Santina's Scandalous Princess(36)

They didn't speak as they drove through the darkness to the airfield.  Ben's plane waited for them in a corner of the tarmac, looking as tiny  and intimate as ever. Natalia swallowed nervously as she climbed into  the plane, grabbing a handful of her long, swishy evening gown as she  picked her way across the cockpit in her high heels. Ben steadied her  with one hand before climbing in himself.

‘This all feels so very familiar,' she said as she stared out the  window. She heard a sharp edge to her voice, an edge she could not  suppress.

‘Familiar,' Ben agreed, ‘but different too. I hope.' He started the  plane and Natalia leaned her head back against the seat as they took off  into the sky, leaving the lights of Santina twinkling far below.

They didn't speak for a long moment and Natalia felt a tension-and a  tenuous hope-uncoil and tautly stretch inside her. ‘So,' she finally  said, breaking that endless silence. ‘These things.'

‘Yes.' Ben cleared his throat, and with a jolt Natalia realised he was  nervous. ‘I never told you why I've been so afraid of commitment.'

‘OK.'

‘My father cheated on my mother. You knew that. I knew that, even when I  was small, and it made me so angry. I loved my dad. He was funny and  charming and just … fun, really. Always laughing. When I realised he was  weak and full of flaws too, I felt like I could almost hate him.'  Natalia said nothing and Ben sighed. ‘That's all rather expected, I  know. Nothing new there. But what I haven't told you-didn't want to tell  you-is that I also resented my mother, for taking him back. Over and  over again, even though she knew. She knew about all his flings and  affairs, and she just pretended like she didn't. It infuriated me. Still  does, at least in part, if I'm going to be completely truthful. I  wanted her to be strong. And I never wanted to be like her.'

‘So,' Natalia said slowly, ‘you avoided commitment because you were afraid of being weak, like her?'

‘Yes, although I see now it takes a certain kind of strength to do what  she has done. But as for you and me … ' He let out a long, slow breath.  ‘From the moment I met you I felt like I was losing control. Wanting  you. Wanting to know you, and for you to know me. And yet I avoided  telling you anything really important about myself because I didn't want  to feel weak. I tried to keep you the way I'd thought you were because I  didn't want to get close. I didn't want to want you.'                      
      
          



      

Natalia gave him the ghost of a smile. ‘Do you know how many times you've said that?'

‘But the you I didn't want isn't the real you, Natalia.'

‘Don't think too highly of me,' Natalia said quietly. Even now she  couldn't keep from warning him off, just a bit. ‘I've done a lot of  things. Made a lot of mistakes.'

‘Haven't we all? I certainly have. But I've seen you over the past few  weeks. I've seen how you reach out to the kids on the pitch, how you're  willing to be on their level. You haven't stood on being a princess.'

‘Sometimes I don't want to be a princess.'

‘And when I think how you worked in the office, without telling anyone about your dyslexia-'

‘Don't,' she said, her voice catching. ‘Don't pity me.'

Ben shook his head in vigorous denial. ‘I admire you, Natalia. I always  thought you were strong, but I had no idea. I still don't. You're  amazing.'

The heartfelt sincerity in his tone humbled her; she couldn't doubt it.  ‘You're pretty amazing yourself,' she finally managed, her voice a bit  choked, and he slid her a sideways smile.

‘I'm not done yet.'

‘No?'

‘No.' He took a deep breath. ‘What I really want to say is I love you. I  love the woman you've been and the woman you've become. I love your  strength and humour and grace, and how you never let me get away with  anything. I love you, Natalia.'

She was going to cry. And she was wearing mascara. Laughing a little,  Natalia dashed at her wet cheeks. ‘I love you too,' she said quietly,  and with comical exaggeration Ben cupped his ear.

‘Sorry, what was that?'

She laughed and said it loudly. Shouted it. ‘I love you!'

They were both silent, accepting and even reveling in the moment.  Everything had been exposed; everything had been brought to the light.  And it was good.

