“Thanks.”
He felt color rise to his cheeks. Confusion and anger with himself met and merged into an emotion that made him want to kick his own butt.
“It means nothing. The way I see it, our kingdom can absorb whatever loss results when we cancel this thing.”
“Because you know my mom and I have no money.”
He shrugged. “That’s temporary.”
She put her hand on the back of his. “Yes, but you saved us from being embarrassed.”
“Is that enough to earn the payback of you backing out of the wedding?”
She laughed lightly, obviously relieved, but also the way someone would laugh with a friend. “No.”
Damn her for being so cute. His mouth tugged upward until he couldn’t stop a smile. “Don’t make me like you.”
She peeked up at him from beneath lush black eyelashes. “You’d rather hate me?”
The heat that roared through him nearly stopped his heart. Her magnetic blue-gray eyes held his. Her pretty hair rippled around an even prettier face. Everything inside of him chanted that he should lean forward and kiss her.
Kiss her.
Kiss her.
Kiss her.
But that was the real problem, wasn’t it? She was pretty enough, tempting enough, that maybe she should be the woman he married.
And then what?
Fall in love for real?
The very thought tightened his throat. He’d loved two women in his life and lost both. Only a crazy man set himself up for that kind of pain.
“I will talk you out of this.”
ALEX WATCHED EVA leave the dining room with her mom and Queen Rose, then exited through the hidden door in the back. Ready to change out of these stuffy clothes and put on riding breeches, he strode through the echoing maze of tall-ceilinged halls, but at his private elevator, one of his father’s secretaries caught him.
The older man bowed slightly. “Your Majesty, your dad sent me to find you. He wants you in his office now.”
“Now?”
The old man’s eyebrows rose, an indicator Alex shouldn’t argue, and that usually meant he’d done something wrong.
Alex winced. Best-case scenario was that the king wanted to chastise him for suggesting they pay for the wedding. Worst-case, he’d overheard Alex telling Eva he’d talk her out of the wedding.
Damn.
Without a word, he motioned for the man to lead him back to his father’s office.
When they arrived, he entered, but the secretary reached inside to grab the doorknob, and walked out, closing the door behind him.
His father didn’t look up from the letter he was signing. “You cannot talk Eva out of this wedding.”
Okay. It was worst-case.
He fell to one of the velvet chairs in front of his dad’s desk. “I can’t believe you’re forcing either of us to marry when Eva was barely out of diapers and I was pulling a wagon with my bike when that damned agreement was signed. It’s ridiculous. Antiquated. And you know it.”
His dad studied him for a few seconds, then he sighed heavily. “All right. You’re right. And this situation is too important to leave to chance. You were smart enough to pick up on the money problem that I’d somehow missed, so I need you in the loop.”
Alex sat up. “The loop?”
“Eva’s dad didn’t leave her mom.”
“What?”
“King Mason got wind of the fact that his brother was about to stage a coup.”
“So he ran?”
“For his life. His brother’s coup didn’t involve taking over parliament. He intended to have King Mason assassinated so he could look like a grieving brother, reluctantly filling his murdered king’s shoes.”
Alex sat back. “Oh, my God.” He thought for a second, then said, “But if Mason dies, his brother wouldn’t become king. His daughter would.”
His father locked his eyes with Alex’s. “Exactly.”
Alex’s heart thundered in his chest. “He was planning to kill Eva?”
“Gerard couldn’t just murder Mason. He had to kill Eva too. The plan was to stage an accident or an attack on the palace, and have both killed at the same time, so he would be the next in line to rule. That’s why we separated them. Now, the two of them dying at the same time will look like the assassination that it is.”
“Oh, my God.”
“This marriage isn’t about a treaty. We brought Eva and her mother here on the pretense of a wedding to get them out of their palace and keep them safe.”
Alex gaped in disbelief. “And you don’t think putting Eva in the public eye is dangerous?”
“Exactly the opposite. As long as she’s in the press, her murder would be too public. Gerard can’t even do something like kidnap Eva and her mother to use as leverage to bring Mason out of hiding. It would simply call too much attention to him when he wanted all this to look like an accident.”
Eva’s image popped into his head. Her waist-length hair, her shy smiles, her fearless personality. The thought that someone wanted to kill her infuriated him.
“And you think a wedding keeps her safe?”
“As long as this wedding’s on a fast track, Eva and her mother are protected.”
Though he was angry that his father hadn’t told him this in the beginning, he understood the principle behind the plan. “You’re right.”
The king held his gaze. “For the next four weeks, you have to cooperate. This plan only works if we can keep everybody’s attention focused on a happy wedding. And that means you’ve got to make this look real.”
Alex didn’t even hesitate. “You have my word.”
King Ronaldo leaned forward, laying his arms on his desk. “Once we get your wedding date announced to the press, we’re off and running. That’s actually why we set the date so soon. All the royal events will happen too fast and too close together for the spotlight to leave Eva. Plus, Mason doesn’t believe he’ll need more than four weeks to sort this out.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Going through back channels to figure out who he can trust, so he can get the proof he needs that his brother wanted to assassinate him. Once he gets it, he can have his brother arrested.”
“He thinks his own staff is in on it?”
“Only some. But we both know it only takes trusting one wrong person to risk everything. And in this case what he risks is his life and his daughter’s.”
Merely thinking that someone wanted to kill Eva sent anger careening through Alex again. But he understood palace intrigue. Though there had been no siblings who wanted his father’s throne, there had been other challenges. Some subtle. Some obvious. All dangerous.
“We’ll do the press conference announcing your wedding tomorrow. Which means you and Eva need to be seen together this afternoon, looking like a couple getting married.”
“You want us to look like we’re in love?”
“No.