HOW TO MARRY A PRINCESS (8 page)

“It’s not crazy. The Santa Barbara area is a beautiful place, almost as beautiful as Montedoro. And my stables are world-class. You can ride every day.”

“Oh, Noah...” She pulled away from him then. He wanted to grab her and hold her to him, but he knew better. She spun on her heel and raced back up the beach to the blanket again.

He forced himself to stay behind, turning back to the water, staring out at the horizon for a while, giving them both a few minutes to settle down.

When he felt that he could deal calmly and reasonably, he turned to her once more. She sat on the blanket, the other blanket wrapped around her, her knees drawn up, staring at him with equal parts misery and defiance.

He stuck his hands into his pockets and went to her, stopping at the edge of the blanket, not sure what to do or say next.

She tipped her face up to him and demanded, “What are you after, Noah, really? What in the world do you want from me? Because if I’m just another of your conquests, no thank you. I’m not looking for a meaningless hookup right now.”

He knew then that he had to go for it, to tell her everything. What else could he do? A clever lie would never satisfy her. “You’re not ‘just another’ anything. You never could be.”

“Please don’t flatter me.”

“I’m not. Will you listen? Will you let me explain?” He waited for her nod before he said, “I’ve done damn well for myself.”

“Yes, you have. But what does that have to do with—”

“Just go with me here. Let me play this out.”

She hugged her drawn-up knees a little tighter. “All right. I’m listening.”

“I’ve done well for myself and I’m proud. Too proud, I suppose. But that’s how it is.”

She guided a few windblown strands of hair away from that mouth he couldn’t stop wanting to kiss. “Yes, well, I get that.”

“A few years ago I decided it was about time I got married and founded my dynasty.”

“Ah. Of course. Your dynasty.” She made a wry little face.

He forged on. “To found a dynasty, there has to be...the right wife. Someone young and strong, someone from a large family, for a higher likelihood of fertility.”

She made a scoffing sound. “I don’t believe you just said that.”

“Believe it. It’s true—and here’s where my pride comes in. I decided I wanted a princess. A real one.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Oh. You are so bad. Incorrigible, really.”

He didn’t disagree with her. “How do you think I’ve got as far as I have in life? Not through good behavior and political correctness. I decide what I want and I go after it.”

“You know this makes you look reprehensible, right?”

He only gazed down at her, unflinching. “Do you want the truth from me or not?”

She fiddled with the blanket a little and then hitched up her chin. “Yes. I do. Go on.”

He continued, “So I started looking. I wanted a special kind of princess, a princess who was different from the rest. No one inbred. Someone beautiful and exciting. If I’m going to be with a woman for the rest of my life, she will damn well
not
be boring—and my kids won’t be stupid or dull.”

She made a small snorting sound. “Or, God forbid, unattractive.”

He asked very softly, “Are you getting the picture here, Alice?”

Her mocking look fled. She swallowed. Hard. “You...chose me?”

“Yes, I did. The first picture I saw of you, I knew you were the one. I read about you—everything I could find. All the tacky tabloid stories. The articles in
Dressage Today
and
Practical Horseman.
It really worked for me that you loved horses. I wanted to meet you, to find out if the chemistry might be right—because in the end, I would have to
want
you. And
you
would have to want
me.
So I found a way to approach you by using my connections to meet your brother first. As it turned out, I liked Damien. We got along. I invited him to visit me in California. And after we’d known each other awhile, he suggested I come to Montedoro. Of course, I took him up on that.”

“It was part of your plan.”

“That’s right. Damien invited me and I came to Montedoro and I found a way to meet you—in the palace stables, where you’re most at home. I set out to get your attention. And I found out that my original instinct was solid. Every minute I’ve spent with you has only made me more certain that my choice is the right one.”

“Wait a minute.”

“What?”

“Are you going to try to tell me that you’re in love with me?”

“Would you believe me if I did?”

She studied him for a moment, her head tipped to the side. “So, then. It’s just chemistry. Chemistry and your plan.”

“That’s why I want you to come to Santa Barbara. We need more time together. I want you to give that to me—to
us.
”

“Be realistic, Noah. There isn’t any
us.
”

He scowled at her. “There will be. And you’re thinking too much.”

