‘I want you to stay out of the public eye until your sister returns, at which point you can swap back.’
Leo raked his fingers through his hair and she noticed the smudges under his eyes—and the shadow of stubble on his chin. So he’d had a sleepless night too.
Unfortunately, in a pair of dark jeans and a black sweater that clung to his impressive chest, he looked as hot as ever—which made the wave of sympathy tangle with the wave of sensation that had tormented her most of the night.
‘I can hide in Monrova until Jade returns,’ she offered. She couldn’t spend seven nights alone with him in a cabin—because the yearning, the need and, worse, the feeling of connection were all still there. ‘Jade didn’t have any public engagements planned in Monrova over Christmas—which was why it seemed like a good time to do the swap.’
His eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘If you’re trying to imply I put you at risk of discovery because I persuaded you to come to Severene for a state visit, you can think again.’
‘Persuaded?’ she said. ‘You ganged up on me with one of my father’s advisors and practically kidnapped me.’
His brow lowered ominously. ‘At the time I thought I was kidnapping a queen. Not her identical twin. If you had deigned to tell me the truth, I would not have had the slightest interest in kidnapping you in the first place.’
The cutting put-down sliced neatly through her indignation.
‘Well, anyway...’ she said, scrambling to shore up what was left of her self-esteem. ‘The point is if I return to Monrova now, I should be able to keep well out of the public eye, until Jade returns.’
Winning the blame game with Leo wasn’t going to happen, so it was probably better to stop playing it, because all it was doing was grinding what was left of her ego to dust.
‘So you don’t need to worry about my identity being discovered or causing a scandal.’
‘Except that’s not our only problem,’ he said, the sarcasm in his tone as cutting as the earlier put-down. ‘I didn’t use a condom last night.’
His gaze skimmed down to her midriff, and the sensation that would not die chose that moment to swell between her thighs.
She wrapped her arms round her waist, assailed by the memory of his hard, heavy weight inside her.
Terrific. As if she needed any more reasons to feel lower than dirt.
‘According to the internet research I did last night,’ he continued, his hot gaze doing diabolical things to her already shaky equilibrium, ‘we must wait seven days to take a pregnancy test to ensure we don’t risk a false negative.’
‘Okay,’ she said. She wasn’t going to be pregnant, she was sure of it. Even she couldn’t be that unlucky. But even so... ‘I could take a test in Monrova in a week’s time and let you know the result.’
‘That’s not going to work for me,’ he said, the flat tone tearing at what was left of her self-respect. ‘Assuming you can even source a test there without the Queen’s doctors finding out you’re not the Queen, do you really expect me to trust you to get it done without screwing it up?’
‘Yes?’ she asked, hating the plea in her voice. And the slicing pain in her heart at his contempt.
Why had she let his approval mean so much to her, when it had always been conditional on her being the Queen?
‘That wasn’t a question, Princess.’ The muscle in his jaw jumped, his lips pursing into a tight line of dissatisfaction. ‘Just to be clear, I’m not letting you out of my sight until the test is done to my satisfaction.’
The rigid, uncompromising tone made her stomach hurt. The hollow ache was one she recognised.
‘But what would we do? For seven days alone in a mountain cabin? When you can barely stand to talk to me?’ she asked, her desperation getting the better of her.
She couldn’t spend a week with him treating her the way her father always had, like a reckless, unruly child who needed to be brought to heel. Not only would her ego never survive it, but she was very much afraid her heart wouldn’t be able to survive it either.
He studied her, but then to her astonishment the tight line of his lips lifted into a sensual smile. And the disapproval in his gaze turned into something a great deal more disturbing.
‘I can think of several ways to amuse ourselves that would not involve unnecessary conversation.’
‘What?’ Heat flooded up Juno’s torso and hit her cheeks. ‘You’re not... You’re not serious? You still want to sleep with me? Even though you detest me.’
And why was the hot spot between her thighs erupting like Vesuvius at the thought?
‘I don’t detest you. Unfortunately.’
‘Gee, thanks,’ she said, trying to channel her indignation and getting breathless instead.