Page 13 of Forbidden Bastard
Now he headed into the dark bar with lots of corners for couples to have intimate talks, or where men and women might plot the next French revolution, out of the sight of strollers on the Seine. He ignored the strum inside his chest as he pressed on her shoulder and invited her to sit next to him as he said, “I thought you’d find a way to bring one of the women with you.”
Sandi’s dress accentuated her curves and her face practically glowed with innocence as she shuffled into the tall-chaired booth with him and placed her pocketbook on the small table near their knees. She sat beside him like they were old friends who didn’t mind touching as she said, “I almost did. Evagaline and Henri offered to come, but I said I could handle myself.”
His gaze swept the room but he saw no one he recognized. “Who is Henri?”
She fixed her heel like it bothered her and massaged the back of her foot. “Tall, thin guy, glasses?”
His mind raced and landed on the man who his employee had been laughing with--the Frenchman was a computer tech billionaire who helped businesses advertise in the new medium. “Ah. Yes.”
Sandi put her foot down and the waiter came over. He ordered her a bubbly Bouvet Ladubay white wine as it was similar to what she'd had at the charity event. She pointed toward it in the wine list indicating "white is good" from her thumbs-up. The waiter left and she said, “From what I understand they knew each other in high school. Evagaline had no idea what happened to him as he'd moved out of their small village in his last year.”
If Evagaline played her cards right, she’d marry the boy and live a life of leisure. He would have to find a new secretary. He pressed his hand on Sandi's knee as the waiter returned with the bottle and poured for them. “Well, they certainly seemed to hit it off. It’s nice to reconnect with people we thought were lost.”
The waiter left and she picked up her bubbly wine and sniffed it before she tasted it. As she finished her eyes widened like she was surprised it was good. “I guess. I don’t know of anyone in my life who I wish was still close to me though.”
“Not even your ex doctor?”
“He’s not lost. He left because I wasn’t his choice.”
His mind sorted through his lovers and other than Sheena, his many women all dissipated.
The truth was Sheena was the first and only good girl who'd given him the time of day and he hadn’t respected that trust she'd put in him. He'd always wondered why she'd given him a chance as they were from two very different worlds.
The same as Sandi. She shouldn’t be sitting next to him when at the end of the day he was bad news for any good woman.
At least she understood she needed to stay away. He said, “You’re any man’s dream.”
“No. No I’m not.”
“I’m the better judge of men in this instance as you’re what we all want. I know quite a few women who were happy to see me disappear from their lives.”
Her lips pressed together like she took his words seriously. “That can’t be true.”
Trust wasn’t good. He’d ruin that. He always did, so he tugged his ear and asked, “What do you know about me, Sandi?”
She put her glass down and turned it like she was fascinated with how the liquid moved. “You’re a duke. You must marry before you turn thirty-one. You’re from Avce.”
Normally the smart women after him had a dossier on his life. Her parents surely must have had a file before agreeing to the email proposal. He’d never been much for being someone’s science project so he'd avoided the calculating types. Sandi'd had forty-eight hours after their first meeting to order information on him, which she surprisingly hadn’t. “That’s it?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to pry,” Sandi said. “And I chose not to read the dossier or listen to my mother talk about you.”
Interesting. He folded his hands on the small table with their drinks and met her green-eyed gaze that shone with innocence and trust. “First, I’m almost thirty-one but because I just got my title awarded to me I have until my birthday in a month to find a wife.”
She put her glass down and nodded. “Interesting. Yeah, my parents called me about your business deal and marriage proposal. It shocked me. I went to see you right away but you didn’t tell me much—then again, I didn’t ask for a lot of details. I didn’t want to read the email after meeting you because it seemed like snooping.”
So he was sitting beside the one woman who knew very little about him.
It was almost refreshing. His life before he’d stormed into Avce and claimed his heritage wasn’t perfect but he’d been judged based on his own actions and nothing else. But that Charles without care had disappeared that day. He coughed and wondered if he should tell her, but Sandi needed every reason to marry him but keep her emotional distance.
Love wasn’t real.
So he said, “I’m the illegitimate son of the king.”
She leaned closer with her eyes wide as she brushed against his shoulder and asked, “That’s a real thing?”
His face grew hot. Perhaps it was because she was American and had no idea about life in Europe, but his collar felt tight. “Yeah. And my mother gave me up before I was born, really, so she could marry a lord and never talk about me or her mistakes.”
She sat back but pressed her hand to his heart. “How do you give up a child before they're born?”
