Chapter Four
In his short pronouncement, Gustav had dissolved every one of Livia’s carefully made plans to escape.
Her memory of walking out of the castle was buried in a haze of stunned disbelief, but now, as she sat next to Gustav in the cool, dark car that speeded her toward her co-opted future, Livia tried to wrestle her thoughts into coherence.
“You can’t just play with my life like this,” she whispered.
“I can and I will,” he said with a maddening, self-satisfied calm. “Did you not understand that your life is no longer your own when you entered these royal entanglements? That you are just a pawn in someone else’s game?”
Livia hated the fact that his words rang true.
Inside her, a mess of emotions had erupted, and the flow was a jumble of anger, frustration and other emotions she did not want to identify.
Marry Gustav? There had been a time in her life when she had toyed with this idea as she’d walked through the dark forest back to her dorm room late at night.
Before Gustav, she hadn’t been able to imagine what it might be like to escape the world that they lived in, where money and ancestry loomed over everything from friendships to the malleability of grades to whether or not she was invited to join one of the school’s half-secret societies.
Livia pushed that memory away. She’d felt that way when she had made the mistake of assuming they wanted the same thing, that he wanted to be free.
Then, on that last night, the way he scowled when she revealed she was the groundskeeper’s daughter suggested she was wrong about so much more than that, and his current grab for her father’s money underscored this point.
Had he lied about his distaste for elite society back then?
Had he simply wanted to improve his status all along?
Livia looked over at the man sitting next to her, trying to reconcile him with the teenage boy she had fallen in love with, in the forest between their schools.
He looked so…hardened now. Had he been this way back then, too?
In the darkness of the night, had she become enchanted with a version of him she had made up in her head?
No. Not all of it was in her head. Those first few moments when he walked into the hallway of her apartment were real.
He had looked at her the way he used to, the way that had awoken a part of her she had forgotten existed.
An intoxicating heat flared inside—one that could burn her.
The attraction from all those years ago had not disappeared, despite their bitter ending, but his new twist of vengeance made it far more dangerous.
Now she was supposed to marry him? Instinct told her to flee, to get herself far away from this situation that had so quickly spiraled out of control.
Except she couldn’t. Not when the scandal he was threatening would bring to life her parents’ fears of being ridiculed.
They would almost certainly respond by offering up Adele to whichever brother would have her.
The more she dwelled on the way he had barged back into her life, the angrier she felt.
He was arrogant. Self-serving. If he was acting every bit as entitled as she assumed a prince would be, maybe there was no need to second-guess the way she had reacted that night eight years ago.
Livia turned to Gustav and ignored the urge to let her gaze wander down his well-honed body, sprawled out next to her, every bit the haughty prince he was. She would not let herself be his pawn.
“What exactly have you arranged for this afternoon?” she asked, then flashed a dry smile and added, “If you don’t mind sharing our wedding plans.”
His glance told her that he had heard the bite in her voice, and his smile was condescending. “I ordered an array of dresses from the royal tailor that you may choose from. They’re waiting for you in the bridal cottage next to the church.”
“Thank goodness for that,” she said, bringing her hand to her chest in mock relief. “That’s exactly what I was worried about. My dress choices.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “You are free to say no to this marriage at any time.”
Which would put Adele in a worse position.
“That choice has consequences, too,” she snapped. “I can’t believe that you would do this to me.”
His gaze darkened. “I had that reaction to aspects of this situation as well. Your engagement to my half brother, for example.” Then he gave her a hard smile. “There are many things in this life that I find quite inconceivable, and yet they are true.”
She resisted the urge to point out that her engagement to Edvin was not yet official and instead focused on the anger in his voice. “Is this about jealousy?”
Livia could see that her question had finally hit its mark because his eyes flared with hunger, and it did something inside her she didn’t want to think about. “This is about taking what is rightfully mine.”
She let out a laugh, half in outrage and half in disbelief. “And that includes me?”
The flare of heat that flashed from his eyes told her she was right, but he gave a dismissive wave. “You positioned yourself at the center of my family. That was your choice.”
“And you are interested in taking your brother’s place?
” It was probably unwise to goad him, but she couldn’t help herself.
His jaw tightened, but he said nothing, so she continued.
“Is this to be a cold, impersonal marriage, where we only see each other at state functions and for…” She paused, then added, “procreation?”
That last word slipped out of her mouth, so clinical and detached, and yet it hung thick between them, charging the air.
It was another intentional provocation, and Livia realized too late that she wasn’t ready for his response.
All of Gustav’s cool, controlled veneer was gone, and his gaze was a dark fire of lust and anger that should have shocked her.
It should have frightened her. It did neither.
Instead, when he slowly lifted his hand to her cheek and cupped it, an explosion of heat shot through her.
Last time, his touch had felt like longing.
This time, it was possession. The exquisite softness of his touch contrasted with the turmoil that flashed in his eyes, and in this contrast, everything inside her seemed to melt.
“Sex for procreation?” he rasped. “How many dozens of children do you want, Livia? And how hard do you think we need to try every time?” He slowed on the words hard and every time.
Another surge of restless heat flooded her, and before she could think better of it, she leaned into his touch so her mouth was even closer to his. He parted his lips. Oh, how she wanted him. Still.
This man, who was using her as a tool, like everyone else had.
“I would never bring children into a marriage like this,” she whispered, and her voice was far too breathy.
His eyes flashed with anger that turned the heat into something more volatile. “But you would have with my brother?”
This last thought was enough to break the spell. Oh, how she wanted to throw the truth back at him—that she was never going to marry Edvin. But she couldn’t expose her escape plan like that. Not if she wanted to salvage any part of it.
Livia pulled away, and Gustav had the nerve to laugh. “We will have plenty of time to negotiate the boundaries of this marriage during our honeymoon.”
“Assuming I go through with it,” she bit out.
“You always claimed you wanted to run away and leave this world behind. Now is your chance,” he said in that smug tone that suggested he knew she wouldn’t run.
Livia didn’t know what was more infuriating—that he was taunting her with the dream he was taking away or the fact that he was right.
This was her opportunity to run, but running meant leaving her sister behind.
The last time she had, when she had moved away for university and left Adele to face her tormenters alone, the consequences had been disastrous.
In that moment, reality sunk in. She was going to marry Gustav today.
She would sacrifice herself for her sister’s freedom.
Just as disconcerting was the part of her that looked forward to that sacrifice, despite the ominous undertones that echoed from every new layer of his twisted plan.
She had to get her emotions under control.
They were literally speeding toward a royal wedding that was never supposed to happen, and she needed to salvage some semblance of her plan with Adele.
She needed to negotiate with him. Carefully.
“I have a condition—one thing I need for this marriage deal to work. I have a retreat on a remote Greek island, one that my father does not know about and does not control,” she said, hoping he would hear this as a confession, not a sleight of hand.
To secure her goal without revealing exactly what was at stake.
“I would like this property to remain as mine alone, to stay in as I choose. Alone. I will not neglect any official duties, but I require this place to remain in my private control.”
“Do you have a lover?” His voice was hard and flat.
She almost laughed in surprise. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He glared at her, letting her know he absolutely was not kidding.
“Would your father let me marry Edvin if anyone found a whiff of infidelity? The press would be all over it.”
“That’s not a denial,” he muttered.
“This has nothing to do with another man,” she said as frustration built inside her. “You know this isn’t the life I wanted for myself. You know I never wanted to be a royal.”
His mouth was a grim, flat line. “I don’t know the first thing about you, as your connection to my brother clearly underscores.”
Livia ignored the sting of his accusation. “Can’t you see a place of my own is my compromise?”