Page 13 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
“You would rather believe what Francois has told you?” Felipe idly picked a rose.
“I wouldn’t believe him if he told me the earth was round,” she muttered.
“Which is why I’m willing to align with you. My enemy’s enemy is my friend.” Felipe brought her the rose and offered it in the cup of his hand.
The stem was so short, there were no thorns. It was a beautiful blossom on the verge of opening. Each petal held bright yellow in its center that faded to peach and finally an intense pink at the furled edges.
It felt like an agreement of sorts to accept the rose, but it was too beautiful to refuse. She gathered it in her two hands, like scooping water, and found the brush of his palm against her knuckles disturbing. She brought the bloom to her nose where the soft, cool petals caressed her lips and the fragrance of nectarine and tea filled her nostrils.
“Do you really wish to slink back to Stella Vista, collect your things and fly home? And leave your friends to discover for themselves that Francois is a predator while you look after your mother on a shoestring?”
“I can’t be paid to tell the truth.” She lowered the rose into her lap. “That’s wrong. If it came to light, it would completely undermine my claims. People would say you had bought my testimony.” She stared at the fountain, feeling responsibility pouring onto her like the weight of that water, layer upon layer until she could hardly breathe. “I have to come forward. I know that. All of this...” She waved at the labyrinth and its singular path into its predetermined, unavoidable destination. “This was me coming to terms with the inevitable.”
“It has that effect, doesn’t it?” He tucked his hands into his pockets as he sent a contemplative look at the maze.
“I need time to gather my strength, though. I can’t do it right now.” It was going to be awful.Soawful. She would stay here forever if she could, inside the peace of a decision made, rather than travel out to execute it.
“Do you want me to help you? Carry you?”
He sounded solicitous, but his objective was to get the result he wanted. For some reason, that put a sting of tears on the edges of her eyelids.
“I can manage.” She stood and turned toward the opening in the hedge, but swayed.
Instantly, he was in front of her, cradling her elbow in support.
She set her hand in the crook of his bent arm, tired and overwhelmed and needing to lean on his strength a moment.
His free hand skimmed down her hair, leaving a tingling path from her scalp over her ear, into the side of her neck and down her shoulder.
She jerked her head back, partly fearful, partly...something else. She was tall, almost six feet. He was taller. Tall enough to look down his nose at her.
“A butterfly was looking for a place to land.”
She touched her hair.
“It’s on the roses.” He nodded.
She looked at the small yellow creature slowly fanning its wings as it sipped nectar.
“Are you afraid of me, Claudine?”
Yes.It was a visceral answer from the depths of her being, but even as she thought it, her gaze clashed back into his and her heart turned over.
Sheshouldbe afraid of him. More afraid than she really was.
Last night, with Francois, her inner alarms had been going off like mad from the time he had suggested the speedboat. She had ignored them, telling herself she was being silly. Francois was only trying to be nice.
Francois was not nice and neither was Felipe.
But Felipe wasn’t trying to convince her he was nice. Nor was he being cruel. And even though logic was telling her to be cautious about trusting him, her inner alarms were rattled for other reasons. He had had ample opportunity to hurt her physically, but he hadn’t.
No, the sting of danger in her nostrils was emotional wariness. He was slipping very easily past her normal defenses. She wanted to blame what she’d been through for making her feel weak and susceptible to him. It was probably a factor, but there was more at play. She was attracted to him.
Not justWow, he’s hot. It went deeper toWho is he, really?
He was making her long for things she had held at bay most of her life. Like most people, she carried an intrinsic desire to be loved, but she knew it was a double-edged sword. With love came the risk of loss. Loss of autonomy and self and the other person.
“You’re safe with me. I hope you believe that.” He set a crooked finger under her chin and tilted her face up to his.
