Page 14 of Fairy Tale Marriage

“We reconsider.”

The bells on her mask issued a quick, urgent warning. “I’m nervous, Chaz,” she confessed. “Is that so surprising?”

His eyes were black in the darkness of the night, the distant fairy lights strung through the garden not enough to touch them with color. He turned and leaned against the railing, folding his hands along the top and stared out at the starlit night.

She saw his gaze drift past the fanciful gardens and outward toward the stark, uncompromising landscape of the desert. The full moon washed down, blessing it with softness. But the night’s shadows cut across the silvery light in hard, harsh strokes, giving lie to the pastoral gentleness. It was a fitting match for the man at herside.

“I noticed you when you first arrived,” he said after a bit. “You didn’t know that, did you?”

Alarm filled her. Had he seen her unmasked? “When I first arrived?”

“A few minutes before you danced with Sotherland. You came down the steps into the ballroom. Your mask hides a lot, but it didn’t hide your eagerness, your impatience to join the party.”

To find him, she almost corrected. “And?”

“Before you could reach your goal, arather elderly man stopped you.”

She remembered. “He’d twisted his ankle and needed help.”

“You helped him.”

“That impressed you?” she asked in disbelief. “Anyone would have done the same. It’s common decency.”

“No one had helped him until you arrived.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “He wasn’t the only one, either. There was a young girl sitting by herself,

“She reminded me of someone I once knew,” Shayne admitted.

“You sent her home, didn’t you?”

“She didn’t belong. She’d only come because she wanted to escape her home life. Isuggested some alternate ways she could accomplish that without marrying a perfect stranger.”

“Unlike you?”

The question hit home. “I’m not eighteen, nor am I trying to escape an unhappy home life.”

“What are you trying to escape?”

“Nothing.” She took a deep breath, struggling to open herself to him. Once upon a time, she’d have shared her innermost thoughts and feelings with ease. But over the years, she’d become more cautious. “I’m not trying to escape anything, Chaz. I’m trying to find something.”

Tension built along his shoulders and tautened his spine. “Find what?”

Respite from the past. Alove she’d lost long ago. “My future.”

“And you think that future’s with me?”

“I haven’t decided, yet,” she admitted with perfect candor.

“If you’re looking for some sort of fairy tale romance, you’re talking to the wrong man. I’m not interested in love. I’m after someone who’s interested in a practical relationship. Who’s willing to help create a home. Awoman with a sense of humor and a generous spirit who’ll stick by me when life gets tough.” He turned and faced her. “Are you that woman?”

“Let me get this straight. Ican share a life with you, but not love?”

“Not unless you want a world full of hurt.”

“And that’s supposed to induce me to marry you?”

“No. That’s supposed to make you think long and hard. Are you in the market for practical, or are you Cinderella waiting for the prince? Fantasy or reality?”

Didn’t Chaz realize? He was that prince, their hearts and souls joined on a fateful night nine impossibly long years ago. He might regret ever having met her, but what they’d shared had been special. She refused to believe otherwise.

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