‘You’re really going to marry for duty? Even though your grandfather’s gone?’ she asked. ‘He wouldn’t even know if you did or didn’t. You’re the King now.’
‘Exactly.’ Felipe’s expression shuttered and he sat back. ‘There’s no separation of the personal and the professional for me. What I am is who I am. It impacts on every area of my life. Every decision I make.’
‘Yet you don’t seem to have been the one to decide the detail.’
‘King Javier wanted what’s best for me and for the country. He knows the kind of person needed to take on this mantle.’
‘This mantle? As if you’re Atlas balancing the world on your shoulders?’ She shook her head. ‘The King thing is just a title. You’re actually just a man. You should be just a man.’
‘Arranged marriages are successful around the world.’
The blunt, emotionless assessment didn’t suit him. Yet she knew he meant it, that he believed it.
‘Plenty of love matches fail,’ he added. ‘My parents’ marriage, for example.’ He sent Amalia a small smile. ‘Don’t worry, they were long out of love before my father met your mother.’ He turned back to Elsie. ‘But you disagree?’
She regarded him sadly, taking in this determined facet of him. ‘Perhaps it will suit you. The two of you will do and say and wear the right things. It’ll be perfect.’
His eyes narrowed slightly and she saw the flex of his jaw.
‘I’m never getting married,’ Amalia said with feeling.
‘Not for at least a decade.’ Felipe suddenly smiled and the whole world lifted. ‘Then we’ll see.’
Amalia shot him an outraged look.
‘Just for that she’ll elope at sixteen,’ Elsie said slyly.
‘Don’t put ideas in her head,’ he admonished her with an arched eyebrow. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have let you in the gates.’
Elsie chuckled. ‘Bad influence at your service.’
‘If I really thought that you wouldn’t be here.’
‘Stop trying to be reasonable,’ she called him out, enjoying the burst back into banter. ‘You’re spoiling Amalia’s and my need-to-rebel narrative. We already know you’re an autocrat.’
Amalia giggled.
‘Why do you need to rebel, Elsie?’ Felipe asked.
She met his challenging stare and the brief hit of levity evaporated. The intensity was back and bigger than ever.
Truthfully, she didn’t need to rebel. Truthfully, she wanted to fit in and be accepted like most people. But when new acquaintances or colleagues learned about her family’s behaviour, they then expected the worst from her. So when they found out, she left. Living in fear of that constant judgement was like waiting for the axe to fall. It was only a matter of time.But her response to Felipe was different all over again. Absolutely—incomprehensibly—she instinctively rebelled against him. She was flint, he stone. Sparks were guaranteed. ‘I don’t like being told what to do.’
‘Is that right?’ he muttered as if he didn’t quite believe her—as if he could prove her wrong.
And with horrible hot awareness she realised he could. That there were some very specific things she would do if he told her to.
Kiss me. Touch me. Spread for me.
Heat engulfed her at that shocking last instruction—what was with her suddenly rabid imagination? What was with this awful inappropriate reaction? He would never, ever...and she wouldn’t, couldn’t—
She cleared her throat and turned to Amalia, trying to think of an innocuous question to get them back to safety. But she saw darkening smudges beneath Amalia’s eyes—emotional shadows loomed and lingered.
‘You look tired, Amalia,’ Elsie said, suddenly sorry. ‘I’d better get home and let you rest.’
It had been a big day for the girl. Honestly, it had been a big day for Elsie too. Bigger than she’d ever intended. The consequences of meeting Felipe?
‘I’m okay,’ Amalia said.