Mistress to the Prince (26 page)

Chapter 8

Tara
sat in the darkened sitting room in Max’s discarded shirt, staring out into the night sky lit up by the full moon.  Her finger twisted the gorgeous diamond ring on her finger, wondering how she was going to give it up.  The tears were falling down her face and she wished that the dream would come true. 

“What are you doing out here?” Max demanded, striding into the room.  In one swift movement, he picked her up and carried her back to bed.  Once she was settled, he
pulled her into his arms and fell asleep again. 
Tara
didn’t mind.  She wanted these last few hours to be with him. 

Why in the world had he asked her to marry him?  Had he talked with his family first?  She knew that both his sisters had had arranged marriages to men who were hand-picked by Max’s mother and father.  Obviously they hadn’t done the same for their son but the women Queen Natasha arranged for Max to escort were the crème de la crème of European society.  What would the king and queen do when they realized that Max had proposed to her?  A nobody?

Tara
knew the answer to that.  It was the reason the queen had asked her to have lunch in three days. 
Tara
sighed and accepted that perhaps Max had acted precipitously. 

Or had he?  Had Max ever done anything in the past two years without thinking it through carefully? 
Tara
’s heart soared at the possibility of actually marrying Max and having his children.  Being with him for the rest of her life. 

By morning,
Tara
was still going back and forth between the highs of hoping he had really meant the proposal and everything would work out wonderfully, and the low of trying to understand how he could pick her out of all the beautiful and intelligent women he’d known over his lifetime. 

By dawn,
Tara
was tired of trying to figure things out.  She slipped out of bed and pulled on her clothes as quietly as she could.  The last thing she did was put the ring back in the box, then left the box on the bedside table where he was sure to see it when he woke up. 

Tara
walked through the still silent hallways of the palace, wishing she could just slip away unnoticed to her car.  But she knew that there were security cameras watching her at every turn in the palace, even noting when she got into her car and drove away.  She hoped the security team didn’t gossip.  Otherwise, the whole palace will know that she left Max’s apartments in the pre-dawn hours. 

Getting home was depressing since she was still exhausted and all she had time to do was shower and change into fresh clothes before turning around and heading back to the office.  Once there, it was as if a bomb had exploded and work was just piling up.  Maybe it was because she was so tired or maybe it was a bad day.  But she just couldn’t focus on anything. 

It was worse when Max walked in at
eight o’clock
.  He strode past her desk with barely a look and snapped, “In my office,” to her.  The assistant who had been standing at her desk skulked away, terrified of Max in this kind of a mood. 

Tara
calmly took her pen and notebook and walked into his office.  She was just about to sit down when he snapped, “Close the door,” to her.  From the minute she’d walked into his office, he’d kept his head bent as he read through a file. But the moment the door closed, he looked up, his steely grey eyes pinning her to the spot.  “Why did you slip away this morning and what’s the meaning of giving me back the ring?” he demanded. 

Tara
stared at him, wondering how she was going to get through this confrontation.  She supposed it was best just to spell it out as quickly as possible and lay it all out on the table.  No more guessing, no more miscommunications.  She wanted to be very sure that she understood everything. 

“I gave it back just in case you’d asked me in error.”

“Error!  What the hell kind of man do you think I am?” he asked.  “I don’t just ask random women to marry me,” he said.  He didn’t raise his voice.  He was in fact deadly calm.  Too calm.  He was livid.

“Max,” she started out, her palms raised in an effort to get him to see common sense, “Are you sure you’re parents would approve of you asking someone like me to marry you?  Have you really thought about this? 
I mean…marrying someone like me…”

“Someone like you?” he interrupted her.  “And why in the hell would I ask my parents when I finally find someone to share my life with?   What would you like me to ask them, pray tell?  And if you felt this way, why didn’t you talk to me instead of sneaking out in the middle of the night!”

Tara
was too tired to take his temper anymore.  She stood up and confronted him, the table the only defense between them. “I didn’t sneak out!” she lied.  “I simply left to go home and get a change of clothes.  And why wouldn’t I think you needed to talk to your parents?  This is a huge decision.”

