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СКАЧАТЬ fell forward onto him, her hair curtaining his face, her body pulsing around his.

      And he held her tight to him.

      In the darkness, Lexie clung to Rafe’s hand, keeping close as he led her through the castle’s dimly lit halls. They’d made love again and again in the turret room. And then slept. And now, in the small hours, they found their way, stumbling and laughing, through corridors and downstairs.

      He stopped outside a door, pushed it open and led her into a room. Lit only by the light of the moon, Lexie could still see it was a bedroom. Rafe’s bedroom.

      Not releasing her hand, he crossed with her to the massive sleigh bed. He lifted his hands to her hair. “We should sleep.”

      “Yes.” They should. She had no idea what time it was, knew only that it was late or very early. But she slipped her hands around his waist, pressed her lips to his. She had this one stolen night with him. She wouldn’t waste it. She pulled him unresisting down with her onto the bed, reveled in the weight of him on her and over her.

      And after the rug and the couch of the turret room, his broad bed was a novelty. Room to roll and tangle and laugh and touch.

      Lexie woke with sunlight warming one side of her face and Rafe’s chest warming the other side. His heart beat strong and steady beneath her cheek. His arms rested loosely around her. As she woke fully, she basked in the magic, the beauty, of being with him.

      She tilted her face up to see him watching her and then pulled away to see him better.

      He let her go, his hands trailing from her.

      Instantly, she regretted pulling away. When she’d been lying close, touching, eyes closed, anything had been possible. There had at least been a fragile hope of a glittering future. That they—she and Rafe—might be possible.

      Now, lying on her side, she studied him. Rumpled hair, beard-shadowed jaw and a slow, sexy smile, but it was the wariness in his dark eyes that pierced the fragile magic of the morning, that sucked away her happiness.

      And she knew in that moment that she should never have come to his room, should never have fallen asleep with him so that they then had to navigate waking up together. The memories of their night together would now forever end with this.

      She’d given up her dreams because of him. But not for him. She knew not to allow herself to be that stupid. But she hadn’t been able to love his brother when her every thought had been of Rafe. When she had felt things for Rafe and wanted things from Rafe that she would never feel or want from Adam.

      She was leaving today. And she knew he wouldn’t, couldn’t, offer her a future. And yet here she lay, wanting precisely that. A future. With Rafe.

      Not the man of her dreams, but the man of her realities. The man who understood her and made her laugh and made her want him.

      The wariness in his eyes now froze her hopes, her heart. She could almost see the regrets and his questions and fears. Would she want to marry him now, want to have his babies, want to trap him? Already he was formulating words to soften his rejection.

      She had wanted, desperately, to make love with him, but not to love him, to fall in love with him. She hadn’t wanted that. But heaven help her, looking at him now, feeling already the pain in her heart, she realized that she had fallen anyway. So the answer to those fearful questions in his eyes was—yes, she wanted to marry him and yes, she wanted to have his babies. And most of all she wanted him to love her. But no, she didn’t want to trap him.

      “Lexie.” His voice had the sexiest early-morning rasp.

      She touched a finger to his lips. “I don’t think you should say anything. I don’t want regrets or excuses, and I couldn’t bear false promises. I’m here, in your bed, and I know that’s breaking all your rules, but it wasn’t planned.

      “I’m going today, we both knew that, so we both knew last night was just…last night. And this morning is this morning. So don’t say anything. Unless of course it’s ‘make love with me right now.’” She tried to make it a joke. But even though there was only a hollow space where her heart used to be, the rest of her still wanted him. Just once more. And that need had slipped through in her voice.

      She saw his hesitation even as he lifted his hand to touch her hair. The warm lips parted beneath her fingertip, but no words came out.

      She slipped from the bed.

      He made no move to stop her.

      At the door to the bathroom she turned back and tried to smile. Giving up, she swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Last night was perfect. Thank you.”

      Eleven

      Rafe stood on the lowest of the palace steps. Cloaked in the royal Marconi calm that revealed nothing of their private thoughts, his father, brother and sister were gathered around Lexie. She hugged each of them in turn, then looked for him. He stepped down. Neither royal protocol nor experience had prepared him to bid farewell to a woman like Lexie. A woman who meant the things Lexie meant to him.

      Mere hours ago she had been in his bed. It had killed him, not asking—begging—her to stay, in his bed, in his life. But he’d shattered enough of her dreams. She deserved her fairy tale. Despite his title, he was no one’s fairy tale, and never would be.

      Dry-eyed, she walked to him. Pale and strong and…the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. A soul-deep beauty, rare and precious. He couldn’t stop himself, he touched a hand to her hair, her jaw, tried to commit to memory the feel of her, even though forgetting her was critical to his future happiness. He hadn’t been going to embrace her, but she stepped into his arms, and if his life had depended on it, he couldn’t have avoided wrapping them around her for the chance of holding her to him one last time.

      She was the one to break the contact, stepping away from him. For a moment he saw the question and hope in her eyes. The same look he’d seen when she woke up in his arms this morning.

      Then she smiled, and it was the saddest smile he’d ever seen. Clenching his fists, he kept his hands at his sides. “I didn’t mean to make you sad, Lex,” he said quietly. “If I could take back last night, for your sake, I would. We should have ended with the day before yesterday. That was what I wanted to give you.”

      If anything, her smile grew both sadder and brighter. “I wouldn’t,” she answered. “That day was perfect. But last night was even better.”

      “You’ll find a good man. One worthy of you. One who’s everything he should be. Better than Adam. Better than me.” Someone who loved her for who she was. Someone who could offer her marriage and the family she wanted. Someone who’d treat her with respect and reverence. Not someone who couldn’t even wait till they got to the other side of a room but dragged her down to a rug on the floor.

      “My only requirement is that he loves me.”

      “He’d be a fool not to.”

      “There’s no shortage of fools.”

      She got into the waiting car and he watched it pull away, seeming to pull a piece of him with it.

      Lexie’s СКАЧАТЬ