that wedding picture was leaked Matteo planted the few details necessary for her to be a hit. After last night’s performance her success is snowballing. She’s just what San Felipe needs. I can control this, Antonio.’
‘Can you control her?’
‘Of course.’
Stella closed her eyes at Eduardo’s arrogance and his cold, businesslike assumption. After he’d been so tender last night. This hurt. This hurt so much more than anything.
‘So this is not a love match?’ Antonio said bluntly.
Stella’s world stopped in that moment of silence before Eduardo answered. And then her husband was as brutally blunt as his brother.
‘What prince has ever married for love?’
Humiliation burned a hole in her heart. Swiftly she turned, sprinting back inside. She’d known she shouldn’t have listened. She’d known this was an orchestrated marriage of convenience. But to know that Eduardo wanted his child to become the Crown Prince, even when he saw his brother suffer under the weight of the role, even when he railed against the constraints on himself...
She didn’t want those pressures and limitations and ‘controls’ for her child. She didn’t want the lack of choice. She didn’t want the lack of love.
And she didn’t want it for herself. She wanted what she’d had a taste of last night—tenderness, caring, someone to be there for her. But it had been a charade—part of his Prince Charming act. It had only been to control the situation, to control her and create a successful ‘story’ for the royal family—more San Felipe myth.
She’d thought she was no longer alone. She’d been so wrong. She’d never been as alone as she was now. And it had never hurt so much.
Eduardo realised his mistake as soon as he’d made the facetious reply. He’d been trying to play it as emotionlessly as Antonio. But he’d forgotten.
‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered.
It was too late. His brother had disappeared beneath an even thicker layer of ice. Eduardo hadn’t been able to break through it in a decade. He didn’t think anyone would.
Antonio had vowed to devote his life to duty when Alessia died and he was cemented in it now. Eduardo had made a vow too—to help his brother however he could. To try and make amends. To try and share some of his burden. Because he remembered the old days, when his brother had teased him, telling him his hair was too long or his jokes too lame. When they’d laughed together. He hadn’t heard Antonio laugh in so long.
‘I would have married for love.’ Antonio’s voice was like the thinnest, sharpest shard of ice.
It was the rarest hint of emotion.
‘I know.’ Eduardo bent his head. He’d caused hurt twice over. ‘Stella needs to go back to Secreto Real, Antonio. She needs time to rest and adjust. I’m sorry.’
Sorry for so much more than wanting some time out.
‘Then cancel your engagements and stay with her. Not even you can be seen to discard your new bride so quickly.’ Displeasure flared in his eyes.
Eduardo burned inside but took the hit silently. He had no intention of ditching Stella.
‘But not until after the opening night at the opera tonight,’ Antonio added. ‘Salvatore Accardi is going to be there, and I need you to maintain cordial relations seeing as neither of us are going to marry his precious daughter.’ Antonio looked bitter as he mentioned the notoriously corrupt nobleman both brothers preferred to avoid. ‘Then you can go.’
‘Fine.’ All Eduardo wanted was to be back on the little island with Stella, with the time to build on the fragile foundations forming between them.
Leaving Antonio, he walked towards his apartment, wondering if Sleeping Beauty had woken. His phone buzzed. He paused in the middle of the corridor when he saw the contact’s name on the screen.
He
