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“But she’s not your sister—little or otherwise.”
“All right, enough.” He said it flatly. “I am not going to marry Liliana, Sydney. We are not affianced. I have never proposed marriage to her.”
She took a wild guess. “But she wants to marry you. It’s assumed that you will marry her.”
He didn’t look away. But his eyes were definitely guarded now. “She … looks up to me.”
Did he imagine she would wimp out and leave it at that? Hah. “Just say it. She does want to marry you.”
He sat back in his chair, too. And he looked at her so strangely, so distantly. When he spoke, his voice was cold. “I would not presume to speak for Liliana. She’s a sweet and lovely person. And yes, if I married Lili, it would be considered a brilliant match, one that would strengthen the bonds between our two countries.”
She said sharply, “So, then you should marry her.”
“Not only that.” His eyes were so dark right then, dark and full of secrets, it seemed to her. Suddenly, she was thinking that she didn’t know him at all, that this brief, magical time she’d shared with him had truly been just that: magic, not reality. Nothing more than a beautiful, impossible fantasy. That the truth was coming out now and the fantasy was over.
So soon. Way too soon.
He spoke again. “Do you recall how I told you I had to marry by my thirty-third birthday?”
“Yes.”
“Did you think I was only teasing you?”
“Well, I thought you meant that there was pressure in your family, as there is in a lot of families, for you to settle down, start providing your parents with grandchildren, all that.”
“It’s considerably more than just pressure. It’s the law.”
She looked at him sideways. “Now you really are kidding.”
“On the contrary, I’m completely serious. My country was once a French protectorate. And France … casts a long shadow, as they say. We have signed any number of treaties with France, treaties wherein the French promise to guarantee Montedoro’s sovereignty.”
As a lawyer, she knew what he was getting at. “And the simple fact that another country is in a position to guarantee your sovereignty is … problematic?”
“Precisely. Although my family is officially in charge of succession, the French government must approve the next ruling prince or princess. There is even a stipulation that, should the throne go vacant, Montedoro will revert to a French protectorate. That is why we have a law designed to ensure that no prince will shirk his—or her—obligation to produce potential heirs to the throne. Montedoran princes and princesses are required to marry before their thirty-third birthday or be stripped of all titles and income. I will be thirty-three on June twenty-fourth.”
“Two and a half months from now.”
“Yes,” he said softly.
Sydney was certain of it then. No matter what he’d said a few moments ago, he did intend to marry the lovely Lili. This thing between the two of them was only … what? A last fling before his ingrained sense of duty finally kicked in, before he went back to Montedoro and tied the knot with the pretty blonde princess he’d known since childhood—and then got to work having a bunch of little princes with her.
And why, oh, why, if he just had to have a final fling, couldn’t he have chosen someone else? Sydney was a hard-driving, overworked single mom and the last thing she needed was a whirlwind romance with a man who was planning to marry someone else. Plus, she’d already suffered through more than her share of disappointments when it came to the male gender, thank you very much.
Bottom line? She really did not have time for this crap.
And she wanted desperately to be furious with him. But she wasn’t. The whole situation only made her miserable. She longed to put her face in her hands and burst into tears.
But no—in fact, hell no. She was an O’Shea and an O’Shea was tougher than that. No way was she letting him see her break down and cry. Instead, coolly, she advised, “Don’t you think you’re cutting it a little close?”
“More than a little. And the truth is I have considered asking Liliana to be my wife.”
Surprise, surprise. “So what’s stopped you?”
“No man wants to marry a woman he thinks of as a sister. Not even if she is a fine person, not even to keep his inheritance, not even for the good of his country. And so I’ve hes
itated. I’ve put off making my move.”
“Rule. I have to say it. You need to stop dithering and get with the program.”
