Their Royal Wedding Bargain

Heart thumping, Alexa turned and blinked at him. His eyes were unreadable as he took in her suitcase and the clothing in her hands.

‘Packing.’

‘It’s nearly midnight.’

‘I know.’ She flashed him a bright smile. ‘Your odd hours must have rubbed off on me.’

Intensely aware of him watching her, she kept her movements smooth and unruffled as she folded a shirt and placed it in the case.

‘I thought you were staying an extra week.’

‘I was but then I remembered that I have a number of meetings booked in for Monday that I can’t miss.’ She knew she was rambling but she couldn’t seem to take a breath deep enough to oxygenate her brain.

‘Get your father to attend them.’

‘I can’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t think it through enough when you asked me to stay earlier. How beautiful is your niece, though? I love the name, Jana. It really suits her.’

‘Forget the baby,’ he growled. ‘And leave the damn clothes where they are.’ His hands descended on her shoulders as he turned her to face him, his jaw tight. ‘I need you, Alexa. I need to touch you. I need to make love to you.’

There was something in his eyes Alexa had never seen before. A depth of emotion she knew had come from experiencing anxiety about the unexpected birth of his niece. It had affected her too, making her want to find space so she could process everything. But she could no more deny Rafe than she could stop the cycles of the moon.

Gazing up at him, she let her eyes drift over the hard planes of his face. This was what happened, she reminded herself brokenly, when you opened yourself up to uncertainty. You got hurt.

Because she had to go. She had to return to Berenia and pick up the reins of her normal life. She had to get back to what she knew, not only because it was what they had agreed upon from the start, but because she would only be staying an extra week in the vain hope that Rafe’s feelings for her would change.

And she wouldn’t torture herself like that. Not a second time. And not with a man who already had too much of her heart, little did he know it.

‘Stay.’ He cupped her face in his hands.

Alexa’s heart felt as if it had just cleaved in two at the look in his eyes, the anguish of her own emotions like a chokehold around her throat. She so desperately wanted to tell him how she felt, tell him that if he needed her she’d be his for ever, but fortunately he kissed her and she stopped thinking altogether. Stopped trying to make this into something that it wasn’t and gave into the passion between them, winding her arms around his neck and holding him tight for the last time.

* * *

When he woke in the morning Rafe knew she was gone. There was an emptiness in the room, a silence in his apartment he hadn’t felt since before she had arrived.

An icy feeling of disappointment entered his heart, followed by a hot rush of anger. Of course she had left like this. Stealing away in the middle of the night as if she’d never even been here. He’d known she’d wanted to go, and yet he’d asked her to stay anyway. No, begged her to stay. A futile exercise.

Thrusting back the covers, he pulled on his clothes and headed for the kitchen. She’d left a note. A pitiful piece of paper that thanked him for a wonderful week, asking him to call her if he needed her for anything.

As if he’d do that.

He might have had feelings for her last night, feelings that ran deeper than any he’d ever experienced before with any other woman, but that had only been because of the drama surrounding the birth of his niece. It had unlocked something inside him—some emotion that had made him think, for the barest second, that he was in fact in love with Alexa.

Thank God he hadn’t told her that during the heat of their lovemaking during the night. Thank God he hadn’t confused sex with emotion when that was all it had ever been.

Intense, yes. Controlling at times. But love...no. This wasn’t love. This was white-hot fury that he’d allowed a woman to get under his skin and she’d walked out on him in the middle of the night.

Had she thought he couldn’t handle seeing her leave? That he’d try and stop her?

He wouldn’t have. Not a second time.

CHAPTER TEN

RAFE GLARED AT the pile of paperwork on his desk as if the fierceness of his stare might get it done without him having to actually do anything. The promise of spring had completely left London, and rain lashed the windows of his office as if some angry god were throwing spears from the sky.

Not that he cared. He wasn’t planning to leave any time soon and when he did he’d just be going home to an empty apartment.

Still, the gloom of the exterior seemed to invade the office, casting a dim glow that not even the bright lights inside could drive away.