Kandy Shepherd - Falling For The Secret Princess

Sometimes he was guilty of taking for granted the happy and supportive family life he enjoyed. This wedding—the happiness Eliza had found with Jake—had got him thinking. He wasn’t as immune to wedding fever as he’d thought. Now, at the age of thirty-two, perhaps he did need to shake himself up, settle down and start a family of his own.

His nonna certainly thought that was the case. His broken engagement was ten years behind him—he could not in all reason continue to blame it for his aversion to marriage. He had to name it for what it was: an excuse—one he used to convince himself as well as others. The truth was that he hadn’t met the right woman. Not one he could contemplate sharing his life with. When he did, he would willingly make that walk down the aisle. But he wouldn’t compromise. And it wouldn’t be any time soon—not when the business took up all his energy and time.

Perhaps...

He couldn’t let himself think there was any chance of Natalie being that woman. No matter what that crazy Kerry had said. No matter how he’d found himself agreeing with her that he and Natalie did feel right together. Not when Natalie was English. A tourist. Her home a twenty-two-hour plane ride away.

Long-distance dating had been a disaster with his former fiancée Chiara, the girl he’d met in Italy ten years back. Her level of treachery had left him bitter and broken.

The frequency of their phone calls had decreased. He’d been preoccupied with exams. But the day exams finished, on impulse he’d decided to make a surprise visit to Italy and booked a flight for the next day.

Chiara had been surprised, all right. Not only had she found herself another guy, she was pregnant. But she’d still hung on to Finn’s engagement ring. He had vowed never, ever to try long-distance again. This—Natalie—was purely for the short term. He had to keep telling himself that.

‘Those lessons paid off,’ he said to Natalie now. ‘You’re very graceful.’

It felt as if they were dancing together in their own bubble of awareness. But the reality was that they were dancing alongside other guests. When would he be able to get her alone?

She looked up at him. ‘That woman... Kerry. It was kind of weird, what she said.’

‘Yes. But I wasn’t lying when I agreed with her that something seems right about us being together.’ He could hardly believe he was saying this to a woman he had only known for a matter of hours.

Her blue eyes widened. ‘You meant that?’

‘About the rightness? I feel it. Do you?’

Her forehead pleated in a frown. ‘Yes. I... I think I do. But I don’t understand—’

Finn felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find a beaming Eliza and Jake cutting in on him and Natalie for their obligatory dances. He had no choice but to relinquish his intimate hold on the most gorgeous of women. He cursed under his breath that he hadn’t got a chance to hear what Natalie had been about to say.

Reluctantly he let her go and watched Natalie waltz away with Jake, smiling up at him. A spasm of jealousy shuddered through him at the sight of his beautiful dance partner in the arms of another man—even though Jake was a newlywed husband who adored his new wife.

What was happening here?

He’d only just met Natalie. He hardly knew her. But he’d never felt such a connection with a woman—if that was what you called something so compelling. He’d dated. He’d had steady girlfriends. He’d been engaged. But none of those relationships had started with a lightning bolt from nowhere.

‘Surely you can take your eyes off her for long enough to speak to me?’ said Eliza drily as he danced with his friend the bride.

‘What do you mean?’ he blustered.

‘You’re mesmerised by Natalie. She’s beautiful. Charming. I get it. But you need to back off from her, Finn. She’s not for you.’

‘This is about Prue, isn’t it?’ He gritted his teeth. ‘How many times do I have to tell you I’m not interested?’

‘Even so, it was rude of you to change those place cards. What on earth got into you to do such a thing?’

Eliza had always been an outspoken kind of friend.

He shrugged. ‘Sorry.’

But he wasn’t sorry at all, and Eliza’s sigh told him she knew it.

‘This can’t end well. That’s all I can say.’

In spite of himself, he felt a chill of foreboding. ‘Are you telling me that Natalie has a criminal record or—?’

Eliza looked aghast. ‘Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘Is she after my money?’ he joked.

Ever since that Sunday newspaper had included him in a list of the most eligible young millionaires he’d been plagued by women whose interest in him was purely mercenary. Which had made him even more cynical about relationships.

‘I very much doubt it,’ Eliza said. ‘She’s just not for you. You’ll have to trust me on this.’

He snorted his disbelief. ‘You’re warning me off? In the meantime, your neighbour Kerry is suggesting I propose to Natalie because we seem so perfect together.’

‘What?’

‘Yeah. In fact she asked if we’d made wedding plans.’

‘Really?’ Eliza frowned. ‘Kerry reckons she’s psychic. She... Well, she wouldn’t say that if she didn’t believe it was true.’

Finn rolled his eyes. ‘Psychic? Huh! She seemed nice enough until she came out with that nonsense.’

‘What’s stranger still is that her predictions often come true. The first time she met Jake she told me I’d marry him. It seemed highly unlikely at the time.’

‘Coincidence—a lucky guess,’ Finn said dismissively.

‘Superstitious nonsense?’ Eliza said.

Finn agreed. The trouble was, he came from three cultures where superstitions were taken seriously. By the older generation, that was. Not by him. He was a facts and numbers man.

‘But it was disconcerting,’ he admitted.

‘In this case she’s got it wrong,’ Eliza said. ‘I’ll say it again—back off from Natalie.’

‘You’re seriously warning me, Eliza?’

‘As a friend. Yes.’

‘And as a friend, I appreciate your concern—although I don’t know where it’s coming from. But I’d rather you wished me luck than tossed a bucket of cold water over me. Because I like Natalie and I’m going to continue to enjoy her company for the rest of the evening.’ He kissed her on the cheek. ‘Thank you for the dance. Again, congratulations to you and Jake. Now I’m going to march over there to your husband and claim my dance partner back.’

* * *

Natalia couldn’t remember when she’d so enjoyed a man’s company. Dancing with Finn, their steps perfectly matched, was magic. Chatting with him, laughing with him, deepened the spell.

But the enchanted evening was winding down. The bride and groom had left to a chorus of good wishes for their honeymoon and a long life together. Other guests were starting to disperse and the band had announced the last number for the evening.

Soon the big room would echo with emptiness. Her bodyguards would be discreetly waiting to escort her back to the harbour-side hotel where she was booked in under her Natalie Gerard name. She would never see Finn again. She felt plunged into gloom at the thought.

The last dance was a slow one and they danced it close together. She breathed in the scent of him, felt his warm breath ruffling her hair. All sorts of potential conversations were running through her head. But all she managed was to look up at him and stutter. ‘I... I don’t want the night to end.’

His green eyes met hers. ‘Neither do I.’

Too many hopes and possibilities were trembling on her lips for her actually to articulate the words I want to be with you. But finally she managed to choke out an invitation of sorts—although not the one she really wanted to communicate.