His Royal Bride Replacement

Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

In advaVAnce of her, Alessio moved down the worn, steep, twisting steps to the beach, one hand on hers to guide her every step of the way.

Rosy heaved a sigh but made no complaint. If he wanted to behave as though she would trip over her own feet, she would let him. Even so, it was rather uplifting to be the source of that much care and attention from a guy. Alessio, in fact, bent his entire concentration on her and it was a new and rather intoxicating experience for Rosy, who was much more accustomed to men who elbowed her in the ribs and treated her with hearty sexlessness as though she were a mate. But Alessio, it only slowly dawned on her, was her husband , which presumably explained why he was so over-the-top protective of her.

They arrived on the sand and she immediately kicked off her shoes, letting her toes flex as they walked towards the blankets already spread across the sand in the shelter of the cliff. He took her hand and guided her over to a rocky outcrop that jutted out to point out the shallow cave behind it. ‘You can change in there if you need to.’

A heap of towels sat beside the blankets. ‘How did these get here?’ she asked.

‘Security put them down for us and delivered lunch and drinks for us.’

‘I brought snacks for lunch.’

‘But this is supposed to be a honeymoon and I don’t want you feeling that you have to do all the catering,’ Alessio responded smoothly, watching as she whipped off her tee shirt and dropped her shorts with a remarkable lack of self-consciousness before racing down to the shoreline, a lithe, slender silhouette captured against the bright sunlight.

He watched her walking through the surf and then dancing into the waves like a water sprite, her glorious hair fanning round her and glinting in every shade from red to copper to gold. Absolutely gorgeous. No supermodel could have held his attention more closely. He breathed in deep and slow and shed his tee, watching her wade deeper into the water with an obvious sense of freedom and assurance. He wanted her, no doubt about that, but he wasn’t an idiot with women either. He assumed that they had to learn how to function as a couple before he let his libido control him.

He joined her to wash away the heat of the day and waved her away from the rocks where the currents were strong until she finally turned back towards the shore. Clambering upright, she stumbled as a wave hit her legs and Alessio laughed and closed his hand over hers to raise her up and steady her.

‘I forgot how much I loved it here,’ he admitted, disconcerting her.

‘Then why did you wait over twenty years to come back?’ she asked, watching water stream down his lean, broad, bronzed chest, trickling through the smattering haze of black hair, noting almost involuntarily the intriguing arrow of dark hair heading down from below his navel to disappear beneath his waistband. Cheeks burning, she raised her gaze guiltily to collide with glittering green eyes.

‘Firstly, my parents only came here to please my grandparents. They didn’t do rustic and the simple pleasures. And secondly…’ Alessio’s expressive mouth tightened as he changed tack on a raw note. ‘ Don’t look at me like that if you don’t want me to touch you.’

Flames of mortification and a stricken conscience forced Rosy to drop her gaze again. Inwardly she squirmed because she knew she was sending out confusing signals and naturally he could read her much better than she could read him. Alessio, after all, had the reputation of a heartless womaniser. He had quietened down as he’d moved into his late twenties but he hadn’t acquired his rakish image by accident. Before their wedding, she had done her share of online snooping over that phase of his life and she had seen the pictures of him at parties, on yachts and in exclusive clubs filled with celebrities and socialites. Accompanied by a parade of gorgeous women and often more than one.

‘It’s not that I don’t want you to touch me,’ she said clumsily. ‘It’s just that I wasn’t expecting it at first and I can be a bit awkward with…er…men. Not a lot of experience. So, you were saying about why you haven’t been back here?’ she encouraged, forcing herself to stand her ground in the surf and lift her eyes to his again, pride and determination straightening her spine.

His glorious green eyes glinted in the sunshine and he bent down suddenly to drop a teasing kiss on the tip of her pert nose. ‘You’re not awkward with me, possibly a little shy. Nothing wrong with that except I’m not used to it. But I think I’m beginning to like it,’ he said, directing her back towards their picnic spot and tossing her a towel.

With hands that trembled a little, Rosy towelled herself and gulped down cool water. He liked it? What was she supposed to make of that comment? Deeply self-conscious again, she breathed in deep and slow.

‘I didn’t return because my grandmother had a stroke and passed away here on that last holiday,’ Alessio explained grittily, his lean strong features taut. ‘I was heartbroken. She was the only softness in my life and I still remember my grandfather crying. They were a sincerely happy couple…and then I went upstairs and my parents were having a screaming row.’

‘A…row?’ Rosy queried in surprise.

‘Yes. The Queen’s death put the whole family into official mourning and it meant that my mother couldn’t go to her fashion shows and my father wouldn’t be able to race his yacht that season.’

