‘There,’ he said thickly. ‘You can manage now.’
She buried herself in activity—scuttling into the bathroom in her bra and panties, feeling overwhelmingly shy as his dark and impenetrable gaze followed her. She took care to
wipe most of the offending make-up from her face and, once she had removed the tiara, tugged all the constricting pins from her hair and brushed it free. Then she slipped on the dress and hat which had been chosen as her going-away outfit.
‘How’s that?’ she asked as she reappeared.
He gave a slow and lazy smile. A pink voile dress, cream shoes and a large cream picture hat, trimmed with blowsy pink silk roses which looked almost real. Her blonde hair was a pale waterfall which gleamed over her shoulders and emphasised the youthful bloom of her skin. She looked like a picture from an old-fashioned book. ‘Perfetto,’ he applauded softly. ‘My beautiful and innocent English rose!’
And Millie smiled back with relief.
Gianferro’s brothers had tied metallic balloons to the open-top car, and Princess Lucy had scrawled ‘Just Married!’ in deep vermilion lipstick on the bonnet of the expensive car!
But there were outriders, too, and shadowy figures in a car which sat on their tail as they moved away.
Millie had thought that they would all disappear once they had driven through the cheering crowds and out of the capital, but they were still there as the powerful vehicle began to ascend the mountain road.
She glanced behind her. ‘They’re not coming with us, are they?’ she said, only half-joking, but she had her answer in the slight pause before he answered.
‘Naturally.’
She opened her eyes very wide. ‘They are?’
‘They are my bodyguards, Millie,’ he said quietly. ‘Where I go, they go, too.’
All the conflicting emotions of the day made her feel light-headed enough to blurt out the first thing which came into her head.
‘I presume they won’t be joining us in the bedroom?’
Gianferro’s mouth hardened. Well, what did she expect? Really? ‘Of course not,’ he answered coldly.
It was a variation of the look he had given her in the Cathedral—displeasure. Another person might have hidden it.
But another person would not have been Crown Prince! Who had spent all his life having his wishes acceded to, his moods catered for. Why should he bother hiding something? More importantly, how was she intending to handle it, as his wife? She with no experience of any man at all?
Maybe that was better. Her slate was clean and ready to be written on. There was no murky history to look back over, to compare with what was happening to her now, with him. They were starting over, and if she wanted an intimacy with him which she suspected had been completely lacking in his life, then she must let him show her how. It could not be done in a minute, or even a day—but slowly, bit by bit.
She would not be offended if he was cool with her! Instead she would ignore it, find a way to work round it. And if she encountered a rock in the path which led to their happiness, then she would simply step over it!
She smiled with delight now, as she looked round at their luxurious honeymoon bedroom, where roses and lilies were crammed into priceless vases, scenting the air with their incomparable perfume.
‘That is better,’ he murmured with approval as he saw her face. The door closed softly behind the valet and his gaze briefly flickered over to it, his lips curving into an answering smile. ‘And what would you like to do now?’ he questioned softly.
Millie blushed, not daring to tell him how much she wanted him to take her in his arms again. For all she knew another servant would come bouncing into the room, or there might be something else they were supposed to be doing. ‘I have no idea,’ she said shyly.
He took her by the shoulders, his eyes now burning black fire and glittering with a certain kind of mischeviousness, too. ‘You don’t?’ he teased. ‘Millie, I’m disappointed in you!’
‘Gianferro—’
‘Shh!’ He lowered his lips to tease them against hers in a light, brushing kiss and felt her breath escape in a low rush of pleasure. ‘Ah! Yes! Yes, I know. It has been so long.’
Millie sank against him, her eyes fluttering to a close as she felt sensation begin to close her off from the world. ‘Too long,’ she sighed.
‘Shall I close the shutters?’
Her eyes snapped open. ‘But…but won’t the bodyguards see? Won’t they know what we’re doing?’
He touched her long hair with an affectionate gesture. ‘You think that we will only be permitted to make love once night has fallen and the guards have retired for the night?’