And later he intended to hear a lot more. Every last detail he could extract from her.
Chapter Six
After she’d dropped her fake fiancé bomb into the conversation, the rest of dinner had passed comfortably. The queen had been almost friendly. And Alex had practically ignored her, giving all of his attention to Lydia, which suited her perfectly.
At least, that’s what she told herself.
But as she watched them, she couldn’t help but notice how un-loverlike they were. Serenity knew very well that their coming marriage was arranged by their parents for political reasons, but she thought she would have been able to deal with this all a lot easier if Alex had been in love with Lydia. Somehow, the fact that they both looked faintly bored and only politely agreeable with each other was far worse. She knew with harsh clarity that they wouldn’t be happy—or fulfilled—by this relationship. Three people, counting her, would be made miserable for the benefit of a country.
Perhaps that was noble of them.
Nobility, she was learning, was not her strong suit.
After dinner, Alex escorted Lydia to Serenity’s rooms. She had to force herself to breathe through her jealousy. As much as she told herself she didn’t care that he was with someone else, or that his hand rested on Lydia’s back when he had once given the same affectionate gesture to her, she knew she did care. Bitterly. Jealousy was a fierce beast to wrangle with.
“Make yourselves comfortable,” Serenity said, directing them to a comfortable sofa. “Give me a minute to get ready.”
And to get myself under control.
“Thank you,” Lydia said, her voice tinkling and bright. She stopped halfway across the room though, pausing in front of the mirror over the fireplace to touch up her lipstick.
Grateful to turn her back on the woman, even for just a moment, Serenity went over to one of the temporary tables and sorted through the fabric samples she wanted to have ready to show Lydia. After a moment, feeling the weight of someone’s attention on her, she looked up and met Alex’s eyes. They looked stormy and fierce, as if he would demand answers from her that moment if he could.
She had known he would react badly to her lie about Ben, but she’d didn’t feel guilty. Well, not much anyway. It served him right to have to feel what she’d been feeling for months.
Jade went around the room, turning on lamps to give them more light now that night had fallen and then settled into a nearby chair in case she was needed.
Serenity was tempted to have Jade lead the discussion. Not only was she dreading it, but Jade had ambitions to be a head designer someday, and working with high-profile clients would be an important part of her job, but Jade struggled with the demanding social aspect of fashion. If she could stay in the studio creating works of art till the end of time, she’d be perfectly happy, but Serenity was determined to help her grow. Sadly, the future princess of Cristonia was not exactly a beginner sort of project.
Lydia finally moved away from the mirror and sank down onto the sofa, somehow managing to look like she was posing for a cover shoot for a fashion magazine. Serenity had known who had designed her rather extreme dress within seconds of laying eyes on it, but her trained eyes also caught the puckers and tugs where it wasn’t fitted properly to her curvy figure. Lydia’s full hips and generous chest would present some challenges, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Those would definitely be easier than creating a design that would satisfy both Lydia’s flashy and daring style and her future mother-in-law’s more traditional and conservative taste.
“This is so exciting,” Lydia said, looking at her expectantly.
“It will be a pleasure to design for someone so lovely,” Serenity responded, keeping her tone carefully modulated. “I’d love to start by hearing your thoughts about your dress. Do you have a style preference? What effect are you wanting to achieve?”
“I want to have the most famous wedding dress ever, more iconic than Princess Diana or Grace Kelly, or Kate Middleton—”
“No big deal then,” Alex said, his voice tinged with sarcasm. He stood leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, foul humor emanating off him.
Serenity glared at him for interrupting. “I appreciate that you’re wanting to support your beloved, Alex, but I think we’ll do better without you here.”
He didn’t move or flinch but met her eyes squarely in a contest of wills. At last, he shook his head. “You are the only person who routinely tries to boss me around, but this time, I’m exerting my princely authority––which I have in spades, may I point out––and I’m staying.”
Serenity let out a sharp huff and turned back to Lydia. “We’ll just pretend that he isn’t here. Now, Miss Koettis, do you have an idea of the kind of dress you’d like?”
Lydia had been looking back and forth between them with a confused and slightly suspicious curiosity, but this question immediately refocused her attention. “Yes. I want a big, fluffy tulle skirt and a sweetheart bodice. No sleeves or straps and low in the back.”
Serenity’s eyes narrowed slightly as she listened. “Betty Boop style?”
The sound of quickly muffled laughter earned Alex another mark in Serenity’s black book. “Sorry,” he murmured.
Lydia didn’t seem to mind however and just went on. “Sort of, I guess. I have a picture, if you want to see.”
“Please.”
Lydia pulled the picture up on her phone. The model in the picture was tall, slim, and had almost no chest at all. In point of fact, she was the exact opposite of Lydia’s body type in every way. Somehow, Serenity needed to talk her out of this dress, because there was no way Queen Mona would approve it.
Carefully choosing her words, Serenity said, “This is a lovely design—from Victoria Merchant, I believe. I love her. This is a great jumping-off point. Now let’s explore a little. I always like to let the bride’s love story inspire her dress. Why don’t you tell me a bit about that?”
