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‘And you don’t think having a husband who spends his working weeks away is an intolerable idea to me?’
‘It is only until the renovations are complete.’
‘Which could take months.’ She raised her chin and gave a smile as flinty as the expression in her eyes. ‘I shall come to Madrid with you.’
‘That isn’t necessary,’ he stated as smoothly as he could in an effort to diffuse what his antennae was warning him: that Alessia was spoiling for an argument.
‘Why not? Do you have a woman stashed in Madrid waiting for you?’
Surprised at both the question and the tone in which she asked it, he narrowed his eyes. ‘Of course not.’
‘Then you can have no objection to me travelling there with you.’
Gabriel closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before staring back at the face that now brimmed with what he was coming to recognise as temper. He had no choice but to add fuel to it. ‘I’m afraid it’s out of the question.’
‘Why?’
‘Because a circus follows wherever you go, and I have no wish to be a part of it. I’ve already made that clear.’
‘The media circus is not my fault.’
‘I am simply stating my reasons.’
‘The moment the announcement of our marriage is made public the circus will be on you.’
‘But your presence will make it more. The media love you.’
‘I don’t encourage that.’
‘I never said you did, only that I wish to avoid it as much as I can.’
‘Then you shouldn’t have agreed to marry me. I’m sorry you find the thought of media intrusion so abhorrent but it is possible to have a life as a royal that isn’t always accompanied by the flash of cameras, as you will learn for yourself when I accompany you on your travels.’
For the first time, visible anger darkened Gabriel’s features but Alessia was too angry at his insinuations about her character and hurt at his readiness to spend the majority of his time apart from her to care about it. ‘It’s bad enough that I’ll be humiliated by a husband who refuses to be my prince even at my own brother’s wedding, but I will not be humiliated by a husband who marries me one minute then flies off without me the next too, especially when that wasn’t a pre-condition of our marriage, so get used to the idea of having me by your side. If you do have any lovers stashed anywhere, warn them now that you can no longer see them because your wife refuses to be separated from you.’ And with that, Alessia snatched a pair of pyjamas off a shelf and stalked into the bathroom, locking the door firmly behind her.
Alessia had never appreciated how greatly the presence of another could change an atmosphere. Her quarters, her bedroom especially, had been her favourite place in the castle since she was a little girl and would make Marcelo go exploring with her. She truly didn’t know what it was that she loved so much about it other than its warm atmosphere—lots of the castle’s rooms were cold and unwelcoming to a little girl—but she’d gladly foregone the much larger apartment that could have been hers for it. Gabriel’s presence had changed its atmosphere markedly.
They danced cordially around each other as they readied for bed, taking it in turns to use the bathroom, giving each other privacy to undress, and all with fixed, polite smiles that brimmed with a seething undercurrent.
How many brides and grooms argued on their wedding night? she wondered bitterly. Not that they’d argued as such. She doubted Gabriel ever raised his voice. No, Gabriel preferred to make his arguments behind a smooth cordiality she was growing to detest. But she’d seen the anger in his eyes when she’d stood her ground and refused to accept being treated like a chattel. Well, tough. He’d married her. If she had to live in the bed they’d both made then so should he.
Climbing into the bed she’d never shared before, wearing long silk pyjamas with buttons running the length of the top, Alessia leaned her back against the headboard and reached for her book. She always read in bed but tonight was painfully aware she was using her novel as a prop. She imagined that, for Gabriel, sharing a bed with a woman was no big deal. She wished it wasn’t a big deal for her too, but apart from the one night they’d shared, this was her first time and her nerves had grown so big that she wasn’t sure if they were causing the nausea rampaging in her stomach or if baby hormones were to blame.
When he finally left the bathroom, she took one look at him and her heart juddered, the ripples spreading through her like wildfire. Wearing only a pair of snug black briefs that bulged at the front and accentuated the rugged athleticism of his physique, she doubted Adonis himself could have made a greater impact. She’d seen him entirely naked, of course, but they’d spent that night entwined, and she’d seen him in shorts on the balcony that morning, but the balustrade had hidden much of him. She hadn’t had the opportunity to take in everything about him with one sweep of her eyes. All the disparate parts had come together and as he stalked to the bed, eyes softer...and yet more alive...than they’d been when she’d last looked into them, her most intimate parts became molten liquid, and all she could think was that he was the sexiest man to roam the earth or heavens.
The mattress made only the slightest movement as he slipped between the bedsheets but it was movement enough to stop her from breathing. His whispered words from the chapel garden rang in her ear again.‘Tonight, I will give you something else to remember this day by.’
She gripped her book harder and pressed the top of her thighs together as if that could stop the pulsing heat that was spreading from down low in her pelvis.
The thuds of her heart were suddenly deafening.
She sensed his gaze turn to her. Alessia’s lungs squeezed so tightly there was no chance of getting air into them even if she could breathe.
This must be the moment that he reached for her and took her in his arms...
A hard scrub of his body had finally cleansed Gabriel of the unwelcome anger inflamed by Alessia’s stubborn insistence that she accompany him to Madrid.
Every time she left the castle it was under the flash of camera lenses. He accepted that those flashes and having the press on her heels—having to smile politely and answer their questions—was something she considered a normal part of her life, but she had to accept too that it was not the kind of life he was willing to live. He’d been upfront about it and it was not something he was prepared to compromise on.
