‘How are you?’ she whispered into the vast ache of tension that filled the room.
‘Confused,’ he said.
And now his voice did not feel like the sting of a whip. It was a low growl that made her skin prickle with sensual heat.
‘You told me you love me, and yet ten minutes later you boarded a helicopter to take you off the island and effectively disappeared from the face of the earth. What kind of love is that?’
Her temper simmered. ‘What did you expect me to do after you had made it so very clear that you didn’t return my feelings?’ she snapped. ‘I had made enough of a fool of myself. There seemed no point in prolonging my embarrassment.’
His eyes narrowed on her scarlet face. ‘Why did you come to Vostov? I’d given up hope that you would attend my ball when you ignored both the invitations that were sent to you. One went to Chalet Soline in Austria and the other to your London address,’ Jarek said roughly.
‘I didn’t open it until I returned to London from Florida, where I’d been treating a patient. I came because you said you needed me. I assume you meant you needed to see a psychotherapist, and it isn’t the first time I’ve flown across the globe at your command.’
Her eyes flashed at him.
‘I definitely did not come to Vostov because I hope you will make me a princess,’ she said sharply. ‘From what I’ve read in the newspapers you won’t have any problem finding a bride to be your consort. You’re Europe’s most eligible bachelor—I’m sure you haven’t been lonely at all.’
Holly looked away from him, hoping he hadn’t heard the scratch of jealousy in her voice.
‘I’ve always been alone,’ he said quietly. ‘Until I met you. The vacancy for my bride is still open, as a matter of fact...’ His casual tone was at odds with the intensity of his gaze. ‘If you are interested.’
‘Jarek—don’t.’ She couldn’t keep it together, and knew the tremble in her voice betrayed her. ‘If you asked me here so that you can carry out some kind of refined torture...’
He slipped his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up so that she was forced to look at him. And what she saw made her catch her breath.
‘You told me to be happy,’ he said, so grimly that she ached for him. ‘And then you left. It felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. The truth was so clear but I had been so blind.’
His beautiful mouth shook and Holly’s heart stood still.
‘I had never been truly happy before I met you, and I knew as sure as hell that I would never be happy if I let you go.’
‘Jarek...’ Holly could not stop the tears that blurred her eyes from falling.
‘I thought of all the things you had said,’ he continued, in that rasp of a voice that was so raw it hurt her to hear it. ‘You saw something good in me that nobody else saw and you made me think that I could be a better man, that I wasn’t stuck for ever with the labels that Ralph Saunderson and others had put on me.’
He lifted his hand to her face and brushed away her tears.
‘More importantly, you made me want to be a better man—a man you would be proud of.’ He hesitated and stared at her, his expression unguarded and oddly desperate. ‘A man you would love as deeply as I love you.’
She was afraid to believe him. ‘You don’t...’
‘How could I not fall in love with you, angel-face?’ he said softly. ‘I thought I could protect you if I sent you away. But I was beyond miserable. And then I remembered you had told me you never say anything you don’t mean, and I started thinking that if you did love me maybe you were as unhappy as I was.’
Holly’s breath caught in her throat when Jarek dropped down onto one knee and reached into his jacket pocket. Through her tears she saw the sparkle of a diamond ring, and then he took her hand in his.
‘Holly, my angel, will you marry me and be my wife, my Princess, and the love of my life?’
She shook her head, and her tears fell faster when the light in his eyes dulled and she saw the abandoned boy he had been in the face of the man she loved but had to let go.
‘I can’t marry you,’ she choked. ‘There’s something you don’t know about me.’
She pulled away from him and ran over to the door, but his voice stopped her.
‘You mean the fact that you are unable to have children, don’t you?’
‘How do you know?’ She turned slowly and watched him walk towards her.
‘The syndrome you were born with is commonly known as MRKH, am I right?’ At her nod, he continued gently, ‘I did some research and I guessed you had been diagnosed with the syndrome when you hit puberty but your periods did not start because you were born without a womb.’
‘I’ve come to terms with my infertility,’ Holly said huskily. ‘But you are a prince and you have to have an heir to continue the royal line.’ She swallowed hard. ‘I love you with all my heart...maybe I could be your mistress for a while, until you decide that you want to marry and have children.’