‘Oh.’ There was a wealth of comprehension in Rosy’s shaken response to those admissions and she reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘That’s very sad.’

Thinking fondly back to his grandparents’ happy marriage, Alessio closed his much larger hand round hers. ‘I think it was the first time I saw my parents as they really were. Two very selfish, shallow people. My father didn’t even attempt to comfort his distraught father. I suspect he saw my grandfather as being in his way by then. He was forty-five and he wanted the throne.’

Rosy winced.

Alessio frowned. ‘But when he took his place a few years later, he was very reluctant to allow his official duties to get in the way of his playboy lifestyle. I don’t intend to follow his example.’

Rosy lay back to enjoy the sunshine, slathered on a little more sunscreen and eventually drifted off into a doze, only to wake up to find Alessio unfurling a parasol over her. ‘Are you ready for some lunch?’ he asked.

‘Maybe.’

Alessio dropped down beside her. ‘And it’s getting late. You’ve been asleep for a while.’

Rosy blinked, realising that the sun had moved and she checked her watch, startled to appreciate that the afternoon was well advanced. ‘You’re right. It’s past lunchtime. You should’ve woken me up.’

‘It’s not a problem. I want us to spend another couple of hours down here. We have people doing stuff back at the cabin.’

‘Stuff?’ Rosy teased with a frown of incomprehension, half sitting up.

‘So, we’ll have lunch now,’ he announced, dragging forward a cool box.

‘Stuff?’ she questioned with amusement again, blue-amethyst eyes dancing.

‘You deserve a surprise, at least a surprise that doesn’t send you running screaming for the hills like this place did when we arrived.’ Alessio grinned. ‘You should’ve seen your face when you saw the rain and the cabin. You were horrified.’

Rosy reddened. ‘Maybe a little.’

‘A little?’ He laced a hand through the still damp and tangled fall of her hair and cupped her neck. ‘May I kiss you, piccola volpe ?’

Rosy nodded nervously.

And their mouths collided, one of her hands rising, fingers splayed to spear into his luxuriant black hair as he caught her to him, his hand curving closely to the nape of her neck. She shivered as the tip of his tongue dallied with hers. As his tongue plunged, it was like a ride up to the heights on a roller coaster and then a sudden steep fall into the kind of passion that was new to her. A piercing ache travelled through her lower body and she felt her nipples tightening, a faint gasp escaping low in her throat.

‘We can’t do this here. I need to work at going slow with you,’ Alessio quipped as he freed her and turned back to the cool box to emerge with an array of elaborate light bites, which he set out before her.

‘You’ve been in touch with the palace!’ Rosy accused in astonishment as she studied the sophisticated selection of tapas.

Evidently, the night before and prior to waking her up, Alessio had driven down the mountain until he got reception on his phone and he had put plans in place then and there. She was impressed because he hadn’t mentioned it and had just got on with it, not that she thought even the Sedovian palace staff could do much in a few hours with a cabin left to go to rack and ruin for years. Hopefully they would at least deliver more food of the same calibre.

‘If the place can be made more comfortable, we can stay a few days before we move on. I did think of shifting us onto my yacht but, unless we stayed out at sea, we wouldn’t get much peace from the paps.’

‘I can manage,’ she declared, content to eat and enjoy the view of the sunlight sparkling off the sea and listen to the soft rush of the surf.

‘Wine?’

‘No, thanks. It’s too warm.’ Rosy paused and then pressed on. ‘I gather your parents weren’t a happy couple.’

‘Well, that’s scarcely a secret. My mother had a habit of making very acid comments to my father in public, which enraged him. She married him for wealth and he married her to have a child.’

‘So, you must’ve been a very much wanted baby.’ She sighed enviously as they ate.

‘ Dio mio , are you kidding? I was wanted in the sense that my father needed an heir, but neither of them had the smallest interest in children. After I was born, they moved into separate wings of the palace and only appeared as a couple after that at official functions and, even then, only when it was necessary. Bearing in mind that they couldn’t stand each other, it was especially ironic that they died together when their plane crashed.’

‘You must’ve been very shocked by that disaster,’ Rosy murmured heavily.

‘I was…but, although they were still officially based at the palace, they hadn’t been part of my life in a long time and I generally only saw them in public. I was given my own household at the age of eight to get me out from under their feet,’ he admitted tautly. ‘We didn’t have close ties.’

‘Eight?’ Rosy stressed. ‘Your own household? What did that mean?’

‘Essentially that I lived apart from my parents with staff who looked after me, and they did. The staff looked after me very well,’ Alessio asserted with appreciation. ‘But, of course, they didn’t act like parents, so I never really knew what that would’ve been like.’

