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Some of the impassivity left her face. ‘My...secret?’
‘Nobody will ever know what happened between us, Princess. It will be like closing the chapter of a book.’
Zabrina flinched and not just because his words were filling her with fury, but because they were managing to turn her on at the same time. How did he do that? For a few brief seconds she felt almost powerless over the effect his cool stare was having on her. Why else would she find herself recalling how amazing it had felt to have him peeling off her panties? Or remembering the expert flick of his tongue against her throbbing bud until he had brought her to orgasm? She swallowed as she remembered the second orgasm when he’d been deep inside her. Just the thought of what he’d done was making her stomach dissolve and her skin grow heated. Surely, if she wasn’t careful, he would guess at the effect he was having on her.
And that was something she simply couldn’t afford to let happen.
Setting her mouth into a firm line, she stared at him. ‘You mean, you are no longer planning to marry me?’ she verified.
His sigh sounded genuinely regretful—it was just a pity the steely glint of relief in his eyes didn’t match the sentiment. ‘I cannot marry you, Princess—for the reasons I have already expanded upon and which I am sure you understand. Because if you are being honest with yourself, can you really be hypocritical enough to exchange public vows with a man you theoretically betrayed, even before you’d met him?’
‘I—’
‘The wedding must be called off as quickly as possible. We just need to work out the best way to go about it and how best to return you to your country.’ A new and gritty note entered his deep voice. ‘A damage-limitation exercise, if you like.’
If she liked?
Zabrina could hardly comprehend the audacity of the man. How did he have the nerve to start talking about damage limitation and coolly state that he was about to send her back to Albastase like some reprimanded schoolgirl? She bristled with indignation. And wasn’t it funny how contrary human nature could be? Earlier that day she would have sold off the few humble jewels she possessed if someone could have guaranteed her a get-out clause for her marriage to the grisly King.
Except that he wasn’t grisly.
He was anything but. He was gorgeous enough for her to have eagerly surrendered her virginity to him—a virginity he didn’t believe she’d possessed. So not only had he deceived her, he had also accused her of lying! His list of crimes against her was long, but could she afford to dwell on them, or take offence? No, she could not. She needed to keep her eye on the bigger picture and not on whether or not her feelings were hurt, because at the end of the da
y that didn’t matter. Feelings passed. They waxed and waned like the moon whose cold, silver crescent now looked like a scythe hanging outside the train window.
She thought about the different choices which lay ahead of her. She and Roman could agree a joint statement which could be put out by both their countries, stating that the wedding would not take place. They could fudge a reason—although it was difficult to see what that reason might be. Incompatibility was hardly going to work as a believable concept, because the underlying understanding within an arranged marriage was that compatibility had to be worked at.
She swallowed. Then there was all the expense involved—all the lavish celebrations which would need to be cancelled—not to mention the disappointment of their subjects, who were looking forward to a three-day holiday of feasting and dancing, once the wedding had taken place. But those things paled into insignificance when she remembered the real purpose behind this union...
Her country badly needed an injection of funds to bring it back from the brink of economic ruin.
And wasn’t she the only person who could do it?
If the wedding was called off, she would be seen as a failure. No matter how they spun it she would always be known as the Jilted Princess, unwanted by the highly desirable and powerful ruler. She would be the one who would be judged negatively, because in this region men were seen as more important than women. Her father would be furious that she had failed to provide the goose that laid the golden egg, but ultimately wouldn’t it be her brother and her sisters who suffered as a result of a cancelled marriage?
Zabrina sucked in a determined breath. No. No matter what the provocation, the luxury of escaping her fate with the arrogant King was simply not an option.
‘But I don’t want to call off the wedding,’ she informed him quietly.
His eyes narrowed, but not before she’d seen the flicker of astonishment glinting in their pewter depths—as though someone disagreeing with him was something he wasn’t used to. Zabrina could almost see the cogs of his brain whirling, as if he was trying to decide the best approach to take to kill off her rebellion, before it had a chance to grow.
‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Princess, but that’s what’s going to happen.’
‘No. I think you misunderstand me, Roman. I am not disappointed. This is a decision I have made using my head, not my heart. This has nothing to do with emotion, because emotion has no place in this marriage of ours. It never did. I never particularly wanted it, if the truth were known, but I was willing to accept my fate.’
‘Do you realise how much you insult me?’ he breathed.
‘It was not said with the purpose of insulting you. I said it because it was true. But the past is irrelevant.’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘The union must still take place. It has long been agreed. My country will benefit. Yours, too. Aren’t you forgetting how much you desire that piece of land?’
‘And aren’t you forgetting something?’ he snapped. ‘Something less pragmatic than matters of finance and territory? It was always intended that my future queen should be—’
‘Pure?’ she interjected sarcastically. ‘So you keep saying. Maybe it was and maybe I should be a lot more offended than I actually am that you don’t believe I was. But I find I’m not offended at all—which I can only put down to the fact that I set the bar very low when it comes to my expectations concerning men!’
‘Your negative opinions about men do not interest me. And I don’t think you’re hearing me properly, Zabrina. You are not what I consider to be a suitable partner and I do not want you as my wife.’
‘And you’re not hearing me,’ she countered fiercely. ‘You said yourself that my virginity was the unwritten clause in our wedding contract, and anyone who knows even a little bit of law realises that an unwritten clause means nothing!’
His eyes hardened. ‘So you wish to force me to marry you? Is that what you really want? A man you have hounded to the altar? And all because your ego can’t take perceived rejection.’
