Casper hesitated and then produced a handkerchief from the pocket of his uniform.
Holly took it and leaned over the barrier to press it gently against the toddler’s forehead. ‘There. It doesn’t look too bad when you look at it closely.’ One of the security team produced a plaster and vaulted the barrier to deal with the child, and Holly suddenly realised that the crowd was cheering for Casper.
The prince delivered a charismatic smile and slipped his arm round his bride. ‘Next time, don’t leave the coach. It isn’t safe.’
‘It isn’t safe for that toddler, either. People are crushing too close to the barriers. What was I supposed to do?’ She knew it was foolish to read too much into his comment, but she couldn’t help it. Would he warn her not to leave the coach if he didn’t care about her?
The cheering intensified, and then there was a yell from the crowd that turned into a chant.
‘Kiss her, Prince Casper! Kiss, kiss, kiss…!’
Holly blushed scarlet but Casper, clearly as experienced at seducing a crowd as he was women, pulled her gently into his arms and lowered his mouth to hers with his usual cool confidence. Stunned by the unexpected gentleness of that kiss, Holly melted against him, stars exploding in her head and her heart.
Would he kiss her like that if he didn’t care?
Surely it was another sign that he finally believed that she must be telling the truth? That he’d been wrong about her.
The crowd gave a collective sigh of approval, and when Casper finally lifted his head there was another enormous roar of approval.
‘Now you’ve charmed the crowd, we need to go back to the coach.’ Amusement in his eyes, he tucked her hand into his arm. ‘And you need to stop jumping out of carriages and behave with some decorum. Not only are you now a princess, but you’re a pregnant princess.’
‘I know, but—’ She glanced towards the crowd. ‘Some of these people have been standing outside all night, even the children—do we have to go in the carriage? Couldn’t we just walk? We could chat to people along the way.’
Casper’s dark brows locked in a disapproving frown. ‘It would be a major security risk.’
‘I know you don’t care about that. When you’re in public you always walk. I read that you have a constant argument with your bodyguards and the security services.’ She bit her lip, suddenly wishing she hadn’t reminded him of her Internet moment, but he simply smiled and took her hand firmly in his.
‘In this instance I was thinking of your safety. Don’t you find the crowds daunting?’
‘I think it’s lovely that they’ve made the effort to come and see me get married,’ Holly confessed. Spying two small girls holding a bunch of flowers that they obviously picked themselves, she pushed her elaborate bouquet towards an astonished Casper and hurried across. ‘Are those for me? They’re so pretty. Are they from your garden?’ She talked to the girls, then to their mother, shook what felt like a million hands, and slowly and gradually made her way along the avenue towards the palace. But it took a long time because everyone had something to say to her and she had plenty to say in return.
Several people pushed teddies into her arms for the baby, and eventually she needed help to carry everything.
After an hour of chatting to a stunned and delighted crowd, Holly finally allowed herself to be urged back into the carriage.
‘Clearly I misjudged you.’ Casper settled himself beside her, indicating with his head that the procession should move on.
Holly’s heart soared. ‘Y-you did?’
‘Yes. I thought you’d find the whole day impossibly daunting. But you’re a natural.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘I’ve never seen anyone so skilled at talking about nothing with such enthusiasm and for such a long time.’
Holly digested this statement, decided that it was a compliment of sorts, and tried not to be disappointed that he’d been referring to the way she’d handled herself in public, rather than his opinion of her pregnancy.
Reminding herself that she had to be patient, she smiled. ‘How can it be daunting when everyone is so nice?’ Holly waved again and spied another group of children in the crowd. She opened her mouth to ask if they could stop, but Casper met her questioning glance with a slow shake of his head.
‘No. Absolutely not. Delighted though I am that you’ve managed to please the crowd, we have about two-hundred foreign dignitaries and heads of state currently waiting for us at the palace and we’re already late. I’d rather not cause a diplomatic incident if we can avoid it.’ But his tone was in direct contrast to the warmth in his eyes. ‘You’ve done well, tesoro.’
His praise made her glow inside and out, and she felt so ridiculously happy that she couldn’t stop smiling. All right, so they’d had a shaky start to their relationship, but one of the advantages of that was that it could only improve.
Feeling optimistic about the future, Holly smiled all the way through the formal banquet, all the way through the dancing and all the way up to the moment when she was finally escorted to the prince’s private quarters in a wing of the palace suspended above the sea.
It was only as the door closed behind them, leaving the guests and the guards on the outside, that reality hit her.
They were alone.
And this was their wedding night.
Gripped by a sudden attack of nerves, Holly gave a faltering smile, instinctively breaking the throbbing, tense silence that had descended on them. ‘So this is where you actually live. It’s beautiful—so much light and space, and—’
‘Stop talking.’ Casper reached for her clenched hands, gently prised them apart and then slid them round his waist and backed her against the door with an unmistakeable sense of purpose.
Trapped between solid oak and six foot two of raw male virility, Holly found she could barely breathe, let alone talk. Dry mouthed, knees shaking, she was aware only of the simmering undercurrents of sexuality that emanated from his powerful frame as he took her face in strong, determined hands, his mouth on a direct collision course with hers.
Holly closed her eyes in willing surrender, senses singing, nerves on fire. When the kiss didn’t come, she whimpered a faint protest. ‘Casper?’
His mouth hovered a breath from hers. ‘Open your eyes.’
Her eyes opened obediently and she stared up at him, her heart skipping several beats as she scanned the aristocratic lines of his masculine features. ‘Please—kiss me.’
‘I intend to do a great deal more than that, angelo mio…’
Held captive by his lazy, confident gaze her heart started to pound, and searing heat pooled low in her pelvis. She probably should have played it cool, but Holly was too aroused to remember the meaning of cool.
Her body was in the grip of a strong, explosive excitement that simply intensified as his mouth finally glided onto hers with effortless skill.
His tongue probed the interior of her mouth with erotic expertise, and Holly just melted, moaning low in her throat as his strong hands brought her writhing hips into contact with his potent masculine arousal.
‘Not here.’ His voice thickened, he pulled away from her and scooped her easily into his arms. ‘This time, tesoro, we’ll make it to the bed. And we’re taking our time over it.’ He strode through several rooms and then up a winding staircase that led to a bedroom in a turret.
Trembling, mortified by how much she wanted him, Holly clutched at his shoulders as he set her down on the floor, barely