by Dani Collins
“That contract was not between Lady Nataliya and my brother.”
“But she was expected to marry him?” a bold reporter called out.
He was shushed, but Nikolai answered. “That contract was signed ten years ago. If they intended to marry, I think it would have happened by now, don’t you?”
Laughter erupted into the room.
Nikolai waited until it calmed down before going on. “The truth is that when I realized I’d mourned my deceased wife long enough, I looked around me and Lady Nataliya was the woman I saw.”
Nataliya did her best to keep her smile and not show the shock she felt on her face. Did he mean that, or was it part of the damage control?
“My brother made his disinterest in fulfilling the contract official, leaving the way open for me to court the woman I wanted to stand beside me, but make no mistake, I had every intention of stealing Nataliya from my brother if he did not step aside.”
Gasps sounded throughout the room, and the tap of furious typing on touch screens.
Even knowing how that all had come to pass, Nataliya almost believed Nikolai’s version.
“So, the idea that Nataliya set her sights on me because I am a king when she was promised to my brother is a total fiction. The fact is, it was entirely the other way around. I set my sights on her and I courted her with every intention of success.”
“How do you feel about that, Lady Nataliya?” a female reporter asked.
“Honored. And very pleased with the outcome. Anyone who thought Prince Konstantin and I would have a made a good couple doesn’t know either of us very well.”
“You don’t like the Prince?” someone asked.
“I’ll like him just fine as a brother-in-law,” she promised.
Laughter erupted again.
The rest of the press conference was more of the same, and Nataliya’s sense of unreality grew. How much of what Nikolai said was the truth and how much was spin? When the courtship had first started, it would not have mattered to her, but now?
Now that she realized she loved him, the answer to that question was of paramount importance.
* * *
More reporters and cameramen congregated on the walk outside the Yurkovich-Tanner building. These weren’t the ones invited to the press conference. These were the ones who had read that sleazy interview with her father and wanted their pound of flesh.
Nataliya could see them from her seat beside Nikolai in the helicopter as it lifted off from the roof. They were traveling via helicopter rather than the jet he had arrived in because he had refused to allow her to be exposed to the clamoring press waiting like jackals.
She couldn’t help feeling a certain satisfaction knowing the vultures had been deprived of their prey.
Not all journalists were bottom feeders. In fact, she was of the opinion most weren’t. Her best friend being a prime example, and she’d been impressed by those who had shown up for the press conference.
But the ones hoping to get a word from, or a picture of, the scandal-tainted Lady Nataliya were the type who gave journos a bad name.
The rest of Nataliya’s things were being packed up by movers and would be taken to Mirrus the following morning. Her social secretary, Frosana, was busy either canceling her final engagements with friends or rescheduling virtual get-togethers from the palace.
As they flew over the sea’s choppy waters and Nikolai worked on his computer, dialing into meetings via a live feed from his laptop, Nataliya realized that her life had finally changed irrevocably.
The wedding was just a formality.
She no longer worked for Yurkovich-Tanner. Nataliya no longer lived in her own pretty condominium she had bought with her own money. She could no longer meet Jenna at their favorite coffee shop.
Nataliya would never again go shopping on her own, or go hiking by herself, or do anything alone again. Not really. Even when there was the illusion of privacy, it would only be that. An illusion.
From this point forward, she would always have a security detail. Though the wedding had not yet happened, she was already considered a part of the Royal House of Merikov.
Nataliya didn’t have the title of princess yet, but this flight represented the end of her personal independence.
Maybe that was why she’d fought against going to Mirrus ahead of schedule.
Nataliya knew that this time, when she stepped foot on Mirrus soil, her entire life would change. Permanently.
Because of the man sitting beside her.
Her father had really picked the wrong victim when he’d tried to blackmail King Nikolai Merikov.
If there was a more stubborn person, as certain of his course, Nataliya had never met him.
Nikolai had decided that Nataliya would make a good wife and Princess to his people. And he had allowed no one to dissuade him, not his family, not his advisors, not even Nataliya herself.
Certainly, he wasn’t going to allow a man like Count Danilo Shevchenko to undermine the King’s plans.
Nataliya wasn’t sure what Nikolai would make of her love for him, but she was sure it wasn’t part of his plan.
Affection? Yes. She could see he wanted that, but a more consuming emotion? No.
Definitely not on his agenda to give or receive.
At first that had given Nataliya a sense of peace, but as her love grew she realized how difficult it would be to keep it to herself.
Especially when he acted like he had today, like her comfort and safety were the top priority. When he refused to give in to pressure and take the easy way to anything if it wasn’t the best way.
He was such an honorable man.
Such a good man.
“What?” he mouthed to her.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, knowing he would be able to read her lips, as well.
