Chapter Four #3
They moved smoothly together, both trained for this from almost as soon as they could walk.
‘I have to apologise,’ Caius heard himself saying.
Poppy looked up. ‘You do?’
He nodded. ‘Today went so smoothly. I know that takes a lot of hard work and organisation.’
She flushed a little and that had a direct effect on Caius’s body. He fought to control himself.
She said, ‘I have a good team and your staff were helpful.’
Caius had also let it be known that if they’d needed any funds they could name their price but Poppy had favoured an economical wedding.
‘It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be here to help—’
Poppy made an audibly disbelieving sound and Caius pulled her closer. The flush in her cheeks deepened and her eyes widened. Something surged inside him. Maybe she wasn’t so immune after all.
He said, ‘This marriage is a consequence of both our actions. I might be reluctant but you’d already vetoed me as a contender so I think we can call quits on where we both stand on that issue.’
Now Poppy looked uncomfortable. ‘That’s fair.’
‘And the reason I wasn’t here was because I had a financial situation to deal with.’
‘A financial situation.’ Poppy sounded unimpressed.
‘Something I’d invested in lost funding.’
Now she looked unimpressed. ‘I hope that when your son or daughter is born you’ll recognise what is more important.’
She was assuming he’d prioritised making money over being present for the wedding preparations. Caius found himself in the familiar position of being judged—he’d be the first to admit that generally people had good reason to judge him, but not in this instance.
He could defend himself but something was cautioning him against it. As if he wasn’t quite ready yet to beg for her approval. Because this whole situation and the currents flowing between them were something he’d never navigated before. So it was easier to let her believe the worst.
Instead he asked, ‘So, Poppy…why that name? It’s not exactly…regal, is it?’
She smiled sweetly and it almost distracted Caius from noticing that it didn’t reach her eyes. ‘Don’t you mean it’s more suited to an art student?’
Caius’s conscience pricked hard again to think of her overhearing that conversation. He had been less than kind. ‘You didn’t deserve that.’
She looked a little surprised and then she shrugged minutely and said, ‘My father was so sure that he would have a son to inherit the crown that he told my mother to call me whatever she wanted, so she did. She called me Poppy because it was her favourite flower and to annoy him, but it backfired when he had no objection to it.’
Caius stopped dancing and looked down at her. There was such a multitude of information in that breezily delivered answer that he wasn’t sure what to unpick first. It made her solo walk down the aisle at the wedding even more poignant now.
She looked around and back at him, saying behind a fixed smile, ‘Why have you stopped dancing?’
Because for some reason he’d felt a rush of anger at her father. Caius started dancing again. ‘He married a few times, didn’t he?’
Poppy nodded. ‘Four times. Always in search of the elusive male heir.’
‘That’s why you had to marry to be crowned queen.’
She went a little pale. Caius cursed silently.
‘Poppy, I can already see that you’ve made a positive impact on Valdere, even before you got married.
He was obviously too blinkered to see what an asset you were.
’ Caius might have said something a lot more blunt and rude but he didn’t want to offend her.
She looked up at him, cheeks going pink. ‘I…thank you for saying that.’
Caius was momentarily mesmerised by her huge eyes and how they were glowing. He was forgetting that because of her father’s archaic rule, and Caius’s moment of weakness, they were now locked into this situation. But somehow, the necessary ire didn’t feel as potent.
‘You were here, living with him through each marriage?’
She nodded again. ‘I was in boarding school for most of the year and then I used to visit my mother sometimes in upstate New York where she lives. Then I was in university in America.’
Even though she’d managed to escape these four walls Caius could well imagine what that must have been like when she had been here.
He knew what a goldfish bowl it was to live in a royal palace.
Everyone watching. No privacy. People looking at her every time her father failed to sire another child and moved on to another woman.
‘If it’s any consolation, I grew up being that coveted golden heir and it didn’t work out so well for me, either.’
The music stopped at that moment and everyone clapped and cheered. Caius blinked and looked around. He’d actually forgotten for a moment about the crowd around them.
