His Arranged Marriage (5 page)

“These things do not matter where royal marriages are concerned.”

“I don’t consider myself royally married. We will never live in Balahar. I will not be a ruler.”

Rose shrugged. “This is a point on which your wishes and Serena’s may not be in harmony. She married with the expectation that she would remain a princess, not become a rancher’s wife. It is a very different world than she would expect, Cade. I don’t
know many women who would want or care to make the transition.”

This was a salient point, Cade silently conceded. Life on a Texas ranch had weeded out many a woman. “I need some time with Serena,” he said slowly. “Some time for her to adjust to the ranch before she makes up her mind that she wants to be married to me, and to live here at the ranch.” He thought for a few moments. “How long can we hold off King Zak?”

“It is the first time I ever saw such a spark in Cade’s eyes,” Rose stated as she sat in the kitchen with her brother, Randy, and his wife, Vi. Rose knew that she could trust these two more than any other with the thorny dilemma confronting her. “My first thought was to call the king immediately. But when I saw Cade struggle not to let me know how much he wanted time for Princess Serena to fall in love with The Desert Rose, I knew he was really asking for time for her to fall in love with him.”

“I never thought I’d see the day,” Vi said happily. “How did you end the conversation?”

“I agreed to think over whether I could possibly stall King Zak. After all, the situation is beyond highly irregular.”

Randy laughed. “Love can make a man do highly irregular things.”

Rose noticed the strange look Vi gave her husband. But the moment passed, and Vi’s features re
laxed into the same pleasant expression she always wore. “How can we help you with this, Rose?”

Always one to ask how she could help,
Rose thought gratefully. “I don’t know how exactly. Mainly I needed a listening ear to help me decide if I would be doing the right thing if I assisted Cade in this romance.”

“Our ears are always available,” Randy assured her.

“Separate bedrooms come to mind first,” Vi said.

“Separate bedrooms?” Randy queried his wife.

“For Cade and Serena.” Vi looked at her husband again, her expression uncomfortable. “Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”

“I suppose so. Women think about sex differently than men, I know. Will it further the relationship for them to be separated? Seems to me that close quarters is more likely to—”

“Randy!” Vi exclaimed. “You are discussing a princess, remember.”

“Who is just the same as any other woman, I would imagine. She will want to be told she is beautiful, and desirable, and—”

“And you think that the only place to do this is in the bedroom?”

Silence met Vi’s question. Rose felt a dismayed blush steal over her face. It was clear that her two dearest allies had something to work out between them, although clearly Vi thought that there was
more of a problem than Randy apparently did. “Perhaps we should discuss this another time,” she murmured.

“Womanly feelings aside, King Zak is not going to want his daughter returned to him in any condition other than that in which she left his palace,” Vi said sternly, “should she decide that The Desert Rose—or Prince Kadar—is not to her liking.”

“Your point is taken.” Rose shifted in her chair. “I may ask the two of you to assist me in some matchmaking if necessary.” It suddenly hit her that if anyone was in need of assistance in the love department, it might be Randy and Vi. Which was strange, as they had an upcoming anniversary for which Randy was busily planning a surprise celebration. “And yet perhaps quiet time alone away from court manipulations—or even matchmaking here—might be the better thing.”

“Will you want them to stay married?” Randy asked. “Is there a problem with it?”

“I simply do not know how to explain it to the king. He is going to feel that we pulled the wool over his eyes. He may demand that his daughter return at once. With arranged marriages, everything is supposed to be laid out on the table at the beginning. Both sides know what they are getting, and what they are giving. But it is very difficult for me, because I saw the possessive gleam in my son’s eyes. Believe me, I would like him to fall in love with a
strong, intelligent woman like Princess Serena. I am most impressed with her. I want him to have this marriage, if indeed the two of them are meant for each other.”

“You would be willing to intercede for Cade if you saw that the two of them had mutual ground to build on?” Vi asked.

“For that I would be willing to intercede,” Rose admitted. “I, too, remember the feeling of wanting a love to last beyond all expectations that it should.” She sighed, her eyes misty with memory. “It is exquisite beyond all compare when the heart sees its mate in another soul.”