‘You didn’t have a proper family,’ Rosy said wryly. ‘I was much luckier than you with Vittoria and Patrick.’

‘After my parents died, my freedom was at an end. I had to clean my act up because I was under too much scrutiny. I never ever expected to come this close to the throne so young. And it was painfully obvious that everyone was keen for me to find a wife to marry. That’s how I walked blindly into the arrangement with Graziana. It was expected of me, so when she suggested it, I thought, why not? She’s royal, she’s popular, she knows what she’s signing up for.’

‘But there should be much more to a marriage.’

Alessio dealt her an amused glance, sunshine gleaming off the clean lines of his high cheekbones and strong jawline. ‘Do you think I don’t know that? But at the time, she seemed the best option available and I was willing to commit.’

‘So, there was no romantic connection at all?’

‘Romantic isn’t in Graziana’s toolbox.’

‘But it must be if she ran off with her bodyguard.’

‘I still find that hard to believe. She enjoyed her life the way it was. Something I don’t know about must’ve happened,’ he said grimly. ‘And why are we talking about all this? Graziana is old history now. You’re my wife…’

Rosy winced. ‘Well, more sort of…your wife for now .’

‘Or my wife for as long as you are happy being my wife. Madonna mia , I never looked on you as some temporary solution on my path towards some ideal marital candidate!’

‘You… didn’t ?’ Rosy frowned at him, all at sea, unsure how to interpret that statement or its exact meaning, even though everything it covered was fundamental to their marriage. She scrambled upright, suddenly ill at ease beneath that gleaming green intense gaze of his, which made her feel hot all over. ‘I’m going to take a dip and cool off again!’

And she ran down the beach, struggling to work out what he had meant by what he had said.

Following her, Alessio caught her hand to tug her back towards him. ‘Rosy…do you really think I could have you crowned by my side in a couple of weeks and then dispense with you a few months later without causing a huge scandal?’

Rosy went pink. ‘I hadn’t thought about it quite like that.’

‘It would make both of us look like idiots for getting married in the first place!’

Rosy flinched. ‘Probably…but even so, that’s what I assumed you intended.’

‘Obviously not. I’m a little more practical and realistic than that. I find you attractive. I respect you. I think you can do the job. So, why shouldn’t we give it a go?’ Alessio demanded forcefully.

Rosy wanted to slap him but she resisted that temptation. Instead, she pulled her hand free of his and darted into the water to escape the conversation and snatch a moment alone to think.

Why shouldn’t we give it a go?

As if a marriage, a serious relationship, were just one more novelty to try and she had nothing better to do with her life than try it with him! And possibly, to Prince Alessio Maretti, it was . She was shocked and increasingly angry with him.

Matters she should’ve understood before their wedding were only now falling into place to form a totally different picture of his attitude in comparison to her own. But whose fault was it that she had got totally the wrong idea about their marriage? He hadn’t spent any time with her before the ceremony, hadn’t discussed any important details or his own expectations, never mind hers. No, he had just dumped those on her unforewarned the night before when she had realised that he had simply assumed that she would share a bed with him.

Alessio took a lot for granted with women, she reflected angrily, breaking into a fast crawl and ploughing back and forth through the water in the mouth of the cove. That wasn’t a surprise. How many women had ever said no to Alessio? He rejoiced in a level of male beauty that was surpassingly rare and he was incredibly sexy. He was drop-dead gorgeous, wealthy beyond avarice and charming even with the staff. He was accustomed to being the centre of attention. He was royal, and that explained a lot. A kind of unconscious arrogance and very high expectations. He assumed that people would go out of their way for him. He assumed his attentions would invariably be welcome. He assumed that most women would be attracted to him. He assumed that the ordinary Sedovian citizen he had married at the last minute would naturally go that extra mile for him.

But no blasted way on earth was Alessio Maretti going to give marriage a go with her! He hadn’t asked her to marry him and stay married to him. He hadn’t asked her to share a bed with him as his wife. No, he had left her to assume that their marriage would be as fake as plastic flowers and as short as he chose. As for the prenup, there had been more about the terms of them breaking up than staying together. Yes, it had said that for every year she remained married to him her eventual settlement on their separation would increase. Yes, it had said that any children born of the marriage would have to remain in Sedovia with him as royal progeny.

Obviously, none of those terms had surprised her because Rosy had not at any stage expected Alessio to tell his legal eagles that their marriage was a big fat fake in which no marital bed would ever be shared. She had naturally believed that those specifications belonged to his desire to be discreet about their secret arrangement. On the strength of that conviction she had signed the prenup, sincerely crediting that none of those terms would ever come back to haunt her. And now that they were well and truly married, Alessio had not only moved the goalposts, he had blown them sky-high!

