The Marcelli Princess

14

“Back to the hotel?” Oliver asked as he and Rafael walked toward the limo.

It was the logical choice, Rafael thought. He had finished his visit with his son. It wasn’t as if he had business in town or knew other people.

Perhaps that was the problem. He had too much time on his hands. At home there were matters of state and different organizations to occupy his day. But here, now that he was in exile at that ridiculous hotel, he had nothing.

“A computer store,” he said. “I will purchase a laptop and work from the hotel.”

Oliver nodded and opened the rear door of the limo. Rafael glanced back at the house. No one stood at a window watching him go. No doubt the women inside had carefully distracted his son so Daniel would not miss him. He had been in the boy’s life for such a short time. Would he now be forced out of it?

He knew that technically Mia couldn’t exclude him forever, but there were subtle ways to make him matter less. If he had always been in the boy’s life, she would have a more difficult time, but he had not. He was new and exciting, but not permanent. Not yet.

The thought of not seeing Daniel, of not watching him grow from a small boy to an active teenager, made his chest ache. The sensation was unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

“Your highness?” Oliver prompted, still holding open the door.

Rafael took a step forward then stopped. He would not lose his son, nor would he lose Mia.

But how? How would he make things better with her? How could he…

A bit of information came into his brain. Before flying out to meet the Marcellis, he had asked his staff to research them thoroughly. If he recalled correctly, Brenna Marcelli had had a rocky start with her husband. Nicholas Giovanni had planned to secretly buy the Marcelli vineyard and strip the family of everything. His plan had been discovered in time to stop it.

Yet Brenna had still married him. So she had forgiven him.

“The winery,” Rafael said as he stepped into the limo. “The main offices.”

“Yes, your highness.”

Brenna’s office was large and cluttered, with a huge map of the winery filling one wall. The massive desk had a heavy masculine style, and when Rafael entered the room and saw it, he wondered if it had belonged to her grandfather.

She was on the phone. When she glanced up and recognized him, her entire body stiffened. Her expression closed, her mouth tightened, and she quickly ended the call.

“Get your slimy royal ass out of my office,” she said as she came to her feet and pointed at the door. “I don’t want to see you or talk to you. I hope you get some horrible wasting disease brought on by a congenital defect inherent in lying, selfish, bastard princes.”

He closed the door behind him and crossed to her desk. “I see that Mia gets her verbal skills honestly. It is a fascinating trait in the Marcelli women. I wish to speak with you.”

“I have no interest in listening.” She reached for the phone. “I can call security. Actually, I can call my brother. The ex-SEAL. He doesn’t like you much, and seeing as he’s a man who could take you out with a Q-tip, I’d be a little worried if I were you.”

Rafael held out both hands, palms up. “Am I so frightening as all that? You have to call in reinforcements because you are afraid that by listening to me you might change your mind?”

“You’re manipulating me.”

He smiled slightly. “I doubt it will work on you, but it is necessary to try.” He stepped closer. “Hear me out, Brenna. What harm is there in that? We both know I’m unlikely to influence you in any way. Later, when I am gone, you can call Mia and mock me behind my back. Think how that will bring you both pleasure.”

She sat back in her chair. “Fine. But only because of the mocking. I’m really going to do that.”

“I’m sure you are.” He claimed the seat opposite hers and wondered how to begin. “I wish to make amends with Mia.”

“Why?”

“I did not plan for things to go this way.”

“Right. You just wanted to steal Danny, then leave town. I’m sorry we got in the way of that. What a serious bummer.”

“Brenna, you deliberately misunderstand me.”

“Oh, no. I understand you perfectly. Mia’s right. You’re sorry about getting caught, but you’re not the least bit sorry about what you tried to do. You don’t care about anyone, not even Danny.”

He narrowed his gaze. “Of course I care about my son.”

“I don’t think so. Oh, sure, Danny as heir is really important to you, but that’s about your country and tradition. It’s not as if Danny is a real person to you. It’s not as if you care about his happiness.”

He stood and glared at her. “How dare you speak to me this way?”

