Marrying Her Royal Enemy (6 page)

He concluded his conversation with the judge, making his way toward the dance floor, attempting to corral his temper while he was at it. It was tradition that the engaged couple kicked off the dancing, but since his fiancée had been out on the terrace with Cassandra Liatos, a collision he hadn’t been able to prevent, then taken to the dance floor with Aristos, he’d had to cool his heels while his event planner continued to look as if she might burst a blood vessel.

He was also feeling as if he might burst a blood vessel at his fiancée’s latest rebellion. He caught her hand as she walked off the dance floor with Aristos and the look of careless disregard on her face sent his blood pressure up another ten points.

“That line I was talking about earlier,” he murmured in her ear as he directed her to the side of the dance floor. “We’re fast approaching it.”

She turned near violet eyes on him. “What happens when we do? Will you
discipline
me?”

“The thought is vastly appealing.”

Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t lay a hand on me.”

“No, I wouldn’t. Not in anger. There are many forms of discipline,
yineka mou
. I would find an appropriate one for you.”

A layer of heat stained her perfect skin. Dropping her chin, she leveled a heated glance at him. “You
knew
she would be here and you didn’t tell me.”

“Cassandra?”

“Yes.”

“She was on the guest list. I knew you’d see it. I didn’t see the point in rehashing the whole subject again.”

“Rehashing it?”
She stared at him. “My brother died when that car plunged off the cliffs. Excuse me for wanting the whole story.”

“I’ve apologized. I’ve told you the story, Stella. It needs to be finished.”

She set her hands on her hips. “Were you afraid I would discover she’s still in love with you? Are
you
still in love with
her
, Kostas? I’d like to know the lay of the land before I walk into this marriage. Will there be three of us in it?”

“No,” he said flatly. “I am not in love with her. I told you it ended at the time. But I am happy to see you care. Maybe there’s hope for us yet.”

“I don’t
care
,” she growled. “I am more concerned with being humiliated.”

But she did. He could see it in the green-eyed jealousy consuming her. It filled him with a supreme sense of satisfaction as the bandleader gave them the signal to take to the dance floor. Wrapping his fingers around hers, he led her to the center of the space that had been cleared for them. “Perhaps you should concern yourself instead with the fact that it is Carnelian tradition that we kiss during the first dance, and since everyone will be waiting for it, we’d better do a convincing job.”

Her eyes flew to his as he curved an arm around her waist and laced his fingers through hers to pull her close. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“Ask yourself that,
paidi mou
, and I’m sure you’ll come up with the answer.”

Her skin paled. “Stop using those ridiculous endearments. They hardly suit us.”

“I beg to differ.” He directed her through the first steps of the dance. “I think they are perfect.”

She was stiff, but there was undeniable fire beneath his fingers. He could feel the pulse of her fury, sense the scattered direction of her thoughts as she looked for a way out of the inevitability to come.

“Perhaps you should just enjoy it.”

“Perhaps I should close my eyes and channel a former lover. Think about someone I actually
want
to kiss. It would provide far more inspiration than the thought of kissing you.”

Heat flared under his skin, jealousy rocking him hard. A tight smile twisted his lips as he closed his fingers around hers and drew her closer. “Refuse me, Stella, deny how you feel, but don’t ever,
ever
, tell me lies.”

Fury drove him as he clasped his fingers around her jaw and brought his mouth down on hers in a kiss that stamped his possession all over her. That made it clear to anyone in the room, to
her
, that he was the only one who would touch her this way. To expose her lies for what they were.

Stiff at first, she yielded only enough to cover up the animosity swirling between them. But then the kiss morphed, changed into something entirely different. Her soft, tempting mouth beneath his threw him back ten years to another kiss, another time, when her belief in him had been a shining light in the darkness that had consumed him. Reminded him who she was. The woman who had stood on those stairs outside with him tonight and prompted him to seize the moment. The woman who had agreed to take a massive leap with him with the ending yet unknown.

Gentling the kiss, he exercised a more persuasive possession. His thumb at her jaw stroked its way across her satiny skin, his hand at her waist drew her into the heat they generated. A tiny, animalistic sound emerged from her throat as he angled his mouth across hers, lips sliding over lush, sacred territory, caressing her with a reverential touch that demonstrated her potent effect on him.

