The Prince's Devious Proposal

by Rayner, Holly

  Naomi turned to Petr. “We have cake?”

  “You can’t have a wedding without cake!” he said.

  “Suddenly you’re so traditional?”

  “Certain traditions should be adhered to,” Petr said. “And cake is one of those traditions, unequivocally.”

  “I see.” Naomi smiled. “Well, I won’t argue. Champagne and cake sounds perfect.”

  The sommelier returned to the table with two glasses of bubbling brut and a plate featuring a small cake decorated with yellow and green flowers.

  Petr lifted his glass. “To exciting new things,” he said.

  “And to taking the plunge,” Naomi said, clinking her glass against his and taking a sip.

  The rest of the celebration was a perfect wedding reception in miniature. They fed each other bites of the beautiful cake—it had raspberry filling, and Naomi wondered how Petr could have possibly guessed how much she adored that flavor. They danced together in the empty floor space, sharing their first dance as husband and wife. And on the dance floor, the two of them shared several more passionate kisses.

  “This has been the best week of my life,” Naomi murmured, leaning her head against his shoulder as they rocked slowly together.

  “I feel the same way,” Petr said softly. “I’m so glad to hear that I’m not the only one.”

  “Far from it,” she assured him. “I’m amazed. Everything about this amazes me. I can’t believe I’ve fallen in love. I can’t believe we’re married. I feel so unbelievably lucky. I don’t even know how to begin to explain it.”

  “You don’t have to,” he said. “I’m right there with you. What could be any better?”

  “Did you have any idea, when you bought those plane tickets, that this was how the trip would end?”

  “No,” he said. “How could I have?”

  “When did you think of it? Proposing to me, I mean?”

  “Not until the night before I did it,” he said. “I was up all night, if you want to know the truth.”

  “Trying to talk yourself into it?”

  “No, trying to talk myself out of it. The moment I had the idea, it felt so right that it was all I could do to keep myself from knocking on your bedroom door and proposing right then and there. I spent all night trying to persuade myself that I was being too impulsive, that it wasn’t a good idea. But in the end, I couldn’t deny that feeling.”

  She closed her eyes, allowing herself to feel the reassuring presence of his body against hers. “That’s how it was for me,” she said. “When you asked me, I did my best to talk myself out of saying yes.”

  “I thought that might be what was happening,” he said.

  “But I couldn’t do it,” she said. “The idea of being with you…it was too good. I couldn’t convince myself that it wasn’t what I wanted.”

  The music faded, but Petr held her close for a few beats longer before letting her go. Naomi felt as if she could stay in his arms forever.

  “Did you enjoy yourself today?” he asked. “Has everything lived up to your expectations?”

  “I didn’t really have time to form any expectations,” she said. “It all happened so fast.”

  “But you must have had some ideas in mind about your wedding,” he persisted. “Things you’d thought about over the years.”

  “Well, yes,” she said.

  “And?”

  “This wasn’t the wedding day I imagined,” she said as he let her go. “But it was far better than I could have dreamed. I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.”

  “I’m so glad,” he said. “All I want is to make you happy.”

  “What happens now?” she asked. “I suppose we’ll have to go home and pack.”

  “Pack?”

  “For our flight back home,” she said.

  “Oh.” He hesitated. “I canceled those tickets, actually.”

  “You what?” she cried. “I told you that I needed to get back to work!”

  “I know,” he said. “But just hear me out, please. You deserve a proper honeymoon, and you never would have allowed yourself the luxury of taking one. As your husband, I have a responsibility to make that happen for you.”

  “But my job—”

  “You can use your vacation time,” he said. “Tell your boss that you’ve gotten married. He won’t be able to deny you time away for that.”

  “If he does—”

  “If he does, then we’ll sue him,” Petr said easily. “He’s not allowed to treat his employees in the way you describe. And if he does fire you, Naomi…we have enough money. You don’t have to work there. You can take some time, find a job that you like. You don’t have to work at all, if that’s what you prefer. You have choices now. You’re no longer beholden to that man.”

  It was so easy to allow herself to be talked into something she wanted so badly. “I suppose you’re right,” she found herself saying. “I can take one more week off.”

  “Good!” he said. “I hoped you’d see it that way. There’s so much left to see in Europe. Your first trip here can’t be over already.”

  She had to admit, he had a point. And the idea of traveling around the continent in the kind of luxury Petr had introduced her to was intoxicating.

  He led her back out to the car. “We’ll head home for now,” he said. “Tomorrow, we’ll decide what we want to do next, where we want to go. There’s a lot to see, a lot that I can’t wait to show you.”

  “That sounds great,” Naomi said, slipping her hand into his.

  The car ferried them back to Petr’s family’s estate. They got out. Petr thanked the driver. Then, before Naomi could resist, he swept her up in his arms and carried her over the threshold and into the house.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, feigning indignation.

