Chapter Three
Wedding Day
‘I’M NO ONE SPECIAL.’ Caius looked out of the small aeroplane window taking in the view of the verdant mountainous region below, with its picturesque main city spread along the shores of a sparkling lake.
He couldn’t deny that Valdere was a stunningly beautiful country.
Like its crown princess. His jaw got tight.
The woman who had exposed his attraction to her, while keeping her identity a secret, before walking away and saying those words, I’m no one special.
How she must have laughed at his cluelessness.
At the way he’d begged her for more. To see her again. For her name.
She had been special enough to haunt his every waking moment and dreams, even as his life had imploded around him upon the revelations that he was not his father’s son. That he was not in fact the rightful heir to the throne of Sadat Sur Mer.
And it hadn’t just been because she’d been the first woman to walk away from him. She’d been the first woman to ignite his libido in a way that had felled him with its force.
He’d actually begun to doubt that night had even happened, wondered if he’d conjured her up, until she’d appeared in his offices in Manhattan a month ago and had dropped the bombshell that she was far from no one special. She was in fact a crown princess and she was pregnant with his child.
The same crown princess who he’d been in talks with to consider marriage. The same crown princess who in the days after that night in Paris had sent a message telling him she wasn’t going to pursue discussions of a marriage.
This was after sleeping with him. And before he’d lost his crown. When he’d still been one of the most sought-after bachelors in the world.
The fact that she’d only then sought him out because she was pregnant had added salt to the wound of his sense of exposure and humiliation. Something he would never reveal.
Nor would he ever reveal that just before she’d reappeared in his life, when he’d been coming out of the other end of those tumultuous months, he’d been feeling rudderless and untethered, not sure how to navigate his new existence as a disgraced ex-king.
Not even the fact that he now had a reason for why his father had always looked at him with some level of suspicion had helped all that much. Or that it had gone some way to explaining the very toxic nature of his parents’ fraught marriage.
No, all he could see in his mind’s eye was her, in his office, in slim-fitting dark trousers, with a silk shirt buttoned up to her neck with a provocative pussy-bow tie, hair sleek and pulled back, looking every inch the European princess.
Looking nothing like the woman he’d slept with in Paris.
Because this woman had red hair. Not brown. And green eyes. Not dark.
But before he’d recognised who she really was, and before her bombshell announcement, Caius had been confused as to why she’d wanted to see him. After all, she’d called a halt to marriage negotiations before he’d had to abdicate.
‘Why are you here, Princess Poppy? You made it pretty clear we had little to discuss even before I had to abdicate. Unless you’re here on other business? Looking for financial advice?’
She’d blurted out, ‘Did you know?’
Caius had known instantly her meaning and his insides had clenched hard. ‘Did I know what? That I was a bastard?’
She’d winced but he’d felt no remorse.
‘I don’t think that word is really necessary,’ she’d said primly.
He’d raised a brow. ‘It’s the word people are attaching to me, with not a little relish. Everyone enjoys a spectacular downfall.’
She’d gestured around her at Caius’s penthouse office. ‘You’re not doing too badly considering.’
‘No,’ he’d agreed, ‘I’m not. Because contrary to popular opinion I haven’t actually spent the last decade falling out of a nightclub, I’ve been growing a financial business.
And, not that it’s any of your business, but no, I had no idea I wasn’t the king’s son.
It was as much of a shock to me as everyone else. ’
To his surprise she’d said huskily, ‘I can only imagine how unsettling that must have been. And for your sister, too.’ Something about the tone of her voice had caught in his gut.
As if he’d heard her speak before. Saying something else.
Something altogether more…provocative. He’d been afraid he was losing it.
And he’d had no time for rubber-necking princesses who wanted to see the disgraced ex-king up close.
He’d looked at his watch, ‘Look, I have a meeting to get to.’
‘No, you don’t. I looked at your assistant’s agenda while she was in here.’
Caius’s hackles had gone up. He wasn’t used to anyone questioning him. ‘I don’t have to justify my schedule to anyone and we have nothing more to discuss.’
But she hadn’t moved. She’d said, ‘We do have something to discuss. Something rather…big. Related to that night in Paris.’
Caius had frowned. ‘Paris? That night? What night?’