They weren’t talking via the internal communication headsets because he was using his headset for the meeting he was dialed into via his laptop.
He clicked something and then his voice came through her headset. “You sighed.”
“I did?” He noticed? While in a meeting?
“You did.”
“Just realizing everything is different now.”
“Everything became different the moment you agreed to marry me.”
That was true. “But that difference wasn’t real.”
“And now it is?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She laughed. “No commiseration?”
“I am pleased you realize the weight of our choices. Your sense of honor and commitment are exemplary.”
“You’re such a sweet-talker,” she said, tongue in cheek.
Unbelievably, color burnished his aristocratic cheeks. “I am not a romantic man.” He said it like he was admitting a grave shortcoming.
Nataliya smiled, but shook her head. “I disagree. You put on a very romantic courtship, but even if you hadn’t? Believe me, I could not imagine a more romantic gesture than for you to clear your schedule and come to Seattle to bring me home.”
The press conference had been pretty amazing too. He’d done something she knew her uncle wouldn’t have.
“You didn’t sound like you thought I was being romantic this morning.”
“I was still fighting the final change to my life, I think,” she admitted.
His brows drew together, like the idea of fighting one’s duty was incomprehensible. “You knew it was coming.”
“In two weeks.”
“You’re a little set in your ways, aren’t you?” he asked like he was just now realizing that fact. “Not fond of change.”
Her smile was self-deprecating. “Yes, I can be. Change is inevitable but not always my friend.”
“This change will be good.”
“If I didn
’t believe that, I wouldn’t have agreed to marry you.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “And please don’t think I need romantic dinners in the park to be happy. The way you stood up for me today? The way you wouldn’t let anyone make me a scapegoat for my father, even when I thought I needed to, that’s the kind of romance that secures affection for a lifetime.”
It wasn’t the declaration of love her heart longed to make, but it was more than she thought she’d admit before the day’s events.
“I can hope situations like that do not arrive often, but be certain I will always take your part.”
“I believe you.” And that? Was kind of amazing.
She trusted him in a way she trusted no one else. Not even her mother, whom Nataliya adored.
“I am glad.”
Nataliya noticed one of the men at the conference table on the laptop’s screen waving like he was trying to get Nikolai’s attention.
“I think they need you.” She indicated his computer. “I’m fine on my own.”
He nodded and clicked back to his meeting without another word, trusting her at her word and Nataliya realized she really liked that too.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE DAYS LEADING up to her wedding were much busier than Nataliya had expected. Since she hadn’t planned to be in Mirrus for several days, the fact she magically had a full schedule was another reality check.
Nataliya had always been aware that being a princess, especially The Princess of Mirrus, was a job. What she was coming to see was how much someone in her position had been needed.
The fact she was on call to Mirrus Global for her specialized computer skills took up some of her time, but so far she hadn’t been pulled into anything really tricky or time-consuming.
She saw almost nothing of her fiancé during the day, their schedules both full without overlap. They dined together every evening, but even the dinners that were not State business offered no opportunity for her and Nikolai to talk privately.
He insisted on them spending an hour together each evening in the palace’s private garden, but they never repeated the passionate kisses they had shared before she’d returned to Seattle.
She wasn’t sure why.
It wasn’t because he didn’t want her. The sexual tension between them only got higher and higher as their wedding approached.
Nataliya didn’t have enough experience with this sort of thing to know exactly what to do with that, but one thing she was not? Was a shrinking violet.
So, one evening a couple of days before the wedding, while they sat in the garden talking, like they had every evening for the past week, she reached over and laid her hand on his thigh.
Nikolai’s reaction was electric. Her soon-to-be husband jumped up and moved several feet away before spinning around to face her. “What are you doing?”
Since she thought the answer to that question was more than obvious, Nataliya frowned and tried to make sense of his overblown response. “What’s going on, Nikolai? I thought we agreed there was nothing wrong with sharing our passion?”
“We did.” He looked like he was in physical pain.
She let her gaze slide over him and couldn’t miss the erection pressing against his slacks. Did it hurt?
“Stop that!” he admonished.
“Stop what? Looking at you?” she asked with disbelief.
“Yes!”
This was just getting stranger and stranger. “Why?”
“I promised your mother,” he gritted out.
“Promised Mama? That I wouldn’t look at you?” That didn’t make any sense.
“That I would not touch you again before our wedding night,” he ground out.
Irritation filled Nataliya, both at her mother for asking for such a thing and at Nikolai for agreeing to it. “At all?” she clarified.
He shrugged.
“What does that mean?” She made no effort to hide the annoyance in her tone.
