Arranged Love (Complete)

Chapter 16 - Just Friends

"I mean I think I have an idea, but I'm just wondering if I'm right," Eva said, looking down at her wine and swirling it around in the glass, before taking a sip.

He took in a deep breath and let it out before saying, "It's ummm. Rosalie."

She nodded and said, "That's what I thought. She had actually mentioned something to me about being in love with you and that you couldn't marry her because she's not a princess."

"Yeah," he said, nodding before taking a bite of his steak and they ate in silence for a minute. "It's complicated. She's told me a few times that she's in love with me. I'm not there yet, but she wants me to be. I mean I've got feelings for her. I care about her a lot and we've always been really close ever since we were kids. She's mad that I don't feel the same way she does and she tries to make me feel guilty about it, like I'm a bad person for not loving her, but I'm not going to lie and tell her I'm in love with her if I'm not."

"I saw you two arguing at the wedding," she said, taking a bite of her steak.

"Yeah. She was angry that I went through with it and I told her I didn't have a choice. If I could've married her I would have, but she wouldn't accept that."

"So ummm. Where does that leave us? I mean, I'm your wife and we're supposed to be making heirs to the throne right now, but you have this other woman that's in love with you."

"Honestly?" he said, shaking his head. "I don't know. My parents and your parents knew I wanted to marry Rosalie and they still made me go through with this arranged marriage. My Dad said if I didn't, he wouldn't pass the throne down to me. He was going to give it to my idiot Uncle and cousin instead and there's no way in hell I was going to let those morons be in charge of running Spain. I wouldn't trust them to babysit my dog."

She sat there thinking about it. "So what are we going to do Paulo? We're already married and Spain needs heirs."

He sat there thinking and said, "I know. I was drinking on our wedding night because I was going to try to go through with it. I was going to try to block Rosalie out and sleep with you but I just," he said, letting out an exhale and hanging his head, shaking it. He lifted his eyes and looked at her. "I just couldn't do it. She's in love with me and I couldn't do that to her. I can't do something like that to someone I care about, not even for my country. It would've broken her heart."

Eva looked at him and saw the sincerity in his eyes.

"Maybe you could find yourself a boyfriend to secretly get you pregnant," Paulo suggested.

Eva shook her head. "No. It has to be your baby in order to rule Spain and I don't want this to blow up into some huge paternity scandal if they find out it's not yours and people will think I'm a cheater. My reputation would be ruined."

She looked down at her wine and said, "Plus I made a vow at our wedding Paulo. I swore in front of God and my family and my entire country that I would be faithful to you. I didn't make that promise lightly. Loyalty is extremely important to me. I hate cheaters and even if you gave me permission to do it, it just wouldn't feel right."

"No. You're right. That's a bad idea." He thought for another minute before saying, "Maybe we could do artificial insemination, where the doctor takes your egg and injects my sperm into it in a lab and then puts it back in you." He nodded and said, "That's it. That could work."

"I'm sure our parents wouldn't approve of us having a test tube baby. Do you think we can do all that without them finding out and getting suspicious? I don't know about your Dad, but mine always knows everything that happens. It's impossible to keep a secret from him."