The Prince She Had to Marry by Christine Rimmer Page B

cat-slanted green eyes. She behaved like her namesake, the volcano, erupting during dinner, spewing a barrage of angry Italian, gesturing wildly with her long, slim hands. At some thoughtless remark from Damien, the woman jumped up from the table in a fury and stormed out, leaving Damien chuckling and Alex and Lili pretty much speechless.
    “I’m so sorry,” Damien said, hiding a yawn. “Artistic temperament, you know.”
    Lili gazed at him with fond indulgence. She’d always been easy and affectionate with Alex’s twin. And then she said, “Go on, Dami. Go after her.”
    Damien gave a lazy shrug. “It will only encourage her and she already exhausts me.”
    Alex read the look on his twin’s face—and heard the note of boredom in his voice. Vesuvia would soon be old news.
    Lili warned, “Dami, you will lose her...”
    Damien only shrugged again and ordered more champagne.
    “You are thoroughly impossible,” Lili scolded. And then she turned her indigo gaze on Alex. “Almost as bad as you .” With that, she tossed her napkin on the table, pushed back her chair and went after Vesuvia.
    Damien watched her go with real admiration. “Lili. One in a million.” He leaned close and spoke sotto voce. “I still have no idea why she ever agreed to marry you.”
    Given that Damien had been there that morning in the breakfast room and barely escaped being impaled by Leo’s trusty scimitar, he knew very well why Lili had agreed to marry him.
    Not that Alex had any intention of discussing his marriage to Lili at dinner—or at all, for that matter. “I’m a very lucky man,” he replied without inflection.
    “You are indeed. I only hope someday you’ll come to realize how lucky.” Damien actually sounded sincere for once—and sincerity had never been his strong suit.
    “Are you lecturing me, little brother?” Alex was his twin’s senior by twenty-five minutes.
    Damien leaned even closer. He whispered, “She looks sad.”
    Alex whispered back, “Stay out of it.”
    “So superior,” muttered Dami. “So much better than the rest of us.”
    Alex looked into the face that was a mirror of his own and wondered as he often did why they’d never been like other twins: sharing a secret language, inseparable. Having to learn to live in the world as two distinct beings. From the day they were born, they were set on different paths. “Not better,” he confessed softly. “Not the least superior. Trust me, Dami. I know that now.”
    For a moment, his twin met his eyes directly. “I would call that progress—if only our Lili didn’t look so sad.” Dami’s gaze shifted to a point over Alex’s shoulder and his usual expression of lighthearted indifference returned. “Your beautiful bride returns. Alone.”
    A moment later, in a rustle of cobalt-blue silk, Lili reclaimed the chair beside him. “She wasn’t in the ladies’.” She put her hand over her champagne flute as the waiter attempted to fill it. “I hope she’s all right.”
    “Trust me,” said Damien. “Vesuvia always lands on her feet, spewing fire.”
    “Oh, Dami,” she chided. “When are you going to get serious about your life?”
    Damien laughed. “As serious as my twin brother, you mean?”
    Lili turned to him. Her eyes met his. He thought about drowning in those eyes. He wished that he dared.
    She faced his brother again. “No, not that serious. Absolutely not.”
    * * *
    Lili was getting nowhere with Alex.
    Oh, he was kind enough. And thoughtful. He listened when she spoke and actually replied without irony or meanness. On deck and on land—anytime they were in public—he touched her often. He kissed her with tenderness and desire. They even laughed together now and then, when other people were around.
    But the moment the door to their stateroom was shut and he was alone with her, he retreated. He remained scrupulously kind and gentle with her, but he put up a wall between them. And he guarded that wall diligently. He never let her past