“—fallen in love with.”
Pain, hot and bright, sliced into his chest. “Damn it. I never wanted that.” Which was his greatest lie to date.
“Was that how you felt before or after we became intimate?”
“Both.” Hoping to distract her, he said, “Do you have any idea how irresistible you are?”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“It’s supposed to explain why I started a relationship with you six months ago after I’d successfully withstood the attraction between us for the last five years.”
“Why did you fight it?” She frowned “What happened between us was amazing and real.”
His breath exploded from his lungs in a curse. “A month ago we had this conversation. I thought you understood.”
“A month ago you claimed your work was the most important thing in your life. Now I find out you never had deep feelings for me and didn’t mean to mislead me about where our relationship was heading. But I’ve always been of the opinion that a woman should react to how a man behaves, not what he says, and you acted like a very happy man when we were together.”
“I was happy. But I was wrong to give you the impression I could offer you any kind of future.”
“Because you don’t care about me?”
“Because I have to go home.”
Her brows drew together. “You didn’t think I would go with you?”
“You have a life in California. Family. Friends. A career.”
“So instead of asking me what I wanted, you made the decision for me.”
“Except I can’t ask.” His frustration was no less acute than hers. “A month ago my older brother made a decision that affects not only my life, but the future of Sherdana.”
“What sort of decision?”
“He married a woman who can never have children.”
Brooke stared at him in mystified silence for a long moment before saying, “That’s very sad, but what does it have to do with you?”
“It’s now up to me to get married and make sure the Alessandro royal blood line is continued.”
“You’re going to marry?” She sat back, her hands falling from the table onto her lap.
“So that I can produce an heir. I’m second in line to the throne. It’s my duty.”
Her expression flattened into blank shock for several seconds as she absorbed his declaration. He’d never seen her dumbfounded. Usually she had a snappy retort for everything. Her quick mind processed at speeds that constantly amazed him.
“Your younger brother can’t do it?”
The grim smile he offered her conveyed every bit of his displeasure. “I’m quite certain mother intends to see that we are both married before the year is out.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged,” she quoted, “that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” She stared at the taverna’s logo printed in blue on the white place mat as if the answers to the universe were written there in code. “And I’m not the one you want.”
“It isn’t that simple.” He gripped his beer in both hands to keep from reaching out and offering her comfort. “In order for my child to be eligible to ascend Sherdana’s throne someday, the constitution requires that his mother has to be either a Sherdana citizen or a member of Europe’s aristocracy.”
“And I’m just an ordinary girl from California with two doctorates.” The corners of her mouth quivered in a weak attempt at a smile. “I get it.”
Three
Beneath the grapevines woven through the taverna’s roof beams, the afternoon heat pressed in on Brooke. Light-headed and slightly ill, she didn’t realize how much she’d set her hopes on Nic’s returning to California and giving their relationship another try until he crushed her dreams with his confession. Her fingers fanned over her still-flat abdomen and the child that grew there. Not once since she’d learned she was pregnant had she considered raising this child utterly on her own. Nic had always been there for her. First as her brother’s friend. Then her friend. And finally as her lover.
When she’d strayed from her topic during the writing of her second thesis he’d spent hours on the phone talking her through her research and her arguments. He’d gone with her to buy both her cars. He always shared his dessert with her when they went out to dinner even though she knew it drove him crazy that she never ordered her own. And in a dozen little ways, he stayed present in her life even though physically they lived miles apart.