Her gaze flew back to him. ‘Is that what she is?’
‘Not really.’ His intensity sharpened and his voice dropped. ‘We didn’t sleep together.’
Embarrassment burned, yet relief swamped her. ‘You didn’t need to tell me that.’
‘No?’
‘You wouldn’t have slept with her until you were married.’
He looked at her quizzically, then began to laugh. ‘Virgin princesses are the stuff of fairy tales, Elsie.’
She burned worse now. ‘You’ve slept with other princesses?’
He puffed out a breath. ‘None of my former lovers will be present tonight.’
‘This information is too personal to be relevant to me,’ she gritted.
He merely laughed harder—but the warmth in his gaze?
‘You sure you want to trust me with this?’ She tried to shoot him down.
‘You’ve not told anyone about your time in the palace all those months ago and you could have. You wouldn’t expose Amalia. You wouldn’t hurt me either.’
‘Not even if someone paid me pots of money?’
‘You could have sold your story weeks ago and you didn’t. Your integrity matters too much to you.’
Just like that he stole her breath for good.
‘I trust you, Elsie. I wouldn’t invite you to wear this if I didn’t.’
Tears prickled. That he trusted her mattered intensely and it meant so very much. But it suddenly saddened her. He was one of the few people to believe in her and he was so far from her reach. It was the most bittersweet feeling.
‘Thank you for the offer. I’m honoured,’ she said simply. ‘But no. The dress is enough. I’m her music tutor,’ she said. ‘No one expects me to be dripping with diamonds.’
He gazed into her eyes solemnly. ‘As you wish.’ He put the fistful of jewels back into his pocket and called to Amalia. ‘Are you ready?’
The girl turned. She’d chosen a pretty pearl necklet that was just gorgeous.
‘Silvabon pearls.’ Felipe nodded. ‘Nice choice, Amalia. Several in that piece were found off one of the smaller islands many years ago.’
Amalia fingered the necklet gently. ‘Is it true you used to go diving for them?’
Felipe’s eyebrows lifted. ‘You heard about that?’
‘Carlos said that one time you were free diving and you went under for so long the bodyguards all jumped in fully clothed to rescue you. But then you surfaced and you laughed so hard. Carlos said you’d found an amazing pearl.’
Felipe blinked. ‘He told you that story?’
‘He talked about you all the time,’ Amalia said. ‘He said you found lots.’
There was a flash on Felipe’s face that made Elsie instinctively step closer to him.
But Amalia hadn’t noticed. ‘He said the old King banned you from diving again after that.’
There was a beat before Felipe answered. Where Elsie realised he’d taken a moment to count himself down. He glanced at her and his shoulders squared because, yes, she’d seen.
‘He might’ve made a suggestion along thoselines.’ Felipe shot her one of those devastating stares.