Crown Prince's Bought Bride

Right up until he’d hit her with the callous truth.

Greg’s betrayal had decimated not just her heart but her trust. Her only consolation was that she’d never given him her body. That would have been the final humiliation.

She looked at Remi Montegova and was grateful her tongue hadn’t run away with her. Men like him judged a person’s worth by their prestige and status. Right from the start he’d shown his disdain at her destitution, believed she would stoop to the lowest level to achieve her avaricious ends. Even now, just like Greg, he was staring down his nose at her, demanding to know what her price was.

If she agreed to Remi’s proposal she would do so with her secrets intact.

If?

In her dire position she had very little choice. She was pretty sure the window for returning to her job at the café had closed.

She licked her dry lips, felt something hot and dark and forbidding zinging through her stomach when he followed the action. ‘If I agree to this, what exactly would it entail?’

His eyes glinted momentarily, but it faded before she could decipher its meaning.

‘For starters, you won’t leave my sight until the confidentiality agreement is signed. After that you’ll stay here in the hotel with me. I’ve accepted an invitation to a charity gala tonight. You’ll accompany me. On Sunday you’ll return with me to Montegova and stay there until I’m sure you won’t change your mind and capitalise on your circumstances.’

Her stomach dropped in shock. ‘What? I’m not... I can’t just pick up sticks and leave!’

Silver-grey eyes narrowed. ‘Why not?’ he demanded. ‘Perhaps because you have other commitments you’re not divulging?’

The sensation in her belly intensified. ‘And what if I do?’

An eerie stillness settled over him, his body becoming statue-still. Eyes the colour of threatening thunderclouds locked on her as a muscle ticked in his jaw.

‘I’m not Jules, Miss Myers. I won’t deal with you while you have a lover hovering in the background, ready to throw a spanner in the works.’

He walked stiff and imposing towards the door, his broad shoulders unyielding.

‘Wait!’

He stilled, but didn’t turn around.

‘I don’t have a lover. But I do have responsibilities.’

He swivelled in a smooth, regal move, those incisive eyes piercing into hers once more. ‘Explain—and be quick about it.’

My God, he really was insufferable. But then weren’t most people with power and authority? As much as she loved him, hadn’t her father displayed a fraction of Remi’s arrogance once upon a time, when he’d believed himself infallible?

‘It’s my father. I live with my father. I can’t just...leave him.’

A fraction of that chill dissipated from his eyes, and then they grew contemplative.

‘You work long hours. You’re away from him for a considerable part of the day—which means that he’s either able-bodied and can look after himself or he has someone else to take care of him.’

His deductions set out in clipped tones, he waited, his gaze probing hers as if daring her to refute them.

‘He’s able-bodied,’ she said, cringing at the half-lie. ‘But that doesn’t mean I want to leave home for however long you intend this to be.’

He strolled with measured steps, like a predator stalking his prey, back to where she stood, frozen. ‘How did your father take your liaison with Jules?’

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sp; He’d barely noticed her absence. And that was the problem. He barely noticed anything any more.

Pained wrenched at her heart. She breathed through it. ‘I’m a grown woman.’

As if she’d issued an invitation his gaze swept over her body, firing charged volts everywhere it touched. By the time he returned his gaze to hers she was acutely aware of every pounding heartbeat, every unsteady breath she took.