A Throne for the Taking (14 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I
WON'T MARRY YOU
!

The words seared through Alexei’s thoughts, burning an
agonising trail behind them.

I won’t marry you! And you can’t make
me!

‘Make you?’

Alexei got slowly to his feet, his eyes still fixed on her
indignant face, the way that her proud head was held so high, the green eyes
flashing wild defiance into his. The stunned silence around him reflected his
own shock and confusion, taking it and multiplying it inside his head.

He had been so sure. So convinced that at last he was on the
right track with Ria. He knew he had pushed too hard, forced her into the
position as his fiancée because he wanted her so much. And as a result she had
felt bullied, trapped.

So he had come up with what had seemed like the perfect plan.
To let her go, set her free. He had even arranged for her father to be liberated
as a symbol of everything he wanted for her. But at the last minute he had known
he couldn’t go through with it. And something about her tonight, a new delicacy,
a touch of melancholy, had given him a foolish, wild hope. He had known that he
had to try.

He’d hoped a fresh proposal—one at the event that she had
always longed to attend—might have some magic in it. But, if the truth were
told, it had had the exact opposite effect of the one he had been looking
for.

She had frozen, all colour leaching from her face, staring at
him as if he had suddenly turned into a hissing, spitting poisonous snake right
before her eyes.

‘How the hell...?’ he began but she shook her head wildly,
loosening the elegant hair style so that locks of it tumbled down around her
face. He could see how her eyes shone, the quiver of her lips that seemed to
speak of some powerful emotion only just held in check, but every inch of her
slender body was tight with defiance—and rejection.

‘You may be king,’ she declared, focussing on him so tightly
that it seemed as if there was no one in the room but the two of them. ‘And
perhaps you can order people around—order their lives around for the fun of it!
But you can’t control people’s hearts. You can’t dictate the way I think—the way
I feel! You can’t force me to—’

But that was too much to take.

‘Force? What force have I used?’

But she wasn’t listening, launched on her stream of thoughts,
flinging her fury into his face without a hint of restraint or hesitation.

‘You might be able to command that I do as you say and I will
have to obey you with a “yes, Your Royal Highness. Anything you say, Your
Majesty”.’

Her elegant frame dipped in the most flawless—and most
sarcastic—curtsey ever delivered. That was, unless you remembered the one she
had given him on the night she had come to his room, when the blue silk
nightgown had billowed out at her feet, forming a perfect pool of silk on the
floor around her. Alexei’s groin tightened at the memory of where that had led
but he had to fight the impulse, knowing that it would distract him too much.
And he didn’t need any distractions, not if he was to work out just where
everything had gone wrong—and think of some way to put it right.

‘You can even make me marry you—but you can’t command my heart.
You can’t force me to love you!’

Love.

Things might have moved rather faster than he had intended, the
careful plan he’d decided on rushed and confused at the last moment, but he
could swear that he had never said anything about... Why would she mention love?
Why would it even be in her thoughts unless...?

‘Who the hell said anything about love?’

Her only response was a swift, startled widening of her eyes,
the sudden sharp biting down of her teeth onto the softness of her bottom lip in
a way that made him wince in instinctive sympathy.

They couldn’t talk like this, not with every ear in the place
tuned to what they were saying, hanging on to every word. For a second he
considered grabbing hold of Ria’s hand, taking her out of here—on to the
terrace, into the garden—but one glance into her face had him reconsidering. She
would fight him all the way, he knew that, and they had already created enough
of a fever of interest to be the talk of the country for several years or
more.

‘Everyone out of here.’ His hand came up to brush off the
murmurs of concern. ‘Now.’

He might get used to this king business after all, Alexei
reflected as everyone obeyed his order, moving out of the room at his command.
Even though they all hurried to obey him, it still took far longer than he had
anticipated to empty the room and shut the doors behind them. It seemed an age
before he was alone with Ria, and she was itching to get out of here; he could
see that in her eyes, in the uneasy way she moved from one foot to another,
nervous as a restive horse.

But she had stayed, and he had to pin his hopes on that.

What the devil was he going to say that didn’t make her throw
up her head and run? There was only one place to start. One word that was fixed
inside his head, immovable and clear.

‘Love?’ he said, still unable to believe that he had heard her
right. ‘Did you say love?’

Had she? Oh dear heaven had she actually made the biggest
mistake ever and come out with it just like that—in front of everyone here? Ria
could feel the colour flood up into her face, sweeping under her mask, and then
swiftly ebb away again as she heard her own voice sounding inside her head.

‘You can’t make me love you!’ She flashed it at him in
desperate defiance, fearful that he might take advantage of it, use it against
her.

But somehow he didn’t look quite how she expected. There was
none of the anger, none of the coldness of rejection, nothing of the withdrawal
she had thought she would see in his face if she ever admitted to the way she
was feeling.

‘I wouldn’t even try,’ he said and his voice was strangely low,
almost soft. ‘You’re right, love can’t be forced. It can only be given.’

Was she supposed to find an answer to that? She tried, she
really did, but nothing came to mind. Her brain was just great, big empty space,
with no thoughts forming anywhere.

‘But you did try to force it.’

‘Is that what you thought I was doing?’

He raked both hands through his hair, pushing it into appealing
disorder. The movement knocked the mask sideways slightly. And, as he had done
earlier in her room, he snatched it off and tossed it to the ground.

‘I thought I was proposing. Let’s face it, I never really
asked
you to marry me—we just agreed on terms.’

We didn’t exactly agree,
Ria was
about to say, but something caught on her tongue, stopping her from getting the
words out. She was looking again at that shockingly unexpected proposal. The
sudden silence, the gaping crowds, and Alexei on his knee before her.

