The Wedding Party And Holiday Escapes Ultimate Collection. Кейт Хьюит

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СКАЧАТЬ wants me to stay. And I’ve agreed.” She leaned forward to better see his profile. And still knew no more than when she couldn’t see his face. He had on his public face, the smiling, pleasant expression he wore in all his publicity shots. The shots that missed the fire and depth of his eyes, and the smile that was a mix of knowledge and temptation.

      Maybe his lack of reaction to her news was for the best, because she didn’t know whether she wanted him to be pleased or displeased that she wasn’t leaving. She didn’t, she admitted, know anything at all when it came to Rafe.

      His gaze dropped to the unadorned hands in her lap. She offered no explanation for the lack of a ring. Adam had, in fact, wanted her to have and wear his ring. Lexie hadn’t been able to carry the deception that far. But for his sake, though their engagement was off, she’d agreed to stay and be seen with him for one more week. There were joint appearances, like this parade and tomorrow night’s Veterans’ dinner and dance, that they were committed to, that they would be expected to be seen at.

      She’d also agreed to keep their…arrangement a secret. Even from his family. Even from Rafe.

      After she left, the news would be released.

      A cheer went up somewhere ahead of the bus. The most devoted of the public had waited hours to see this, staking out the positions lining the streets well before the parade began. And prior to the bus’s appearance, they’d waited through forty-five minutes’ worth of floats and bands and dancers.

      Trying to get caught up in the enthusiasm of the waving crowd, and trying to look like she belonged, Lexie waved back. A proper wave, her whole arm moving, none of this sedate hand lifting and twisting of the wrist that most of the royal party thought passed for a wave.

      “I fell into your trap. You made your point.” She needed Rafe to at least know that she knew what he’d been up to.

      “My trap?” For the first time he turned and looked at her properly, a frown creasing his brow.

      “You said at the outset you’d be watching me, that if you thought I wasn’t worthy of Adam you’d do what you could to send me packing. You were trying to prove that I don’t love Adam.” In reality he’d only helped speed the decision she would have made anyway.

      “We don’t need to discuss it,” he said sharply.

      But she hadn’t got to the important bit. She kept her voice low. “I just wanted to say I was sorry.”

      “You’re sorry?” He stopped waving and turned to look at her again, those dark brows drawn together.

      Fighting the urge to cower beneath the fierceness of his expression, Lexie instead sat straighter. “Yes. I’m apologizing for my part in it.”

      He shook his head and looked back out at the crowd. “Enough. The fault wasn’t yours.”

      “The weakness was.”

      “The weakness was mine.” He stood, towering over her before he stepped past her. “I’ve seen someone I need to speak to.”

      As he walked away, Lexie sagged back into her seat. It was over.

      Rafe stood staring absently out one of the ballroom’s velvet-curtained, floor-to-ceiling windows. He’d thought his trials were over. He was wrong.

      He needed something to take his mind off this test. Because that’s clearly what it was. His brother, called into yet another unexpected and unavoidable meeting, had enlisted him to teach Lexie the folk dance, watching him closely for his reaction as he made his request.

      Things had, understandably, been strained between Adam and him since he’d kissed Lexie. Though when Rafe had fronted up to Adam about it he’d been surprised at the lack of fire in Adam’s annoyance. If their situations had been reversed, he wouldn’t have been anywhere near as understanding as his brother.

      Of course, Adam, too, thought Rafe had planned and executed the kiss, but in Adam’s case he thought it was to teach him a lesson. The only consensus they’d reached was in his assurance to Adam that it wouldn’t happen again.

      But Rafe could do nothing to stop the kiss from replaying itself in his dreams as he slept at night, the touch of her lips to his, the press of her body against his.

      It might be easier if either or both Lexie and Adam looked happier. He’d been watching them since Lexie first got here, smiling and doing their best to look like a devoted couple.

      Rafe had seen a few devoted couples in his time, and Adam and Lexie didn’t even come close. Something wasn’t right. Though fortunately the press were buying it. Today’s papers had again been filled with photos of Adam and Lexie together. Just one renowned gossip columnist had hinted that she, too, thought their relationship lacked spark.

      And now this.

      The folk dance might to all appearances be nothing more than a quaint number, but it had its intricacies and its intimacies, and the princes and their partners had to dance it slightly differently from anyone else at the anniversary gala. Or at least that was the story Adam and Rafe had told their respective girlfriends.

      And the two of them had, in their day, enjoyed teaching the dance to their dates far too much. They both knew how seductive the held eye contact, the gentle palm-to-palm touches and the story the dance invoked could be.

      And now Adam wanted him to teach the dance to Alexia and Rafe had to not seduce or be seduced by her in the process. Wittingly or unwittingly.

      Of course it was also possible that Adam was trying to show that he trusted them. Either way, it would still be a trial for Rafe, dancing with the sweet Lexie who was to marry his brother. A man shouldn’t have to test his fiancée or his brother, but if Adam needed this, just this, then Rafe would give him that proof. And perhaps he needed it, too.

      He turned as Lexie entered the ballroom. Her hair was tied up again—he preferred it that way, it didn’t tempt him the way it did when it sat softly over her shoulders, begging to be touched, so that his fingers itched to know the feel of it. She wore a simple silk blouse and a skirt that skimmed the flare of her hips and floated around her calves.

      Her hands—her fingers—were still unadorned. Where was Adam’s ring? If she were wearing it, that would help; it would be another sign, and he needed all the signs, all the help he could get, to remind him that this woman was not for him.

      But for as long as she didn’t wear a ring the possible reasons for that lack would taunt and tempt him.

      She walked carefully, and Rafe could see in her bearing, her erect posture, her graceful steps, the years of ballet training. He could also see her reluctance to be here with him. “I’m sorry, you have to do this,” she said, looking around the cavernous ballroom. “I know you’re busy.”

      “Don’t be sorry. I’m not,” he lied. No point in her feeling bad, too.

      “Yes, you are.”

      The smile she delivered her accusation with reminded him of the Lexie he’d met that first day in Massachusetts, full of sass. And he realized that his glimpses of that woman were becoming fewer and fewer. Her fault or his?

      She was right, of course, about him not wanting to do this, but not for the reasons she suspected. At least he hoped she СКАЧАТЬ