The Wedding Party And Holiday Escapes Ultimate Collection. Кейт Хьюит

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СКАЧАТЬ in his eyes. Eyes that weren’t the same dark honey as Rafe’s, didn’t have the simmering depths or the hint of cynicism or mystery about them, or even that sporadic amusement. But nice eyes.

      His phone rang again. He looked at her. “I really am sorry about this, Alexia.”

      “Please, it’s okay. I’ll go get changed.”

      She stood as Adam answered his call. Both men stood, as well, a courtesy she still wasn’t used to. Her gaze went to Rafe’s, to eyes that saw too much. His gaze was carefully neutral now.

      Rafe watched his brother as he finished his third call and turned to him. “No,” he said, before Adam could ask.

      It didn’t stop him. “Take Alexia for the ride through the grounds for me, Rafe? Please.”

      Rafe dipped a chunk of bread in extra-virgin olive oil, pressed from the palace’s olive grove. “Take her yourself.”

      “I can’t. You heard that phone call.”

      “She could walk the labyrinth.” That was a nice, solitary, time-consuming activity.

      “She’s walked it already.”

      “Then get Rebecca to take her riding. They get along well. It’ll be nice for both of them.”

      “Rebecca’s spending the afternoon with Alexia’s mother. Dad’s in Paris. You’re the only one of us even close to available. It will only take a couple of hours.”

      “She’s here to get to know you, not me.”

      “We spent all yesterday together.” Adam at least had the grace to sound defensive.

      “Ah, yes, the inner workings of the museum, dark, dusty corridors. You really know how to show a girl a good time.”

      “Alexia enjoyed the museum. She has a keen interest in history. Particularly the history of San Philippe.”

      Alexia. Lexie. Sexy Lexie, whom he’d been doing his best to avoid without being obvious about it. Sexy Lexie, whose hair he wanted to unpin and plunge his fingers into. Whose neck he wanted to kiss. Whose laughter he wanted to hear. Whose lips—Mustn’t think about that. The same mantra he’d repeated silently whenever he was in her company and too often even when he wasn’t. “Are you sure she enjoyed it? She’s polite. She even managed to look interested when Humphrey was haranguing her at the dinner the other night.”

      “He wasn’t, was he?”

      “He was. Which you would have known if you’d been paying attention.”

      “Some of us have other demands on our attention.”

      Rafe let the implication that he had no demands on his pass. “Which is why you should make the time to ride the grounds with her.”

      “Fine. I will. You take my place as the chair of the meeting on the Global Garden. There’s an updated dossier you’ll need to read. Martin can brief you, as well. It should only take an hour, two at the most, to bring you up to speed. And the meeting itself, if you keep dissent under control, will be another two. Just be careful to keep a lid firmly on the diplomatic fracas threatening to blow up in our faces. Our so-called ambassador has been treading on toes again.”

      “Okay, you win. I think I’ll put her on Rebecca’s gray mare.” Martyrdom had only so much to recommend it. Though he knew he was letting himself in for an altogether different kind of torture.

      Adam smiled, looking suspiciously like their father. “You don’t think Specter might be a little jittery for her?”

      “Lexie’s a good rider. Specter will be just perfect.” And if he chose the most restive of his own horses, then he’d have enough to think about other than Sexy Lexie. “But are you sure you can trust me? She’s a beautiful woman.”

      Adam laughed. “Neither of us has ever broken the pact. You’re hardly about to start now.”

      Years ago, it had become apparent to the young princes that many of the women they went out with just wanted to date, and possibly marry, a prince. Any prince. If it didn’t work out with Adam they made up to Rafe, and vice versa. One wine-sodden evening, the brothers had made a pact to never date a woman the other had dated first. The pact had outlived any and all relationships. So far.

      “Besides, she’s too serious and too intellectual to interest you.” It was as if they were talking about different women. Rafe saw her serious intellectual side, but he also saw the playful, impulsive woman she was, the side she hid from Adam because she didn’t think it was regal enough.

      “And,” Adam announced with the triumph of someone playing a trump card, “she’s too young for you.”

      Rafe just looked at his older brother.

      “Spare me the look. I realize that you’re closer in age to her. But unlike you, I usually date women younger than me.”

      “You’re right.” At least in theory. “But I like her, Adam. And she really wants this to work with you.”

      “I want it to work, too.”

      “Then spend some time with her.”

      “As soon as I can. If Dad hadn’t been so hell-bent on getting this under way, it could have been properly scheduled.”

      Rafe stared at his brother in incomprehension. Properly scheduled? If it was scheduled, you missed the chance of seeing her dancing with her eyes closed, oblivious to the crowd around her, missed seeing her in the moonlight beneath an oak, eyes glittering in the dark, missed the illicit thrill of hearing her laughter as you ran away from a royal dinner with her, missed the surreptitious glances at her as she ran beside you in the gym, ponytail swinging, a droplet of sweat trickling down her chest between her breasts. Instead, his brother wanted to schedule things. Properly.

      He studied Adam, could see his mind already weighing solutions to the impending diplomatic problem. “You will do right by her, won’t you?”

      Adam’s eyes widened. “That’s a little rich, coming from you, but yes, of course I will. I’ve planned a dinner for tonight. Something special. Candles, soft music. I’ll propose properly, give her the engagement ring I’ve had made.”

      Rafe tamped down on a flare of something suspiciously close to jealousy. He’d never felt the emotion before, never thought he’d feel it for Adam, whose life he was only grateful he’d escaped.

      “And tonight I’ll stay awake for the drive home.”

      Rafe sat forward. “You’ll what? Are you saying you—”

      “Fell asleep in the limo on the way back from dinner the other night. Hey,” he said with a shrug, as he took in Rafe’s stunned expression. “I was tired. It had been a long day.”

      “You fell asleep?” How did a man fall asleep in Lexie’s presence when her proximity had every sense leaping to attention?

      “I won’t be so tired tonight,” Adam said.

      Trying to banish thoughts of Adam—not СКАЧАТЬ