Marrying Her Royal Enemy (5 page)

It was exhausting, the mental effort it took to absorb all that information about so many people, despite her razor-sharp memory. She was craving a break when Kostas stiffened by her side, his hand tightening around hers.

She followed his gaze to the couple directly in their path. The tall, dark-haired, middle-aged male wore a military uniform with enough stripes on the shoulder to indicate he was very senior. Not quite handsome, with his clearly defined, masculine features, but his piercing dark eyes held her attention. Her
yaya
had always said the eyes were the measure of a person and this man’s dark stare held nothing good.

General Houlis.

Kostas drew her toward the couple, his hand at her waist. “General Houlis, I’m pleased to present my fiancée, Stella Constantinides. Stella, General Houlis is the commander of the Carnelian navy and a member of my executive council.”

Stella held her hand out to the general, who took it and bent lightly over it, the mocking significance of the gesture not lost on her. “A pleasure, Your Highness,” he said, straightening. “Your presence here in Carnelia has been highly...
anticipated
.”

The general made the introductions to his wife, then turned his attention back to Stella. “That was quite a reception for you two out there tonight.”

She tilted her head. “It was wonderful. I am looking forward to restoring the close bonds Carnelia and Akathinia once shared. My childhood is full of those happy memories. It was also,” she said deliberately, “lovely to see the excitement of the people about the forthcoming elections. Their belief a better future is ahead...”

“Indeed,” said the general. “But are they ready for such widespread change? That is the real question.”

“They’ve been ready for a long time now.” Kostas set a deliberate gaze on the general. “Fear and intimidation have kept them silenced. Change is always hard, but for those who seek a better way, the short-term pain of the unknown will bring long-term gain. It is the faith we must all have. Those who resist change do so because it’s in their own self-interest. They fear what they have to lose.”

The general’s eyes glittered. “Or they don’t want the change that’s being shoved down their throat. How many examples can we count of nations who’ve signed on to regional and global lovefests only to find the old ways were better?”

“Old ways as in the suppression of their rights? As in the fear for their own safety if they refuse to toe the line? I am sure you would agree that can hardly be called
better
.”

“Sometimes,” the general countered, “the people aren’t equipped to make such important decisions for themselves. Sometimes they don’t have the vision required. It could all go to hell in a handbasket if not handled correctly.”

“Which is why the transition time will be used to smooth the way.” Kostas’s tone was frigid now. “My belief in the Carnelian people is absolute. There is only one way forward for this country.”

General Houlis lifted a shoulder. “Time will tell, won’t it?”

Stella drew in a breath. The general turned to her. “You will certainly have a front-row seat to pursue your vision from your position on the executive council if the rumors are to be believed...”

She opened her mouth to respond. Kostas tightened his fingers around her waist. “We still have elections to carry out,” the king said. “Many details to consider before the new council takes shape.”

“But she will have a place on it?”

The disdain in the general’s voice snapped her back straight.

“Her Highness,”
Kostas intoned, “will play a significant role in governing this country, yes.”

“Don’t you think,” Stella interjected, “that it’s time the council reflected a woman’s perspective? The addition of some empathy, some
compassion
, to even out the testosterone-laden mistakes of the past? After all,” she said, tilting her head to the side, “we aren’t stuck in the Dark Ages anymore, are we?”

“No,” said the general, “we aren’t. It’s when emotions get in the way of lawmaking that the mix gets murky.”

Her gaze locked on his. “I
promise
you, General Houlis, my emotions will not obscure my clear thinking. I’ve found empathy, attempting to understand each other,
communicating
, has the power to solve some of the world’s greatest conflicts. It can only be a powerful force when it comes to ruling a nation.”

“And you bring a great deal of popularity with you to spread that message. Your work around the world has brought you much acclaim.” He raised a brow. “The next Eva Perón, perhaps?”

“I would hardly make that comparison.”

“Ah, but it’s an intriguing one to consider. Some say that Eva, in fact, had all the power.”