I
F HER PRIDE WAS
a bit tattered, Serena was determined no one would know it. She would not force Cade to stay in a marriage he had found himself in unexpectedly. She had dreamed of a prince for too long to be unwanted.

She tied on a half apron similar to the one she had seen Rose wearing, and began to peel the potatoes that were set out in a bowl atop the kitchen counter.

“We have a cook,” Cade said as he came into the kitchen. “You don’t need to do that.”

“I will do it,” Serena said, “as your mother did the cooking this afternoon. I saw the apron she wore when we arrived, and I saw her peel a potato. I can do it.”

The glance Cade sent her was puzzled. “My mother likes to cook.”

“You think I do not? I like to cook.” If she hadn’t in several years, and nothing more than popcorn in the dormitory, it was her business to know and not Cade’s. Of course, the knife she was using to peel the potatoes did not move as smoothly as it had for Rose, who had cut off the skins in deft, even swirls. The potato seemed to squirm in her hand, an unwilling ally in her show of pride.

“You are going to end up getting a tour of an American emergency room like that,” Cade warned. “Let me show you how to do that before you cut yourself.”

“Men do not peel potatoes,” Serena said, ignoring his request but trimming the vegetable more slowly.

“This man does whatever he likes,” Cade said, putting his hands over hers as he stood behind her.

Serena froze. Never had a man stood with such proximity to her! Her father’s palace guards, indeed her own servants, would be shocked. “You mustn’t stand so close,” she said, embarrassed and unable to pay attention to the lesson she was supposed to be receiving as the peels flew into the sink.

He hesitated, the sure stroking ceasing. “I am not standing close, Princess. Not as close as I hope to one day.”

She could feel his breath on the back of her neck
where she had pulled her hair up into a long ponytail suitable for kitchen work. Tingles stormed her arms and legs. “You must forgive me, but I am not used to such familiarity.”

“You asked me to consummate our marriage,” he pointed out. “That seemed very familiar to me.”

Heat flushed into her face as she recognized laughter in his tone. “A consummation would be merely an act to legitimize our union.”

“Hmm. I don’t think that’s what you’d say when we were through consummating, as you like to call it, Princess.” He put the potato, cleanly peeled, into an empty bowl and reached for another, his hands still on top of hers with every movement.

She stiffened as he began moving her fingers with his in the orchestrated peeling motion that left another potato neatly exposed, its skin lying in the sink in one long, circular ribbon. Her emotions felt like that, easily peeled from her to reveal a virginal heart.

No. She was a princess. She could restrain her emotions as she was accustomed to doing. “What do you think I would call it, Prince Kadar, other than consummation?” she asked icily. “Are you correcting my use of the English language, or bragging like a schoolboy?”

He moved closer, and she felt hot hardness nestle at the base of her spine. She gasped. A gentle, lingering kiss was placed at the back of her neck under her ponytail, and Serena jumped, the potato drop
ping into the sink as she whirled to face him. She stared up at him, seeing the playfulness in his eyes.

“I would never correct your English, Princess Serena, but I wouldn’t brag, either.”

He rubbed his palms up over her arms but didn’t attempt to kiss her again. She waited for the frenzied dance of her heart to subside so that she could breathe, and yet, she became aware of the presence of his heat at her waist even as she tried to edge back against the sink counter. Her heart danced harder, leaving her unable to do anything but wait for him to move away.

“When I make love to you, Princess,” he said huskily, “I want you to call it heaven. I want you to know that you have been loved in a way no other man could make you feel.” He pressed his lips to her forehead, her temple, the tip of her nose, lingering just at her cheekbone. “If I make love to you, and you get out of my bed unsatisfied that we have consummated our union, I will put you back in my jet and take you home to Balahar. I make that promise to you.”

She shivered, down to her sandaled toes. “I did not mean to insult you…your, um…lovemaking ability, Prince Kadar.”