“I believe you came to me, not the other way around. So I can pretty much talk to you any way I’d like. You’re free to leave.” She pointed at the door.

He sank back into the chair. “I’m not leaving.”

“Then you have a problem, because I’m going to continue to talk to you any way I want.” She leaned toward him. “Rafael, no one who genuinely cares about a child could imagine ripping a four-year-old little boy away from his mother and the only family he’s ever known. Do you have any idea how that would devastate him? Of what he would go through?”

“He is my heir,” he said, but the words came automatically. Without meaning to, he remembered a time long ago. He had been about Daniel’s age when his own mother had died. He recalled the activity around her room and then nothing but quiet. No one would speak with him. For days he only saw his nanny. Then one evening his father had appeared and announced his mother was dead. The funeral was the next day and Rafael was expected to behave appropriately.

He’d understood nothing, except the fact that his father was obviously very angry with him. It wasn’t until nearly a week later that he’d begun to figure out his mother was gone forever.

He remembered feeling lost and afraid. Sometimes he would creep into her room and curl up on her bed, closing his eyes as tightly as he could, hoping that when he opened them, she would be there.

“I had no intension of keeping Mia from her son,” he told Brenna. “I had very specifically planned for her to…” He paused, not sure how to explain what he hadn’t decided yet for himself.

“To what?” she asked impatiently. “See him for fifteen minutes every quarter? Don’t give me that crap. You didn’t have a plan. You didn’t think of anything but what you wanted. You’re like a kid who only discovers he’s interested in a toy after someone else has taken it from him. It’s not as if you cared about Danny until now.”

“I did not know about him until recently.”

Brenna leaned forward and gave him a cold smile that warned him she was about to trap him. “Did you bother to find out if Mia might be pregnant? Did it occur to you to send one of your minions to do a little reconnaissance work? Six or seven months after the last time you two got personal, it would have been really easy to tell. My God, Rafael. You let her think you’d died. What kind of weasel behavior is that?”

“It did not occur to me she could be pregnant.”

“Why? Hadn’t the little soldiers been potent until then?”

“I used a condom.”

“Which obviously failed. Still, you had a responsibility and you’re avoiding the question about just letting her go. Not even a good-bye? Wouldn’t that at least have showed good manners?”

He shifted in his seat and glanced out the window toward the vineyard. “There were reasons.”

“Uh-huh. Let me guess. You didn’t want her to know who you really were. You didn’t want to risk an American groupie. How embarrassing. Plus she could have told the world how you’d been playing dress-up.”

He swung back to her. “I was protecting the heritage of my country. That is hardly playing dress-up.” Brenna was a most annoying woman. Nearly as difficult as her sister.

“Call it what you like,” she said with a shrug. “What do I care?”

“We are getting off the subject at hand,” he said between clenched teeth. “I would appreciate your assistance in finding a way to communicate with Mia.”

“I don’t think so. I mean, come on. To what end? You had an affair with her once and let her go. Now you tried to steal her kid. You’re not a really good catch, despite the title.”

His frustration flared into anger. “What did you expect?” he asked heatedly. “That I would marry her?”

“You’re the one who proposed.”

He stood again and paced the length of the office. “I had no choice. I had to secure Daniel for my people. You think because I have money and a title it is all so easy for me, but you are wrong. With great wealth and power comes responsibility. I must not only think of today, I must think of five hundred years from now. Each law, each pardon, each act has consequences. Like ripples in a pond, they continue endlessly.”

He paused by the map on the wall and traced the outline of the Marcelli land. “There are times when I wish it could be different. That I were a man like any other. That my life was my own. But it is not.”

Brenna leaned back in her chair. “I wish I had some tissue here so I could weep for your sad little life. Poor rich boy all alone.” She straightened. “I don’t actually give a rat’s ass about you or your sob story. The bottom line is you lied. You lied and you’re not even sorry. If you had come to Mia and explained the truth from the beginning, she would have worked with you. She’s intelligent and reasonable. But that never occurred to you. I guess compromise isn’t a word in the royal vocabulary. You didn’t bother to find out anything about her when the two of you were together before or you would have known that number one, she’s more than willing to do what’s right, and number two, she will die before she lets you take her child away from her.”

