Free To Marry a Prince by Sophie Page Page A

before she forgave him. If she forgave him.
    ‘I never tried to vamp you,’ she said hotly.
    He looked up then. ‘No. Exactly. You were just sweet and all tied up with your own problems.’
    She stiffened. ‘Are you saying I’m self-obsessed?’
    He smiled. ‘No, you just had your own priorities. And I wasn’t one of them. You have no idea what that was like. I felt like a horse galloping into a field after spending its life walking round and round a paddock.’
    ‘Really?’ She was sceptical.
    He ran his hands through his hair. ‘Look, everyone around me thinks I’m so important, and it’s not good to be the person for whom everything is done, around whom everything is planned. They treat me like a national monument. And then, on Saturday, as far as you were concerned I was just a guy who happened by. It was a new experience for me.’
    ‘I – see.’ It made sense in a weird way.
    ‘I didn’t want to give that up. Can you understand that?’
    ‘I suppose so. But it still doesn’t explain why youwent on playing Mr Nobody this morning. That was horrid.’
    He flushed. ‘I know.’
    ‘I even asked who you were, for God’s sake.’
    ‘I know,’ he said miserably. ‘But I don’t usually have to tell people who I am. I couldn’t find the words somehow. And while I was floundering, you ran off.’
    ‘Hmm.’ That made sense, she thought, softening.
    ‘I knew I’d done it wrong as soon as you did. You looked so – hurt.’
    Bella flinched and hardened herself again. ‘So why didn’t you come after me and put it right? Tell me who you were, at least?’
    ‘I wanted to. But, well, there was my security man watching. And God knows who else. You might not have recognised me but there are plenty of people who do, all the time.’
    ‘Recognise you?’ She gave a hoot of derision. ‘How the hell would they recognise you under a hoodie and shades? You looked like a CIA assassin.’
    ‘Really?’ He sounded flattered.
    ‘Not a very good assassin.’
    ‘Oh, well, that’s me in my place,’ he said resignedly.
    In spite of herself, she gave a faint giggle.
    He looked up hopefully. ‘Bella, please. I know I’ve been all sorts of an idiot and you have every right to kick me out and never see me again. But – can we start again? Please?’
    She thought about it. ‘Start again?’
    ‘As if we’d just met.’
    ‘Saturday never happened?’
    His eyes lit with that secret laughter. ‘I don’t want to go that far. You looked very fetching among the flowerpots. Say this morning never happened.’
    ‘Ah.’ She thought about it. ‘Proper introductions?’
    ‘If you want. The Hamiltons could ask us both to dinner …’
    She waved that aside. ‘I don’t mean references and people you know setting it up with people I know. I mean you telling me who you are, what you do and what you want. And then giving me a phone number, like people do. If you want to.’
    He looked dazed. ‘I want to,’ he said in a sort of strangled croak.
    ‘OK then. Let’s see how it goes. Hello. I’m Bella Greenwood.’ She held out her hand.
    He took it. But instead of shaking it politely, he stood up and went down on one knee in front of the sofa, holding her hand between both of his.
    Oh, my Lord , she thought, startled.
    ‘I’m Richard. I’m heir to the British throne. I saw you across a moonlit courtyard and I couldn’t wait to meet you.’
    WOW! she thought.
    Aloud she said, ‘You are nuts. You know that?’
    ‘You can’t say things like that to the heir to the throne,’ he said calmly.
    And kissed her hand. Very gently, but it was a real kiss all the same. She felt it through her skin and down to her bones, and it damn nearly stopped her heart.
    ‘You are going seriously OTT,’ she said in a breathless, scolding voice.
    ‘You told me to tell you what I want,’ he said in an injured voice.
    ‘I said proper introductions,’ she hissed, seriously flustered.
    ‘Well, all right, if you insist. But if you want