Invitation to the Prince's Palace (7 page)

It was Alice down that alternative universe hole again, yet it wasn’t. He truly wanted her to marry him. For practical purposes, to outwit his father, and just for a few months, but still…he wanted her to marry him.

She started to find it hard to breathe again. ‘And somehow your plan involved trading off a brief marriage for sorting out the country’s economic troubles.’

‘Yes. My father has pushed all three of us to marry. I think we all have expected that Marcelo would have to do that whether he wanted to or not because he is the eldest. It is part of his heritage.’

Mel nodded. ‘I thought when I came here, well, I guess I was so overwhelmed by it all that I didn’t stop to think that everything might not be rosy just because there’s a palace filled with amazing things. Just because you’re a prince doesn’t mean everything is easy for you. Or for your brothers, either.’

‘My brothers and I went to our father in a concerted bid to get him to listen to the seriousness of the problems the people are facing and with our plans for addressing those problems. Leadership reform is also desperately needed, and that is something Marcelo has been working to achieve for some years now.’ Rikardo drew a breath. ‘Our father finally did listen. We got our concessions from him.’

His tone became even more formal as he went on. ‘But that agreement came at a cost. In return for agreeing to requests that will help us protect Braston’s people from further financial hardship, his demand was that we each marry within the next six months.’

‘To ensure that the family carries on?’ Mel asked the question and then wondered if she should have.

Even as a king, did Georgio have the right to push his sons to marry if they didn’t feel ready? If they didn’t want to? For Rik to go to such lengths to avoid the institution, he must have some deep-seated reasons. Or did he just not want to be bullied? That was reason enough, of course!

Mel might not ever fully understand, and for some reason she felt a little sad right now. Her gaze shifted to the cliff face opposite. Two men were near the top, tourists or locals with rappelling equipment.

Mel had to navigate
this
discussion. And Rik’s explanations did help her to start to understand what was at stake, at least for the people of Braston.

Could she decide to just walk away when the futures of so many people hinged on Rik meeting his father’s demands? When him bringing her here by mistake could have ruined those plans? If she hadn’t been on the street filled with allergy medication…

Whether she’d meant it or not, her actions had contributed to this current problem, and if there was no other way to fix it…

But it’s such a big undertaking, Mel. Marriage, even if it is only for a few months! And there’d be publicity and a dress and so much else, and you’d be fooling Rik’s father the whole time and then he’d realise he’d been fooled and be very angry.

Yet Mel knew that Rik would protect her; that he would make sure his father didn’t bring any of his wrath down on Mel’s head. Rik wouldn’t
allow
that anger to have its head. ‘When it ended you would send me back to Australia, to Sydney. I wouldn’t be exposed to the aftermath here.’

‘And because we’d give an interview when we dissolved the marriage and let the magazines and tabloids have that, I would hope you wouldn’t attract much media interest when you went home.’ His gaze searched hers. ‘I would direct them towards me and ask you to do the same. At worst there might be some photographs and speculation about you in the newspapers over there for a brief time.’

That was to be expected when such an event had happened, but if all the information were already given, surely the papers wouldn’t care much once they realised Mel wasn’t going to talk to them, and the split had been amicable? ‘That shouldn’t be so bad.’ The whole thing wouldn’t be too scary if she decided to do it. Would it?

She reached for the picnic basket that sat ignored on the table before them, and hoped that Rik couldn’t see the tremble in her fingers. ‘Would you like coffee? Something to warm your hands around?’

‘Thank you.’ His gaze, too, shifted to the men on the nearby mountain peak before it returned to Mel. ‘I should have unpacked the basket and made it all available to you the moment we got up here.’

The thought of a prince unpacking breakfast for her horrified her but she bit back her words about it and instead, served the food and coffee for both of them.

When she set his plate in front of him, he caught and held her gaze.

‘I know what I’m asking isn’t easy. I made this plan because I do not feel I can marry, truly…permanently.’ He hesitated. ‘The demonstration of that institution within my family—’

‘Has been about as warm as what I’ve seen in Nicolette’s family.’ Mel bit her lip, but that was her truth and there didn’t seem to be much point in avoiding saying it now.

