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It was exactly what she’d known he would say. She’d never have married him just to please his father anyway, so there was no reason for the feeling of loss.
“Adam joined in the lecture, too. He’s very protective of you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You were worth it.”
Were? Past tense.
His thumb rubbed gently over the back of her hand.
“Did you hear from your mother?” he asked a short while later.
“Yes. I let her know that the rumors were starting and that they weren’t totally unfounded.” Suddenly pictures were appearing of every public exchange she’d had with Rafe, and somehow they all managed to look charged and intense. Probably because they had been.
“How did she take it?”
“Let’s just say that, whatever happens, one of our parents is going to be bitterly disappointed.”
“Let me guess. She demanded that you never see me again.”
“That’s pretty much it.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“I thought of you, and of how you’d react if someone told you what to do, and I told her that I was old enough to decide for myself who I saw and who I didn’t.”
“Good for you.”
“And then I kind of spoiled it by telling her that I’m coming home the day after the christening, anyway. I could go sooner, but it would feel like running away. And Adam and your father have both asked me to stay. I’m not sure why. Something to do with Marconis and Wyndhams never backing down from a challenge, and a strong offence being the best form of defense. And they mentioned dignity, too. They kind of lost me, but I said I would stay.” Rafe was the only one who hadn’t asked her to stay.
Even now he said nothing. Not that she expected a pleading, heartfelt don’t go, stay with me forever from this man, but a girl was allowed her daydreams. Lexie shook her head. She of all people should have learned her lesson about daydreams and fantasies and fairy tales.
“You’ve had a miserable time here, haven’t you?”
“No, it’s—”
“Have you done anything just for you, just for the sheer enjoyment of it?”
“That wasn’t the purpose of the trip.”
Shaking his head he stood and pulled her up with him. “Come on.” He started walking. “What? Where?”
“If we can’t please both of our families then let’s annoy them both. And really give the press something to talk about.”
“What do you mean?” He was leading so fast through the labyrinth she was getting dizzy.
“Do you trust me, Lexie?”
“No.” She had no idea what he was planning, but was almost certain she wasn’t going to like it. And yet she hurried along beside him, her heart beating faster in exhilaration and anticipation.
He laughed, turned back and planted a quick hard kiss on her lips. “Wise woman.”
Forty minutes later, Lexie strapped herself into the seat next to Rafe, their shoulders touching.
“Ready?” he asked.
“No.” She gripped his hand.
“Too bad.” Photographers ran toward them, snapping pictures as the roller coaster of San Philippe’s only theme park began to gather speed and then shot them forward. Lexie managed not to scream until they were out of sight.
The photographers were still there, a hungry pack of them, snapping away as the roller coaster eased to a stop. Lexie’s hair had come free from her hair tie, helped, she suspected, by Rafe, and must surely look a fright.
Her mother would be appalled.
Lexie laughed at the prospect, suddenly not caring what people thought. Suddenly appreciating Rafe’s philosophy.
The photographers followed them, at a distance, almost all day long. Taking pictures of the most mundane of things. Walking, talking, laughing, Rafe winning her a teddy bear in a shooting booth. It was all so clichéd. And all so much fun.
The only privacy they got was when Rafe managed to get a quiet booth in the riverside café where they stopped for dinner, the proprietor fiercely denying entry to anyone with a camera.
At the nightclub he took her to they danced till the small hours of the morning.
By the time Lexie fell into bed—alone—she was exhausted but happy. It was the best day she could remember, well, ever. Even with the repressed pall of sorrow that everything was ending. They’d talked of the present, never the future. Because, she knew, Rafe didn’t do futures.
Ten
Amongst a sea of talking and laughing christening guests, Rafe reluctantly took hold of the baby. He was happy to be godfather—Mark and Karen were good friends—but why did people always expect that he’d want to hold their children? Although maybe godfathers ought to want to. Lex would doubtless have an opinion on the subject. Lex, whom he did want to hold, but couldn’t and wouldn’t because she was leaving tomorrow, going back to her old life. It was for the best.
They’d had yesterday, undoubtedly a mistake given the outcry in the media. But a mistake he couldn’t regret. He’d wanted it to last forever, wanted her smiles and her laughter.
He looked into the clear blue and strangely alert eyes of the child in his arms, who appeared, much like Rafe, to be wondering why this strange man was holding her. Karen called to someone across the room and walked away, and Rafe had to stop himself from calling her back.
“If you cry now,” he quietly encouraged the child whose name he’d already managed to forget, “your mother will come back for you.” In Rafe’s experience, that was how this scenario usually played out. Unfortunately, this child didn’t know the drill and merely blinked. He was fairly sure she was a girl, though that long gown she, or he, had worn for the cathedral ceremony wasn’t necessarily a guarantee of femininity.
Conversation flowed around him, and the baby continued to study him. “I hold you responsible,” he said, and the baby smiled. “If it hadn’t been for this christening, I could have been in Vienna by now. Or maybe even Argentina.” And he wouldn’t have entangled his life and emotions with Lexie. Although he couldn’t bring himself to regret what they’d shared.
The baby’s stare turned accusing.
“Okay,” he admitted. “I stayed for her, too. But don’t you dare tell anyone.”
He heard a bubbling, sexy laugh and followed the sound to Lexie, where she stood talking with Adam and Karen. She wore a silky red wrap dress. He’d been pleased to see her in it. Pleased and turned on, but he ignored the second reaction. She’d at least stopped trying to hide her vibrancy behind fiercely elegant clothes. No point now, he guessed, given that she wasn’t marrying his brother. She was leaving. Her hair was pulled into a twist at the back of her head, its lushness contained. That fact pleased him, too. He admitted to a proprietary attitude to her hair—it featured in so many of his fantasies.
She caught him watching her. Her gaze dipped to the baby in his arms and her eyes widened in surprise. Yes, Lexie, he thought, I do know how to hold a child, it’s just not something I do voluntarily. And Lexie was exactly the sort of woman who’d want children, who’d be a natural, loving mother. Which was why he had to let her go.
He looked around for Karen. Surely he’d done his godfatherly duty and could hand the baby back. And leave. “Okay, kid, where’s your mother?” Only now the child had closed its eyes and—he couldn’t believe