Temporarily His Princess - By Olivia Gates Page 0,58

after their honeymoon six weeks ago.

The memory of their honeymoon cascaded through him again. He’d extended it for a week and had representatives of a dozen countries scrambling to readjust their schedules. When they’d complained, he’d told them they instead had to thank his bride for putting their agendas ahead of her rights and consenting to cut short her honeymoon for them. He’d seen to it that each and every one had thanked her, in all the functions to which she’d accompanied him.

A thrill of pride spread through him. She’d been beyond magnificent. A consort of a caliber he couldn’t have dreamed of. Though she’d gone back to her own hectic schedule, she always made time for him. She aided, guided and supported him with her counsel, honored, soothed and delighted him with her company. Every moment with her, in and out of bed, had been better than anything he’d dared plan or hope for.

He’d never known happiness like this existed.

Just as he thought that, a frown invaded his elation.

He hadn’t been able to have her with him for over two weeks now. With back-to-back meetings and unending follow-up work, he’d had to leave her behind, cancel dates and generally have no time for her. He hadn’t even come home for the past three days.

He was paying the price for taking too much time with her during the first weeks of their marriage. Work had accumulated until it had become unmanageable, and resolving the mess had been like digging in the sea, with new chores only pouring over the unfinished ones. He’d needed to clean out his agenda then start fresh using the system Glory had set up for him.

So, for the past two weeks, he’d worked flat out to get this phase, the groundwork his whole mission was built on, out of the way once and for all.

Though it had been agonizing being without her, at least he’d succeeded in fixing the problem he’d caused by being too greedy for her. He was now out of the bottleneck and the first phase of his mission here had been concluded.

And before he entered the next phase, he had a prolonged vacation with Glory planned. A second honeymoon. He intended to have another one every month.

Grinning to himself again, luxuriating in the anticipation, he entered the office he hadn’t used for weeks.

He saw it the moment he stepped inside and recognized it for what it was at once.

The prenup agreement.

Was his mind playing tricks on him? He’d left it in Glory’s condo over two months ago.

A surge of trepidation came over him as he neared it, approaching it as if it was a live grenade. A quick, compulsive check ended any doubt. That was the copy he’d given her.

Why was it on his desk, as if Glory was loath to hand it to him face-to-face? If she was, why put it there at all? After all this time? All this intimacy?

What was she trying to tell him?

Was she reinforcing his original conditions, telling him this was still how she viewed their marriage? As a temporary hostile takeover? But that had stopped being true almost from the start. He’d told her he’d changed his mind after hours of being with her again. She hadn’t changed her mind after weeks of being with him? But she’d agreed to marry him of her free will, then proceeded to blow his mind with passion and pleasure ever since. He’d thought she’d been showing him that she’d forgotten how this had started, that she’d been demonstrating with actions how she now viewed their relationship, that she wanted it to continue. He sat down, staring at the offensive volume as if it was his worst mistake come back to haunt him. Which it was.

And it was his fault it was haunting him. He’d avoided a confrontation about the past, with her, with himself. He’d just been so scared it might spoil the perfection they had now.

But here was what avoidance had led to.

He now had to admit to himself what he’d been thinking and feeling all along.

He’d at first thought she’d changed her ways. But when he couldn’t find a trace of subterfuge in her—something that couldn’t be wiped so totally from someone’s character—he’d been able to sanction only one thing. That she’d always been what he’d believed her to be from the start, the upstanding human being and the incredible woman he’d fallen in love with. And this had led him to one conclusion. That she’d