Becoming the Prince's Wife (Princes of Europe) by Rebecca Winters

feel it. I’ll have to put on some powder.”
    “Your bag and your hat, signorina. Anything else?”
    “Don’t come near me again.”
    “I’m accompanying you to your apartment. Are you ready?”
    “No.” She sounded frantic. “You get out first. I’ll follow in a minute.”
    “Take your time. We’re not in a hurry.” He pressed another hot kiss to her swollen lips before exiting the limo a man reborn. This had to be the way the captive slave felt emerging from his prison as Michelangelo chipped away the marble to free him.
    In a minute she emerged and hurried inside the palace. Valentino trailed in her wake. He followed her into her apartment and shut the door. But he rested against it and folded his arms.
    “Now we can talk about us in total privacy.”
    She whirled around to face him. “There is no us, Val. If you were a mere man engaged to a woman you didn’t love, you could always break your engagement in order to be with a person you truly care about. In fact, it would be the moral thing to do for both your sakes.”
    “I hear a but,” he interjected. “You were about to say that since I’m a prince, I can’t break an engagement because it would be immoral. Is that what you’re saying?”
    A gasp escaped her lips. “A royal engagement following a royal betrothal between two families who’ve been involved for years is hardly the same thing.”
    “Royal or not, an engagement is an engagement. It’s a time to make certain that the impending marriage will bring fulfillment. My sister hoped with all her heart the marriage to Vincenzo would bring about that magic because she loved him, but he wasn’t in love with her and it never happened.”
    “I know. We’ve been over this before,” Carolena said in a quiet voice. “But you made a vow to yourself and your family after your uncle Stefano’s death. I agreed to come to Gemelli in order to help you and Vincenzo. I—I rationalized to myself that our intense attraction couldn’t go anywhere. Not with your wedding dawning.
    “But now for you to be willing to break your engagement to be with me is absolutely terrifying. You’ve helped me to get over my guilt for Berto’s death, but I refuse to be responsible for your breakup with Princess Alexandra. You made a promise—”
    “That’s true. I promised to fulfill my royal duty. But that doesn’t mean I have to marry Alexandra. After what you and I shared a few minutes ago, I need more time. Day after tomorrow parliament convenes. You and I have forty-eight hours before my wedding is officially announced to the media. Or not. ”
    If he was saying what she thought he was saying...
    “You’re scaring me, Val!”
    “That’s good. On the yacht you had the power to keep me from your bed, which you ultimately did. Your decision stopped us from taking the next step. But tonight everything changed.
    “Whatever your answer is now, it will have eternal consequences for both of us because you know we’re on fire for each other in every sense of the word. Otherwise you would never have met with me and Vincenzo to discuss our project in the first place. Admit it.”
    She couldn’t take any more. “You’re putting an enormous burden on me—”
    “Now you know how I feel.”
    “I can’t give you an answer. You’re going to be king in seven weeks!”
    “That’s the whole point of this conversation. There’ll be no coronation without a marriage. I’ll need your answer by tomorrow night after the taping here is finished. Once parliament opens its session the next morning and the date for my wedding is announced, it will be too late for us.”
    Carolena was in agony. “That’s not fair!”
    His features hardened. “Since when was love ever fair? I thought you found that out when your fiancé died. I learned it when my sister died before she could hold her own baby.”
    Tears ran down her cheeks once more. “I can’t think right now.”
    “By tomorrow evening you’re going to have to!