Chapter Six #3
Or maybe that was a lie he wanted to be true. Gustav decided he didn’t care. The end result would be the same: Livia in his bed. He didn’t need anything more from her.
Livia set her empty champagne glass on the table and gave him a wary glance, then pasted on a charming smile. “I read about the wind-farm project your company just completed off the northern coast.”
“That’s one of the many projects we have completed. We have also worked on geothermal heat and wave-motion-energy generation, both of which work through the year, during very different weather conditions.”
“And you are overseeing it all?”
“Part of my job is overseeing the projects, but part of it is to continue to revise the vision of the future of energy for this country. These projects involve an upfront cost for long-term benefits, and a big part of my job has been to make sure we have the funding for that.” His jaw tightened.
“And this hasn’t been easy?”
“My father had other ideas, and his Royal Majesty has convinced Parliament that his desires should take priority over the stability of the nation.”
“So this is one of the things that you will change after you drop your bombshell,” she said slowly. “This is why you want control over the money.”
“One reason among many,” he said.
The boat skimmed along in the glassy waters, leaving a trail of ripples that widened until they hit the shores of the islands they passed.
Gustav had once dreamed of a life like this, far away from the mainland and the palace games, before he had learned that his fate was inescapable.
One could not simply leave the Royal House of af Isborg and be done with it.
But no matter how many accomplishments he had or how far he had gone, his backhanded title had clung to him, a stench that he couldn’t get rid of no matter how many times he had tried.
The Bastard Spare. Still, he had dreamed of escape.
And he could now admit to himself that in every one of those fantasies, the memory of Livia slipped in, surrounded by the rush of the river at night.
All those years ago, she had spoken words of rebellion he hadn’t yet dared to think, rejecting the forces of order in his life that had felt immutable.
And she had spoken them with distractingly lush lips.
But that had ended, and Gustav had returned here, where he’d had the sea.
The sea didn’t care about titles, and the island didn’t do special favors when one needed to navigate its rocky shoals.
And though he could not escape the confines of his place in the world, he had found a reprieve here.
A place to retreat and plan and await the opportunity to use his title to take down the forces that had made him into what he was.
He would be the prince that saved the country, not sullied its name.
“And you? Weren’t you planning to get a biology degree?”
Livia’s smile fell. “That was…postponed.”
“Postponed because…?”
She looked away. “It’s not important. I have been very happy working on land management with my father.”
He heard the hesitancy in her voice and wanted to press her about the postponement, but he let it be. Later.
The afternoon drifted by. Patterns of wispy clouds spilled out over the sky, echoing patterns and swirls, as if the sky itself was unveiling its own wedding present, just for them.
Livia glanced up at the sky, and when she looked at him again, a bit of the dazed wonder had returned to her gaze.
And Gustav found that he very much liked that.
They anchored in the inlet late in the afternoon, and at eight o’clock, Livia emerged on the open deck.
Her hair was piled on top of her head in an elegant twist, showing off dangling earrings that sparkled from her ears next to the slim column of her neck.
She wore a long red dress with only the thinnest of straps that exposed the hollow of her throat.
His gaze wandered over her proud shoulders and the soft, creamy skin of her arms, then to the neckline that plunged to show the swell of her breasts.
She settled next to him on the bench at an angle that gave him a tempting view down the front of her dress.
He felt a stir in his body, one that was getting harder to ignore, and when she caught him looking, she didn’t move away.
He let his gaze linger on her breasts, then lowered it to the swell of her hips, noting all the places she had filled out and changed.
Because all of this was a change, one that he was determined to appreciate.
In her wedding dress, he had seen an almost bewildered innocence at times in her expression, mixed with a hint of hope.
Now he saw something much different. It was seductive. Determined.
When his gaze returned to her face, there was a hint of a smile that curved on her lips. Yes, she knew exactly what she was doing. And he was going to enjoy it because, ultimately, he still wielded the power here—he was a prince, after all—and he would exploit every advantage of his position.
And if she walked away? At least she wouldn’t marry Edvin. He told himself that was enough.