They started on their food. There were eggs cooked similarly to a quiche but without the pastry base. Small chunks of bread dipped in fragrant oil and herbs and then baked until they were crisp and golden. Grilled vegetables and fruits and a selection of pastries.

‘What you’ve asked me to do
is
unexpected.’ Stunningly so. ‘But I ended up here, you can’t swap me for Nicolette, and if I don’t agree, the game is up with your father and you either have to marry someone for real and stay married to her, or your father won’t grant you the “concessions” you asked for.’

‘I’m afraid I didn’t allow for collecting the wrong woman outside Nicolette’s home, but that is not your fault.’ He frowned and sipped his coffee. ‘It’s important you don’t make your decision based on guilt. A mistake happened that was out of my control, and yours.’

She did feel at least partially responsible, but Mel kept that thought to herself and instead took a small bite of a tasty grilled vegetable before she went on. ‘I’d like to know what the concessions are that your father has agreed to.’

‘I am determined that the truffle crop this year will not fail.’ Rikardo set down his knife and fork and turned to face her. ‘When it flourishes, I’ll need a spectacular marketing idea to get buyers back onside to buy our product. Many of them have lost faith because of the blight that struck our crop two years running.’

Mel, too, set down her utensils. ‘What is this marketing idea?’

‘On the palace grounds there are truffles that grow naturally.’ Rik’s gaze shifted to where the palace sat in splendour in the distance. ‘For centuries those truffles have been eaten only by royals. It probably sounds rather archaic but—’ He shrugged and went on.

‘These truffles are particularly fine. If buyers are given the chance to obtain small quantities of them in exchange for purchasing commercial quantities of our regular truffles, I believe they will jump at the opportunity.’

‘What a clever idea.’ Melanie spoke without hesitation. ‘People will go nuts for a chance like that. I can also imagine that you might have had a job on your hands to get the king to allow you to use those truffles.’

‘Correct. My father tends to adhere to a lot of the old ways and does not want to consider change.’ Georgio was strong, stubborn, unbending. Rik preferred to take the strengths he’d inherited from his father, and turn them to better purpose.

As for Melanie, she looked beautiful and innocent and wary and uncertain all rolled into one as she sat beside Rik on the bench. Yet she also seemed well able to think with a business mind, too, and her eyes shone with genuine encouragement for him as she heard his plans for the truffle marketing.

Would she agree to help him out of the corner he’d got himself stuck in? Did he even have the right to ask that of her?

‘I don’t want to harm you through this agreement, Melanie.’ That, too, had to be said. ‘I have asked for your help, but if it is not something you can do, you do not have to give it.’

‘But you want to help your people.’ Her gaze turned to meet his, and held. ‘You chose Nicolette because you weren’t…romantically attached to her or anything like that, didn’t you?’

‘I did. That allowed the situation to remain as uncomplicated as possible.’

‘It would be easy to end the marriage and get on with what you really wanted to do with your life afterwards.’

He dipped his head. ‘Yes.’

‘I’m not ready to consider marriage yet. The real thing, I mean.’ Even as Melanie spoke the words, a part deep inside her whispered a question. Did she believe she would ever be ready? Did she even feel she had the right—?

What did she mean by that? Of course she had the right, and she would still have the right if she married Rikardo and they then divorced. Melanie pushed the strange question aside.

And she thought about all those people subject to circumstances beyond their control, just trying to get on with their daily lives. People in a lot of ways who would be just like her. Not royal people, but everyday people who simply needed a bit of a hand up.

Mel could do this. She could be of help. She could make it so Rikardo didn’t have to lock himself into a long-term marriage he didn’t want. Maybe later he would find someone and be able to be happy. The little prick she felt in her chest must have been hope that he would indeed find that happiness.

‘I’ll do it.’ Melanie spoke the words softly, and said them again more forcefully. ‘I’ll do it. I’ll marry you so you can make your plan work. I want to help you.’

