His Temporary Cinderella: Ordinary Girl in a Tiara / Kiss the Bridesmaid / A Bravo Homecoming

‘Can you do me up?’ she asked, glad of the excuse to turn her back to him. She had left her hair loose, and now she piled it on top of her head with her hand so that he could pull the zip up the last half inch and fasten the hook and eye at the nape of her neck.

Philippe didn’t move for a moment, but then he took his hands out of his pockets and stepped towards her. His first impression had been exasperation that Caro was wearing yet another frumpy dress, but the closer he got, the less dowdy it seemed. She was standing, quite unconsciously, in a shaft of evening sunlight that made her look as if she had been dipped in gold. It warmed the creamy skin and burnished her hair, turning it to the colour of aged brandy.

He set one hand to the small of her back to hold the base of the zip still, and took hold of the zip with fingers that felt suddenly clumsy. Her neck was arched gracefully forward and he could see the fine, soft hairs at the nape of her neck. She smelt wonderful, with that elusive fragrance that was part spice, part citrus, part something that was just Caro.

Very slowly, very slowly, Philippe drew the zip upwards. He saw those tiny hairs on her neck stiffen as his fingers brushed her skin, and he smiled. Caro wasn’t quite as indifferent as she pretended. That was good.

On an impulse, he bent and pressed his lips to the curve of her throat where it swept up from her shoulder, and she inhaled sharply.

No, definitely not indifferent.

‘Th … thank you,’ she managed and would have stepped away, but he put his hands lightly on her hips. Beneath his fingers, the silk shifted and slithered over her skin and every cell in his body seemed to tighten. So small a detail and yet so erotic, he marvelled. It was only an old green dress, it was only Caro, and yet …

And yet …

Philippe wasn’t looking forward to the evening ahead. Lefebvre and the other members of the government would go through the motions with him, but their contempt for the Crown Prince’s feckless son was thinly veiled. You had to earn respect. Philippe was OK with that, but it would be nice to be given a chance.

But he could forget all that with Caro between his hands. As he turned her, she let her hair fall and put out her own hands to capture his wrists. Her eyes were wide, the deep, dark blue that made him think of the ocean surging out beyond the reef.

‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’ she said.

‘What isn’t?’

‘Whatever you’ve got in mind.’ A flash of the old Caro there, and Philippe smiled.

‘I’m tense,’ he said. ‘I need to relax, and what could be more relaxing than kissing a beautiful woman?’

Faint colour flushed her cheekbones. ‘It’s just me. You don’t need to bother bringing out all the old lines.’

‘Maybe it’s not a line,’ he said. ‘Maybe I mean it. Maybe you are beautiful.’

‘I’m a friend,’ Caro said with difficulty, but her eyes were snared in his and they were darkening with desire, Philippe could tell.

‘A beautiful friend,’ he agreed.

Dipping his head, he put his mouth to hers, softly at first, but when she parted her lips on a soft sigh, he deepened the kiss, startled by the jolt of lust. His fingers tightened at her hips, but the material just slipped over her skin and he couldn’t get a good grip of her.

Almost reluctantly, Caro’s hands were sliding up his sleeves to his shoulders, and with something like a groan he gathered her closer. There was a kind of desperation to his kiss as he fisted the dress over her bottom, then let it go in frustration when he realised he was holding silk and not her.

Caro was mumbling ‘I’m not … I don’t … oh…’ but she was kissing him back, warm, generous kisses, and his head reeled with the rightness of it and the sweetness and the hunger.

The ordeal of the dinner ahead forgotten, he eased the zip back down and was backing through the doors and towards the bedroom when a throat was cleared somewhere in the room.

‘The car is waiting, Altesse.’

Philippe sucked in an unsteady breath as he lifted his head. That was the trouble with having servants. They were always there, ready to remind you that you had somewhere to go, someone to see, something to do. They could never just leave you alone …

Squeezing his eyes shut, he fought for control. ‘We’ll be there in a minute,’ he grated.

