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‘Thanks. But please call me Regan.’ Her eyes sparkled with merriment, her hand cradling her stomach. ‘I’m not due for a month yet, but the sooner this little darling comes out the better. I feel like a hippopotamus.’
‘My thoughts exactly,’ Rafe deadpanned.
‘I’ll make him pay later,’ Alexa promised. ‘Where’s the birthday boy?’ She held out a silver-wrapped gift Rafe had organised earlier in the day.
‘I’ll take that,’ Regan offered. ‘And Jag is with a good friend who is plying him with some sort of whisky that was created in a cave five hundred leagues below the sea, or some such. You should join them, Rafe, while I introduce Alexa to the other guests.’
‘Love to.’ Rafe gently touched Alexa’s jaw. ‘You okay with that, Princess?’
Alexa’s heart bumped behind her chest at the sweet endearment she’d come to love. ‘Of course,’ she said, watching as he walked away.
‘Wow,’ Milena said by way of a greeting as she stopped beside Alexa. ‘I never thought I’d see the day my brother looked at a woman like that.’ Quirky and exuberant in an orange dress and bright blue stockings, she grinned delightedly at Alexa. ‘But it had to happen one day, right?’
Alexa knew she thought Rafe was in love with her, but that was because Milena had no idea that they’d married for political purposes. Alexa hated lying to her, but she knew that the less people who knew their relationship was staged the better.
‘We’re having a good time together,’ Alexa supplied, which was true enough. They were having a very good time together. Or at least she was. She frowned a little as she gazed over at Rafe, greeting the men beside the bar. She was pretty sure Rafe was too. At least she knew he was in the bedroom. Just as the thought formed in her head, Rafe glanced back at her, his blue eyes finding hers with unerring accuracy.
‘Can you both excuse me?’ Regan said. ‘I need to remind the caterers about the cake.’
‘I’ll take care of Alexa,’ Milena promised, snagging a champagne flute from a passing waiter. ‘You know my brother can’t stop looking at you,’ she mused happily. ‘And whatever you’ve done to soften him, I’m glad.’
‘Soften him?’
‘Yeah, he actually listened to me the other day when I called him to complain about the amount of security Jag was insisting I have with me when I move to New York next week. He even promised to speak with him about it to see if he could reduce it.’
‘He’s worried you’ll get taken advantage of. And there are a lot of toads out there,’ Alexa said. ‘Believe me, I know.’
‘I suppose you’re right,’ Milena conceded. ‘But I’m not thinking about that. I believe in destiny so whatever happens, happens. I’m just happy for my two brothers. One about to become a father, the other so in love he’d walk over hot coals for you. I still find it hard to believe, and I can’t wait until you become Queen and Rafe has to walk two paces behind you at all times.’ She gave Alexa an impish look. ‘Given that he likes to always be in charge, I plan to tease him shamelessly about his subservient position every chance I get.’
Alexa knew that Milena meant well with her sisterly digs, but her comment struck a chord deep inside Alexa. In Berenia the spouses of a monarch didn’t walk two paces behind; they walked ten paces behind.
And Rafe would never do it.
Moreover, she’d never ask him to do it.
And she’d like to be able to tell Milena that. Tell her that, actually, she didn
’t love Rafe at all. But even as the words formed in her mind she knew that not only could she not say them for reasons of confidentiality; but because they were no longer true.
She had gone and done the inconceivable and fallen in love with him, she realised with a sickening jolt. She didn’t know when, or how, her feelings had changed, but she knew that they had, and the need to protect herself, to hide herself away from prying eyes threatened to overwhelm her.
She’d been so careful to keep their relationship in context. Tried so hard to remain objective and not to make more of their connection than was actually there, even embracing Rafe’s ability to separate emotion and sex, and yet...at the end of the day she found him as utterly irresistible as most other women he’d dated. Because underneath that layer of sophistication and rebellious charm was a man who was caring and loyal and strong. A man who was worth keeping.
Her dream man.
Only she wasn’t his dream woman. And she never would be because, although he clearly enjoyed spending time with her, he didn’t want anything more from her. He didn’t want that from any woman.
‘Are you okay, Alexa?’
Milena placed a hand on her arm, her exotic eyes clouded with concern. ‘You look a little dazed. Do you need to sit down? I hope it wasn’t something I said. I know Rafe won’t mind walking behind you. I should never have joked about that.’
Rafe was right, she thought with self-disgust; she really did need to work on her poker face if Milena had picked up on her distress so easily.
‘I’m fine,’ she automatically assured the other woman. ‘I think this mimosa has gone to my head.’
‘You need food,’ Milena said. ‘If I drink without eating I get lightheaded too. Let me find you some of the delicious canapés the waiters have been passing around.’
Alexa knew that an empty stomach was hardly enough to make her feel so dizzy. But realising she was in love with a man who would never love her back would do it.
