Falling for His Convenient Queen by Therese Beharrie

Author:Therese Beharrie [Beharrie, Therese]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-15T16:01:15+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

‘DRAMATIC, AREN’T I?’ Nalini said, trying to poke fun at herself. No, she thought. She was trying to make telling him the real reason she’d agreed to marry him seem less severe in her mind.

‘Considering what I know about your family, it doesn’t really sound that dramatic at all.’

‘They’re not terrible people,’ she said immediately and closed her eyes, wondering why she always felt the need to defend her grandmother and mother’s behaviour.

‘I’m sure that’s true,’ Zacchaeus said when she opened her eyes again, his own eyes filled with compassion. ‘But families are complicated. Royal families more so. And sometimes what they do...’ A shadow, dark and haunting, crossed his face. ‘Sometimes what they do is terrible. And sometimes they can be terrible too.’

‘You’re not talking about my family now, though, are you?’

‘No,’ he replied. ‘But I would like to know what they did to make you feel this way.’

Should she tell him? He already knew more than she’d ever intended to let him know. But somehow telling him about Josh didn’t feel right.

Her gaze met his, and once again she was hit with the compassion in his eyes. She wondered why it was so captivating. Was it because it was so unexpected? Or perhaps because it took away that dark look always lurking in his eyes?

Caught off guard, she spoke before even realising it. ‘When I was seventeen, I did something a little...irresponsible.’

She thought about the details, about how she’d got to the beach that day, and couldn’t find any words that wouldn’t make her seem like some stupid, naïve teenager. She ignored the voice in her head telling her that she had been.

‘I was always more rebellious than Xavier and Alika,’ she continued, settling on telling him about everything but that day. ‘And after that thing happened it cemented the way my parents saw me. They used it to make sure I knew my place.’

‘Which was firmly under their thumb?’

‘Yes. And I...I’d learnt my lesson, so I had no interest in venturing out again. I did everything they’d ask—everything to try and prove to them I wasn’t the person they thought I was. Not any more.’

‘Like choosing to marry a man you don’t know to save your kingdom?’

Instead of being shocked at how much he saw, she nodded. ‘But it’s pointless. They’ll never see me as someone other than the irresponsible person they think I am. Of course, I’ve only just realised it. With that painting.’ She gave him a moment to put the pieces together, and then continued. ‘But I also chose to come here because the more time I spent doing exactly what my parents wanted—and then, when my father died, doing what my mother and grandmother wanted—the more the person I was disappeared.’

‘The person who snuck homeless kittens under her jacket to take back home to the castle?’

Her lips curved. ‘I’d forgotten about that.’

‘How could you?’ he asked with a smile of his own. ‘Don’t you still have the scars?’

Now she laughed, even as her hand fluttered up to her chest.

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