Avoiding Mr Right (22 page)

‘He knew that I was in love with you,’ Luc said evenly. ‘He knew I wanted to marry you.’

Christina found that she could think of nothing at all to say. She did not believe him. Of course she did not. And yet—though his eyes were masked and his mouth was under rigid control, that little muscle in his cheek was flickering again. And he was not laughing; she knew that for certain.

She stood as if turned to stone. Luc did not touch her.

But he said in a voice that he seemed to keep level only with an amazing effort, ‘
Now
can we please go?’

She went past him out of the door without a word. Luc put a hand on her elbow. Christina stiffened but he was only guiding her towards a lift.

It echoed through her mind: ‘He knew I wanted to marry you.’ Wanted? Did that mean he did not want to any more? Her mouth twisted in fierce self-mockery. Not now that she had proved conclusively that she was that sort of girl by spending a night of ecstasy in his arms.

She looked at Luc sideways. He looked appallingly grim—nothing at all like a man on the brink of a proposal of marriage. She could not deceive herself. He looked as if he almost hated her.

He took her to a courtyard she had not seen before. As soon as they went out into the harsh sunlight, a man in a chauffeur’s uniform got out of a dark limousine. It was Michael. This time Christina recognised the car too. It temporarily displaced her tormented confusion.

‘It
was
you chasing me that night.’

Luc moved his shoulders as if trying to cast off an unpalatable memory.

‘I apologise for that,’ he said in a clipped voice. Clearly he did not relish apologising. ‘At the time I could not think of another way to keep track of you.’

‘Oh.’

How could he have wanted to marry her? He hardly knew her. They were worlds apart. Her thoughts whirled.

This time he did not pretend that the car was not his, or dispense with the chauffeur.

‘The hotel, Michael.’

The chauffeur held one of the heavy doors open for her. She slipped in, flushing slightly. Luc got in beside her and Michael closed the door on him with a faint thud. Christina swallowed and said the first thing that came into her head.

‘Your car has the heaviest doors I’ve ever come across.’

Luc gave an odd little grimace. ‘Bulletproof, I’m afraid.’

‘Oh!’

She was shocked. It had never occurred to her. Nothing could have underlined more completely the difference between them, Christina thought numbly. She said nothing on the rest of the journey to Athens’s premier hotel.

She was still in a state of shock when he took her up to the luxury suite and dismissed the hovering secretary. As soon as the man had gone Luc swung round on her as if he could contain himself no longer.

‘The first time I saw you,’ he said. ‘The very first time. Do you remember?’

‘I hit you with a revolving door,’ Christina said literally. She was completely at sea and feeling faintly intoxicated by it.

‘You hit me with more than that.’ He punched his fist into his open palm. ‘I’ve never behaved like this before, believe me. Never felt like this. I know you think I’m high-handed but I have never felt I had to move so fast before. I couldn’t afford to let you get away. Do you understand?’

Christina did not dare to. ‘No.’

Luc said quietly, ‘Do you remember saying that we could afford to be honest with each other because we wouldn’t meet again?’

For some reason tears were pricking at the corner of her eyes: Christina nodded, wordless.

‘Well, that’s how I thought it was. A pretty girl who didn’t know who I was. A morning at a café table, forgetting my responsibilities. Just being a normal man talking to a normal girl about the tourist sights and the wonderful light. Flirting a little. The sort of casual, fun conversation I haven’t had for twenty years. Even less so since I inherited. I was doing what other men do and enjoying it. Only…’ He hesitated.

Christina held her breath.

‘It wasn’t like that,’ he said at last, abruptly.

She moistened suddenly dry lips.

‘What made it different?’ Her voice was a croak.

‘I don’t know. It may have been when you said crewing was your bid for freedom. It was a long time since I’d felt free. Or even thought about it. It struck a chord, that. I’d never met anyone like you.’

He fell silent, his dark face brooding. Christina wanted to touch it. She did not quite dare. She locked her hands together hard. She struggled to make her voice normal.

