Page 32 of Incognito (Royally Reckless #1)

“ Are you sure you want to do this?”

Ella leaned in Natasha’s bedroom door, a mutinous frown on her expressive face, the same look Natasha had seen a million times before when Ella tried to contain her emotions. No way would her feisty friend ever let anyone see her cry.

“I’m sure, though I’m going to miss you both.” Natasha zipped her suitcase, sank onto the bed next to her dad, and slipped an arm around his waist.

Ella wrinkled her nose. “I bet you won’t even give us a second thought.”

“I’m taking a break, not leaving forever. Come on, guys, be happy for me.”

Her dad hugged her. “We are, sweetheart. It just won’t be the same around here without you. But take as long as you like. We’ll be fine.”

“Yeah,” Ella said, swiping a hand over her eyes at the same time she did. “Jinx!”

For Natasha’s sake, she could do without any jinxes. She needed a change of luck, starting today.

“Right. Time to go.”

She hated goodbyes for the simple fact she’d never had to face many. A homebody all her life, she loved the Towers too much to leave, and loved her family too much to be away for longer than school camp. Familiarity bred security, and at that moment, surrounded by her dad and her best friend, she’d never felt so secure.

But she’d grown up. Time to shake her life up, step out of her comfort zone, and give her self esteem a much-needed boost—starting with a month long sojourn on one of Australia’s northern beaches.

“Love you, Dad,” she said, succumbing to her dad’s bear hug and blinking back tears.

“Love you too, princess,” he said, ruffling her hair like he had when she was four, and making her want to bawl more than ever.

Easing out of his embrace, she turned towards Ella with arms outstretched. “Hug me if you think I’m cool.”

Ella snorted, and as she hugged her tight, Natasha knew she couldn’t have survived the last few years without her best friend, hoping her extended break wouldn’t change things between them.

They were more than best friends; Ella had become her sister and she needed her as much as her dad.

“Enough of the mushy stuff,” Ella said, breaking the hug as both of them made surreptitious dabs at their eyes.

A loud knock at the door startled Natasha and she glanced at her watch. “Must be the bell boy. Okay, load up the bags. Looks like I’m on my way.”

Ella opened the door while Natasha bustled around the room, making sure she hadn’t left anything behind.

“Anyone seen my phone?” Natasha asked, trying to subdue a mild flare of panic. “I’m sure I left it on top of the TV.”

An eerie silence greeted her question and she swung around, wondering if Ella and her dad had ducked out on her rather than face any more goodbyes.

However, they hadn’t left. Instead, they crowded the open doorway like a welcoming committee, while a guy wearing a uniform—not one of the hotels’s—slowly turned around.

Natasha’s heart stopped and she held her breath, her head reeling from lack of oxygen, shock, or a combination of both, as she stared in open-mouthed amazement at the last man she ever expected to see.

“We’ll leave you alone,” Ella said, herding Natasha’s confused father out the door, and closing it behind them in record time.

“Hello, Tasha.”

That voice. Deep, with a hint of gravel that sent shivers rippling over her skin like a caress.

“What are you doing here?”

To her surprise, she managed to work her mouth and brain in sync, though now that her heart had kick-started again, the roaring of her pulse in her ears almost deafened her.

“I am here on official business.”

Dante hadn’t moved far into the room, giving her plenty of opportunity to study him. She’d never seen him like this: navy uniform, many medals pinned over his left breast pocket, hair slicked back without a curl in sight.

However, his expression threw her the most: uncertainty warred with hope, warmth battled with—dare she say it—desire?

“Official business, huh?”

He nodded, a stilted action that fit his formal attire, a regal action befitting a prince.

“Yes. I’ve come to apologise for my atrocious behaviour when we last met.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, his stare boring into her, silently imploring her to listen. “And to convince the woman I love to take a chance on me again?”

His self-deprecating smile held little amusement. “A very important task I couldn’t entrust to any of my subordinates, so here I am.”

Shock made Natasha gape, as she tried to assimilate his declaration. Surely he didn’t mean it? This had to be part of some elaborate game to get her onside again. Maybe he wanted to buy the hotel? Hell, anything could be possible at this stage, his declaration of love had been that outlandish.

