Page 22 of Stranded with His Runaway Bride

Perhaps it was because she’d said he repelled her.

He knew that was a lie. He wasn’t blind, he could see how he affected her. But whatever her reason for not being truthful, he would respect her choice and not touch her unless absolutely necessary.

He stood behind her, grasped the zip in the cheerleader outfit and tugged it closed, then stepped back.

‘How does it look?’ she asked, turning to face him.

Too short. Showing too much leg. Too cute...

He shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘Fine. Except for...’ He nodded towards her head.

‘What?’ She froze. ‘It’s not a spider, is it?’

‘No. It’s an irreplaceable tiara.’

‘Oh.’ Her hand shot to her hair. ‘I completely forgot. Poor Elisabetha. I doubt she’d ever thought it would be used like this. Could this be the most expensive cheerleader outfit in history?’ She giggled.

It was a simple female laugh.

Nothing to get all bothered about.

So why had the effect of it shot straight to his groin?

He cleared his throat. ‘I’m going to see what else there is up here that we could use, in case the weather gets worse.’

The house phone ringing in the hallway halted him. Violetta hovered close by as Leo answered.

‘Okay, we’ll sit tight here, then.’

He replaced the receiver.

‘What is it? What’s happened?’

‘Sadly, you will be stuck with me for a while. That was my head of security. The road between here and the gatehouse is blocked by a fallen tree.’

‘Don’t they have four by fours? Can’t they just drive round it?’

‘If they could don’t you think they’d have said that?’

She flew to the window. ‘But I have to get back to San Nicolo tonight.’

‘Perhaps you should have fled there, then,’ he said. When she looked stricken, he added more gently, ‘Look, this weather is already much worse than predicted so who knows? But it will be tomorrow now at the earliest.’

‘Tomorrow? I have to be back in San Nicolo before then. My uncle might...oh, never mind.’

‘Trust me, I’ve no more desire to be trapped alone here together than you. But we’ve no choice, so we need to make the best of it.’

‘I wouldn’t be in this mess at all if it weren’t for you,’ she railed at him. ‘You planned all of this. I just know it,’ she muttered.

‘Yes, that’s me.’ He flourished a hand through the air. ‘At my command tempests blow and storms rage.’

‘Why don’t you use your powers to make me disappear and then you can have the grand duchy without the need to marry anyone at all?’

‘Why don’t you stop behaving like a spoiled child and do something useful, like help me search the house for things we might need now we’re stuck here for the night?’

A spoiled child?

Who’d ever spoilt her? Who in her family had treated her as if she mattered at all?

---