Ben sat back on his heels. ‘You OK, Princess?’
She spread her arms and legs out as far as she could and managed a sunny smile. ‘Never better.’
His mouth quirked upwards. ‘That was quite a fall.’
‘I know, it took me a long time to perfect it.’ She moved, experimentally, wincing a little bit at how her back hurt. Ben frowned, placed a hand on her shoulder. Even in her bruised state she felt another jolt of awareness.
‘Stay still. You might have hurt something.’
‘I know I hurt something. But nothing’s broken.’ She eased herself up into a sitting position. ‘Trust me, I’m a complete coward when it comes to pain.’
Ben was giving her a rather strange look. His hand remained on her shoulder. ‘Somehow I doubt that.’
Discomfited, Natalia looked away from him and saw that the productivity on the pitch—all that dribbling and kicking—had come to a complete halt as a hundred pairs of eyes stared at her with a mixture of concern and amusement. Talk about humiliation.
Yet as Gabriella walked up to her, her eyes wide, Natalia found, to her own amazement, that she didn’t really mind. Not this time. Not if it made just one child feel a little bit better about herself. She winked at Gabriella. ‘I told you I was terrible, didn’t I?’ Gabriella gave a little laugh, and this time Natalia didn’t feel like she was being laughed at. She had made the joke, not been the butt of it. She stood, trying not to wince because her back did really hurt, and held the ball out to Gabriella. ‘Your turn, I think.’
‘Maybe you should sit out—’ Ben offered. He still looked rather touchingly concerned. Probably just his overblown sense of responsibility, Natalia told herself. It would be stupid to read anything more into it. To want more. She gave him a mocking look.
‘Don’t coddle the princess, hotshot. I can do it.’
A surprised smile quirked the corner of his mouth and his expression lightened. ‘I know you can,’ he said.
* * *
Ben watched Natalia walk away and felt a surprising surge of admiration—and maybe something else. Something deeper. The tangle of emotions he’d felt inside him since the day spent with Natalia had tuned into a knot that seemed to be taking over his body. His thoughts. His heart.
He’d spent far too much time thinking about that almost-kiss, as if it had meant something. As if it could have. In a desperate attempt at distraction he’d gone into the office on Sunday, hoping that piles of paperwork would keep him from remembering just how perfect Natalia had fit against him, how right she’d felt in his arms.
And it had worked, for a little while. Until he’d seen her again, and he’d been desperate to touch her, and then when she’d fallen he’d felt as if his world had spun on its axis and he’d run over to her, his heart pounding, his mouth dry with fear.
This woman made him feel too much. Want too much. And after witnessing his father’s three marriages and his mother’s ongoing heartbreak as she turned a determinedly blind eye to his philandering, Ben didn’t want to feel or want anything, for any woman.
Do you believe in true love?
He believed in love, he just didn’t like it. Or want it. His mother’s love for his father certainly hadn’t helped her any. He did not intend to fall into the same terrible trap.
And certainly not with Princess Natalia.
Ben watched the little girl kick the ball back to Natalia, and this time she actually stopped it with her foot— His thoughts came to a screeching halt. Why was he thinking about Natalia and love at all? She was a spoilt princess, shallow, vain, publicity-seeking. Everything he hated.
Except maybe she wasn’t. He was starting to wonder if there really was something underneath that brittle la-di-da facade, to believe there was a real woman with a tender and vulnerable heart.
The thought both appalled and terrified him.
He wanted Natalia Santina to be exactly what he’d thought she was: shallow, selfish, spoilt and vain. It would be so much easier. He wouldn’t have to wonder, or want, or find excuses to spend more time with her. He wouldn’t be interested in her at all.
But he was, and knew he had been from the first moment she’d sauntered over to him at Allegra’s engagement party. He’d sensed the spark between them then, and asking her to volunteer had been, he was afraid, just a way to spend time with her.
And the more time he spent with her, the more he wondered. The more he wanted. And he felt his precious control slipping notch by notch, until he’d lose it completely and nothing would keep him from taking her in his arms and demanding she tell him all her secrets. He wanted to know her…inside and out, and that thought scared him more than anything else.