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One hand gripped his waist, the other spiked into his hair in a turbulent bid to intensify the kiss. He met her bold demand, thrusting his tongue into her mouth. For endless minutes they devoured each other, their hands almost frenzied in their wild caresses.
They were both panting when Remi eventually tore away from her. He didn’t let go, or remove his gaze from her. ‘I may not have conventional feelings towards you,’ he rasped, ‘but this unstoppable fever in my blood desires no one else but you. Do you understand that?’
With every cell in her body she wanted to claim those words, hold them close to that ache in her chest. But she couldn’t. Because... ‘That’s just sex,’ she said shakily.
‘It’s more than most people have.’
‘And when that’s gone...?’
His lips compressed. ‘Then we’ll find a way to co-exist in civility.’
‘That can’t be enough for you, surely?’ she countered.
His hands dropped from her like leaden weights to fist at his sides. Maddie watched with sickening fascination as he reasserted absolute control of himself.
‘For the sake of my kingdom, it has to be enough. For your sake, you’d better not renege on our agreement.’
She drew a breath, but before she could speak his gaze flicked to the report on the chair.
‘Your father is making good progress, I understand?’
She nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Let that be your defining goal, then.’
What about me? What about my heart? What about what I want?
The words remained stuck in her throat as he nodded at the velvet box. ‘See you at the altar tomorrow, Madeleine. Wear the necklace. It will please me.’
He left the suite, taking the vibrancy and the oxygen out of the room. She subsided into her seat, her stomach hollowing out as she acknowledged just how much she’d wanted that conversation to go differently.
Had she really expected some indication that he’d one day get over his devastating loss? That the impenetrable fortress around his heart would crack open to let someone else in? Someone like her? How much warning did her foolish heart need? It was time to accept reality. To stop hoping for the impossible.
Hands clenched in her lap, she stared down at the velvet box. She wasn’t sure whether she reached for it out of curiosity, to see what other priceless heirloom was being bestowed upon her, or whether it was because it was the last solid confirmation that come tomorrow she would be marrying Remi Montegova, as she’d promised.
&n
bsp; For better or worse, and for however long it lasted, she was locked in this thing with Remi. Perhaps if at some point in the future his emotional detachment turned into physical detachment he might even let her go, spare them both the inconvenience of a loveless, sexless marriage.
Maddie ignored the further anguish that thought brought and stared down at the unopened box. She had to embrace this upcoming wedding wholeheartedly, put her best game face on and play her role.
* * *
Except that wasn’t so easy the next morning as she stood before the bevy of attendants who’d arrived to prepare her for her wedding day.
For the last hour they’d gone about their duties with quiet efficiency, kind smiles and muted excitement, all carefully orchestrated to allay her jitters. Except the butterflies in her belly were in full kamikaze mode. No matter how she diced it, she was marrying the Crown Prince of Montegova—the man who in a few short weeks would be king.
Clinical undertaking or not, it was enough to steal the breath from her lungs—especially when her wedding gown was lowered over her head. She’d fallen in love with it on sight, picked it out of the vast selection three top Montegovan couturiers had presented her with five days after their engagement had been announced.
It was made of silk and lace, and the sweetheart neckline showed the barest hint of cleavage. The heavy material followed her form down to her knees in an elegant train of diamond-studded lace. Her arms were covered in the same lace pattern to her elbow, but at the back the design dipped in a deep vee, leaving her bare from nape to waist.
She’d been a little reticent about choosing the daring design, but her heavy lace veil would conceal the back of the dress, and for some reason she’d experienced a spark of delight at the thought of wearing this particular dress today.
Maddie suspected that the spark had come from the inadvertent discovery of Celeste’s wedding dress on her one visit to the east wing. She knew she should have left the private suite that seemed suspended in time the moment she’d suspected what it was. But curiosity had overwhelmed her. And she’d known the second she’d spotted Celeste’s demure heavy satin gown that she would choose differently for herself.
Perhaps that had been wrong, she pondered now as she slid nervous hands over her hips.
Whether Remi chose to acknowledge it or not, Maddie intended to stay true to herself in this marriage. In every way she intended to be her own woman—if only for the sake of her sanity.