He laughed, moving his lips to her hairline. He warmed her with his nearness, even to the middle part in her hair. “I am not insulted. I am telling you that I want to please you and make you happy, not
conform to a legal definition. When I am inside you, we will be man and woman, not prince and princess.”

“Oh, my goodness,” she murmured. Her mind had never stretched to hearing words like these. Never had her imagination conjured up a romantic relationship. She had always thought in terms of royal lineages, countries bonded through mutually advantageous arrangements, marriages of respect but not necessarily love. “You are not what I expected in a man at all.”

“I can breed horses all day long if I want to, Serena. Breeding is for animals. Making love is part of marriage.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, at her part. “I am trying to seduce you.”

“It’s working, I think,” she said on a nervous laugh. “In the palace, many people say flowery things to earn favor, but I look upon them with scorn. I do not like flowery words, and yet I like yours.”

“You’re talking about bootlicking, or in your case, maybe it’s sandal-slobbering,” he told her, brushing his lips against hers. “I’m romancing you, and glad to hear you like it.”

“I do,” she said softly. “Let me romance you.”

He lifted a brow, yet his smile was kind. “Go ahead.”

She cleared her throat. “Ah, let me see. Okay. Prince Kadar, when I make love to you, you will
know that strands of ephemeral silk tie your heart to mine, and you will never want to break them.”

She leaned up against him, lightly pressing her breasts against his lower chest, and Cade felt his own body igniting.

“And,” she continued, her eyes full of earnest purpose, “you will thank the stars that you are not a palace eunuch because you have known such pleasure at my hands.”

He closed his eyes, unwilling to allow her to see the laughter there. His princess’s first attempt at seduction should be cherished. “I can’t wait, Serena,” he said with a smile.

“I am pleased that you are happy,” she said with a sweet smile for him. “I appreciate you explaining to me the difference between consummating a marriage and making love.” She turned back to the sink. “And I very much appreciate you teaching me how to properly peel potatoes.”

He frowned at his princess’s back. Her swift escape from the romantically playful mood they’d been in spoke to her innocence, but it also made him wonder if he’d had Serena under his spell as much as he’d thought, or if she’d merely been pleasing him—humoring him.

Less sure of himself now, Cade said, “It was no trouble at all. I’ll see you at dinner,” and excused himself from the kitchen. A ride on his favorite horse would give him time to think over his mar
riage—and his wife. Perhaps he could come up with some answers as to how to convince this beautiful princess that there was a huge difference between consummate and conjugate.

Serena didn’t turn around, but a secret smile lifted her lips as the sound of Cade’s boots left the kitchen and echoed down the hall. She watched from the kitchen window as he headed toward the stables.

He might have married her to save face for his family, but he was going to relinquish his heart to her. She had dreamed of a prince all her life. Cade might not want to be a prince, but he was going to be hers, by whatever definition he wanted to call it! He wasn’t the only one who understood seduction.

She had been raised in a palace, where seduction came in many disguises. His disguise was to think he had helped out his brother and mother by being noble. He was noble, and that was admirable.

However, he didn’t yet realize how much he wanted her. She was not going to be merely another duty to him.

And that was where the real seduction would begin.

Unfortunately, she was positive there wasn’t much time to put her plan to work. Her father might be unhappy about the prince switch, or Layla might stir up so much trouble at the court that her father would have to send for her to come home with her prince. Sending in a spy with a potion meant that
Layla was ready to take advantage of any holes in the marriage. If Serena’s presence—and that of her prince’s—was demanded to allay concern about the lack of required pomp and ceremony, Serena knew that Cade would not want to return to Balahar. And that would cause problems. It would be very risky to return if their marriage was still dissolvable.

He wanted an American courtship, a period of dating. “I need to convince him,” she murmured to herself as she stroked the skin off the last potatoes, “that a royal match is different. A royal match…needs to be lit or it might get extinguished!”

Cade went to the barn in search of his favorite horse, fully intending to ride off the confused mood the princess had put him in. A little seduction should have gone a long way where she was concerned—then why was he feeling he’d had the tables turned on him?

