by Donald Robyn
Without pausing for thought, she said passionately, ‘I feel just the same as I did before. I’d have taken it on because there’s no one else and I thought it my duty, but it would have been hell.’
His response didn’t come immediately. And when it did, she couldn’t believe it. In a level, uninflected voice, he said, ‘I think I fell in love with you when you were sixteen, but it was impossible—not only were we cousins, but you were far too young. So I buried it deep. However, I must always have thought that eventually, when you were grown-up, we could meet as equals and go on from there. When I realised I’d have to take on the throne, my first, strongest reaction blew me away. It was so damned unexpected—anger because it meant that we’d never get our chance. But at last I’m free to ask you to marry me. If that’s what you want.’
Rosa scrambled to her feet, searching his formidable face for some clue to his emotions. ‘You don’t have to offer,’ she blurted. She clenched her fists and took the greatest gamble of her life. ‘Is that what you want?’
Very quietly, he said, ‘I want it more than I have wanted anything else in my life—but you’re still very young. I don’t want to over-persuade you into thinking you love me because I’m the first man to give you an orgasm.’
Cheeks burning, she said in a shaken voice, ‘I’m not so stupidly naive. I love you, but I won’t tie you to a marriage you don’t want because you feel some sort of obligation to me.’
‘Obligation?’ He gave a short, fierce laugh and in his unguarded eyes she saw a flash of need so great it hurt her heart.
‘There is no sense of obligation,’ he said in a tough, implacable voice. ‘I have never lied to you, and I’m not lying now when I tell you that I love you. I’m confident of my own feelings; I’m not confident of yours. Romance and love are two different things, Rosa; one is delicious but fleeting, the other is bedrock. You must be sure—’
‘Of course I’m sure,’ she broke in, terrified she wouldn’t be able to convince him. ‘Until I went to Niroli again I—yes, I romanticised my feelings for you, hero-worshipped you. But seeing you as the man you are, not some fairytale prince, made me realise just how—how magnificent you are, how strong and how worthy of admiration and respect. I learned to love you properly then, when you helped the growers haul out their vines and supported them and were their anchor and their hope.’
She searched his face, her heart racing, trying to discern some hint of his reaction. It came as a glimmer of gold in the green eyes, and a smile, not the tender smile of a lover but the fierce triumphant joy of a winner.
Hope flared high in her, and then a joy to match his—equally consuming, equally elemental.
Even then he didn’t take a step towards her. In a voice she’d never heard before, he said, ‘As I found you, my heart—utterly magnificent in your dedication and your compassion. Rosa, my own true love, will you be my wife? We can live in New Zealand and set up a wine empire, and our children will grow up free of all the stresses and constraints of being royalty.’
When he saw tears gather in her huge, mysterious eyes, he said in a shaken voice, ‘Sweetheart, don’t cry. Don’t ever cry again. Just say yes.’
‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Of course I’ll marry you—of course I’ll live here with you. Max, I love you so much—I thought you’d forgotten me. Why aren’t you holding me?’
‘If I touch you we’ll never get this said, and I think it needs to be,’ he said, irony colouring his voice. ‘But I could never forget you. Never. You’ve been in the forefront of my mind every second that we’ve been parted. You always will be.’
And at last he moved, and she ran into his arms, shivering with a feverish mixture of excitement and relief as they closed around her, warm and strong and safe. ‘Now kiss me,’ he said unevenly. ‘I’m starving for you.’
Torn between laughter and tears, Rosa raised her lips and kissed him, her mouth lingering against his, her whole being clamouring exultantly for the passionate consummation only he could give her. He lifted his head, and she saw the dark flush of colour along his arrogant cheekbones, met his intense, narrowed stare, and then gulped as the room whirled and he carried her across to the huge bed.
Much later, lying exhausted in his arms, she said dreamily, ‘When I recover I’m going to plague you with more questions, but just now I don’t care about anything but us.’
‘Mmm,’ he said, his voice roughly tender. ‘Me too. You, and our future.’
After another very satisfactory interlude, she asked, ‘How did you find me? Did my grandfather tell you where I was?’
‘No, I had to tell him.’
Her drooping lashes flicked up and she scanned his beloved face. ‘What?’
‘This is my house, my land.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘His idea of protection was to sequester you in a high-security hotel and give you bodyguards. I knew you’d be miserable, so I organised it with my security to bring you here. Fortunately, his secretary agreed to ring you and tell you as though the order came from the king. I suspected that you wouldn’t come if you knew it was my doing.’
She digested this in silence, and then sighed. ‘I should have known,’ she said simply, and kissed him with an overflowing heart. ‘You know me well—I’ve loved it here.’ Well, she would have if she’d known the station belonged to Max. ‘What’s going to happen to Niroli’s vines?’
He shrugged. ‘I appointed a new head to replace me—Giovanni’s grandson.’ He was silent for a moment, then said, ‘My cousin.’
‘Do I know him?’
‘Probably not. I’m proud of my new family. I head-hunted him from a very successful career in Australia. He’s a good man, and he’ll take Niroli into the future.’
‘Good.’ She yawned. ‘This seems like a miracle,’ she said sleepily, exhaustion dragging her into sleep.
He rolled over onto his back. ‘Hardly,’ he said drily. ‘The king tried to persuade me to say nothing and marry you.’