A sigh left her lips as she gave in, mouth softening, parting for him. He claimed her then with a kiss that was pure in its origins, both of them giving of themselves without reservation, hot and sweet all at the same time. A shudder went through her, vibrating its way along his nerve endings. It caught him off guard. Tapped something deep and latent in him, claimed
him
in a way he hadn’t expected.

For a brief moment in time, oblivious to the hundreds of people in the room, the truth existed between them. That this...
this
had always been right.

CHAPTER FIVE

S
TELLA
BLINKED
AS
Kostas lifted his head from hers, the blinding spotlights on the dance floor flickering in her eyes as she attempted to focus. Her palms were damp, her knees weak, and her heart thrummed in her chest as the undeniable affects of his kiss reverberated through her.

That had been a full-on, five-star Robert Doisneau kiss right there, rolled up in some Mary Poppins magic. The kind she couldn’t have fought no matter how hard she’d tried, because this was Kostas delivering it, the man whose kiss she’d measured all others against. Jessie had been right about that.

Her fluttering heart plummeted to the toes of her Christian Louboutin shoes. She’d been fooling herself all these years hoping she could find that magic with someone else because it had only ever been Kostas who could inspire it.

The stomach-churning realization settled over her as she unlocked her gaze from the man throwing her into confusion and attempted to wrestle her composure back as catcalls and applause broke out around them.

“Pulling out the big guns, Kostas?”

“If I was pulling out the big
guns
, we certainly wouldn’t be standing on the dance floor,” he returned with a velvety soft composure that made her crazy. “I’ll save that for when you finally admit how you feel.”

She had no smart comeback for that because she was quite sure her feelings were still plastered across her face. She focused on Nik and Sofía instead. They had joined them on the dance floor, along with a dozen other couples. She moved her gaze elsewhere when her brother’s amused expression sent another wave of heat to her cheeks.

She and Kostas had been dancing the night of her mother’s birthday party all those years ago, the night she’d made her big mistake with him. Her dream of becoming a lawyer in tatters, the fury and frustration she’d been trying to hold in all night overcoming her, and Kostas had seemed to be the only one to recognize her misery.

He’d pulled her off the dance floor and out to the library so she could collect herself. Except alone in the library, their attraction toward each other had caught fire after a summer spent dancing around it. Kostas had just arrived home, fresh from flight school in California with Athamos, taking his place as a captain in the Carnelian navy, a
man
when all the others had been boys. A man with an edge that turned her heart and hormones upside down.

Even among all the female adulation he’d engendered with his aloof, unattainable air, he’d always made time for her. Had always
listened
to her. When he’d kissed her in the library, she’d been sure she’d met her soul mate. Everything in her miserable, lonely existence had felt better, the pain of having her self-determination stripped away replaced by the heart-pounding excitement of being in Kostas’s arms.

For a brief moment in that painful adolescence, she had felt whole, as if she hadn’t been missing some crucial piece that made her so unlovable. So defective she could never seem to do anything right. She’d waited for Kostas in his bed, thinking he’d be thrilled to find her there after the kiss they’d shared that had felt like a revelation. Instead, he’d shattered her heart with the callous, mortifying dismissal he’d administered.

Her eyelids squeezing closed, she banished the memory to the recycle bin of her mind and this time she
would
empty it. She was no longer that hopelessly naive, vulnerable girl looking for a fairy tale that didn’t exist. For a man who didn’t exist. So Kostas had caught her off guard with that kiss... She just needed to try harder to channel the impenetrability she aspired to.

Her emotions too close to the surface, she stayed silent during the rest of the dance. Completed the remainder of her obligatory turns around the spotlighted floor in the same self-protective state until it was finally time to wish their guests farewell.

She stood by Kostas on the front steps of the castle and waved everyone off as the early hours ticked by on the clock. After a nightcap with Nik, Sofía, Alex, Aristos and her fiancé in the Gothic-inspired conservatory, she went to bed. Except as tired as she was, she kept staring at the ceiling of the creepy, dark room.

