The Expectant Princess by Stella Bagwell

Author:Stella Bagwell [Bagwell, Stella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Chick-Lit, Fiction, Love Stories, Romance, Women's Fiction
ISBN: 9781474025041
Google: Lx5iBQAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00PM333IQ
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Published: 2014-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The next afternoon, Dominique was on her way down to the courtyard to take a walk in the garden when she rounded a bend in the stairwell and nearly bumped head on into Marcus.

“Dominique!”

Grabbing a hold on her elbow, he steadied her teetering weight. “I’m surprised to find you here in this part of the castle,” he said, his gaze quickly traveling down her loose yellow sweater and slim beige capri pants. “Are you going out somewhere?”

She smiled faintly and wondered if, like her, he’d spent most of the night thinking about their kiss. No, he was too mature, she mentally argued. He was a man and they didn’t romanticize, they simply enjoyed what they were doing at the moment, then later forgot about it entirely.

“Only to the gardens for a walk,” she answered. “I took this long route through the castle to get more exercise.”

His hand still on her arm, he moved up to the step where she was standing. The nearness of him shook her and she tried not to notice how tall and commanding he looked in his dark suit or the way his gold-brown eyes slid leisurely over her face.

“You look better today. There’s color in your cheeks.”

She could have told him the color in her cheeks was there because she felt self-conscious. After Prudence had taken one look at her last night and decided she was in love with Marcus, Dominique feared anyone and everyone might see beneath her skin and know what she was really feeling.

Before she’d retired to bed last night, she’d argued loud and long with Prudence, denying the other woman’s accusation. But now as she looked at Marcus’s strong, handsome face, she was melting with the need to touch him again, to feel his breath upon her cheek, to experience the erotic magic of his lips.

She breathed deeply and nervously reached up to touch the brown scarf she’d twisted, then tied around her long hair. “Thank you. I feel somewhat better.”

Marcus glanced cautiously behind them, then back down the stairwell as if to make sure the two of them were completely alone.

“I’m glad I’ve run into you like this,” he said. “I was intending to call you as soon as I got back to my office.”

Her heart began to thump with foolish anticipation. “Oh. Why?”

“I want you to have dinner with me tonight.”

Have dinner with Marcus? The two of them had gotten vexed with each other while having a simple drink at the inn. A whole dinner might be even worse, she considered. And how could she possibly sit across from him for any length of time and not say, Marcus, I love you. I’ve loved you for a long time. Only I’ve just now realized it.

“Do you think that’s wise, Marcus?” she asked, then seeing the frown on his face, she quickly went on, “I mean, everyone is soon going to know I’m pregnant. You don’t want your good name to be sullied, too.”

He frowned at her. “You let me worry about my name.

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