Rosy stalked back up the beach in a temper such as she hadn’t experienced in years. She snatched up her clothes and a towel and headed for the cave to get changed without looking at Alessio once. It would be rude and inexcusable to slap him and probably juvenile to scream at him for misleading her, and Rosy did not like to be rude, aggressive or juvenile. Staying out of Alessio’s way until she simmered down was definitely a necessity. And then later, she would sit down with him and talk like an adult, she promised herself. She would admit that she felt deceived, insulted and angry.

Give it a go?

He could forget that idea! Her teeth gritted as she stripped off her swimsuit and wrung the sea water out of it.

It was cool in the shade of the cave. She shivered as she dried herself and wriggled back into her shorts and her halter top, wishing she had thought to pack under garments. Her toe nudged something slimy and she fell back with a stifled shriek, looking down to see that she had got her foot entangled with a strand of seaweed. Rolling her eyes at her own foolishness, she kicked it away.

‘Rosy? I heard you cry out. Are you all right?’ Alessio called urgently from out of view.

‘A stupid piece of seaweed gave me a fright. I’m fine,’ she said thinly.

‘But very angry with me,’ Alessio commented, stepping into her line of sight and lounging back against the rocky outcrop that guarded the cave’s entrance from sight. ‘You don’t hide it well.’

‘So sorry about that. Does your security team have binoculars on us? I will try to do better in the future,’ she said stiltedly, dark blue eyes flaring like flames. ‘But maybe you could try not making me angry the next time.’

‘I don’t know what I said or did to make you this angry,’ Alessio informed her without hesitation.

Rosy sent his lean, powerful figure a stabbing glance of resentment. ‘You’re not that stupid. You didn’t spell out what I was getting into before the wedding. Now you’re trying to change our agreement altogether. I didn’t sign my entire life over to you, Alessio! I believed this marriage would last eighteen months or two years at most, now what are you talking about? I also don’t want anyone giving me a go like I’m a new shoe to try on—I deserve better than that!’

‘Of course you do,’ Alessio agreed. ‘I’m sorry that my words offended you but it was not meant that way. I only meant that this marriage could become a normal marriage if we both wanted it to.’

‘Well, I didn’t sign up for that! A normal marriage!’ she gasped accusingly. ‘I was a substitute bride, nothing more. You talked more about the wedding saving the Sedovian economy from a slump than about what being married to you would entail, so if I misunderstood what was intended, it is entirely your fault for not taking the time to spell out your agenda!’

‘I don’t have an agenda, Rosy,’ Alessio breathed curtly, wide sensual mouth compressed, a suspicion of angry pallor beginning to circle his jawline. ‘I concede that we should’ve had this discussion before we married. I will even agree that the fact that we didn’t is my fault because I was too busy trying to make us seem like an acceptable couple for the benefit of the public. But this is not a game for me or for you, Rosy. This is a marriage like any other.’

Rosy threw her hands up in the air in an almost violent gesture. ‘But I didn’t know that! You weren’t honest with me. I didn’t even know you found me attractive. I certainly never dreamt that you might believe I would share a bed with you.’

‘I’ve been attracted to you from the first moment I saw you and, unless you’re a liar, you will admit that that attraction is mutual.’

Rosy almost ground her teeth together in rage at that direct attack. ‘ Somewhat mutual,’ she qualified stiffly.

‘Want to test it out? Resist a kiss and I’ll back off,’ Alessio traded.

One kiss? Was this a prince who thought he was about to magically awaken Sleeping Beauty? An angry laugh was wrenched from Rosy as she pinned her lips firmly together. ‘Oh, please , test me in the mood I’m in now,’ she encouraged.

‘You look like a very cross, pouting toddler when you do that.’ Alessio sighed heavily.

Rosy relaxed her face in shock at that retaliation, determined to feel absolutely nothing as he backed her up against the wall. But the heat of him at least drove out the chill still clinging to her damp skin below her light garments.

Alessio stalked closer, suddenly immeasurably tall and broad in the confined space. Rosy snatched in a sudden breath and closed her eyes the better to block him from her awareness. It occurred to her that she wanted him to kiss her, that in the act of denying that truth, she was, in fact, playing a game. Her eyes flew open again. ‘Alessio,’ she began as his hands came down on her shoulders and flexed.

‘Rosy…’ he said gruffly, tilting her head to one side to expose her slender neck and burying his mouth there, sending a flash fire of unexpected reactions rippling through her. She squirmed closer to his lean, powerful body, needing, craving more physical contact. Her whole body thrummed with sensitivity, her breasts swelling, her nipples pricking up against the cotton of her top.

