Carole Mortimer - Prince's Love-Child

She had seen that dazed look before on dozens of men’s faces after spending time looking at Dee—seen it and, in this case, lamented it.

She slipped her sunglasses up in her hair as she continued to look at Rik Prince. He was just as handsome as she remembered: perhaps slightly leaner, but his dark hair was still as vibrantly overlong, brushed carelessly back from his brow, and his eyes as deep blue, his good-looking face all strong angles, and his muscular frame visible beneath the faded denims and cream polo-shirt he wore.

Finally he moved, his movements fluid as he sat down in the chair facing hers, his expression under control now, his eyes guarded by lowered lids.

Sapphie gave a frustrated sigh at his continued silence. Jerome might have been unaware of the intimacy between Dee and this man a few minutes ago, but she certainly hadn’t been. She also questioned whether the meeting had happened by chance; if anyone had known how devastated Rik Prince had been five years ago when Dee married Jerome, then it was her. He had been in love with Dee then, and Sapphie had every reason to believe he was still in love with her now.

‘Today is the anniversary of the day Dee and Jerome first met,’ Sapphie informed him softly.

‘I see,’ he bit out tautly, the expression in those deep blue eyes still unreadable.

Sapphie wasn’t sure at that moment which of the sudden impulses she felt was the stronger—the need to shake or hit him!

It had been five years, for goodness’ sake; surely he had got over his feelings for Dee by now?

It had to be obvious to anyone looking at Dee and Jerome that, for the most part, theirs was a happy marriage. It had its occasional hiccup—like any other marriage—but even in these days of quick divorces and remarriages, it had to be clear that Dee and Jerome were destined to last for some time yet.

‘I never—’

‘Before—’

They both began talking at once, only to come to an awkward stop, then stare enquiringly at the other.

‘Please,’ Sapphie invited before turning smilingly to the waiter to order more coffee, only to turn back and find Rik Prince looking at her in brooding silence. ‘You were about to say something,’ she reminded him, unnerved by his steadily intense stare.

He seemed to mentally shake himself, sitting up straighter in the cane chair. ‘I was going to say that, after all this time, I never expected to see you again.’

Amusement curved her lips. ‘You mean, you hoped never to see me again!’

He frowned. ‘If I had meant to say that, then that’s what I would have said.’

‘Oh, please.’ Sapphie brushed his protest away with a wave of her hand. ‘The sentiment, I can assure you,’ she told him with feeling, ‘is mutual!’ She had never wanted to see him again, never wanted to even hear of him again, just wanted to block his existence even from her memory.

And yet now that she had seen him and spoken to him, she could see just how dearly familiar were his dark good looks and piercing blue eyes. Too familiar…!

Rik gave a humourless smile. ‘That’s honest, at least,’ he drawled drily.

‘It’s a trait too few people possess nowadays. And, continuing to be honest,’ she added, ‘what I was going to say just now was that I feel, before Dee and Jerome return, which won’t be too long now, I should make it perfectly clear to you that under no circumstances—and I do mean that,’ she emphasised firmly, ‘do I wish for either of them to discover we ever knew each other before today.’ She looked at him challengingly.

He frowned for several long seconds, and then his brow cleared as he looked at her with mocking blue eyes. ‘By saying that the two of us knew each other, I take it you mean—’

‘I mean,’ she put in forcefully, ‘that I would rather Dee and Jerome believed we met for the first time today,’ she explained clearly and succinctly.

Rik Prince gave an acknowledging inclination of his head, whatever disadvantage he had felt earlier seeming to have evaporated as he relaxed back in his chair, his eyes clearly showing his amusement now.

Well, she was glad he could find something funny about this situation—because she certainly couldn’t!

‘How does that sit with the honesty you mentioned only seconds ago?’ he ventured sardonically.

‘Oh, don’t be so obtuse!’ Sapphie replied impatiently. ‘There’s a time for honesty, and—’

‘A time for dishonesty?’ Rik finished derisively.

‘Please don’t tell me you’re any more anxious than I am to admit to Dee and Jerome that the two of us stupidly spent the night together after their wedding!’ She was breathing deeply in her agitation as she glared at him.

But her impatient anger couldn’t keep the memories at bay of that night, of no words having been spoken between them as they’d seemed drawn to each other like magnets, of the passion they’d shared—a fierce and wondrous passion, as they’d sought oblivion in each other’s arms.

Even now Sapphie could remember each caress, each kiss, their need wild and uninhibited, both of them seeming to recognise and accept that, in the clear light of the following day, they would each go their separate ways, never to see one another again.

And that was how it should have remained. How, if she had had her way, it would have remained!

‘That day, you had just seen the woman you love marry someone else!’ she prompted angrily.

Colour darkened his cheeks, his eyes the blue-grey of a stormy sea now. ‘And if I had?’ he bit out icily. ‘What was your excuse?’

She could be selective, make excuses, could even evade the issue. But the truth, she knew—or at least the part she was willing to admit to Rik!—was much more likely to put an end to this conversation. ‘Me?’ she echoed self-disgustedly. ‘I had just watched the man I loved marry someone else!’ She now met Rik’s gaze unflinchingly.

Because it was only part of the truth of what had happened to her that day. Sapphie had gone to Dee and Jerome’s wedding believing she was still in love with Jerome, and had felt nothing but misery as she’d watched him marrying Dee.

But then something—she wasn’t sure what—had made her glance around the church, and her eyes had come to rest abruptly on Rik Prince as he’d stared broodingly down the aisle at the couple being married, obviously as unhappy about it as she was.

Until that moment, love at first sight had just been a phrase to Sapphie, not something that ever happened to real people like her. Well, except perhaps those people who realised the following morning, as they looked at the person beside them in bed, that it had probably been lust at first sight, rather than love!

She wasn’t one of those people; she’d woken at dawn the morning after Dee and Jerome’s wedding to gaze hungrily at the man sleeping beside her, knowing that not only did she love every hard plane and hollow that made up his physical being, but that she also loved his gentleness, his intelligence, and sense of honour too.

She had gone to the wedding the day before believing herself in love with one man, but after the celebration had realised that she was irrevocably in love with another.

A man who’d made no secret of the fact that he was in love with Dee…

* * *

Jerome?

Was Sapphie Benedict referring to Jerome Powers?

Sapphie, with her mesmerising, amber-coloured eyes, and her grim determination to discuss and dismiss their first and—until now—only other meeting, had been hurting as much as Rik had five years ago because she’d been in love with Jerome Powers? She’d spent the wedding reception with him, and the night with him, because she had just watched the man she loved marry someone else?