Free Wedded for His Royal Duty by Susan Meier Page A

silverware from the table by the window, his entire apartment was silent.
    “Was she pretty?”
    He blew out his breath. “That’s not talking about something else.”
    “I know.”
    She smiled, and for the second time in only a few minutes he got the sucker punch. Resisting that smile would be harder than telling a few simple, unemotional facts.
    “She was very pretty. Tall, blonde, and only twenty-two.” He shrugged. “Of course, I wasn’t much older.”
    “So it was a long time ago?”
    “Five years.”
    “You’re past it, then?”
    He should be. Most days he thought he was.
    “Did your father like her?”
    That made him laugh. “We spent most of our time on the water. Jet Skis. Water skiing. Diving. Because all that kept me out of the casinos, my father thought she was good for me.”
    Eva eased back on the sofa, getting comfortable. Alex leaned back too. They sat side by side. With only a slight tilt of their heads, they could look at the ceiling.
    “ Was she good for you?”
    Alex shrugged. “We were daredevils.” And things he hadn’t thought about in those five years began tiptoeing into his brain. “There was no official investigation into her accident, or if there had been her father kept it hushed up. But I heard from the people with her that day that she’d been driving too fast, pushing boundaries.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    He sniffed. “It’s not your fault. If anything, it was hers.” Saying the words out loud hurt his chest. Crumbled his heart into a thousand pieces. Until this very moment, he hadn’t realized how angry he was with Nina. “And now it’s officially time to talk about something else.”
    “Want to hear about the guy who almost had me calling my parents to see if I could get out of my marriage to Dominic?”
    He laughed with relief. “Absolutely.”
    “It was my first year at university. He was a tremendous geek.”
    He laughed again, thinking it remarkable that he could talk so openly about Nina, then two seconds later laugh.
    “A geek?”
    “Oh, I thought he was so brilliant. I hung on his every word.”
    “I’m not exactly brilliant.”
    She turned her head on the sofa and waited until he turned his, and their eyes met. “I’m not exactly the water skiing type. I’ve never water skied. I’m not fond of boats. Daredevil is the last word anyone would use to describe me.”
    Yet right at that moment he wanted to kiss her more than he wanted his next breath of air. His body tingled when she was around. She made him laugh. Protecting her gave him a great sense of responsibility that didn’t annoy him, it pleased him. And he’d told her about Nina.
    Oh, no.
    He was beginning to like her. For real. That’s why seeing her in the bra and panties had switched him into genuine seduction mode. Getting feelings for her brought reality into their fantasy.
    He bounced up on the sofa, noticed the last servant leaving the dining area by the window, and reached down for her hand to help her stand. “Well, that was certainly an interesting conversation, but all the servants are in the kitchen now. In five minutes everybody will be out of here.”
    She glanced at his hand. Her head tilted in confusion.
    “You can take off your dress—” in the bathroom, behind closed doors so he didn’t see “—and be on your way.”
    She frowned. “That’s it?”
    “What did you think? This is a charade.” Stronger now that he’d figured out why he felt so different around her tonight, he caught her gaze. “We’re not really going to sleep together.”
    But his heart felt funny as the words slid out of his mouth.
    When she finally took his hand and said, “No. I’m sorry. I just somehow thought I’d be staying longer,” his heart squeezed.
    He stepped back. He wasn’t letting one slip-up cloud his brain. So he liked her? He liked a lot of women. This was a charade. To protect her. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—let these feelings for her grow.
    He shifted another step away