foolish dreams.
She’d begin with contraception. She wasn’t ready to bring a baby into such a situation.
‘Your Highnesses, welcome.’ The mayor bowed low, his bald head gleaming in the sun.
But Raul’s attention wasn’t on the resplendent figure before the town hall. It was riveted on Luisa. In her pale suit and with her golden hair swept up she looked coolly elegant. Yet a darting glance at her full lips and the slenderness of her throat brought waves of memory crashing in on him.
Of Luisa beneath him last night, writhing with a desperate pleasure tinged by innocent wonder that had held him in thrall despite his urgent need for completion. Of her unrestrained passion that blasted through his sophistication and years of experience and reduced him to slavering, uncontrolled need.
As if he was the virgin and she the seducer!
Even the feel of her arm as he guided her over the uneven cobblestones made hunger spring to gnawing life. He had to call on all his experience to mask his feelings.
That was what worried him. The fact that she made him feel. Not merely mind-blowing lust. Nor simply relief and gratitude that the crown was assured.
A cocktail of emotions had stirred last night as she’d spoken of her grandfather and her would-be seducer. A fierce protectiveness utterly unlike that he felt for his country. Fury at her hurts. Sadness. Tenderness he’d never known.
And joy so profound it had shocked him to the core and driven him from bed this morning, seeking work as a distraction.
Instinctively he tried to deny the intensity of his emotions. He didn’t do feelings. That was how he’d survived and rebuilt his life in the face of humiliating public speculation and private pain.
What did Luisa do to him?
Even as a youth, when he’d been smitten by what he’d foolishly deemed love, he’d functioned better than this.
The crowd cheered and it was all Raul could do to remember to wave in acknowledgement. For the first time he had difficulty remembering his duty.
The realisation terrified him.%
Duty had been his life. He’d devoted himself to his country with a dedication other men gave to wives and families. It gave him purpose. Had kept him going in that bleak time when his world crashed around him.
‘Prince Raul, Princess Luisa, welcome.’ The mayor’s eyes gleamed admiringly as he bowed to Luisa.
Raul tensed at his blatant stare. He knew an unreasoning desire to pull Luisa behind him out of sight. Or take her to the castle and lock her in his bedroom.
Now there was a thought!
The crisp wind brought colour to her cheeks. Last night’s passion had softened her lips to a lush, inviting bow that played havoc with his self-control and sent blood surging to his groin. Any minute now and the snapping cameras would catch him in rampant arousal.
‘Your Highness?’
A look at the mayor’s puzzled face told Raul they were waiting for him.
Dredging up his control, Raul spoke, finding calm in the give and take of official welcome. Yet the undercurrent of awareness heightening every sense disturbed him. A night of passion should slake desire, not increase it.
The mayor turned to Luisa, holding out a huge ornamental key that signified her free entry to every locked building in the capital.
‘Welcome to our city, Your Highness. I hope you will be as happy here with us as we are to have you among us.’ He spoke in Maritzian then English and the crowd cheered.
She looked sexy as hell. No trace now of the androgynous mud-spattered farmer. Raul imagined unbuttoning her jacket as he’d undone her wedding gown last night and—
‘Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here.’ To Raul’s amazement Luisa spoke in slow but clear Maritzian as she turned towards the people lining the square. ‘It’s kind of you all to come and welcome me to your lovely city. I’ll look forward to discovering it for myself.’
The crowd roared.
It didn’t matter that Luisa had turned from the microphone so the sound blurred, or that her accent wasn’t perfect. The fact that she made the effort to speak Maritzian, when everyone knew from the press release that she wasn’t fluent, endeared her to them.
The mayor beamed. Streamers waved and a ripple of applause rose.
Pride surged as Raul watched her smile at the throng. Only he, beside her, saw the stiff set of her jaw and how her hands shook as she clasped the heavy key.
Only he, the man who’d forced her into leaving everything she knew and adopting a role she’d rejected time and again, guessed what it cost her to put on this façade.
Razor-sharp pain speared through him. He’d done what he must for his nation and Luisa had been the one to suffer.
A memory flashed of her pain last night as she’d spoken of her grandfather’s manipulation. Raul’s hands balled to fists. His own demands must have been like an echo of that dreadful time. The knowledge stirred an uncomfortable, unfamiliar sensation. Guilt.
He’d plucked her from her world, one where she was loved and appreciated, and dropped her into an alien place. Into a role even those born to it found challenging.
Last night they’d shared physical pleasure. But he’d persuaded and challenged her into it. Would she have come to him of her own volition?
‘Here, let me.’ He took the key, disturbed at the shame he felt. He wasn’t used to questioning his actions. He’d spent so long sure in the knowledge he acted for the public good.
‘It’s almost over,’ he murmured. ‘Just back to the car and that’s it.’
Finally Luisa met his eyes and shock sucker-punched him. Gone was the wonderment and warmth that, despite his attempts to rationalise, had turned last night into something remarkable. Something he refused to analyse.
For the first time since she’d agreed to marry, Luisa’s gaze was coolly remote.
Inexplicable loss filled him. He’d thought they’d begun to share something more than an acceptance of duty. Instinctively Raul reached for her but she moved away.
At the last moment he remembered to thank the mayor. By the time he’d finished Luisa was ahead of him, her spine erect and poise perfect. That hadn’t been learned in the last week. Her mother’s teaching?
He followed, his gaze drawn to the slim skirt that shifted over her curves with every step. That was why he didn’t see the bustle on the edge of the crowd. The next thing he knew, one of the security staff lunged across the open space while another hurried forward. Instantly alert, Raul raced across the cobbles, adrenalin pumping, ready to protect her.
He skidded to a halt beside her as she bent. That was when he saw the ragamuffin dog, all hair and lolling tongue, gambolling at her feet.
Raul’s heart
