Page 15 of A Ring to Claim Her Crown
But here...in this dimly lit, echoing museum hall as he waited for her to speak...he didn’t feel calm at all. She reached up, placing a hand upon his chest, and for a moment he thought she might push him away. But she didn’t. She left it there, a single maddening point of contact between them.
‘I’ve thought about you,’ she said quietly, closing her eyes tightly.
And there it was. He closed his eyes, taking in a single shuddering breath as his body strained hard against the seam of his fanciest dress trousers. When he opened his eyes again, she was watching him.
‘Why am I telling you these things?’ she whispered, sliding her hands up to his shoulders. Her fingers flexed upon his muscles and he flexed back shamelessly. Her slow smile was just a little shy and filled with the evidence of her desire.
‘You don’t want to be left alone, that’s why.’
She bit on her lower lip. ‘I don’t know what I want. Not when it comes to you.’
He knew how easy it would be to lean forward and close the distance between them, to quiet her indecision with kisses. He wouldn’t hold back; he’d instantly begin to show her exactly what he would do if she ever came back to his bed. One night with the woman who had haunted him.... One night to lay to rest all of the foolish memories he could never shake... He wanted it so badly his fingers shook and his throat ran dry. So why then did he find himself taking a step backwards?
What did he plan to do, undress her here on the cold stone floor then disappear off to sea once again? Another final memory to keep, because that had worked so well last time, hadn’t it?
Liro cleared his throat, looking back towards the exit. She was a crown princess with a museum full of people waiting for her to return; they could be found at any moment. She had so many people pushing her to comply with their needs, taking her kindness, using her.
She leaned towards him for a split second, a single glimpse of confusion in her eyes that she quickly covered up as she too seemed to come to her senses. Standing up straight, she pushed past him and walked away a few steps. She paused under an archway, flanked by two statues in gleaming golden armour.
‘You said you’d go, if I told you one more time,’ she said, her words echoing, cold and unyielding, in the cavernous hall.
Silence stretched between them. He knew what he had said and knew that it was the best course of action. But still, something within him growled in protest as she walked away.
CHAPTER FIVE
MINERVARETURNEDTOthe function and threw herself into princess mode, speaking with everyone who sought out her attention and dancing until her feet ached. She didn’t see Liro again. By the time the event wound down and she had returned to the palace, she was exhausted enough to fall into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning was a day filled with events, starting with a beautiful folk concert and poetry reading at the children’s hospital. She resisted the urge to check if a certain giant black yacht had departed the kingdom yet, just as she resisted scanning the shoreline for it as her car drove past the marina. This week was about securing her path to the crown, not ruminating over the past like a moody teenager. She was good at compartmentalising her emotions. In a job where she was expected to beonat all times in public, she had to be.
Still, she couldn’t stop herself from looking over her shoulder countless times throughout the long morning, and even longer afternoon, wondering if she might find a familiar pair of green-grey eyes watching her.
The sun was low in the sky when she and her mother were deposited at the bottom of the steps of the palace, but the idea of going inside and beginning her preparations for the evening’s charity auction made her feel strangely empty. It would be a wonderful event, with all proceeds going towards so many causes close to her heart. But the idea of spending more time with John, Prince Lorenz and Jean-Claude made her feel utterly exhausted. She knew she had to begin to make her decision soon, before Mama’s announcement. But all of her cool-headed determination from the past few weeks of preparation had begun to wane slightly, leaving her more than a little unsure of her decision to rush into a royal marriage of convenience.
She felt her mother’s eyes on her as they walked along the corridor towards the family suites. Before she reached the privacy of her room, her mother pulled her away towards a quiet corner of the garden. ‘Have any of the candidates I invited caught your eye yet?’
‘I have it narrowed down to three.’ She listed off the names of the men she’d chosen and saw a strange look cross her mother’s features. ‘What, you disagree?’
‘Not at all, darling,’ Mama said quickly. ‘You asked me to send the invitations—the rest is entirely up to you. But...none of the others caught your attention?’
After a moment of hesitation, Minerva knew that her only choice was to lie and change the topic to the speech they’d been preparing for the announcement on Saturday. Her mother continued to look at her a little too closely, a fact that did nothing for the nervous energy that had plagued her since that moment in the museum hall yesterday afternoon.
When her mother finally excused herself to begin to get ready, Minerva knew she should follow along. She didn’t have much time before the stylists and make-up artists arrived to do a quick change from her day look to evening formal.
The scent of citrus filled the air, floating over from the large glass conservatory hall where tonight’s event would take place. She ambled towards her bedroom door, hesitating at the last moment. In the absence of her beloved sport, her thoughts had become increasingly tangled and harder to manage over the past few months. Time in the archery arena was time that she would usually have spent thinking about and working through the things that weighed upon her mind. But there was one place in the palace grounds that had always given her peace...
A hum of nervous energy seemed to zing through her at the idea, and before she knew it she had veered through an archway and was quietly cutting across the gardens in her polished ivory day dress. Her security team had remained in the upper hallway: the palace grounds were safe enough for her to wander a little. She would not be gone long; she just needed some time alone to breathe.
Minerva knew where she was heading instinctively, even before the tell-tale scent of moss hit her nostrils. She hadn’t come down to their old lakeside haunt in many years. She had thought she had prepared well enough for the energy required to get through such a high intensity week of events, but nothing could have prepared her for him. He’d plied her with croissants, asked her for her secrets and cracked open all the tightly controlled longing she’d kept hidden away.
Three days ago, she had been fine. She had been more than fine: she had beenquitecontent with the prospect of selecting a husband. Then he’d reappeared in her world with all the subtlety of an atomic bomb, making her question everything...planting seeds of rebellion, just as he had all those years ago.
Well, she was not the same girl he had used and discarded at nineteen, and it was high time he understood that. If he turned up at the auction tonight, she would give him a piece of her mind. She would tell him exactly how she felt, no punches pulled.
The stone archway was mostly covered in leaves and branches, and a wave of sadness came over her as she fought her way through the tree-covered pathway. The secret lake was still there, and blessedly not completely overgrown with foliage. The stone statues lay sleeping, as though they had been waiting for her return. She ran her fingers along the graceful neck of a marble swan, trying to adjust her eyes to the much softer light.
She didn’t see the broad figure that lay in wait upon one of the stone benches, inhaling sharply when he stood and revealed himself.
‘What are you doing here?’
