‘I told you. Tomorrow.’
‘Then starting tomorrow, let’s get this on a sensible footing,’ she snapped. ‘You and me…we see each other in terms of official duties. That’s all.’
‘That’s all I want, too.’
‘Because, of course, I’m Kass’s woman.’
‘I didn’t mean to say that.’
‘You did say it,’ she snapped. ‘And it hurt. I was dumb enough to fall for a good royal come-on, and if you think I’d be dumb enough to fall twice… Kass’s woman or not…you’d be out of your mind. So you needn’t look at me as if I’m trying to jump you or, heaven forbid, put another wedding ring on my finger…’
‘I’m not.’
‘Because I’m not,’ she snapped, refusing to let him interrupt. ‘I’m going to bed.’
‘Good.’
‘And Kass’s…the royal suite is round the far side of the castle,’ she said. ‘As far from my attics as it’s possible to get. And I can lock my doors.’
‘Kelly, I’m not trying to seduce you.’
‘You kissed me and that’s enough. More than enough. I don’t even want a handshake from a prince of the blood.’
‘I’m not…’
‘A prince of the blood. Yes, you are.’
‘As you’re Kass’s bride,’ Rafael said, sounding goaded. ‘Princess Royal. You represent everything I don’t want about this place.’
‘Well, it’s good we have that cleared up,’ she snapped. ‘Just so we’re clear. You dragged me back here and now you tell me I’m part of your problem. Sorry, Rafael, I have problems of my own to sort.’
She should stalk away. She should just turn and leave. Instead, she stood in the moonlight and watched him try to think of something else to say—something that would make sense of this crazy situation they’d landed in.
He couldn’t. He didn’t. And finally there was no choice. She turned away. ‘Goodnight,’ she said stiffly.
‘Kelly?’
She didn’t turn round. She simply stood still and waited for him to say what he needed to say.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said at last. ‘That should never have happened. It won’t happen again. I promise.’
‘Just as well,’ she muttered.
And went to bed.
But not to sleep.
What had she been thinking of—to let him kiss her and to kiss him back?
It was because he was…gorgeous?
Rafael de Boutaine, Prince Regent of Alp de Ciel. He’d kissed her senseless.
As Kass had.
No. He was as different from Kass as it was possible to be. Kelly lay in the lovely double bed Rafael had organized to be delivered into her attic room and watched the moonbeams play on the ceiling. She shouldn’t have the new bed, she thought. She wanted to be like a forgotten relation, left to penury while on the other side of the castle, on the royal side, Rafael swanned round in luxury, enjoying his magnificent suite of rooms, being…Prince Regent.
‘I’d hate it,’ she muttered.
She didn’t hate Rafael. She’d loved it tonight, she conceded. She’d loved feeling beautiful. She’d loved standing side by side with Rafael while he’d organized affairs of state. She’d loved the way he’d gasped as she’d walked into the room. And the way the warmth had stayed in his eyes.
In fact, the way she was feeling about Rafael…had to be suppressed. The part of her that had been wounded to the core five years ago clenched into horror.
To fall in love with another prince…
What was she thinking? How could she be falling in love? Just because the man had kissed her…
‘The man’s seriously fabulous,’ she told the ceiling and closed her eyes, as if she could block out the thought of him.
His partner would be here tomorrow—a woman called Anna. They’d get on with the ruling Laura told them was needed and she’d retire to her books. For the next twenty years.
‘Which is what I want,’ she whispered into the dark, ‘isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ her mind screamed but there was a tiny part of her that was stubbornly refusing to agree.
Why had he kissed her? Did he have no sense at all?
Yes, he’d agreed to take on the Regency, but that was as far as it went. He didn’t want to get any more fond of Matty than he already was, and he sure as hell didn’t want to get any more fond of Matty’s mother.
But he’d kissed her.
The thought shocked him. He hadn’t known what he intended to do until it happened and then…then it was too late. It was lucky that Kelly had sense for the pair of them.
It’s like quicksand, he thought savagely, the royal quagmire hauling him in.
He thought back to the days after his father’s accident. Up until then, Rafael had been cool with being royal. Kass, his older cousin, had been an arrogant, egotistical bore. Worried about the influence Kass might have, his parents had sent Rafael to boarding school. He’d thoroughly enjoyed it, but he’d loved coming back in the holidays. He’d lived on horseback, roaming this beautiful little country with an ever-growing appreciation.
But then his father had been injured, and over the course of one summer life had changed. Kass and his father had simply cut off the brother and uncle who’d once been useful to them, but whose use-by date had been the moment he’d become uncomfortable to look at.
The last time he’d come outside… It had been just before Rafael was due to go back to school. Laura had convinced her husband to get some sun, so she and Rafael had pushed him into the garden.
Kass had walked past and had stopped dead. ‘He’s not to stay here,’ he’d said harshly, speaking to Laura and not directly to his uncle. ‘It upsets the staff. It makes me feel sick. He’s not to come within sight of the castle.’
That one vicious order had been enough to make Rafael’s father return to the house. He’d died two months later, without having set foot in the garden again.
Rafael had made that vow as well. There was no way he ever intended to be of use to royalty. He wouldn’t set foot in the castle. He’d hoped his mother would move. She hadn’t and their access to each other had become confined to Laura’s visits to the States.
And now, like it or not, here he was—of use to royalty as his father had once been of use to
