The Prince She Had to Marry

by Christine Rimmer

  He asked, “Will you give me a chance to make up for our wedding night?”

  She laughed. “Oh, that was awful. You, rolling in the door naked, telling me good-night—and then walking right out again.”

  “I’m sorry. I do mean that.”

  “I know that you do, that you are.”

  “Let me make it up to you.”

  “You already have—a week ago, in a creaky little bed in a plain stone house on our own private island.” She slid a hand up to clasp his nape. He felt her gentle fingers in his hair. “However, if you would like to show me again how very happy you are to be with me...”

  He took her hand from around his neck and guided it downward. She understood his intent without further coaching and traced a slow, naughty finger down the center of his chest, to his waist. And lower. He tried not to groan as she cupped her hand over him.

  “I am happy,” he said roughly.

  “Oh, yes. I feel that you are.” She chuckled, a sound that promised all manner of earthly delights.

  He couldn’t wait any longer. He scooped her high in his arms and carried her into the other room, the bedroom that had once been his, and then become hers and was now, at last, theirs in the truest sense of the word.

  When he put her down on the turned-back bed, she looked up at him trustingly. “Oh, Alex. At last.”

  He lowered his lips to hers. She pulled him down onto the sheets with her. They shared an endless kiss.

  After which he began the delightful business of undressing her. He unwrapped her slowly, like the precious gift she was. And then he touched her, caressing her until she moved, sighing, beneath his hand. When she shattered, he watched her face, drinking in the sight of her, the beauty of her, the open, giving sweetness of her.

  “You have too many clothes on,” she complained a few moments later. “We need to do something about that.”

  So she did. She undressed him, unbuttoning all the buttons, slipping off the sleeves, pulling down his trousers, getting rid of his shoes, getting rid of everything until they were both naked.

  Together.

  And then she reached for him. She took him into her, so deep and good and right, wrapping her arms and legs around him. He braced up on his elbows and watched her angel’s face again as she moved beneath him, taking him higher.

  Happiness. This was happiness. Happiness, which all his life, even before his capture and imprisonment, had eluded him. Until now.

  Until, at last, he’d surrendered to Lili. Until he’d let her into his heart.

  She gave him everything. He could never repay her.

  And she was not going to be happy with him when he told her that now that they had finally found each other in the truest sense, he was going to have to leave her again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lili woke to a wedge of sunlight peeking through the heavy curtains, falling across the bed.

  Daylight, she thought, still half in dreamland. We were rescued. We’re at the Prince’s Palace....

  She yawned and stretched out her hand to the other side of the giant bed, reaching for Alex.

  He wasn’t there.

  Blinking sleep away, she sat up. “Alex?” And then she saw him, fully dressed in jeans, boots and a black knit shirt that clung so lovingly to the beautiful musculature of his chest. He sat in the wing chair by the window. “Alex...” She smiled at him. “What time...” She looked at the bedside clock as she started to ask. “Oh, my. Past eleven. I slept and slept.”

  “I’ve been waiting. I didn’t want to wake you. You’ve had a rough time of it. The baby. The island. Me, most of all.” He seemed so serious. His eyes spoke of his deep regard for her. And yet...

  She knew something was happening here. Something she was not going to like. “What is it, Alex?”

  “Lili...” His eyes. Yes. There was something about his eyes. The amber warmth had gone from them, leaving them so dark. Determined.

  “Tell me,” she commanded. “I mean it. What are you up to now?”

  He didn’t answer for a moment, only looked at her long and hard. And then finally he confessed, “I have to go away.”

  Her heart felt like it had somehow got stuck in a tightening vise. “Go away? No, that can’t be. We’ve only just—”

  He raised a hand, palm out. “I know. Believe me, I know. And I’m sorry. But I have...unfinished business, a responsibility I’ve let wait much too long while I sat in these rooms and wished I might die. I didn’t die. Because of you, I lived. And now I have promises to keep.”

  What about your promise to me? And suddenly she knew. “Afghanistan. Your kidnappers. You can’t really mean to go back there, go after them?”

  He actually smiled, a dangerous, cool sort of smile. She was dead certain he was planning some murderous revenge. But then he said, “No, I leave them to heaven. And the consequences of their choices. Street thugs in Kabul tend to lead very short lives anyway. As do incompetent, sadistic al Qaeda sympathizers in the White Mountains.”

  “Not revenge...” A sigh of pure relief escaped her.

  “No, not revenge.”

  “Then what is it, Alex? What?”

  “Please try and understand....”

  “How can I understand? I have no idea what you’re planning.”

  “Devon’s parents are still alive,” he said. “Or they were, four and a half years ago. I have to go to them. And he had three brothers and four sisters. I owe each one of them a visit, and a helping hand should they need one.”

  The vise around her heart loosened a fraction. Of course. He would feel responsible. She could understand that completely. “Ah. Well, all right, then. They’re all in America?”

  “I believe so. It may take some looking, but I will find them.”

  “Well, then...” She tried a smile. It only trembled a little. “A trip to the States.”

  “Yes.”

  “We can go right away.” She started to push back the covers.