‘The night we met…at the party. Not long before your, er, abdication was announced.’
Caius’s eyes had narrowed on her. What the hell? ‘I was only at one party in Paris in the last few months. You definitely were not there.’
Poppy had looked pale. ‘Oh, I can assure you I was there, and that we met.’
‘We did not.’
‘Yes,’ Poppy had reiterated firmly. ‘I was wearing a tuxedo suit and we became…quite well acquainted, after you spilled your drink on me and caused me to spill mine too. I had to replace my shirt.’
Caius had gone hot and then cold. ‘How do you even know about that?’
‘Because I was there. That was me.’
His voice had felt constricted. ‘Impossible.’
‘Oh no, it’s quite possible, believe me.’
Caius had felt as if he’d moved through some invisible portal to a place where people said nonsensical things. Princesses, specifically. He’d shaken his head as if that might help things come back to normal.
But no, the princess had still been standing in his office looking at him. A total stranger. Except she’d been saying she wasn’t. That, in fact, they’d been intimate.
The thought that it had been her was too huge to try and accept. He’d gone into full denial mode. ‘No, you’re somehow privy to this information and now you’re out to extort something from me.’
She’d muttered something as she’d laid her bag down at her feet and stood up again.
Then he’d watched as she’d untucked her shirt from her trousers and started to unbutton it from the bottom.
Caius’s eyes had widened and awareness had leapt in his blood as he’d watched creamy skin being revealed, the curve of her waist. Flashes of memory had come back. Her wearing his shirt.
And then, as if in slow motion, she’d been exposing the full underside of her breast, encased in lace and silk. He’d moved forward without even making the conscious decision. So he could better see the distinctive mark under her breast. A small heart-shaped strawberry birthmark.
He’d recalled touching it. You have a birthmark. Caius had dragged his gaze back up to her face, recognising those lines. The even features. The slight dimple in her chin. But…
‘Your hair was dark…and your eyes were not green.’
She’d had the grace to look discomfited as she’d rebuttoned her shirt and tucked it back into her trousers. ‘I dyed my hair with a wash-out colour and put contact lenses in.’
Caius had taken a step back, suddenly needing distance between them. ‘Why?’
Her cheeks had been pink. ‘I wanted to see what you were like…in person. I wasn’t sure about the engagement.’
‘And you couldn’t just come up to me, tap me on the shoulder and introduce yourself like a regular person?’
She’d flushed even more and that had only made Caius think of how she’d looked as she’d lain back on the couch in that room and had offered herself up to him. And the way he’d fallen on her like a drowning man. More turned on than he had been in a long time. Since then.
She’d lifted her chin. ‘Let’s just say I didn’t feel confident of the reception I’d receive considering how I wasn’t…’ she used air quotes ‘…your type.’
The fact that she most certainly had been his type had made him burn inside. ‘What are you talking about?’
She’d looked uncomfortable. ‘My chief counsellor and I overheard your conversation with your people before we spoke on the phone. You didn’t realise that we’d connected in…’
Caius had cast his mind back and recalled talking about her, admitting that she wasn’t his type and that all he’d need from her would be heirs and then she could get on with her life and he could get on with his.
He’d had the grace to admit stiffly, ‘It wasn’t meant for your ears.’
Princess Poppy had shrugged minutely. ‘It was unfortunate timing. But that’s why I wanted to go incognito, so I could see what you were like in…person. To see if we could be compatible in spite of the way you’d dismissed me.’
A flash of heat had gone straight to Caius’s cock when he’d thought of how compatible they’d been, making it twitch. ‘I think we proved that point.’
Caius’s cock was twitching again now, just at that memory. He shifted in the plane seat as they started to descend to land at the small Valdere airport. The fact that, in spite of everything, she could still have this effect on him was deeply disturbing and unwelcome.
Especially when he now knew the real reason she’d sought him out. Because that night they’d conceived. The moment she’d told him was as brutally vivid as the other memories.
But before she’d told him, he’d found himself watching her as she’d looked around his office and out at the view. Her lustrous red hair, and that creamy complexion. Huge green eyes, like emeralds. How had he ever dismissed her as not his type? She was absolutely stunning.