“What about charities?”
“You know that we would actively seek to establish them. We must improve the view of our country with the rest of the world.”
“My charity in particular,” she said.
“Supported. However much you would like.”
“The control of my money?”
He shrugged. “Remains with you.”
“And if I refuse...”
“Everything you have will belong to my brother. And you will be bound to us either way.”
“Then I suppose there is no choice.”
There was. They both knew it. It was just a choice with a consequence she wasn’t willing to take on.
And there was a still, small voice inside of her that asked if she still thought she was lost in the fairy tale.
If she was still convinced that she was the maiden sent to tame a beast.
Whatever the reason, she found herself nodding in agreement. Whatever the reason, she knew what her course would be.
“All right. I’ll marry you. I will be a princess.”
* * *
The announcement happened the very next day. Media splashed it all over the world. And she was compelled to put up a post with a photograph of the view outside of her bedchamber and an assortment of vague gushing comments.
“Will I be expected to give up all forms of social media?”
“No,” Javier said. “Your visibility is appreciated. An asset.”
“Indeed,” she mused, looking at the glorious meal spread out before her.
“I will need a ring,” she said. “It will have to be spectacular. Don’t mistake me. It’s not because I have any great need of a massive diamond. Simply that you want me to make some kind of a spectacle. Getting engaged to a prince will require that I have a very strong jewelry game.”
“I will bring the Crown Jewels out of the vault for your examination, My Princess.”
“Are you teasing me or not?”
“I am not.”
The problem was, she couldn’t really tell. And the other problem was, in the days since the engagement announcement, there had been no further intimacy between them.
The sense that she had known him had dissipated with their thwarted afterglow, and now she simply felt... Numb.
“Well. I guess... I guess that would be acceptable.”
It was more than acceptable to him, apparently, because as soon as they were finished with the meal, he ushered her into the library, which felt pointed, and told her that the jewels would appear.
And appear they did. Members of his staff came in with box after box and laid them all out on the various pieces of furniture throughout the room. On the settee, the different end tables, a coffee table.
She blushed furiously when her eyes fell on the place by the fire, where she had given herself to Javier and cemented her fate.
“This is maybe a little bit much...”