“Whoa, cowboy,” Mac told him, busting Cade out of his sour thoughts. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“For a ride.” Cade pulled down a saddle.

“Somebody shoot your dog?”

Cade looked at his brother. “If you’re referencing my mood, I can confirm that it has been in better shape.”

“I know it was in better shape before you went into the house. Trouble in the love nest?”

Cade frowned at his brother. “It’s a pain in the ass being a prince sometimes.”

Mac laughed and tossed him an elaborate silver
and leather bridle. “You’ve never spent a thought on royalty before the princess brought her vision of loveliness to the ranch.”

“I know. That’s the problem. I don’t much know how to proceed with her.”

“I’m so glad it’s you and not me, bro, trying to figure out that tangled problem. Although I appreciate you doing me the favor,” he said hastily. “I mean, I’m very much aware that it’s my boots, er, wedding band you’re wearing—”

“Shut up,” Cade said, replacing the bridle over a heavy nail in the wall. “I’m not wearing your boots or your wedding band. I wanted her, I’ve got her, I’m trying to figure out what the hell to do with her.”

Mac snickered, earning him a black look from his brother.

“Well, heck. Sometimes Serena looks at me all sweetly, and my insides turn to jelly and I think I’m going to explode. And sometimes she looks at me so knowingly that my insides turn to jelly and I think I’m going to explode.”

“Sounds like either way you’re going to explode. Your options appear to be limited—and painful.”

“You are no help,” Cade said curtly. “Wait until it’s your turn. You get the next princess Mother conjures up.”

“I hope not. I’m hoping that you’ll keep her busy with your princess, maybe long enough for me to
figure out whether the rodeo life is an appealing option or not.”

“I can just see you leaving The Rose for rodeo.” Cade sighed and leaned up against the wall, before picking up a curry brush and beginning to stroke Dakar’s powerful body with long, soothing slides of the brush.

“I can’t believe one little gal has got you so riled up. Kissin’ Cade—isn’t that what the girls called you in high school?”

“I hope not.” Cade sighed again. “Mac, I know that ranch life is hard. I want Serena to be happy here. It’s bad enough that our marriage started off as unfortunately as a dented bucket. For her to be content giving up palace life, she’d have to really love it here.”

“You and I do.”

“That’s different. We never knew any different. She’s used to velvet cushions and servants and her every need immediately tended. Here, well, there’s none of that. Not even close.”

“Guess you’re not going to live in Balahar.”

“See, that’s it,” Cade said softly, laying his head against Dakar’s shoulder for a moment as he thought. The smell of warm horseflesh came to him, comforting and familiar. A few stalls over, Texas Heat pawed the ground, insisting he get his share of attention. The two stallions couldn’t be kept in side-by-side stalls—they would kick apart the wood be
tween them in order to get at each other—and Texas Heat was competitively aware that he wasn’t the focus right now. Cade glanced at the stallion. “Slow down, boy. You don’t always have to be spoiled rotten.” Then he glanced at Mac. “The horses get all the spoiling here, Mac. I’m asking Serena to make a sacrifice, when I’m not willing to do the same. I’d rather be in a wooden box than live in that palace of hers.”

Mac shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to, either. Remember? That’s why you went for me? I didn’t even want to make a fast business trip over there.”

“So if I want her to be happy enough here to willingly say that she wants to stay at The Desert Rose with me…I don’t think the way to make that happen is to throw ranch life at her all at once. And she’s in the kitchen wearing an apron and peeling potatoes—after I showed her how not to cut her finger off doing it.”

“What made her decide to tackle kitchen duty?”

Cade shrugged, a slight smile lighting his face. “She saw Mother wearing an apron.”

“And decided she should emulate her. That shows a willingness on her part to try to like The Desert Rose, Cade. Maybe you’re too worried. After all, we have a lot here that is common to a palace. They have sand fleas in the desert, we have biting flies. They have palace politics, we have Mother’s matchmaking. They have—”

“I get your point, but life can’t be as hard on a palace princess as it is on a cowgirl, can it?”

