Free Her Royal Husband by Cara Colter Page B

and back to my very ordinary life.”
    He was watching her closely. Much too closely.
    “She’s my daughter, too,” he said quietly.
    “Don’t you even think of threatening me, Owen.”
    “I’m not. I’m simply stating a fact.”
    “Well, it’s a good thing for me she’s a girl, since that puts her out of the lineup for the throne. Or would herillegitimacy have done that anyway?” She was saying hurtful things to him, but they seemed to be backfiring on her. Every time he winced as one of her barbs found its way home, she found herself feeling sorry she had said it.
    “You aren’t listening to me,” he said quietly. “You are trying to turn everything into a fight. I seem to remember that, too. You were a formidable debate partner. But I don’t want this to be a debate. I want to be Whitney’s father.”
    “Nothing can change the fact that you are Whitney’s father.”
    “I don’t mean as a function of biology. I want to be her father. A person of importance in her life.”
    “Look, Owen, money is obviously not a problem. You will have to do what the other weekend dads do, fly over and visit, buy her a pony, take her to Disneyland once a year.”
    It occurred to her that meant he would always be part of her life. At least until Whitney was grown-up. She could be strong for four or five more days, but fourteen years?
    “Give me until Saturday,” he said.
    “To what?”
    “To change your mind. About the man. And about me.”
    “No!”
    “Jordan, something is wrong here. You talk about getting married without an ounce of excitement, talk about going back to an ordinary life. My experience with love is that nothing is ordinary once it finds you. Everything is extraordinary.”
    “I’m glad love was so extraordinary for you! My experience with love is that it hurts!”
    “Are you telling me you are going to marry a man you don’t love?”
    Oh, God, that was the problem with lies. They started out so simply, and the next thing you knew they were tangled around you as if you had inadvertently dropped in on a nest of snakes.
    “I am not discussing my personal life with you!”
    “Give me until Saturday.”
    “No!”
    “If it was possible to change your mind,” he said slowly, “that’s something you should know.”
    “Don’t you dare wreck my life and then turn around and say it was for my own good.”
    “I just want your happiness.”
    “You are no expert on my happiness,” she told him.
    “And if it isn’t possible to change your mind, you have nothing to worry about. You can go back to your ordinary life and live happily ever after. I can live with that. If you give me until Saturday to change your mind. Give me a chance to get to know you all over again.”
    “You can’t change my mind.”
    “Then we have a deal?” he said smoothly.
    Oh, this was insanity. It was like making a deal with the devil. But her pride would not allow him to think she was afraid of the power he had over her, even if she was.
    “Deal,” she said. It was safe enough. Saturday was only a few days away. She would be in the kitchen most of that time. Besides, now was the time to prove, forever, that she was immune to him. To take back her life, and her power, to leave those summer days of five years ago behind her for eternity.
    He was right, though she damned him for it. If shecould not leave that summer love behind, there was no hope for her ever finding happiness.
    “Let’s begin like this,” he said. He got up from his chair and came around to her. She watched him warily. In the last second, she knew what he was going to do. She had time to push back her chair and run.
    But she didn’t.
    She watched him lower his head to hers, helpless. She sat as frozen as if she was carved from ice when his lips, familiar, touched her forehead, trailed to her cheek.
    The ice melted, and when his lips sought hers, her body did the ultimate betrayal. She responded. She did not want to. She ordered herself not