Falling For The Secret Princess. Kandy Shepherd
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he said.
Her frown deepened. ‘I’m not sure I know how to do that.’
‘Live dangerously?’
She looked back up to face him. ‘Yes,’ she said uncertainly. The mischievous glint in her blue eyes had dimmed to something distressingly subdued.
‘Then let me be your tutor.’
‘In the art of living dangerously?’ she said.
‘Exactly,’ he said.
She sighed. ‘You can’t imagine how tempting that sounds.’
The edge to her voice surprised him. ‘Don’t you ever give in to temptation?’ he challenged.
Her smile returned, slow and thoughtful, with a sensuous twist of her lips. ‘It depends who’s doing the tempting.’
She was so tempting. Finn held up his hand. ‘Consider the position of your tutor in Living Dangerously for Beginners to be officially filled,’ he said.
She laughed, low and throaty. ‘I hope you find me an apt student.’
He hoped so too.
‘We’ll start by finishing the place card swap. Why don’t you do it? Your first “living dangerously” challenge.’
It would be a step towards others infinitely more interesting.
‘That’s not so dangerous,’ she said, with a dismissive sweep of her perfectly manicured hand.
There was a touch of arrogance to her gesture that surprised and intrigued him. ‘You think so? The sun is setting and I think I can hear people coming up the steps to the veranda. You’ll have to be quick if you don’t want to be caught in the act and bring down the wrath of the bride on your head.’
Any hint of haughtiness gone, Natalie made a sound somewhere between a squeal and a giggle that he found delightful. Without another word he held out Prue’s place card.
Natalie snatched it from him. ‘Mission accepted,’ she said.
He watched as she quickly click-clacked on her high heels—hips swaying—to the table where she’d originally been seated and slid the card into place. When she returned she gave him a triumphant high five.
‘Mission accomplished.’
‘Well done. Now I won’t have to find excuses all evening to visit you at your table.’
‘And I won’t need to take any opportunity to seek you out at yours.’
She coloured, high on her cheekbones, in a blush that seemed at odds with her provocative words.
‘Would you have done that?’ he asked. ‘Seriously?’
‘Of course,’ she said. ‘You are by far the most attractive man here.’
She seemed such an accomplished flirt, and yet her blush deepened and her eyelashes fluttered as she voiced the compliment.
‘Thank you,’ he said.
Considering the men of the bridal party were all good-looking billionaires—one a prince—Finn could only be flattered. And gratified that the instant attraction wasn’t only on his side. He wasn’t a fanciful man, but insinuating itself into his mind was a thought, wispy and insubstantial but growing in vigour, that this—she—was somehow meant to be.
‘You know I intend to monopolise you all evening?’
‘Monopolise me all you want,’ she said slowly.
She was looking up at him with what he could only read as invitation, although there was an endearing uncertainty there too.
‘You won’t be able to escape me.’
‘Do you see me running?’ she murmured.
Her gaze met his for a long moment, and he wasn’t sure of the message in those extraordinary blue eyes.
Then she smiled. ‘Talking of escape—thank you for rescuing me from the table of people I don’t know at all but who I suspect are Eliza’s elderly relatives.’
‘Don’t speak too soon. We don’t know who we’ve got sitting at my table.’
‘Yes, we do,’ she said.
He frowned. ‘How did you—?’
She spoke over him. ‘Each other. And that’s all that counts.’
The words hung between them, seemingly escalating their flirtation to a higher and more exciting level of connection. Finn felt a buzz of excitement and anticipation.
‘Quite right. Your first exercise in living dangerously has paid off. I don’t care who else is on the table so long as your place card is still next to mine.’
Attending this wedding solo was more duty than pleasure, fond as he was of Eliza, and keen as he was to keep up his contact with Party Queens. But he wasn’t one for wasting time on social chit-chat with strangers he might never see again.
An evening spent in the enchanting Natalie’s company was a different matter altogether. Enjoying the pleasure of her company was now at the forefront of his mind.
Finn was about to tell her so, but there was a sudden burst of chatter from outside on the veranda. ‘The other guests are starting to arrive. We shouldn’t be seen in here.’
Natalia’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘We’ve got time to get out through that connecting door.’
He reached out his hand and pulled her towards him. ‘Let’s go before they realise we’ve been up to no good. Then we’ll march back in with the other guests and take our places at the table.’
‘Innocent of any crime of swapping seats,’ she said.
Not so innocent were his thoughts of where he hoped the evening might lead.
* * *
Natalie couldn’t have borne it if she had been forced to sit on the other side of the room from Finn. She didn’t want to waste a minute of this wedding away from him.
Tristan had probably had a hand in where she had been placed in the seating arrangements and might not be pleased at the switch. Too bad. Princess Natalia might have to sit dutifully where she was directed—not so just plain Natalie. She was going to grab this chance to be with Finn, no matter if she got dressed down for it later.
Tristan took his role of Crown Prince seriously. That meant protecting her. Since the loss of their brother, she and Tristan had looked out for each other. But sometimes she had to remind him that she didn’t take kindly to being bossed around by her brother.
With Finn holding her hand, she made it safely out of the room without detection. Just the casual touch of his hand clasping hers sent shivers of anticipation through her. Never, ever had she felt this kind of thrill.
She was pleased when he didn’t drop the connection after they’d made it to safety. Then, together, they strolled casually back into the ballroom alongside a group of other guests.
Each time she looked up to catch his eye she had to suppress a laugh, and saw that he did too. She felt like a naughty schoolgirl. Although in the private all-girls school she had attended there hadn’t been anyone as handsome as Finn to get into mischief with.
Their surreptitious work had paid off—the swapped name cards were still in place. Finn was hers for the duration of the celebration. She was scarcely able to believe that this gorgeous man was real and seemed to want to be with her as much as she did with him.
‘We did it,’ he said in a low undertone after they’d taken their seats at the table. ‘I caught Eliza glaring at me, but there’s nothing she can do about where we’re sitting from where she is, way up there on the bridal table.’
‘Clever