Page 29 of His Royal Bride Replacement

Listening to her gracious comments, Alessio breathed in deep and slow to calm his volatile temper. He was annoyed with himself and with Lucia,notwith Rosy.

‘It’s not a matter of petty jealousy,’ Rosy murmured with quiet pride as soon as they were alone. ‘It’s a question of what’s appropriate and Lucia wastouchingyou.’

‘No, she was not,’ Alessio contradicted curtly.

‘She was fiddling with your cufflink, her hands on your arms and your shoulders, her hair tossing round you,’ Rosy specified with pink cheeks. ‘Put yourself in my place. If a man was touching me in the same familiar way, would you ignore it? Would you be quite content to watch that happening in front of you?’

Alessio gritted his even white teeth hard enough to chip them because heknewthat he would not be accepting in any way of such a display. He would not stand still for a second to watch another man touching his wife. His possessive streak ran deep and strong and her logical reaction infuriated him. ‘I’m not accustomed to discussing my private life with anyone,’ he admitted in a driven undertone. ‘I have been an independent operator for too long. But now, I have to appreciate that I can no longer have that autonomy when I have a wife.’

‘I understand that,’ Rosy murmured, the tension in her shoulders easing as she recognised that he had mastered his anger. ‘Your past, however—misspent or otherwise—is none of my business.’

‘Up to a point that is true, but not when it intrudes so blatantly into our marriage,’ Alessio retorted without hesitation. ‘I was embarrassed by Lucia’s visit and that made me angry. I had to tell her that what we had would not be continuing.’

‘She knew you were now married and I gather it was a longstanding relationship,’ Rosy guessed.

‘She was trying to save face when she pretended that she was unaware of your existence. I’ve not visited Spain since my engagement to Graziana. I didn’t have a relationship with Lucia, merely a casual friends-with-benefits arrangement when I was here. She didn’t want any publicity either because her family would have disapproved. In recent years I have been much more discreet about such matters than I once was,’ Alessio explained tautly. ‘Lucia suited me because she had no ambition to be splashed over the tabloids with me beside her.’

Embarrassed? She respected him for admitting that to her but could not help wishing that she had not seen the lovely Spaniard at all. It had only created dissension and left her feeling insecure because Lucia had proved to be one of those supermodel perfect beauties like all the predecessors Rosy had viewed in Alessio’s company online. And those comparisons simply made Rosy feel soveryordinary with her red curls and diminutive height.

‘So, if she knew you were now married, she was—’

‘Fishing? Testing the water to see if I wished to continue…and naturally, I don’t,’ Alessio asserted. ‘There will be no other women in my life while you are with me.’ His brilliant crystalline green eyes assailed hers with a ruthless gleam and he toasted her with his wine glass. ‘Where do you think I would get the energy from?’

And Rosy almost choked on her wine as she thought of the number of times they had had sex over the past thirty-six hours. ‘I suppose we’ve been busy,’ she framed. ‘Like rabbits or whatever.’

Alessio flung back his head and laughed with rich amusement. ‘I think they are more famous for producing little rabbits and we’re trying not to do that!’ he contradicted. ‘I can talk to you about anything, and I’ve never had that before with a woman. It’s a valuable advantage for both of us.’

And just like that, Rosy reflected in silent wonder, all the tension and the messy emotions drained away and she found herself smiling back at him, entranced by his breathtakingly handsome lean, dark face. Her heartbeat had kicked up pace, her tummy awash with butterflies, and she knew right then in that moment that it was too late to worry about falling in love with a husband who could still decide to eventually dispense with her as a wife. After all, her surge of pleasure and excitement was warning her that she had already fallen victim to his appeal.

* * *

‘I’m hardly going to see you after tomorrow.’ Rosy sighed, her expression wry because there was no point regretting the reality of Alessio’s busy life.

It was the last night of their honeymoon and in the morning, they would be returning to the palace in Severino, the capital of Sedovia. Their little idyll in Spain of total privacy and togetherness would be at an end. They would be plunged straight into the fuss and complexity of the royal coronation, due to be staged in another two weeks’ time. There would be multiple meetings with all the many people involved, garment fittings and rehearsals. They would have to fight an often-rigid schedule to find time to be together and she felt guilty because she was already dreading those changes in spite of the fact that she now felt much more secure in her role as Alessio’s wife and princess. Two weeks together had changed so much for them as a couple. She was now calmer and more confident in the awareness that Alessio liked her, respected her, understood her and, also…lusted madly after her.

‘Why would you think that?’ Alessio demanded, breaking off from a lingering and leisurely exploration of her slender, curvy body to sit up and look at her in apparent disbelief.

‘Because that’s what it was like before the wedding. You didn’t have any time for me.’

‘Everything’s different between us now. Back then, I was still in shock from Graziana’s betrayal and I was also afraid that you might panic and retreat from all the demands and responsibility coming your way as a royal,’ Alessio admitted, thoroughly disconcerting her, for it had not once occurred to her that he might have feared such a development, although admittedly she had found the days running up to their royal wedding hugely stressful. ‘I couldn’t afford to take anything for granted until you actuallymarriedme. I worried about making the wrong move, about saying or doing anything that might upset you.’

Rosy nodded, secretly amused by that explanation. ‘So, I should’ve said, “Alessio I want to spend time with you”?’

‘And if I could’ve seduced you into bed, I would have been even keener,piccola volpe.But I know there would have been no chance of that now.’ A wicked glitter made Alessio’s eyes gleam like jewels in the lamplight as he stroked an expert fingertip across a tight, straining nipple with sensual intent. ‘I know for a fact that you’re not the kind of woman who’ll sleep with a stranger on her wedding night!’

‘But it didn’t take you long to change my mind, did it?’ she teased back, covering his wide mouth with her own, tipping him back against the pillows with a sensual assurance she could not have utilised just two short weeks before.

Right from the outset, she had realised that Alessio had set a newly discovered part of her nature free and it had empowered rather than diminished her. She revelled in the fact that Alessio couldn’t keep his hands off her because it was the same for her. On that level, she conceded, they were equals. It was only when she put in the emotional attachment that she had developed for the man she had married that she felt a little foolish and lacking.

Once the passion had subsided, Alessio rested back with Rosy’s limp length still in his arms. He was also in no hurry to return to the palace. He knew that he had allowed too many staff to organise his schedule for too long without question. He had seen it as his duty to the throne and had avoided demanding personal time of his own. There would have to be modifications, he acknowledged grimly, so that he had hours to spend with his very beautiful, very sexy wife.

Rosy made him ridiculously happy in some weird way. Somehow, and he had no idea how, she stopped him worrying, stressing and overworking. He was becoming conscious that he had been too agreeable a royal heir, far too focused onnotfollowing in his father’s self-indulgent footsteps. Unfortunately, that guiding ambition had merely sent him to the other extreme in which he had allowed too many people to demand his time and his appearances. The result was that in the few years since his father’s demise, he no longer had anything that could be described as off-duty time. And how could that truth possibly help to build the family life he had long hoped to achieve?

It certainly would not impress Rosy, who set high standards, refused to be rushed into anything and moved steadily at her own pace. Rosy was strong,but? There was no way that he would allow the royal staff to take over Rosy’s schedule and try to guilt her into working endless hours and late nights for the myriad causes that sought palace support. Firmly resolved to immediately begin the changes that he saw were necessary to protect his wife, Alessio was already making plans.

* * *

‘Now, this is a question I keep meaning to ask you and forget to,’ Alessio admitted during their flight back to Sedovia. ‘Is there any chance in the future that you might want to decide to search for your missing mother?’

---