‘And what does that mean, exactly?’
‘It means we get engaged.’
Holy...what? She couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d suggested she strip naked and do cartwheels through the palace.
‘How would...?’ She swallowed, hard. ‘How would our being engaged help Nate?’
‘Think about it. If the real culprit is attempting to ruin your stepbrother, or to drive a wedge into our friendship, proclaiming you as my future consort and him my future brother-in-law would show they have failed.’
He’d spoken at least two full sentences, but Lily’s attention snagged on only one word.
Consort.
Said in that sexy rumble of his, it started a reel of X-rated images playing through her imagination. It didn’t help that he was standing so close. The heat of his body made her fingers flex, as if they wanted to splay out across his torso and get toasty in all that warmth.
She scrunched them into fists at her sides. ‘Why would anyone believe you’ve chosen me, a nobody, when you’ve had your pick of countless high-profile women? You’ve famously left a trail of broken hearts all over the globe.’
A brow rose at her less than flattering description of him. ‘Because you are unlike anyone I have been associated with before. A well-born girl of limited experience.’
‘Limited—’
‘A virgin.’
Lily gaped at him. ‘That’s a big assumption to make. Anyway...’ she folded her arms across her breasts ‘...you’re wrong.’
Liar.
She’d never trusted anyone enough to dothatwith them. Everyone in her past who should have loved her had let her down. She wouldn’t risk being hurt again. She only trusted herself now.
His eyes had followed her defensive move. ‘I see. You have some experience. Then what’s making you so nervous?’
‘I’m... I’m not.’
‘But I only have to look here...’ He laid two fingers across the pulse beating furiously at the base of her neck, then lightly brushed the line of her collarbone to the hollow at the base of her throat. ‘You have a very revealing blush.’
She swayed towards him, snared by those grey eyes.
Then, all matter-of-fact, he lifted his fingers clear. ‘You do know it wouldn’t be real?’
Her gaze refocused. ‘No—I mean, yes...of course.’ She clumsily tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. ‘I know that.’
‘And we don’t actually have to make an announcement. A suggestion that we’re serious will be enough.’
She pulled herself together. ‘Who else will know it’s a pretence?’
‘Apart from us? My father, Rais and Sabir.’
No mention of the Queen.
‘You’d lie to your mother about this?’
‘If we want a quiet life, yes. If she knows we’re pretending she’ll do everything she can to make it real. The moment she heard you were on that plane my mother began concocting romantic plans for us. I assume you understand they are her plans? Not mine.’
She didn’t want there to be any plans either. So that was good. Wasn’t it?
‘However, I have asked her to take you shopping, to buy you a new wardrobe for your stay.’
‘You organised all that before consulting me? I don’t want it. I buy my own clothes, and right now I’m fine.’