“But the law is too absolute and unfair,” she protested. “Many sons won’t live up to their fathers’ level, but you’ve surpassed yours. It would be glaringly obvious you were made king on total merit, that after you the law would be enforced again, until another king’s son proves himself as worthy of the crown.”
“Even if I’m worthy of it, I didn’t grow up dreaming of it, wasn’t fighting for it when I built my success and fortune.”
“But that should only make you even more worthy of it!”
“It doesn’t work that way in Castaldini. And then, I truly don’t want the power and the responsibility, and that’s a huge strike against me. All I want is to be yours.”
There were no limits to the heights he’d make her scale.
She pitched herself from those heights into the depths of arms she knew would always be there to catch her. “It’s too much!” He rumbled. She swallowed his protest, sobbed. “Don’t contradict me. I’m stating facts here.”
He chuckled. “Here’s one more fact, bellissima. My father, too, believes the long-term repercussions of the precedent of my crowning would change the face of Castaldini, something we should all fight against. He was desperate for me to take the crown, not because I was Castaldini’s last hope, but because he feared the Council’s rigidity. They proved it by choosing me over the third candidate because he’s an illegitimate D’Agostino, a factor that in this day and age shouldn’t be a consideration. He still fears they’ll let him, the one they know would probably make the best king go because of this stupid prejudice.”
She raised an eyebrow, suspicion and hackles rising. “Going overboard alert. Losing all credibility here. Way to go to de- convince me. There can be no better king-material than you.”
Delight crackled from his depths, rich and infectious and unbearably arousing. “Never stop saying things like that to me.”
“No danger of that whatsoever. Just hope you can stomach all the nonstop adulation. So what’s this exaggeration about this third candidate making the best king?”
“It’s what I believe. We—my father’s candidates—are on par as far as power and success go. But I believe Ferruccio is the one among us who has that most drive to lead. He’s also the most…old-fashioned, if you will. And he might never admit it, but he craves setting down roots, which he’s never had. That combination makes him the best choice for Castaldini’s king. I pray they make him the offer and fast, and that he agrees to take up the mantle when they do. I’m not sure he will. If I were him, I’d probably courier the D’Agostino family and Castaldini to hell.”
“What if he does refuse? Will you then take the crown?”
“I won’t think of that unless I’m the last candidate left standing. But I agreed to be Leandro’s co-regent. Once Ferruccio is crown prince, we’ll be his main men on his new Council, continuing to do our utmost in Castaldini’s service. That means many, many visits there. Would you like that?”
She plunged into his embrace, kissing him all over. “I would love that! And I love you, most of the time beyond endurance…”
She cursed herself for the tremor in her voice when he heaved up, his eyes alert, alarmed. “What is it? Surrender all your worries, anima mia, let me erase them.”
“I-I’m just so afraid…and that was the reason I…”
“The reason you said what you did yesterday.”
“I always forget that you can read my mind.”
“Just partially now. I can’t tell what still pains you so.”
“I-I…oh, hell…tell me the truth, okay? I’ll know if you don’t and it will prey on my mind. You really don’t care who I am?”
“I couldn’t care more.” She jerked, and he gentled her, leaned her against his propped up thighs, stroked and kneaded her, at once mind-blowingly sexual and heart-meltingly emotional. “You are the one who has awakened my heart, reawakened my ability to care, to enjoy, introduced me to the full potential of life. You have nothing to do with our parents’ choices. I was insane to suspect you of knowing of their affair, to doubt your motives toward me. But at the core of my madness was my fear that I didn’t deserve you and all the happiness you bring me, that something would happen to prove it was all too incredible to be true.”
“And even though you deserve to be punished, slowly, agonizingly…” She lunged at him, kissed her way down his body until he growled, thrust at her, drove convulsing fingers in her hair to stop her, to urge her on. “…you also deserve far more than I can possibly be or give…hush, don’t contradict me again.” She raised her eyes, found that his were rivaling Castaldini’s shores in vividness and translucency, radiating pure azure adoration. “And that’s the same fear that paralyzed me into keeping silent. I couldn’t believe this could be happening to me. I was living in dread of ending the perfection.”
His lips quirked. “So you don’t think it was fool’s gold?”
She fluttered her lashes. “So you don’t think I seduced you?”
“You did seduce me. To the point that my mind unravels at the merest thought of losing you.” Distress gurgled in her throat. A slash of bedeviling white lit up his dark gold face as he hauled her to him. “And Grazie a Dio that you did. You seduced me just by being yourself, with no motive other than being unable to have enough of me. But ragazzaccia mia, you stopped my amends too soon. Not that I’ll stop. I’ll just keep on making them, keep showing you, proving to you what you are to me, my everything.”
“Them’s fightin’ words, Your Highness. Prepare to witness that you are this and more to me. For starters, I’ll never withhold anything from you again, not facts, not the last shred of thought or emotion.” She bit her tongue. “Uh…that sounded as if I’ll be a blabbering, overemotional pain in the rear.”
“This kind of pain?” He squeezed her buttocks, pressed her into his aroused flesh, groaned as if in suffering. Her insides clenched, needing, gnawing. She knew how he felt. “Or the other kind, where you agonize me by reassuring me I’m in your heart and thoughts, that I’m pleasing and pleasuring you? If that’s the kind of torment you have in store for me, I beg you to never stop.”