She recoiled in shock and her anger unleashed. ‘Of course I didn’t. But would you be listening to me if I wasn’t pregnant?’
Giorgos sent Damon the iciest look she’d ever seen. ‘You know about our mother?’
‘Yes. I will ensure Eleni receives care from the best specialists.’
Giorgos shook his head. ‘Our doctor is ready to give her a check-up now.’
Eleni gaped. Did her brother think she was somehow incapacitated?
Damon answered before she could. ‘I don’t think that’s necessary—’
‘It is entirely necessary. She must be—’
‘Stop trying to overrule each other.’ Eleni interrupted Giorgos again, her heart and head pounding. ‘My medical decisions will be made by me.’
‘Dr Vecolli is already here,’ Giorgos insisted.
‘I’m not seeing Dr Vecolli.’
‘He’s been our family physician for twenty years.’
‘Which is exactly why I’m not seeing him. He’s like a grandfather to me. I would like to see a female doctor.’ She glared as Giorgos frowned at her. ‘What, do you think no woman can be a doctor, or is it just me you thought so incapable I couldn’t even be trusted with animals?’
‘I once wanted to be an airplane pilot.’ Giorgos dripped cold sarcasm. ‘But you know we cannot hold down a full-time job while fulfilling royal duty. It is impossible.’
‘Why?’ she challenged. ‘Couldn’t I be useful other than cutting ribbons and awarding prizes?’
‘You’re going to have your hands full with your baby, or had you forgotten that?’
Eleni flared anew at Giorgos’s patronising tone. ‘So while plenty of other mothers work, I can only be a brood mare? Do you think I’m that incompetent?’ She was outraged—and hurt.
‘I don’t think you’re—’ Her brother broke off and ran a hand through his hair.
‘Why are we so enslaved by the past?’ she asked him emotionally. ‘Just because things have always been done a certain way, doesn’t mean they always have to continue in that same way.’ And she was more capable than he believed her to be—wasn’t she?
Giorgos was silent for a long moment. Then he sighed softly. ‘Then how do you plan to manage this?’
‘By marrying Damon. I’ll have the baby and then...’ She drew in a steadying breath. ‘Beyond that, I don’t really know. But I don’t want all those limitations on me any more. They’re untenable.’
She braced for his response. She couldn’t yet tell him her marriage had an end date already. One let-down at a time was enough.
Giorgos’s expression revealed more now. But he didn’t need to worry; this wedding wouldn’t end the world.
‘It could be leaked that Eleni was corralled into the wedding with Prince Xander.’ Damon broke the tense silence. ‘She was too afraid to stand up to you and the Prince. Public sympathy will be on her side if it is cast as a forbidden love story.’
She didn’t deserve public sympathy.
‘She fell in love with me during her secret hospital visits.’ Damon embroidered the possible story. ‘But you refused your consent for her to have a relationship with a commoner. She was so distraught she really did get sick. Only then did you realise how serious she was.’
Eleni winced at the scenario he’d painted. Did everyone need to know she’d been unable to stand up for herself? More importantly, it didn’t do her brother justice.
‘Do we need to make Giorgos sound such a bully?’ She frowned.
Giorgos’s eyes widened with an arrested expression.
‘Prince Xander is still the injured party,’ Damon continued after a beat. ‘But it can be spun that they’d not spent much time together. Therefore her defection won’t make him appear any less attractive.’
Eleni smothered her startled laugh. Damon was light years more attractive than Xander.
For a long moment Giorgos studied the painting hanging on the wall opposite him. With every passing second Eleni’s heart sank—recriminations and rejection were inevitable.
‘You might have met your match, Eleni.’ Giorgos slowly turned to her, the wryest of smiles in his eyes. ‘He won’t curl round your little finger.’
‘The way you do?’ Eleni dared to breathe back.
‘You will be married in the private chapel today.’ Giorgos’s steely seriousness returned. ‘I will release a public proclamation together with a few photographs. You will not make a public appearance. Rather you will go away for at least a month.’
