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He opened his eyes and winced at the bright sunlight streaming in through the windows. The alcohol had numbed him yesterday but it couldn’t help him now. He felt tight inside. He couldn’t believe what she’d said. She was desperate. She needed a marriage to save her monarchy and he was the convenient lay who had given her her one night of hedonistic freedom, because she’d felt claustrophobic.
He had tried to forget how isolated she’d looked when he’d first seen her at the party in Venice. He’d tried not to imagine what it must be like to bear that yoke of responsibility all your life, so that you knew nothing of personal freedom or choice.
And most of all he’d tried not to believe what his heart so desperately wanted to believe...that it was true. That something magical had happened that night between them. That she felt the same. That she had ached for him as he ached for her.
A sound broke through Daniel’s consciousness and he realized that the TV was on a local news channel. He must have switched it on last night when he’d come in, a reflex from when he’d been a reporter. He sat up and groaned and then stood up. He headed for the bathroom, reaching for the TV control switch as he did, about to turn it off. When he stopped dead.
Analia. Dressed casually in dark tailored trousers and a white silk shirt. Flat shoes. Hair pulled back into a low ponytail. And more beautiful than any other woman he’d ever seen. His heart clenched hard. She looked fragile in the middle of a group of big burly guards and officials as she left the palace.
Something inside Daniel rose up, making him clench his fists. He had an overwhelming need to pluck her out of that crowd. To protect her from being jostled. She seemed intensely vulnerable at that moment and for a second her eyes looked straight at the camera and she looked...hunted. Immediately he thought of the moment in Venice when she’d looked exactly the same, just before she’d tried to leave. And he’d stopped her.
The camera zoomed in then on the preppy blonde reporter who was saying, ‘Queen Analia will give a press conference this afternoon to inform the world as to her response to this incredible scandal. Unless she names the father of her child and announces a marriage, the country will vote in a referendum if she should remain on the throne. Queen Analia is much beloved but can she weather a scandal of this size? Will this be the end of one of the longest ruling dynasties in Europe? And what will happen—’
Daniel flicked off the TV, his face impossibly grim. Analia hadn’t tried to persuade him to marry her. She’d said nothing of exposing him as the father. She was willing to put her role as Queen in jeopardy with a referendum. Something hard inside him started to break apart. He felt as if he was standing in front of a huge gaping black void. The sum of his experiences stretched out behind him and a gateway before him. The question was, could he trust enough to step through the gateway when he’d long ago lost the ability to trust anyone but himself?
CHAPTER FIVE
ANALIA’S BELLY WAS in knots. The numbness that had descended over her yesterday after Daniel had left was gone, but now she felt nothing but indescribable emotional pain.
She was sitting at a table with a stoic Pierre by her side, facing a wall of cameras and reporters from all over the world. And she’d never felt more alone. She cursed Daniel in that moment, for having ever given her the tantalizing sense of protection.
The hubbub of the press finally abated and an expectant hush settled over the room. Analia’s skin prickled. She felt sick.
The first reporter was singled out and asked, ‘Queen Analia, are you going to name the father of your child?’
She took a breath. ‘No I am not. Unless he wishes to be named.’
‘So you’re saying that you’ll go to a referendum and possibly lose your crown before you’ll identify the father?’
Analia crushed the quiver of emotion inside her, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. He doesn’t want to be involved. Not like that.’
‘Then how does he want to be involved?’
Analia opened her mouth and closed it again. She pictured Daniel’s stern and cold face. She pictured having the baby alone and informing Daniel after the birth.
‘Truthfully... I don’t—’
‘I’d like to know if you meant what you said yesterday?
Analia’s mouth was still open from when she’d been cut off. His voice. But it couldn’t be. She looked around wildly, trying to place where it had come from. Maybe she was hearing things. And then suddenly her eyes clashed with his stormy gray ones, and the breath left her body in a whoosh.
He was standing head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, arms crossed. Completely unreadable.
Scrabbling for time to get over the shock, Analia stuttered, ‘I’m sorry...could you repeat the question?’
Daniel took a step forward. ‘I’d like to know if you meant what you said yesterday?
Suddenly a whisper broke out amongst the crowd, someone had recognized Daniel.
All Analia could see was him. She was unaware of anyone else. ‘Why didn’t you leave? Her heart was beating erratically.
Daniel looked impossibly stern. ‘I believe I asked you a question.’
Analia recalled looking at Daniel’s back the day before, willing him to turn and face her. He wasn’t done punishing her. She shook her head minutely, ‘Please...don’t do this.’
He stepped forward again and this time the crowd parted to let him through. There was utter silence now in the room.
Daniel repeated the question again. ‘Did you mean what you said? It’s a very simple question, Analia.’
