CHAPTER TWO
"SO IT WILL be totally a marriage of convenience?"
Ginny lay on the bed in the suite across the great room in Dominic's palace apartment. Cool silk caressed her back. Fluffy pillows supported her. Rich aqua walls brought color and life to the cavernous space.
"That's it. Nothing but a marriage of convenience to bring the heir to Xaviera's throne into the world legitimately."
"Oh, sweetie, that's weird."
"I know, Mom. But you have to remember the child we created will be in the public eye his entire life. How selfish would it be for me to refuse to marry Dominic, and have the heir to Xavier's throne born in a way that causes whispers and gossip that follow him forever?"
"True."
"Besides, this might just be the best thing for me, too. I mean, seriously, I don't know Dominic. What he said today about not wanting to be married proves it. He was such a sweetheart when he came to the school that day that I thought he really was a Prince Charming."
"They're all Prince Charming on dates, Ginny. It's real life that brings out their bad side."
Ginny winced. Though Dominic and her alcoholic dad seemed to share the charm gene, her dad had been mean and emotionally abusive. Dominic just seemed formal. It wasn't fair to compare the two-even if she would be wise about the charm part.
"He's not a bad guy, Mom. He's just not the happy-go-lucky guy he was on our date. And, you know what? I'm probably not the starry-eyed, flirty girl I was that night, either. We were both just having fun. But this pregnancy is real. And that's why he's serious."
"Okay. You're right."
"I know I'm right, but I still don't know what to do."
"It sounds like you think you should marry him. What are you giving up? A year, a year and a half of your life?"
"About two and a half years, and my career. Apparently, my job for the next twelve years is to be the heir's mom."
Ginny's mom laughed. "Even if your child wasn't a prince or princess, your priorities would switch from your job to this baby." She sucked in a breath. "You know what? This isn't all that much different from having the baby of a commoner."
"Except for dealing with the press."
"Yeah, well, the press is different."
"And boarding school."
"There is that."
"And living in a palace."
"Right, palace." Her mother sighed. "But the situation is done, Ginny."
"I suppose."
"So what concerns you?"
"Well, I have to see if I can handle it. Dominic's given me a week to make up my mind. He said we'd go out in public a few times." She groaned. "Oh, damn."
"What?"
"I brought jeans and T-shirts. One sundress." She dropped her head to her hands. "I'm going to go out with a prince, in public, in my junky clothes?"
"Your wardrobe is fine. You'll be fine."
"Right." She hadn't even told her mom about kissing Dom, possibly sleeping with Dom. All she'd mentioned was not knowing Dominic and changing her life to suit a baby, and just that had scared her silly.
This was a mess.
Two quick knocks at her door brought her head off the pillow. "Yes?"
"It's me. Dominic. My father requests our presence at dinner tonight."
Ginny turned toward the wall and whispered, "Gotta go, Mom," into the phone before she rolled off the bed and said, "Sure. That's fine. What time?"
"Seven." He cleared his throat. "It's semiformal."
She gaped at the door, as discomfort swamped her. Not only did she not have a semiformal dress for dinner, but her suite had a private sitting room outside her bedroom. He had to be in that room to be knocking on her bedroom door. He might have knocked on the door to her suite before inviting himself in, but she wouldn't have heard him. The darned place was so big and had such high ceilings that sound either echoed or disappeared. He wasn't infringing on her privacy. She hoped.
"Semiformal?"
"I took the liberty of having the staff get some suitable clothes for you."
Pride almost caused her to say, "I'm fine." But when she looked down at her jeans and considered the contents of her suitcase, she knew this was the first step in many toward giving up her real life.
"You're right. I have nothing acceptable to meet a king." She walked to the door, opened it and watched as four men brought in bags and boxes and armloads of dresses, including gowns.
"Oh, my God."
Dominic walked in behind the parade of men. "Even if you decide not to marry me, you're here for a week."
Her mouth fell open at the ease with which he spoke in front of staff, but the expression of not a single man even twitched. This was one well-trained staff.
She took a quick breath. "So I need to be semiformal."
He nodded. "Yes."
"Okay. Scram. I have some work to do to be presentable."
"I can have a hairdresser sent up. Manicurist. Masseuse."
"Why would I need a massage?"
"Maybe what I should get you is a rundown on my dad. Then you'd very clearly understand why you want to be Zen and you'd get the massage."
"Great."
She took advantage of the hairdresser and manicurist, and ten minutes before it was time to leave for dinner she wished she'd agreed to the masseuse.
Dressed in a lightweight blue dress that stopped midcalf, with her hair in an updo suitable for a woman of seventy and old-fashioned pumps dyed to match the dress, she stepped out of her bedroom.
Standing in the great room, Dominic smiled. Unlike her ugly blue dress, his tux appeared to have been made for him. Again he was every inch a prince. Handsome. Debonair. Regal.
While she looked like a frumpy old bat.
"You look lovely."
"I look like the Queen of England. Get me a hat and one of those sedate purses she carries all the time and people would probably get us confused."
He laughed. "You are meeting a king."
"Who wants to be reminded of his grandmother?"
"You do not look like a grandmother."
"Well, I sure as hell don't look like a twenty-five-year-old guidance counselor in the coolest school in Texas."
"Trust me. You will want the armor of a grandma dress when you meet my dad." He took her elbow and led her to the door, out of the apartment and through the echoing lobby to the waiting elevator.
As they stepped inside and the door closed behind them, she said, "You have some impressive art."
"We are royalty."
"I guess I'd better get used to that." That and ugly clothes.
"That's why we're giving you the week. To get accustomed to us."
She released her breath in a slow sigh. She knew that, of course. She also suspected the clothes weren't ugly as much as they were dignified.
"Who picked out these clothes anyway?"
He stared straight ahead at the closed elevator door. "I did."
She pulled the skirt of the too-big dress away from her hips. "Because you think your dad will like me better in baggy clothes?"
"I was a bit off on your size. But it's better to be too big than too small."
"Couldn't you at least have gotten something red?"
"Blue matches your eyes."
The sweetness of that caught her off guard. For a second she'd forgotten he knew the color of her eyes. But thinking about it, she remembered that gazing into her eyes, making her feel special, had been his seduction superpower.
"Besides, red would have reminded me of that night."
Her lips lifted into a smile. "Oh?"
"You were devastatingly beautiful."
Her heart skipped a beat. He'd made her feel beautiful. "If you hadn't been staring straight ahead when you said that, it would have been romantic."
"We don't want to be romantic, remember?"
"So that means you're not going to look at me?"
"I'm not going to make eye contact. I'm pretty sure that's what got us into trouble on our date."
She laughed, but happiness bubbled inside her. He liked her. A prince liked her. At the very least, he liked her looks.
It was heady stuff.
The elevator bell rang. The doors opened. Dominic led her out. "The family dining room is this way."
They walked across a short hall to open doors that ushered them into a formal dining room. A table that could have seated forty dominated the space. Four places were set near the head. An older man dressed in a royal uniform and a younger man in a tux like Dominic's rose as they entered.
"Virginia Jones, this is King Ronaldo Sancho and my brother, Prince Alexandros. We call him Alex."