Page 20 of His Royal Bride Replacement

‘I had to speak to her. No matter what she’s done, I can’t ignore the fact that we should remain on reasonable terms with so close a neighbour,’ he admitted grimly.

‘What did she want?’ Rosy asked baldly.

‘She ditched me because she believed she’d fallen pregnant by her bodyguard. That’s why she married him and took off. Then she realised she had been too hasty and she’s now pursuing an annulment,’ Alessio advanced.

Rosy had frozen. ‘Might it be your child?’

Alessio groaned. ‘No, thereisno baby. It was only a scare and even if it hadn’t been, it couldn’t have been mine because Graziana and I haven’t had sex.’

Rosy’s lips rounded in a silent ‘oh’ because that information took her aback. Like most people, she had assumed that he and Graziana were already lovers, even if they were not ‘in love’.

‘And now she’s chasing an annulment for her marriage to the bodyguard?’

‘On the grounds of non-consummation.’

Rosy nodded and stood up as she prepared to go into the kitchen to fetch their food. ‘Are you thinking of doing the same thing?’ she couldn’t help asking, her heart sinking at the prospect.

Alessio slung her an incredulous look. ‘Why would I want to do that?’

‘Because she was everything you wanted and, by the sounds of it, she’ll soon be available again…and you could be too,’ Rosy pointed out, lifting her chin as she headed back out to the kitchen. ‘It makes me a little superfluous.’

As she set out the main course on the counter, she realised that she felt deeply hurt by the prospect of their unlikely marriage being set aside before it even got a chance to get going. Why did she feel so hurt? She had married him for the money that had settled her family’s debts, hadn’t she? It had been an impersonal arrangement, so how had her feelings got involved? But if she had only married him for the money, shouldn’t she be relieved if their marriage came to a sudden sharp halt? After all, he was unlikely to ask her or her family to return that money and an annulment would leave her free to return to her life.

Only, she registered, she didn’t want to set Alessio free when tantalising possibilities were now hovering on the horizon ahead of them. The chance of them settling into arealmarriage? The chance of them staying together, eventually raising a family? The concept of such developments between them sent her heart racing and soaring with hope and happiness. And why was that? When had her emotions even got involved? When had she begun caring what Alessio might think and feel? And when had she begun stressing about how he might compare her suitability as a royal wife with Graziana’s? Graziana, who would naturally slide into a royal role with all the ease of a princess born and bred?

OK, she reasoned with herself, she was fiercely attracted to Alessio…and she liked him, probably much more than she should. He was good company, neither vain, nor arrogant, indeed he was none of the things she had once dimly assumed he would be. Here with her, shorn of his usual opulent surroundings and servants, he wasn’t pompous or condescending or selfish or spoilt. When he had opted for a separate bedroom, he’d been thinking of her, hadn’t he? Giving her the opportunity to think about whatshewanted, no matter how little her ultimate decision might match his needs as a public figure.

‘Rosy?’ Alessio demanded from the doorway and she glanced up, noting the angry glitter of his jewelled eyes and the tight set of his sculpted jawline. ‘What on earth makes you think that I would still want to marry a woman who was clearly cheating on me throughout our engagement?’

‘I… I—’ she stammered.

‘I had a lucky escape and I know it,’ he breathed with subdued ferocity. ‘Her affair might well have continuedafterour marriage! She was obviously very discreet about the relationship because nobody appears to have known about it or suspected anything.’

‘I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions,’ Rosy said ruefully. ‘It’s just Graziana wanting you back and hovering and her being so perfect for the royal role makes me feel insecure.’

‘That’s foolish and your insecurities are without foundation as far as I’m concerned,’ Alessio stated, lifting the plates out of her hands to set them aside and closing his hands round hers instead. ‘I’m the son of parents, who lied to and cheated on each other. I have no desire to be married to a dishonest woman without loyalty. Nor could I ever want such a woman to become the mother of my children.’

‘I see that,’ Rosy conceded, pulling her hands free, her face deeply flushed as she reached for the plates again. ‘Come on, let’s eat.’

* * *

Frustration rippled through Alessio as he searched her shuttered face. Maybe he shouldn’t have told her about Graziana’s phone call or his ex’s current plans. But he preferred honesty and had little tolerance for lies and half-truths. In reality, his parents’ numerous self-indulgences had made him into their very opposite in character. He had married a sincere, honest woman and he didn’t want to risk damaging her faith in him. That was why he was stepping back from the intense sexual chemistry between them, offering her the space to decide whatshewanted, because, no matter how much he wanted her, he didn’t want to take advantage of her. But first she needed to think through whether or not she was prepared to stay with him and give their marriage a chance.

They were finishing the last course and Rosy had been thinking hard when she said rather abruptly, ‘I’m not the only one of us who needs to be considering what he’s doing.’

Alessio lifted a satiric ebony brow. ‘Meaning?’

‘You hand out mixed messages all the time, stop, then start, so that I never really know where I stand with you,’ Rosy framed tightly. ‘First I think we’re in a fake marriage, then I realise I’m in a trial marriage—’

‘When did I say that you were on trial?’ Alessio demanded, tossing down his dessert fork.

‘That’s the impression you give me. You want me to decide to be all in or all out before you waste your time on me. You let us get…er…closein the cave, and then I return here and you’ve moved yourself into a separate bedroom to keep your distance. So, you’re not one hundred per cent committed either, are you?’ Rosy shot at him before she snatched up the tray she had left nearby and began to clear the table.

‘Leave those!’ Alessio ordered in exasperation.

‘No, I don’t fancy coming back to them in the morning,’ Rosy told him steadily and walked out to the kitchen to begin filling the dishwasher.

* * *

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