Society Secrets. Sharon Kendrick

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СКАЧАТЬ the flickering gleam of candlelight, Melissa saw the dawning comprehension in Casimiro’s eyes.

      ‘Remembered what?’ she questioned breathlessly.

      He rubbed his fingertip against the scar at his temple and for one brief moment he felt intense relief as his memory came flooding back, as if someone had just lifted a heavy weight from his shoulders. ‘You. Us.’ She had been telling the truth all along, he realised. She was not just some woman on the make. Not some kind of ‘crazy’ who was stalking him. She was a woman with whom he had enjoyed a brief and heady affair—but one which had never been meant to endure.

      And now? Now their destinies were entwined whether he liked it or not—but let them both be clear about the reality, lest she spin fairy-tale fantasies as women were so prone to do. ‘Except that there wasn’t really an “us”, was there, Melissa? We met at an after-show party and it happened very quickly after that. What was it, three days—or four? I hardly think our few hours of snatched sex would qualify as a grand romance, do you?’

      A few hours of snatched sex. It was as if her memory of that time had been a delicate and intricate glass structure she’d carefully preserved—and Casimiro had smashed it without thought or care. Melissa threw her napkin down over the fast-congealing fish and began to get up.

      ‘Sit down!’ he ordered.

      ‘No, I won’t sit down! I don’t care if I have to walk all the way home—I will not sit here and be insulted by you!’

      He could see that she meant it. He could also see the maître d’ hovering anxiously over in the doorway, but a faint shake of Casimiro’s head was enough to dispatch him. For a moment he was torn between fury at her outrageous insubordination—and a grudging respect for her spirit. ‘Sit down, Melissa.’ He met the unwavering resistance in her eyes. ‘Please.’

      Perhaps it was the unexpectedness of his appeal which made Melissa hesitate—or perhaps it was just the acknowledgement that this was not a word with which he was familiar. She doubted whether kings had to say ‘please’ very much in the normal run of events—and what kind of example was that to set to Ben, who she was determined was going to have the best manners in the world?

      Melissa sank back down into the chair, secretly relieved to rest the suddenly shaky legs which she doubted would carry her outside, let alone all the way home. It was all so much of a shock. Everything. The test result and his reaction to it. Yes, of course she had known that there could only be one possible candidate for the role of father to her baby—but she hadn’t been expecting this great swamp of emotion. She had bottled up her secret for so long that she felt quite shaky now that it was all out in the open.

      ‘You’ve remembered everything?’ she whispered.

      He shrugged. ‘For what it’s worth.’ Yet the missing piece of memory came as a huge relief—as if he had been made complete once more. And, reluctantly, he allowed himself to fill in some detail on their affair. He remembered the taste of freedom he’d felt with her. The heady sensation of feeling normal—and the subsequent feeling of emptiness when he had returned to the restrictions of his kingdom. He had felt like a condemned man being given his last meal and knowing he would never eat again.

      ‘Do you…do you regret it?’ she questioned.

      The emotional gates which had briefly swung open now slammed shut. ‘Regrets are a waste of time,’ he said icily. ‘We need to discuss what we’re going to do—and the most pressing matter is our marriage, which must take place as soon as possible.’

      Melissa stared at the cold hauteur of his features and for the first time she realised that the man she had adored no longer existed. Perhaps he never had. Perhaps it had just been a temporary role he had occupied while they’d been lovers. And could she really bear to be shackled to this cold-faced king for the rest of her life? She shook her head. ‘I’m not going to marry you.’

      ‘I’m afraid that’s non-negotiable, Melissa.’

      Melissa’s breath seemed to catch in her throat. ‘You can’t say something like that,’ she whispered.

      ‘I can, because it happens to be true.’

      ‘You can’t actually force me to marry you—what, drag me screaming and kicking down the aisle?’ She fixed him with a look she hoped concealed the fear which was fast growing inside her. That he could do with her exactly what he wanted. ‘I don’t imagine that would do your image much good.’

      ‘No, I can’t force you—but I can take your son from you.’

      Melissa froze as the world seemed to grow dark. It was the single most effective and terrifying threat he could have made—and the fact that he had uttered it made her want to lash out at him. ‘You can’t do that, either.’

      ‘You really think so? I wonder if you’re prepared to test the full might of the King against a single mother of your standing.’

      ‘There’s nothing wrong with my standing!’

      ‘Do you consider it appropriate that the heir to the throne should be brought up in this way?’

      ‘He’s clean and well fed and stimulated and—happy!’ she defended.

      ‘And his home? You think that is a good place in which to bring up a royal Prince?’

      It was the first time she’d actually thought of Ben as a Prince and, although the mother in her thrilled with pride, the title terrified her as well. Because didn’t it seem an awfully distancing thing—to be a royal Prince? Especially since she was just a commoner…

      ‘We don’t have to stay living there if you think it’s so awful!’ she declared wildly, because the expression which was darkening his arrogant features was really beginning to unsettle her.

      ‘You mean you’d let me buy you somewhere bigger?’ he suggested softly.

      She walked straight into it. ‘If that’s what you want.’

      ‘Ah! So you don’t mind accepting my money, after all, Melissa? A remarkable change of heart. How come I’m not surprised?’

      Now he was making her sound like some kind of cheap gold-digger. Twisting everything she uttered so that she felt as if she were in some sort of verbal maze—with everything she said leading nowhere. ‘I thought that’s what you wanted,’ she said, in confusion.

      ‘No, it is not what I want!’ he snapped. ‘I can just imagine what outcome buying you a big place and settling you with a suitable income would produce. Why, you’d have every male in the vicinity sniffing around you as if all their Christmases had come at once!’

      ‘You’re disgusting!’

      ‘No, Melissa—I am being practical. Make a woman rich and she becomes a target.’

      ‘And make her poor and she becomes a puppet?’ she retorted.

      At this he gave a glimmer of a smile and leaned back in his chair—and maybe he had given some kind of sign to the staff because their untouched plates of fish were whisked away and Melissa’s glass of water refreshed.

      It was time to call СКАЧАТЬ