“I won’t apologize. We’ve agreed it’s wasted.”
“I still won’t forgive you.”
“Because I’m not upending my life?”
“Because you don’t want our baby!”
“I don’t want our situation.”
You don’t want me! She didn’t say it. She was appalled she had thought it and turned her face away, boiling in humiliation. Pressure filled her throat and sat livid behind her eyes.
Into the thick silence, he sighed. “What I want has never mattered, bella. Duty to the crown takes precedence. I learned that a long time ago.”
His voice was surprisingly gentle, which made the lash of the words all the more cutting and intolerable.
“Don’t call me that. It’s a family nickname and implies we’re closer than we are, but it’s just something you say when you can’t remember the name of the woman you’re sleeping with.”
Another loaded silence filled the room like an acrid cloud.
“Explain to me how sniping at each other will make this easier.”
“It’s the truth.” She swallowed past the ache in her throat, but it only lodged deeper in her chest. “You called me that in Paris and it made me think you saw me, not my sister, but all you saw was a willing partner. I need to stop thinking we’re friends. Stop acting like we are.”
They were still strangers and would remain so. He kept his heart behind thicker walls than she had ever hidden behind.
“If you insist. Trella.”
“Thank you.” She wasn’t grateful. She was shattered. “Can you—” She waved at the door. “I’m tired.”
“Will you be all right alone?”
She had thought he couldn’t hurt her any further, but that did it. After rejecting her so roundly, did he really think she would want to cling to him through another emotional storm? How did he manage to sound like he cared if she suffered alone?
“I have to learn to be, don’t I? I’ve known that for a long time. Goodnight.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
I NEED TO stop thinking we’re friends.
There was no reason he should have lost sleep over that. Perhaps the bella endearment had always rolled off his tongue very easily around women, but for some reason knowing it held a more intimate connotation for her made it something he wanted the right to use. He doubted he would ever use it again with anyone else. It was hers now, which made it doubly frustrating she refused to hear it from him.
He went into his first meeting of the day, unrested and gritty eyed, only to face the woman still torturing him. They were about to negotiate their prenuptial agreement.
He introduced her to the palace attorney who fell under her spell at the first flash of her smile. She wore a pin-striped sky blue jacket over a white shirt that draped untucked over her matching skirt. It made her look smart and capable, yet sensual. Achingly vulnerable.
“I should have invited your brother to stay for this,” he said as he directed her into a comfortable armchair.
“Why?” She cooled when he touched her arm and delicately removed her elbow from his loose touch, adjusting a cushion behind her back as she sat.
“To protect your interests.”
“You can email the draft to him,” the attorney said with a magnanimous smile. “If he has concerns, we can address them before you sign.”
She sat back and folded her hands on her lap, smiling in a way that could only be called patronizing.
“Gentlemen. Along with our mother, my siblings and I jointly own Sauveterre International. Ramon votes Gili’s share and Henri votes Mama’s because they don’t take an interest. I vote my own, thank you very much. Maison Des Jumeaux is not the only enterprise I’ve asked SI to underwrite. One hundred percent of my initiatives have turned a profit because I have a brain and use it. So...” She cut a glance toward Xavier. “The Prince may show the draft to his grandmother before he signs, to ensure his interests are protected, but I’m confident I can look after my own.”
The attorney cleared his throat and shuffled papers.
Xavier held her lofty stare.
He should have been affronted. It was a well-executed burn in front of the attorney and his PA, but he was darkly thankful for that scorn in her.
He had watched her all through their meal with her brother yesterday, captivated by her rallying spirit. The glimpse of her family dynamic and the new facets in her personality had only made him want to know her far better than he would be allowed to. It had taken genuine effort on his part to stick to the plan and outline how they would proceed. If he had had a choice—
He didn’t. So he had said what needed to be said.