“Right. Because I’m not a stupid princess, remember? You wanted one with a brain.”

“Damn it, Alice.” He dropped to his knees on the blanket before her. She gasped, but at least she didn’t scuttle backward to get away from him. “I’m only telling you that you don’t have to worry. You’re not just some hookup. I will never dump you. I want you to marry me. I want children with you. And I won’t change my mind. You’re the one that I want, Alice. I want you for my wife.”

* * *

Alice wasn’t really sure what to say to him at that point.

Strangely, she still liked him after his extraordinary confession. She liked him and wanted him even more than before. Which probably said something really awful about her character. She didn’t especially mind that he’d picked her out as a horse trader chooses a broodmare, for her good bloodlines, her sterling temperament, her fine health and conformation—and her excellent pedigree.

What she did care about was the truth, that he’d told her honestly exactly what he was after—and that she believed him.

Should she have been at least a little appalled?

Probably. But she simply wasn’t.

Surprised, yes. She’d known that he wanted her—pretty hard to miss that—but it had never occurred to her he might be seeing her as a wife. As a rule, she wasn’t the type of woman a man would set out to marry in advance of even knowing her. Her reputation preceded her and most men looked for someone a bit more sedate when it came time to choose a lifelong companion.

“Alice. My God. Will you please say
something?
”

She hugged the blanket around her more tightly. “Well, I’m not sure what to say. Except that I do appreciate your telling me the truth.”

“I didn’t know what else to do,” he grumbled. “There’s something way too straightforward about you. I get it, that you want honesty. And I’m willing to give you whatever you want.”

“Well. Thanks. I think.”

He braced his hands on his thighs and gritted his strong white teeth. “Please come to California with me.”

“Oh, I don’t think so....”

He swore low, then turned and sat down beside her. Drawing up his knees, he let them drop halfway open and wrapped his big arms around them. He stared at his lean bare feet. “Why the hell not?”

“Because when I get married, it’s going to be to a man I love and trust and know I can count on.”

“I didn’t ask you to marry me. Yet. I just told you what I’m after. Now we need the time for you to
learn
to trust and count on me.”

She turned her head and pinned him with an unwavering look. “You keep leaving out love.”

He made a low growling sound. “You make me be honest, and then you want me to come on with hearts and flowers.”

“No, I don’t want you to come on with hearts and flowers. I truly don’t. I want you to be exactly who and what you are. I like you. A lot. Too much. I find you smoking hot. If I wasn’t trying to be a better person, I would be rolling around naked on this blanket with you right now.”

He shut his eyes and hung his golden head. “Great. Tell me in detail what you’re
not
going to do with me.”

“Stop it.” She leaned toward him.

His head shot up and he wrapped his hand around her neck and pulled her close. “Alice...” His eyes burned into hers.

She whispered, “Please don’t....”

With slow care, he released her.

They sat for a minute or two without speaking.

And then she tried again. “For me, right now, running off to Santa Barbara with you tomorrow seems like just another crazy harebrained stunt. I would need a little time to think this over.”

He slid her a glance. “So you’re not saying no.”

“Not yes, either,” she warned.

“But you’ll think about it.”

She nodded. “And you should do some thinking, too—about how you’re hoping I’m going to learn to trust and count on you.”

He scowled at her. “You’re getting at something. Will you just say it, whatever it is?”

“Fine. If we can’t talk about love, we can at least talk about monogamy. Because that’s a condition for me. If you ever want me to marry you, your days as a lady-killer are done.”

He said very slowly, the words dragging themselves reluctantly out of him, “I haven’t been with anyone for months. And I can’t believe I’m admitting it to you.”

“Good. It’s a start.” She stood. “I want to go now.”

He didn’t argue that time. Apparently he agreed that they’d said all they were going to say for one night. He got up, shook out the blanket and tucked it under his arm. She turned and led the way up to the car.

The ride to her villa took only a few minutes. They were very quiet minutes. To Alice it seemed she could cut the silence with a dull knife.

When they pulled up at the curb, she turned to say good-night to him, to thank him for a wonderful evening. Because it
had
been wonderful, even the rockiest parts. Wonderful and true and difficult. And real.

He only reached for her and covered her mouth with his. She swayed against him, sighing, and he wrapped her up tight in his powerful arms.