  He raised that hand again. “Lili, no.”

  She sank back to the pillows. “What are you telling me?”

  “I need to do this alone.”

  Her heart rebelled. She whispered, “Alone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know how long it will take, how I’ll be...received.”

  “It doesn’t matter how long it takes. Or how his family reacts to you. I want to be there with you. I want to—”

  “No, it’s my duty and I will fulfill it. You’ve been through enough on my account. And there’s the baby to think of.”

  “Alex, it’s a trip to America, not an expedition into the wild. I can go with you. I want to go with you.”

  “No, I have to do it alone.”

  “But why?”

  “Because...that’s how it has to be. How I want it.” He rose from the chair, so tall and strong and sternly handsome. And so completely determined to leave her.

  To go somewhere in America, to be there for God only knew how long.

  Her mouth felt desert-dry. She swallowed with effort, repeated too softly, “How you want it...”

  He approached her. “Lili...”

  She put up a hand. “Just...stay where you are. Oh, I am so very angry with you.”

  He hung his big head. “I knew you would be.”

  “Don’t you see? We need to be together now—you and me, the baby. We’re a family now.”

  “Yes, we are.” He dared another step. “And we will be together. I swear it. As soon as I’ve done what I need to do.”

  She longed to grab the bedside clock and hurl it at his thick head. But instead, she fisted her hands and pressed them against her belly where their innocent child slept.

  Why alone? Her heart cried. Just tell me why you have to go alone. Why I can’t go with you?

  She closed her mouth around the desperate questions. She reminded herself that of course he felt responsible for Devon’s loved ones, that it was a good thing, an importa
nt step for him to go to Devon’s people, to make testimony of what he knew of his friend’s last years of life, to offer Devon’s family his help, his support. She could even see, objectively, that he felt it was his responsibility and his alone, that it was something he had to accomplish on his own.

  It was only, well, was this it, then? Was this their happily ever after? Alex saying goodbye and leaving for America to do what he “had to do”?

  Was this what their life would be? Alex leaving. Lili left behind.

  She had come to believe that he loved her, truly. In a deep, respectful, steady and also deliciously passionate way. Even if he hadn’t ever managed to actually say the words.

  She had believed. In him. In their love. After all he had put her through, she had honestly believed that they had made it work, that they were bonded together in the truest way, at last.

  And now?

  She didn’t know what to believe now. She remembered her doubts, in their stateroom, on the Princess Royale the day before. She had told him straight out that she couldn’t bear it if he turned away from her now.

  He had promised that he wouldn’t.

  But what was this—his leaving her now? What was it if not turning away?

  “Lili...” He said her name so tenderly. And he took the remaining steps to reach her, to bend close to her there alone in the big bed. “Lili, please...” His warm breath stirred her tangled hair. He smelled so clean and good, like everything she longed for—everything he’d seemed to give her. But now seemed bound and determined to take away all over again.

  He brushed his tempting lips across her cheek. Her body ached to hold him. To be held by him.

  “Just this. And that’s all.” He breathed the words against her skin. “Let me finish it. I need to finish it. Let me do what I can for the people Devon loved. And then, I swear to you, I will be the man you need me to be.”

  What else was there for her to do?

  She turned toward him, accepted his tender kiss. She swallowed the tears of hurt and anger that pressed against the back of her throat. She made her mouth form something resembling a smile. “Stay safe.”

  He whispered her name again. Kissed her one last time. And then he was rising, turning away, striding toward the door. She pressed her lips together, ground her teeth.

  She did not call him back.

  After all, she had known him all her life. She knew that dark look she’d seen in his eyes. There would be no stopping him now. He was going.

  And he was going alone.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The days went by.

  And then the weeks.

  Lili kept busy with her correspondence and the occasional speaking engagement. With her work for a number of important charities. In her free time, she read some really good romances. And she painted. Scenes of light and hope and happiness.

  But she was not exactly feeling the hope. Or the light or the happiness. July somehow became August. Alex didn’t call. He didn’t email. And he did not return.

  On a Wednesday morning exactly five weeks to the day since her husband had left her, Lili stood sideways before the tall mirror in the bathroom wearing only her panties and bra. Gently, she rubbed her round belly. She was definitely showing now. Even fully dressed, one could see a definite bump.

  Alex should be here to see this, see our baby growing, she thought. Where are you, Alex?

  And then she caught herself. There was no sense in wishing for him, no sense in wondering where he might be now. He wasn’t here. She was on her own.

  Well, not completely on her own. There were people who loved her. Lots of them.

  And there was her baby.

  “I love you,” she whispered to the tiny being within. “I love you and I will always take care of you....”

  In the other room, on the bedside table, her cell phone began playing “Dancing Queen.”

  Alex!

  Well, it could be. It might be....

  She whirled and raced to the bedside, where she scooped up the phone and answered breathlessly, “Yes? This is Lili.”