“Well?”

As his imperious brow rose, she snapped out of the befuddled fog pervading her from the minute he stepped into the room.

“Well, what? Do you seriously expect me to believe I’m the woman you love?” She barked out a laugh devoid of amusement. “Come on, I’m not that gullible.”

She folded her arms and propped on the hall table, wishing her pulse would slow down, wishing he didn’t look so darn appealing even trussed up like a rigid soldier.

She waved him away. “I’m sorry you’ve come all this way, but Gina’s playing some warped trick on both of us, sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, when we both know you are duty bound to marry your perfect chosen bride and live happily ever after.”

“But I love you,” he said, his steady, blue-eyed stare compelling, hypnotising, mesmerising.

In that moment, the penny dropped. Not just one, but a whole bagful of screeching metal crashing down on her conscious and making her see red.

“Let me guess, you want the dutiful wife at home and a Melbourne mistress on the side.” Her fingers curled into her palms and she could easily slug him, if it wouldn’t cause an international incident. “Do you honestly think you can feed me a few pathetic lines of love, and hope I’ll wait around for you whenever you’re in town?”

She paused, wishing the film of crimson mist blurring her eyes would clear so she could give him a proper staring down.

“Well, I’ve got news for you, your royal delusional highness.” She jabbed a finger at him. “You can’t just waltz back into my life and say you love me and think that makes everything okay. It doesn’t work that way.” She snorted in disgust. “Besides, after what you’ve just implied, I wouldn’t go near you if you were the last man on earth.”

Dante didn’t flinch, but the blazing expression in his eyes made her want to take a step back.

“Maybe I can convince you otherwise?” His soft voice held a hint of menace.

“Forget it.”

She tilted her head up and squared her shoulders, pleased with her unwavering stance when inside she quaked like jelly. But before she could react, Dante had crossed the room, hauled her into his arms, and locked his lips on hers.

“No—ooo…”

Her protest died on a moan as his lips gentled, coaxed, and finally triumphed when she opened her mouth beneath his, desperate for the first thrust of his tongue, challenging him, wanting this kiss to last forever.

Heat streaked through her body, waking her dormant libido with a jolt, a desperate hunger that clamoured for release.

She needed him.

All of him.

Body to body, skin to skin, joined in an intimacy she’d never craved this much until this man entered her life and turned her world upside down.

Her hands splayed against his chest, her palms branding him, helpless to resist the pull of heat radiating from him. She basked in it, warming quickly, reaching burning point within seconds. Burning for him, only him, the only man she’d ever really loved.

The man who had to be toying with her, again.

She broke the kiss—annoyed, reluctant, breathless—her gaze drawn to his lips merely inches from hers.

“Tasha, look at me.”

He placed a finger under her chin and tilted her head up gently, giving her time to pull away if she wanted.

She didn’t.

If she thought his body radiated heat, it had nothing on his eyes, the aquamarine depths a bubbling pool of molten blue heat; the hottest part of a flame, the most hypnotic, and the most seductive.

“I love you. Every stubborn, self-reliant, capable inch of you.” His smile made her breath hitch. “You captured my heart from the first minute I saw you and I didn’t stand a chance.”

He gave a rueful chuckle. “Maybe my approach needs some work but forgive me, I have been trying to phrase my declaration exactly right. I want you to marry me, to trust in me enough to make a new beginning in a new country. This isn’t a game or a ploy or some scenario playing out. This is about you and me and the rest of our lives. If you want it to be.”

Dante, the prince of Calida, wanted to marry her? Hope sparked deep in her soul but her self esteem had taken a beating once too often to jump up and down with joy just yet.

She’d heard smooth words before, practised words designed to deceive, to obtain an end goal.

She needed more.

She needed proof.

“If you love me, why did you leave? Why did you let me walk away after I lay my heart on the line?”

Dante didn’t look away, his steady gaze unwavering and filled with a clear-eyed honesty that took her breath away.

“I was a fool.” His sheepish expression gave her hope that he’d been as bamboozled as she had. “A man who’s never been in love before doesn’t know the symptoms, can’t recognise the cure even when it is staring him in the face. I knew we were attracted to each other, I valued our friendship and I wanted more, but when I saw you with your ex, something short-circuited in my brain.”

