Page 15 of His Royal Bride Replacement

‘Maybe.’

Alessio dropped down beside her. ‘And it’s getting late. You’ve been asleep for a while.’

Rosy blinked, realising that the sun had moved and she checked her watch, startled to appreciate that the afternoon was well advanced. ‘You’re right. It’s past lunchtime. You should’ve woken me up.’

‘It’s not a problem. I want us to spend another couple of hours down here. We have people doing stuff back at the cabin.’

‘Stuff?’Rosy teased with a frown of incomprehension, half sitting up.

‘So, we’ll have lunch now,’ he announced, dragging forward a cool box.

‘Stuff?’ she questioned with amusement again, blue-amethyst eyes dancing.

‘You deserve a surprise, at least a surprise that doesn’t send you running screaming for the hills like this place did when we arrived.’ Alessio grinned. ‘You should’ve seen your face when you saw the rain and the cabin. You were horrified.’

Rosy reddened. ‘Maybe a little.’

‘A little?’ He laced a hand through the still damp and tangled fall of her hair and cupped her neck. ‘May I kiss you,piccola volpe?’

Rosy nodded nervously.

And their mouths collided, one of her hands rising, fingers splayed to spear into his luxuriant black hair as he caught her to him, his hand curving closely to the nape of her neck. She shivered as the tip of his tongue dallied with hers. As his tongue plunged, it was like a ride up to the heights on a roller coaster and then a sudden steep fall into the kind of passion that was new to her. A piercing ache travelled through her lower body and she felt her nipples tightening, a faint gasp escaping low in her throat.

‘We can’t do this here. I need to work at going slow with you,’ Alessio quipped as he freed her and turned back to the cool box to emerge with an array of elaborate light bites, which he set out before her.

‘You’ve been in touch with the palace!’ Rosy accused in astonishment as she studied the sophisticated selection of tapas.

Evidently, the night before and prior to waking her up, Alessio had driven down the mountain until he got reception on his phone and he had put plans in place then and there. She was impressed because he hadn’t mentioned it and had just got on with it, not that she thought even the Sedovian palace staff could do much in a few hours with a cabin left to go to rack and ruin for years. Hopefully they would at least deliver more food of the same calibre.

‘If the place can be made more comfortable, we can stay a few days before we move on. I did think of shifting us onto my yacht but, unless we stayed out at sea, we wouldn’t get much peace from the paps.’

‘I can manage,’ she declared, content to eat and enjoy the view of the sunlight sparkling off the sea and listen to the soft rush of the surf.

‘Wine?’

‘No, thanks. It’s too warm.’ Rosy paused and then pressed on. ‘I gather your parents weren’t a happy couple.’

‘Well, that’s scarcely a secret. My mother had a habit of making very acid comments to my father in public, which enraged him. She married him for wealth and he married her to have a child.’

‘So, you must’ve been a very much wanted baby.’ She sighed enviously as they ate.

‘Diomio, are you kidding? I was wanted in the sense that my father needed an heir, but neither of them had the smallest interest in children. After I was born, they moved into separate wings of the palace and only appeared as a couple after that at official functions and, even then, only when it was necessary. Bearing in mind that they couldn’t stand each other, it was especially ironic that they died together when their plane crashed.’

‘You must’ve been very shocked by that disaster,’ Rosy murmured heavily.

‘I was…but, although they were still officially based at the palace, they hadn’t been part of my life in a long time and I generally only saw them in public. I was given my own household at the age of eight to get me out from under their feet,’ he admitted tautly. ‘We didn’t have close ties.’

‘Eight?’Rosy stressed. ‘Yourownhousehold? What did that mean?’

‘Essentially that I lived apart from my parents with staff who looked after me, and they did. The staff looked after meverywell,’ Alessio asserted with appreciation. ‘But, of course, they didn’t act like parents, so I never really knew what that would’ve been like.’

‘You didn’t have a proper family,’ Rosy said wryly. ‘I was much luckier than you with Vittoria and Patrick.’

‘After my parents died, my freedom was at an end. I had to clean my act up because I was under too much scrutiny. I never ever expected to come this close to the throne so young. And it was painfully obvious that everyone was keen for me to find a wife to marry. That’s how I walked blindly into the arrangement with Graziana. It was expected of me, so when she suggested it, I thought, why not? She’s royal, she’s popular, she knows what she’s signing up for.’

‘But there should be much more to a marriage.’

Alessio dealt her an amused glance, sunshine gleaming off the clean lines of his high cheekbones and strong jawline. ‘Do you think I don’t know that? But at the time, she seemed the best option available and I was willing to commit.’

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