“It might be,” Serena’s saucy voice came from the doorway.

Both men straightened to stare at her. She walked toward them slowly, wearing jeans she had to have borrowed from Jessica and a determined smile. “I’ve got boots on,” she told Cade. “I’m ready to ride one of your famous horses. Why don’t you show me around this ranch, and give me a chance to decide which is more fun—being a princess or a cowgirl?”

Texas Heat kicked at his stall, tired of being ignored. Ignoring Cade’s gape, Serena went to the stall.

“Serena, he may nip you, or worse. Let me get you a pony,” Cade said quickly. “I’ll saddle one up for you and we can take a nice, leisurely ride around the ranch.”

“DR Texas Heat,” Serena murmured softly. “Not that you’d need any introduction.” She took down a lead rope and, before Cade could stop her, opened the stall. “You’re magnificent,” she breathed. “Much more impressive than even your pictures,” she said to the wary horse. He eyed her and she allowed him to, without extending a hand to him. His great nostrils quivered as he decided whether or not to accept her in his space.

“Serena—” Cade started, but his brother’s hand
on his arm stopped him. “She’s going to get kicked, or worse.”

Mac shook his head. “It would have happened by now. The horse was ready for attention. He senses Serena is going to give it to him.”

“She isn’t used to riding stallions! She probably rode overfed palace ponies, if they didn’t have retainers who rode her horses for her!”

“Serena seems to know what she’s about. If she puts the saddle on backward, you’ll know she’s inexperienced and can step in to help. But give her a chance. She’s trying to fit in.”

Cade’s breath stuck in his throat as he watched the delicate princess woo Texas Heat. The horse drew his head near enough to smell her, giving Cade a fright that Serena might soon lose an ear. But the horse dropped his head a little, satisfied, and Serena slipped the bridle on him without difficulty after inserting the bit.

“Well done,” Mac murmured, his voice tinged with admiration.

“So far,” Cade grumbled.

“Come on, handsome,” she said, leading the horse from the stall. Texas Heat came out, his body proud with shining majesty. “Now, this is a male who needs no words to showcase his attributes,” she said to Cade and Mac, while firmly patting the neck muscles. “No need to brag about his prowess. No, this steed knows he has descended from a line of
proud royalty, and to pretend otherwise would not be possible. In his very posture, he shows he is a king among his kind.”

She led the horse out from the stable and secured him for saddling, choosing a western saddle for herself and putting it on the horse without assistance. Placing a foot into the stirrup, she neatly vaulted herself into the seat. She stared down at the two cowboys with wicked glee, but her words were aimed at Cade. “I imagine that when he is sent to visit with a lady, he goes about his business with the sure execution a female expects from a male. Masterfully, enthusiastically, without having to be prodded—and certainly without boastful displays to cover his own lack of confidence.”

Smiling into Cade’s astonished eyes, she turned the horse, starting an even canter away from him, before glancing over her shoulder at him for a split second. He could hear her laughter on the breeze.

“What the
hell
was that all about?” Mac demanded. “Is the princess trying to tell you something?”

Cade stomped over to swiftly saddle Dakar. “That I am a recalcitrant prince
and
lover. On the one hand, she is correct. On the other, she, by the stars, is
not.
”

Mac laughed as Cade leaped astride the stallion and none too slowly tore out of the stable. “I’ll call the county fire department,” he called after his
brother, “and warn ’em they’re not to worry if they see sparks flying from The Desert Rose!”

I
N THE HOUSE
, Rose was placing the most difficult phone call of her life. She dreaded telling the king what had transpired so much that her hands shook. Never in her life could she have imagined that Cade would do as he had done.

And yet, he and the princess seemed determined to, if not fall head over heels in instant love, to be satisfied to dig at each other like splinters under skin.

She had never seen Cade act in such a manner. He reminded her of Dakar when a female was brought to him. There was much display of cocky body language, designed to illuminate his magnificent muscles and strong bearing. Rarely had a mare been able to resist the eventual mating, more often than not surrendering to him with submissive posture. Dakar was known for not wasting a rancher’s time and money, for he executed his task with speed and potency.