The man who had been so convinced that Mecjoria wouldn’t want
him, that the nobility would reject him as they had once done ten years before,
had taken the risk of proposing all over again, of opening himself up in front
of everyone here tonight. He’d risked his image, his pride, his dignity—and what
had she done? She had thrown the proposal right back in his face.

‘I tried to set you free tonight. I knew I couldn’t tie you to
a marriage to me in the way that it was going to be. I couldn’t trap you like
that, cage you—force you into sacrificing yourself for the country. I had to let
you go, no matter how much I wanted you to stay. I had no right to impose those
terms—any terms on you at all.’

‘But you reinforced those terms so clearly here tonight.’

‘Did I?’ Alexei questioned softly. His eyes were deep pools in
his drawn face. She couldn’t look away if she tried. But she didn’t want to
try.

‘My father...’

‘Your father was here tonight as a free man. Did you see any
chains?’ he questioned sharply. ‘Any armed escort?’

‘No.’ She had to acknowledge that. ‘Then why?’

‘I wanted to give your family back to you. I know what it feels
like to be without a family.’

It had happened to him twice, Ria remembered. When he had been
brought to Mecjoria, supposedly to spend the rest of his life with his father
and mother reunited at last, only to have his father die suddenly and shockingly
and then to have his parents’ marriage thrown into question so that he was
rejected by the rest of the royal family. Again when he had had his own family,
with Mariette and baby Belle. That too had ended in tragedy.

But he had talked of setting her free, and he’d wanted to give
her family back to her. None of this meant what she had believed at first.

‘I’m not sure that my father deserves your clemency,’ she said
carefully. ‘He has schemed against you—plotted...’

‘Oh, I’ll be keeping a very close eye on him from now on,’
Alexei assured her. ‘For one thing I never want you to have to deal with him
again. If he tries to interfere in your life then he will have to answer to me.
Though I know you’ll be able to stand up to him for yourself from now on. And I
think the fear that he might have lost your mother will be punishment enough.
Love can do that to you.’

Love? That word again.

‘I should know,’ Alexei went on.

I loved once—adored her... Lost
her.

‘Belle...’

Alexei nodded sombrely, his eyes still fixed on her face so
that she could read his feelings in his expression. And those thoughts made her
heart contract on a wave of painful hope. Because the look on his face now as he
looked at her was the same as when he had stared down at the little snapshot of
Belle, the person he had loved most in all the world.

‘It broke my heart to lose her. I never thought I’d feel that
way again—about anyone. But this morning when you said that I’d trapped you, I
knew I was risking losing you when I forced you into marriage.’

‘For the good of the country and because you wanted me.’

She could risk saying that much. Did she dare to take it any
further? He had wanted to set her free. Surely that was the act of a man
who...

‘And I wanted you every bit as much.’ Her voice jumped and
cracked as she forced herself to add more. ‘I always have. I still do.’

Alexei lifted his hands, cupping her face in both of them, his
lips just a breath away from hers.

‘Forgive me for tonight. I tried to let you go, but I couldn’t.
But I thought it was worth one last try to show you that I love you and
to...’

‘Alexei.’ Ria’s hand came up to press against his mouth,
stilling the rest of his words. She didn’t need to hear any more. ‘You love
me?’

He nodded his dark head, his intent gaze never leaving
hers.

‘I love you. With all my heart—the heart I thought was dead
when I lost little Belle. But you’ve brought it back to life again. You’ve
brought me back to life. But I don’t want to trap you. I don’t want you here if
it’s not where you want to be. I’ll set you free if that’s what you truly want
but—’

Once more she stopped his words, but this time with a wildly
joyful kiss that crushed them back inside his mouth.

‘That’s not what I want,’ she whispered against his lips. ‘What
I want—all I want—is right here, right now. In you.’

He closed his eyes in response to her words and she felt him
draw in a deep, deep breath of release and acceptance.

‘I love you,’ she told him, needing to say the words, glorying
in the freedom of being able to speak them out loud at last.

‘And I love you. More than I can say.’

She didn’t doubt it. She couldn’t. She could hear it
reverberate in his deep tones, in the faint tremble of the hands that held her
face. It was there in his eyes, in the set of his mouth, etched into every
strong muscle of his face. This was the only truth, the absolute truth. And it
made her heart sing in pure joy.

‘Can we start again, please?’ she whispered, making each word
into a kiss against his mouth. ‘And if that proposal is still open...’

‘It is.’ It was just a sigh.

‘Then I accept—freely and gladly—and lovingly. I’d be so happy
to marry you and stay with you for the rest of my life.’

She was gathered up into his arms, clamped so close against his
chest that she could hear the heavy, hungry pounding of his heart and knew it
was beating for her. The kiss he gave her made her senses swim, her legs lose
all strength so that she clung to him urgently, needing him, loving him, and
knowing deep in her soul that he would always be there for her now and in the
future.

It was some time before a noise from outside reminded them that
everyone who had come here to attend the ball was still waiting. A thousand
people, waiting to discover just what her reply had been to his proposal.
Glancing towards the door, Alexei looked deep into her face and smiled rather
ruefully.

‘Our guests are getting impatient. We should let them in again.
Let them share in our celebrations.

‘But,’ he added as Ria nodded her agreement, ‘This will be the
official celebration. The time for our private celebration will come later. I
promise you that I’ll make it very, very special.’

And the depth of his tone, the way he still held her close,
reluctant to let go even for a moment, told Ria that it was a promise not just
for tonight but for the rest of their lives together.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
Beholden to
the Throne
by Carol Marinelli

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