Stunned by his admission, she stared at Gabriel’s gift, knowing no expensive bauble could compare to the gift of knowing he was smitten with her. “That’s lovely of you to say.”
“Now back to the bracelet. Do you know where it came from?”
His question confused her. “From you.”
He shook his head. “This is what I selected for you.”
“Then where did the bracelet come from?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
Relief swept through her. “Then you didn’t give me Marissa’s bracelet.”
“No.” He gave her a stern look. “And I’m a little bothered by the fact that you think I’d be so cruel.”
Olivia opened her mouth but had no ready response. Since dancing with him at the Independence Day gala she’d become foolish and irrational where he was concerned. With her hormones overstimulated and her emotions swinging from one extreme to the other, she shouldn’t be surprised her brain was producing nothing but gibberish.
“Someone in the palace with access to my room played a cruel joke on me.”
“Whoever it is, I don’t think they are playing. This is a very serious breach in security. One that I will address.” The determination in his voice matched the steel in his expression. After a second his gaze softened. “Please open my gift.”
Olivia did as she was told.
Unlike the previous evening’s trendy, emerald bracelet, this necklace was exactly something she would have chosen for herself. Olivia touched her fingertip to the large teardrop-shaped aquamarine, set into a frame of diamond-lined branches and suspended from a chain of faceted aquamarine beads and diamond-encrusted platinum balls. Gabriel had picked out the perfect, unique gift.
“The necklace belonged to my great-aunt Ginnie. Her husband gave it to her as an engagement present. I believe it came from his mother who received it as her engagement present.”
“I love it.” And she did. More than any million-dollar diamond necklace he could have found in the treasury. It represented tradition and love. And it demonstrated a sentimental side she would never have guessed Gabriel possessed. Feeling bold, she picked up the necklace and sat down on her fiancé’s lap. “Can you help me put it on?”
She lifted her hair off her neck and held still while his knuckles brushed her nape. The casual touch sent shivers spiraling along her nerve endings. As the drop settled against her skin, she turned and planted a sweet kiss on Gabriel’s cheek.
“Is that the best you can do?” he questioned, laughter in his voice.
Veiling her eyes with her lashes, she peered at him. “If I do much better we run the risk of not leaving this room in time to take Bethany and Karina for their first ride.”
His response was to capture her lips in a sizzling kiss. Olivia sagged against him, surrendering to the firestorm of desire that had not burned out even after last night’s lovemaking. She groaned beneath his lips as his hand found her breast, thumb coaxing her nipple to a hard point.
With a low growl, he broke off the kiss. “Perhaps you were right to be cautious.” And with that, he stood with her in his arms and carried her to the bed.
* * *
In the end, they were in time to watch the twins circle the ring on the docile, well-mannered ponies, each led by an attentive groom. Although both were equally delighted by the ride, their individual personalities shone through. Bethany chattered incessantly as she rode, her every thought voiced. Karina was more circumspect and her seat was more natural. Of the two, Gabriel suspected she’d be the better rider.
Soon the twins’ first riding lesson was done, leaving Gabriel free to turn his thoughts to the woman beside him and all that had transpired in the past twelve hours.
Since discovering last night how swiftly Olivia became aroused, he’d taken full advantage of her ardent responses and made love to her with fierce passion. Already his lust for her was dangerously close to uncontrollable. Telling himself making love to Olivia was a novelty that would soon wear off wasn’t cooling his ardor one bit. Even now, as he watched her smile as her gaze followed the twins, he felt heat rise in his blood.
It shocked him to realize that he’d happily forgo the rest of his appointments to spend the time alone with Olivia in her suite. This was how he’d been with Marissa. Preoccupied. Distracted. Obsessed.
Then again, it was early in their relationship. The time of exploration when all things were fascinating and new. Their lust would eventually burn itself out and they could settle into companionable monotony. But even as he entertained this possibility his instincts rejected it. More than his blood hummed when she was near. This was a feeling he’d never known before. Besides being beautiful, Olivia was intelligent and caring. He’d been right the first time he’d pronounced her perfect. But he’d underestimated how deep that flawlessness went.
“Gabriel?” Olivia said, returning him to the here and now. “I was just explaining to Bethany and Karina that we can’t have dinner with them tonight.”
“Because we are...” He had no idea what was scheduled that evening. How was that possible? He usually knew his itinerary backward and forward.
“Going to the ballet,” Olivia prompted.
“That’s it.” He smiled at her.
“But perhaps we could visit before we leave to read you one quick bedtime story.”
“That we can do.”
The twins’ chorus of happiness sent a bird winging off through the trees from a few feet away.
“I think it’s time to head back to the palace,” Olivia said, shaking her head as the girls began to protest. “Your father has work to do.”
Gabriel was impressed how well she managed the toddlers. The twins were darling but rambunctious. Marissa had done a fine job of blending discipline with love for they seemed to take direction well and had none of the fits of temper he had grown accustomed to with their mother. Despite losing Marissa recently, they were adjusting nicely to life in the palace. Of course, they had each other, something he could relate to with two brothers of his own. Sometimes it had seemed as if it was him, Nic and Christian against the world when in truth it was probably more reasonable to say it had been the three of them against their parents.
After leaving the twins in the hands of two young maids, Gabriel walked Olivia to her meeting with the wedding planner and bussed her cheek in a chaste kiss goodbye. He had fifteen minutes before his first meeting of the day and went in search of Christian.
His brother was nowhere near the palace. Christian had an office in the city that he usually preferred to work out of, claiming fewer distractions. Gabriel suspected he liked working without the king’s or queen’s “subtle” influence. With two brothers ahead of him for the throne, Christian had always enjoyed a lot of freedom. So had Nic. The middle brother didn’t even live in Sherdana. He’d gotten his education in the States and resided in California while he pursued his dream of privatizing space travel.
Gabriel envied them both.
And he wouldn’t trade places with, either. He’d been born to rule and had never wished to do anything else. But being king came with a price. He belonged to the people of Sherdana and owed it to them to do what was best for the country, even at the expense of his own desires. Breaking off his relationship with Marissa was only one of many sacrifices he’d made for Sherdana, but it had been his hardest and most painful.
It was why he was marrying a woman he admired instead of one he loved. And yet, hadn’t last night and this morning proved that life with Olivia at his side would be the furthest thing from hardship?
Grinning, Gabriel headed into his father’s office where the energy minister had come for a briefing.
* * *
Olivia yawned behind her hand as she surveyed Noelle’s drawings for the twins’ dresses for the wedding. It was almost midnight. She’d just returned from another event, this one raising money for an arts program for underprivileged children.
She wasn’t insensible to the irony that what she intended to pay for these two dresses could probably fund the program for a year.
Behind her the door to her suite opened and closed. Her skin prickled in anticipation as muted footsteps advanced toward her. The faint scent of Gabriel’s aftershave tickled her nose a second before his hands soothed along her shoulders.
“Waiting up for me?”
Gabriel placed a kiss on her neck, his lips sliding into a particularly sensitive spot that made her tremble.
Was it possible that less than a week ago their every private encounter had been stilted and awkward? Now she spent her days as a tightly wound spring of sexual anticipation and her nights in Gabriel’s arms soaring toward the stars.
“Of course,” she answered, setting aside the sketches and getting to her feet. She’d already dressed for bed in her favorite silk pajamas. They covered her from neck to toe. Not exactly seductive, but Gabriel never seemed to care.
“I’m leaving early in the morning,” he explained, pulling her into his arms and dropping a sweet kiss on her lips. “And I will be gone for four days. I wanted a private moment with you before I left.”