by Kali Anthony
He flexed his fingers. Turned from the mirror and began to pace, his energy restless tonight, even after the ride. He’d held back on Apollo today in deference to what he’d believed was Hannah’s lack of skill. That knowledge now pricked at him like an irritation. They’d wasted the afternoon on a sedate ride, when instead they could have challenged each other and their horses. Perhaps he’d go out again tomorrow, alone. But like every day, tomorrow his calendar was full. He supposed if he asked Stefano to find time his friend might suggest dropping the hospital visit, but that was the one thing he’d never cancel. Lasserno’s sick children needed him, and he would not give up on them. Alessio dropped his head. Scrubbed his hands over his face. There was no time to rid himself of this sensation of needing to move. Not wanting to stop lest creeping thoughts caught up with him.
He checked his watch as a light tap sounded at the door. Almost time to leave.
‘Enter.’
He expected Stefano but as the door cracked open it was as if the breath had been punched from his chest. Hannah stood before him in a floor-length dress in the cool, silver-green of olive leaves, her hair up in some soft, loose style which fell about her face. Lips a perfect plum pout. Eyes a little smoky. She looked up at him and he couldn’t breathe, his collar once again too tight, his bow tie choking him.
Alessio tugged at the neck of his shirt as her eyes widened. She was seated with Stefano at the dinner tonight, but, seeing her now, he wanted her with him in a way which defied rational thought. Better still, they could ignore the function and stay at the palace. Have a quiet candlelit dinner for two...
He shut down those errant thoughts. They had no place in his life.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, a little more harshly than he should have, but these were his private rooms. No woman had been in them before.
‘Stefano told me to meet you here. Something about running late?’
That was unheard of. Stefano’s views on punctuality were similar to his own. Alessio checked his phone and sure enough there was the message. He’d been so preoccupied he hadn’t heard the alert.
Hannah stood, expectant. It wasn’t quite time to leave and he couldn’t have her waiting in the hall, so he stepped back, inviting her into the sitting room. Her long dress swished against the floor, sparkling at the hemline and part way up the skirt. Apart from that shine, the rest of her was unadorned. He couldn’t shake the sense that she shouldn’t go to the dinner without armour. Whilst the function was filled with more friends, such as they were, than enemies, even he knew how the worst of them could be. He could take care of himself. As he was Prince of Lasserno, people pandered to him. But any attack on Hannah he might not let go ignored. And he had to ignore her.
Except every fibre of his body rebelled at that knowledge.
‘How were you after your ride?’ Safer ground. He needed to make conversation rather than entertain thoughts of defending her like a prince from some fairy tale. Life was not a fantasy. Though she didn’t appear to be faring much better, the way she looked at him in his suit. There was a prickling in his skin whilst she assessed him as if she were stripping him bare, breaking him down. Sometimes he wanted to know what she saw when she did that. What she was looking for when she cast her eyes over him. Did she find him lacking in any way?
Why the answer to those questions was imperative, he couldn’t say.
‘I’m a little stiff but that’s no surprise, since I haven’t ridden for almost nine years. But I had a long bath, which helped.’
Visions of her naked, lazing back in the large tub in her room, flushed with the heat of the water, assailed him and he couldn’t get rid of them. What colour her nipples would be. Whether she’d be natural or waxed bare. And now those thoughts were planted in his head, they took root like weeds. This was insanity. Usually with women he had control. Around her his control frayed and shredded like rope being hacked by a knife.
‘Excellent.’ He could make light conversation. It was one of the things at which he excelled. ‘You look...beautiful tonight.’
Not exactly where he wished to head, but he was being polite. Any man would say the same. Although it wasn’t mere politeness driving him. She looked like some sprite or will-o’-the-wisp, intent on leading him to his doom.
A soft flush of pink tinted her cheeks at the compliment. Who was there in her life to tell her she was beautiful? Was there anyone at all? The thought that no one might have said this to her recently seemed somehow wrong.