So it turned out the remnants of her old crush were actually a dangerous adult attraction toward a man she was realizing she may have vastly misjudged, a far more dangerous proposition than the first. Her defense strategy for this marriage remained the same. She needed to take her attraction to Kostas and banish it to the deep, dark place she harbored inside her for the heartbreak she’d accumulated more than her fair share of.

Kissing him in public had been an unforeseen, necessary diversion from the master plan. She wouldn’t have to do it again until their wedding day and that was four whole weeks away. Lots of time to render herself immune to the king.

* * *

The week that followed saw both Stella and Kostas wrapped up in their own separate endeavors. Kostas worked insane hours planning the elections and meeting with foreign investors as he attempted to jump-start Carnelia’s economy with an aggressive modernization plan, while Stella followed up with the contacts she’d made at the engagement party, booking meetings with various charities and organizations she wanted to get involved with.

She wanted to dig in, to discover the issues Carnelians faced after decades of King Idas’s totalitarian rule. What she found was disheartening. The people were suffering both emotionally and economically, leaving them bruised and battered, cynical and distrustful. It was going to take a great deal of time and hard work to heal them and put this country back together.

On Friday, she returned home from a meeting with the head of the largest social services charity to find Kostas walking in the door at the same time. Powerful and compelling in a dark navy suit and red tie, the lines bracketing his eyes and mouth revealed the pressure he was under to repair this broken country with so many opposing forces in play. The dark, intense aura somehow managed to make him even more dangerously attractive.

They’d been like two ships passing in the night, but when they did manage to sit down together for a quick meal there was an ever-present and unresolved tension between them. Neither of them had forgotten that kiss. They were simply choosing to avoid it.

“Long day?” She attempted a polite, even interaction.

He set down his briefcase, raked a hand through his thick, dark hair and focused his tawny gaze on her. “Exceedingly long. I thought I’d unearth a bottle of good burgundy from the cellar, since we’re staying in tonight. We can sit down to a civilized dinner for once. A date if you like.”

Her nerve endings tingled. “Aren’t we a bit past that?”

His catlike eyes hardened. “We are getting married in three weeks, Stella. We need to spend some time together, learn how to interact, get to know each other better. So no, I don’t think we’re past it. I think it’s perfect timing.”

The rebuke rippled across her skin. “All right,” she said, lifting a hand to slide her bag off her shoulder. “I will go and get changed. A power suit puts me in a particular frame of mind.”

An amused glint entered his gaze. “So what will you change into,
yineka mou
? Your agreeable, soft, feminine side? If so, I’m all for it.”

“I’m not sure I have that.”

“Oh, you do, Stella.” His sleek, sensual rejoinder slid down her spine like silk. “All it takes is the right mood to bring it out.”

With that kiss that had brought her to her knees far too fresh in her mind still, she cocked her chin at a defiant angle. “Is that your specialty, Kostas, with all those women you collected? Wining and dining them so you unearthed their
soft, agreeable sides
?”

He lifted a shoulder. “Sometimes it required dinner, sometimes not. But since you are my fiancée, your presence at dinner is
my
pleasure.”

Thee mou
, but he was arrogant. It didn’t stop her head from going to that story Athamos had told her—of Kostas setting his attention on a particular woman in a bar near the base where they’d trained at Miramar. The rumor went that he’d had her outside against the back of the bar—no dinner needed there. The woman, according to Athamos, had returned to the bar with a very satisfied look on her face.

“Stella?”

She blinked. “Sorry?”

“I’ll meet you in the dining room.”

Mouth tight, she climbed the stairs to her room. Deliberately picking out the furthest thing from what could be considered sexy attire, she dressed in black leggings and a loose-fitting, gypsy-style blouse she loved. Kostas’s gaggle of women might have been easy targets, but she was
not
.

* * *

Kostas registered Stella’s reappearance with amusement. If she thought the outfit she had on less than
agreeable
, she was mistaken. The leggings emphasized the long sweep of her elegant legs to perfection, providing a tantalizing glimpse of firm, toned thighs and smooth hips, just enough to fill a man’s hands. The turquoise blouse, while covering her fully, was sheer enough to hint at the delectable curves beneath.

