Prince of Dreams (Stokehurst #2)(81)

But his eyes…there had been such a strange vulnerability in them. What in heaven's name had happened to him? She thought back to the scene in the library: one minute Nikolas had been his usual arrogant self, and the next he had seen the portrait of his ancestor and fainted dead away. “It looks like apoplexy,” Robert Soames had said as he and Emma had knelt beside Nikolas on the floor.

“But he's too young for that!” she had cried, pillowing Nikolas's head in her lap. “Oh, God, maybe his drinking caused it. Please, go send for a doctor!” She had cradled his head carefully, smoothing his sun-streaked hair. The servants had been enlisted to help carry him to his room, and Emma had stayed by his side every second. She wasn't certain why she had been so afraid. After all, it wasn't as if they had a real marriage. There was no love between them. And yet…when his eyes had opened, she had been overwhelmed with relief.

What had happened during that still, silent hour to make him behave so strangely upon waking? He had said he loved her. She laughed incredulously, feeling close to tears.

“I swear I'll make you happy…just let me try. All I want is to love you. You don't even have to love me back.”

Those words had shaken her badly. Nikolas had a talent for cutting through people's defenses, especially hers. “Tasia warned me about what you were like,” Emma said softly. “She said you would lie, manipulate, and betray me, and she was right. Well, I'm going to put a stop to your game-playing, Nikki, for Jacob's sake as well as my own.”

She went to Nikolas's room, squaring her shoulders as she approached the partially open doorway. Dr. Weide, a small, thoughtful-looking man with gray hair and spectacles, was replacing instruments in his medical bag.

“How is he?” Emma asked briskly, entering the room.

“Your Highness,” the doctor murmured with a smile, coming forward to kiss her hand. “From the haste with which I was summoned, I expected to find a man on his deathbed. However, your husband appears to be in extraordinarily good health. Not a thing is wrong with him.”

“What could account for his fainting spell?” she asked, frowning. “He was unconscious for approximately an hour.”

The doctor shook his head. “I can find no apparent physical reason for it.”

“Well, he wasn't playacting,” Emma said. “I did everything short of sticking pins in him to make him wake up.”

“There are many things we don't understand about the mind,” Dr. Weide replied. “As I understand it, the sight of a particular portrait caused Prince Nikolas to faint. One could speculate that perhaps it reminded him of a traumatic event in his past.”

Emma stared at her husband speculatively. His expression was closed, secretive, and she sensed his impatience to have the doctor leave. “Traumatic event,” she murmured. “Well, you've had enough of those, haven't you?”

Nikolas concentrated on fastening his shirt buttons. “It won't happen again.”

“Please inform me if it does,” Dr. Weide said. “In the meantime, my best wishes to both of you.”

“I'll see you out,” Emma said.

The doctor shook his head. “Please stay with your husband, Your Highness. I'm perfectly capable of finding my way through the mansion—I think.” He winked and departed quietly.

Emma folded her arms as she regarded her husband. “How do you feel?”

“Fine. There was no need for the doctor to examine me.”

“A little poking and prodding never hurt anyone.”

Nikolas snorted. “Wait until you're the one being poked.” He stood and tucked his shirt into the lean waist of his trousers.

Emma shifted her weight from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with the intimacy of watching her husband dress. “I came to give you a warning,” she said brusquely. “I may very well leave here soon, and take Jake with me.”

He looked at her suddenly, his gaze searing. He made no reply, but his rejection of the notion was evident in every tense line of his body.

“I haven't yet made my decision,” Emma continued calmly. “However, the first moment that I feel you're doing harm to Jake or to me, I'll take him away in the blink of an eye.”

“Try it,” Nikolas said softly. “See what happens.” His tone was casual, but it had a chilling effect on her. “Jake stays here. He's my son. And you're my wife.”

“The all-powerful Prince Nikolas,” she mocked. “Perhaps everyone else is afraid of you, but not me. I'm not some helpless creature you can bully and take advantage of. And you can't make me stay here.”

“I can make you want to stay.”

There was still power in his arrogance, so pure and distilled that it took Emma's breath away. She didn't reply as he must have wanted, by asking how or why, or by trying to argue with him. Instead she began to retreat. “I've told you what I intend,” she muttered.

That line should have marked her exit. Nikolas came after her, however, and loomed over her until she felt physically intimidated. For a woman who played with tigers and wild creatures, that feeling was alarmingly rare. “Before you leave, let me tell you what I intend,” Nikolas murmured. “I'm going to be back in your bed soon. I'm going to be the husband I should have been from the beginning.”