Prince's Love-Child

CHAPTER THREE

‘YOU’RE very quiet this evening, Sapphie; is there anything wrong?’

Sapphie turned to look at her brother-in-law, forcing a smile to her lips as he looked at her concernedly.

Quiet? Jerome thought she was quiet? Well, maybe, but Dee and Rik had talked enough for all of them during the last couple of hours as they dined together, usually about people or things of which Sapphie had no knowledge. Rik was completely ignoring the advice she had tried to give him earlier.

Oh, well, it had only been a case of misdirection on her part, an effort to try and draw attention away from herself. And she had been insulted and treated with suspicion for her pains. Why, she still didn’t understand…

‘I have a slight headache,’ she excused, giving Jerome a reassuring smile. ‘In fact—’

‘You have a headache?’ Dee prompted as she took time out from her laughing conversation with Rik. ‘I have some tablets in my bag you can take.’ She began to root through it. The new designer handbag, of course.

‘I don’t think that would be a good idea when I’ve already had a couple of glasses of wine,’ Sapphie refused politely. ‘In fact, I was just about to make my excuses and leave. A good night’s sleep is probably all I need.’ And to get away from Rik Prince’s oppressive company!

She doubted if Dee and Jerome had noticed, but Rik hadn’t so much as spoken one word to her during the last couple of hours. Not that she had wanted him to, but she was finding his silence towards her more unnerving than anything he might have said to her. That, and the brooding way Jerome had been watching his wife and Rik as they’d talked so easily together.

Dee, Sapphie knew, was always in her element when flirting with a man.

Rik Prince had been so wrong earlier when he’d accused her of not liking Dee. She loved her younger sister very much; she was just very aware of the emotional games Dee liked to play. And of Jerome’s reaction to them.

She might have been using Jerome’s jealousy earlier when she spoke to Rik as a diversion tactic, but actually Jerome’s possessiveness where his wife was concerned was all too real.

It was a trait that had never shown its ugly face when Sapphie had believed herself to be in love with Jerome; if it had, she would have fallen out of love with him all the sooner. Although disillusionment had come soon enough: it was difficult to remain in love with someone who obviously loved someone else to distraction.

Although Rik Prince didn’t seem to be having any trouble doing exactly that where Dee was concerned…!

‘I’m really sorry to break up the party,’ Sapphie announced lightly, placing her napkin on the tabletop and picking up her evening bag, ‘but I really think it would be better if I went back to my hotel now.’

‘I’ll walk with you.’

Sapphie was so stunned by the fact that Rik had finally spoken to her, let alone by his offer to walk her back to her hotel, that her hand moved suddenly and knocked one of the wine glasses on the table. It would have fallen over, spilling its contents, had Rik not reached out and caught it as it began to tip.

Sapphie looked across at him with startled eyes. ‘I’ll be perfectly OK walking back alone.’ After all, she had walked over to the George V by herself earlier!

‘Oh, but I insist.’ He easily held her gaze as he stood up, his expression unreadable. ‘It’s far too late for a woman to be out walking on her own. Besides,’ he continued as Sapphie would have argued, ‘I’m sure that Dee and Jerome have had quite enough company for one evening; this is romantic Paris, after all!’

Exactly, so why on earth would Rik want to stroll up the Champs-Elysées with her, of all people? Dee wasn’t too happy at the prospect of losing her admirer, either, if her pouting expression was anything to go by! And when Dee was upset about something, anyone standing in her way had better watch out!

Not that Sapphie was a willing participant in this current situation, but she knew from experience that wouldn’t matter to Dee if she felt like hitting out…

‘Don’t be so silly, Rik,’ Dee told him impatiently. ‘Jerome and I have been to Paris dozens of times before!’

‘And no doubt we’ll come back dozens of times more, too,’ Jerome put in emolliently. ‘But Rik does have a point,’ he smiled at his wife, ‘a nice stroll beside the river, with the illuminated Eiffel Tower as a backdrop, would be very romantic.’

‘Lucky you, Dee,’ Sapphie told her quickly as she saw the rebellious sparkle in her sister’s eyes; Dee clearly wasn’t happy with the thought of Sapphie disappearing off into the night with her admirer. Well, Dee needn’t worry; Sapphie intended dumping that admirer as soon as it was safe to do so.

Dee looked at her husband and his encouraging smile, then at Rik’s bland expression, obviously trying to weigh up whether or not she wanted to create a scene by insisting that Rik stay. Sapphie held her breath as she waited for the result of that deliberation.

‘That sounds wonderful, darling,’ Dee finally breathed huskily, her fingers moving caressingly on her husband’s arm now.

