Their Royal Wedding Bargain. Michelle Conder

he would. As of now.

      His jet was waiting to fly him back to London and he planned to stop downstairs long enough to grab an espresso, wish his sister-in-law well in her pregnancy and tell his siblings he’d see them some time in the future.

      What he wouldn’t do was think about the beguiling Alexa any more today.

      Pleased to be back on track, he pulled a clean shirt over his head, stepped into his jeans and shoved his feet into his boots.

      Women just shouldn’t go around proposing to men who were basically strangers and expect that it would all work out exactly as they wanted it to. Especially not future queens who looked like cover girls. Alexa was asking for trouble.

      Trouble that had nothing to do with him.

      And why was she back in his head again? So she’d surprised him when so few people did any more—so what? At the end of the day she was just a beautiful woman he’d wanted to take to bed. And she’d wanted to be there too. The way she’d caught fire in his arms…her response to his touch… Grinding his teeth, he zipped his overnight bag closed. What she’d done was drive all rational thought from his head, and kept him up way too long last night.

      But it wasn’t just the chemistry that had kept him awake. It was the puzzle she represented. She’d gone up like a flame in his arms but then claimed that she didn’t have a passionate nature, dismissing the desire between them as an anomaly. And what about her belief that love might not exist? Presumably something, or someone, had put that in her head and he’d like to know who or what. Not that he disagreed with her. He didn’t. He didn’t believe in love either, but something about the way she’d said it made him think that she was either lying to him, or lying to herself. And yet she’d seemed so honest…so sincere…

      Scowling at the procession of questions that wouldn’t say die, Rafe grabbed his phone. Time to push Princess Alexa from his mind and think about something else. Because thinking about her made no sense. She wasn’t someone he planned to pursue—not with marriage on her mind—and added to that she was his brother’s ex, for God’s sake.

      Assailed by a sudden wave of jealousy he’d never before felt for his brother, Rafe nearly put a hole in his pocket shoving his phone into it. He didn’t share his women. Ever.

       And since when is a woman yours after one kiss?

      Leaving that ridiculous question unanswered, he slammed out of his room and made his way to breakfast. He needed coffee before his mood deteriorated any further.

      Refusing to wonder if he’d meet up with the beguiling Alexa, he heard a message arrive on his phone and homed in on it like a drowning man reaching for a life vest. Unfortunately, it was only a stock commodity update and he was in the process of closing it when he nearly barrelled into Jag as he rounded the corner of his private hallway.

      Instantly alerted by his brother’s taut, exhausted expression, Rafe frowned. ‘What is it? Is there something wrong with Regan?’

      Rafe might not have much to do with his brother any more but he could still read him and he couldn’t think of anything else that might put that ragged look on his brother’s face other than his wife, or all-out war.