  He smiled tenderly down at her. “There’s one more wedding night tradition that we haven’t taken part in yet,” he said.

  Naomi’s breathing accelerated with anticipation as she realized what he meant.

  Chapter 10

  It was strange, but it hadn’t occurred to Naomi until the moment arrived that this was yet another experience she hadn’t shared with Petr before they were married.

  But she had never worried about their chemistry, their compatibility. From the first time they’d touched, she had been aware of the effect he had on her, of how thoroughly he was able to excite her. She had been completely defenseless since the first time he had kissed her. And now that they belonged to one another fully, the next step felt inevitable.

  Usually Naomi found it a little bit awkward to be with someone for the first time, even if the sex was good. There was always a bit of fumbling as they figured out the right things to do, a series of missteps as they learned the things each other didn’t like.

  But with Petr, it felt as if someone had written her a script.

  No. It was more than that. Because she wasn’t following any line of thought. She wasn’t thinking at all.

  It was as if her body just knew what to do. As if this—exactly this—was what she had been made for.

  Every action flowed smoothly into the next. Every touch was intense. And when it was over, she felt happier and more satisfied than she ever had in her life.

  There was no conversation. There was no need for it. She curled up in his arms, and he wrapped himself protectively around her, and together they drifted into blissful, contented sleep.

  It had been a long time since Naomi had gotten through a night without at least one disconcerting dream. She usually had recurring visions of her parents telling her they were disappointed in the way her life had gone. Though that was a sentiment they had never expressed to her while they were alive, it was all too easy to believe, because that disappointment was something Naomi so often struggled with herself. She usually woke up from those dreams feeling raw and anxious, wishing she could call them for reassurance that they were proud of her, that everything was all right.

  She would never have
that reassurance again. It was devastating.

  But tonight, she felt bathed in a surety that they would have approved of her life. If her mother could have seen her right now, Naomi thought, she would have been nothing but impressed that her daughter had found a man like Petr.

  * * *

  She woke up in the middle of the night and stared up at the ceiling. Beside her, Petr was still asleep, breathing slowly and evenly. Naomi glanced over at him. He was so handsome while he slept, his features relaxed and at peace. She couldn’t believe that he was hers.

  She didn’t want to disturb him—he had done so much to make their wedding day spectacular for her, and he deserved to rest now—but she didn’t think she would be able to get back to sleep. Slowly, carefully, she extricated herself from his arms and made her way out onto the balcony outside his bedroom.

  She wandered along the length of the balcony for a while. In the corner, where the east side of the courtyard met the north, there was a hammock strung up from the balcony ceiling. Naomi eased herself into it, reached over to the balcony railing, and gently set herself rocking.

  They were far enough from the center of the city that she couldn’t hear any traffic or city noises, but near enough that the stars weren’t much to behold. She stared up at them anyway, trying to pick out familiar constellations, trying to identify her own place in the universe. These were the same constellations that dwelt in the sky above her back in Los Angeles. It was mind-boggling to think that she could have come so far and could still be under the same sky.

  She had spent so much time stargazing, she remembered, during the time in her life when she’d been writing her album. So many of her track names had come from astronomical ideas, and the concept of the album as a whole had had to do with the idea of finding your place in the universe, and how that related to finding the people you were supposed to have with you. She wondered if Petr had understood that about “Starlight Boy”—that it wasn’t just a simple love song. It was a song about finding the person who would recognize you in any set of circumstances, the way she could find the same constellations no matter where she was.

  She would have to tell him.

  They still had so much to learn about each other. Her heart swelled with excitement at the thought. It had been too long since she had had someone new in her life.

  She would tell him all about her parents. That was an invigorating idea. She hadn’t been able to share them with anyone since her mother’s death, and talking about them made them feel as if they were still here. She knew that Petr would be eager to learn all about them. He had already proven himself to be interested in every facet of her life.

  She would tell him about the way her father had taken her hiking in the woods when she was a child, about the way they had sat contentedly by streams without saying anything at all. For a man who loved parties and living the high life, he had been remarkably in touch with nature.

  And she would tell him about the way her mother had taught her to do her makeup, carefully introducing new tools when Naomi mastered the old ones so that she had never had too much to cope with at once. By the time she had reached her twenties, she had felt highly competent when it came to applying makeup. She had even refused the Desert Flowers’ offer to use their cosmetician on the tour.

  It occurred to her to wonder, suddenly, whether a cosmetician was something she would be offered again, now that she was the wife of a prince.

  Almost definitely not. After all, she had seen enough of Petr’s day-to-day life to know that there would be no regular need for her to make up her face.

  But then again, she didn’t exactly know what her life was going to look like. There was so much they hadn’t talked about. So much she hadn’t thought about. Suddenly, the questions stretched out before her.

  She had to assume that he wasn’t going to want to live in her condo. It was so small, and she had gotten a fairly good impression of the standard of living that he was used to. But then, what would they do? Would she move into his home?

