She would never forgive him, or herself, for allowing him to sneak so deep under her skin that he could inflict maximum damage.
Her daughter kicked under her ribs and Poppy put a hand over her bump. All she could do now was get on with the job of running her country and ensure that, above all, Caius didn’t hurt their daughter.
She somehow managed to keep a lid on the seething, roiling emotions threatening to rise up and pull her down, but she couldn’t hold it in when she saw Stephen waiting for her. He managed to get her into the back of a car before anyone saw her distress but, through a waterfall of tears, she said, ‘I’ve been so stupid.’
He shook his head, and hugged her and pulled back and said, ‘No, sweetie, you’ve just been human and fallen in love.’
It wasn’t much comfort to hear that, in spite of being a queen, she was still at the mercy of very basic human weaknesses. As if she hadn’t known that already.
A week after Poppy had left, Caius found himself in the dressing room of his apartment. All of the clothes that had been installed for Poppy were still hanging up. He spied the blue dress she’d worn to the polo match and gathered it up, holding it to his face, breathing in her scent.
He wasn’t sure how much time passed but when he caught sight of himself in the mirror, for a second he thought someone else was in the room. He blinked and realised it was himself. In sweats and a creased T-shirt, beard unkempt, hair wild. Eyes wilder.
He hadn’t been sleeping. He’d been having nightmares. All featuring various versions of Poppy looking at him with horror and disdain if he tried to come close to her.
But last night, he’d dreamt of his daughter. Of holding out his arms to her and of her turning away and running to Poppy, crying.
Caius made his way down to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a shot of whiskey, throwing it back. He didn’t need to be Sigmund Freud to interpret that. It was pathetically obvious.
‘Caius?’
Was he hearing things? He turned around and it took a second for him to realise who he was looking at.
‘Cassie?’
His beautiful blonde sister came towards him with concern on her face. ‘Caius, what’s going on? You were supposed to have a meeting with Ares today while we’re in New York and you never showed and we couldn’t contact you.’
She looked around. ‘Where’s Poppy?’
‘I sent her home.’ Caius’s voice was harsh. It had to be, or it would crack under the strain of the emotions in his gut.
Cassie looked at him and took it in. And saw. ‘Oh, Caius, what have you done?’
Ten days, Poppy thought to herself. It had only been ten days and she could barely remember what it had been like to feel…not in pain. Emotional pain. She cursed Caius again. His rejection had made anything she’d experienced with her father look like a walk in the park.
She let the groom help her put the saddle on the horse. She was aware of the young man glancing at her a little fearfully, no doubt put off by her stony expression. She had to force herself to smile at him when he’d finished tacking up the horse.
And then she noticed his eyes flicker to something behind her and widen, and he suddenly melted away. Poppy turned around and everything in her seemed to plummet to the ground—blood, heart, stomach—when she saw who it was.
‘Caius.’ She had to say his name. She wasn’t sure if she was hallucinating. Maybe he’d migrated from her fevered dreams to daytime hallucinations.
‘Poppy.’
His deep voice hit her right in the solar plexus and reverberated like ripples on a pond, igniting nerve-endings. Igniting her anger.
‘Does Stephen know you’re here?’
He nodded. ‘I just saw him.’
And Stephen wasn’t here trying to stop Caius from talking to her. A nugget that had significance but not the kind of significance that Poppy wanted to even think about. She was going to fire Stephen.
‘What do you want, Caius? I told you any discussions would be between our teams.’
‘I want to talk to you…to try to explain…what happened in New York.’
Poppy opened her eyes wide. ‘Nothing happened in New York. I came home and you were getting back to your life.’
Poppy turned to the horse and put her foot in the stirrup. She prayed she wouldn’t look like some ungainly baby elephant as she swung her leg over the horse’s back, but she managed to get into the saddle without making a spectacle of herself. And it was satisfying to look down on Caius, who she noticed now was wearing jeans and a loose shirt.
