The Prince She Had to Marry by Christine Rimmer Page A

They’ll believe we’ve made passionate love.”
    “After which I fell asleep? How callous of me.”
    He sat in the chair again. “Shh. Close your eyes.”
    She surprised him by doing what he told her to do. He sat there and watched her. It was no hardship looking at Lili. Within minutes, her breathing evened out and she slept.
    He could have risen then and quietly left the stateroom. But instead, he stayed where he was. He watched Lili sleep and thought how he really did need to be careful. It was one thing to find a way to get along with her.
    And another altogether to let her get too close.
    He wasn’t a whole man anymore, and he knew that. He was a cobbled-together sort of creature now. He’d found a certain balance.
    Letting Lili get too close could cast him into chaos. He couldn’t afford that.
    Still, he remained in the chair, watching her. Feeling strangely peaceful, almost daring to imagine what it could be between them.
    And then catching himself, reminding himself that he was only going to learn to get along with her, to live in peace with her. They were never going to have the kind of marriage she dreamed of.
    And he needed to remember that.

Chapter Six
    I n the long, sunny days that followed, they got along well enough, Lili thought.
    They spent time every day lazing on deck, acting like newlyweds for the world to see. They stood at the rail, shoulders pressed together, and gazed out over the endless blue sea. They shopped and dined and danced together in a number of exotic and beautiful ports of call.
    Alone in their stateroom, though, Alex had put his walls back up. And he kept them up. There was none of that easy sharing and conversation that had happened that first day of their honeymoon. He slept on the carpet at the foot of the bed. He was...kind to her. Even thoughtful.
    But there was a definite distance between them that set her nerves on edge.
    She hated it. It wasn’t real. Emotionally he continued to hold himself apart from her. His public kisses were torture. They made her yearn for what they might have together if he would only give them a chance.
    Alex hated it, too, although he never confessed that hatred to Lili. Every day, every hour, every moment of their endless cruise, he discovered new things he liked about his wife. Being with her constantly, sleeping in the same cabin with her, he could no longer deny the truth about her. She was good and kind and gentle. He even began to find her endless chatter charming.
    And worst of all was how much he wanted her.
    It was the bane of his existence, this longing to have her again, to take off all her clothes and lie with her naked. To bury himself in her softness, to lose himself in her arms.
    But he knew her. She was one of those women. The kind who enjoyed sex, but insisted that their pleasure be accompanied by a healthy dose of intimacy. If the two of them became lovers, she wouldn’t be satisfied until she held his heart and his soul in her hands.
    Unfortunately, his heart was in tatters and his soul was missing in action, so there would be no satisfying her. It was a tightrope he walked with her. He dreaded the day he stumbled. And he had a clear sense that that day was coming.
    They made their slow, luxurious way down the coast of Italy. Livorno, Rome, Naples. They explored them together. They spent two days in Sicily, strolling along the Via Vittorio Emanuele in Palermo, soaking up the sun on Mortelle Beach, with what seemed to Alex to be the entire population of the town of Messina. Among the crowds they would be sure to be seen and photographed. And Alex’s specially trained bodyguards kept the locals from getting too close.
    After Sicily, they proceeded north along the eastern Italian coast. In Venice, they spent an evening with Damien and his current lady love, an actress named Vesuvia.
    Damien was in Venice to meet with a certain race car manufacturer. His lover, Vesuvia, was over six feet tall, with acres of tawny hair and