  She had never even seen his home. What was it like? Where was it located? God, if it’s anything like this place, that’s going to be completely life-altering.

  Would there be servants? She didn’t know how she felt about that. It would be uncomfortable to have people working for her that way, and she didn’t know how well she would adjust to it. But it did sound like the kind of thing that was an intrinsic part of the life of a member of the royal family.

  Petr had almost certainly grown up with servants, and he had mentioned having a catering staff at the house in Barcelona. Even though he was living away from Sovra now, even though he—how had he put it?—didn’t have any royal duties, he would likely have wanted to keep up the same lifestyle he’d grown up with.

  And what about the paparazzi? She and Petr had managed to avoid having their pictures taken on this trip, donning hats and sunglasses every time they left the estate to help obscure their identities. But they couldn’t live their lives behind those disguises. It was inevitable that they would be photographed together, and that Naomi would find herself in the public eye once more.

  She couldn’t suppress a little shiver of excitement at the idea. Fame was a complicated thing, but it had always been kind of a fun thing for Naomi as well. She had enjoyed the idea that people had looked at her and known who she was, that there were people who aspired to be her.

  Of course, this would be different. Being famous because of who she was married to wasn’t the same as being famous on her own merit.

  But still, she wasn’t a nobody. Petr had reminded her of that over and over. People would remember her from her music days.

  She sighed, stopping the sway of the hammock. It was a big and difficult thing she was facing, no matter how you looked at it. Her life was about to be fundamentally changed. Was she ready for it? Would she be able to cope with everything that was about to be thrown at her?

  Yes, she told herself firmly. I can handle it.

  After all, she had handled so much in her life already. So many twists and turns. So many unexpected events and changes she couldn’t have possibly seen coming.

  Like the success of her album. Though she had been grateful to her parents for producing it, she had never expected it to do as well as it had. She had thought that she would sell a few copies, and perhaps, if she was very lucky, get a little airtime on a local alternative radio station. She had never anticipated that she would have a hit, much less that a band she admired would invite her to join them on tour.

  That could have destroyed her life, she realized now. Her brief stint as a pop star could have completely turned her head, leaving her unable to live an ordinary life. But while it was true that she often missed those days, she didn’t feel as if she was too good for the life she’d been living for the past six years. Her fame hadn’t changed the way she thought of herself. She was lucky to have remained down-to-earth and levelheaded in spite of everything that had happened for her.

  And then there had been the deaths of her parents.

  Most people hadn’t even lost one parent by the time they reached the age of twenty-nine, never mind both. That was a surprising and painful thing to live with. And though her grief had shaken her, it hadn’t destroyed her.

  Now here she was, up against another life-altering event. Not just a marriage, but a marriage to royalty. Would this change who she was?

  No. She was determined that it wouldn’t.

  She knew how to hold onto herself, and she was absolutely determined to do so. She would continue to be self-reliant, just as her mother had taught her. Though Petr had suggested that she didn’t need to work, that he had enough money to support them both, she wouldn’t leave her job.

  Maybe I will look for a new job, though. She had had enough of Rick. It might be a good idea to start putting some applications out there, looking for something else to do. She could continue in her current role while she did that.

  It was strange—incongruous—to t
hink of being Rick’s receptionist and the wife of the Prince of Sovra at the same time. The two ideas did not go together.

  But I’ve never belonged in my job. She was smarter, more creative, than the work she was doing allowed her to show. She had been working there to pay the bills, nothing more. Working for Rick had no connection to her identity.

  Yes, it’s definitely time to start looking for a new job.

  The idea filled her with hope for the future. Coming on this trip had revitalized her life. And how close she had come to missing this opportunity! That was a scary thought.

  “Naomi?”

  She turned. Petr was standing behind her, dressed only in a loose-fitting pair of cotton pants.

  She let her eyes rake over his figure, memorizing him. It was staggering to realize it, but this was the first time she had sat back and taken a good look at him. Their lovemaking had been physical, not visual, and her eyes had been closed most of the time.

  But God, he was attractive. She could imagine a younger version of herself hanging his poster on her bedroom wall. She took in his muscular chest, the soft trail of hair leading down into his waistband, the curves of his hipbones, the warm tan skin of his hands.

  My husband.

  “I woke up and you weren’t in bed,” he said. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “I just couldn’t sleep and I didn’t want to wake you.”

  He motioned for her to scoot over and sat down beside her in the hammock. His leg was long enough to dangle over the side to the floor and start them swinging again.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked her.

  “A lot of things,” she said. “The future, mostly. What our life together is going to be like.”

  “Are you worried?” he asked.

  “No,” she said. “There’s just a lot we don’t know about each other yet. I’ve been thinking about how it’s going to be as we learn more. How we’re going to integrate our lifestyles.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you’ve seen where I live,” she said. “But the only home of yours I’ve seen is this one. Is your house back in LA anything like this?”