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Her mother rode in the limo with his dad. Her bridesmaids rode with his brother and a distant cousin who served as his best man and groomsman.
Alone in their limo, he turned to her. Struggling to forget the bargain she’d tried to strike and come up with normal conversation, he said, “You look amazing.”
She smiled, reached over and straightened his tie. “You do, too.”
He shifted away, afraid of her. Not because he worried she was going to hurt him or cheat him. But because he knew she wasn’t.
“Dominic, the straightening-the-tie thing is important. A piece of intimacy everyone expects to see. You need to be still and let me do it.”
Because of her suggestion that they make this marriage real, and his desperate need not to hurt her, he was now the one who might ruin their ruse. “I suppose.”
She shrugged, her pretty yellow hair shifted and swayed around her. “No matter what you decide, I intend to be a good wife for these two years.”
His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. What did that mean? That he’d find her in his bed that night?
He remembered that yellow hair floating around them their one and only night together, remembered the softness of her skin, and wondered just how a man was supposed to resist that honesty or the sexual tug that lured him into a spell so sweet, another man would have happily allowed himself to be drawn in.
But he wasn’t just any man. He was a prince, someday a king. Someone held to a higher standard. He did not deliberately hurt people.
They arrived at the palace. Bodyguards ushered them into the main foyer. They stopped in his father’s quarters to have a toast with her mother and his dad and their wedding party. Then they took an elevator to the third floor of his dad’s wing of the palace and stood on the balcony, waving to well-wishers.
A young woman edged her way through the crowd to the space just in front of security. She waved and called, “Toss your bouquet!”
Dom said, “That’s odd.”
Ginny laughed. “She’s American. We have a tradition that whoever catches the bride’s bouquet will be the next person to be married.” She gave him a smile, then winked, before she turned and tossed the spray of fifty roses with strength that would have done any weight lifter proud.
The flowers bowed into a graceful arc before beginning their descent. The crowd gasped at Ginny’s whimsy. The people closest to the woman who’d called realized they could intercept the bouquet and they scrambled forward, but it landed in the young girl’s arms. As the crowd pressed forward to grab flowers from the bouquet, security surrounded her.
Ginny faced him. “Have her brought up for an audience.”
He laughed. “Seriously?”
“Yes.” She bowed slightly. “My lord,” she said, her eyes downcast, her tone serious.
Those crazy feelings of wanting her rippled through him again. He raised her chin. “You don’t have to bow to me.”
“The etiquette books say I do.” She smiled. “And I’m asking for the wedding favor the book also says I get. I’d like to meet the woman who wants so desperately to be married that she’d risk arrest.”
Dom faced his bodyguard. He made a few hand gestures. The crowd called, “Kiss the bride,” and he did. But he did so now with curiosity that nudged his fear of hurting her aside. He liked being able to do something for her.
When they returned to the king’s receiving room, the young woman awaited them.
Ginny walked over and hugged her. “I hope the whole bouquet thing works out for you.”
Their guest laughed nervously. Her big brown eyes stayed on Ginny’s face. “I never thought you’d do it.”
“I waited years for my prince. I know what you’re feeling.” She squeezed her hand and said, “Good luck.”
Dominic nodded, the security detail motioned her to the door and she left with a quick wave. But the way Ginny had said, “I know what you’re feeling,” struck him oddly. She didn’t say, “I’ve known what you feel.” She said, “I know what you’re feeling.” He heard the sorrow there, maybe even a loneliness that almost opened that soft place in his soul again. But he hung on. He could not let sentiment destroy his plan. He could not become his dad.
Ginny said, “You know crazy people are going to try to steal that bouquet from her. You’re going to have to have someone escort her to her hotel and maybe even out of the country.”
“Yes. Security will take care of it.”
But he couldn’t stop staring at her. He might have closed the soft place in his soul, but his brain was working overtime to figure her out. What she had done had been a tad reckless, but it was very Ginny. Very sweet. Very warm. She’d used the wish her groom was to grant her for someone else.
