‘You’re way too good at distracting me,’ he growled.
Their lovemaking was fast and intense. Georgie clung to Abe; the feel of him filling her, the rub of his hardness against the still tender, engorged parts of her, sent waves of deep satisfaction coursing through her.
She could have stayed there with him for ever, could have held him close and lain with him while time passed by, but with less than a couple of hours to get ready she flew into preparation mode like a bat out of hell.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ he said. ‘I have some work to get through and I will change in my offices and meet you back here in an hour. There isn’t a huge amount of time, I know, but...’
‘But that’s what happens when you lose focus.’
‘I could not have said it better myself.’
That said, Georgie thought, flying through a shower and then flinging open her wardrobe doors to inspect which of the, as yet, unworn formal dresses she would put on, hot, hard sex had certainly had the desired effect of squashing all of her nerves. She just didn’t have the time to feel anything but rushed!
She opted for something that could weather the blazing heat that would confront her once she was standing outside the palace where, Abe had informed her, the photo shoot would take place.
She was becoming accustomed to the temperatures, which soared during the day and only really became comfortable once the sun had dipped away.
Dressing for the sun here bore no resemblance to dressing for the sun in London.
Thirty-five minutes later, she looked at her reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the bedroom.
The dress was modest, with loose sleeves in shades of apricot. It was pleasingly Grecian in style and designed to repel the intense heat. Strangely, it often paid to wear loose clothes that covered you up practically from head to toe when it came to combating the temperatures the minute you stepped foot outdoors.
He had said he would fetch her and when he did, it occurred to Georgie that she’d had no idea what he would be wearing. A pair of light trousers? Linen? A shirt? One of those handmade white ones with the royal insignia embroidered in tiny letters? He had wardrobes full of them. She hadn’t expected him in traditional white robes, but he was, and the sight of him took her breath away. She was vaguely aware of him saying something complimentary to her but she didn’t really take it in. She was too busy staring, and in the end, embarrassed, she cleared her throat and made an attempt to focus.
‘Ready?’
‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’ She walked towards him, still blushing.
He looked what he was: a prince, a man who could change lives, who held the reins of supreme power in his hands. He held out his arm for her and she took it. Her heart was pounding as she headed out of the room and then down the sweeping staircase at the bottom of which various members of staff had gathered.
All that was missing was a red carpet. The front doors were pulled open and a waft of hot air engulfed her and she blinked at the bank of photographers waiting for them to emerge.
Her fingers tightened on his forearm and he patted her gently, completely in control of the situation.
There was no pushing or shoving. Everything was orderly and she knew that she was smiling although her nervous system had kicked into fifth gear, more than making up for the previous lull.
‘Relax,’ he murmured, sotto voce, and she forced herself to try and unbend a bit.
Faces behind long lenses were arranged in banks—far more than she had expected. Surely there were photographers and reporters who weren’t just from Qaram? It was astonishing that she had not realised, from the very first moment she’d discovered Abe’s true identity, just what a huge deal this whole situation was going to be.
Her body was as rigid as a plank of wood. His exhortation to her to relax could not have fallen on deafer ears.
She was barely aware of his arm sliding around her waist or of him turning to look down on her but then, suddenly, there were just the two of them. Everything else, the heat, the cameras, the people—all of it disappeared and became background noise because all she could see were his dark, dark eyes and the sensuous curve of his mouth. All she could feel was the warm reassurance radiating out from him towards her.
He smiled long and low and she practically melted as he bent to capture her mouth, gently inserting his tongue, tasting her and demanding a response in return, which she was all too happy to give.
She curled her hands around his neck and linked her fingers together, her body moulding gently against his. When he pulled back, she blinked, momentarily disoriented.
‘Now,that’smore like it,’ he said, smiling. ‘Nowyou’re relaxed.’
Yes, now she really was relaxed and so completely in love that she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his face. She’d been nervous as a kitten and he had put his arms around her and made her feel safe. That was how he made her feel time and again. Safe. It shouldn’t make sense, not when she’d spent years hating him, not when she knew that this marriage on the cards was little more than a business arrangement, and yet he still made her feel safe, as though what was happening between them couldn’t have been more right.
Looking down at her upturned face, Abe, for one fleeting second, was sucked into the crazy illusion that this was the real thing. Her eyes were shining. She looked like...like the queen she would very soon become, and it was nothing to do with the clothes she wore or her physical attractiveness.
There was a kindness and a generosity there that gave her a regal aura of which she was touchingly unaware. It was a modesty that hailed from her background, Abe thought. As the daughter of a vicar, an only child and one who had lost her own mother at a young age, she had been raised to put others before herself. It was why she had told him about Tilly, why she could never be bought with money or status, why she had been persuaded into marrying him.
He had been struck dumb when she had opened that bedroom door to him. He was so used to seeing her casually dressed, to see her dressed for the part had stopped him dead in his tracks. Had she noticed? She had looked perfect for the role as his wife-to-be.
