Read Online The Prince She Had to Marry by Christine Rimmer - Free Book Online Page A

Did you really think it was wise to zip off to South Sudan without your groom barely five days after the big announcement that you and Alex had eloped, and that you were only too thrilled that at last you could reveal your love for the world to see?”
    Her face flamed. “Er. Well, I...”
    Adrienne reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Never mind.” She sent her son a patient glance. “We do have a solution. I want both of you to give me your word that you will work together to make the world see how madly in love you really are with each other.”
    Madly in love . Lili held back a snort. Adrienne said it so easily, as though it were true.
    Alex said, “Yes. Whatever I have to do, I’m willing.” He sounded even more grim than usual. As though he expected to be asked to cut off an arm or go barefoot into a dark cave filled with poisonous snakes. It wasn’t the least flattering.
    But then, Alex had never been the kind to flatter a woman—especially not Lili.
    Adrienne turned those huge, almond-shaped dark eyes on her. “And you, Lili?”
    Lili sat up straight. “Yes, I understand. Whatever the plan is, I’ll give it my all.”

Chapter Five
    “A honeymoon,” Alex’s mother announced. Alex and Lili were to have a honeymoon.
    Alex hadn’t exactly been prepared for that.
    They were to spend three weeks floating around the Mediterranean on one of the family yachts, the Princess Royale . The two of them were to do nothing but be together. Constantly. They would be expected to indulge in endless and unabashed public displays of affection, which would of course be photographed by intrepid paparazzi circling overhead in helicopters, zipping around on other boats and trailing in their wake at every port of call. They were to sleep in the same room, the Princess Royale ’s largest stateroom in which there was only one berth.
    For three weeks, he and Lili were to be inseparable.
    Alex hated the idea. It was an enormous waste of precious time, time he should have been spending with his men. The CCU needed him. And he needed them. They were his purpose, the one goal left to him after the rest of his life went to dust. If he did nothing else, he could see to it that his country had a properly trained secret service ready to protect the members of the princely family and extract Montedoran citizens from any situation, no matter how dire or isolated, where they might be held against their will.
    As to this problem in his marriage, yes, he knew he was in the wrong. He had gone too far. In his need to keep Lili at bay, he’d said things he shouldn’t have. He’d told her outright that he had no intention of keeping his word to her. He never should have done that.
    He should have been more agreeable. More...subtle. But affability and tact had never been his strong suits. At the very least, he should have kept their innocent unborn child in mind, should have protected his family from the ugly attention of the tabloids by making an effort with his new wife.
    But it was hard to keep a purpose in mind when he was around Lili. Since that fateful morning in April when he’d taken her virginity, he found that she totally scrambled his circuits. She...roused him. In a sexual way. She made him weak. Somewhere deep within himself, he wanted to give in to her. She constituted a distraction from his purpose, and a surprisingly powerful one at that.
    He couldn’t afford distractions, so he had hurt her and insulted her. And it had worked. She had left him alone.
    Which had brought them here, to his mother’s office, to the disgusting ridiculousness of those scandal sheet stories and this upcoming crash course in extreme damage control.
    His mother said firmly, “Our people did not see your wedding. They will see you happy on your honeymoon. For the sake of your child, for the sake of this country—and of Alagonia—a long, luxurious honeymoon must take place, a honeymoon where the two of you will prove to the world that