Page 69 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

‘Oh, my, indeed,’ Ari echoed.

After a moment, Maddi asked, ‘Do you think we could have a press conference?’

‘For what?’

‘I want to apologise to the people of Santanger for misleading them about who I was...’

‘That’s my apology to make. It was my choice.’

Maddi shook her head. ‘It was me too. I didn’t have to agree. I could have left. But I love them, and I don’t want them to think I disrespected them.’

Ari looked at her. ‘You’re amazing—you know that?’

Maddi shrugged, shy.

Ari said, ‘We’ll do a press conference to announce our engagement and wedding. And you can say what you have to say.’

A week later, they did the press conference. Maddi was nervous, but she spoke from the heart.

And then Ari took her hand and said to the people of Santanger, ‘This is the woman you fell in love with...who I fell in love with. She will be my wife and your Queen.’

There was a moment of silence as the press pack and the crowd absorbed what they’d said, and then there was a spontaneous outbreak of applause and cheering. Maddi saw suspiciously bright eyes in the most hardened of hacks.

A month later, Maddi and Ari emerged into bright, early spring sunshine outside the cathedral of Santanger. She was a vision in a long white dress—simple and classic, overlaid with Santanger lace—with a long veil and a glittering tiara.

She turned to Ari and, grinning, forgot every bit of protocol she’d been taught about how to behave in public. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his.

He mentally threw out the protocol book too, and wrapped his arms around his wife...hisQueen...and kissed her back with all the passion that raged between them, while the crowd cheered and clapped and cried and threw flowers in the air.

Their marriage signalled a new era for the royal family of Santanger and a lasting peace with Isla’Rosa.

A couple of days later Maddi and Ari were in their honeymoon villa, high in the mountains, with epic views over the island. Maddi had insisted on having a honeymoon on the island, wanting to share her happiness with the people as much as possible.

The sun was setting outside, and everything was bathed in a golden glow.

They’d made love and were basking in a post-coital haze of satisfaction. And not a little emotion. When Ari had reached for protection just a short while before, Maddi had stopped him. Silently they’d communicated the step they were taking, and she was mortified to admit now that she’d cried a little at the thought of creating a family and doing it with love.

She hoped that, for them, it would be different. It would. She knew it, deep in her bones.

She turned her face to Ari and kissed his chest. ‘I love you...’

He squeezed her bare buttock.

She smiled.

He said, ‘I love you, Queen Maddi of Santanger.’

Through the haze of happiness and satisfaction something occurred to her and she lifted her head.

‘Have you heard from Dax?’

Ari shook his head. ‘No—should I have?’

Maddi frowned. ‘No... I guess not. It’s just that I haven’t heard from Laia either. She left after the wedding reception. She said something about an emergency she had to get home for, but that it wasn’t too serious. I’m pretty sure I saw Dax leaving not long afterwards.’

Ari pulled Maddi down onto his chest, crushing her breasts against him. Maddi’s brain immediately became fuzzy.

He said, ‘Something happened between them on that island, but he’s never said what.’

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