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If he offered her the role of mistress, could she take it? Seeing him with his wife and children… No, she couldn’t bear it—or could she? She was in agony. She had been smiling while watching her sister live out her dream, and pretending she wasn’t jealous.

He walked towards her with slow deliberate steps. She wasn’t even aware that she had walked backwards up to the stage until there were no more steps and then he was there with her.

Framing her face with his hands, he fitted his mouth to hers, delivering a tender, hungry kiss that contained all the pent-up longing of the last few days.

With a small lost cry, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

They were both breathing hard when they broke apart. She pressed her face into his chest, breathing in the scent of him, memorising the warmth and heat—the strength of him.

A memory to last her a lifetime.

‘You shouldn’t have come, Leandro.’

‘I had to come. I need you. I can’t function without you. I need you beside me, telling me when I’m going wrong. No one else does that.’

‘No one dares, but Leandro, we both know this can’t happen.’

‘We can adopt…’

She stared up at him, not daring to believe it. ‘They won’t agree.’

‘I don’t care. They agree or I walk,’ he pronounced with a flash of his habitual arrogance.

‘Your duty…’ she reasoned.

Leandro was beyond reason. ‘I have given my ultimatum.’

‘You what…? You would do that for me?’ she gasped, tears streaming down her face.

He blotted the moisture with the ball of his thumb. For a moment it was enough that she was here in his arms. ‘You burrowed into my head the first time I laid eyes on you—I kept track of you over the years and when we met again you burrowed into my heart. I am ashamed to admit that I fought it. Why do you think I avoided you so much? I knew I was falling deeper in love every second and I thought love would make me weaker, less of a king. What a fool I was. Without you in my life, I am just going through the motions. I would not be a king… I would not be a man.’

Holding her eyes, he dropped down on one knee and reached with a not quite steady hand for the ring in his pocket.

‘Will you marry me, Elsie, my only love, let us build a life worth living together?’

She looked from the ring to his face.

‘I will.’

The massive roar and claps and whistles from the crowd below broke into the private moment.

‘Oh, God!’ Elsie groaned.

Leandro got to his feet and, taking Elsie’s hand, bowed, causing an even louder roar.

‘Ah, well, witnesses,’ he said, amused by her embarrassment. ‘I suppose it’s too late to change my mind now. Let’s give them one for the photo album, shall we?’ he said, pulling her into his arms. ‘Then I suppose I should ask your father’s permission to marry you.’

‘And if he says no?’

Leandro grinned. ‘He won’t. I’m a very persuasive guy.’

Epilogue

FOR THE FIRST time all morning, her bedroom was empty. Up until then, it had been full to bursting, as was proven by the empty glasses on every surface and the empty and half-full bottles of champagne.

Elsie was the only person who hadn’t had any; the bubbles in her bloodstream were more intoxicating than any vintage.

Typical, now she was alone she needed help. She twisted around, tongue caught between her teeth as she tried to connect the hook and eyes above the zip on her gown.