Page 32 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
“You’re still worried that I might be carrying Francois’s—”
“No,” he said firmly. “But a pregnancy test is probably a good idea. The pageants might discourage you from having relationships, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any men in your recent past, does it?”
“I’ve actually never had a man in my ‘past,’” she snapped, putting air quotes around the word. “Recently or otherwise.”
For a moment, he was uncharacteristically speechless.
“Am I understanding you correctly?” he asked with genuine astonishment. “Are you saying you’ve never had intercourse? How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.” She glared at him with resentment at his questioning her, but it was so incredibly unusual in this day and age, he genuinely couldn’t grasp it.
“But you’re a very passionate person. Have you had lovers whoaren’tmen?”
“Oh my God! This is why women can’t win. If we have sex, we’re sluts. If we don’t, we’re liars. Thanks for alovelyevening.” She slammed the bedroom door behind her.
That wasn’t what he’d been saying at all. He was tempted to go after her and tell her that, but he’d got what he wanted, hadn’t he? Sex was definitely off the table.
Before her bath, Claudine used the translation app on her phone to ask Ippolita to get her a pregnancy test.
She left the negative result on the back of the toilet for Felipe to find when he rose the next morning, still furious with him.
Maybe if she had actually thrown it in his face there would have been some satisfaction in it, but as it was, she only felt falsely accused. Used. She had felt helpless to his caresses last night, which had been okay when she had thought he had merely stopped because the car had, but the way he had touched her so intimately, then seemed completely unaffected by the experience kept striking as a hot iron of shame deep in her belly. She was already in an unequal position with him. That had only driven his superiority home in the worst possible way.
“That wasn’t necessary,” he said blithely about the test when he joined her for breakfast. “I believed you.”
She snorted, not believingthat.
His phone dinged and he glanced at it. “Vinicio would like to go over some résumés with you, but that can wait until we’re in the air.”
Her heart lurched. “I like Ippolita.” Had she got her maid into trouble, asking for that test?
“You’ll need a full staff of your own since a number of royal duties and foundations will fall under your purview. You won’t be idle.”
“Oh.” She pondered that. She liked the idea of learning about different charities and initiatives, playing ambassador for a good cause, but after last night, she was teetering in and out of thinking she had made a horrible mistake by agreeing to marry him.
On the one hand, she shimmered in echoes of the profound pleasure that had gripped her as she had clung to him, convulsing in his lap. It had been everything he had promised and more, but she couldn’t recollect her pleasure without the fires of embarrassment also trying to engulf her. The way he had so easily rebuffed her afterward kept slapping her in the face, forcing her to realize how enormous the power imbalance was between them.
Maybe when they got to New York, she would just break things off and stay there.
The scrape of her spoon into her bowl of yogurt suddenly seemed very loud.
She glanced up to find Felipe watching her shrewdly. Her heart lurched with the sense that he had read her thoughts.
“You’re still upset with me,” he said.
“Of course not,” she lied coolly. “Why would I be?” She rose. “I have to finalize with the designers before we go. Excuse me.”
He caught her hand as she tried to brush past him.
She paused to look down on him, not pulling away because—damn her soul—she liked the feel of his thumb sliding over the inside of her wrist, even though he could probably feel her pulse tripping.
“You can’t walk away every time a conversation becomes uncomfortable. We’ll never speak,” he said dryly. “I thought you were being overly sensitive last night, but I’ve since realized your inexperience made our lovemaking take on more meaning for you.”
“I’m not being overly sensitive.” How humiliating. She tried to pull away, but he held on, not rough about it, simply conveying an urge for her to continue listening.
“You’re upset because you allowed me more liberties than you’ve ever allowed any man and I didn’t seem to appreciate that. I do now.”
She twisted free of his grip.
