Swedish duke?’
‘Yes.’
‘Don’t worry about it. It isn’t going to happen.’ He stared hard at her as a thought came to him. ‘Unless you’ve changed your mind?’
‘I haven’t.’ She turned to face him and smiled. It didn’t meet her eyes. ‘You know that’s not the future I want for our child.’
He let out a breath and reached for her hand. He razed a kiss across the knuckles she’d managed to slice. The cuts had healed beautifully, and were now only fading pink lines across the pale skin.
‘Is there something else troubling you?’ They both knew her wedding to the Swedish duke would never happen.
She gave a brave smile. ‘My mother’s jewellery. I don’t think I’ll ever get it back.’
He squeezed her hand lightly, wishing this were something he could fix for her but, short of launching a full-scale assault on the heavily guarded palace, he didn’t see how that was feasible.
‘How would you like to visit a Club Giroud next week?’ he said, wanting to distract her from something he knew caused her much anguish. ‘I would take you sooner but I think it’s best we stay in Monte Cleure for a while to try and stave off your father’s suspicions.’
‘Dominic told me they’re places full of debauchery.’
He laughed. ‘Your brother wouldn’t know—he’s banned from them.’
‘Really?’
‘I don’t let any old riff-raff in.’
Now Catalina was laughing too; a low, sweet musical sound he’d never heard from her lips before. It filled every part of him as much as her scent always did.
* * *
Alone in the bath, Catalina closed her eyes. She wanted to cry. She wanted to howl. She could do neither.
Her father had her exactly where he wanted her. He knew it and so did she.
Dominic’s poison had seeped fully into him.
There had once been some compassion in the man who had raised her. Not much by any means but enough for her to pretend he did love her as a daughter and not just a princess to show off to the world and bring pride to the House of Fernandez. It seemed Catalina’s failed betrothal to Helios had killed the last of it and created an opening for Dominic’s hatred towards her to pour through in replacement.
As she shampooed her hair, trying to relish the freedom of doing this act alone, all too aware that within a year Marion or one of her other palace companions would be at her side, because a princess couldn’t possibly wash her own hair, it came to her what she must do.
The freedom she had been so close to having for ever had been snatched from her grasp but that didn’t mean her baby’s freedom had to be snatched away too.
* * *
They took Nathaniel’s jet to Marseille. From there it was a short drive to one of the city’s most famous hotels. Hotel Giroud. The first project he had undertaken and the catalyst for the fortune he had acquired throughout the subsequent decades.
‘I thought you sold this when it was completed?’ she said as they entered the plush foyer.
‘I bought it back five years ago. It had been allowed to fall into disrepair so I revamped it.’
‘It’s beautiful.’ It was also very decadent. The place screamed money.
The reception staff all leapt to attention when they saw the boss. Waving them away with a grin and words of encouragement at their hard work, he led her to a back office. Adjacent to it was an elevator.
She raised her eyebrows and her silent question was answered with a gleam of teeth. Nathaniel keyed in a code and the elevator opened.
They stepped inside and, moments later, the elevator came to a halt. When they stepped out it took a couple of moments for her eyes to adjust to the dimness. Then she blinked. And blinked again.
‘What is this?’
They were standing in a vast, cavernous space with beautiful oak flooring. In the centre of it was a huge round bar, the polished wood gleaming, the brass rail around its rim shining even more so. Dozens and dozens of richly dressed men and women stood around the bar drinking. Dozens more filled the card and roulette tables strategically placed around the room and even more sat at normal tables, socialising and networking.
Music played in the background, a pulsing beat she felt through the soles of her feet.
‘This, mon papillon, is Club Giroud.’
She twisted round to look at him. ‘I didn’t know it was part of the hotel.’
‘Only those who are members know the clubs’ locations, and only those members and the staff who work in them know how to access them. This one has its own elevator from the underground car park.’
Catalina had heard much about these secret members-only clubs Nathaniel owned but, of course, she had never been in one. A club owned by a notorious womaniser had not been considered a suitable establishment for a virgin princess to venture to.
He laughed. ‘What were you expecting? Strippers and topless waitresses?’
‘Something like that,’ she murmured.
‘We do provide entertainment at the weekend which is of the adult variety, but nothing that wouldn’t be fit for the eyes of a princess.’ He leant down to speak into her ear. ‘There’s a back room I hire out to members. A few of those private parties have been known to become rather wild.’
There was something about the atmosphere of the place, the music and the feel of Nathaniel pressed so close to her that made her quite breathless.
‘Come,’ he said, taking her hand. ‘Let me give you the tour and introduce you to everyone.’
For the next hour they socialised. Catalina knew a few of the members, who all betrayed their shock at seeing her there. After a while it amused her.
‘It’s like they can’t believe they’re seeing me out of my natural habitat,’ she whispered to Nathaniel.
‘There’s always been an air of mystique about you,’ he murmured back. His hands brushed against her side. ‘Would you like to see my office?’
‘I’d like to see more than that.’ Where the words came from, she didn’t know. As the days together passed, the greater her longing for him had become. She craved him.
In a few days’ time she would hand her passport, her ticket to freedom, to her father.
There had been so many times she’d opened her mouth to tell Nathaniel what her father had demanded of her but she’d always bitten back the words. She didn’t know how he would react. They might be having hot, passionate sex at every opportunity but that didn’t mean he cared about her on any other level.
She
