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СКАЧАТЬ body. To distract herself, she turned over the first page of the San Philippe Times. Rafe raised his eyes to hers briefly before scanning the page before him.

      It was covered almost entirely in the story of her supposed engagement to Adam. There was one picture of her unadorned left hand and some speculation as to the possible reason for the delay in the appearance of a ring.

      “This was expected,” he said. “There’ll be more when the news that you’re going home—permanently—breaks, but then that, too, will pass. Something bigger always eventually comes along.”

      As bothered as she was by all the talk of an engagement that no longer existed, that wasn’t why she was here. “Bottom right photo. The one of you.”

      His gaze tracked to the photo in question.

      “And…me. Together.” It had been taken in the nightclub in Boston. And it looked like he was holding her to him. His lips were close to her ear. It looked intimate. Nothing like what had really been happening. Although Lexie clearly recalled how it had felt, how even then her brain had fired off frantic warning signals that she hadn’t fully understood about the unfortunate chemistry Rafe caused to spark into life.

      “And could an engagement be in the offing for our other prince?” he read the caption aloud. The small piece went on to answer its own question, speculating that this was just the latest dalliance for a man with more than his share of oats to sow. It asked when the second prince was going to grow up and settle down. It listed Rafe’s previous girlfriends and then went on to wonder at the identity of the mystery woman.

      A tap sounded at the door and it opened slightly. Rafe nodded for a woman in the palace staff uniform, carrying a silver tray with two coffees, to come in.

      He waited till she’d left again. “I didn’t know whether you’d had time for your coffee.”

      “I started one, but I spilt it.” She pointed out the stain on the second paper.

      Rafe passed her the coffee, made just how she liked it.

      “Thank you.”

      He sat and leaned back in his chair, swiveling to look out the window as he sipped his own coffee.

      “What should we do?”

      He took his time answering. “I know I said I didn’t think that picture would make it to the papers, and clearly I was wrong. But I really don’t think anyone’s going to recognize you. Your face is largely obscured, and you really didn’t look like you. I only recognized you that night because I was there. Looking at this—” he tapped the paper “—if I didn’t know it was you, I wouldn’t guess it. You’re safe.”

      “But you?”

      His frown deepened.

      “They’ve got it all wrong, suggesting it was something it’s not. They’re tarnishing your reputation, and bringing up all your earlier girlfriends.”

      “Tarnishing my reputation?” He sat back in his chair and laughed. “My reputation is so blackened a little tarnish isn’t going to show. And as for all my other girlfriends—” he glanced back at the list “—I’d scarcely have had time for even half of the women mentioned.”

      “It doesn’t make you angry?”

      “Why waste the emotion on something I can’t change? Like I said, some other news will come along and this will be forgotten.”

      “What about Adam and your father?”

      “What about them?”

      “I thought maybe if I explained it to them?”

      Rafe smiled. “To save my reputation?”

      “Well, yes.” It sounded silly.

      The smile softened, and a curious expression lit his eyes. “No,” he said slowly. “All you’d do is damage your own. And for no good reason. We both know what that was and wasn’t.”

      She couldn’t figure him out. “Why do you let people think the worst of you? You did it with Adelaide and the frog and you’re doing it now.”

      “The frog?”

      “Arthur. Back when I was eight. I thought you threw him at me. That Adam had rescued me. I was so upset with you about it, and I’m sorry.”

      “Lex, it was fourteen years ago. It doesn’t matter.”

      “It must have mattered then.”

      “Even if it did, it certainly doesn’t now.”

      “I used to call you the Frog Prince.”

      He laughed, that rumble that started in his chest. “So that’s why you kissed me. To see if I’d turn into a prince.”

      She laughed, too. “Like you weren’t already one to start with.” Though it really had taken her a while to see that. “I’m sorry, anyway.”

      “For what?”

      “For believing the worst of you.”

      His smile was gentle. “You’re too sweet for this life, Lex. If you let what other people think get to you they’ll hurt you even if they don’t mean to.”

      Just like she cared what he thought about her, and was doubtless going to be hurt by him even though he wouldn’t mean to?

      Holding her gaze, he folded the paper and pushed it across the desk toward her.

      Uncomfortable under his scrutiny, she felt sillier than ever. “So I should just say nothing?”

      “‘No comment,’ particularly when you haven’t even been asked for one, is your greatest friend. But the pictures aren’t the real question.”

      She wasn’t going to ask.

      “Us,” he said.

      Lexie couldn’t hold his gaze for fear of what she might reveal, so she looked out the window at the bright morning. For a moment she let herself entertain thoughts of the possible answers, possible outcomes. But in the end she gave the only answer she could. “Same strategy as for the pictures,” she said, pretending nonchalance. That’s what he’d want from her. No drama. “Ignore it. I’ll be gone soon and we won’t even have to see each other. There is no us. That’s what we agreed.”

      “And that’s still how you want to play it?”

      He gave no hint of the sentiment behind the neutral question, but she was guessing relief. “Unless you can think of a better way that doesn’t involve hurting anyone.”

      “You mean Adam?”

      And her. But she didn’t say that. “It’s going to be bad enough when news of the broken engagement gets out. Can you imagine if anyone gets wind that you and I…”

      “That we what?”

      He was going to СКАЧАТЬ