LITMIR.BIZ

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that even rested on his shoulders when he was at his summer residence, away from the capital. Like Alison, came the involuntary thought. No affairs of state troubled her, not even affairs of the heart, it seemed.

      The state of her heart wasn’t his concern, he told himself fiercely. Until the doctor cleared her to return to her hostel, she was merely another responsibility. Lorne had no need to see her unless he chose to. The villa had more than enough staff to take care of one stray Australian who had had the misfortune to wash up on their private beach. Why was he wasting time thinking about her when his son was waiting?

      Alison continued to occupy his thoughts as he changed for Nori’s daily swimming lesson. The task could have been delegated to the palace’s personal trainers, but Lorne enjoyed teaching his son himself, and Nori looked forward to having his father to himself and showing off what he had learned.

      Today, however, Nori sat on the edge of the pool looking downcast. Lorne dropped to the marble coping beside his child. “What’s the matter, coquine?”

      Nori’s small chin jutted out. “I’m not a little rogue. I’m a good boy.”

      Lorne nodded, careful not to smile. “Of course you are.”

      Nori’s huge baby eyes flashed to him. “Then why can’t Allie give me a koala? She promised, and I want it more than anything.”

      The passion in his son’s voice caught Lorne by surprise. “But you have so many toys already.”

      “I don’t have a koala from Australia.”

      Lorne winced inwardly but kept his face impassive. So that was what this was all about. He dropped an arm around his son’s small body and pulled him close, reminding himself that as well as crown prince, Nori was still a baby who missed his mother. “Did talking to Miss Carter remind you of your mama?” he asked carefully.

      Nori’s full lower lip quivered, and his shoulders trembled under Lorne’s hand, but he didn’t cry, eliciting a pang of empathy in his father. How many times in his own youth had Lorne fought to contain his emotions because of his position? “It’s all right to admit that you miss your mama, you know,” he said softly. “You’re very brave but when we’re alone you can tell me how you really feel.”

      Nori turned lambent eyes to him. “You won’t mind if I cry a bit?”

      Lorne shook his head. “Not even if you cry a whole swimming pool.”

      Nori looked at the vast expanse of water beside them and gave a shaky laugh. “Nobody could cry that much,” he said in the tone of “shows how much you know.”

      Thinking of his own loneliness that stretched back to well before they lost Chandra, Lorne wasn’t so sure. Chandra had never been the companion he had hoped for, but she had been Nori’s mother, and the child was entitled to mourn her loss. “How much do you think you might cry then, a bathtub full?”

      Solemnly Nori extended his baby hands about shoulder width apart. “Maybe this much.”

      “That’s quite a lot,” Lorne agreed. “But it’s all right. Cry that much if you want to. And remember, you can always talk to me about mama, or about anything.”

      “Even about koalas?” Nori said, his eyes brightening with hope.

      Lorne restrained a sigh. Had he been as persistent as Nori at the same age? “Yes, even about koalas,” he conceded heavily. “While we’re on vacation, why don’t we visit the zoo and you can see a real koala?”

      Nori’s eyes shone. “You mean it? Can Allie come, too? She said I should call her Allie and she knows all about koalas.”

      Wondering at how easily his son had made friends with their guest, Lorne was aware of a feeling very like envy gripping him. He shook his head. “Alison has other things to do besides entertain you on her holiday.”

      Nori’s tiny chin jutted out. “She’ll come if I order her to.”

      Lorne suppressed a smile. “Not if I catch you first.” Only the day before, he’d found a soldier marching pointlessly up and down the inner courtyard because Nori had ordered it. Then had followed a serious father-son talk about the responsibilities of being royal. “Didn’t I explain to you about giving orders?”

      Nori squirmed uncomfortably. “Yes, Daddy. ’s not much fun being king if you can’t make people do what you want.”

      “That’s exactly why Carramer doesn’t have a king,” Lorne explained. “A long time ago in our history, a king made his people’s lives miserable with his orders. When his son became ruler, he promised never to call himself king to remind himself and his heirs not to treat the people as badly as his father had done.”

      “I won’t make anybody miserable,” Nori agreed impatiently. He had heard the story before and understood the point his father was making. “I just want Allie to come to the zoo with us. I like her, don’t you?”

      “I don’t know her very well,” Lorne evaded.

      “If she comes, you could get to know her.”

      His son would make a good negotiator one day, Lorne thought wryly. “Very well, she can come if you want her to.” It would add to the fiction that she had been taken on as a companion to Nori, he told himself, wondering at the way his heartbeat suddenly picked up speed. It had nothing to do with the prospect of spending time in Alison’s company, he assured himself. After Chandra, getting involved with any woman, particularly another Australian, was the last thing he needed.

      The knowledge didn’t stop a flood of raw emotions from surging through him until he gripped the marble coping of the pool, his fingers whitening with the strain. “How about we get on with your swimming lesson now?” he suggested, hoping Nori wouldn’t hear the tension in his voice.

      His son was too distracted to notice. “After the lesson, can we go to the zoo and see the koalas?”

      Lorne shot an involuntary glance at the windows of the Rose Suite overlooking the pool. “Alison isn’t well enough to go anywhere today. Perhaps tomorrow if Dr. Pascale says it’s okay.”

      As his son mumbled a reluctant acceptance, Lorne thought he caught a glimpse of movement at one of the windows and shook himself mentally. Alison Carter was a temporary distraction, nothing more. Taking her with them to the zoo was unavoidable if Lorne was to keep his word to Nori. But if the doctor approved, she would return to her hostel in Allora afterward and that would be that.

      Forget about her, Lorne ordered himself and slid into the pool. He felt like a poker being plunged into ice water. Steam practically hissed off him, and he knew the heat of the morning had little to do with it.

      Watching Lorne with his son, Allie felt a rush of admiration. He was the ruler of his country, with all the responsibilities that entailed, but he still found time to give his child a swimming lesson.

      This afternoon, after sleeping late, eating the light meal that was brought to her room and taking a leisurely bath in the vast bathroom adjoining her bedroom, Allie felt refreshed. She was still tired from her battle with the serpent yesterday but at least her vision was unclouded.

      Yesterday she had wondered if she’d exaggerated the impact of the magnificent man who came to her rescue. Today she knew she hadn’t. Lorne de Marigny was every bit as prepossessing as she’d first thought. She had reached this conclusion before she knew who he was so his effect on her had nothing to do with his position.

      She chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. Why couldn’t she have been rescued by an ordinary Carramer man, then she could have enjoyed his company, maybe even a holiday romance? The thought flashed through her mind, startling her with its unexpectedness. There could be no holiday romance with the sovereign ruler of the island kingdom.

      She was amazed he had allowed her to stay at the villa, although she recalled it was on doctor’s orders. Not that she imagined Lorne de Marigny taking orders from anyone unless they coincided with his own wishes. He was the kind of

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