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‘I’ll sort it—give me the name.’
Her lips tightened. ‘I don’t want you to sort it.’ She cinched the belt on her robe another defiant notch. ‘Look, this,’ her fluttering gesture took in their surroundings, ‘isn’t public so I don’t have to pretend to be weak and ineffectual. I am more than capable of sorting my own affairs. Obviously in public I will do my best to act as though I think every word you utter is a pearl of wisdom, but in private—’
‘In private,’ he drawled, ‘you will assert your independence just for the hell of it. Sounds like a fun eighteen months. For the record, I was simply trying to smooth things for you, not take over your life.’
‘I think you’ve already done that, considering you saved my life,’ she admitted. Abby caught her full lower lip between her teeth and pushed out a husky, ‘I know... I know it’s my choice and I will try not to keep hitting you on the head with it,’ she promised. ‘My grandparents taught me to take responsibility for my own actions...’ Her face fell, a look of dismay widening her eyes. ‘Oh, God, Nana and Pops!’ How was she going to explain this to them?
‘Whatever you want to tell your grandparents, I will go along with it.’
Taken aback by his concession and his quick reading of the situation, shee took a moment to respond. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to tell them...maybe I don’t have to tell them yet—it’s two weeks before they get back from their cruise. And delaying the inevitable seems very attractive just now.’
His brows hit his dark hairline, taking her glance with them, and her eyes stayed glued to the blond streak that he knew stood out against the glossy black.
He caught the direction of her stare and lifted a hand to his head. ‘My mother come from Northern Italy. There are a lot of blondes there, though she is a redhead these days.’ His brow furrowed. ‘Cruise...? I thought that your grandparents were strapped for cash?’
‘They are but they won a competition in a magazine that my nan didn’t even remember entering...an all-expenses-paid trip in the Caribbean,’ she said, looking anywhere but at him...the woodwork over the door was really quite marvellous.
‘There was no competition, was there?’
She dragged her eyes away from the doorway. ‘What makes you say that? Of course...oh, all right, then, there wasn’t, but Pops got really ill starting last winter; he had bronchitis and it really wore him down, so the summer was a total washout.’ She looked at him, her chin tilted to a defiant angle. ‘Then I saw this cruise advertised—it was massively reduced, they were virtually giving it away to fill empty cabins, and I knew they wouldn’t let me pay so I invented the competition,’ she admitted, fixing him with a so-hang-me glare.
‘So you can lie.’ Very badly, as it happened. ‘There’s no need to look so guilty. It was a kind thing to do.’
* * *
Her dark eyelashes fluttered against her cheek as she experienced a glow of pleasure that was totally disproportionate to the unexpected praise.
‘Have you eaten?’
She nodded and looked across to the table where she’d sat earlier, but the dishes had already vanished, along with last night’s fresh flowers, which had been replaced by an equally fabulous arrangement of beautiful blooms. The place seemed to be populated by an army of people whose job it was to wait on her hand and foot without her ever seeing them.
‘Good, then get dressed and we can be off.’
She blinked and stood her ground even though having one layer of silk between her skin and his eyes made her feel quite ridiculously exposed, and clothes—a wool jumper or something equally covering—seemed a very good idea!
‘Off where?’
‘I thought I’d give you the guided tour.’
‘That’s really not necessary,’ she said, wondering why he would offer to show her around himself when anyone else in his position would delegate.
He raised a brow and folded his long length into one of the easy chairs set beside the double French doors that opened out onto a balcony. ‘What are you planning to do? Stay in here?’
‘Why not? A family of six could live here comfortably and I could do with catching up on some reading.’ She gave a sigh and added, ‘Look, I think that, under the circumstances, it would be better that I keep a low profile.’
‘That would defeat the object of this exercise.’
She pursed her lips and tilted her head to one side, angling a feathery brow. ‘And that was again...?’
‘Showing that the future ruler of Aarifa has a beautiful wife which makes him a strong and dependable pair of hands. The press office have issued a statement this morning.’
‘Already!’ She fought her way through the panic churning in her stomach. ‘So what is expected of me—do I speak or just wear clothes and smile?’ The latter ought to be fine...it was just about all she’d done with her life so far, she thought, stifling a slug of resentment. When he came to choose a bride for real, would he want a mannequin then too or a real woman?
‘I think wearing clothes is a good idea,’ he said with an amused, sensual grin. ‘I hope there are some you care for in what I’ve ordered, but feel free to order anything else you need or want.’
‘Where did they all come from?’
‘I couldn’t tell you exactly, I just gave your measurements to—’