‘Away?’ Eleni was stunned at the speed of his agreement.
‘You need to get your personal situation stable while this fluff is spread in the press.’ Giorgos’s sarcasm edged back. ‘You’ll go to France. I have a safe house there.’
‘But the safest house of all is this one,’ Eleni argued. She was not letting her brother banish her. Not when she had to get to grips with a husband she barely knew and to whom she could hardly control her reaction. Staying home would give her the space and privacy to deal with Damon.
‘Remaining in Palisades would give Damon a chance to learn palace protocol and understand the expectations for our...future.’ She glanced at Damon, fudging just how short their future together was going to be.
Damon shrugged but his eyes were sharp. ‘I’m happy to hang here for a while if that’s what you wish, Eleni.’
‘I am scheduled to spend a few weeks at the Summer House,’ Giorgos said stiffly. ‘So that would work.’ He turned icily to Damon. ‘But understand that I will be watching you, even from there. I don’t trust you.’
‘Fair enough,’ Damon answered equally coolly. ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t either.’ He smiled as if he hadn’t a care in the world. ‘I’ll not take a title, by the way. I’ll remain Damon Gale.’
‘While I’ll remain Princess Eleni Nicolaides,’ Eleni answered instantly.
‘And the child will be Prince or Princess Nicolaides-Gale—we get it,’ Giorgos snapped. ‘Let’s just get everything formalised and documented before it leaks. I expect you at the chapel in an hour. Both of you looking the part.’
Her brother stalked towards the door, his posture emanating uptight King.
* * *
‘I’ll send someone to the yacht to fetch a suit,’ Damon drawled once Giorgos had left. ‘I guess you’d better go magic up a wedding dress.’
She stared at her fiancé and clapped a hand over her mouth in horror.
‘Don’t worry.’ Damon’s satisfied smile turned distinctly wicked. ‘You can wear as little as you like—I will not say no. That busty blue number you wore at the ball would be nice—’
Flushing hotly, Eleni swiftly walked out on him, desperately needing a moment alone to process everything. But her maid hovered at the door to her suite, the woman’s expression alert with unmistakable excitement.
‘Oh, Bettina. I’m sorry I’ve been away.’ Eleni quickly pasted on a smile. ‘And I’m not back for long.’
Bettina nodded eagerly. ‘I have done the best I can in the last half hour. I’ve hung the samples so you can choose. There are nine altogether—from New York, Paris, and one from Milan.’
‘Samples?’ Eleni repeated, confused.
‘The wedding dresses.’
Nine wedding dresses? Eleni gaped. If that wasn’t being spoilt, she didn’t know what was.
‘Would you like to try them on?’
Eleni saw the sparkle in her maid’s eyes and realised the fiction that Eleni was marrying her long-secret love had already spread. She drew in a deep breath and made her smile bigger. ‘Absolutely.’
But her smile became a wide ‘oh’ as Bettina wheeled out the garment rack she’d hung the gowns on. And then Eleni surrendered to vain delight—at the very least she could look good on her wedding day.
The sixth option was the winner; she knew as soon as she stepped into it. It was exactly what she’d choose for herself—not as something befitting ‘Princess Eleni’. The sleek dress with its svelte lines and delicate embr
oidery was subtle but sexy and she loved it.
As Eleni walked away from her maid, her suite and her life as she knew it, butterflies skittered around her stomach, but she determinedly kept her smile on her face.
She couldn’t let the fairy-tale image fall apart just yet.
Giorgos stood waiting for her at the entrance to the private chapel. Her smile—and her footsteps—faltered as she saw his frown deepening. But this might be her only chance to speak to him privately.
‘I’m sorry I let you down,’ she said when she was close enough for only him to hear.
‘You haven’t.’ Her brother held out a small posy of roses for her.
Tears sprang to her eyes as she took the pretty bouquet from him. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.
He nodded, stiffly. ‘Do you love him?’ Giorgos suddenly asked.
