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He raised his hand for the attendant to pour the drinks before dismissing him. Sarah’s gaze lingered on the retreating attendant as if nervous this left them alone together. He needed to put her at her ease.
He walked over to her where she stood, her back to the lights of the city, and handed her a drink.
“Thank you for coming,” he said.
She shot him a brief, nervous smile and nodded.
“I’m glad,” he continued, “because it gives me another opportunity to apologize for everything that has happened. Your visit to our country hasn’t begun smoothly.”
“True, but ithasbeen interesting.” Her eyes glinted with mischief at the memory of their night together.
He hesitated as he prepared the words. He wasn’t used to apologizing for anything. “But mainly I want to say how much I regret not telling you who I was.”
Her expression became serious once more and when she lifted her hazel eyes, he saw in them a gentleness which made him catch his breath. “You know,” she said at last, “I’m rather glad you didn’t.”
He hadn’t expected that. “Why is that?”
“Because…” she paused. “Because our night would have been passed very differently.”
“Ah, I see. So you would not have been interested in me if you’d known I was king.”
She shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“And there was me thinking I didn’t want you to know so that, for once, we could simply be two people together withoutthe trappings of royalty complicating things.” He sighed. “Shall we begin again? Start with some small talk, learn a little more about each other?”
She sat back and laughed. “Why not?”
“Good.” He raised his glass. “Here’s to getting to know each other better.”
She blinked lightly and then raised her glass and clinked it against his. “Sounds a good place to begin.”
“So tell me about yourself. What else do you do in England besides work as a counsellor and do a little modelling? Any family? No husband or children?”
“No,” she said with a smile, “I might have mentioned either earlier if they existed.”
“Good to have the clarification,” he said. “No other family?”
She frowned. “Why are you so interested in my family?”
He’d been too probing. His conversational skills were rusty. He shrugged. “No reason. Just trying to get to know you, find out what you’re interested in, what you dislike.”
“Would you like to know my favorite color?”
He glanced at her luscious curves in her dress and quickly lifted his eyes, aware they’d lingered too long. “Black?” he volunteered.
She grinned. “Right. I guess that wasn’t hard to figure out. By the way, whose clothes am I wearing? She’s not likely to return soon and wonder why some strange woman is using her room and wearing her clothes?”
“No. The woman in question isn’t welcome in my country. She would be very foolish indeed to return.” The question still hung, unanswered, in the air, and he knew it wouldn’t go away. Because one thing he had already learned about Sarah was that she was curious and intelligent. She wouldn’t let this mystery drop. “The woman in question is my mother.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Yourmother? You’ve fallen out with yourmother?”
He gritted his teeth. “She betrayed her family, and she betrayed her country. But we seem to have veered away from the subject.You.”
“I’d rather talk aboutyou,” she said. Her smile had faded and her expression now was serious.
He frowned. “Me? I’m afraid I’m not very interesting.”
“Ha! You’re a king. Your life is far from usual, far more interesting than mine.”
