Please Be Mine

Chapter Forty Four

Selena woke to darkness. With a rush of inexplicable panic, she sat up and only then did she notice Nick seated by the window.

"What time is it?" Disoriented and fuzzy headed, she reached across to flick on the lamp by the bed. "It must be really late, and I need to change for dinner."

"It's one in the morning. You've missed dinner."

The lamp sent a shaft of light across the room, and she saw that his white-dress shirt was unbuttoned at the throat and that his dinner jacket was slung carelessly over the back of the chair.

"I missed it?" Selena slid her hand through her hair, trying to clear her head.

"How could I have missed it?"

"You were asleep."

"Then you should have woken me." Mortified, she pushed down the luxurious silk bed cover and realized that she was still wearing the same clothes she'd had on when she'd done her day of royal visits. "I only wanted a short nap."

"Selena you slept as though you were dead." his dark eyes glittered in the subtle light. "I decided that it was better to make your excuses to the president than produce a wife in a coma."

Selena pulled a face. "What must he have thought?"

"He thought you were pregnant," Nick drawled, a faint smile touching his mouth. "He and his wife have four children, and he spent the entire evening lecturing me on how a pregnant woman often feels most tired during the first few months and how rest is important."

"God how awful for you," Selena mumbled, forcing herself to get out of bed even though every part of her was dying to lie down and sleep for the rest of the night. "I feel really bad, because I know how important this dinner was for you. Your private secretary told me you wanted to talk about all that trade stuff and about carbon emissions or something."

A strange expression flickered across his face. "You frequently talk to my private secretary?"

"Of course." Selena tried unsuccessfully to suppress a yawn as she padded over to him in bare feet. "Nicole and I often talk. How else am I going to know what the point of the evening is? I mean, you don't see these people because you like there company, do you?" Feeling decidedly unsteady, she sank down on the window seat next to him. "I'm sorry I slept."

"Don't be. Though I must admit that you had me worried for a bit. It wasn't till I was greeted with silence that I realized how accustomed I am to hearing you sing into a hair brush."

Selena turned scarlet at the thought that he witnessed that. "You hear me singing?"

"The whole of the palace hears you singing."

Horrified at the disclosure, Selena shrank back on the seat. "I didn't know that anyone could hear me," she muttered. "Singing always cheers me up."

His eyes lingered thoughtfully on her face. "Do you need cheering up?"

How was she supposed to answer that? Selena hesitated knowing that if she told him that she felt lonely, that she missed him, he withdraw in the same way he always did when she made a move towards him. He'd remind her that this company wasn't part of their 'deal'.