Stunned, Rosa sat bolt upright and fixed him with an incredulous stare. ‘Did he? Were you the husband he picked for me? Why didn’t you?’
He shrugged, sleek brown skin still slightly damp from their love-making. ‘It would be living a lie. He wanted a quick marriage between us, so that when the scandal actually broke he could present the islanders with a fait accompli.’
‘In other words, he intended you to be de facto ruler, with me providing the Fierezza blood and just being a figurehead and baby factory.’
‘He did indeed,’ he said grimly. ‘From his point of view, a satisfactory conclusion. And he was probably right. A marriage, plus the fact that you were going to be next Queen of Niroli, would have trumped the scandal.’
‘I’m glad you said no.’
He reached out a long arm and hooked her down on top of him. His eyes searched hers, probing and hard. ‘Why?’
‘Because I’d have married you—of course I’d have married you!—but I want a normal life for us and our children, one that doesn’t revolve around pomp and protocol. I want to be able to keep up my career, even though I know I won’t be able to be at the cutting edge of research—’
His intimidating intensity faded into warm understanding. ‘My dearest love, you won’t have to give anything up. I’ll build you a full-scale lab.’ His smile held just enough relief for her to realise that he’d been concerned how she’d feel about his refusal to take on the kingdom. ‘One in every house we own so you can work on whatever you want to.’
Grinning, she said, ‘Well, shot blight to start off with. Although I’ll be almost sorry to crack it, because it brought us together.’
‘Ah, no,’ he said, and kissed her naked shoulder. ‘That would have happened sooner or later. We were meant for each other.’
‘No more worries about being years older than me?’ she teased.
He grinned self-derisively. ‘None. It was only ever a desperate attempt to shore up my defences, and it failed miserably.’
Laughing, she hugged him, but q
uickly sobered. ‘Do you think Adam Ryder will agree to be the next heir?’
‘Once I refused it the king refused to discuss any matters of state with me, but I suspect Adam has already consented.’
She said quietly, ‘I see. I hope it works out.’ And then she gave a voluptuous little wriggle. ‘I’m so relieved it’s over and that we don’t have to worry anymore. What happens next?’
‘Hell!’ Max sat up, dislodging her. He looked around, saw his trousers in a heap on the floor and turned to her with amusement and heat lighting his eyes. ‘I meant to give you something before we went to bed! I wonder if you’re always going to have this interesting effect on me.’
‘I hope so,’ she said demurely, but her smug smile faded when he reached for the discarded garment and took out a small black box.
Almost diffidently, he said, ‘I don’t know whether or not you want this as an engagement ring, but I saw it a couple of years ago and bought it for you.’
‘For me?’ She stared at him. ‘Two years ago? But you didn’t—we didn’t…’
‘I always hoped,’ he said with raw decisiveness. ‘Always—until our parents died, and then one by one the heirs started to refuse the throne. I thought that everyone else would be able to marry for love except us, yet I still hoped.’
He flicked the box open, and she whispered on an indrawn breath, ‘Oh, Max! It’s utterly beautiful!’
‘It’s a rose diamond,’ he said. ‘For your name. And it’s heart-shaped, for my heart.’
He picked it out of the box and held it out. Eyes filling with tears, Rosa held out her hand, so that he could slide the exquisite thing onto her finger.
He kissed her hand, and then the ring, and said deeply, ‘It’s just a token. It’s probably too big to wear on a daily basis so we’ll buy another, more sensible one, but over the years it’s given me hope that we could overcome the obstacles.’
‘It’s not just a token!’ she scolded. ‘And, no, you won’t buy me another one! I’ll always cherish it, because it means that you never gave up hope that somehow we’d be together.’
He shrugged. ‘Hope was all I had. So, when are you going to marry me?’
‘Whenever and wherever you like,’ she said, and punched him in the ribs with one serviceable fist.
‘What the hell—?’ He grabbed her hand and examined her knuckles, his eyes narrowed and dangerous. ‘What was that for?’
‘For not telling me that you loved me before you sent me away!’ Tears welled up into her eyes. ‘I thought I was never going to see you again. You must have known I loved you, but you never said it!’
He groaned and kissed her fingers, then pulled her into his arms and rocked her as she wept away the trauma of the past weeks, the pain and the loneliness and the grief.
In the end he said, ‘Hush, my treasure, my darling one, hush! I didn’t tell you then because I thought it would make it so much harder for you. I knew that I’d never marry, but I hoped that one day you’d find someone else to love, and I suspected that your faithful heart would prevent it if you knew that for me there would never be any other woman. Dry your eyes and let me see you smile.’
She hiccuped and blew her nose and said reluctantly, ‘You were probably right, but, oh, it’s been a wretched time.’ She looked into his face. ‘Not as wretched as it’s been for you, though.’
‘I had something to occupy my mind,’ he said drily. ‘Your grandfather is a tough negotiator. He sends you his love, by the way, and says he wants our first son to be named after him.’
‘Giorgio?’ She blushed profusely, and laughed. ‘The old rogue!’
And lay back on the bed to look into her future, with everything she’d been prepared to give up safely held fast. But nothing, she thought dreamily as he kissed the top of her head, would ever take Max’s place in her heart—not her work, nor Niroli.
She’d had a short time to experience life without him; shuddering, she clung to his hard, warm body and vowed to thank every day whatever benign destiny had manipulated events so that they had reached this rapturous felicity together.