Causing Sapphie to breathe an inner sigh of relief. One thing maturity seemed to have done for Dee was to teach her when not to push her luck. Or perhaps not; Sapphie winced as Dee gave Rik a challenging smile—maybe her sister was just trying to make Rik jealous now?

One day, Sapphie was sure, this was all going to blow up in Dee’s beautiful face. But not tonight, she noted with relief. Jerome seemed quite happy now that he was going to have his wife to himself for a while. Rik Prince’s expression was much harder to read…

Well, if he was less than satisfied with his companion, that was his problem, not hers!

‘You can leave now,’ Sapphie told him tersely once they had walked a short distance down the wide avenue towards the Arc de Triomphe. ‘Dee and Jerome have already disappeared in the opposite direction,’ she added as Rik looked at her with raised brows.

There had been quite a lot of kissing, and ‘we’ll meet again tomorrow’ as Dee and Jerome took their leave outside the restaurant. But Sapphie saw no reason to continue this charade now that the other couple were no longer around.

Besides, she really did have a headache, mainly due, she knew, to Rik Prince’s tense silence as he walked beside her, hands thrust into his trouser pockets.

Probably a ploy to stop himself from reaching out and throttling her, Sapphie accepted ruefully; he had certainly looked as if that was what he would have liked to do to her in his hotel suite earlier this evening!

But instead of that, he had kissed her…

A kiss that was not meant to be enjoyed—by either of them.

And Sapphie really hadn’t enjoyed it. But she had learnt something about herself that she would much rather not have known. Until tonight, until Rik kissed her again, she had believed that instant love she felt for him five years ago had withered and died through lack of nurturing. But tonight, held once more in Rik Prince’s arms, she knew that wasn’t the case at all.

She was as much in love with Rik now as she had been that night long ago!

* * *

Rik had absolutely no idea what he was doing walking along beside Sapphie!

It had been one of the strangest evenings he had ever known in his life.

On the one hand, there he’d been with Dee, the woman he’d believed himself in love with for the last five years—though now he knew that he no longer loved her at all.

Then there’d been Jerome, the man Dee had married instead of him: a man that Rik couldn’t help but like.

And lastly there’d been Sapphie Benedict, a woman he had spent a burning night of passion with five years previously; Dee’s half-sister. One of the women who had played a leading part in taking Dee from him all those years ago. He was still so angry about that, he hadn’t even been able to bring himself to talk to her this evening!

Instead he had spoken to Dee, whom he could now view with dispassion—and with whom, he realised, he had absolutely nothing in common! Her conversation was of fashion and the artificial world of acting, from which he normally chose to distance himself.

Adding to his confusion was his disgust with himself for the way he had treated Sapphie earlier, which had been building up inside him all evening.

Yes, at the time he had been angry with Sapphie, suspicious of her motives for what had happened between them five years ago. And yes, the pain of that had erupted out of control. But the way he had behaved, the physical retribution he had exacted, seemed more in keeping with his eldest brother Nik’s ruthless nature than his own. Rik was the serious, caring, sensitive one of the family, not some arrogant monster who heaped vengeance on anyone who got in the way of what he wanted.

At least, that was what he had believed of himself until earlier tonight…

He gritted his teeth and turned to Sapphie. ‘I owe you an apology—’

‘I believe we’ve already had this conversation, Rik,’ Sapphie dismissed. ‘I think we agreed that you don’t owe me anything!’ she added bleakly.

There it was again, he recognised frowningly, that something in her voice that he couldn’t quite put a name to…

‘I do owe you an apology,’ he insisted firmly, his hands clenched into fists inside his trouser pockets. ‘I don’t—I have never in my life before behaved towards any woman in the way that I did to you earlier tonight.’

Sapphie shrugged her slender shoulders. ‘I’m sure that at the time you believed you had due provocation.’

‘Whether I did or not is totally…’ Rik broke off frustratedly, breathing hard, realising that even his apology was coming out all wrong.

What was it about this woman that made him behave so uncharacteristically? He really had no idea—and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to know, either!

He sighed his impatience. ‘Sapphie, will you, for goodness’ sake, just let me apologise?’

She gave him a cool glance. ‘If it makes you feel better.’

‘It isn’t a question of making me feel better…!’ But wasn’t it? Wasn’t he just trying to salvage his own conscience, rather than anything else? After all, his anger was no less now than it had been earlier; he had just been unnerved by his reaction. He hadn’t even known he was capable of behaving in that coldly ruthless way. ‘What sort of name is Sapphie, anyway?’ he challenged in order to give himself time to think.

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