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her come back into the room as the others continued to chat. Blowing out his breath, he faced her.
    She wasn’t in white. Rather, a flowing, low-cut gown of ivory draped from her like cascades of shimmering water. With her pale skin, black hair, and dark eyes, she looked like a porcelain doll. A very sensual porcelain doll.
    Her lips parted a little, and she smiled at him. “Better?”
    He should never have opened his mouth and told her to change clothes. Good heavenly God. This was trouble. She was trouble. “Much more appropriate,” he said stiffly. His mouth felt dry.
    “You’ll make me blush, giving me such compliments,” she returned, eyes glittering.
    “There you are, my dear. Shall we go, Your Grace?”
    Grateful for the distraction, he turned his back on her. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
    From the corner of his eye he caught Valentine glancing at him before the marquis walked over to offer his arm to the princess. Sebastian didn’t like that, but he immediately buried the emotion. Splendid . Now even Deverill had better manners than he did. But if he touched Josefina now, without giving himself a moment to put some distance between her and the…turmoil she roused in him, he would kiss her again. Or worse.
     
    “Thank you, Lord Deverill,” Josefina said, taking the marquis’s arm. Melbourne probably would have left her standing there in the drawing room and gone ahead without her if he could.
    It didn’t make sense. Men didn’t walk away when theywere attracted to someone. Not when both parties were unmarried and of compatible social rank, anyway. For heaven’s sake, if anyone turned away it should be she, because he was only a duke.
    “Tell me about Costa Habichuela,” Deverill suggested as he handed her into the coach.
    With her parents seated on one side and Melbourne by himself on the other, at this moment the duke wasn’t going anywhere. Ha . She sank onto the leather seat beside him, pressing closer as Deverill stuffed himself in next to her. “I haven’t seen much of it, I’m afraid,” she said, smiling at the marquis.
    “You haven’t?”
    “Well, my mother and I were able to join Father for two days in San Saturus,” she conceded, noting that there wasn’t so much as an inch of give to Melbourne’s side as she rocked against him. It was as though he was fashioned from granite. “That was when our ship anchored in the harbor to collect the rey on our way to England.”
    “Where did you reside, then?”
    “Morant Bay, in Jamaica, most recently. With my father fighting against Spain in the Americas, he wanted Mother and me somewhere safe and stable. Once he received Costa Habichuela, he was so busy organizing a government and surveying the country that he requested we remain in Jamaica and do what we could to aid him from there.”
    “And a tremendous asset Josefina has been, believe you me,” her father put in. “Sharp as a dagger point, the princess is.”
    “Father,” she interrupted, more for effect than out of shyness.
    “It’s true. And Maria has been invaluable, as well,” the rey continued. “She’s the daughter of a viceroy, you know.”
    On her other side, Melbourne finally stirred. “HerHighness mentioned that. When you married an English ex-patriot, Your Majesty, did you have any idea this would happen?”
    Maria Embry smiled, sending her husband a fond glance. “Nothing surprises me where Stephen is concerned.”
    Melbourne continued to clutch the prospectus across his lap as if he thought a stiff breeze would whisk it away. “Still, to become a king—rey, excuse me,” he pursued. “That’s extraordinary.”
    “I felt humble and grateful, and determined to do my utmost for my people,” the rey said. “That’s why we’re here. And when we leave, it will be to make Costa Habichuela our permanent home.”
    “Barring invasion from Spain,” Deverill commented.
    “The funds I’m raising and our close alliance with England will help to prevent