“You speak of compromise,” he said slowly. “I have been thinking about the concept.”

“A little too much after the fact. Welcome to the real world, where people actually negotiate things like child custody agreements and stealing is against the law.”

He looked at her. “You do not like me.”

“No one does, except maybe Danny, and that’s because he doesn’t know any better. But he will.”

“You will turn him against me?”

“I won’t have to. I’m guessing you’ll do that all on your own.”

Her statement insulted him. “You do not know me.”

“I have a good idea about you. You’ve never had to work for anything in your life. You get what you want and people just get out of the way. That’s not happening this time. We’re a strong family, and when you screwed Mia, you screwed us all.” She paused. “Figuratively, of course, because otherwise, to quote my baby sister, ick.”

“I will win.”

“I can’t see that happening. From where I’m sitting, there is only one win. You really fall in love with Mia and then somehow convince her it’s for real. But what are the odds of that? Oooh, you’d have to go against Daddy and marry a commoner. I don’t think you have the balls for it.”

His blood ran cold. “If you were a man, I would call you out.”

“Swords at dawn? I’m all a-tremble.”

“You will not speak to me this way.”

“How, exactly, are you going to stop me? This isn’t Calandria and you can’t throw me in the tower. Or is it a dungeon? I can never keep that straight.”

“I will win, Brenna. I will defeat you all.”

“Not even in seven lifetimes.” She stood and walked to the door. “The funny thing is, I’m kind of glad you stopped by.”

As if he believed that. “Why?”

“Because I’m not angry with you anymore. I actually feel sorry for you. You’re so busy chasing after the moon, which you’ll never get, that you can’t see the beauty in the moonlight. You hide behind duty and privilege. There’s a real world out there, Rafael. You should try leaving the titanium credit card at home and experience how the rest of us live. You might find what you’ve been missing.”

David was being force-fed by the Grands. Mia grinned when she saw him and rushed to his side.

“Do you need rescuing?” she asked as he stood and hugged her.

“Apparently. I’m in danger of exploding.”

“A man on his own,” Grandma Tessa said. “I know you don’t eat right.”

“You can’t make up for it in one meal,” he protested.

“We try,” Grammy M told him.

He released Mia and patted his stomach. “I’m going to take Mia for a walk. When I get back, you can ply me with desserts.”

“I made a tiramisu just yesterday,” Tessa said.

“I have fresh blueberry cobbler,” Grammy M offered.

David had spent enough time at the house to know the right answer.

“I look forward to both,” he said, then grabbed Mia’s hand. “Get me out of here,” he whispered.

She laughed and led the way outside.

The afternoon was warm and sunny, as often happened in August. They strolled to a shady tree, then plopped down on the grass.

“Where’s Danny?” David asked. “With his dad?”

“Not without me around to supervise. He’s at school this afternoon. His preschool class is doing a play and this is their final practice. I almost stayed, but I get so nervous watching him.” She smiled. “I don’t know how I’ll get through the performance.”

“You and Rafael are still at odds?”

“What do you think?”

“That you’re stubborn and you won’t forgive him easily.”

That surprised her. “You think I should?”

“You’re going to have to eventually. He’s Danny’s father.”

“He’s an asshole.”

“That doesn’t change the whole father part.”

She stared at him. “You don’t think what he did was so horrible.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You don’t have to. I can see it on your face. What is all this? Guys sticking together?” She couldn’t believe it. This was David. She trusted him.

“Mia, I’m not on his side. What he did was inexcusable. I’m simply pointing out that he’s Danny’s father and nothing is going to change that. You can try to keep Danny from Calandria all you want, but eventually you’re going to have to let him go for a visit.”

“No way. There’s a law that says once he’s on Calandrian soil, only a royal parent can say if he’s allowed to leave. I would have no rights at all.”