“You were jealous,” she said, trying to absorb the impact of his words without letting her topsy-turvy emotions get in the way.

“And stupid.” He snorted. “In all honesty, I was probably looking for a way out, a way to explain away the feelings I didn’t understand and I took it. You made it easy to love you, but you also made it easy for me by giving me an excuse to walk away because I wanted to.”

He closed his eyes for a second, a pained expression crossing his face before opening them again.

“I didn’t know what love was until I reached Calida. When I couldn’t think, couldn’t function, couldn’t breathe without going mad for thinking about you.”

He cupped her cheeks, caressing her with his fingertips, sending shivers down her spine. “Thinking about how beautiful you are, how your eyes spark golden when you’re passionate about something.”

His thumbs brushed her lips, making them tingling. “How I only kissed you once in a bout of foolery and how much I yearned to do it again. For the rest of my life.”

He kissed her, a soft, gentle melding of lips, a kiss of honesty, of hope. Her heart unfurled beneath it, filled with a burgeoning sense of infinite possibilities.

“Will you be my wife, Tasha? Be by my side, facing the future together?”

A vivid image of the two of them in bridal finery flashed before her eyes, a romantic picture to go with the romantic fairytale ending she’d never envisaged for herself.

Until now.

“I promise you everyone in Calida will come to love you as much as I do.”

Her fantasy bubble popped and reality set in with a vengeance.

She couldn’t marry Dante, no matter how much she loved him.

They came from different worlds, a monstrous gulf of protocols and class and propriety separating them. She’d never been a snob but she’d worked with his class of people her entire life, had seen the differences, the subtle ways in which they separated from everyone else.

For those like Dante, it wasn’t a conscious thing, it was part of who he was, a birthright.

She would never fit in.

No matter how many etiquette lessons she had, no matter how hard she tried to blend in, she would never be good enough, and she’d had enough of having her self esteem trampled, of feeling secondbest.

Dante loved her and that should be enough.

But it wasn’t. She’d heard about his mother, she’d seen how pushy and over-confident Gina was, and she couldn’t stand up to that type of barrage long term.

At the start, in the honeymoon period, maybe, but sooner or later she’d find herself on the outer and the thought of Dante’s love turning to despair when he looked at his out of place wife made her want to run out the door and never look back.

“I’m sorry, I can’t,” she said, stepping out of the comforting circle of his arms, cold loneliness replacing the warmth of his body.

His eyes widened with shock, his mouth a perfect O, as if he never dreamed she’d refuse him.

“Your answer is no?” He blanched, disbelief accentuating the grooves bracketing his mouth.

Natasha almost capitulated, hating the pain slashing his proud features, knowing it must reflect her own.

She had no choice.

She had to make the logical decision, the safe decision, for both of them.

“Dante, listen to me. You’re an incredible man, but we’re too different. We’re worlds apart in every way and I don’t think I’m the right woman for you. Your bride, the future queen of your country, needs to be someone in sync with you, with your family, and unfortunately I don’t fit the bill. I’m sorry.”

The words caught in her throat, her refusal every bit as painful as losing him. However, this time would be worse, because when he exited her life now, she knew he loved her.

Her heart warred with her head, urging her to throw every common sense reason why they shouldn’t be together out the window and follow him to the ends of the earth.

But she’d never been the frivolous type, never would be. Life consisted of responsibilities and she couldn’t change how she thought, just like Dante couldn’t change his birthright.

“I understand your concerns,” he said, not appearing fazed in the slightest at her refusal.

If anything, he squared his shoulders, stood taller, and the corners of his too-kissable mouth twitched as if he knew the punch line of some upcoming joke.

“You’ve made some valid points, Tasha. Yes, we’re different, and yes our worlds are far apart, but these obstacles can be overcome by one thing.” He snapped his fingers. “As it happens, it is the one thing you haven’t mentioned.”

“What’s that?”

His eyes twinkled and he actually smiled, setting her pulse racing double-time when it had barely slowed to an acceptable rate after that sizzling kiss.

