Page 14 of Twelve Nights In The Prince's Bed

He stepped backwards, withdrawing from her, removing himself incrementally until he was unfamiliar and strange, cold and detached.

She furrowed her brow. ‘Don’t be mad.’

He didn’t visibly react, but she felt a shock wave move from him to her. ‘About?’

Poppy wrung her hands in front of her chest. ‘So I spoke to your mother this morning, and let’s just say she was beside herself. She was angry at you, disappointed with me, worried for both of us, and she raised some very valid points about my career. You know how grateful I am to your family, how much I hate the idea of hurting them...’

His nostrils flared. ‘What you and I do privately is of no concern to them, or anyone.’

‘Do you really believe that?’

His eyes held hers for a long time and Poppy’s concentration was failing, everything was fading, the world beyond them, the physical items in his home, even the air grew thin, as she felt only the insane connection between herself and Adrastos and an almost magnetic desire to act on it.

‘I believe it’s how it should be,’ he conceded after a beat.

‘So do I. But unfortunately, reality is different. We made a mess, Adrastos, and we have to clean it up.’

‘And you have some brilliant idea for how to do this?’

‘Well, I don’t know if it’s brilliant,’ she said with a lift of her shoulders. ‘In fact, on the drive over here, I kept thinking howstupidit is, but, getting to the point: I’ve already told your mother, the die is cast, and there’s nothing for it but to carry on now.’

‘You’ve told my mother what, exactly?’

Poppy sucked in a deep breath, tasting him on the tip of her tongue, wanting him, needing him. ‘She hated the idea of me being just another one of your women,’ she said, not noticing the way he stiffened. ‘And I hated the idea of her thinking that too. So I told her... I told her...’ Poppy groaned, then tilted her head back, staring up at the ceiling.

‘You told her what?’ he repeated, but with more urgency.

‘That we’re secretly dating,’ she whispered. And then she waited for Adrastos to react.

CHAPTER FOUR

LIKETHEEYEof an epic storm, seconds passed in silence, and yet there was an undercurrent of pulsing, of raw, untameable energy, and then, Adrastos spoke, his voice controlled, but the kind of control that somehow sent Poppy’s nerves into a state of abandon.

‘You did what?’

‘Hear me out,’ she said, closing her eyes because it was impossible to look at him and see rejection on his face. She felt as though she’d dug an incredibly deep hole and he was the only person who could help her out of it. Until that moment, it hadn’t really occurred to Poppy that he might not agree to. ‘You must know how your parents feel about your, erm...’

She forced herself to blink in his general vicinity then, an unspoken plea on her face.

But Adrastos didn’t help her out. He stood like a totem pole, massive and unyielding, arms crossed over his broad chest, eyes boring into her.

‘Lifestyle,’ she finished after a beat. ‘Your habits with women are well documented. They hate it, but they know better than to try to convey that to you, for fear you’ll resent their interference so much you’ll increase your, erm...activities.’

He barely reacted, but in his jaw, a muscle flexed.

‘You are the heir to the throne. They want you to settle down.’

‘You do not need to interpret my parents’ feelings for me, Poppy. Whether they have expressed their wishes to me is beside the point: obviously they would rather I was married by now, with the obligatory minimum of two children.’

She pushed aside the strange, barbed feeling tightening at her chest.

‘Sleeping with me was...’ She hesitated. ‘Well, they’re annoyed.’

‘So?’

She flinched. ‘You might feel that way, but I sure as heck don’t. I love your parents and the last thing I want to do is repay their generosity and kindness by disrespecting them, by disappointing them.’ Her voice crackled with feeling.

‘Again, Poppy, what you and I do in our personal lives...’

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