Rebecca Winters - His Majesty's Marriage

Mon Dieu , the taste of her still clung to his lips. The fragrance of her hair and skin still enveloped him. It was all he could do not to reach for her and finish what they’d started. Yet in his gut he knew it would never be enough. He’d want her over and over again. He wanted her now.

“Raoul- Please listen- Sophie will forgive me because she knew it was a foolish plan in the first place. I beg you not to do something that could hurt either of you or your families.”

Her earnestness reached out to him like a tangible thing. What was really going on inside her?

“Were you lying about Sophie’s feelings?” he demanded.

Her eyes filmed over. “How can you even ask me that question?”

“Then how can I not do something?” he reasoned, as calmly as he could. “You’re her best friend, the woman who’s been in Sophie’s total confidence for years now. At great risk, you’ve just told me the Princess has no desire to be my wife.”

He moved closer to her. “You think, after hearing that kind of news, I’m such a heartless swine I would condemn her to a loveless marriage?”

“No-of course I don’t think that,” she whispered. “But you’re not ordinary people. You have your duty to remember, which makes everything much more complicated.”

“More than even you can imagine,” he agreed. “But if she was desperate enough to send you here, then desperate measures are called for.”

She searched his eyes anxiously. “What desperate measures?”

“You’re going to spend the rest of this weekend with me out in the open. We’ll give the press the kind of copy they’ve been trying to get on me for years. I can guarantee that by Sunday night Sophie’s parents will be calling my parents to demand an explanation. When that happens, all hell will break loose.”

Lee stared at him in horror. “I couldn’t do that to them.”

He gritted his teeth. “You mean after going this far you refuse to do the one thing guaranteed to help Sophie escape? She’ll thank you forever.” Driving the point home, he said, “Your friend’s plan wasn’t foolish. Her only problem was she sent the wrong woman to get the job done.”

“Wrong woman?” Lee cried out, as if stung by his remark.

He nodded. “You folded before you’d carried out your mission. My plan will ensure nothing goes wrong.”

She paced the floor, then spun around. “Have you considered how your parents will feel?”

“Of course, but of necessity they can’t be my first priority right now.”

“But they should be!” she blurted heatedly. “A-and what about you? ” The color had come back in her cheeks.

He’d been wondering when she’d get around to the personal.

“If you mean, how do I feel knowing my betrothed would do anything to avoid marrying me, then I’m surprised you would have to ask.”

A sound of exasperation came out of her. “Your whole life has been aimed at marriage to Sophie. Aren’t you even a little hurt by what you’ve learned, especially when you were officially engaged earlier in the year? I know I would be,” she admitted in a quiet voice.

“Maybe my pride,” he lied.

If she had any idea of the excitement he was feeling she would call him inhuman. But all she had to do was slide her hand over his heart, as she’d done in the kitchen, and she would feel it thudding with emotions he couldn’t take the time to examine right now.

“What is it going to be, Mademoiselle Gresham? Do I take you to the train? Or are you willing to help me make your best friend’s dreams come true?”

While he waited for her to make up her mind, he decided to add the qualifier.

“If you can’t find it in you to help me, then I’ll meet with Sophie’s parents later today and tell them I don’t want to marry their daughter.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “You mustn’t go to them!”

“Why not?”

“Because long ago Sophie told me her father would have to be the one to break your engagement, otherwise your title is in jeopardy.”

“It’s too late to worry about that now.”

“You can’t mean it!” She sounded frantic.

“Lee-without your intervention I would have exchanged vows with her, ignorant of her true feelings. We’re talking about marriage for a lifetime. In our case, ignorance would not be bliss.”

Another moan escaped her throat. “I wish to heaven I’d never come here.”

“But you did come. If you agree to my plan, it’s probable Sophie will get out of our betrothal gracefully, and I may yet live to retain what has been mine up to now.”

“At what price? Even if everything works out, you’ll have to live with a tarnished reputation, especially when the media finds out I’m Sophie’s best friend.” Her haunted eyes searched his. “I couldn’t bear for you to have to live down a scandal like that.”

With those words, he’d been given a glimpse into her soul. It humbled him.

“You’d have to be prepared to suffer the same fate.”

“I’m a nobody from America. It doesn’t matter about me. You’re the Prince!”

“You think I give a damn about it when Sophie dreads the thought of marriage to me?” he demanded.

His question tore Lee apart. If he was in pain, he didn’t let it show and was a master actor.

“No,” she finally whispered, with tears in her voice, because in her mind’s eye she could see Sophie running into Luciano’s arms outside the station in Visp. The joy on their faces was something she would never forget.

But their happiness would come at great sacrifice to Raoul, who, at this moment, was showing more character and nobility than anyone would ever know, especially if he was grieving.

She ached with love for him.

“You th-think you can do this and still retain your title?”

“I don’t honestly know. What I can tell you without equivocation is that without the right woman at my side it would all be meaningless anyway. Help me, Lee.”

She struggled with an impossible decision. “I-I guess if there’s no other way out-”

A minute must have gone by before he said, “Besides everything else, you’re a courageous woman. No wonder the princess has clung to your friendship. She’s very lucky you came into her life.”

Lee raised her eyes to his. “Believe me, I’ve been the lucky one.”

“I’d like to hear more about you two. Why don’t you come in the kitchen and talk to me while I do the dishes?”

He was putting on such a brave front she had no choice but to go along with him, hoping to help him feel better. But of course that would be impossible.

“I’m embarrassed to say I forgot all about them. Let me help.”

Together they made short work of them while she told him about some of her more outrageous escapades with Sophie at Beau Lac. His deep laughter was contagious.

How sad that Sophie would never see the Prince being the man of the house, drying the dishes, emptying the wastebasket. How hard it was for Lee to hide her true feelings when these precious moments with him made her so happy.

For a little while she could pretend Roger’s condo was their home, that Raoul was her husband. As a little girl, she’d often played house with her friends. Little had she dreamed that one day she’d grow up to play house with a real prince.

After they’d cleaned up the kitchen they went back to the living room, where he put the mountain-climbing video in the machine. While he sat in a side chair, Lee curled up on the end of the couch to watch.

For the next hour she sat enthralled as she watched Raoul and his friends make their ascent from the base camp to the summit. She couldn’t contain her noisy exclamations of fear and excitement.