  “Have lunch with me.” It was Arabella. Alex’s sisters were constantly at her side, keeping her company, keeping her mind off the husband she had neither seen nor heard from in a month now. She tried not to feel disappointed. Belle went on, her voice a little too bright, “We’ll go down to the Triangle d’Or.” The Golden Triangle was the area of exclusive shops around the world-famous Montedoran Casino d’Ambre. “We’ll buy something beautiful that costs way too much. And then a slow, leisurely meal beneath a wide umbrella on a sunny patio, overlooking the sea....”

  Lili couldn’t help chuckling. “Listen to you, Belle. Anyone might think you were some empty-headed, self-indulgent royal instead of a hardworking professional nurse and champion of anyone in need.”

  “You make me sound noble indeed.”

  “You are noble.”

  “Lunch?”

  There would be bodyguards. And they would probably be spotted by some wild-eyed paparazzo who would get right up in their faces with his cameras and demand to know where Lili was keeping the elusive Prince Alexander. “Why don’t you come to me? Rufus will fix us something nice.”

  “You certain you wouldn’t like to splurge on Dior and Versace—and then eat out?”

  “I’m sure. One o’clock?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  * * *

  They sat on the shaded terrace outside the sitting room, where they could smell the sea air and feel lazy in the August heat. Belle looked wonderful, Lili thought, her thick brown hair swept up in a twist and her bronze silk blouse almost the exact color of her golden-brown eyes.

  The meal was delicious as always.

  Belle asked about the baby. Lili patted her stomach and said she was doing fine. Belle spoke of her brilliant American friend, Anne Benton. Anne was a single mom with a fourteen-month-old son. Belle had yet to meet the boy.

  “The time just flies by.” Belle shook her head. “Anne is busy with her little one, and getting her doctorate. And I’m always on my way to give a speech or off visiting a field hospital somewhere at the far end of the earth. Charlotte and I need to catch a flight to the States.” Lady Charlotte Mornay was in her late forties, from an impoverished branch of the Calabretti family. She was also Belle’s very capable companion and general aide-de-camp. Belle added, “I need to see my friend and meet that little boy....”

  “Do it,” Lili urged.

  Belle nodded. “I will. Soon. I will....”

  Rufus came out. He whisked away their empty plates and served them each a simple, beautiful dessert of mixed berries with mascarpone. Lili thanked him. He nodded and left them.

  “Rufus takes such good care of me,” Lili said.

  Belle reached across the little stone table and put her hand on Lili’s arm. “He’s an ass. I’m going to kill him when he gets back.”

  Lili smiled. “Rufus?”

  Belle laughed. “No, not Rufus. You know who I mean.... Have you called him?”

  “No.” Oh, she had wanted to. She had picked up the phone to do it too many times to count. But somehow, she always managed to stop herself before she finished dialing. “He has the number here. And my cell number. He knows how to reach me if he wants to talk to me—and until he does want to talk to me, well, what is there to say?” Lili dipped her spoon in the crystal dessert cup—and then realized she didn’t feel like eating anything right at that moment. She pushed the cup away. “It really is something he had to do.”

  Belle scowled. “Don’t make excuses for him.”

  “I’m not, believe me. I’m furious at him. All I want is for him to call—so I can hang up on him.”

  “He does love you. He’s always loved you. We all knew it—well, my sisters and I, anyway. Because we’re women and women know these things. And Damien knew, I think. And my mother and father, of course.” Belle grew thoughtful. “How strange it is, really. Everyone knew but Rule. He was too busy thinkin
g he ought to marry you himself.”

  “Oh, don’t remind me.”

  “And Max was oblivious.”

  “Dear Max,” Lili said fondly of Belle’s oldest brother. “And well, I still don’t see how you all could have known. I didn’t know. And he certainly didn’t.”

  Belle nodded. “Yes, let’s not ever say his name again, shall we?”

  “Agreed. The name leaves a bitter taste in my mouth anyway—and if you knew, well, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Would you have believed me?” Belle asked.

  Lili scoffed. “I would have laughed you out of the room.”

  Belle sipped her glass of iced mineral water. “We all knew that, too.”

  Lili pulled her dessert back in front of her. It was simply too beautiful to ignore. “Remember I told you about Jack Spanner, the fisherman who owned the house on the island where we were shipwrecked, the one who collected the reward for rescuing us?”

  “I do remember, yes.”

  “Jack’s wife, Marina, had left him. Before we said goodbye to Jack, I made him promise to go after her, to make it up with her.”

  “Did he?”

  Lili beamed. “I received a lovely letter from Marina yesterday. She thanked me. She wrote that what I had said to Jack, about going after her, about staying home more, was exactly what she was trying to make him see. They’re back together. Jack has promised to spend more time at home. So far, he’s keeping his word.”

  Belle sighed. “I love it when a man finally sees the light.”

  “Marina said she finally realized that the only way to get her husband back was to leave him. And mean it. She had to stop telling him how unhappy she was and show him how it was going to be if he refused to meet her halfway.”

  Belle savored a bite of berries and cream. “So, when will you be leaving us?”

  “I’ll thank your mother today for everything. I do have the best mother-in-law on earth.”

  “Yes, she really is something special,” Belle agreed.

  “And then tomorrow I’m going home.”

  * * *

  “Are you sure?” Adrienne asked softly. They were alone in the sitting room of her private apartment.