‘I'm sorry for what I put you through,' Ben finally said quietly. ‘I was so blind, in so many ways.'

‘And I was afraid.'

‘And now?'

She let out a shaky laugh. ‘I'm not afraid. But I have no idea what's  going to happen when I return to the palazzo. What my parents will say.  Do.'

‘You won't be alone,' Ben told her. ‘I'll be by your side every second.'

She released a shuddering breath. ‘I'm certainly glad for that.'

Natalia saw lights twinkling below them, and as Ben started to descend  she wondered what their destination was. What would happen now.

She was not prepared for the sudden glare of lights as Ben maneuvered  the Seabird towards the ground. She peered out the window and saw a  bridge lit by lamplight and near-swarming with people.

‘Where are we?' she asked. ‘Why are they so many people?'

‘The Ponte Milvio Bridge in Rome.'

‘You're landing a plane on the bridge?' The Ponte Milvio was over two  thousand years old, in the centre of Rome, and local legend told that  any couple who got engaged on the bridge would be assured lifelong  health and happiness.

‘The Seabird lands like a helicopter,' Ben explained. ‘And I cleared it with the local authorities beforehand.'

Natalia peered out of the window. She could see the Tiber River awash  with lights from the city, the ancient bridge looming nearer and crowded  with people.

‘Who are all those people?' she asked.

‘Ah. Well.' Ben shot her a rather rueful grin. ‘They're reporters.'

‘Paparazzi?'

‘There are a few legitimate journalists in there as well.'

Natalia shook her head, not understanding. ‘Why would they all be on the  bridge? How on earth could they know we'd be here?' She hadn't even  known herself.

‘They might,' Ben said, ‘have received a tip-off.'

Natalia stared at him blankly. She didn't understand why Ben was so  insouciant about such a huge thing when a few short weeks ago the  possibility of just one reporter had had him pushing her away from him  as quickly as he could. Comprehension came like a thunderclap. ‘You rang  them? You tipped them off?'

‘I might have done.'

‘Why?'

‘I want the whole world to know how I feel about you, Natalia. That I love you.'

She let out a choked laugh, hardly able to believe this was real. ‘And  if I didn't want any reporters?' she couldn't help but ask, and he  looked a little abashed.

‘I'm afraid, in this one instance, you have no choice. But in future I'll guard our privacy with extreme care, I promise.'                      
      
          



      

In future. The words caused a bubble of happiness to rise inside of her,  shiny and translucent. ‘So just what are you going to tell these  reporters?'

‘First things first.' He reached for her and, surprised, Natalia came to  him. His arms enfolded her and his lips found hers. Outside, the  reporters were shouting in agitation and excitement, desperate to get a  decent snap. Natalia pulled away.

‘We are going to be on the front page of every paper from here to New York.'

‘I don't mind.'

She stared at him. ‘Really?'

‘Really.' He gave her a wry smile. ‘In this one instance anyway. I want  to show you I mean what I say. I love you and I'm happy for the whole  world to know it.'

‘I love you too,' Natalia said softly.

‘And then there's this.' Ben fished in his pocket and produced a small  box of black velvet. ‘Natalia Santina, princess of my heart, will you  make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?'

Natalia blinked back tears as she gazed at the antique

diamond surrounded by a circle of luminescent pearls. ‘Yes. Yes, I will.'

He slid the gorgeous ring on her finger and then nodded towards the  still-shouting paparazzi outside. ‘Then perhaps we should go and make an  announcement before I whisk you away again. I can't wait to tell the  world about my wife-to-be.'

Smiling, tears of joy still sparkling in her eyes, Natalia took his hand as she followed him out of the plane.





EPILOGUE

NATALIA  was amazed at how easy everything became, with Ben at her  side. Her parents were  surprisingly and touchingly accepting of her  engagement to Ben; her father King  Eduardo said he could see how  much Ben loved her. Even the Sheikh of Qadriah  took the refusal of  his offer with grace, laughingly saying he could hardly  compete with  a man who proposed with such style-and so publicly.