‘You’re quite certain?’ Rik leaned towards her as he spoke.

‘I am. I’m totally sure.’ And in that moment, Mel was. She could help him. She could do this to make up for him not being able to marry her cousin.

‘Thank you, Melanie.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Her face softened and the beginnings of a smile came to her lips. Her gaze moved to
his
lips and suddenly she had to swallow because something told her he was going to kiss her as part of that thank you.

She thought it, and her breath caught, and then he did.

Rik’s lips brushed hers in a soft press. His hand cupped her shoulder, and even through layers of cloth Mel felt that. Registered that as she received a kiss from a prince.

That was why it felt so remarkable. It had to be the reason—a kiss from a prince to thank her for agreeing to help him out of a tight corner.

Yet Melanie didn’t feel as though a prince was kissing her. She was being kissed…by a man, and it felt wonderful in a way no kiss had before.

In that moment her response was completely beyond her control. Her mouth softened against his, gave itself to his ministrations before her thoughts could catch up or stop her. If those thoughts had surfaced, would the kiss have ended there, with a simple brushing of lips against lips? A simple “thank you” expressed in those terms? Because that was indeed what Rik had set out to do.

It had to have been and yet somehow, for Mel at least, it had become something very different.

Mel closed her eyes. For a moment she forgot she was on a mountainside in Europe with a royal prince, seated at a table with a picnic breakfast spread before them and the most amazing scenic vistas on all sides.

She forgot that it was chilly here but that the sun shone and they were sheltered from the wind. A man was simply kissing her and she was kissing him back and that man had a pet truffle hog he’d named and whom he doted on, even though he tried very hard to hide the fact. He cared for his brothers and for the people who lived in his country, and she’d liked him from the moment she’d thought he was a gorgeous cab driver come to take her away to the airport so she could make her way to Sydney.

‘Rik.’ She’d slept on his shoulder and blabbed at him when she wasn’t quite sensible, and, despite all the smart things she should be thinking right now, the kiss felt right.

‘Hmm?’ He whispered the half-question against
her lips.

Mel didn’t know whether she said it, or thought it. She simply knew the words.

Kiss me again.

CHAPTER FIVE

I
WOULD
kiss you for ever and it would not be enough.

Rik thought the words inside his mind, thought them in his native language. Thought them even though they could not possibly be true and he must simply be swept up in gratitude and relief.

Yet deep within himself he knew that now, in this moment, Melanie would welcome the prolonging of this kiss. His instincts told him this. The way she yielded petal-soft lips to him told him this.

It was that thought of her willingness that finally prompted him to stop something that he should not have started in the first place, and that he hadn’t expected would make his heart pound. He, who rarely lost his cool over anything, had been taken by surprise by kissing a slip of a girl up high on a mountainside.

‘Thank you…’ Rik released Melanie and drew back, and for a moment couldn’t think what he was thanking her for.

For rescuing him. The prince was being rescued by the same generosity that he’d felt in Melanie’s soft lips.

You are on dangerous ground with this thinking, Rikardo. If she is kind, then she is kind and that is something indeed to be appreciated. But the awareness of each other—that cannot be, and it cannot go on.

He shouldn’t have touched her. Arrogantly, he hadn’t known that doing so would be such a stunning thing.

The kiss had been startling in its loveliness. It wasn’t a manly description. But with Melanie it felt exactly right to describe it in this way.

Melanie
was startling in her loveliness, and that came from the generous way she gave of herself.

He’d meant only to touch her lips with his, should perhaps not have considered even that much. Rik would like to say that he’d expected not to feel any attraction to Melanie, that he had expected to feel as indifferent towards her as he had felt towards Nicolette, but he’d known it would be different.

Yet he had kissed her, and had ended up shocked and a little taken aback by just how much he had enjoyed that kiss. Her response to him had felt unrehearsed and open. That, too, had added to her appeal.

Maybe she had simply wanted to kiss a prince.