Blood headed south fast, something that hadn’t happened since before he’d left for Tibet. In his quest to find himself, his guru had preached abstinence as the path to clarity. Having had no desire to have a woman, it had been an easy practice to follow. But not now. Not with his sexy fiancée baiting him at every turn.

Right now, with the frustration and tension of the day throbbing through him, finding an empty room, backing her up against a wall, wrapping Stella’s beautiful legs around his waist and solving this friction between them exactly as she’d suggested that night in her suite held great appeal.
Hot, hard and fast.

Unfortunately, he conceded, as he picked up his fiancée’s wineglass and filled it as she sat down beside him, he couldn’t do that. Ensuring his fiancée thawed enough to make this partnership of theirs a viable proposition was his goal tonight. Figuring out what had made her so cynical, so
brittle
, was a big part of that. Hot sex was not.

“So,” he said as she gave him a wary look, “tell me about your day.”

She took a sip of her wine. Cradled the glass in her palms. “Almost all of the RSVPs for the wedding are in. I’m shocked at how many can make it, almost three-quarters of those we invited.”

“They are curious. Curious to see if this Camelot they have invoked is the real thing.”

Her mouth twisted in that sexy, slightly crooked smile that had always fascinated him.
Turned him on.
“Now to live up to such an ideal.”

“Not possible—that’s why it’s a myth.”

She lifted a shoulder. “This afternoon I met with Theda Demarchis. She offered to give me a tour of the various charities her organization runs. We saw two of them this afternoon.”

“The system is not in good shape, I know. My father drove the country into the ground before he died. Used far too much of the public funds to tighten the reins on the people, for his security, rather than to help them prosper. I’ve been returning what I can to organizations like Theda’s, but the funds we receive from the foreign investment will be the real key.”

Her mouth pursed. “It was sad, to see how this once proud country has diminished. There are so many who need help, so many who have suffered so greatly.”

A knot formed in his gut. At his failure to stop his father. At allowing it to get this far. “It is painful to see,” he agreed. “But slowly it will get better. The foreign investment, the hotel developments, will also create jobs. Unemployment is a big problem.”

“Speaking of which.” She pressed her wineglass to her chin. “I had a cappuccino in town after my meeting. The proprietor of the café sat down at my table, worried the hotels are going to obstruct his view and take away business.”

He shrugged. “They might. This isn’t about one store owner’s view, it’s about revitalizing the nation’s economy.”

“Yes, but he isn’t
just
one person. He’s an influential voice in the community. He sees the townspeople every day, talks to them, tells them what he thinks.”

“So what did
you
tell him?”

“That more tourists means more business for him.”

“Exactly how he needs to view it.” He shook his head. “I think, somehow, the people are looking for roses and sunshine from me, when what they really need is actual solutions to their problems.”

She frowned. “Three generations of that man’s family have run that café, Kostas. It’s the best view in town. I’m not saying there are easy answers, I’m not saying change is going to come easily for people or that you can accommodate all of their requests, but perhaps you can accommodate some. In this instance, perhaps, keep the buildings low-rise like we have in Akathinia.” She lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip. “I told him to write you a letter.”

“A
letter
?”

“Yes. And you will answer it. You saw the night of our engagement party how much distrust and cynicism exists among the people. The only way you are going to win your people back is to show them the empathy and care your father never did. Prove to them they can trust you.”

His mouth flattened. “They also need to trust
me
. Let me do my job. If I get mired down in what every café owner thinks, I’ll never get anything accomplished.”

She shook her head. “You need to choose your key influencers carefully. Those closest to the people. That café owner is one of them. You need to listen to him.”

* * *

Stella watched Kostas over the rim of her wineglass as the salad was served. She was pushing him, but he needed it. His default mode was to know everything, to fix Carnelia’s problems the most efficient way he knew, but that wasn’t going to work here. He couldn’t be a one-man show.

However, a man like Kostas, so utterly sure in his opinions, needed to find his own way to the truth.

They managed to pass the meal in a distinctly civilized fashion. By the time it was through, the excellent wine and the chance to relax had her feeling distinctly mellow.