Her eyes widened at his mention of last night, as though he had broken some unwritten rule by acknowledging that it had happened.
She sat back in her seat, a smile crossing her lips as she met his eyes boldly. ‘Whatever will my subjects think?’
Roman raised a brow. ‘That you’ve been taken down the path to ruin by a disreputable mongrel.’
‘Mongrel?’ She looked both amused and shocked.
‘You come from a world where breeding is everything, after all.’
‘Have we suddenly become Lady and the Tramp?’ She laughed.
‘I have no idea what that is,’ he said honestly, smiling at the look of horrified surprise on her face.
‘I can’t believe you’ve never seen such a classic. It’s wonderful—the lady dog comes from a fancy home and gets lost, and the tramp dog saves her?’
‘You are likening me to a tramp dog?’ He raised one brow in disbelief. ‘I’m flattered.’
‘You likened yourself to a mongrel—not me!’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s not my fault that my brain associates everything with movies.’
‘Film and television were not a regular part of my childhood,’ he said, disliking where this conversation was headed. ‘But let me guess: they all live happily ever after at the end?’
‘Yes, exactly.’ She smiled.
‘That’s why I don’t waste my time on movies. It’s not reality.’
‘Well, of course it’s not reality.’ She laughed. ‘That’s what makes them an escape.’
Roman stood, gathering their plates and placing them less than gently into the sink. ‘You spend far too much of your time escaping real life—you know that?’ he said, knowing he had hit a nerve when he looked up and saw both of her hands balled into fists on the tabletop.
‘You’re being cruel now, and I have no idea why.’
‘This is not cruelty, Olivia,’ he said calmly. ‘You have no idea what true cruelty is. What true hardship is, even. You dislike it when people put real life in front of you—that’s your problem.’
She shook her head slowly. ‘I have no idea why you’re being like this right now. We were just talking about a movie.’
‘Life is not like the movies, and the sooner you realise it the better!’ He raised his voice, surprising himself with the force of his outburst.
Olivia stood, closing the distance between them. ‘I may not have known the kind of hardship that you have experienced in your life, but that does not negate the fact that I have feelings too.’
‘I thought it was clear that last night was not about feelings,’ he said stiffly.
‘And yet here you stand, shouting at me, when I was perfectly prepared to leave here on good terms.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s probably best that I wait outside until my helicopter arrives.’
‘You are leaving?’ he said, the words tasting like sawdust in his mouth.
‘I called the palace first thing this morning. They are sending someone to get me.’ She nodded, moving to the table to pick up her coffee cup before returning to place it in the sink.
Even with her perfect posture and impeccably coiffed hair she seemed quite at ease, clearing up after herself. Far from a domesticated goddess, but still not too far above herself to consider leaving the mess for him to clean.
He thought of their conversations the evening before, of her talk of charity work. She was not the pampered royal he’d accused her of being and it was high time he admitted it to himself.
It was easy to place her in that box—to see her as stuck up and untouchable. It made her less real. But here she was, the woman who had shattered something inside him with her lovemaking last night, all too real.
And all too ready to leave him.
/> He knew then why he was being cruel. He simply wasn’t ready to give this up. To give her up. Not yet. And yet he knew it had already gone on too long as it was.
He was the worst kind of bastard, he thought darkly. Khal had trusted him with this—had entrusted him with the care of the woman he hoped to spend the rest of his life with. Whether the union was cold and political or not, it did not matter. He had rationalised his actions simply because their passion had been mutual. He had got lost in the novelty of feeling so utterly out of control.