“Laws can be changed. You can make that a condition of his visiting.” David put his arm around her. “Don’t shoot the messenger. You know I’m telling the truth. The reason you’re going to have to give in sooner than you’d like has nothing to do with Rafael and everything to do with Danny.”

She pouted. “You’re saying he’ll want to visit Calandria.”

“If you were him, wouldn’t you want to?”

She couldn’t even imagine her reaction if her mother had come to her when she was ten or twelve and told her she was a princess of some country. There was nothing that would have kept her away from visiting. Not even her mother’s tears.

“So I should talk to Rafael about changing the law,” she muttered. “I did before, but sarcastically. You’re saying I should do it for real.”

“I would use it as leverage now, before Danny starts making decisions on his own.” David touched her chin. “I agree. Rafael is an ass. He acted badly and you shouldn’t trust him. But you also have to be realistic about the situation.”

She stared into his eyes. “You’re the only sensible male in my whole romantic life and we broke up. Why is that?”

“We realized we weren’t in love.”

“If I’d known how much I was going to screw up every other relationship, I would have tried harder.”

“You don’t mean that.”

She sighed and leaned against him. “I want to, but I know we weren’t destined to be each other’s great love. Still, I can dream about what if…”

“We wouldn’t have made it a year,” he told her.

“Stop being so damn practical. Did I say the word dream? Can’t you go with that?”

“Sure.”

She closed her eyes, but instead of a pretend future with David, she saw Rafael’s face and remembered what it had been like to make love with him.

Instantly her body began melting from the inside out, which really pissed her off. How could she still want the man? Did he have to become a serial killer before her hormonal self let go?

“I want to talk about you,” she said. “I need the distraction.”

“Not exactly the level of interest required to get me to spill my guts,” he told her.

She smiled. “You know I’m interested. How are things with Amber?”

When he didn’t answer, she glanced at him and was surprised to find him staring off into the distance.

“David?”

He leaned his head back against the tree. “I don’t know. The same, I guess. Maybe worse.”

“Worse? Worse as in Amber still isn’t convinced we’re not an item?”

“Something like that. Imagine if she could see us now.”

Mia considered their position, sitting close together, David’s arm around her. “Okay, it might look bad, but there’s nothing between us. You won’t even let me fantasize about what could have been.”

She’d been hoping for a smile. Instead he shook his head. “What if she doesn’t love me?”

There was stark pain in his voice. Mia shifted until she faced him.

“She loves you. She adores you. Women who don’t care about guys generally don’t marry them.”

“What if it isn’t enough? She has to get over this, Mia. We can’t spend our entire married life fighting about you.” He smiled. “You’re not all that.”

“You’ve been talking to Grandma Tessa, haven’t you?” she muttered as she considered the problem. “How much of this is about me and how much of it is a manifestation of Amber’s insecurities?”

“I’m a guy. I haven’t a clue.”

“Maybe we should ask Francesca.”

“Maybe we should keep it between the two of us,” he said. “I don’t want this being talked about at dinner. That would humiliate Amber.”

“Good point.” Mia knew her sister would keep a secret, but she didn’t want to stress David out any more than he was.

“I have to know if it’s just nerves,” he said, “or something more serious.”

“I agree. So bring her out and we’ll prove there’s nothing romantic between us.”

“How?”

“I’ll come up with something. Then, if she still doesn’t believe you, there’s a bigger problem.”

His eyes darkened. “I’m not sure I want to know that. I don’t want to lose her.”

“She loves you,” Mia told him. “I’m sure of it. And she is, too. I don’t think her fears about me are all that big. I think I’m just the object of all her prewedding jitters. But we’ll find out for sure and then you two can live happily ever after.”

“Promise?” he asked.

And because she wanted him to be happy and live a wonderful life, she said, “Yes.”

Rafael drove onto the Marcelli property a little before two. Mia had insisted that they go to Daniel’s play together, which was fine with him. He wanted time alone with her so that he could explain…Explain…

He swore, still not sure exactly what he was supposed to say. All she had accused him of was true. He could claim he was the prince and that he had a right to his son, both of which were accurate. Yet neither excused his behavior.