The guests were coming onto the dance floor to join them. Caius spied Cassie and Ares and even though Poppy had met them in passing earlier he introduced them properly now. Cassie shook Poppy’s hand, smiling. ‘From one queen to another, welcome to the small club.’
Caius noticed how stiff Poppy was but she seemed to relax under Cassie’s sunny warmth. Not many could resist his sister. Certainly not his best man, Ares, who had a protective arm around Cassie now. Something Caius was still trying to get his head around.
‘Thank you, and congratulations on your engagement.’
Cassie smiled even wider and grinned cheekily at Caius. ‘I really didn’t have my beloved brother getting married before me, and becoming a king again, on my bingo card for this year but he never fails to surprise.’
Caius glared at his sister to shut her up and said, ‘King consort, Cass, not king.’
He felt Poppy’s surprised glance at him. Obviously she’d not expected him to be happy to take a back seat in this relationship. But considering how her father had fought so hard for a son, maybe he could understand her expecting a male to want to dominate.
Except when he thought of domination now, all he could think of was of dominating Poppy in a much more basic and carnal way. Not that she would let him dominate her. She hadn’t that first night. It had been an electric dance. And he wanted to dance with her again.
His resentment of this whole situation wasn’t proving to be much of a deterrent.
An aide stepped forward and spoke into Poppy’s ear. She looked at Caius. ‘We can leave now.’
Relief swept through him to think of getting away from under all of these eyes. His sister’s cheeky grin, as much as he loved her.
He kissed his sister on the cheek. ‘Talk to you soon, Cass.’ He looked at his friend and said sternly, ‘Take care of her.’
‘Always,’ responded Ares, not even looking at Caius. Looking at his fiancée with an expression of such protectiveness and naked emotion that it made Caius feel like a voyeur and also something much more uncomfortable. A kind of wistfulness that freaked the hell out of him.
He turned away and he and Poppy followed the aide out of the ballroom while everyone clapped and raised their glasses to the newly-weds.
Once outside the ballroom, Caius undid the top button of his dress jacket. Stephen was waiting and he looked at them with a smile on his face. ‘Your things have been packed. The boat is ready.’
Caius’s fingers dropped from his throat. ‘Wait, what boat? Where are we going?’
Poppy turned to him. ‘To the island in the lake. It’s tradition for royal newly-weds to go there for the first few nights. It was in the information we sent you and you never objected so…’
Caius had a vague memory of his assistant in New York handing him a folder, saying, ‘This is all the wedding information,’ but that had been at the height of the financial snafu and Caius had just pushed it aside.
‘First few nights? What does that mean?’
‘It’s to give us a chance to be seen to…’ She trailed off.
Caius put up his hand. ‘I get it.’ To be seen to be honeymooning. So when the pregnancy was announced within the next few days, it could be believable they’d conceived out of genuine affection. To perpetuate some myth.
But all Caius could think about was that he hadn’t really considered what would happen at all and he’d somehow believed that he’d be able to just get on a plane again and leave. But now it would appear he was to be incarcerated on an island.
‘A few days, nights, is that really necessary?’ Caius sent an explicit glance down to her belly and back up. ‘We both know the deed is done.’
Poppy gritted out, ‘The people don’t know that.’
‘I was hoping to get back to New York.’ Even as he said that he heard how cold it sounded, but for some reason when he was around this woman she brought out the very worst in him.
Poppy’s eyes flashed. They were very green, distracting Caius momentarily.
She said through visibly clenched teeth, ‘We have to be seen to be spending some time together. There is Internet connection on the island and I can assure you it’s exceedingly comfortable.
Staff have already set up an office space for you.
There’s a gym and a media room. A fully stocked library. It really shouldn’t be that onerous.’
Even Caius was smart enough to know to not give anyone fuel to start rumours.
He had to think of his child, after all.
The only reason he was doing this. Really?
asked a little voice. Caius ignored it as he ignored the desire to take Poppy to a private space and unpeel all that lace and satin from her body.
That was what had got them into this mess.
‘Fine. Let’s go.’