Page 28 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
INITIALLY,THECONSULTATIONin Paris was overwhelming, given it was a much higher octave than what Claudine was used to. She often met with a designer, but usually only for a few minutes. She was occasionally invited to a fashion show and had a good sense of what styles made the most of her attributes. She understood the finer points, too. Some pageants wanted a glamorous look while others wanted something sexier.
Despite all of that, she wasn’t prepared for two hours of presentations by world-class designers, each offering a portfolio that outlined their particular strengths and forecasts for future trends.
It struck her that she wasn’t shopping for a few outfits. She was curating a wardrobe for a princess. That was a tremendous responsibility. She was relieved when Felipe entered the room.
Everyone stood.
Were they supposed to do that? Claudine rose, too, warming with that infernal suffusion of awareness whenever her fiancé was nearby. He came to buss her cheek with his lips, filling her senses with the sharp aroma of his aftershave.
“How goes the battle?” he asked.
“Everyone is enormously talented.” She sent a reassuring smile around the room, wanting to convey that she was pleased with everything she’d seen and hoped to include everyone.
“But?”
A small jolt went through her. She flashed a look up to him. How had he sensed this small conflict in her?
“Everyone has presented a strong theme. Elegant, classic, dignified, sophisticated.” She nodded at different sketches. “It’s a matter of deciding which is the right direction to lean into.”
He scanned the images with a more thoughtful expression.
Claudine waited for him to make a pronouncement for her, but he only said, “There’s nothing here to quarrel with. All of them are appropriate for the wife of a future king.”
“That’s my concern.” She tapped her lips. “It looks as though I’m trying too hard to prove I belong. If I doubt it, others will, too. I need to convey all of those things, but there needs to be a broader, overarching theme that...” She searched for a way to convey what seemed to be missing.
“An astute observation.” Felipe’s gaze on her altered, warming with admiration.
Holding his stare caused her to blush. She shyly lowered her lashes.
“Romanzesco,”the Nazarinian designer murmured.“Amore.”
“Mais bien sûr,”another agreed in a tone of discovery.
Now the designers were all looking at each other and nodding. “She is his future queen because they are in love.”
“Oh. I—” Claudine nearly strangled on her own tongue.
“Shh. You’ve given them the key. Let them unlock it,” he whispered in her ear, trailing his lips into her neck and sending a shiver chasing down her spine.
There was a curl of cynicism at the corner of his mouth when he lifted his head, though. His caress on her jaw was both tender and ironic. He lightly tilted up her chin and dropped a kiss on her lips before nodding and walking out again.
“This is our only free night,” Felipe had told her an hour ago, when she had finished her meetings with the designers. “Once we get to New York, we’ll have engagements every night. You’ll want to see your mother and you’ll be busy with hiring your staff. Let’s go out for dinner. Have a date.”
Technically, it was her second public appearance as his fiancée, but the pressure to make the right impression was enormous. She chose a silver gray sheath with contoured ruching that had the sex appeal of a feminine silhouette without being outright sexy.
Its three-quarter hem covered her healing scrapes without hiding them completely. The one on her arm was visible through the lace on her sleeve if someone cared to look hard enough. She didn’t want to advertise her injuries, but she refused to pretend they hadn’t happened.
She arranged her hair in a soft twist with a few loose tendrils and kept her makeup subtle. The bruise on her cheek was all but gone.
“You look beautiful,” Felipe said when she nervously presented herself. “If naked.”
“Wha—? Oh.” A flutter of nervousness had her touching her bare throat as he presented a flat, book-sized velvet case.
She opened the case expecting a necklace, but not one so charming and pretty. The extravagant arrangement of pink and white diamonds made a full circle. The pink stones were all approximately the same size, but cut in different shapes of square, round and pear shapes. Each was framed in glittering white diamonds.
“It’s beautiful.” She didn’t insult him by asking if it was real. “Will you?” She turned.
The necklace descended before her eyes and the cool weight of it settled against her collarbone. His fingertips tickled at the top of her spine, then his warm mouth touched her nape, nearly taking out her knees. The man was diabolical!
