‘No. They just didn’t want any more.’ She saw the flicker of surprise cross his face and explained, ‘They were happy with me—and mainly with each other. They were a real love match, you know. They may not be royalty, but they’ve still been featured in magazines. Their romance was a fairy tale.’ Her voice came out a little flat, and Leo noticed.
‘Your mother’s some kind of American heiress, isn’t she?’
‘Her father owned a chain of successful hotels. My uncle runs it now, but my mother was called the Brearley Heiress before she married.’
‘And your father?’
‘A French financier. They met at a ball in Paris—saw each other across a crowded room and that was it.’ She gave him a rather crooked smile. ‘You might not believe in love at first sight, but that’s how it was for them.’
Leo didn’t speak for a moment and when he finally did it was to ask, ‘And growing up in the shadow of that...how was it for you?’
And with that telling question he’d gone right to the heart of the matter. ‘Hard, sometimes,’ Alyse confessed quietly. ‘I love my parents, and I have no doubts whatsoever that they love me. But...it was always the two of them and the one of me, if that makes sense. They’ve always been wrapped up in each other, which is how it should be...’
She trailed off, realising belatedly how whingy she must sound, complaining about how much her parents loved each other. Leo had grown up in a household of bitterness and play-acting, and here she was saying her own home had had too much love? She felt ridiculous and ashamed.
‘But it was lonely,’ Leo finished softly. ‘Or so I imagine, for a little girl on her own.’
‘Sometimes,’ she whispered. She felt a lump rise in her throat and swallowed hard. Leo reached for her hand, threading her fingers with his, and the simple contact touched her deep inside.
‘Strange, how we grew up in two such different families and homes,’ he murmured. ‘Yet perhaps, in an odd way, our experience was just a little bit the same.’
‘I can’t complain, not really.’
‘You weren’t complaining. I asked a question and you answered it.’ He drew her towards him, his one hand still linked with hers while the other tangled itself in her hair. ‘But perhaps now we can put our families behind us. We’ll start our own family, one day.’ His smile was knowing and teasingly lascivious as he brushed her lips against his. ‘Maybe today.’
‘Maybe,’ Alyse whispered shakily. They hadn’t used birth control, hadn’t even discussed it—and why should they? An heir was part of the package, part of her responsibility as Leo’s bride and Maldinia’s future queen.
Leo’s baby.
She wanted it: him, the promise of a new family, a family created by love. Leo broke the kiss. Patience. This was still so new, still just a beginning.
But a wonderful one, and with a smile still on her lips she leaned forward and kissed him back.
* * *
Alyse gazed at her reflection in the mirror, smoothing the silver gown she was to wear for tonight’s reception in one of London’s most exclusive clubs. It had been four days since they’d returned from St Cristos, four wonderful days—and nights.
She still had to guard herself from leaping ahead, from longing for more than Leo was ready to offer. I don’t know how much I have to give. And yet he was giving, and trying, and with every new conversation, every shared joke or smile, every utterly amazing night, she knew she was falling in love with him. Falling in love with the real him, the Leo she’d never even known.
She loved discovering that man, learning his habits, preferences and his funny little quirks, like the fact that he had to read the entire page of a newspaper, even the adverts, before turning to another; or that he liked chess but hated draughts.
And she loved learning the taut map of his body and hearing the shudder of pleasure that ripped through him when she kissed or touched him in certain places...
Just remembering made longing sweep through her body in a heated wave.
It hadn’t all been perfect, of course. The strictures of palace life, of their royal appearances, had created moments of unspoken tension and Leo’s inevitable emotional withdrawal. Just that morning they’d appeared in front of the palace to fly to London, and at the sight of the cheering crowds they’d both frozen before Alyse had started forward, smiling and waving.
‘How is married life?’ one young woman had asked her.
‘More than I’d ever hoped for,’ she’d answered.
The woman had beamed and Alyse had moved on, but she’d caught a glimpse of Leo out of the corner of her eye and uneasily noted his stony expression.
They didn’t talk until they were in the royal jet, flying to London. Leo had snapped open his newspaper and, scanning the headlines, had remarked, ‘More than you’d ever hoped, eh?’
Alyse had blushed. ‘Well...’
‘Somehow I think you hope for a bit more,’ he’d said softly, and her blush had intensified. She was trying so hard to be patient and accepting, but everything in her yearned for more. For love. Leo had glanced away. ‘I don’t know why,’ he said, ‘but the pretending feels harder now. More like a lie.’
Alyse understood what he meant. The deception cut deeper, now that there was actually something between them. Pretending you were in love when you felt nothing, as Leo had, was easier than when you felt just a little. She had a feeling their pretence was making Leo realise how little he still felt, and that wasn’t a revelation she felt like discussing.
Sighing now, she turned away from the mirror. Patience.
A knock sounded on the door of her bedroom. Despite their honeymoon status, she and Leo had been given a royal suite with two bedrooms in the hotel where they were staying, and their luggage had been delivered to separate rooms. They’d dressed for the reception separately, Alyse with her small army of stylists hired by Queen Sophia and flown in from Paris.
‘Are you ready?’ Leo called from behind the door. ‘The car is here.’
‘Yes, I’m coming.’ She opened the door, her breath catching at the sight of Leo at his most debonair and dignified in a white tie and tails. Then she saw the lines of tension bracketed from nose to mouth and fanning from his eyes. She couldn’t ignore the stiltedness that had developed between them since they’d stepped back into the spotlight, and she didn’t know how to overcome it. Everything between them felt too new and fragile to be tested like this.
Leo nodded in the direction of her fitted gown of silver satin; from a diamanté-encrusted halter-top it skimmed her breasts and hips and then flared out around her knees to fall in sparkly swirls to the floor. ‘That’s quite a gown. The stylists chose well.’
‘I suppose they felt I needed to make a splash, since this is our first public appearance as husband and wife.’
‘Yes, I have a feeling tonight will have us both firmly in the spotlight.’ Leo’s mouth tightened and Alyse tried
