‘No.’
‘There you are, then,’ she said. ‘No celebrity magazine in its right mind will focus on Matty when one of the world’s most eligible bachelors is doing his thing in the country.’
‘So let me get this straight,’ he said faintly. ‘You want me to stay permanently in the country and provide fodder for the gossipmongers for the next twenty years to keep the limelight off you and Matty.’
‘Yes.’
He blinked. ‘I don’t…’
But she wasn’t to be interrupted. ‘If neither of us return,’ she said, thinking it through, ‘if I don’t take Matty back and you return to Manhattan, there’ll be no royal permanently in the palace. Which is, I gather, unthinkable. That’s why contracts stipulating Matty belonged to the palace were meant to be watertight. Even in my short time with Kass I learned the alternative was chaos. Kass said his father was stuck with him. If he didn’t go home the government converted to rule through Council. The Council’s been corrupt for generations. Only a prince residing permanently in the country keeps the Principality from turmoil.’
‘Which is why we need Matty to stay at the castle.’ Rafael tugged his hands back from hers and raked his fingers though his thick black curls. ‘Hell, Kelly, I don’t want to stay there permanently.’
‘Neither do I.’
‘It’s your…’
‘Duty?’ Her green eyes flashed anger. ‘Don’t dare give me that. I wasn’t born into royalty like you were. I was lied to, I was married in an attempt to infuriate the old prince and I was kicked out of the country. You said you came here to give me my son. More lies. How dare you say I have a duty now?’
‘You have a duty to your son.’
‘As you have a duty to the child who will be Crown Prince. Snap.’
‘But…’
‘There’s no but, Rafael,’ she said grimly. ‘I have no idea what I’m getting into. More than anything in the world, I want to be with Matty, to watch him grow up, to be his mother. I’m willing to sacrifice a lot for that. But not everything. He will not be the total royal focus.’
‘You can’t ask that of me.’
‘I’m not asking. As you’re not asking me to be Matty’s mother. I’m simply stating facts. You came here to offer me my child back. That’s what you said. But you’re making no such offer. Not really. You’re simply blackmailing me into returning to the castle.’
‘I am giving you Matty back.’
‘With no strings?’
‘He’s the Crown Prince of Alp de Ciel. Of course there are strings. Hell, Kelly…I didn’t come here to be pressured.’
‘No, you came here to pressure me. If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave. I’ll do what I think best with Matty.’
‘Which is?’
‘It’s none of your business.’
‘It is my business,’ he snapped, exploding. ‘Hell, woman, I have total control. According to the contracts you signed, I can take him back tomorrow. I thought I’d give you the choice.’
‘No, you didn’t. You thought you’d persuade me to come.’
‘You’re supposed to be meek!’
There was a loaded pause. It went on. And on. And on.
‘Funny, that,’ she said at last, almost cordially. ‘I’m not.’
‘I can see you’re not,’ he snapped, goaded.
‘You want me to be meek?’
‘I want you to be sensible.’
‘What’s sensible about living as royalty?’
‘It’s every girl’s dream.’
‘Hey, I’ve lived the dream, remember?’ she said. ‘It’s not a dream. It’s a nightmare.’
‘Which is why I don’t want…’
‘To be part of it. Neither do I.’
‘You have to be.’
‘So do you,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve been thinking and thinking, all day while I’ve been waiting for you. I know I can’t bring Matty up as I’d want him brought up here. There’ll be too much media attention when people realise who he is. I know I can’t give him a normal childhood. To haul him away from everything he knows…’
‘So you will come?’ he demanded, starting to sound relieved.
‘Only if you agree to stay permanently in the castle.’
‘That’s not fair.’
‘It is fair,’ she snapped. ‘It’s entirely fair. It’s your inheritance—Prince Regent. It’s your responsibility to take the pressure off Matty until he’s twenty-five. If he stays here, even if we buy into a gated community, he’ll be cloistered and not able to have a normal boyhood. And he’ll miss you and your mother desperately. But if he goes back to the castle and you head off back to your very important life in the States it’ll be much, much worse. So fair doesn’t come into it. We’re both having to do what we do to survive. I won’t have Matty in the limelight any more than he has to be.’
‘You mean you don’t want to be in the limelight.’
‘Of course I don’t. Neither do you, but from where I’m standing you’re the one who can take it best.’
‘You know nothing about what I can take.’
‘Ditto,’ she snapped. ‘I’m making judgements. But, the way I see it, there are two of us I’m protecting. Me and Matty. You think I’ll let you stand aside and leave Matty exposed?’
‘No, I…’
‘You came here saying I was welcome to keep Matty with me,’ she said. ‘If I did that you’d be stuck.’
‘I never imagined…’
‘That I wouldn’t jump at the chance to be princess again? I can see that.’
‘Kelly…’ He reached for her hands again and held them urgently.
‘Rafael.’
This was ludicrous. It was like some weird tug of war. But she wasn’t giving in. The thought of staying in the castle as the Princess Royal, of having all that media directed at her and her small son… She’d been through that. She never wanted to go there again.
She didn’t care about this man’s story. She couldn’t care that there might be valid reasons for him to wish to avoid the limelight. She had to make a decision now and she could only do that on the information she had.
He was gripping her hands with a strength that almost frightened her. How had that happened? With the linking of their hands he seemed almost an extension of herself—she was arguing with herself instead of him.
But…it was different. The feel of his hands on hers was doing strange things to her. It was feeding her strength, she thought obliquely. If he withdrew his hands she might falter. She might not have the strength to stand up to him.
She held on and his grip tightened still more, as if it were the same for him.
‘Kelly, you can do it,’ he said urgently and she shook her head.
‘Rafael, you can do it.’
‘I don’t…’
‘Neither do I. And my reasons are better than yours,’ she said. ‘As far as I know. Is there anything you’re