It was a great kiss, one of the best. So good she almost said yes, she would go with him after all. Anywhere he wanted. To the ends of the earth.

If he would only kiss her like that again.

But instead, she took a card from her jeweled minaudière and pressed it into his hand. “Home and cell. Call me.”

Gruffly, he commanded, “Come and stay with me soon.”

She leaned close, pressed her cheek to his and whispered, “Noah. Good night.” The driver pulled her door open.

She grabbed her shoes and her wrap and jumped out before she could weaken. Then she stood there on the walk, barefoot in her gold dress, and watched his car drive away.

Chapter Five

N
oah slept on the plane, but only fitfully. His car and driver were waiting for him at the Santa Barbara Airport when his flight touched down. He’d have one night in his own bed and then in the morning he’d board another plane to San Francisco for meetings with a media firm seeking investors for a TV-streaming start-up.

At the estate, Lucy came running out to greet him. She grabbed him and hugged him and said how she’d missed him. It did him good to see her smile. She seemed to have boundless energy lately. He was pleased at how well she was doing.

They were barely in the front door before she started in on him about college in Manhattan.

He took her by her thin shoulders and held her still. “Lucy.”

She looked up at him through those big sweet brown eyes of hers, all innocence. “What?”

“You need to call that school and tell them you won’t be attending in the spring.”

Her lips thinned to a hard line. “Of course I won’t call them. I’m going, one way or another, no matter what.”

“Later,” he coaxed. “In a year or two, after we’re certain you can handle it.”

“I
can
handle it. And I’m taking the spring semester.
This
spring semester. You just see if I don’t.”

Noah tried not to let out a long, weary sigh. She was so completely out there on this—nothing short of obsessed over it. She couldn’t go if he didn’t write the checks. And he had no intention of allowing her to put her health at risk. “We’ve been through this. It’s too soon.”

“No, it’s not.” She shrugged off his grip. “It’s been two years since my last surgery. I am fine. I am
well.
And you know it. It’s
not
too soon.”

He wanted a stiff drink and dinner and a little peace and quiet before he had to leave again in the morning. He wanted Alice, a lot. But he wasn’t going to have her for a while yet, and he understood that. “Please, Lucy. We’ll talk more later, all right?”

“But—”

He caught her shoulders again and kissed her forehead. “Later.” He said it gently.

She shrugged him off again. “Later to you really means never.”

There was no point in arguing anymore over it. Shaking his head, he turned for the stairs.

* * *

“I suppose you saw the stories in the
Sun
and the
Daily Mirror.
” Alice sipped her sparkling water and poked at her pasta salad.

It was Saturday, two days since Noah had gone back to America. Rhia had come to Alice’s for lunch. The sisters sat in the sunlit breakfast room that looked out on Alice’s small patio and garden.

Rhia slathered butter on a croissant. “As tabloid stories go, I thought they were lovely.”

“Tabloid stories are never lovely.”

“In this case, I beg to differ. The pictures were so romantic. Noah looked so handsome and you looked fabulous. Two gorgeous people out enjoying an evening together at Casino d’Ambre. Totally harmless. Nothing the least tacky. Good press for Montedoro and the casino. And you both seemed to be having such a good time together. I don’t see what you’re so glum about.”

She was glum because she missed him. A lot. It didn’t make sense, she kept reminding herself, to miss a man she hardly knew. No matter how smoking hot he happened to be. “I sold him Orion. He arranged to have the veterinarian at the stables yesterday for the prepurchase exam and he’s already sent the money.” He’d wired the whole amount after the exam, before he got the papers to sign. So very, very Noah.

Rhia swallowed more pasta. “You’ve changed your mind about parting with the stallion, then, and want to back out of the sale?”

Alice scowled. “Of course not. I’m a horse breeder. I can’t keep them all.”

“Then what
is
the matter?”

“Everything. Nothing. Did you see the flowers in the big Murano glass vase in the foyer?”

“I did. The vase is fabulous. And the lilies... Your favorite.”

“Noah sent them—both the flowers and the vase. He also sent a ridiculously expensive hammered-gold necklace studded with rubies.”

“You know, I get the distinct impression that he fancies you.” Rhia ate more pasta and chuckled to herself.

