Kate Hardy - Crown Prince, Pregnant Bride

‘It’s not exactly the kind of thing that comes up when you’re a schoolboy,’ he said, ‘and since we left school I guess we’ve had other things to talk about.’

‘Rebuke acknowledged,’ she said.

He wrinkled his nose. ‘That wasn’t a rebuke.’

* * *

Maybe not. It hadn’t been quite like the way he’d spoken to her in the garden, when he’d been all stuffy and pompous.

‘Tell me about the mermaid,’ he invited.

He really meant it, she realised in wonder. He actually wanted to hear what she had to say. ‘So the story goes, many years ago the Earl was a keen card-player. He won against almost everyone—except one night, when he played against a tall, dark stranger. It turned out that the stranger was the devil, and his price for letting the earl keep the house and the money he’d wagered and lost was marriage to the earl’s daughter. The earl agreed, but his daughter wasn’t too happy about it and threw herself into the lake. She was transformed into a mermaid and lived happily ever after.’

‘I thought mermaids were supposed to live in the sea,’ Lorenzo said.

She grinned. ‘Tut, Mr Torelli. Hasn’t anyone told you that mermaids don’t actually exist? Lottie says there’s a version of the story that has the mermaid rescued by a handsome prince, but that might be a bit of a mix-up with the Hans Christian Andersen story.’

‘I hope not, because if I remember rightly that doesn’t have a very happy ending.’

Lorenzo’s eyes were very dark. Beautiful. She itched to paint him, to capture that expression. If only he hadn’t said no. Or maybe she could paint him from memory.

He reached over and wound one of her curls round the end of his finger. ‘I can see you as a mermaid, with this amazing hair floating out behind you,’ he said softly.

Oh, help. That sensual awareness of him over dinner had just gone up several notches. It would be so easy to tip her head back and invite him to kiss her...but that would be such a stupid thing to do.

Indigo was about to take a step backwards. Just to be safe. But then Lorenzo leaned closer and brushed his mouth against hers.

His kiss was sweet and almost shy at first, a gentle brush of his mouth against hers that made every single one of her nerve-ends tingle. And then he did it again. And again, teasing her and coaxing her into sliding her hands into his hair and letting him deepen the kiss.

Indigo had had her fair share of kisses in the past, but nothing like this. Even Nigel, the man she’d once believed was the love of her life, hadn’t been able to make her feel like this—drowsy and sensual, and as if her knees were going to give way at any second.

When Lorenzo stopped kissing her, she held on to him, not trusting her knees to hold her up. The last thing she wanted to do was fall at his feet and make an idiot of herself.

Though she had a nasty feeling that she’d already done that.

‘We really ought to get back to the others,’ she said.

‘Are you worried that they’ll think you lured me here for other reasons than to talk about glass?’

‘No.’ She could feel the colour seeping into her face. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. They all know how I am about my work. They probably think I’m boring the pants off you right now.’

He gave her a slow and very insolent smile. ‘Interesting choice of phrase, Ms Moran.’

Her face heated even more. Because now she could see herself taking his clothes off. Very, very slowly. And not because she wanted to paint him naked: because she wanted to touch him. Skin to skin. Very, very slowly. Until he was begging her for more.

Oh, for pity’s sake. She’d only just been introduced to him. Insta-lust wasn’t the way she did things. Why was she reacting to him like this? ‘Let’s go back,’ she said, hoping she didn’t sound as flustered as she felt.

‘Has Indi been showing you what she’s doing with the mermaid?’ Gus asked Lorenzo when they rejoined the others in the drawing room.

‘Yes.’

‘She’s brilliant. Maybe you ought to commission her to do you a portrait for the coronation. Glass instead of oils,’ Gus suggested.

Indigo frowned. ‘Coronation? Whose coronation?’

Gus looked embarrassed. ‘Whoops. I think I might have just put my foot in it.’

‘It’s fine,’ Lorenzo said.

Oh, no, it wasn’t, Indigo thought. There was a lot more to this than met the eye. Especially as Lorenzo looked shifty, all of a sudden.

They chatted for a few moments more; when they were alone again, Indigo narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What’s this about a coronation?’

‘The King of Melvante is abdicating next month and handing over to his grandson,’ Lorenzo said.

She still didn’t get it. Why had Gus suggested that Indigo should do Lorenzo’s portrait in glass? ‘And?’ she prompted.

He wrinkled his nose. ‘That would be, um, me.’

‘You’re going to be the King of Melvante?’

He nodded. ‘Nonno’s already passed on a lot of his duties to me. And he’s going to be eighty, next month. I want him to enjoy his old age, not have the burden of the crown.’

‘So that’s what you meant about the family business. Being king.’

He shrugged. ‘Running a country isn’t so different from running a business.’

Even so, she was hurt that nobody had told her. Lottie was her closest friend, and she’d known the family for years. Lorenzo obviously thought that she’d tell tales to the media, but surely Lottie’s family knew otherwise?

A king-to-be.

No wonder he’d been sensitive about having his photo taken, and no wonder he hadn’t wanted to sit for her.

This changed everything.

When he’d kissed her, only minutes before, she’d thought this just might be the start of something. How stupid of her. No way could a king-to-be have a fling with someone like her. OK, so strictly speaking Indigo’s father was an earl, so it wasn’t so much the noble and commoner thing; but he’d been married to his countess when Indigo was born and not to Indigo’s mother. The press would drag that up if they found out she was even vaguely involved with Lorenzo. Plus there was the whole mess of her relationship with Nigel and the way he’d let her down. That would look bad, too. A king couldn’t afford to be touched by scandal.

So her common sense needed to kick back in, and fast. Absolutely nothing was going to happen between them now.

It couldn’t.

‘I’ll make sure I address you properly in future, Your Highness,’ she said coolly. ‘It’s a pity you didn’t bother to tell me before.’

‘It wasn’t relevant. You’re a friend of the family and so am I. Who we are outside Edensfield isn’t important.’

‘You still could’ve told me.’

‘How? Was I supposed to correct you and tell you that, actually, no I’m not Mr Torelli, and it should be “Your Royal Highness Prince Lorenzo” to you?’ He grimaced. ‘Talk about an arrogant show-off.’

She blew out a breath. ‘I guess you have a point. I understand now why you were annoyed with me for taking your photograph.’

‘Because I try to protect my privacy—not because I think I’m a celeb or a special snowflake who deserves red carpet treatment,’ he said.

Her frown deepened. ‘What about your bodyguards? I assume you have them, and they’re so discreet that I haven’t noticed them yet.’

‘I get a little bit more liberty than usual from my security team because I’m staying in the house of a family friend,’ he said.

‘But you still can’t do anything spontaneous or even go for a walk without telling half a dozen people where you’re going. Your life must be scheduled out down to the millisecond.’

‘Most of the time, yes,’ he admitted. ‘But I’m officially on leave at the moment. Taking a bit of time to get my head in the right place, so to speak.’