“Do you think that I should let her leave?” he asked, with his fingernails biting into his palms.
“I think you should try courting her instead of giving her orders,” Octavia replied.
“I am doing that!”
“Really? From what you have told me, you have kidnapped her, demanded she marry you, and not even allowed her to speak to her family.”
“I have just let her know that there’s no other choice.”
“There’s always a choice, Adriane. This isn’t the old days; things need to be done a bit more diplomatically now. Yes, I understand that you don’t want your child to grow up elsewhere. I agree with you on that. What I disagree with you about is the way you are going about it. If you want this woman to stay loyal to you, you will have to give her a reason to be so.”
Adrian turned and looked at his mother. What was she trying to tell him? He was lost. Was his courting not up to snuff? If not, what exactly did she mean by the word? He’d never had to woo a woman before; they just naturally wanted to be with him. Of course they did; he had been a prince of Corythia, and since age seventeen, the future king. Now that he was king, there was a line of women who would be more than willing to be his wife.
A line of women that didn’t include the one who carried his child.
It was exasperating!
“How did you and my father come together?” Adriane had never cared to ask such a question before now.
“Now, that is a good question.” She sat back with a soft smile on her face. “I’m surprised that I haven’t told you this before. Your father was visiting the United States to get advice on improving Corythia’s economy, and he was a featured guest at a glittering fundraiser. I and a number of other American actors and actresses were there, and when I met him, his dark eyes, his stature, and his strong personality swept me off my feet.” Octavia stopped for a minute or two, and sighed. “Yes, a very strong personality. He did the barbaric thing that you’ve done: he kidnapped me. Not smart.”
“But you married him, Mother.”
“Yes, I did. But his actions almost turned me completely against him, attracted to him as I was. I let him know in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t an object, a treasure he could add to his collection. When he calmed down and actually courted me, I fell in love almost instantly. The story is longer, of course, but the bottom line is that he didn’t win my heart until he showed me he had one of his own. Once he did that, I didn’t leave his side.”
“Why do women need this? I don’t understand. I will provide well for her, give her a life most women would envy. Why isn’t that good enough?”
“Because women should be cherished, son. A good woman at your side will complete you, make you the ruler you are meant to be. She will be strong when the rest of the world has abandoned you. She will know you better than anyone else. She will embrace you when the weighted decisions of this country hang heavy upon your shoulders. You need to cherish her, love her, and give her a reason to hold you tight even through the strongest of storms.”
“How do I do that?” Adriane could figure out his country’s problems, but he didn’t know how to open his heart to Rachel. Hell, he didn’t feel a need to.
“How did you win Rachel’s affections in the first place? You must have done something right if she carries your child.”
Adriane stood silent for a moment as he thought back to his time on the beach. “I didn’t do anything different from what I normally do. She was swimming. I thought she was drowning and I ‘rescued’ her, though when she stopped laughing at my valiant attempt to save her life, which irked me just a bit, there was an obvious connection. I invited her for dinner. She didn’t leave for a week.”
“What did you do that made her want to stay with you for the week?”
Why all these questions? He didn’t want to think about the past. It was time to move forward, think of their future. But he knew his mother wouldn’t stop interrogating him until he gave her something.
“We just got along well. I spoke to her more than any other woman I’ve taken for the night. I wasn’t expecting to be with her all week. It was just that one day melted into the next.” Adriane threw up his arms.
“Then be that man again — the man who made her choose to stick around for a while,” she said, as if speaking to a young child.
“I don’t know how to do that. At that point in our relationship, we were both just looking for a good time; neither of us was worried about the future. Now, I need to persuade her to marry me willingly,” he said. “Besides, if she would fall back into bed with me, maybe I could persuade her more easily,” he mumbled under his breath, grateful when his mother didn’t hear.
Everything had been easier, though, so much easier. When they’d spent their week together in Florida, they hadn’t fought. That must have been because they’d been in bed half the time.
“You will have to give her something, Adriane, or she won’t stay, no matter what threats you issue.”
“What do I give her? What will make her stay?”
Why did his mother need to talk in riddles? This was important. She needed to guide him, not sidetrack him with silly talk of love. This wasn’t about love — this was about a child the two of them had created together, a child who deserved a mother and father in his life. A child he desperately wanted.
“That, my son, you will have to figure out on your own. And, I fear, until you do, you won’t ever earn her heart. You will never truly hold her. Yes, you can refuse to let her go, but at the first opportunity, she will be gone, taking your child with her. It is a privilege to hold a woman’s heart, and you had better figure out how to take care of it properly, or it’s never going to be yours, no matter how much you demand it of her.”
Women. His mother couldn’t be right. There were other, better ways to make a marriage work besides this love so many spoke of. He and Rachel had laughed together, spent passionate nights together, gotten along swimmingly. Love was simply an emotion that people professed to feel in order to get something from someone else. He’d never been in love. He never would be. They had something far better than love — they had companionship.
Many couples married with less in common. If Rachel would just open her eyes, she would see that they would be good for each other. They would never be miserable, not with the attraction burning so strong between the two of them.