Serena and Cade were, for now, at least in the same corral. Perhaps if she could offer the king something that could soothe the insult Cade had unwittingly visited upon him, something more could come of the marriage than cocky body language and teasing that disguised the attraction between them.

The king would likely want an annulment.

She had little to offer a king that might buy Cade some time with Serena.

“His Highness will speak to you now,” the king’s adviser said.

“Thank you,” Rose murmured.

“Good afternoon, Rose,” King Zak said. “It is afternoon in your part of the world, is it not?”

“It is, Your Highness,” Rose said respectfully.

“We are related now,” the king told her. “Please call me Zak. I was quite pleased with your son, however impetuously he took my daughter from me. I must say that the expediency worked to my benefit, however. No one was the wiser until the deed was accomplished.”

“Actually, King Zak,” Rose began nervously, “there’s a slight problem. Perhaps a large one, actually.”

“Don’t tell me he doesn’t want my daughter!”
the king roared.

Rose jumped, gulping nervously. “No, no, that is not the problem, Your Highness. Please do not concern yourself that Serena is anything less than the wonderful princess we expected. Quite the opposite, in fact! She is a star that The Desert Rose never expected to shine upon its humble existence.”

“I will hear more of this problem, then. Quickly, please.”

Rose’s fingers shook on the receiver as she held it to her ear, closing her eyes to pray for the right
words. “King Zak, the fault is all my own. My sons have ever been inclined to look after one another. Prince Makin was averse to marrying—anyone at all, although Serena is certainly a jewel to bless a man with many days of joy. Prince Kadar, in seeking to allay his brother’s concerns, took it upon himself to stop by Balahar on his way to Saudi Arabia, in order to meet Princess Serena. Apparently, he was confused by palace protocol, and accepted her by accident. So charmed was he by her,” Rose continued hastily, “and not wishing to cause her embarrassment, nor to humiliate me, he went through with the marriage.”

“My daughter married the third prince? This is not what we agreed upon!”

“No, Your Highness, it is not, and for that, I am dreadfully sorry.” Rose’s thoughts shifted like sands in the desert wind as she chose her next words carefully. “We could return Serena to you, at once, in the same condition in which she left your palace, which I can promise you is a fact that would be verified easily by a palace physician. Coming home to you with an application for a marriage annulment, however, would most likely bring a stain to her name. Palace gossip would be wicked and intense, as it might appear that her husband did not desire her. Remember, no one knows that Prince Kadar married her instead of Prince Makin, and as they are twins, no one would believe the story if we had to
come forward with it. People will say that we fabricated the whole thing.”

“And also that my rule must be weak indeed to allow such a thing to occur under my very nose.”

“Precisely. Which is why I would like to make a counterproposal to you, if I may.”

King Zak hesitated a moment. Rose’s fingers tightened on the telephone. The ruler had every right to be outraged, both as a monarch and as a father, and she could not blame him for not wishing to listen to one more word she had to say. For Cade’s sake, however, she added a plea.

“Your Highness, please, hear me a little longer. I would like to right this wrong you have suffered.”

After another long moment, he said, “I’m listening, my lady Rose.”

She blinked, both at his kind tone and his choice of words, which brought her to equal status with him. He was giving her the courtesy of a royal with important duties, not the more minor position of an out-of-power queen. Gratitude swelled inside her. “My son and your daughter like each other very much. They came here to protect you. Prince Kadar told your daughter the truth in Balahar. She could have left his side at any moment, revealing him to be an imposter and remaining in her father’s home. For the sake of your rule, she went with Kadar, knowing that it was best that a strong marriage bond be portrayed. They came here because already the
palace spy had drugged Kadar’s drink, hoping to keep him from honoring the princess with a true marriage. An annulment is what I suspect Queen Layla is after, Your Highness, and if Prince Kadar and Princess Serena were unwilling to give it to them, then I humbly suggest that we give them the time to work out the marriage they both seem content to keep.”

“And you have told me that my daughter is still—”