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There were so many knots forming inside her that she couldn’t work out if it was dread or excitement causing them. Or a mixture of both. Their night together had been so wonderful that the thought of experiencing it all again was almost too tantalising to bear, but the way Gabriel had left her the next morning and then ghosted her... Her new husband had hurt her badly, and if she didn’t protect herself, she feared he would hurt her again.
She hated that her body and her head, the woman and the princess, were at such odds. Until she found a way to marry the two, she didn’t know how she could dare risk letting him touch her and risk losing her head like she’d done the first time with him.
‘Have you decided when you’re going on honeymoon?’ Clara asked from across the table.
Alessia had a drink of her water, wishing it was wine. ‘We’re not having one.’
Clara looked like she had something to say about this but Marcelo whispered in her ear and she clamped her lips together.
A honeymoon was something else Alessia would miss out on. And being carried across a threshold... She’d fantasised about that many times, being swept into her hunky husband’s arms and carried through the door and laid lovingly on their marital bed...
She grabbed her spoon and stabbed it into her ricotta and cinnamon trifle, and gritted her teeth. She needed to stop these foolish thoughts. It was done. She’d married him.
As her old headmistress had loved to espouse, she’d made her bed and now she had to lie in it. What her old headmistress had not espoused was how this was supposed to be achieved when one had to share that bed with a man it was imperative she protect her heart against.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THEBEATSOFGabriel’s heart were heavy as he followed Alessia into what was now their shared quarters, at least until the renovations of the converted stable block were completed. When he’d visited her after their marriage had been agreed, he hadn’t taken much notice of any of it other than her bedroom but now he craned his neck around the high walls to take in the sumptuous furnishings, many of which he suspected were family heirlooms centuries old and much of which were too large for the rooms that were, surprisingly, the same size as the ones in the quarters he’d stayed in. They could never be described as small but in comparison to her parents’ and brother’s quarters, they were as pint-sized as the princess who lived in them. But there was plenty of modernity there too, the new blending perfectly with the old to create an eclectic apartment that was feminine and chic and regal all rolled into one. Although not to his taste, it was an apartment that suited Alessia perfectly and he couldn’t deny the throb in his loins to know that soon—very soon—they would share that princess bed.
His new wife, who’d walked silently with her hands clasped together from the banquet room to their quarters, kicked her shoes off and hovered in the day room doorway, not looking at him. ‘I need to shower so I’ll leave you to familiarise yourself with the place. It’s virtually the same as the quarters you stayed in so you shouldn’t get lost.’
‘Where has my stuff been put?’ He’d been told his suitcases would be moved to his new quarters and his possessions unpacked for him.
She swallowed. ‘In my dressing room. Come, I’ll show you.’
He followed her up the stairs and caught the brief hesitation before she opened the bedroom door.
She padded across the room and opened the dressing room door. ‘I’ve made as much room for you as I can but I’m afraid it’s quite small—this section of the castle is four hundred years old, so relatively modern compared to other parts, and was once lodgings for courtiers until my great-grandparents had them all fiddled about with to create family apartments. This one and the one you stayed in are by far the smallest and were intended for visiting family but it was always my favourite, I don’t know why, and when I came of age, I asked to have it rather than move into the one earmarked for me. The only thing missing from it was a dressing room so they stole space from the guest bedroom to create one for me.’
She paused for breath, a sheepish expression crossing her face. ‘A very long-winded way of telling you that there isn’t much space for your things. I’m sorry. I had all my ball gowns moved into the guest room, so if you find it all too cramped, you can put some of your stuff in there too. I hope that’s okay?’
Leaning against the arch of the door beside her, Gabriel gazed at his bride.
Anticipation for what the night would bring had tortured him since he’d seen her on the balcony that morning, and now they were finally alone and all the fantasies that had sustained him through the long wedding banquet, of peeling that sheer dress from her perfect body and then kissing every inch of her soft skin before burying himself in her tight sweetness, could be acted on.
But he would keep his desire in check awhile longer. Even through his fantasies he’d sensed Alessia’s nerves growing as the banquet had gone on and guessed the anticipation of their wedding night had got the better of her. It was up to him to help her relax.
‘I didn’t bring much with me so I’m sure it’s all fine,’ he assured her with a slow smile. The dressing room, long though it was,wassmall but cleverly designed to maximise every available inch of space. The left-hand side bulged with feminine colour. The right-hand side—his side—had barely a third of the available space taken. ‘See, plenty of room.’
She rubbed her arm. ‘When will you bring the rest of your stuff?’
‘When we move into the stables. In the meantime, I’ll be spending my working weeks in Madrid so will keep the majority of my stuff in my home there.’
Her eyes met his, perfectly plucked eyebrows drawing together. ‘I thought you were giving up your business? You said you’d got your affairs in order.’
‘No, only my affairs concerning the client I was supposed to start with this week. I will be winding my main business down but I have many other business interests too. There isn’t the space for me to work here.’
A flintiness came into the velvet eyes, an edge appearing in her voice. ‘I know my quarters are cramped but it’s a castle with over three hundred rooms. An office can be created for you without any problem, and it can be as big as you want.’
‘It’s more convenient to base myself in Madrid—it’s easier to travel to the countries I do business in from there,’ he explained. ‘By the time we move into the stables and the baby’s born, my affairs will be much more straightforward and my need to travel much reduced.’ Having their child and not having to live in the castle itself should hopefully make living in this royal goldfish bowl more bearable.
The flintiness sharpened. ‘That sounds like an excuse to me.’
‘It’s a truth. The other truth is that I have no wish to live in this castle full-time. There are too many staff to have any real privacy and I suspect that being under this roof means your family and their personal staff will be incentivised to try and change my mind about being a working member of the family. If I’m out of sight then I’m more likely to be out of mind.’
‘Is being a working member such an intolerable idea to you?’
‘Yes.’