Jarek released his breath with obvious relief and his mouth curved into a grin. ‘I hope you know that I will never let you forget that you propositioned me,’ he murmured as he pulled her into his arms. ‘I have already told Vostov’s National Council that I intend to marry you, and I have explained that we won’t have children. It has been agreed that the royal line will continue through my nephew. Elin’s son Harry will be my heir, but if he chooses not to be the next Prince, Vostov will simply be ruled by the National Council after my death.’
‘But you must want your own child?’ she said painfully.
‘I want you. You’re all I’ll ever want or need.’
The truth of his words was there for Holly to see in the fierce glitter in his eyes.
‘I intend to combine my role as Prince with my work with Lorna’s Gift, and I hope you will work with me. Your training as a psychologist will be invaluable to the many children in the world who need support.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Holly whispered.
Moments ago the future had seemed hopeless and bleak, but now the look in Jarek’s eyes—the love—filled her with a fragile hope.
‘Just say yes to the following questions,’ he told her, with a touch of his old arrogance that she adored because it was part of him. ‘Do you love me?’
‘Yes. More than life.’
‘Will you marry me and be mine for ever?’
‘Yes,’ she said tremulously. ‘If you will be mine.’
‘I have always been yours, angel-face,’ Jarek told her as he slipped an exquisite square-cut diamond ring onto her finger. ‘I fell in love with you when you stood up in a hot tub, wearing the sexiest swimsuit I’ve ever seen.’
The heat in his gaze burned its way into Holly’s soul so that when he kissed her she melted against him and kissed him back with love, with hope, and with a promise whispered against his lips that her heart was his for ever.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Charlotte Adair has spent her life locked away – but once freed, she finds the one man she’s ever loved, billionaire Rafe Costa, is now blind, believes she betrayed him, and is bent on a vengeful seduction! Weeks after their scorching encounter he learns she’s pregnant—with twins! Rafe steals Charlotte away, but she is a far from biddable prisoner. She is irresistible, defiant—and Rafe must seduce her into compliance!
Read on for a sneak preview of Maisey Yates’s book
THE ITALIAN’S PREGNANT PRISONER
The final part of her Once Upon a Seduction... trilogy
Charlotte hadn’t touched a man since Rafe. She’d had no interest.
She needed to find some interest. Because she was going to have a normal life. Whatever she did, it would be her choice. And that was the point.
She didn’t know what answers she had expected to find here. Right now, the only clear answer seemed to be that her body, her heart, was still affected by him.
He excused himself from the group, and suddenly, he was wa
lking her way. And she froze. Like a deer caught in the headlights. Or rather, like a woman staring at Rafe Costa.
She certainly wasn’t the only woman staring. He moved with fluid grace, and if she didn’t know better, she would never have known his sight was impaired at all.
He was coming closer, and as he did her heart tripped over itself, her hands beginning to shake. She wished she could touch him.
Oh, she wanted it more than anything. In that moment, she wanted it more than her next breath. To put her hands on Rafe Costa’s face one more time. To kiss those lips again. To place her hand over his chest and see if she could still make his heart race.
It was easy to forget that her stepmother had told her how Rafe had left, taking an incentive offered by her father to end his tenure there earlier. It was easy to forget that and remember instead the way it had felt when he had kissed her. Touched her. The way she had pleaded with him to take her virginity, to make her his in every way.
Really, he had never wanted her. He had simply been toying with her.
She should remember that. Her treacherous, traitorous body should remember that well. But it didn’t. Instead, it was fluttering. As if a host butterflies had been set loose inside her.
Suddenly, he was there. So close that if she wanted to she could reach out and touch the edge of his sleeve with her fingertips.
Could bump into him accidentally, just to make contact. He wouldn’t know it was her. He couldn’t.
Suddenly, he turned. He was looking past her, his dark eyes unseeing, unfocused. But then, he reached out and unerringly grabbed hold of her wrist, dragging her toward his muscular body.
“Charlotte.”
Don’t miss
THE ITALIAN’S PREGNANT PRISONER
By Maisey Yates
Available October 2017
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Copyright ©2017 Maisey Yates
ISBN: 978-1-474-05288-7
THE THRONE HE MUST TAKE
© 2017 Chantelle Shaw
Published in Great Britain 2017
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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