LITMIR.BIZ

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gazed at her, dumbstruck to hear such things from her mouth.

      ‘It isn’t nice, is it?’ she said. ‘To hear the unvarnished truth.’

      She had him there; his own double standards were coming back to bite him. He said the first thing that came into his mind. ‘Why since you were fifteen?’

      ‘That’s how old I was when I found a couple making love in the palace herb garden.’

      Taken off guard, he gave a laugh of surprise.

      Her eyes narrowed sharply, her finger pushing harder into his chest. ‘It wasn’t funny. It was...’ She swallowed and shook her head. ‘If they’d been caught by anyone else...’

      He would never have expected this turn in the conversation. ‘Who were they?’

      ‘It doesn’t matter. They didn’t see me. I was too scared to stay. But the images wouldn’t leave me. Once I knew they were lovers, I would watch how they acted around each other when they didn’t think anyone was looking.’

      ‘It was a forbidden affair?’

      She nodded. ‘Very forbidden. But once I knew I couldn’t unknow.’

      Nathaniel could identify with that. It had been impossible for his uncle to ‘unknow’ what he had witnessed.

      ‘When I found them together that time, I only saw the desire. That’s what I couldn’t get from my mind. I never knew a man and a woman could be like that with each other. I never saw anything inappropriate between them after that, but the more I watched them, the more I saw they were in love.’ Her gaze dropped and she looked down at her finger still pressed against his chest as if surprised to find it there. She snatched it away and stepped back from him. ‘It ended badly.’

      ‘Love always does.’

      She smiled but it was a mechanical movement of her lips. ‘I’m hoping Isabella will prove that theory wrong. She loves Sebastien very much and he loves her too. But I’ve known since I saw my—’ She bit back whatever she was about to say, her eyes losing a touch of focus.

      There was the tiniest pause before she continued heavily, ‘I only gave you my body. Love is a dangerous occupation for a woman. Especially for a princess. I knew I would have to submit my body to my husband but I knew, whoever I married, that it would be wise to keep my heart and my emotions to myself. The men in my country have all the power. I won’t give any man more than what he can legally take.’ Her chin lifted. ‘And now I won’t even give that. I don’t want the future that’s been mapped out for me any more. I’m not going back to Monte Cleure. And you can’t force me to.’

      He contemplated her, his mind awhirl, knowing he couldn’t allow her to derail him from his reason for being there. ‘That’s a very pretty speech you’ve just made and it’s very moving but you are coming back with me.’

      She shook her head with more vigour, her raven tresses swishing with the motion.

      ‘Your father issued a press release five days ago announcing an investigation into Giroud Developments for suspected financial wrongdoings.’ Just saying the words made bile clog his throat. It sickened him to know that while he’d been worrying about and searching for Catalina, he’d allowed her father to manipulate the situation to his own advantage. ‘He’s also confiscated my development and revoked the title deeds to the Ravensberg building.’

      She didn’t say anything, but her mouth opened and formed a perfect O.

      ‘There has been much speculation in your country about your whereabouts. The palace has issued a number of statements on your behalf, pretending everything’s fine, but people are talking. Your father wants you back. You will return with me to Monte Cleure before the rumours gain traction and I will present you at your father’s birthday party a week on Saturday, or I will lose my development and my home there, not to mention my professional reputation for life. If I return to Monte Cleure without you, I’ll be thrown into prison.’

      He had been, in the best of all the English proverbs he had learnt at boarding school, done up like a kipper.

      ‘He can’t do that,’ Catalina said in total disbelief. And in her disbelief she understood the brief hope she’d felt when he’d held her face—the anger in his eyes a total contrast to the tenderness of his hold—and stated she was his wife. The hope she’d known in those foolish heart-pulsing seconds of thinking she meant something to him...

      She’d belittled their night together and what it had meant because she was scared and angry and hurt by his demands. It had been a good reminder of all the things she didn’t want.

      She’d been right to belittle it.

      Nathaniel had come for her because his business and liberty were threatened.

      Dominic had to be behind this. It had his fingerprints all over it. Her brother had been waiting for his chance to stick the knife properly into Nathaniel and, by leaving, she had been the one to give Dominic the ammunition needed to make her father twist that knife.

      The new independent future she’d been dreaming of was fading fast.

      ‘He’s King of his own country.’ Nathaniel’s tone was mocking but the rage in his eyes was clear. ‘He can do whatever he likes but he can’t touch me outside his kingdom. I’m a citizen of the French Republic and I have the money and contacts to fight any extradition from a tinpot dictator such as him. But...he can destroy my professional reputation with no effort at all.’

      ‘I’ll speak to him. I’ll tell him what he’s doing is wrong and deplorable.’

      ‘And you think he will listen to you? We both know your word means nothing to him any more, if it ever did.’

      Of course it never had, not even when she’d been the good, dutiful daughter. Her head spun so fast that motion sickness was in danger of setting in. ‘I knew there was danger from Dominic...’

      ‘You think your brother is behind it?’

      ‘My father’s always been strict and power-hungry but he used to have some scruples. Dominic’s influence over him has grown over the years and now he’s the first person my father listens to. Maybe the only person.’ She flashed her eyes at him. ‘Dominic hates you. I warned you to be careful of him.’

      ‘I’m not the one who ran away and started this whole ball rolling. That was you.’

      For a moment, she thought he was going to reach for her again. It had been the strangest feeling being held by him like that. There had been anger at the root of it but a tenderness in his touch that had made her breath catch in her throat.

      Instead of touching her, he folded his arms across his chest—he still wore his black lamb’s wool overcoat and navy scarf—and, his face contorted, he continued, ‘And it is up to you to put things right. I have done everything that’s been asked of me and this is how you repay me? Stealing my money and fleeing the country with my child growing within you?’

      ‘I didn’t know it would backfire on you,’ she whispered. ‘I just wanted freedom for me and our baby.’

      ‘If you had spoken to me about how you were feeling instead of running away like a guilty child I would have been able to help you.’

      A spark of fresh fury careered up her spine. ‘I tried talking to you but you ignored me. I can see that I should have been more forceful but I have spent twenty-five years keeping my thoughts and opinions to myself and denying my own feelings. It’s not been easy for me to change habits of a lifetime and you didn’t help by cutting me off at every turn and refusing to be alone with me.’

      ‘Do not twist your actions onto me.’

      ‘I’m not. I should never have taken your money...’

      ‘Forget the money, you took my child,’ he snarled.

      ‘It was for our child’s sake that I left.’ She

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