and she could see through. Zoe was asleep already.
She suddenly felt inordinately proud of herself, that she was a good guardian, or nanny, or whatever she was supposed to be. She’d checked on her charge, even when she wasn’t exactly in control herself.
And then she realised that Stefanos was carrying her through to Zoe’s room. And she saw why.
Zoe’s vast four-poster bed had been moved closer to the door. Zoe was fast asleep in it. And on the other side of her massive bed was another bed. A matching four-poster. Velvet curtains, a vast canopy, eiderdowns and cushions…
The room had been turned into a twin room, with two beds that were so ridiculously enormous that she gasped with incredulity.
‘Wh…’
‘I know it’s a bit crowded,’ Stefanos said, smiling down at her in a dumb, indulgent genie sort of way that for some weird reason had her heart doing backflips. ‘You’ll just have to slum it.’
Slum it…
Matching four-posters…
‘I’m probably going to have to pay out on workers’ insurance too,’ he said morosely. ‘Do you know how much these things weigh? It took eight of us to get it in here.’
‘You…you…’ She could hardly get it out.
‘Idiot?’ he suggested, laughing down at her and her heart did another backflip.
‘Definitely idiot,’ she said, trying for asperity and failing miserably. ‘I…Thank you.’ She was so far out of her comfort zone that she could hardly make her voice work but there was something else she badly needed to say. ‘And…at the press conference…thank you for calling me Doctor.’
‘It’s what you are.’
‘Not since Zoe needed me. I’ve been her mama since then. If I called myself Doctor, everyone thought I was medical. It just confused things.’
‘So you stopped being Doctor and started being Mama. As you’d stop being on holiday and start bossing councillors if I asked it of you. You know, you’re one special lady.’
‘I am not.’
He grinned and lowered her onto the bed, and when he let her go she was aware of a sharp stab of loss.
‘You want some painkillers for your hip?’
‘It’s not hurting.’
‘I’m very sure it is.’
‘It’s fine!’
‘Right, then,’ he said and smiled again. She could hear his smile even when she didn’t look at him. It was a smile that crept all around her, enveloping her in its sweetness. ‘You want help to undress?’
‘No,’ she said and then, as she reran his question in her head, she found her voice. ‘No! And…and don’t think I’m not angry any more that you didn’t tell me. I still am. It’s just got to wait until morning.’
‘That’s my girl. What if I organise lunch tomorrow so we can talk about it?’
‘I don’t think…’
‘I don’t think you can think right now.’
He tugged an eiderdown from the foot of the bed and tucked it around her. ‘You’d be more comfortable if you undress but I don’t think I can help you there,’ he said, his voice suddenly unsteady.
‘No,’ she said, and then couldn’t think why she’d said it. Her voice didn’t seem to belong to her.
‘You’ll be okay,’ he said, looking down at her with all the tenderness in the world. As if he cared. As if he really cared.
‘You’ll be cared for here,’ he said, echoing her thoughts. ‘You and Zoe will be safe. We’ll get that hip fixed. You can play with your starfish and live happily ever after.’
There was a lot to object to in that statement. He seemed to think he was reassuring her.
‘I hate starfish,’ she muttered.
‘You hate starfish?’
‘They don’t do anything. They just blob. You move ’em and they just blob some more. I hate ’em.’
‘You’re studying them.’
‘Doesn’t mean I don’t hate ’em.’
‘You’re done in, sweetheart.’
‘I’m not done in. And I’m not your sweetheart.’
‘You’re not, are you? There’s a complication to avoid.’
‘Go away.’
‘I will,’ he said.
But he didn’t. He stood gazing down at her and she didn’t want him to go. She was half asleep, allowing images from the past-grief, pain, worry, even starfish-to be supplanted by this gorgeous Prince of the Blood.
Prince of the Blood. She wasn’t actually sure what the term meant but she knew what it looked like. There was a Prince of the Blood smiling down at her right now, tucking in her eiderdown, looking gorgeous in his fabulous uniform. He was still wearing his sword!
‘I love your sword,’ she said.
‘Don’t encourage me,’ he said. ‘I’m starting to look in mirrors and swagger.’
‘So you ought,’ she whispered. ‘Life should hold a little swagger.’
His smile softened. He stooped so his face was really close to hers and he placed a finger on her lips. To hush her? She didn’t know and she didn’t much care. It was enough that he was touching her.
It was suddenly incredibly important that he touch her.
‘You’ve lost your swagger,’ he said softly, almost as a whisper. ‘Life’s sucked it right out of you. Let me fix it for you.’
‘I don’t…You can’t.’ Matty, she thought desperately, but he’d faded even more. What remained was the memory of how grief felt, how loss felt, how she couldn’t afford to fall…
‘Elsa…’ he said softly and as if in a dream she murmured back.
‘Mmm.’
‘Is it okay if I kiss you?’
Of course it wasn’t. The idea was ridiculous.
But this wasn’t real. It was a dream. And in her dream it was okay to kiss a prince. In her dream she could put her arms around his neck, link her hands and tug him downward.
In her dreams she could open her lips and wait for his lips to touch them.
In her dream he kissed her.
He kissed her.
Of all the dumb, stupid, complicating things to do, this must surely be the stupidest.
But she lay in her too-big bed, tucked under the vast eiderdown, looking up at him with eyes that were dreamy and close to sleep.
But not quite. She was watching him. She was smiling at him. And then her hands came up to hold him…He’d have to be inhuman to resist.
She was beautiful.
She was so different from any other woman in his world.
Slight and sexy, her sun-bleached curls were so fine they looked as if they’d float.
Her eyes were gorgeous in her too-thin face. A man could drown in those eyes.
She had eighteen freckles. He’d counted them when? Maybe the first time he’d seen her. How many times had he recounted? And her lips were so kissable.
What made Elsa’s lips more desirable than any other woman’s?
Because they belonged to Elsa?
And because she was responding.
Amazingly, she was tugging him down to her and there was no way he could resist these lips. This mouth. This woman. He sank so he was sitting on the vast bed, and he gathered her into his arms-and he kissed her with all the tenderness in his heart.
