Page 40 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

Maddi said hurriedly, ‘Ignore me. I’m asking too many questions.’

But he didn’t seem to hear her. He said, ‘It should have been. But my mother fell in love with my father. It was an arranged marriage. He didn’t love her. He had affairs. Lots of them. No secret. He flaunted them in her face, as if to punish her for the folly of loving him. It destroyed her.’

He looked at her then.

‘That’s why I have vowed to be faithful to my wife. I won’t put her through what my father did to my mother, just because he couldn’t control himself.’

He didn’t say it, but she heard the words.He was weak. Maddi was genuinely moved.

‘That must have been so hard to witness.’

‘My brother Dax bore the brunt of it. He was closer to my mother. I was occupied with the duties of becoming King one day. She depended on him. Too much.’

Maddi stayed silent. It put his brother into a new perspective. She knew what it was like to grow up with a parent who had suffered great heartbreak. But at least her mother had managed to pull herself out of it and get on with her life.

‘What happened to her?’ she asked.

‘She died in a car crash when I was seventeen. Dax was fifteen.’

So he and his brother had lost both parents within a year of each other.

‘I’m sorry, that must have been rough.’

He looked at her. ‘Any more questions?’

Maddi shook her head. But then she said, ‘I can understand why you’d settle for a passionless marriage now, but you can’t control someone’s emotions. What if your wife falls in love with you?’

Aristedes smiled mirthlessly. ‘I think all signs are pointing to that not being a problem.’

Was he admitting defeat? Giving up on his dogged refusal to acknowledge Laia’s reluctance to marry him?

But then he said, ‘Even if there was passion...which would certainly make the marriage more palatable...passion doesn’t last.’

Maddi struggled to think of examples of passionate, long-lasting relationships, but drew a blank. ‘You’re very cynical.’

‘So would you be if you’d grown up in my world. At least I know not to believe in myths and fairy tales. What a waste of a life.’

No doubt he was referring to his mother. And while Maddi agreed to a certain extent, because she’d always taken a very pragmatic view of love and relationships—largely after seeing her own mother choose to move on and settle down with someone who might not set the world alight, but who loved her and was kind—she felt a surprising need to counter Aristedes’s arrogant complacency.

‘That’s easy to say if you’ve never actually been in love.’

‘How do you know I haven’t? I might have been made cynical by a broken heart.’

Maddi ignored the pang nearherheart at the thought of any woman capturing his.

She snorted. ‘I would like to be there on the day when you’re felled by love. I think that would be a very satisfying sight.’

Aristedes didn’t even dignify that with a comment. He asked, ‘What about you? Have you been in love?’

Maddi shook her head. ‘No. And while I hate to admit it, I agree with a lot of what you say. But I’m not arrogant enough to assume I’m immune.’

‘I prefer to think of it as realism.’

It was only then that Maddi realised the music was fading out and a new song was starting. They’d stopped moving and were just looking at each other. She became uber-conscious of her body, pressed against his. They fitted. Even though she was almost a foot shorter.

He said, ‘By the way, you can call me Ari.’

Her insides swooped. ‘Aren’t you afraid I might be trying to foster intimacy?’