‘Do you have someone you’d like to escort you down the aisle?’ he asked.
She noted with a wry smile that he didn’t suggest she be given away. ‘It’s fine, I’ll do that alone.’ She looked at the paper in front of her. ‘But perhaps Princess Fiorella might act as bridesmaid?’ She wasn’t sure if it was appropriate, but there really wasn’t anyone else she could think of.
‘That would work very well.’
‘Perfect for your pining heart narrative,’ she joked to cover the intensity of the discussion.
‘The media will seize on this as soon as they hear anything,’ Alek said solemnly. ‘They will pry into your private life, Hester. Are you prepared for that?’
‘It’s fine.’ She went back to writing her own list to avoid looking at him. ‘They can say what they like, print what they like.’
‘No skeletons in the closet?’ he queried gently. ‘It wouldn’t bother me if there were. Heaven knows I have them.’ She heard his smile in his voice before it dropped lower. ‘But I wouldn’t want you to suffer.’
She shook her head and refused to look up at him again. ‘It’s fine.’
‘There are no ex-boyfriends who are going to sell their stories about you to the press?’
Her blush built but she doggedly kept looking down. Why did he have to press this? He didn’t need to know.
‘They’re harder on women,’ he said huskily. ‘Wrong as that is.’
‘There are no skeletons. I was lonely as a teenager. I wasn’t really close to anyone.’ Uncomfortable, she glanced up to assure him and instantly regretted it because she was caught in the coal-black depths of his eyes. ‘My life to date has been very boring,’ she said flatly. ‘There’s literally nothing to write about.’
Nothing in her love life anyway. She couldn’t break free of his unwavering gaze and slowly that heat curled within her—embarrassment, right? But she also felt an alarming temptation to lean closer to him. Instead she froze. ‘Is it a problem?’
‘Not at all.’
She forced herself to focus on listing the details he’d asked for, rather than the strange sensations burgeoning within her.
This marriage was a few months of adventure. She had to treat it like that. If she’d been crazy enough to say yes to such an outlandish, impulsive proposal, she might as well go all the way with it. ‘Will your assistant be able to find me a hairdresser?’ She pushed past her customary independence and made herself ask for the help she needed. ‘And maybe some other clothes…’
‘You’d like that?’
She glanced up again and saw he was still studying her intently.
‘All the smoke and mirrors?’ she joked lamely again. ‘I’d like all the help I can get to pull this off.’
‘Then I’ll have it arranged. Write down your size and I’ll have some things brought to the plane.’
Heat suffused her skin again but she added it to her list before pushing the paper towards him. ‘I think that’s everything.’
‘Good,’ he said briskly. ‘Start packing. I have several calls to make.’
Relieved, she escaped into her small bedroom. With an oblique reference to ‘a family matter’, her volunteer co-ordinator at the drop-in centre expressed regret but understanding. It took only a moment to open an anonymous email account from which she could make the arrangements for her support for Lucia. Packing her belongings took only a moment too. She picked up the antique wooden box Alek had touched and carefully put it into the small backpack she’d used when she’d run away all those years ago. Her clothes fitted easily into the one small suitcase she’d acquired since.
‘That’s everything?’ He stared in frank amazement at her suitcase when she returned to the lounge.
‘I don’t need much.’
‘You’re going to need a little more than that.’ He reached out to take the case from her. ‘It’s probably good that we leave before Fi gets back. Saves on all the questions she’ll have been stockpiling over the last hour.’
But Hester didn’t follow him as he headed towards the door. ‘Are you absolutely certain about this, Your Highness?’
He turned back to face her. ‘Of course I’m certain,’ he said with absolute princely arrogance. ‘And you need to call me Alek.’
‘Okay.’ She hoisted her backpack and walked towards the door.
But he blocked her path. ‘Do it now. Practise so it slips off your tongue naturally. Call me Alek.’
‘I will.’
He still didn’t move to let her past. A frisson of awareness, danger, defiance, shivered within her as she defiantly met his gaze.
‘Say, Alek is wonderful. Now,’ he commanded.
She glared harder at him. ‘Alek is bossy.’
‘Good enough.’ He stepped back, the distance between them enabling her to breathe again. But his slow smile glinted with full wickedness. ‘For now.’
CHAPTER THREE
SWIFT WASN’T THE word for Alek’s modus operandi. When he’d decided something, he moved. Fast.
‘You’re very used to getting your own way,’ Hester said as she followed him downstairs out of the campus residence she’d called home for the last three years.
‘You think?’ He shot her a look. ‘I have the feeling I might not get everything quite on my terms for a while.’
‘Is that such a threat?’ Without thinking, another small smile sparkled free.
‘Not at all,’ he denied with relish. ‘I enjoy a challenge.’
Oh, she wasn’t a challenge. She was never going to be some kind of toy for this notorious playboy.
