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‘Emma?’ Mason asked, and the chestnut-haired woman broke into a smile.
‘I wasn’t sure if you’d recognise me. We’ve met, of course, but you always had...’
‘A horse beside me?’ Mason asked with a small laugh.
‘Well, an entourage of stable hands and John standing steadfast beside you. This is Anna,’ she said, bringing the other woman with her into the room. Anna was strikingly beautiful, with long dark hair and a stunning smile.
‘So you’re the one who tamed the Greek billionaire,’ Mason said, and then suddenly felt awfully sure that this was not something one said to the wife of Dimitri Kyriakou.
‘Yes, indeed I am,’ she said with an unselfconscious pride. ‘Danyl sent us up here to see how you were getting on.’
Mason stood there in the towel and gestured to the wardrobe. ‘I must admit to being a little more familiar with jodhpurs or jeans than empire waists and stilettos. I’d say that you’ve arrived not a moment too soon,’ she said. ‘I’m not ashamed by who I am and where I come from, though I’d rather not look like an Aussie outbacker tonight. Not sure that would go down so well with Queen Elizabeth.’
‘Yours or Ter’harn’s?’ Emma asked, amused.
‘Either,’ Mason replied.
She was surprised by the easy camaraderie she felt with these two women, but realised it was who they were, as much as what they were here to do, that made it so. Th
ey were completely comfortable in their own skin, and there were no ulterior motives, no snide sideways assessment that she’d often encountered back in New York during her time there.
As they flicked through the array of incredible dresses Mason sent a prayer of thanks to Danyl for sending them to her. They distracted her from her fears and helped her get ready in a way that would allow her to fit in. Perhaps the evening wouldn’t be so awful after all.
* * *
‘That woman has been sent to torment me!’ Danyl exclaimed over his glass of whisky.
‘What—Mason? I thought you brought her here,’ Antonio said, deliberately misunderstanding him.
‘Amata,’ Danyl practically growled.
‘Are you surprised?’ Dimitri asked. ‘You sought out the most reputable matchmaker there is, then discarded every single prospective bride she sent your way. She does have a reputation to uphold and you’re singlehandedly destroying it.’
‘She’s not that bad, Danyl. She’s just...’
‘Young!’ all three declared simultaneously.
‘The poor girl has clearly only been sent here to make you play ball,’ Antonio concluded.
‘The poor girl has been decreed my last chance,’ Danyl replied.
‘I don’t see why you are persisting with it,’ Dimitri said of Danyl’s attempts to find a bride. ‘You’ll find the right one, when you’re ready.’
‘Oh, don’t be so smug. Just because you both have fallen in love, doesn’t mean it’s contagious and I’ll suddenly catch it. I don’t need love. I need a queen,’ Danyl said with alarming finality even to his own ears.
But even his harsh words couldn’t wipe the smiles from his friends’ faces, and Danyl couldn’t quite bring himself to begrudge them their happiness. Each had been through their own torment, and each had come through it with a ring on his finger, and a beautiful woman on his arm. Women they loved.
And as if his chain of thought conjured them from mid-air, a knock came on the door to the study, and in walked three of the most beautiful women all three men had ever seen. It would have been a lie to say that it took Danyl a moment to recognise Mason. He knew her instantly, and the dress she was wearing, the way she looked...it stole his breath.
A shimmer of purple clung to her lithe form. It sparkled every time she took a step, the entire length of the material covered in small purple crystal beads, making it look as if they clung to her skin rather than the barely-there material. His eyes ran up from her feet to where the material pulled across powerful legs, then a deliciously flat stomach, and up to where her perfect breasts were encased in more detailed beadwork. The low neckline clung over the slopes of her chest and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He’d always desired her, always known she was beautiful, but the purple against her suntanned skin was undoing him. Although then he looked a little more closely and saw a pale tinge to her cheeks, and something in her eyes that struck him hard.
Something was wrong.
He frowned, taking in Emma and Anna, who in direct contrast were almost giddy. Eyes bright, and each containing a happiness that was practically vibrating from them.
Dimitri let out a curse from beside him.
‘Anna! You told them,’ he accused.