Of all the statements Brenna had thrown at him the other day, one continued to haunt him. “No one who genuinely cares about a child would consider ripping him away from his mother and the only family he has ever known.”

Rafael had never viewed the situation from Daniel’s point of view. He had not thought how a small child could be scarred by such an upheaval. He had only thought about what he wanted and what was best for Calandria.

He turned onto the Marcelli driveway and found humor in how closely the black sedan followed him. Umberto and Oliver had strongly resisted his decision to drive himself. Although he had assured them he was unlikely to be assassinated between the hotel and Mia’s house, they had protested his autonomy. He had agreed to allow them to drive behind him in another vehicle, but had refused to let one of them sit with him.

He wanted to be alone with Mia. He sensed that the fewer reminders of his royalty, the better. She was not the type of woman to be easily won and his position was only a source of contention between them.

He parked next to the house and climbed out. Kelly stood by the fence, a cigarette in her fingers. She glanced at his new ride.

“I didn’t know they made them that big.”

Rafael nodded proudly at his new SUV. “It is a Hummer. Such things are not practical in Europe, but here, where the roads are wide and gas is plentiful, it is appealing.”

“I guess.” She inhaled on her cigarette. “The good news is I don’t have to worry about you giving me away anymore. No one in the family would bother listening to you. They all hate you. It’s kind of cool.”

He frowned. “What is cool about it?”

“You were a real dick. I like that Mia is going to make you crawl and then refuse to give in to you.”

He did not like her choice of words, nor did he appreciate her assessment of the situation. “Mia and I will reach a point of compromise.”

Kelly laughed. “Oh yeah. I want to be there for that meeting. Are you clueless about all women or just Mia?”

“I am very successful with women.”

“Right. We’re all in awe of how you handled this situation. I mean, come on, Rafael. It was sneaky and really low. You’re a prince. Aren’t you supposed to be held to a higher standard than the average guy?”

“Why do all the women in your family feel so comfortable pointing out what I did wrong?”

“Because it’s fun and we’re all highly verbal. Besides, it’s not like Mia screwed up. She was honest with you from the beginning. The way I heard it, she didn’t even try to keep Danny from you. She told you about him within seconds of finding out you weren’t dead. Face it. You’re the skanky one here.”

Were there any names they weren’t going to call him? “I will not stand here and be insulted.”

She inhaled again. “Then take a seat.”

He glared at her. “As if your life is so perfect.”

“I’m twenty. I’m allowed to make mistakes. What’s your excuse?”

“What was the mistake? Etienne?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Have you told him?”

“No, I just broke up with him. No big.”

He studied her. “You are not wounded by your parting?”

“Wounded by our parting? You might want to think about communicating in a way slightly more relevant to this century, your highness. As for Etienne, no, I’m not wounded. I wanted him gone and now he is.”

Which sounded correct, but in Rafael’s experience, young women did not heal so easily from relationships.

“You were sleeping together?”

She frowned. “Get personal much?”

“If you were sleeping with him, then you should miss him.”

“Thanks for the news flash.”

“Why don’t you?”

“I never really liked him.”

Kelly immediately looked as if she wanted to call back the words.

“Why would you sleep with someone you don’t like?” he asked.

“Don’t you have a grovel appointment with Mia?”

“I am early.”

“Lucky me.”

“You are avoiding the question.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Why would you sleep with…” He nodded slowly. “Because your parents wouldn’t approve of him.”

She took a step back. “Whatever. I have to go.”

He didn’t take the hint. “So you wanted them to be upset. I have seen you with your parents. You have a good relationship with them, so you are not trying to upset them out of spite.”

“I would never do that,” she snapped. “Now just shut up.”

“I will not and you can’t make me.”

“That’s mature,” she muttered as she crushed out her cigarette, then picked up the butt.

“How is your dancing?” he asked.

“What?”

“You are doing well with the company?”

“Of course. They like me. I’m a hard worker. I’m moving forward with my career.”

