Invitation to the Prince's Palace by Jennie Adams Page A

a small room. ‘There will be a number of rings you can choose from for your engagement ring.’
    ‘From the family h-heirlooms?’ Mel’s footsteps faltered in the doorway.
    For a moment Rik thought she might back out of the room, refuse to enter. ‘They are not all heirlooms,’ he said, ‘but yes.’
    She drew a deep breath, threw her shoulders back and continued into the room. ‘It’s probably a good idea to use something from the family’s stock of jewellery. The ring can be given back when we’re finished, and it won’t have cost you anything. We need to find one that fits and doesn’t need adjusting, and that you wouldn’t choose if you were—’
    Doing this for real.
    The words echoed unspoken in the room.
    The practicality of her determined attitude made Rik want to smile, and yet when they stepped fully into the room and he saw the spread of jewellery that Dominico had laid out for them, a strange feeling swept over him. His gaze shifted from piece to piece until he found a ring that he felt would suit Mel. A ring that he would have chosen for her if their circumstances had been different?
    There were no different circumstances possible, either now or in his future. Yet to Rik in this moment—
    He lifted a ring with a platinum band. The three diamonds were Asscher cut to reflect light off the many facets. The stones were perfectly round, and set with the larger of the three diamonds raised higher than the two to its left and right. Because the ring was simple and the setting not as high as some, the size of the diamonds did not leap out as it might have.
    The platinum band would suit Melanie’s colouring; the setting would look beautiful on her finger. It was a ring he could enjoy seeing on her for decades.
    Well, it would do for the time being. He lifted the ring. ‘This was not an engagement ring, but a dress ring of my grandmother that she had fashioned for her later in her life. Her fingers were small and delicate as yours are. I do not know if she ever even wore it. She was rather indulgent when it came to such creations. I…feel the ring may suit you.’
    ‘Oh.’ Melanie didn’t even glance at the remaining jewellery. And when Rik took her hand gently in his and slipped the ring onto her finger, she caught her breath. Her gaze flew to his. ‘It—it fits perfectly. Just as though—’
    ‘Just as though,’ he murmured, and there, in the quiet of a small room filled with valuable jewellery that Melanie had been hesitant to go anywhere near, Rik lifted her hand and kissed the finger upon which his engagement ring now rested.
    ‘Just as though we were a real engaged couple, I was going to say.’ She whispered the words and glanced down at the ring. ‘I didn’t expect it to look—’
    Right. She hadn’t expected it to look right. Rik didn’t need her to finish the sentence to know that was what she’d meant to say. He hadn’t expected it either. Nor had he expected the sudden sense of well-being and destiny that swept over him when he placed the ring on her finger.
    Was he getting in over his head with her somehow despite his determination to treat this as a business transaction? Had he allowed some attitudes and thoughts to slide in wrong directions because, if he hadn’t, then how had he ended up with such unexpected feelings in the first place?
    Rik should have been sorting out the answers to those questions. Instead he leaned towards her and somehow his arm was around her, drawing her close.
    This time when he kissed her it was he who lost himself in a moment that should not have been, lost himself in the taste and texture and the giving of Melanie’s lips as he kissed her until he had to break away or—
    It would all feel far too real?
    You cannot let it become that way, Rikardo. Melanie is a sweet girl, but she never will be more than a means to an end. You will never marry permanently, not for real and not for love, and not to lock yourself for ever into a loveless