The direct question stole her breath. For the first time that she could recall, her brother looked awkward—almost unsure—as he gazed hard at a spot on the floor just ahead of them.
She couldn’t be anything but honest. ‘I don’t know.’
That frown furrowed his brow again. ‘Make it work, Eleni.’
* * *
Then he held out his arm, that glimpse of uncertainty gone. She nodded, unable to speak given the lump in her throat, and placed her hand in the crook of his elbow.
As Giorgos escorted her into the chapel, Eleni caught sight of Damon standing at the altar. He was dressed in a stunningly tailored suit. He seemed taller, broader; his eyes were very blue. He claimed the attention of every one of her senses. Every thought. Her pulse raced, her limbs trembled. She tried to remember to breathe. She couldn’t possibly be excited, could she? This was only part of the plan to secure her child’s legitimacy and freedom. This was only for her baby.
But those butterflies danced a complicated reel.
It’s just a contract. It’s only for the next year. It doesn’t mean anything...
But reciting her vows to Damon in the family chapel heightened her sense of reverence. Here—in front of her brother, in front of him, in this sanctuary and symbol of all things past and future—she had to promise to love him.
He’s the father of my child.
She could love him only for that, couldn’t she? It wasn’t a lie.
But a whisper of foreboding swept down her spine and she shivered just as Damon turned towards her. She met his gaze, almost frozen by the enormity of their actions.
But Damon wasn’t frozen. He had that slightly wicked expression in his eyes as he reached to pull her close.
The kiss sealing their wedding contract should have been businesslike, but he lingered a fraction too long. That heat coursed through her veins. She closed her eyes and in that instant was lost. Her bones ached and the instinct to lean into him overwhelmed her. Only at the exact moment of her surrender, he suddenly pulled away. She caught a glimpse of wildness in his eyes but then her lifetime of training took over. She turned and walked with him out of the chapel and into the formal throne room. There she dutifully posed for endless photos with Giorgos on one side of her, Damon on the other. She smiled and smiled and smiled. Perfectly Princess Eleni.
Her brother took her hand and bowed. ‘You make a beautiful bride, Eleni.’
Because all that mattered was how she looked and how this arrangement looked to the world? But Giorgos’s expression softened and he suddenly gave her a quick hug.
‘Take care of yourself.’ With the briefest of glances at Damon, her brother left.
A little dazed, Eleni gazed after him. It had been years since he’d hugged her. Her nerves lightened. The worst was over, right? Now she could move forward.
‘Eleni.’
She turned.
Damon stood too close, too handsome, his expression too knowing. That little respite from inner tension was over as she realised the first night of her marriage lay ahead. The beginning of the end of the thing neither of them had wanted in the first place.
‘We should take a couple of photos somewhere less formal,’ Damon suggested.
Eleni shook her head as his glance around the ornate room revealed his less than impressed opinion.
‘There’s nowhere “less formal” anywhere in this palace,’ she informed him with perverse pleasure.
‘What about outside?’ Damon eyed up the French doors that no one had opened in Eleni’s life.
‘That’s locked,’ she said.
Damon turned the handle and the door opened silently and easily on the hinge.
Of course it did.
He sent her a triumphant smile that did even more annoying things to her insides.
‘You’re the most irritating creature alive,’ she grumbled.
‘I know,’ he commiserated drolly. ‘But you still want me.’
‘What are you doing?’ she whispered, stalking outside to get away from him as much as anything.
‘This is your palace, Eleni. You’re allowed to run around in it, right?’ He was still too close.
‘You’re...’
‘What?’ he challenged, arrogance in his eyes as he wrapped his arm around her waist, stopping her flight and drawing her close. ‘What am I?’
Not good for her health.
Eleni half laughed, half groaned as she gave into temptation and leaned against him. But she refused to answer.
Damon retaliated physically. Magically. Reigniting those embers settled so slightly beneath her skin. The kiss banished the last butterflies and a bonfire burned, engulfing her body in a delicious torture of desire. This time he held nothing back, pulling her close enough for her to feel just how she affected him. Desire flared, compounded by the awareness that, this time, there was nothing to stop them.