‘Not used to women who don’t. fall at your feet?’ she mocked.

But he did not laugh in return. ‘Not used to women who treat their prejudices like a religion,’ he said harshly. ‘When we met on the quayside you couldn’t wait to tell me what a disaster the Prince of Kholkhastan was. You did not even know that you had met me and yet you decided I was a villain, sight unseen. And nothing was going to change your mind.’

Her chin came up. ‘So you set out to change my mind, did you?’ Christina challenged him coolly. ‘What did you think would do it? Your lying to me? Or your seducing me?’

Luc stared at her, baffled and furious. ‘I told you. I wanted you to see me as I was, damn it.’ He shouted suddenly, ‘Was that too much to ask?’

Christina thought, I’ve never heard him raise his voice before, not even when he sacked Demetrius. He just gets cold and deadly. And now he’s shouting like an ordinary man. It came to her slowly: an ordinary man at the end of his tether.

‘Desperate?’ she said, suddenly believing it.

Luc gave a harsh, unamused laugh. ‘Completely.’

‘Then when you seduced me—’

‘We made love, for God’s sake,’ he interrupted furiously. ‘You and me mutually. I thought—That’s one area where we meet as equals. Never mind the advance publicity, never mind the prejudices. In bed it’s just you and me not pretending.’

Christina was awed to silence.

Luc took a hasty step towards her. He still did not touch her but when he looked into her eyes his expression was naked.

‘Was I wrong, Christina?’ he said quietly. ‘Were you pretending, after all?’

She scanned the thin, handsome face. That haughty brow could be so intimidating. Luc didn’t look intimidating now. He looked as if he was being tortured. Wonderingly Christina put out a hand.

It was seized and held fiercely until the bones nearly cracked.

She said softly, ‘Desperate for
me
?’

Luc closed his eyes. ‘I’m not sure I can live without you,’ he said simply. He opened his eyes. ‘I was always afraid you’d run once you realized how I felt. That’s. why I told you to wait for me when I went to look for Simon. I wasn’t sure you would. When I came back and you were still there—well, I went a little mad, I think. Most uncharacteristic.’ He gave a bitter laugh. ‘I’m famed for my self-control. But with you…’ He shrugged. ‘Well, you’ve seen.’

Christina said shakily, ‘I can’t pretend to be what I’m not.’

He looked as if she had stabbed him.

‘I mean I’m not in your class. All those clever, international types at your party, to say nothing of the film stars—I’m not like that.’ She struggled to put what she meant into words. ‘It’s just like when we were swimming. You should have beaten me but you chose not to. I can’t live like that. Everyone would be making allowances for me all the time. I—’

Luc put out his hand and touched the back of it to her hot cheek. Christina fell abruptly silent, her eyes brimming with panicky tears.

‘Darling, listen to me. I told you being a prince was a performance. Well, the performance has been taking me over. All those film stars, no doubt.’ His smile was bitter.

Christina rubbed a fist over her face and sniffed. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘You should. It was you who made me realise—most of all when you burst in that day and made me see what Goraev was doing to my humanity. You were right. Simon was more important than all the protocol in the world.’ His face twisted suddenly. ‘Do you know, when I found him, he said he hadn’t talked to me about his parents because he thought I’d be too busy doing important things?’

Christina nodded. ‘He told me princes have to do things they don’t want to. And that you didn’t have any fun any more.’

‘He saw what was happening to me more clearly than I did. I owe young Simon.’ He paused. ‘And you. You thought I hid who I was because I wanted a brief affair. You were so wrong. What I was had become a sort of prison. I was beginning to see that. You’d escaped from your prison. I didn’t want to pull you back into mine.’

He took her hand.

Christina said in a choked voice, ‘You said you wouldn’t pretty things up. If you want to go to bed with me, why don’t you just say so?’

Her hand was crushed. He hauled her towards him.

‘Christina,’ he said quietly.

She moistened her lips. ‘Yes.’

‘Look at me.’