“Love,” he said, pronouncing it with the importance of bestowing a title on her. “You have mentioned connections and the like, I’ve said I love you, but you haven’t said you love me.”

“What makes you think I do?”

She avoided his gaze, looking anywhere but at those all-seeing eyes that wouldn’t let her get away with anything let alone a blatant lie.

Silence descended, a taut, tension-fraught silence that stretched for endless moments, the type of uncomfortable silence neither of them wished to break.

“If you say you don’t love me or you still have feelings for your ex, I’ll leave. It’s as simple as that,” he said, his low voice compelling, urgent, tugging at her heartstrings until she finally raised her eyes to his, knowing she couldn’t do it.

She’d always been honest, brutally so at times, and now, when her future depended on a big, fat lie, she couldn’t do it.

“Tasha?”

“I can’t,” she said, shaking her head, knowing her answer would only complicate matters for both of them.

“You can’t love me?”

For an impressive, macho guy, his tone wavered and she captured his hands in hers, needing the physical contact to ground her, to get her through this.

“I can’t lie to you,” she murmured, beseeching him to understand with her eyes, squeezing his hands for support. “Of course I love you. Why do you think I came by your hotel that night? Why do you think I made a fool of myself? I fell in love with you way too fast and even now it scares me beyond belief. But love can’t conquer all, Dante. Real life doesn’t work like that. Being in love may get us through the early tough times, but you’re a prince, soon to be king. Do you really think I’ll be accepted into your world? Do you really think it isn’t going to matter?”

She released one of his hands to reach up and caress his cheek, savouring the slight rasp of stubble against her palm. Though she appreciated his clean-shaven look, she liked her unshaven bad-boy more.

“I’m a simple girl from Melbourne. I love my job, I love my friends, I love my family. It wouldn’t work out. As for Clay, I owed him money, money he once gave me for the hotel with no strings attached. What you saw was his pathetic attempt at asserting control over me, what you missed was me shoving him away.”

“You love me.”

He breathed the words on a breath of awe, sending a wave of pride over her that a guy like him loved a girl like her. “Nothing else matters. Nothing. We can face the future, whatever it holds, together. You won’t lose your friends or family. They can visit and we’ll spend more time in Melbourne.”

He pulled her close, locking his hands around her waist like he’d never let her go.

She wished.

“We can accomplish anything we want., Tasha Together. It has to be us together, always. I love you, I’ll always love you.”

He rested his forehead on hers as if trying to transfer his thoughts by osmosis and she didn’t move, content to be joined in some contact with the man she loved, the man she would always love.

The man she would always love…

She had her answer.

Rather simplistic, considering all the barriers she’d erected between them, all the perfectly legitimate excuses she’d made, but once the phrase lodged in her head she knew what she had to do.

She slid her arms around his waist, enjoying their perfect fit.

“Dante?”

“Yes?”

She smiled. He never said yeah like other guys, but a formal yes she could imagine him uttering to dignitaries across the world.

“Have you ever seen a movie called The Princess Bride?”

“No.”

Confusion warred with a tiny flicker of hope in his eyes and she laughed, a purely happy sound for the first time in forever.

“In that case, why don’t we create our own version with me in the starring role?”

Realisation turned his eyes a startling blue and he let out a whoop of joy.

“Does that mean what I think it means?”

“It means you’re about to be stuck with me for better or worse.”

He picked her up and swung her around until they both staggered in a dizzy embrace.

She slid down his body, joy bubbling within her, spreading heat through her body like warm treacle. Or that could’ve been the obvious evidence of just how happy her future husband was with her declaration.

“We’re going to live happily ever after in a big castle. You know that, don’t you?”

Natasha smiled and traced her fiancé’s lips with her fingertip. “I know that I love you. I know that you’re a wonderful guy. And I know that I finally believe in fairytales.”

“So how does The Princess Bride end?” He whispered, kissing his way from her hand to her arm and slowly upwards, his lips trailing across her neck to the soft skin beneath her ear as she gasped in delight.

“Stick with me and you’ll find out.”

She sighed a moment before his lips settled over hers, and she lost herself in the magic of his kiss, looking forward to creating a happy ending all their own.

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