“What is so funny?”

“Grumpy, grumpy.” Rhia was still chuckling.

“He wants me to come and visit him in California.”

“Will you?”

“I haven’t decided. He also wants to marry me.”

Rhia blinked and swallowed the big bite of croissant she’d just shoved into her mouth. Since she hadn’t chewed, she choked a little and had to wash it down with sparkling water. “Well,” she said when she could talk again. “That was fast.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

Rhia set down her glass and sat back in her chair. “I’m listening.”

“Oh, Rhia...”

“Just tell me. You’ll feel better.”

So Alice told her sister about taking Noah to the family beach, about his startling confession that he wanted to marry a princess—Alice, specifically. “Is that insane or what?”

Rhia shrugged. “He’s very bold. Just like you. And you’ve admitted there
is
real attraction between you.”

“But don’t you think it’s wildly arrogant and more than a little strange to decide to marry a princess out of thin air like that?”

“I’m not going to judge him. Please don’t ask me to. What I think is that you really like him and lately you’re not trusting your own instincts, so you think you
shouldn’t
like him.”

“Oh, Rhia. I don’t know what to do....”

Her sister gave her a tender, understanding smile. “I think you do. You just haven’t admitted it to yourself yet.”

* * *

Noah arrived home again from the Bay Area on Saturday afternoon.

Lucy did not run out to greet him. Still sulking over that damn school she wouldn’t be going to, no doubt. Fine. Let her sulk. Eventually, she would see reason and accept that she needed more time at home, where he and Hannah, her former foster mom, who managed the estate now, could take care of her. Maybe at dinner that night, if she wasn’t too hostile, he could suggest a few online classes. He needed to get her to slow down a little. There was too much stress and responsibility involved in going to college full-time and living on her own. She needed to ease into all that by degrees.

He thought about Alice. On the plane, he’d read the tabloid stories of their night together at Casino d’Ambre. Just looking at the pictures of her in that amazing gold dress made him want to hop another flight back to Montedoro, where he could kiss her and touch her and take off all her clothes.

She should have come home with him. But she hadn’t. He had to be patient; he knew it. He was playing the long game with her. And the prize was a lifetime, the two of them, together.

Unfortunately, being patient about Alice wasn’t easy. It made him edgy, made him want to pick a fight with someone like he used to do when he was young and stupid—pick a fight and kick some serious ass.

A ride might lift his spirits a little, get his mind off Alice in that gold dress. He put on old jeans and boots and a knit shirt and went out to the stables, where he greeted the staff and chose the Thoroughbred gelding Solitairio to ride.

He took a series of trails that wound over his thirty-acre estate and on and off neighboring properties. His neighbors owned horses, too. They shared an agreement, giving each other riding access.

An hour after he left the stables, he was feeling better about everything. The meetings with the streaming start-up had gone well. Lucy would see the light eventually and agree to take things more slowly. And in time Alice would be his wife.

* * *

Sunday, Alice went to breakfast at the palace with the family. She was a little nervous that her mother might not approve of all the press from her night out with Noah.

But Adrienne only greeted Alice with a hug—and congratulated her on getting such a fine price for Orion. Alice was just breathing a sigh of relief when Damien took the chair next to her at the breakfast table.

He leaned close. “So you sold Noah the horse he wanted.”

“I did.” Alice sipped her coffee.

“Well.” Dami spread his napkin on his knee. “Good enough. And now he’s gone back to California where he belongs.” She promised herself she was not going to become annoyed with her brother, that he only wanted the best for her. Dami added, “And you won’t be seeing him again.”

That did it. She turned a blinding smile his way. “Actually, he invited me to come and visit him in California.”

Her brother didn’t miss a beat. “And, of course, you told him no.”

“I told him I would think about it. And that is exactly what I’m doing.”

Dami gave her a look. His expression remained absolutely calm. But his eyes shot sparks. “Are you
trying
to get hurt?”

She longed to blurt out the rest of it—that Noah wanted to marry her and she just might be considering that, too. But telling Dami was not the same as confiding in Rhia. Rhia didn’t judge. Dami had decided he knew what was best for her. “There’s no good way to answer that question, and you know it.”

Dami only sat there, still wearing
that
look.

