Her legs felt lead-heavy when she turned away, only to freeze when he moved, closing the gap between them. Her breathlodged in her throat, anticipation firing through her. But he only drew out his phone, and glanced down at it before pinning her with his gaze.
‘You only have two hours to rest, I’m afraid.’
‘Why? What’s the rush?’
He flashed another glance at his phone before returning it to his pocket. ‘It seems my twin is determined to follow Azar’s footsteps and hurtle down the aisle with no regard for how it inconveniences everyone else.’
The rumble of discontent was half-hearted at best, his expression more mildly vexed than angry.
The little Lotte had seen of Teo and the reams she’d read about him online pointed to a joie de vivre, apolar opposite of Valenti. Although she had the strong suspicion that it was all an act. That Teo Domene’s near hedonistic outlook on life hid a deeper character that rivalled his brother’s.
‘Or he knows what he wants and is willing to bend time and space itself to achieve it,’ she murmured, not without a flash of jealousy and longing.
His gaze sharpened on her face, and she wondered if she’d given herself away. If all the longing she’d felt reading books with heroes who did the exact same thing Teo Domene was doing—destroying every single obstacle in his way in order to bind himself to the woman he adored—had bled through.
And perhaps it was that little she-devil on her shoulder that whispered at her to keep her chin up. To meet his gaze boldly as she added, ‘Haven’t you ever felt that way about anything?’
There was barely an infinitesimal hesitation before he answered. ‘No.’
The fist around her heart tightened at the resounding denial, but something in his face held her breath. Or perhaps it was his lips moving, muttering a follow-up she couldn’t quite catch. ‘What did you say?’
He stared at her with ferocious fixation. Then to her chagrin, he shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It matters, Valenti. Everything matters in the end.’
A flash of perplexion. A faint flare of his nostrils. Then he was striding to where she stood. ‘My brother weds in two weeks. As his best man I need to return to Cartana, and I’m not ready to let you out of my sight. You wanted to visit Cartana. I’m giving it to you. So yes or no?’
Of course he would couch it like that. Remind her that this wasn’t a benign, wholly cordial and social invitation, but Valenti Domene wanting to maintain surveillance on his ward. Force her to recall, with much stomach churning, how her previous visit had gone.
And wasn’t it a pity then, that because she was so desperate not to lose this connection between them no matter how much strife it seemed attached to, that she would reply with the only response her heart and mind and body and soul would permit her. ‘Yes.’
But I’ll find a way to break this dependence. I have to.
And if he’d heard the silent vow and narrowed his eyes because of it, she told herself she didn’t care. Her very survival dictated that she find a way.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘Valenti,thecityis as splendid as you left it many weeks ago. I would be grateful if you paid attention to what my fiancée’s saying to you?’
Valenti turned from the third-floor window and faced the lavish living room in the Palacio Domene where the umpteenth wedding meeting was being held. He ignored his twin and summoned a smile for his soon-to-be sister-in-law. ‘Perdóname,’ he offered. ‘You were saying?’
Sabeen’s wide smile was indulgent, then it grew pensive. ‘Perhaps we should pick this up another time—’
‘Absolutely not,’ Teo interjected, reaching for her hand and dropping a lingering kiss on the back of it. ‘We’ve worked around Valenti for long enough.’ His twin shot him an exasperated glare. ‘If you haven’t noticed, the world indeed revolves around my love, so do me a favour and pay attention?’
He gave a brisk nod. ‘We’ve discussed the schedule. My suit is a perfect fit, and my speech will be ready as promised. What else is there?’
‘We noticed you brought a plus one,’ Teo said.
He stiffened. ‘I didn’t realise that would be a problem considering your guest list is well over eleven hundred. A logistical nightmare if you care to know, but that too is well in hand.’
‘It’s not a problem,’ Sabeen hastened to say, her eyes locking on Teo’s before returning to Valenti. ‘But I…we wonderedwhether you…she would be willing to be in the official wedding party?’
‘What my love is saying is that she’d hate to put anyone’s pretty nose out of joint. So what’s it to be?’
His gaze flicked back to the window, towards his home in the Residence, one of the dozen cottages he and Teo preferred to stay in instead of the Palacio Domene. When he and Teo had got over being excluded from royal life as children and young adults, they’d been grateful for the separate residence. For one thing, it’d taken them out of the chaos and dysfunction of witnessing their mother play out her dramatic displeasure at not being the queen their father had chosen after discovering he’d got two women separately pregnant within weeks of each other.
King Alfonse had chosen to marry his eldest’s child’s mother, leaving the woman who’d borne him twins feeling endlessly aggrieved and bitter.