Alessio swung her round so that she no longer had her back to the wall and lowered his head to find her parted lips and claim them. Her heart hammered madly inside her. Her hands lifted to lace into his hair. As he traced her mouth with his, plucking at her full lower lip and then exploring, she felt as though the liquid fire of impatience was pulsing through her veins. Heated warmth and dampness were pooling at her feminine core and she strained against him, instinctively seeking greater contact. Just a kiss, just a kiss, she reasoned with herself, even though just a kiss didn’t explain the insane hunger building inside her.

Alessio slid down the wall, carrying her with him and pulling her across his lap. ‘Easier,’ he muttered as she looked up at him with disconcerted eyes. ‘You’re way too small.’

‘Sizeist comment,’ she scoffed shakily. ‘Maybe you’re too tall.’

‘Nothing we can’t work around,’ Alessio countered with assurance, long fingers smoothing down her bare thigh and making her shiver before his hand travelled back again and his fingertips flirted with the frayed hem of her shorts. ‘And what are you worrying about? You have a beautiful face, fantastic hair, fabulous legs and an even more spectacular bottom. Haven’t I been admiring them for months every time I saw you on your bike heading into work?’

Rosy looked up at him in astonishment. ‘You… have ?’

‘Yes, I have been…quietly appreciating you from my car whenever I saw you on the road.’

It was odd, she thought later, how much that admission pleased her. That Alessio had noticed her before Graziana ran away and that it wasn’t only her accident on the bridge that day that had attracted his attention to her.

‘What are we doing?’ she mumbled as he kissed her again.

‘Well, we’re not fighting any longer,’ Alessio pointed out with dancing eyes and a wickedly sexy grin, long brown fingers stroking her taut ribcage. ‘I think that’s a win, don’t you?’

His sensual mouth caressed hers open again and he ravished the tender interior, sending a new tension into her splayed limbs and a wild anticipation. His hand eased below her top and rose to cup her breast and a moment later the hot damp heat of his lips closed round the straining peak, alternating between the prominent buds, dallying and teasing until the coil of heat in her belly was at boiling point. And she wanted more, her body twisting and rising over his, she wanted more from him than her next breath. She needed the satisfaction that he had taught her responsive body to crave to an unbearable degree.

With a clumsy hand she reached down to unbutton her shorts and he kissed her again and wrenched them out of his path while he was doing it. And then, at last, he was touching her where she most needed to be touched. He pressed his thumb against her throbbing clit, stroked a finger through her damp folds, toyed with her damp entrance where she was ultra-sensitive. Her heartbeat pounded and her spine arched at the sweet pleasure. And the strengthening band of tension in her pelvis tightened another agonising notch until he delved inside her, easing the terrible hollow ache assailing her, and then brushed her swollen bud. It was as if he had set a chain of fireworks off inside her body. She ignited beneath that blissful surge of release, sensation pounding through her in wave after delightful wave. As she cried out and arched, he caught her mouth under his again to smother the sounds she made.

And when Rosy finally surfaced from that climax, he was already tugging her clothing back into place, tugging her gently to her feet while she struggled, all fingers and thumbs, to do up the button on her waistband. Even as she did so, she was hugely aware that their intimacy had been strictly one-sided and embarrassment claimed her because she hadn’t touched him, hadn’t even tried to do so. There was some excuse for the fact that she wouldn’t really have known what she was doing, but she was painfully aware of his visible arousal.

* * *

‘I’m going for another swim,’ Alessio breathed thickly, not trusting himself to linger when he was so aroused and not really knowing what to say to her at such a moment because he knew that she had to make a decision as well as to what happened next. ‘And then we’ll head back to the cabin. Bearing in mind what you said earlier, you need to decide what you want in this marriage before we go any further, piccola volpe .’

He dropped a careless kiss on the top of her bent and swimming head and strode out of the cave. Rosy blinked rapidly, still all shaken up by what had happened between them. How they had travelled from fighting to kissing escaped her just at that moment. But she perfectly understood what he had said. If she wasn’t prepared to stay in their marriage for longer than she had originally expected to stay, intimacy was a bad idea. If she was prepared to stay, for how long would she stay? What was her timeline, not to mention his ?

And what would such a relationship do to her? How could what started out as fake ever become real? Alessio, she thought almost vengefully, had made his point. She wanted him. She hoped he didn’t know it but she found him irresistible and that wasn’t a good thing either, was it? What if she fell in love with him? What if she had a child with him? Would she always feel as if he had only married her as Graziana’s conveniently available replacement? As the substitute, there to play a good walk-on part?