‘Thank you.’ Her voice was soft. Always that tone which was slightly lower and huskier than he expected, causing a tremor right through him, like fingernails scoring down his spine. And the change in her voice suggested that she was affected too. He grabbed on to that thought as if it were a golden nugget of hope.
He’d never had that hope or insecurity before. Women found him attractive. He had a wealth of experience to back up that certainty. But right now he didn’t care about anyone else. He only cared that this woman was attracted to him, and Alessio didn’t know why it mattered. Certainty was his friend. This sensation, of standing on shifting sands, was not.
She began to move, walking around the room as if inspecting it, her glorious dress glittering under the lights as she did.
‘Would you like a seat?’ he asked. It was as if she were parading in front of him, and he couldn’t take his thoughts from the way her bodice cinched at her slender waist. How her gauzy capped sleeves sat tantalisingly at her shoulders. Half on, half off, as if with the wrong shift they would fall and leave more of her glorious skin exposed, the cool, creamy sweep of her décolletage, which would no doubt haunt his dreams, naked and perfect. It should at least be adorned with some jewels, so they could distract him, rather than cause the near impossible-to-control desire to drop his gaze to the gentle swell of her cleavage.
‘No. I’m a bit scared to sit down.’ She brushed her hands across the fabric, which seemed to sit in multiple layers. When had the construction of a dress ever held such fascination for him? ‘I don’t usually wear things like this, and I don’t want to crush it.’
His first thought was that she should wear dresses like this every night. The next thought was of him holding her in his arms, kissing her. Crushing her dress in the most satisfying of ways.
‘You’ve no jewellery.’
Hannah cocked her head, as if what he’d said was a kind of slight, when really he was only making conversation to stop the itch in his fingers, which tempted him to reach out and touch, to see how much softer she’d feel after her bath.
‘No, Your Highness.’ Those words contained no deference at all. She wielded them as a weapon. ‘I didn’t want to outshine you.’
A slight smile touched the corner of her lips. He should be offended, but he liked the way she didn’t pander to him.
‘I’m afraid you already have. No one will be paying any attention to me with such beauty in the room.’
The colour still ran high on her cheeks, but apart from that blush she seemed unaffected. ‘Oh, dear. How does it feel, the risk that the spotlight won’t be on you?’
A blessed relief. But it was something he could never admit, for the spotlight would never be turned away. ‘I’m sure my fragile ego can handle the assault for one night, especially since I’m accompanied by you. Beauty has a way of outshining the beast.’
She snorted, the sound more cute from her than disdainful. ‘You’re more Prince Charming tonight than Beast.’
‘Perhaps I was a beast this afternoon.’
Her gaze dropped to his mouth and held. Was she recalling his touch in the stables, wishing he’d kissed her? The burn of that recollection, the desire...it ignited and began to flare almost out of control. But he’d had years of practice managing it. No matter how much he might want her right now, it would pass. It always did.
‘You obviously love your horses and had no idea
of my experience. It was understandable. Anyway, it’s well known that a real princess can tame the beast, and you’ll have one of those soon. Isn’t that the way the story goes?’
It should be. His longlist was now slimmed to a shortlist. But Alessio wasn’t sure. He didn’t care for the map of his life right now, the journey relentless most days, unwelcome on others. Required every day. He had no choices, the needs of his country forgotten too long by his father. His own desire to do better, to repair the damage done to his people, overcame any personal sentiments. But tonight, perhaps just for tonight, he could engage in a small moment of folly. Those glimpses of sadness Hannah had exposed this afternoon, the shadows which haunted her face from the loss she’d suffered, they hadn’t quite left her. Fleeting happiness was what he could provide, and in his experience, women loved jewels. Though he wasn’t sure about anything with Hannah. She didn’t fit the familiar moulds. Still, he wanted to make her feel like a princess tonight.
‘A woman should always outshine the man.’
‘That’s not the way it is in the animal kingdom.’
‘I say that’s the way it should be.’
