is served.’
The knock on the door wasn’t Sophia’s stern rap, or Andreas’s autocratic thump. The voice was that of Nikos. They’d sent a stooge, Holly thought. Nikos was timid around her. She couldn’t yell at him.
Nor would she.
Dignity. There was the thing. She’d spent the last hour trying to summon it. She’d decided to wear the same dress as last night—the way Andreas’s eyes had devoured her then, she wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of having something new to look at.
Boring, boring, boring, she thought. He was a prince. He might well be accustomed to a new woman a night. If he was going to get bored with her, it was better that she knew it now.
Or whatever. Nothing she was thinking was making sense. This whole situation didn’t make sense.
So go out and get it over with.
She opened the door. Nikos was waiting, smiling anxiously. He beckoned toward the dining table set once again under the stars.
Andreas was already seated, but he rose the minute he saw her. He was dressed to kill. Full evening attire. A dinner suit of deep, rich black, his white shirt brilliant against his dark skin. His eyes were black as night. He smiled at her and his smile flipped something inside her that stayed decidedly flipped.
He was sex on legs, she decided. It wasn’t fair for a guy to have so much… so much… Andreas.
‘You look beautiful,’ he murmured, crossing to meet her, and she tried to glower.
‘I look exactly the same as last night.’
‘Not so. Your nose has started to peel. Just a little.’
‘Leave my nose out of it.’
‘But it’s such a beautiful nose…
‘Andreas…’ Her voice broke and he stepped back. He’d been about to lightly touch her nose. Now he looked down at her in concern.
‘You haven’t had a good day?’
‘What do you think?’ she snapped. ‘You give me these appalling options and then you walk away and leave me with nothing to do but think and think and think.’
‘So what have you thought?’ he asked gravely and she tried to make her mind focus.
What had she thought?
‘That you’re a nutcase,’ she muttered. ‘That what you’re demanding is unbelievable. Totally unjustified.’
To her astonishment he smiled and kissed her lightly on the forehead, then led her over to the table.
‘I agree. I thought so last night. I left you and thought what we were asking was a one-sided agreement where we win. You get to play a princess but I, of all people, should accept that this is no great bargain.’
She felt as if all the wind had been sucked out of her. Andreas held back the chair and waited ‘til she sat. She plumped down and stared at him.
‘Well, then?’ she managed.
‘Well, then,’ he agreed gravely, and rounded the table to sit opposite.
‘So I can go home?’
‘You see, you can’t,’ he said apologetically. ‘The fate of too many people would be changed irrevocably for the worse if you refuse to marry me.’
‘Then nothing’s changed.’
‘Only my attitude,’ he said softly. ‘And the rules. I’ve spent the day negotiating. Oh, and shopping.’
‘Shopping,’ she said blankly. ‘You’re kidding.’
He smiled again. ‘Sophia?’ he called.
Nikos had disappeared back to the kitchen, back to Sophia’s comfortable presence. But he came out now, holding the door wide so Sophia could come after him.
Sophia was carrying…
A puppy.
It wasn’t just a puppy. Holly rose in astonishment as she saw the creature held in Sophia’s ample arms. It was a border collie, a ten-to-twelve-week-old bundle of wriggling pup, black and white, with big, intelligent eyes and a tail that was threatening to wag so hard a lighter pup might have taken off like a hovercraft.
‘He’s attached to you already, Your Highness,’ Sophia told Andreas, reproving. ‘He didn’t like you leaving him in the kitchen. See? He finds you and his tail starts to whir again.’
‘What …?’ Holly could barely get the words out.
‘You see, there was something absent,’ Andreas explained. He didn’t walk forward to the pup but instead stood back and watched Holly’s face. ‘Yesterday I saw you and I thought there was something missing. And then… it came to me. From the first time I saw you back at Munwannay, you had a shadow. Always. A black and white shadow wherever you went. Deefer, I believed you called him.’
‘Deefer Dog,’ Holly murmured, stunned.
‘An ancient cattle dog.’
‘A border collie.’ Like this pup. She couldn’t keep her eyes off the pup in Sophia’s arms.
‘My people told me everything about your circumstances,’ Andreas said, still watching her. ‘But there was no mention of a dog. There was no dog on the place when our people inspected it.’
‘I haven’t had a dog since Deefer died.’
He frowned. ‘Deefer was an old dog when I was there.’
‘Yes,’ she said, not trusting herself to go further. In truth Deefer had lived for only three weeks longer than Adam. Her baby and then her dog…
‘Can I ask why you never bought another?’
‘My father wouldn’t have one.’ The puppy was wriggling in excitement. She longed to reach out and touch him…
She wouldn’t. This was seduction at its finest.
‘But it’s a farm. A working farm,’ Andreas said, obviously still waiting for an explanation. She had to try and give him one.
‘Yes, but… it was also my father’s folly. Deefer wasn’t Deefer’s real name. He had a pedigree a mile long. All our dogs did. He was Cobalt Royal Rex or some nonsense. Deefer for short. But when he died that was it. My father had such pride—he’d never have a mongrel on our place and pedigree working dogs cost a fortune. I was never permitted to have another dog.’
‘You were never permitted…’ Andreas’s face was calmly assessing. ‘Yet according to my sources, you did all the work.’
‘It was my father’s farm. He made the business decisions.’
‘He made the decision to run the