Click. Click, click, click.
She put her hands on his broad chest and pushed, remembering too late there was a freaking photographer following them.
‘I’m the Princess,’ she muttered, mainly to remind herself.
But Damon kept her close with one arm around her waist and a light grip on her jaw. ‘I didn’t marry “the Princess”.’
‘Yes, you did.’ There was no separating who she was from what she was. She had to accept that and now he did too.
The photographer looked disappointed when Damon sent him away. As he left, thudding blades whirred overhead and she glanced up to see her brother’s helicopter swiftly heading north.
‘So now we’re alone,’ Damon said softly. ‘And not a second too soon.’
She suppressed the shiver at the determination in his tone and gazed at the rings on her finger to avoid looking at him. He’d surprised her in the chapel, sliding an engagement ring on her finger as well as a wedding band.
‘You don’t like them?’ he asked, inexorably escorting her towards that open French door.
On the contrary, she loved them, but she was wary of showing it. She couldn’t quite make out his mood. Was he angry as well as aroused? ‘How did you pick them so quickly?’
A grim smile briefly curved his mouth. ‘I had just a little longer to prepare for our wedding than you did.’
Even so, his organisational skills were impressive. ‘It’s a sapphire?’
He shook his head. ‘A blue diamond for my blue bride.’
Her heart knocked. The stone’s colour was the exact shade of the dress she’d worn that fateful night.
‘You still look blue.’ He cocked his head curiously. ‘Why? You have the support of your brother. Everything that mattered has been resolved. So why so sad?’
Because this wasn’t going to last. Because for all the foolishness in the garden, this was as much of a charade as her wedding to Xander would have been. Because she was a romantic fool. Part of her had wanted real love on her wedding day.
You can’t be a child any more, Eleni. You’re having a child.
Unable to answer his demanding tone, she walked through the palace towards her private apartment. There wasn’t a servant or soldier to be seen, as if by some silent decree
they knew to stay out of sight. And it was a good thing too. She’d seen the banked heat in Damon’s eyes. She knew he wasn’t about to show her any mercy.
Her pulse skittered, speeding up the nearer she got to her rooms. At the foot of the staircase he reached out and took her hand.
She tried to hide the quickening of her breath but she knew he could feel the slamming pulse at her wrist and she could see the tension tightening his features too.
He wanted and he would have. Because she wanted too. And maybe this ‘want’ would have to do. Maybe they could make this work. With the reluctant acceptance of her brother, with the physical attraction binding them, with the baby...maybe this could work indefinitely.
She paused at the top of the staircase, drawing in a deeper breath to try to steady her anticipation. Damon released her hand, only to swing her into his arms.
‘What are you doing?’ she whisper-shrieked, clutching his shoulders as he suddenly strode down the last corridor to her apartment. ‘You’re not carrying me over my own threshold?’
‘Indulge me.’
Excitement rippled down her spine, feathering goosebumps across her skin at his intensity. ‘I didn’t think you’d be one for wedding traditions.’ Her throat felt raspy as she tried to tease.
His grip on her tightened for a nanosecond, and then eased again.
‘I was never getting married,’ he said carelessly as he kicked the door shut behind them. ‘But seeing as that vow has been torn up, I might as well make the most of it.’
She looked into his face as he set her down, wishing she could read his mind. ‘Why didn’t you want to marry?’
He hesitated for a split second. ‘It’s not in our nature to be with one person all our lives.’
Our nature, or just his? His warning stabbed deep, bursting the warm bubble of desire.
‘You don’t believe in monogamy?’ she clarified, his harsh reality cooling her completely.
‘No. I don’t.’
So he would cheat on her.
He caught her shoulders, preventing her from walking away from him. ‘I think it traps people into a perceived perfection that can’t be maintained,’ he said quietly, forcing her to meet his gaze. ‘No one is infallible, Eleni. Certainly not me. Definitely not you.’
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