‘Are you pulling the prince card here? I’m the ruler...my rules?’ Her eyes glittered with mirth under the lights. He wanted her covered in jewels that shone as much as she did, to keep that smile on her face.
‘Wait here.’
He walked through his bedroom, to the dressing room. Behind a panel in the wall, he opened a safe. Drew out a rich purple velvet box. People wanted diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires. The gaudy gems. In his hands was a necklace which matched Hannah’s dress to perfection. Matched her, with its understated elegance. It might not have seemed as precious as the crown jewels, but to him it was more beautiful because of how uncommon it was. The stones were awash with the same grey-green as her dress, with swirls of gold like the bleeding colour from the watercolour pencils she’d shown him. The surrounding diamonds were an old mine cut, designed to show their true beauty in candlelight.
He tried not to think too hard about what he was doing as he closed the safe and returned to Hannah. These jewels he’d inherited. They were not part of the crown jewels his father had begun to plunder when needing a bauble to give away or for a bribe. These had been locked in the safe in his room too long. They needed to shine again.
Hannah stood with her back to him, gazing out of the window. Staring at the view into Lasserno’s capital, glittering like her in the darkened landscape. As he entered the room she turned, those all-seeing eyes fixed on the box in his hands.
‘What’s that?’
‘Adornments. They match your dress.’
Her eyes widened a fraction, her mouth opened. Shut.
‘I’m getting the feeling this is a bit like a movie moment. I’m not sure I like it.’
‘I promise you will, and you can always say no. But please look.’ He opened the box and turned it to her. The jewels lay on pristine white satin inside.
‘Oh.’ She reached out and then drew back her fingers. ‘What’s the stone? The colours... And it looks like there are tiny ferns in it.’
‘Dendritic agate. Most people don’t appreciate its beauty. But the pattern is made in nature and it would have taken years to put together the complementing pieces. Far harder than matching other gemstones.’
‘It looks old.’ Her voice was a breathy whisper. The kind you wanted in your ear when making love. The whole of him tensed.
‘About two hundred years or so. Everyone seeks out the sparkle of new gemstones, the brilliant cuts, but I prefer this. And the greens match your dress.’
‘I can’t. It’s—’
‘Try it on.’ It seemed imperative now that she wear it. A drive he couldn’t ignore. ‘Come here.’
She edged to where he stood, near a gilt mirror. He took the cool, heavy necklace from its box. Reached over Hannah’s head and draped it round her neck, settling the gems at her throat and securing the clasp. His breath disturbed fine hairs curling at her nape as they escaped her hairstyle. Goosebumps peppered her skin. He craved to run his hands over them. Feel the evidence of her pleasure under his fingertips.
Alessio looked up at her in the mirror, the moment so profoundly intimate and domestic it zapped through him like an electric shock. Instead of giving in to the desire threatening to overwhelm him, he stepped back.
‘Do you like it?’
She reached her hand up, and tentatively touched the central stone. She smelled of the final days of autumn, like apples and the last of the season’s roses. Rich and intoxicating.
‘It’s almost like an underwater scene.’
‘It’s perfect.’
‘I can’t wear this.’ She shook her head. The diamonds twinkled as she moved. ‘They’re crown jewels.’
‘They’re not officially in the royal collection. They’re mine to do with what I wish, and my wish is that you leave them on. Every woman should have the opportunity to wear something like this, at least once in her life. To feel like a princess.’
‘That might have been Mum’s nickname for me, but I’m no princess.’
Alessio wondered whether they had talked of Hannah marrying a prince, and whether her dream had died in the accident. He wasn’t sure why it mattered, if it had.
‘You look like one.’
It was as though the moment froze, with them standing so close in the room, as if time had paused and was giving them this small slice to cherish before wrenching them back into reality. But Alessio knew reality always intruded.
An alert chimed and here the world caught up with them like some spell had been broken. Then a knock sounded at the door.
‘Enter.’
Stefano walked in, gave a brief bow.
