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Luca studied the completed certificate, then nodded at Alex. ‘You may kiss the bride.’

Heat scalded Tilly’s cheeks. Despite her best efforts to ignore him, her gaze shot to her husband in time to see the supercilious arch of his eyebrow.

‘That’s not a requirement for the ceremony to be legal, right?’ His lips curled.

Right. He didn’t want to kiss her and she didn’t want to kiss him. Not even to pretend.

‘No, you’re legitimately married.’ Luca looked askance. ‘But what about for your photos?’

Alex hesitated then extended his hand to Tilly. Warily she put hers into his. With a theatrical bow he brushed his lips lightly over the back of her hand. His lips were cool and firm—hardly passionate—yet Tilly fought a sudden, appalling tremor. Fought harder to stop herself forming another fist—this time to punch him in the damned face.

Alex straightened and she saw an indecipherable glitter in his eyes.

‘We’re done.’ He grabbed his phone off the assistant and pocketed it. ‘Register that paperwork right away.’ He took her hand again. ‘We need to get out of here now.’

She wasn’t disappointed. Never. The thought of kissing Alex was abhorrent. He’d only ever shown her contempt from the first moment he’d met her. Sure, he was impossibly, annoyingly gorgeous but he dated models and actresses and Nobel prize nominees and he was mean to her. So no, she never wanted to kiss him.

She sent Luca a set smile. ‘Thank you so much.’

She heard Alex’s snort but she wasn’t going to stop being polite. Except next second he was storming back down the aisle and as he still had her hand in his, she was dragged with him. Glancing back, she saw both men staring after them. The assistant looked slack-jawed, but Luca’s expression was lighter—almost hopeful.

‘Why the rush? It’s done now,’ she gasped as Alex got them out of the chapel in less than ten seconds.

Frankly she needed a minute to process and catch her breath but he just kept up the frantic pace.

‘Better to watch fireworks from a distance.’ Always a cynical joke.

‘Are we running away?’ she asked.

He stopped midway along the corridor and whirled in front of her. There was no sarcastic smirk, nor was there that deadened veneer. A hard glitter heightened the intensity of his dark eyes.

‘Do you really want to witness what would happen if I saw him right now?’ His whisper sliced, more frightening than any howl of fury.

For all Alex’s pointed comments, she’d seen him like this only once before. Yet even that time he’d not been as savage as this. He was livid. Pulsating rage had blown his pupils while hot colour scorched his upper cheekbones.

Him. She knew he didn’t mean Luca. He didn’t mean anyone but Domenico. Nausea clogged her throat as she suddenly realised Alex wasn’t afraid of his father. He was afraid of what he’d do to the man. She didn’t understand why, but she recognised this truth.

This was more than spite. This was rabid revenge.

Chapter Five

‘We’ll go via the balcony.’ Alex needed to get out of the palace. Now.

He strode fast, trying to outrun his churning gut. The royal chapel was small and full of family secrets. He’d not been in there for years. What the hell had he been thinking? If he’d had more sense he’d have abandoned the eternally irritating Tilly to her fate and never set foot in that claustrophobic hellhole again.

Except she’d been trapped and he knew too well the horrors of being imprisoned. He hated his father for what he’d done to him, but bullying Tilly was as bad. Worse. She wasn’t even blood. Ancient anger rippled, ravaging his self-control. He inhaled sharply and caught her scent in his lungs again. More honey than vinegar now. The taste of her soft skin lingered on his lips, distracting him from suffocating memories and searing pain.

Distraction was always good, but in this case not appropriate and sure as hell not wanted. He needed to escape that too. They just had to veer over the balcony and get to the helipad hidden beyond the five-centuries-old ramparts. Not running away. Never that. But he was angry enough to cause irreparable damage if he stayed now, and not even Alex would destroy the crown so completely.

‘Alex?’

He slammed to a halt three quarters of the way along the balcony.

‘What are you doing here?’

Domenico stood in the courtyard below, flanked by three courtiers including the nauseatingly officious Hugo. Which was good. Steadying. Witnesses. And they were almost there. Almost there. Almost there. Tilly’s hand tightened around his. He’d faced his father countless times as an adult. Generally he enjoyed crushing the man’s attempts to control him—because he couldn’t any more now that Alex was too strong, too successful to take down. But this was different. This wasn’t about him.

‘Come down here now,’ Domenico ordered.