He winced. “It means that I’m on a hair trigger here. If I touch you or allow you to touch me, if I kiss you...” He visibly shuddered at the thought. “This thing between us is going to explode and I will break my promise.”
“That you made to my mother?” Nataliya’s voice held a wealth of censure. “Why did you make that promise?” He was too smart not to have known what a challenge it would be to keep.
For both of them.
“Because she asked me to.”
“And that was enough?” Nataliya’s voice rose on the last word.
The look he gave her from his steely gray eyes implied she should understand. “She’s your mother.”
“And I’m the one you are going to marry.”
“Yes.”
“So, why promise my mother something you had to know I would not like? Something that would be so difficult for us both?”
“At the time, I did not think you would be here on Mirrus until a couple of days before the wedding. It did not seem like a hardship.”
“And now?”
He scowled, the look close to petulant.
“Not as easy as you thought, huh?”
“I would not make such a promise now.”
“You thought, easy way to win some points with the future mother-in-law,” she teased, her irritation evaporating, if not her sexual frustration.
“Something like that.”
Even kings worried if their mothers-in-law approved. Who knew?
Even so. “You’re usually better at foreseeing the potentially bad outcome. You didn’t think, hey, this could backfire on me?”
“First, I do not think hey anything. Second, no, I did not foresee the potential for backfiring.”
“You’d better have a pretty spectacular wedding night planned,” she warned him.
His smile was devastating. “You are very demanding for a virgin.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t be so demanding if I had any choice about that status changing before our wedding,” she grumbled.
“You could always seduce me,” he offered.
She tilted her head to one side, studying him. “And that would not make you feel like you broke your promise?”
His expression said it all.
“That’s what I thought.” She nodded and then promised, “I will never knowingly undermine your integrity.”
An arrested expression came over his aristocratic features. “That means a great deal to me.”
“Why?” She shook her head. “I don’t mean it shouldn’t.” She paused. “I think it just surprises me that you would not have taken it as given.”
“There was a time when I did, but I learned I could not.”
“With Queen Tiana?” Nataliya asked, bewildered by the possibility.
They had seemed so in love, but maybe she needed to rethink her belief on that.
“Da.”
“You so rarely mention your first marriage.” In the beginning, Nataliya had believed that was because he still grieved the loss of his wife.
Now, she wasn’t so sure.
“Tiana was not above using her position as my wife and confidant for her own gains.” Nikolai’s voice was devoid of emotion.
But that confidence had to have cost him, in terms of pride, if nothing else. Nataliya could not wrap her head around his deceased wife using him, much less her position, in that way.
“That shocks you,” he opined.
“Yes.”
“Because you could not imagine doing such a thing.”
“No.” There was no point Nataliya trying to prevaricate. If it made her sound provincial rather than royal, that could not be helped.
“I believe you. And that makes me very happy.” His tone wasn’t lacking in inflection now. It positively rang with satisfaction.
Nataliya smiled, pleased that in this way at least
he saw her as superior to the beauty he had married. “I’m glad.”
“We are going to have a good marriage.” He sounded very sure of that.
But that was nothing new. He’d been certain from the beginning. It was Nataliya who had taken some convincing.
“With a really special wedding night.”
His sexy laughter followed her into her dreams that night and she woke with a sense of hope and happiness that only increased as Nikolai played out the humorous role of paying the bride ransom the day before their official ceremony. Because of the security necessary and the guests who would be attending their wedding, some traditions were more royal than orthodox.
* * *
Nataliya wore a vintage gown for the wedding. Despite its short lead-up time, the affair had dozens of the world’s elites as guests.
The other couple of hundred guests were by no means to be dismissed. Nearly the entire nobilities of both Volyarus and Mirrus were in attendance, along with billionaire business associates.
Jenna was there, and although she would cover the wedding in an article she would write later, her only role at present was that of maid of honor or witness according to the traditions of the church.
Nikolai’s witness would be his brother Konstantin, which had been suggested by the fixer to show the younger man’s support of the proceedings despite being the one Nataliya had first been intended to marry according the contract. Nataliya didn’t really care who stood up with Nikolai.
She was simply happy Jenna would be by her side at the wedding. Mama still insisted on calling it a crowning according to church tradition, because of the religious crowns placed on both her and Nikolai’s heads during the ceremony. Not to be confused with the Princess Coronation ceremony, where Nataliya would receive an official royal tiara.
That would happen after the wedding.
Jenna’s fashion magazine’s photographer represented the favored press presence and would be the only press allowed to photograph the official coronation, while having access to areas the other media guests did not, as well.
Nikolai had made known his displeasure with news outlets that had run stories based on her father’s spurious allegations of Nataliya’s avarice and scheming. Excluding them from the official coronation was only part of it.