Kostas went dangerously still beside her. “Accumulating
power
is not the goal, General Houlis—putting it in the hands of the people is.”

The other man lifted a shoulder. “I’m merely making the point that your future wife will be a force to be reckoned with.”

A shiver went down her spine. Was there an underlying message there?

Kostas announced the need to move on. His hand at her elbow, he bid General Houlis and his wife farewell and propelled Stella through the crowd. He was practically vibrating with fury.

“When I
ask
you to refrain from adding fuel to the fire, you will do it. Your appointment to the council is a delicate move that requires much finessing. There is no point in making waves before the time comes.”

“Perhaps you’ve changed your mind?”

He set his furious gaze on her. “I never go back on a promise—that you will learn, as well. But you need to be patient. We must take this in baby steps.”

“I get that, Kostas, but I will not be
muzzled
. You will not tell me what I can and cannot say.”

His gaze turned incendiary. “I may be giving you power, but I am still the king of this country, Stella. You
will
listen to me when I give you a direct order.
Obey
me when I ask for your cooperation.”

Her skin stung as if he’d slapped her. “I have not agreed to the
obey
part yet. You might take that into consideration as you throw your weight around or you might find yourself minus a wife.”

“Stella—”

“I need a break.”

She shrugged her elbow free and stalked away, picking out Alex and Sofía in the crowd. Jaw clenched, she headed for them.

Alex eyed her as she approached. “What happened? You look positively combustible.”

“Three guesses.”

“Kostas, Kostas and Kostas.” Her sister plucked a glass of champagne off a passing waiter’s tray. “You clearly haven’t had enough of this.”

Clearly not.
She took a sip of the bubbly. “I might kill him before this is over.”

“What did he do now?”

“He told me I have to
obey
him.”

Alex’s mouth curved. “What did you say back?”

“That I haven’t signed on to the
obey
part yet.” She took a deep, calming breath. “How has your night been?”

Alex flicked a glance at Sofía. “Oh,
you know
, the usual chitchat. It’s a bit disconcerting that these people were our enemies last year and now we’re socializing with them.”

“Not the people,” Stella amended, “the leadership. And why do you have such a funny look on your face? What’s going on?”

Alex directed another of those sideways looks at their sister-in-law. “Nothing, I—”

“Alex.”

“Cassandra Liatos is here. The woman who—”

“I know who she is.” Her heart thudded against her chest. “Where is she?”

“She’s standing beside the chocolate fountain...with the man in the gray suit.”

She turned in a subtle movement, locating the couple Alex had described. It must be Captain Mena in his sharply pressed military uniform standing beside Cassandra, but it was the woman herself who caught and held her attention. Of medium height, with the perfect, voluptuous figure she herself had always craved, Cassandra was astonishingly beautiful. As dark as Stella was fair, with long silky hair and exotic eyes, she was the kind of woman who stopped traffic.

The kind of woman men lost their heads over.

For a moment, she was unable to speak, unable to do anything but stare at the person who had turned her life upside down. “Does Nik know she’s here?”

“Yes.” It was Sofía who answered. “He elected not to speak to her.”

She couldn’t do it.
She could not exercise that type of self-restraint. She didn’t have it in her.

“I need to talk to her.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Alex put a hand on her arm. “Let it go, Stella.”

But she was already walking toward the fountain. Cassandra looked up, eyes widening as she approached. Stella greeted Captain Mena first, then the woman at his side. “May I have a moment of your time?”

The other woman nodded, the tempest in her dark eyes the only sign that this was anything other than a polite social interaction. Stella led the way out of the ballroom and onto one of the outdoor terraces. Face-to-face with the woman who had dogged her thoughts for weeks, she took a deep breath.

“Efharisto,”
she murmured. “I’m sorry to pull you away.”

Cassandra shook her head. “When I saw Nikandros, I wanted to speak to him. My fiancé persuaded me not to. He said it was better left alone.”

