As always, their meal was accompanied by fourteen newspapers. She grabbed USA TODAY as he took London's the Times. Their table grew quiet until Dom flipped a page and suddenly said, "What?"
Busy putting cream cheese on a bagel, Ginny didn't even look over. "What's the what for?"
He slammed the paper to the table and reached for the house phone behind him. "Sally, get up here."
Ginny set down her bagel. "What's going on?"
He shoved the paper across the table. She glanced down and saw a picture of her and Dom with their heads together as their dinners were served, a picture of her and Dom dancing, a picture of Dom leading her out the back door of the ballroom. All beneath the headline: The Affectionate Prince.
"At least they didn't call you Prince Charming."
He glared at her.
"Dom, I'm sorry. Your picture gets in the paper almost every day here in Xaviera. I'm missing the significance of this."
"First, no press is allowed in that ballroom once dinner starts. So one of our employees got these pictures."
As the ramifications of that sank in, she said, "Oh."
"Second, look at that headline."
"'The Affectionate Prince'?" She caught his gaze. "When you want to be, you are affectionate."
"No ruler wants to be thought of as weak."
"Weak? It's not weak to love someone." Instantly realizing her mistake in saying the L word, Ginny shot her gaze to his. For a few seconds they just stared at each other, then he bounced from his seat, almost sending it across the room.
"This was exactly what I didn't want to happen!"
Ginny said, "What?" not quite sure if the unexpected anger coursing through her made her bold or if she was just plain tired of skirting the truth. "Are you mad that your happiness shows? Or are you really that surprised or that angry that we fell in love?"
"I can't love you."
"Oh, really? Because I think you already do."
There. She'd said it.
Their gazes met again, but this time his softened. He took his seat again. "Ginny. I can't love you."
Since she'd already made her position clear, she said nothing, only held his gaze.
"My dad loved my mother."
"Oh, damn him for his cruelty."
"Don't make fun. When my mother got sick, my dad slipped away, let our country flounder because he was searching the globe for someone, something that could save his wife."
"And you think that was weakness?"
"Call it what you want. Weakness. Distraction. Whatever."
"How about normal human behavior?"
"Or a lack of planning."
"You think your dad should have had a contingency plan in case his wife got sick?"
"I think he let pirates get a foothold because he put my mother first."
"Oh, Dominic, of course he put his sick wife first."
He shook his head as if he couldn't believe what she'd just said. "A king cannot put anyone ahead of his country. At the first sign of those pirates he should have involved the military."
"Even though his wife, the woman he obviously adored, was dying? How could he have avoided scrambling to save her?"
His gaze rose until it met hers. "By not falling in love in the first place."
Something fluttered oddly in her stomach. The conversation was making her sick and sad and scared. But the feeling went away as quickly as it came. "I see."
"The stakes of this game, my life, are very high, Ginny. We don't govern or rule our people as much as we protect them. I can't afford a slip, a lapse." He combed his fingers through his hair. "When I'm king I won't get two private weeks on a yacht. I'll get vacations that include video conferencing and daily briefings. I'll get two hours, at most, in the sun. A twenty-minute swim." He sucked in a breath. "And this is why I warned you. Even if I wanted to love you. Even if I fell head over heels for you...coming in second to a country isn't like being second to a hobby. You would get very little of my time. It wouldn't be worth loving me."
Stunned, Ginny watched him toss his napkin to the table. "Where is Sally?"
Then he stormed out of the dining room because he didn't have anything to give her.
And that was the truth he'd been trying to tell her all along.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GINNY SAT STARING at her bagel when there was a knock on the apartment door. She expected it to be Sally, so when her mom walked into the dining room and said, "I thought we were going to swim this morning," Ginny dropped her bagel to a plate.
"I'm not much in the mood."
Her mom took a seat, grabbed a Danish pastry and popped a bite into her mouth. "First fight?"
"You know this isn't a real relationship."
"Oh, sweetie, of course it is. Get any man and woman involved in a plot or plan of any type and what results is a relationship."
"Yeah, well. It's short-term."
"Why is this bothering you suddenly?" Her eyes narrowed. "You want to change the rules."
Ginny rose from her seat. "I'm in my robe. I need to get some clothes on. Sally's supposed to be coming up."
"Dom was on his way out when he let me in."
"He must have called Sally and told her he would come down to her." She headed toward the bedroom. "I need to get dressed anyway."
She wasn't surprised when her mom followed her out of the dining room and into Dom's bedroom.
Seeing the entire bed was happily rumpled, she faced Ginny. "Well, this is a change of plans."
"You don't really think we were going to be married and not sleep together, Mom." She put her hand on her stomach and the strange flutter happened again.
"Honey, I knew you'd be sleeping together. I just didn't think you realized it would happen." She walked over. "What's up with your tummy? You're not sick, are you?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. But every couple of minutes this morning I've been getting this strange flutter in my stomach."
"Oh, my gosh! The baby's moving!"
"He is?"
"Or she is!" She plopped her palm on Ginny's stomach. "Let me feel." Her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, my gosh. Oh, Ginny. I'm going to be a grandma."
Ginny fell to the bed. "That fluttering is my baby?"
Rose sat beside her on the unmade bed. "Yep." She nudged Ginny's shoulder. "Mama."
She pressed her lips together. "Mama. I'm going to be somebody's mom."
Rose slid her hand across her shoulders. "Yes, you are. And whatever nonsense is going on between you and Dom, you have to straighten it out."
"There is nothing to straighten out. The deal is made. I leave two years after the baby's born."
Rose studied her face. "But you don't want to go now. You love him."
"And I think he loves me, too, but he doesn't want to."
"Oh, what man willingly falls in love?"
Ginny laughed.
Rose said, "Give him time."
"Time won't heal the fact that he thinks love makes a ruler weak."
"Really?"
"You know his mom died, right?"
Rose winced. "Kind of hard not to see that Ronaldo's wife isn't around."
"She was apparently sick for years with cancer." Ginny sighed. "He tried everything to save her and in that time the country fell apart."
"So?"
"So, parliament called for his resignation. Had he not snapped out of it he would have lost his crown."
"Oh."
Ginny rose from the bed and paced to the dresser. "I never realized how difficult their job was."
Her mom leaned back, balancing herself with her hands behind her. "How so?"
"Their location forces them into a position of needing to protect the waterways. While Dom's dad was scrambling to save his wife, pirates began attacking ships, demanding money to pass."
"That's not good."
"The press crucified the king. Parliament called for removal of his crown."
"So you said." She sat up. "But I still don't get how this means he can't have a wife."
"He doesn't want to be weak."
"You know the marriages I've seen that work the best are the ones where a husband and wife form a team."
"If you're suggesting that I should help him rule, you are out of your mind. Not only would he never let that happen, but I can't rule. I could make a suggestion or two, but I couldn't rule."
Rose batted a hand. "You're good with people, sweetie, but not that good." She stood up and walked over to Ginny. "You love this guy."
Ginny didn't even try to deny it.
"So how in the hell could you possibly be willing to let him live this demanding, difficult life alone?"