And Cathy went through the motions of sinking in a low curtsey. The head nurse had advised her that the King might be able to hear her, and that she should talk to him. And so, shrugging off any feelings of self-consciousness, she sat and told the stricken monarch how happy she was to have married into his family and how she would do everything in her power to be a good princess. She found herself searching his inert, cold features for some kind of reaction-any kind of reaction. Could he understand anything she was saying to him? How terrible if his mind was locked in some frustrating prison-hearing everything and yet unable to respond.
By the time they left, a small crowd had gathered outside the hospital and Cathy was aware of the flash of a camera exploding in her face as Xaviero's security ushered them through to the car.
But once the powerful vehicle had moved off, her new husband reached out and pulled her close to him, staring down into her too-white face. 'I have been harsh with you, Cathy,' he said bitterly. 'Can you forgive me?'
'It … it doesn't matter.'
'Oh, but it does.'
'No, I have been putting my own concerns first,' she whispered. 'Instead of realising all the responsibilities which have been pressing down on you.'
He pushed her hair back from her cheek. 'Having you so close-and yet unable to touch you-has been driving me half crazy with desire.' His mouth softened into a smile tinged with sadness. 'And you were brilliant with my brother.'
Basking beneath the unexpected compliment and sinking into the longed-for warmth of his embrace, Cathy found herself wanting to smooth away those hard lines of strain from his formidable features. 'Does he get many visitors?'
All Xaviero wanted to do was to block out the nightmare image of what they had just seen, but her eyes were dark with a question he had no right to ignore. 'We have no other living relatives.' He shrugged. 'I go, when I have time … although every second is now planned out for me, as you know, so it is not as often as it should be. And, of course, I do not find it as easy to talk to him as you just did.'
'That's because women are better at that kind of thing.'
'Are they?' He allowed himself a brief smile. 'And naturally, the King's security and privacy is paramount, which means that no other visitors are permitted-not even his aides.'
Cathy thought about Casimiro's terrible loneliness and isolation, lying there with only the nurses going about their daily duties of helping keep him alive, and she bit her lip. 'Could I … could I go and visit him-would that be all right? I mean, I'm a relative now, aren't I?'
Xaviero looked into her shimmering blue eyes, taken aback by her tentative request-since a desire to visit the sickbay would not have been a request made by any of his past lovers. 'I don't see any reason why not,' he said gruffly.
'Then I'll ask Flavia to sort it out.'
He pulled her properly into his arms at last-and the sweet, fresh smell of her after the sterility of the hospital bay made him want to weep for all the joys his brother had lost. 'Oh, Cathy,' he said as he stared down at the uncertainty written on her trembling lips, wanting her to wipe some of the pain away with the tenderness of her touch. 'Cathy, Cathy, Cathy.'
Trembling with the pent-up emotion of all that had happened, she paid no heed to the fact that he had rebuffed her more than once. She was just empowered by a need which matched the naked hunger in his eyes and her arms reached up to lock themselves around his neck while their lips collided in a kiss. She heard the small ragged sigh which escaped him and felt the beat of his heart so close against her own. 'Xaviero,' she whispered.
'I want you,' he declared unevenly.
And, oh, how she wanted him. Back in a suite decorated with fragrant white roses, Cathy let him carry her straight to the bed, where he began undressing her with a sudden urgency.
'You haven't carried me over the threshold,' she teased.
'You want to go outside and come in again?' he demanded, lifting his head from her breasts, which he was baring-button by button-his eyes almost jet-black with desire.
Terrified of tempting a fate that had kept them segregated since she'd arrived and too transfixed by the shivers of desire which were skating inexorably over her skin, Cathy shook her head. 'No,' she whispered. 'I just want you.'
'Then you shall have me, mia bella. All night long, I am yours.' Making a sound a little like a low growl, Xaviero stripped the clothes from her body almost ruthlessly, his fingers and his lips reacquainting themselves so deliciously with her flesh that she immediately choked out a little gasp of pleasure.
But that first time of making love as man and wife was not the slow coupling she might have hoped for. It was wild, almost primeval-though no less thrilling because of that. And the pleasure was exquisitely sharpened by abstinence. Yet it felt as if he was using the sex as some kind of catharsis to exercise unknown demons. Sobbing out his name as Xaviero shuddered inside her, Cathy clung to him as he breathed something in Italian against her damp skin.
'I've … I've missed you,' she said eventually.
Lazily, he turned onto his side, his finger tracing an undulating line from hip to breast, where it lingered and teased the rosy little tip until she gave a moan of pleasure. 'And I have missed this … ' Letting the hand now splay luxuriantly over the silken globe of her bottom, he felt much of the strain and tension dissolving in that soft, sensual touch. 'You are … sensational,' he breathed.
'Am-am I?'
'I'd forgotten quite how much,' he declared unsteadily.
Wordlessly, they made love again and when it was over Cathy lay there staring up at the ceiling as her heartbeats gradually began to slow-not wanting to disturb a moment of the perfect harmony she felt. But as her own pleasure began to fade she felt a strange foreboding creep in to replace it. They were close, yes-but only physically close. The sense of oneness she had longed for had so far failed to materialise. Was she being greedy or unrealistic in expecting it to happen so soon? Or was she foolish in hoping that it might happen at all?
All night long, I am yours, he had said.
And for the rest of the time, what then?
Chapter Ten
THE next weeks were spent immersing herself in the art of being a princess-and Cathy was endlessly grateful for the adaptability she'd learnt while working at the hotel. Seamlessly slipping between chambermaiding and receptionist duties, she had been able to turn her hand to just about anything-and these were skills which proved invaluable in her new life.
And didn't throwing herself into her new role help her paper over the cracks in her marriage?
Busying herself with tasks befitting a brand-new royal helped Cathy forget that her worst fears were being realised, day by day. And that the ice-cold heart of her new husband could not be thawed, no matter how much tenderness or passion she showed him in their bed. Only at night did he let his guard down-but the ardent lover he became crumbled into nothing but a memory by morning. The mask of his regency was assumed as soon as his valet began laying out his clothes and he became a distant stranger once more.
It was as if she had no real part in his daily life-when he treated her with the undemonstrative civility he might show one of his aides. She was never allowed to show affection, nor to disturb him-and if she wanted to speak to him, she had to make an appointment like everyone else! Reminding herself that she had been chosen as his wife primarily because she would accept such conditions, she resolved to say nothing. And, like generations of women before her, Cathy played down the shortcomings in her relationship by reaching outside it for fulfilment.
Her days were spent organising her new office and deciding on what staff she would need to help her. There were posts for a private secretary, assistant secretaries and ladies-in-waiting as well as a hairdresser and a language coach. Although English and Greek were taught in all the schools, Cathy had started to study Italian, which was the main language spoken on Zaffirinthos. From being a non-academic child herself at school, suddenly she could see the point in learning, if it actually had some kind of purpose.
And Xaviero's aides were proposing a grand joint tour of the island to introduce her to the people-even though the dark cloud of Casimiro's continuing coma meant that they were reluctant to pin down a date. But by then Cathy had started to visit the King on a regular basis and found that increased exposure to the inert figure on the white bed made his incapacity seem far less shocking than it had done at first.