‘Altesse.’ The door closed softly behind the footman.

Philippe dragged a hand through his hair and looked ruefully down at Caro, who was flushed and trembling, mouth soft and swollen. ‘I’m sorry,’ he sighed. ‘We’re going to have to go.’

Somehow she managed a smile. ‘Perhaps it’s just as well. I told you it wasn’t a good idea,’ she added, which sounded more like her.

‘I thought it was a very good idea. Didn’t you enjoy it?’

Her eyes slid from his and she stepped back, away from him. ‘That’s not the point. We agreed to be friends.’

‘Friends can kiss, can’t they?’

‘Not like that,’ said Caro. ‘I don’t think we should do it again.’

They were going to have an argument about that, thought Philippe, and it was an argument he was determined to win.

‘We’ll talk about it later,’ he said, taking her arm. ‘Right now, we’ve got to go.’

Dinner was preceded by a drinks reception to which the great and good of Montluce had been invited to meet Philippe. Caro stood beside him, smiling and shaking hands. If she was feeling intimidated by the ferociously smart women whose gazes flickered over her dress, she didn’t show it. Amongst all those elegant little black dresses, Caro looked gloriously different.

Philippe was proud of her. She wasn’t beautiful, but he was having trouble keeping his eyes off her all the same. How was he supposed to concentrate on being a prince when his body was still humming with that kiss? When all he could think about was the creaminess of her skin, her warmth, the delicious softness shot through with excitement? When every time her mouth curled in a smile the blood drained from his head?

And when she was murmuring comments out of the side of her mouth that made him want to laugh and strangle her and carry her off to bed all at the same time?

The Foreign Affairs Minister came up to be presented. ‘Look, Apollo’s here,’ Caro whispered in his ear, and Philippe found himself looking at bulbous brown eyes, a stubby nose and mournful jowls that gave Marc Autan an expression so exactly like his great-aunt’s pug that it was all Philippe could do not to burst out laughing. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Caro biting down hard on the inside of her cheeks. Shaking Monsieur Autan’s hand and making small talk with a straight face was one of the hardest things Philippe had ever done.

‘Behave yourself,’ he said out of the side of his mouth when Monsieur Autan had at last moved on. ‘You’re going to get me cut out of the succession.’

Still, he missed her at the dinner, which was just as pompous and tedious as he had expected. They sat at a long table so laden with candelabras and silverware that he could only converse with the person on either side of him.

Caro had been put at the other end of the table, no doubt on Dowager Blanche’s instructions. Her lack of French didn’t seem to be stopping her having a good time. He kept hearing that laugh, the laugh that whispered over his skin and made his blood throb.

Philippe gripped his glass and glared down the table at the men on either side of Caro, who were so clearly enjoying her company. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be at all. He was the jaded one, the one who was always in control. The one who left before things got out of hand. He wasn’t the one who sat there and longed desperately for her to notice him.

And then Caro did look up and their eyes met. She didn’t smile, and nothing was said, but Philippe looked back at her and the awful pressure in his chest eased at last.

They were silent in the back of the limousine that took them back to the palace. Still silent, not touching, they walked along the quiet corridors and up the double staircase. Only when the last footman had bowed and closed the last door did Caro break the silence.

‘I don’t think we should do this,’ she said as if they were in the middle of a conversation, which perhaps they were. Her voice trembled with nerves. ‘I think we should stick to what we agreed.’

‘You want to leave the pillow in the middle of the bed?’

‘Yes.’ She swallowed, knowing that she was doing the right thing but unable to remember why. ‘You said you’d wait until I asked,’ she reminded him. It was hard to keep her words steady when her throat was tight with desire and the air struggled to reach her lungs. ‘You said you wouldn’t sleep with me if I didn’t want to.’

Philippe reached out and twisted a lock of her hair around his finger almost casually. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to?’

‘No … yes … I don’t know,’ she said with a kind of desperation, and he dropped his hand and stood back.

‘All right.’