“He’s still watching us go.”
Noelle’s nerves were frayed by the tension. “How do you expect me to respond to that?” she snapped, her tone harsh. As soon as the words were out she hunched her shoulders. “I’m sorry. The man gets to me.”
“From the way he was looking at you tonight, you get to him, as well.”
Geoff probably meant for his words to reassure her. Instead, she just barely resisted the urge to drop her face into her hands and moan in misery. The last thing she needed was to speculate whether Christian’s interest in marrying her was motivated by anything other than expediency.
“You’re supposed to be the sensible voice that tells me not to get involved with Christian.” Noelle sighed, predicting a long sleepless night ahead. “I need to keep my head clear and my emotions on ice until he gives up on the idea of marrying me.”
“You don’t think he bought that we’re madly in love and destined to live happily-ever-after?” Geoff’s wry inflection had serious undertones. Earlier that day he’d tried to talk her out of her gambit, but she’d been too panicky to listen.
“Maybe at first.”
“I thought I played the part of your ardent suitor very well.”
“You did.” The flaw in the plan lay solely at her doorstep. How could she pretend to be in love with Geoff if her heart still fluttered when Christian was near? With a woeful sigh she surrendered to the inevitable.
Noelle grasped the enormous diamond and slid the ring from her finger. It was a relief to take the clumsy thing off. She might have handled the weight better if she didn’t feel so much regret about dragging Geoff into her schemes.
With one corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile, Geoff took the ring and popped it into his breast pocket. “And just like that I’m a single man again.”
“It was my fault he saw through us. I shouldn’t have attempted to trick him. He’s far too astute for that. He’s probably already had you checked out and knows we’re not together.”
Geoff’s expression turned serious. “Your openness and honesty are what everyone loves about you. Don’t let Christian turn you into someone you’re not. Be honest with him about your fears for Marc.”
At the moment Noelle wasn’t feeling remotely honest or lovable. She was an anxious mother ready to defend her child through whatever devious or dirty means necessary.
“Are you sure the prince isn’t sincere about wanting a relationship with Marc?”
“I don’t know.” Her heart had a different opinion, but Noelle couldn’t trust the poor, misguided thing. “I’d feel better about it if he wasn’t under pressure to produce an heir.”
For five long years, a tiny, hopeful part of her had been waiting for Christian to appear on her doorstep the way he used to when they were together. Each year her optimism had dimmed until only a minute speck of it remained. Now he wanted back in her life. Not because he missed her or realized she was his soul mate, but because she’d given birth to his son, and Marc was a quick fix for his current predicament.
“You seem to have forgotten that you and Marc are a package deal.” Geoff took his eyes off the road and shot her a somber glance. “The only way Marc becomes his heir is if he’s legitimate. Which means Christian needs to marry you.”
To her shame the thought sent a wanton burst of anticipation ripping through her. The way her stomach clenched was both familiar and unwelcome. She hated her body’s involuntary reaction because that meant she was susceptible to the abundant tools in Christian’s sexual arsenal.
She extended her hand, palm up. “You’re right. Please return my ring. The engagement is back on.”
Geoff shook his head, making no move to oblige her. “I’ll not be jilted by you twice. You’re going to have to sort out your issues with Christian without resorting to any more ill-advised schemes.”
Five
Christian paced before the French doors that led from the green drawing room to the extensive garden at the back of the palace. He tugged his left sleeve down over his watch. During the past fifteen minutes, the movement had become a nervous tick as he’d checked the time every twenty seconds or so. Noelle and Marc were late to the meeting she’d finally agreed to. The waiting was eating away the last of Christian’s calm.
He decided to take his agitation out on Gabriel. “I still can’t believe you’ve known that I had a son and didn’t tell me.”
From his spot on the emerald-colored sofa in the center of the room, the crown prince of Sherdana glanced up from his smartphone, unruffled by his brother’s aggressive tone. “Olivia and I suspected. We didn’t know for sure. And until the DNA tests come back, you don’t, either.”
Christian snorted in reply as he continued his path back and forth across the eighteenth-century carpet. The aimless movement wasn’t improving his situation, so he stopped before his brother and scowled at him.
“He’s my son. He has the Alessandro eyes and looks the way we did at four.” Although the triplets weren’t identical, as children they’d been enough alike in appearance to confuse strangers.
“So now you know.” Gabriel’s lips curved into a challenging smile. “What happens next?”
“I get to know my son.”
From the speed with which his brother’s attention returned to his phone, Gabriel hadn’t approved of Christian’s offhanded response. Irritation spread from his chest to his gut.
“What?” he demanded.
“You’ve always played it just a little too safe where relationships were concerned.”
“And you haven’t?”
It wasn’t a fair criticism. Gabriel had fallen hard for Marissa Somme, the deceased mother of his twin two-year-old daughters. But unlike Christian, Gabriel was first in line to the Sherdanian throne and put duty above all else. From the moment he’d begun the affair with the half-French, half-American model, Gabriel had known it must end. Sherdana’s constitution decreed that in order for his son to rule the country one day, the child’s mother had to be either a European aristocrat or a Sherdanian citizen.
Marissa had been neither, and Gabriel had ended the relationship. At the time he hadn’t known he was going to be a father. That bomb had been dropped on him weeks before he was to marry Lady Olivia Darcy. Her British ancestry made her an exceptional candidate for princess. Or that’s the way it had appeared until her fertility issues had made her unsuitable to be Gabriel’s wife.
When Gabriel didn’t respond to his brother’s ineffectual gibe, Christian continued. “What do you want from me?”
“An heir would be nice.”
“Nice.” Christian practically spit the word. Nice didn’t describe the pressure his family had put upon him once Gabriel married a woman who could never bear children and Nic had announced his intention to make an American his wife. “You think I should marry Noelle.”
That he’d already intended to do just that didn’t lessen Christian’s annoyance. He was sick of everyone telling him what to do.
“It’s about time you put the needs of this family and this country above your own.”
