She’d been shown to a dressing room where a selection of clothing from today’s excursion waited for her. She changed into the slim pencil skirt and white top with tiny pearl buttons down the front. A wide black belt, silk trench coat, and sky-high patent pumps finished the ensemble. She rolled up her jeans and sweatshirt and shoved them into the oversized Fendi bag that sat on the cream damask chaise, then studied herself in the mirror.
Did she look like a princess? Maybe. She certainly looked more elegant than she ever had in her life.
But she still felt like Lily Morgan from the wrong side of town, the girl with a chain-smoking, hard-drinking mother and an absentee father. She thought of Princess Antonella, of her beauty and sadness, and felt like the worst kind of human being. She’d come between two people who were right for each other. Worse, she was almost glad for it in a perverse kind of way. When she thought of Nico holding his princess, kissing her—
Lily shivered. Well, she just couldn’t think of it, that’s all.
Lily left the salon with the guard at her elbow, guiding her toward the idling Rolls Royce under the awning a few feet away. They were almost to the car when a bright light flashed in her face. And then another and another.
The guard shielded her with his body, moving her forward the entire time as voices called to her in French and flashbulbs lit up the surrounding area like lightning. A second later the car door opened, and she was thrust inside. Her pulse fluttered unsteadily as she craned her neck to watch the scene disappear behind her.
“Put this on,” a smooth voice said.
Lily spun around, her heart in her throat, to face Nico. She hadn’t even known he was in the car. She’d been overwhelmed with the attention from the reporters, and then the security guard had pushed her firmly inside and the car sped away.
Nico’s gaze flicked over her. Was that approval she saw? Oddly enough, she wanted his approval. The thought was not a welcome one and she dropped her gaze to look at her clasped hands, her heart refusing to beat normally. She was a small-town girl. She wasn’t used to all this attention or scrutiny. Not from reporters, and not from a prince.
“Lily,” he said, and she realized he held out a box. After a moment’s hesitation, she accepted it. She didn’t bother to ask what it was. She simply opened the lid. The blood drained from her head as she contemplated the sparkling ring.
“It’s very big,” she said. “A very pretty sapphire.”
Nico grasped the box and tugged the ring free. “It is a diamond.” He took her hand and slipped it onto her finger before she could protest. The ring was too big and twisted beneath the weight of the diamond. Nico frowned. “We will have it sized in Montebianco.”
“I can’t wear this,” Lily said, horrified at the size and weight of the hunk of metal and rocks on her hand. A blue diamond? So blue it looked like a sapphire? How much did something like that cost? She didn’t even want to think about it.
“This is your engagement ring. You will wear it.”
Hurt and confusion cascaded through her as she searched his face. Was he thinking of Antonella? But his expression was emotionless.
Her gaze dropped to her hand and the strange weight on her finger. She’d envisioned shopping for rings someday with a man she loved, going from store to store and trying them on, searching for the perfect one. It would be a joyful thing they shared, not a chore or a duty. Or a command.
This ring was nothing like she’d imagined her engagement ring would one day be.
“I don’t like it,” she said, then regretted it the instant their eyes met. His expression was bored. Irritated. He did not care. If he’d told her it was a family heirloom and he was expected to give it to his bride, at least she would have known this meant something to him. But no, he’d walked into a jeweler’s—or sent someone, more like—and told them to bring him a rare, expensive ring. This was about status. Not tradition, not their child, and certainly not about love.
What would he have chosen for Antonella?
No. She couldn’t go there, she simply couldn’t. Lily closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
“It’s too late,” he said. “No doubt someone has already rung the press to inform them I bought this ring. It cannot be taken back.”
Lily stared at the diamond, its glittering mass like a huge neon sign of ownership. Everything between them would be very public. Every look, every gesture, every word. Everything he did was for the cameras. In the space of a day, her life had turned into a reality show. The paparazzi were already swarming if the incident a few moments ago was any indication. Would she ever know a moment’s happiness, aside from the time she spent with Danny?
“How did New Orleans happen?” she said softly, realizing how uncharacteristic it must have been for him. He moved in his own circles, not in hers. It was an anomaly that they’d even met.
Nico studied her. She thought she saw a glimmer of admiration in his eyes. But it was gone quickly, and she decided she’d imagined it.
“My life was different then.”
“So why me?” She wanted to know, especially now that she knew first-hand the world he came from. Had seen the kind of women he was linked with in the pages of magazines the world over. Women unlike her. Glamorous women, gorgeous women.
Women like Princess Antonella.
“Because you did not know my identity. I found it novel.”
The truth was raw, like an open wound, and he’d just poured salt onto it. Of course, she hadn’t known him. She was from a small town in Louisiana, not a glamorous metropolis. Oh, what a cliché she’d been. The country mouse in the big bad city. Everything about New Orleans was grand, and different than she was accustomed to. Clearly, it had affected her judgment. She’d allowed herself to be swept away by his attention and charm, and by the wild abandon of Mardi Gras.
“If not for Danny, I could wish we’d never met,” she replied.
He shoved a hand through his hair, the gesture full of frustration and regret. “Si, I wish this too. But it is too late now. You are the mother of my child. Nothing can change that.”
No, nothing could. How he must hate her for forever dividing him from the woman he had chosen to marry. He’d as good as told her that he regretted everything about his brief relationship with her. He was marrying her for Danny, nothing more.
Lily turned her head, the landscape blurring as the Rolls glided toward the airport. This was not at all the way she’d imagined her life would turn out.
But for her son, she would endure. He deserved a father, and Nico seemed determined to be one. It was more than her own father had ever done for her. Jack Morgan had never fought to be in her life. He’d seen her more as an inconvenience when he’d been there. If she were truthful with herself, she’d often believed that each time he left it was because of her. Because she’d been bad or unlovable.
She dashed her tears away before Nico noticed. She was a woman now. She knew it was never the child’s fault when a parent left, and yet the memory still had the power to sadden her and make her feel inadequate. She would not ever allow Danny to suffer the same as she had.
The car snaked through heavy airport traffic, finally turning and making its way over the tarmac toward the Boeing 737 that sat with engines idling. The red carpet leading up to the stairs still had the power to surprise her. It was so opulent, so unlike her ordinary world. If not for the red path leading to the stairs pushed against the plane, she might think it simply another passenger jet. There were no markings to indicate who the owner was—deliberately, Nico had informed her—because it provided a certain anonymity.