“Everyone seems to think that.” Stella wrapped her arms around herself, resting her champagne glass against her chest. “I need to know if you loved my brother. If he loved you. It’s the only rational explanation I can find for him to do something so out of character. Yes, the competition between him and Kostas has always been the height of stupidity, but it had to have been more.”

Cassandra put her glass on the railing, taking a moment, as if to gather her thoughts. “I cared about both of them,” she said, lifting her gaze to Stella’s. “You need to know that. I felt as if I was in an impossible situation. I knew the history behind them. It made it very...difficult.”

“But you must have had stronger feelings for one than the other?”

“I was in love with Kostas,” Cassandra said quietly. “I adored Athamos, but it was Kostas I wanted.”

She was unprepared for the sharp claws of jealousy that climbed inside her and dug deep into her soft recesses. For the jagged pain that raked itself over top of it on behalf of her brother’s ill-fated gamble. Athamos had not loved easily, as had been the case with all her siblings after her parents’ disastrous example of a marriage, but when he’d fallen, he’d fallen hard.

“Did he know?”

“I don’t know. I told them both I needed time to think. I was trying to work out how to tell Athamos it wasn’t him I wanted. It was—” Cassandra pressed her hands to her cheeks. “It was done before I even knew what was happening. The first thing I knew of it was when I opened the newspaper the next day and saw the news of the crash.”

When Athamos was dead.
“Do you wonder,” she asked, unable to stop herself, “if you’d said something sooner...?”

Cassandra paled, her deep olive skin assuming a gray cast. “Every day. Every day since it happened. But at some point I had to forgive myself. Move on. Punishing myself wasn’t going to bring Athamos back. It wasn’t going to change what happened.”

Stella bit hard into her lip, the metallic taste of blood filling her mouth. She should tell Cassandra it wasn’t her fault, that she couldn’t have predicted what would have happened, but a tiny part of her couldn’t forgive the woman for not sharing the truth with Athamos before things got out of hand. And because she suspected Cassandra had been hedging her bets. If the crown prince of Carnelia had fallen through as a potential mate, she could have picked up the pieces with Athamos and still become queen.

She studied the woman across from her. “Have you found happiness now, with your fiancé?”

Cassandra’s gaze dropped away from hers, but not before she caught the myriad of emotion that ran through those dark eyes.
The sadness.
“I have found...peace.”

“With a man who wants to take the potential for that away from this country?”

The other woman lifted her chin. “It isn’t wise to judge others until you’ve walked in their shoes.”

But the deep, searing flare of jealousy invading Stella didn’t care about fairness. Athamos was dead. Cassandra Liatos was still clearly in love with Kostas. Perhaps their relationship, made impossible according to her fiancé, had never really finished. Perhaps Kostas still loved her. It made her feel ill in a way she’d never experienced before.

And that, she told herself, was ridiculous. Her and Kostas’s marriage was not a love match. It was a partnership. It was, however, a potent reminder of what it would cost her to allow her old feelings for her fiancé to resurface. To allow them to rule her.

She lifted her gaze to Cassandra’s. “I wish you and Captain Mena the best of luck. I hope you find the peace you are looking for. I really do.”

Turning on her heel, she strode inside. Alex had been right. That had been no kind of closure.

* * *

“How many High Court justices will you appoint?”

Kostas attempted to concentrate on his conversation with a high-ranking Carnelian judge, but the sight of his fiancée in the arms of Aristos Nicolades had unearthed a strange, combustible force inside of him that felt a great deal like jealousy. A foreign emotion he had little experience with. If he wanted a woman, he pursued her and enjoyed her. If she played games, one of those ineffectual exercises designed to inspire him to think seriously about her, she was gone within the hour.

But right now, watching Stella enclosed in the casino magnate’s arms on the dance floor, an intense conversation going on between the two of them, he was not unaffected. He wanted to walk over there and end it.

Exhaling a long breath, he pushed his attention back to the woman in front of him, a powerful figure who was a key supporter and would be an ally in the justice system. “I’m not sure yet. Rest assured, you will be among them.”