There was something in the way she said the words. Something brittle and filled with pain. He felt he was close to the truth.

“Most girls your age are in college,” he said.

“I’m not a girl, you sexist pig, and so what? Why would I want to spend my day studying in some stuffy classroom when I can be on the stage? Do you know what a rush that is? Do you know how many really cute guys send me flowers after every show?”

He could relate to nothing in her conversation and yet he knew exactly what she felt. Perhaps because he had lived his whole life in a state of duty-doing what was expected rather than what he wanted.

“You must have spent a lot of time working at your ballet,” he said casually.

“Well, duh. Of course. Hours and hours. Francesca used to joke that we should get some kind of frequent flyer miles for all the times we went back and forth to the studio. She was great, staying with me through class and really encouraging me. My dad was just as proud. He…” She glared at him. “Why are we talking about this?”

“Because you feel guilty.” He felt triumphant, knowing he had found the key. “You thought this was what you wanted and your entire family sacrificed to make it happen. Perhaps not with money, but in time and effort. Perhaps the younger children had to give up time with their mother. Now you have what you vowed you always wanted and you hate it. You’re acting out in the hopes that you’ll so anger your parents that they will insist you quit and come home. You might even want them to punish you by sending you to college.”

Her eyes widened in shock. “You’re wrong!” she yelled. “You’re wrong and you’re stupid and you’re a liar.”

With that she turned and ran away. Rafael watched her go and knew he was right.

“What on earth have you done now?” Mia asked from the entrance to the rear of the house. “Was Kelly crying? Were you mean to her? I swear, Rafael, you’re really an amazingly useless human being.”

He turned to her. “Kelly is upset because I discovered her secret.”

Mia didn’t look convinced. “You’re not exactly someone any of us want to confide in.”

He walked toward her. “You’re right. She didn’t think she had told me anything significant, but she did. I recognized the symptoms. She is bound by duty.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”

“She isn’t happy dancing. She regrets her career choice, but because of all the sacrifices her family made for her, she feels too guilty to tell them. She’s acting out, hoping to shock her parents enough so that they will punish her by bringing her home. She may even want to go to college.”

Mia moved back into the house and he followed her. “You know I’m right,” he said.

“I do not.”

“Think about it. How unusual is her behavior? Hasn’t it come on fairly quickly? The drinking, Etienne. She admitted she doesn’t even like him. What twenty-year-old sleeps with a man she doesn’t like?”

Mia leaned against the kitchen counter. “Maybe,” she admitted. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”

“I have solved the problem of your niece, Mia. Admit it. That should be worth something.”

She glared at him. “This isn’t a barter economy.”

He eased toward her, enjoying the fire in her eyes. “Of course it is. You have something I want and I have something you want.”

“You have nothing I want.”

He touched her arm. She wore a sleeveless summer dress and he brushed his fingers down her bare skin to her elbow. He was close enough to feel her shiver and see the goose bumps that erupted.

Interesting. All her fury had not burned away her desire for him. He was pleased, because he still wanted her as well, but that wasn’t what he spoke of.

“I wish to have a relationship with my son,” he said. “You wish that as well.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. He had suspected she wouldn’t be comfortable saying she didn’t want him to be close to Daniel. What mother stood in the way of a boy and his father bonding?

“You’re still a pig,” she said.

“So Kelly informed me. The women of your family are not afraid to speak their minds.”

“We’re good at it.”

“I have noticed. Come. We will go see Daniel in his play and you will think about what I have said about Kelly. In time, you will admit I was right. I am not as insensitive as you think.”

“Don’t push it,” she grumbled as she collected her purse.

“I will not.” He held open the door. “I have a surprise. I bought a new car so that I would fit in with the other parents.”

She stepped out and stared at the massive SUV. “That’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen. You think it’s inconspicuous?”

“It does not have diplomatic flags. And see? Oliver and Umberto are driving in a different car. No one will notice them. We are just like everyone else.”

“Oh, right,” she muttered as she walked over to the SUV and eyed the high step. “We’re the walking, breathing definition of normal.”