‘Your car has arrived.’ He turned to Hannah. His gaze held at her neck for a heartbeat, that hesitation saying more than words could. Her hand fluttered to touch the necklace again, as if afraid someone would take it away. Stefano gave her a brief smile. ‘Signorina Barrington.’
To Alessio, he raised an eyebrow.
‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ The words were spoken in Italian, so Hannah couldn’t understand.
Alessio checked the time on his watch. Straightened his bow tie. It was the first time in a long time that his friend had questioned him. From the moment he had received the call to say his mother was unwell, he’d known. His course unwelcome but set. Ignoring his needs and desires for the good of the country. He straightened his spine like the prince he was.
‘Ovviamente.’ Of course.
Stefano responded with nothing more than a curt nod as they left for the cars. And all the while on the journey to the dinner, Alessio’s lie stuck like a fishbone in his throat.
* * *
They stood outside the doorway of a ballroom in a magnificent villa on the outskirts of the capital. Hannah had been told on the way here that this would be a more intimate function, but it didn’t sound like it from the cacophony of voices drifting from the ballroom ahead. She touched the central stone of the magnificent necklace, sitting warm and heavy round her throat in a way that seemed comforting, the piece so beautiful she had almost wept when Alessio had shown it to her.
She’d loved the way he had looked at her tonight, after clasping the gems round her neck. As if she was someone precious. Special. Someone to be revered. The intensity of his gaze had left her tight and shivery, hot and cold all at once. It was how she felt about him, watching Alessio now in his black dinner suit, snowy white waistcoat and bow tie. Dressed so formally he looked...more. In control, in charge, masterful. For the tiniest of moments she allowed temptation to whisper that she’d love him to master her.
Hannah’s cheeks heated with the illicit thought, but at least the lights were lower out here in the hall. She wouldn’t look so much like a vividly toned root vegetable. No one paid her any attention any
way. Right now, Alessio and Stefano were in discussion with what appeared to be a master of ceremonies, who alternated between wringing his hands and bowing as if in apology as Stefano gesticulated.
Alessio stood back a little, his disapproval obvious in the way he held himself, his jaw hard as he checked his watch. Stiff, as if he were retreating into himself and rebuilding another persona by degrees. He glanced over at her, and she decided not to hang back as if this weren’t her place. She’d been invited here. She had the dress, the heels, the jewels, and for one night she could be the princess in a story of her own making.
She walked over to the two men. ‘Is there a problem?’
Alessio smiled, but the smile didn’t touch his eyes. Fake. A mask and nothing more.
‘There appears to have been an error. You’ve been seated next to me.’
She was supposed to sit with Stefano tonight, but a beat of something a lot like anticipation thrummed through her at the thought of being by Alessio’s side. Still, she understood the impossibility of her desire and what was not being said. Alessio appearing with a woman would invite speculation which a deeply private man like him would despise.
Hannah pasted on her own fake smile. ‘I’ll change tables, then.’
‘Changing tables means changing place cards and will invite more gossip.’
He turned and spoke in Italian to the worried-looking man still hovering in the doorway between the hall and where the dinner would be held. When Alessio finished, the man sagged a fraction and bowed a final time, before hurrying inside the ballroom.
‘Come,’ Alessio said to her. ‘People know we’re here. It’s time to go in.’
‘What did you say to him?’
‘That wherever we’re placed is suitable, but Stefano would miss your presence at his table.’
‘Will he?’
There was something inscrutable about the way he looked at her.
‘Any man would.’
The pleasure at those words slid through her with the potency of a shot of spirits. A sensation all too intoxicating to be good for her, so she tried to ignore it. Hannah moved into position and Stefano took her arm, given he’d walk her inside, but Alessio in front held all her attention. He was entirely changed, the metamorphosis into Lasserno’s ruler complete. Strength and stability radiated from him like a beacon. Solid. Uncompromising. And yet behind the mask of his public persona, she still glimpsed the true man simmering underneath. He carried himself with an unnatural stiffness, and a tightness around the eyes suggested he wasn’t entirely happy in this new skin.