Page 17 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
“Oh?” Francois narrowed his eyes while their mother blinked in surprise.
“Oh?” their father asked in a tone that demanded more information.
It was an impulsive declaration, one that was also cold and calculated, but Felipe had learned to trust his instincts.
Right now, all his instincts said,Claudine.
Claudine woke feeling significantly better.
Her laundered underthings had been delivered along with refreshments and a selection of clothing from—presumably—Felipe’s closet.
She rolled up the cuffs of his pin-striped shirt to expose her wrists and tied the tails of it at her waist. His gray trousers needed cinching with a braided leather belt that allowed the tongue to go in anywhere. Once she had tied her hair back with a handkerchief, she felt almost like her old self.
Then she stepped out of her room and remembered she was still a very long way from “normal.”
“The Prince asked me to show you to the infirmary,” the guard said. “Please follow me.”
The Prince. The one who had asked if she wanted him to kiss her, then had swept away every thought in her head. His kiss had broken a spell she hadn’t known she was under. She wasn’t a particularly passionate person. Or hadn’t been. Not before he had awakened her senses and lit fires of bright, physical yearnings inside her.
I’m not averse to something more personal developing between us...
He had cast a spell with that same kiss, making her think that she wanted something intimate with him. That she was capable of matching him in that way.
You have more strength and power than you realize.
She didn’t, though! They occupied very different stratospheres and that was only the beginning of their inequalities. He was simply too much in every way. Too masculine, too powerful, too hard. Too hot. She might be pretty, but he radiated the raw beauty of lightning and hurricanes and comets crashing into planets.
He had probably meant she was powerful in terms of the damage she could do to his brother. In that respect, she felt like a pawn, one that Felipe was willing to sacrifice for his own ends.
No, she was susceptible to him because he was an accomplished seducer. Anything “more personal” would be pure self-destruction, so she would steer clear of it.
The doctor pronounced she was “healing nicely,” cautioned her to keep her fluids up and gave her another headache tablet for her various aches.
From there, she wandered the gallery, taking in the sculptures and paintings of former rulers—how strange to realize she wasn’t in a museum. This was the Prince’s family album.
Amused by that thought, she turned down a hallway dedicated to portraits of one bygone queen in particular, shown with her many children at different ages. She looked...defiant?
Claudine found herself studying the one where she sat behind her husband, her hand resting on his shoulder. Claudine looked into the eyes of that hard-faced man, searching for some sign of Felipe or Francois, but they seemed to have inherited their looks from her, not him.
Yes. Felipe might not have anything feminine about him, but he had this Queen’s same unflinching stare and enigmatic expression.
“Here you are,” Felipe said.
She nearly leaped out of her skin, gasping and clutching at her heart as though she’d been caught with the family jewels in her hands.
“You didn’t hear the helicopter return?” he asked with amusement, coming to stand beside her. “Or my voice just now, asking where to find you?”
“No.” She rubbed the goose bumps from her arms as she sent a wary look at him.
Felipe studied the image of the woman looking down on them.
“Giulia. My father’s grandmother. She was held here on the island. Did you know that?”
“No.” Claudine had read a little of the kingdom’s history, but had mostly researched its pop culture and trends, finding that was the best way to bring an audience onto her side.
“Sentinella’s isolation makes a perfect holding cell. Pirates stored gold here at different times. That booty was claimed by my ancestors when they took possession of the rest of the islands.” He quirked his mouth as he glanced at her. “The sailors in our navies were always very loyal while stationed here, since the alternative was a longer swim than yours last night. For a time, it was a monastery. The monks built the labyrinth. Then my great-great-grandfather kicked them out when he ensconced Giulia here.” He nodded at the Queen. “She was not warming to their arranged marriage. He kept her here until she had given him two sons. They didn’t arrive right away. She bore him four daughters as well.” He pointed at the portrait of the Queen with all six of her children. “She was here for twenty years.”
“That’s awful.”