Lydia’s eyes flicked uncertainly over her shoulder to where Alex continued to watch them with dogged determination. “My love story?” she asked. “Well, he’s very handsome, isn’t he?
“Very,” Serenity said, moving on again immediately before Alex’s head inflated more than it already was. “How did you two meet?”
“Our parents introduced us when we were teenagers. We became friends, right, Alexios?”
“Yes,” he said with no inflection to the word to give any clues to his deeper feelings on the matter.
“Lovely.” Serenity considered the best way to sweeten Lydia up to the idea of a more traditional dress. “Childhood sweethearts, then. So, maybe something whimsical or fairytale-inspired. The girl finds her prince sort of thing.”
Lydia wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “No. I want something glamorous and elegant.”
Serenity wasn’t sure, from the two examples she’d seen of Lydia’s taste, that they’d agree on what either term meant. “I see. Well, maybe we can draw inspiration from your ring since it represents your relationship.”
But as Lydia stretched out her hand to Serenity, Alex broke in to demand, “Where is your ring, Miss Wade?”
Dang it. She could think of half a dozen movies where girls had tried to fake an engagement and forgotten about that one detail. Should she go with the “I lost it” line or the “It’s being sized” line? No. Both too cliché. “I didn’t want to wear one. Why should I have to wear some piece of metal around my finger—which I hate—just so he can claim ownership over me?”
“Really? That surprises me.”
Okay, this conversation was definitely getting way off-topic, and she needed to correct it so she could get this meeting over with. “Why?”
“Because you’re too romantic for that.”
Unsettled by his perception, Serenity stood and walked away, needing more space between them. “Yeah, well, experience can change a person.”
Lydia raised her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Uh, hello? Are we still
talking about my dress here?”
Fortunately, Jade jumped in to help. “Absolutely. I think we have everything we need to get started except your measurements. Can you stand up on this stool, and I’ll take those really quick.” She pulled a measuring tape out of her pocket as she spoke and sent a speaking glance Serenity’s way.
Lydia stood and carefully slipped out of her Louboutin heels. “How long will the whole process take?”
Serenity took a deep breath and plastered on her client smile again. “We need several weeks to complete the design portion, make the pattern and sew the muslin mockups, and fit them to you. And then of course, I will go back to New York to complete the actual work. A haute couture dress will require the work of my whole team. We’ll also be working on the design set for our next season’s shows so I cannot promise to have the dress to you before October.”
Lydia didn’t look at all upset about this timeline. Instead, she smiled broadly. “That’s perfect. I mean…I hadn’t expected that it could be done that quickly.”
Serenity narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out why she wasn’t reacting with impatience like so many clients did. The only thing she could think of––that Lydia might want to delay her marriage to Alex––made no sense to her at all. If it was her, she wouldn’t care two cents about a wedding dress. If he had wanted her back in New York, she would have eloped with him without even packing a bag.
Feeling her cheeks warm at the thought that maybe she still would, she strode over to Jade and Lydia. “I’ll take the measurements, Jade, if you would please see Prince Alexios out.” She looked back over her shoulder. “And this time, I really must insist.”
Alex straightened and shrugged. “I’ll go, but there are details you and I need to discuss as yet, and don’t think I’ll forget.”
She only relaxed when the door shut behind him. She had no doubt the details he spoke of had nothing to do with Lydia’s dress and everything to do with her “engagement’.
“He seems extraordinarily concerned with your engagement,” Lydia said, an edge to her voice.
Serenity looked up at her, surprised. Perhaps Lydia’s oblivious reaction to the discussion had been an act. This was, without question, the most awkward moment she’d ever had with a client. But she could play it cool with the best of them.
Wrapping the tape measure around Lydia’s waist, she took the measurement to give her time to think, told Jade the number so she could write it down, and then said, “He’s a good friend, always worried that I’ll get tangled up with a loser again. He’s seen me get hurt, you see. I understand it, even if I wish he’d mind his own business.” She forced a smile as she put the tape around Lydia’s hips. “After all, if I was about to become happily married, I’d want my friends to find the same happiness. Wouldn’t you?”
Lydia’s brows pinched together, and when she answered, her voice was distant. “Yes. Of course.”
Understanding flared in Serenity’s eyes. She bit her lip but turned away to take the measuring tape Jade held out to her
But how she burned with resentment that Alexios belonged to a woman who didn’t even love him. And didn’t seem concerned with that fact.
Chapter Seven
Alexios thrashed the dummy bag within an inch of bursting the industrial stitches that held it together. Punch after punch, it still wasn’t enough to vent the anger inside him.
Serenity could not belong to another man.
He knew how ridiculous, how unfair it was of him to be jealous after what he’d put her through. But knowing it didn’t change the way he felt. Hearing her say she was engaged had been like a sledgehammer to the gut.
If he hadn’t been very sure that she was still asleep at this early hour, he would have been pounding on her door instead of this punching bag.
Joseph came into the gym, took one look at the way he was abusing the dummy bag, and whistled. “Still haven’t worked out your problems, I see?”
Alexios punched it one more time and added a fierce side kick before stepping away. “No.”