She laid it out for him clear as glass. “Mind your own business. Please.”

“But, Allie, it
is
my business.” He kept his voice carefully low, just between the two of them. “
I
invited him here.”

“What is the matter with you?” She spoke very quietly, too. But she wrapped her whisper in a core of steel. “You’d think I was some wide-eyed little baby, unable to take care of myself. You’re way out of line about this. You’ve already told me what you think I need to know. Now you can back off and stay out of it. Please.”

“I think I should talk to him. I should have spoken to him earlier.”

“Dami. Hear me. Don’t you dare.”

Something in the way she said that must have finally gotten through to him. Because he shook his head and muttered, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you....”

“Stay out of it. Are we clear?”

“Fine. We’re clear.” He was the one who looked away.

* * *

The next day, Alice received another vase—Chinese that time, decorated with cherry blossoms and filled with pink lilies, green anthuriums, plumeria the color of rainbow sherbet and flowering purple artichokes. That night he called her.

“I miss you,” he said, his voice low and gruff and way too intimate. “When are you coming to see me?”

She felt an enormous smile bloom and couldn’t have stopped it if she’d wanted to. “The flowers are so beautiful.”

“Which ones?”

“All of them—the lilies especially. Both vases, too. And that necklace. You shouldn’t have sent that necklace.”

“Come and visit me. You can wear it for me.”

“Thank you. Now stop sending me things.”

“I like sending you things. It’s fun. How’s my stallion?”

“Beautiful. And a gentleman. I hate to part with him.”

“You won’t have to if you marry me.”

“A telephone proposal. How very romantic.”

“It wasn’t a proposal. Just a statement of fact. You’ll know when I’m proposing, I promise you that. I want you to send Orion on Friday—can you do that?”

“Of course. If you have all the arrangements made?”

“I will. He’ll fly into JFK, be picked up in a quarantine van and taken to a beautiful little farm in Maryland for testing.” The required quarantine for transporting a stallion from Montedoro to the U.S.A. was thirty days, during which time Orion would be tested for contagious equine metritis. “I’ll pay a visit to the farm the day after he arrives to see that he’s managed the trip well. And I’ll arrange to have him put on a hot walker daily for exercise.” During quarantine a stallion couldn’t be allowed out to pasture or to be ridden. A mechanical hot walker was a machine designed to cool a horse down after exercise. In this case, the machine would give the quarantined stallion the exercise he needed while in isolation.

She said, “By the end of next month, you will have him.”

“Come and visit. You can be here when he arrives at his new home.”

“That would be a long visit. I do have a life, you know.”

He said nothing for a moment. The silence was warm, full of promise. Companionable. “I don’t want to take anything away from you. I only want to give you more. We could live here
and
there in Montedoro. I know your work with your horses means everything to you. You wouldn’t have to give that up. However you prefer it, that’s how it will be.”

“Suddenly we’re talking about marriage again—but this isn’t a proposal, right?”

“Absolutely not. I told you. When I propose, you won’t have to ask if that’s what I’m doing.”

The next night, Tuesday, he called again. She asked about Lucy.

“She’s doing well. Feeling great. And still after me to let her move to New York.”

“
Let
her? She’s twenty-three, you said.”

“So? I told you. She hasn’t been well for most of her life.”

“But, Noah, she’s well now, isn’t she?”

“She can’t be too careful.” His voice had turned flat. Uncompromising.

Alice let the subject go. She’d never met Lucy, didn’t really understand the situation. She had no right to nag him in any case. They hardly knew each other. She only
felt
as though she knew him. She needed to remember that.

Wednesday, she sent him a text letting him know she’d taken Orion out during her predawn ride.

Hving 2nd thgts abt selling him. He is 2 fabu.

He zipped one right back.

4get it. He’s mine.

Hold the tude.

Come 2 C me.

U R 2 relentless.

Rite away wd b gud.

R U NTS?

They went back and forth like that for at least twenty minutes. She stood on the cobblestones outside the stable door, the sun warm on her back, thumbs flying over her phone. It was so much fun.

And yes, she was starting to think that a visit to California might be a lovely idea.

After that day, they texted regularly. He called every night and sent flowers again on Friday, the day Orion boarded a plane in a special stall-like crate for his flight to America.