‘I—’

‘Look at me.’

She did. His eyes were gleaming with a light that she had never seen before. She could not look away.

He drew a long breath and said carefully, ‘Do you love me?’

There was no point in pretending.

‘Yes,’ she said simply.

He let out a long breath of sheer relief. ‘Then you’ll marry me.’

‘But—’

‘Or I shall pursue you till you do.’

‘You can’t. You don’t know where I live.’

‘I’ve got your box number in Milan,’ he said. His eyes were dancing suddenly. ‘I shall camp there till you pick up your mail.’

She stared, taken aback.

‘It’s going to cost me a whole series of interviews with that appallingly keen young student friend of yours.’

Christina was even more bewildered. ‘Karl? What—? Why—?’ She gave up, flinging up her hands in defeat.

Luc laughed. ‘He was very suspicious at first. Swore that he didn’t know how to get hold of you out of the season. Only when I made it clear how I felt—and that it was for ever—did he agree to find out. The trouble was, he had a price.’ He sighed dramatically. ‘I never give personal interviews, on principle. If my colleagues at the UN heard about it, they wouldn’t believe it. Don’t you forget, my girl, I’ve done more for you than I would do for anyone or anything else in the world. But it will be worth it. You’re never going to get away from me again.’

‘I can’t marry you,’ Christina said, shaken.

‘If you love me, I defy you to do anything else.’

She saw with wonder that in spite of his amused tone Luc was deadly serious. As if he could not help himself, he put up his hand and smoothed the soft tangle of brown hair back from her face.

‘You mean it,’ she whispered.

He pulled her into his arms. ‘Oh, my darling.’

‘But you don’t approve of me. I speak my mind and I crew and I lose my temper with bank clerks,’ she said in a muffled voice.

He was kissing the vulnerable skin below her ear.

‘Very entertaining,’ he said, laughter quivering in his voice.

She shivered with pleasure. ‘I’m another appallingly keen student,’ she warned. ‘Of design. I’m based in Milan but I’ve got a visiting studentship with a Paris house.’

‘We’ll fit it into the itinerary,’ Luc promised. He had reached her mouth. Christina stopped even trying to think. She gave herself up to his kiss.

‘I thought you didn’t want me,’ she said on a gasp when he raised his head.

He looked blank. ‘Didn’t
want
you?’ His shoulders began to shake. ‘What do I have to do, for heaven’s sake?’

Suddenly Christina felt all her doubts slip away. It was going to be all right. He loved her. Luc really loved her. She smiled at him brilliantly. ‘Make love to me.’

He stared, fascinated. ‘It will take some exceptional sapphires to match those eyes. We must do something about that.’

Christina pretended to frown. ‘Make
love
to me.’

He suppressed a smile. ‘Only if you agree to marry me as soon as I can arrange it.’

‘You drive a hard bargain.’

He looked modest. ‘International negotiating skills. Years of training.’

‘Oh.’ She pondered. ‘In that case—I suppose it would be quicker to agree now and get it over with.’

Luc’s hold tightened but he chuckled. ‘I could persuade you,’ he murmured in her ear.

Christina gave a long sigh of pure pleasure and gave herself up into his embrace. She met eyes so full of warmth that they dazzled her.

‘I’m persuaded,’ she said. ‘Marriage it is. As long as you make love to me as well.’

Luc laughed aloud. ‘It’s a deal,’ he said.

He swung her off her feet and carried her through the suite to a room full of gold leaf and chandeliers. Christina did not notice anything but the canopied bed. Then Luc dropped her onto it and she lost awareness of everything but him.

She reached up to him. The laughter died out of his eyes. Christina knew that she must have that same look of unguarded feeling. In this, as he had said, they were equals. Her hands closed round his shoulders and brought him down to her.

‘Burn, fire, burn,’ she said.

ISBN : 978-1-4592-6325-3

AVOIDING MR RIGHT

First North American Publication 1998.

Copyright © 1996 by Sophie Weston.

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