“And one I’m fully capable of making on my own without my parents’ decision making skills!”

“Well why wouldn’t you?”

“Because they aren’t going to marry you!  I am!”

“Not if you’re going to be mean about it!” she yelled back.

Max took a deep breath.  “So if I stop yelling, will you kindly tell me what the problem is?”

“Not if you’re going to stop yelling but still be nasty,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Max closed his eyes, obviously striving for patience.  After a long moment, he opened them again, but the anger was still burning in his eyes. 
“Fine.  Then please educate me on your reasoning.” 

Tara
was breathing faster, still angry with his tone and fully prepared to give as good as she was getting.  “As I explained, I think your parents might have something to say about you marrying someone like me.”

“What exactly do you
mean by ‘someone like you’
?
  It
’
s as if you are trying to say you come from outer space or something.”

“Well, in a way, I do.”

Max ran a hand through his previously perfectly neat hair.  “
Tara
, if you’re going to tell me that you’re an alien, I’m going to have you go see a doctor.”

Tara
turned around, her shoulders drooping slightly.  “Not from another planet, just a different world, Max.  I’m not from your world.  I’m a working girl.  I put myself through college.  I wasn’t brought up like you or the other women you’ve been escorting to the various functions for the past several years.”

She hadn’t heard Max move but suddenly his hands were on her arms and turning her around to face him.  “Is that what this is all about?  You think you’re unworthy because you’re not from the aristocracy?” he asked, and for the first time since he’d walked into the office, his voice was gentle, his eyes were searching hers for the truth. 

“Yes.  You need someone who can help you rule Cordova.  And I can bet your parents will be horrified that you’ve proposed to someone like me.”

“I thought you told me that my mother had asked you to have lunch with her on Friday,” he said. 

Tara
nodded.  “Yes.  I’m sure she got wind of what you were going to do.”

Max pulled her into his arms and she felt as well as heard the deep chuckle that reverberated within his chest.  “
Tara
, I told my mother that I was serious about you the very first time you met her in the hallway, if you’ll remember.”

Tara
pulled back to look at his face.  “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember the day two weeks ago when you met her?  She asked me if she was misinterpreting the situation and I told her no.”

“Vaguely,”
Tara
replied, still not understanding.

“I was telling her that I was serious about you.  She understood and was thrilled with the idea then.  And I’m pretty sure she’ll be just as thrilled when I tell her that you’ve agreed to marry me.”

“Really?” Tara asked, a sma
ll ray of hope building
             
i
nside her with his words. 

“Really.  And I spoke to my father yesterday and he demanded that I get the deed done, in not so many words,” he laughed, remembering his father’s impatience. 

“Both of them are okay with you marrying me?” she asked, smiling tentatively.

“Yes.  But shouldn’t I matter the most?  I’m the one that asked you, if you’ll remember.  And now that I think about it, you never really gave me an answer.  I just took it for granted.  But no more.  I’m asking you one more time.  Will you marry me?  Irrevocably and forever?  Will you marry me, have children with me and help me govern this country at my side?”

Tara
’s face was already covered with her tears by the time he finished.  “Yes!” she replied, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him.  “Yes!” she said again, just because her heart was going to burst with happiness. 

“Thank goodness!” he said and pulled her closer.  “You can’t know how furious I was to find you gone this morning and the ring just sitting there.  I was terrified you wouldn’t even show up for work.”  He reached behind him and picked up the phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Telling Jimmy he can relax.  I had him on standby when I saw the ring this morning.  I was going to go over to your house and drag you back here.  But you were just sitting at your desk when I walked in, looking all pretty and sexy.  I was ready to explode right then and there.”  He pulled her closer.  “I love you,” he said.

Tara
hadn’t thought that she could get any happier but with his words, it felt like her heart was going to expand to a size too large for her chest.  “I love you too!” she said and reached up on her toes to kiss him.  He met her halfway, lifting her onto the desk behind them and settling her on top of it so he could kiss her more thoroughly. 

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