“Well, let’s see if I can help with that.”
An hour and a half later, Alex still pulsated with jealousy, but he was too tired to think any longer. Surely Serenity was awake, and he could talk to her. Figure out what was going on. It was only after he knocked on the door, and Serenity opened it that he realized he was soaked with sweat. Where had his brain gone? How could he have forgotten to even shower?
But once he locked eyes with Serenity, nothing else mattered but the question burning in his brain like a hot coal. “Are you really engaged?”
Serenity raised her delicately arched eyebrow. “Come in, Your Highness,” she said, stepping back and opening the door wide.
He looked around the room and saw signs that she and Jade had already been hard at work that morning, but Jade was nowhere in sight. “Where’s Jade?”
“She took a taxi into Laxos to find a few things we need. We both forgot a few things since we left in such a hurry.”
“Good.”
“Not good when one of the things you forgot was migraine medicine. Jet lag is killer.” Serenity turned away as she spoke and sat down at one of the tables, a large sketch pad in front of her.
“No, I mean, I’m glad Jade is gone so we can finally talk. Will you answer my question?”
“About my engagement?”
Her words just poked at his jealousy even more. “Yes,” he said, almost growling. Her calm demeanor wasn’t helping any.
“I believe I established all this last night in our ill-timed argument. Thanks for making things extremely awkward with Lydia.”
He paused, not having considered that. “I’m sorry.” Not that Lydia had any illusions about their arrangement. She knew he didn’t love her. Nor did she love him, so her potential reaction to his attitude didn’t concern him. Moving to stand on the other side of her table, he braced his hands on either side of her sketch pad and bent towards her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She looked up at him, her blue eyes glinting like sparks off steel. “Oh, you mean like you told me when you got engaged so I didn’t find out by seeing it on the news?”
Shame coursed through him. He pulled away, crossing his arms. “You knew when I left what was going to happen.”
With an angry toss of her head, she dropped the pen she’d been holding and stood up. Now she leaned across the table toward him. “Why are you so angry? Did you think I was just going to waste my life away? Stay single forever because I couldn’t have you?”
He clenched his teeth to keep from yelling that yes, he had. A perverse, selfish part of him had hoped for exactly that.
Certainly, he hadn’t expected her to move on so quickly.
Besides, thinking of her with another man hadn’t been so terrible when it had been theoretical and part of some misty future. Confronting the reality of it in the present had swept his legs out from under him. “Why?”
“Why what?” she asked, her brows pinching together in confusion.
“Well, you can’t love him, so why are you getting married?”
“Who says I don’t love him?”
Dropping his arms, he moved back to lean across the table till their faces were inches apart. “Because you still love me.”
He saw her response as clearly on her face as if it was written there with her black marker. Her lips tightened, and her chest rose and fell in quick, flustered breaths.
Her phone rang before she could begin a denial. She sniffed and turned away to pick it up.
Watching her as closely as he was, he knew the instant another expression shifted across her face. As her cheeks paled and her eyes widened, his heartrate jumped. What was wrong? She looked scared to death.
“What is it?”
Her eyes flashed to him and then back to her phone screen. Her fingers moved quickly but trembled moments later as she put the phone back down on the table, screen down as if she couldn’t bear to look at it. “Nothing. A wrong numb
er, probably. I blocked the number.”
“You look as white as the fabric you have strewn all over this room.”
She pressed her hands to her cheeks. “Do I?” She sat down again and picked up her marker but immediately dropped it again. “I think I need to take a walk. I’m not making any progress with my designs.”
Alexios watched her slide back her chair and move across the room. He followed slowly behind her, studying the tension in every line of her body. She faced away from him, but her arms were crossed and her hand tapped against her arm in an agitated manner. In his years of diplomatic and military training, he’d learned a great deal about reading subtle body language, but Serenity’s was written in bold letters and all caps. Something was very wrong, and for some reason she was hiding it from him.
As he came up behind her, the word “hiding” triggered a thought. She wasn’t here to get closure or to try to get him back. She was here to hide from someone.
Now it all made sense. That’s why she’d agreed to take the job instead of ignoring him or telling him to never contact her again.
He would focus on how that all made him feel later. Right now, his concern was for her safety. “If you want to go for a walk, I can go with you.”
She looked at him over her shoulder. “You mean you won’t be swarmed with adoring subjects?”
Chuckling, he shook his head. “They’re more likely to come up and complain about the condition of the roads or their high taxes—or something else they think my father is doing wrong.”
“Very different from your hordes of admirers in the States then.”
“Yes. Here, people consider it to be bad manners to accost a member of the Royal family without being invited to.”
“Are you calling Americans ill-mannered?”
Fortunately, there was enough humor in her voice that he felt comfortable. “Not at all. Maybe just a bit…enthusiastic about their own desires.”
“Excellent. I’ll wait here for you while you go shower.”
Alexios grinned and pulled his T-shirt away from his chest to look at the dark patches of sweat. “No, not ill-mannered at all. I suppose it didn’t occur to you that maybe I don’t intend to shower since I’ll just be walking around in the heat and only start sweating again.”
Saved by the Prince Page 5