Page 42 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride
Maddi shifted uncomfortably. Was she, though? When she was lusting after her sister’s intended? Even though Laia had no intention of marrying the man?
The car was winding through the streets of Santanger. Maddi saw people strolling along the pavements. Shops were open late. Restaurants had tables spilling out into picturesque little squares. Down by the marina sleek yachts bobbed on the water, some lit up with fairy lights. An almost full moon hung in the sky, sending out a pearlescent glow.
For some reason Maddi felt incredibly melancholic. She wished... She wasn’t even sure what she wished. And then it hit her. She wished she was here for real. That she could be herself with this man. Not hiding behind a much larger persona.
The fact that no one else seemed to have realised she wasn’t Princess Laia made her feel a little invisible...
‘Maddi?’
She swallowed the unwelcome lump in her throat. What was wrong with her?
Aristedes took her hand. ‘Maddi? What is it? Was tonight too much?’
She looked at him when she felt she could hide her emotion. ‘No, it was fine. I was just thinking it’s so lovely here. You have a beautiful country.’
‘I do. I’m very lucky.’
Impulsively she said, ‘You see me, don’t you?’
She stopped and bit her lip in case she said anything else.
He frowned. ‘Of course I see you. You’re sitting just inches away.’
‘I mean...you seeme, Maddi Smith, not Princess Laia.’
Strangely, Ari knew exactly what Maddi meant. Because he had that sensation too. That people only saw King Aristedes. A figurehead. Not the man underneath.
He said, ‘The minute I knew you weren’t Princess Laia, I saw you.’
Maddi was direct. More relaxed. A little dreamy. Barefoot more often than not. Princess Laia—from what he remembered—was much more reserved. A product of her upbringing, no doubt.
Princess Laia wouldn’t bombard him with personal questions, like Maddi did, with the lack of guile of a child. Questions that he’d answered when he usually cut people off.
A sense of exposure made his skin prickle. He’d told her far too much.
His parents’ sordid history was an open secret within the palace, but not among the public—and yet he’d blithely spilled it all to Maddi as if she wasn’t here as some sort of Trojan Horse.
For the first time since this woman had impersonated her boss, the Crown Princess, since Ari had realised just how reluctant Laia was to marry him, he had a very fledgling sense of things shifting. Becoming less concrete. Less certain. Not least because he was about to throw caution to the wind and behave as uncharacteristically as he ever had. By ignoring the need to control everything.
Right now, none of that bothered him as much as it should. Because he was distracted by Maddi’s eyes. Huge and dark green, with tantalising hints of gold and brown. Glowing with some emotion that, inexplicably, he felt too, even though he couldn’t name it.
Didn’t want to name it.
What he wanted was far more base and carnal.
He lifted Maddi’s hand and tugged her closer. Her scent tickled his nostrils. Light and yet deep at the same time. With some mysterious base note.
‘I want you, Maddi.’ The words fell from his mouth as easily as breathing.
Her eyes widened. A flush of colour stained her cheeks. She really was beautiful.
‘But...is it...? Are we allowed?’
He almost smiled at her question. As if there was a higher power to answer to than him. Any other woman would be sliding into his lap at the merest hint that he wanted her.
‘In public we have to be relatively chaste, but within the palace, if we’re discreet, we can do what we want. After what the staff there witnessed with my father, an affair between me and my future Queen will be like a Disney movie.’
‘An affair...?’