The Marcelli Princess

4

Brenna Marcelli Giovanni checked the coffee table. “Cookies, chocolate, wine, glasses. I think that’s everything.”

Mia had been patient while her sisters met Rafael. Then the four of them drove over to Brenna’s house for an afternoon of girl talk and wine.

“Well?” she demanded. “What do you think?”

“We need more wine,” Brenna said. “Definitely another bottle.”

Mia threw herself on the sofa and covered her face with a pillow. “Somebody kill me now.”

“Don’t say that,” Katie told her as she settled next to her and put an arm around her. “Why would you want to be dead just when things are getting interesting?”

“She has a point,” Francesca said. “Besides, death really isn’t your style. Maybe you should start streaking your hair again. That would be a statement.”

“A tacky one,” Brenna said, returning with another bottle of Four Sisters pinot noir. “Everyone have what they need?”

There were murmurs of assent. Brenna sank into a club chair and motioned for Francesca to open the first bottle.

Francesca did the honors, poured them each a glass and passed them around. When everyone had appreciated the aroma, the color, and the subtle blend to Brenna’s satisfaction, Francesca took her seat, then turned to Mia.

“So, you slept with a prince. That’s new.”

Mia threw the pillow at her. “Not helpful. Aren’t you the one with the degree in psychology? Shouldn’t you be making the situation better?”

“That seems like a natural assumption, but in this case, not so much.”

Brenna and her twin grinned at each other. Katie tugged on Mia’s hair. “Don’t let them get to you. They’re just having a little fun. You have to admit, this isn’t normal, even for you. You haven’t been on a date since you found out you were pregnant with Danny. You’d told us his father had died. Suddenly he’s back and he’s a prince. I think a little humor is in order.”

“I know, it’s just that I don’t know what I’m thinking or supposed to think. Or feel, or any of that. He was dead. I saw him die. Only none of it was real and now he’s here and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Mia looked at Katie. “What did you think of him?”

“He was pleasant. Not pretentious.”

“Good-looking,” Brenna added, “which is always a plus. I mean if you have to look at them every day, why not get one who’s pretty?”

“That is shallow, even for you,” Francesca told her. “He said all the right things, Mia. What we have to figure out is if he means them.”

Katie looked at Mia. “How are you handling this, aside from the death wish?”

“I don’t know. It’s been two days and I’m in confusion mode. The whole situation doesn’t seem possible, but he’s here and it’s happening. He’s Danny’s father. Whatever else happens, I have to deal with that.”

“Yes, there is the whole ‘sperm meets egg’ that changes things forever,” Brenna said. “Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell us how you met him. You were pretty vague when you got back from that assignment.”

Mia knew her sister was being kind. She hadn’t been vague, she’d been completely devastated. Because she’d been in the field as a covert operative-a reality she still had trouble grasping-she hadn’t been able to tell her family anything. In theory, that truth hadn’t changed. Except according to Rafael, nothing had been as it seemed.

“My first assignment was in Calandria,” Mia said, figuring that was as good a place as any to start.

“Was it a dark and stormy night?” Brenna asked.

Mia grinned. “It was raining.”

“You should always pay attention to atmosphere,” her sister told her.

“I will now,” Mia said, then wondered what it meant that it had been sunny the morning Rafael had shown up. Of course this was California. Where she lived, sunny was the norm.

“My job was to infiltrate a group of thieves who were taking newly discovered artifacts out of the country. I was supposed to play a bored, rich, ditzy American looking for trouble.”

“Were you scared?” Katie asked.

“I don’t think I knew enough to be scared,” she admitted. “I thought it was a pretty easy assignment. I wasn’t supposed to stop anyone, just get on the inside and then report back with what I knew. I flew into Calandria with the name of a contact. He was going to introduce me to a few key people in Diego’s ring and then I was to take it from there.”

“Diego’s the bad guy, right?” Francesca asked. “Or the bad guy in disguise?”

“Right. The real Diego had been working this job for almost a year. He’s the one who found the treasures and then got the divers to start bringing them to the surface. He had a reputation for being ruthless and dangerous.”

“Your kind of guy?” Katie asked gently.

“I figured I was done with bad boys,” Mia told her honestly. “After the disaster with Ian, I’d pretty much sworn off relationships period.”

No one said anything, which Mia appreciated. She’d had six years to deal with the guilt of inadvertently bringing a domestic terrorist in close contact with the daughter of the president of the United States. She’d told herself there was no way she could guess that boring Ian, who had gone to grad school with her at Georgetown, was also secretly working to overthrow the government. Even the Secret Service had vetted him and come up with nothing. But she kept thinking she should have known her summer boyfriend was not a nice man.

“I spent a couple of days learning my way around town and sort of checking out Diego’s people. He was too well known to come into town, so I didn’t meet him at first. I did make contact with a couple of the women. As planned, a local policeman recognized one of them and began to arrest her. I started a fire in a trash can, which distracted him, and ran off with the women.”

Brenna’s eyes widened. “You were really a spy.”

“Not a very good one. I lasted all of one assignment and fell in love with the bad guy. No one offered me a promotion.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Katie said. “You weren’t ready for what they asked you to do.”

Mia agreed with that assessment. She should have been given a desk job for a while or at least a few low-level courier assignments. Instead, she’d been thrown into the middle of a gang of thieves, and their leader had mesmerized her from the start.

“They took me back to their hideout,” Mia said. “Apparently that was considered a bad idea, because there was a lot of screaming. They discussed killing me as a way to keep me silent, which terrified me.”

Her sisters stared at her. “They almost killed you? You never said anything.”

“I wasn’t supposed to. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this now. But before anyone could shoot me or stab me, Diego came in and told them to let me go.”

She still remembered everything about that moment. They’d been speaking in Italian, assuming she wouldn’t understand them. Of course she had. Italian, Spanish, French. To her they were practically the same language.

Diego had asked how Mia had met the others, and when he heard about the fire, he crossed to her.

“Why did you help them?” he asked.

His voice had given her goose bumps. Her fear had faded in the heat generated by his nearness. To this day she couldn’t say why she’d fallen for him in that second, but she had. She was sure there was some chemical explanation involving pheromones and the position of the moon or something, but it had happened. Hard, hot need had swept through her until all she could think about was giving herself to him. She would have been anything to him-lover, slave, sycophant. Anything, as long as he let her exist within the sphere of his world.

“They were nice to me,” she’d said instead, proud that she’d been able to form words at all. “I’m loyal to my friends.”

“What do you want with us?” he’d asked.

“Nothing. I don’t even know who you are.”

She’d lied, of course. She knew all about him from her briefing reports. Even more important, in that moment, staring into his dark eyes and willing him to take her right there, she understood the man.

He was darkness and she should be afraid of him, but she couldn’t ignore the power of her need. If necessary, she would be in the darkness with him.

“I am Diego,” he said, then watched sharply as if waiting for a reaction.

“Mia,” she said with a shrug. “I’d offer to shake hands, but I’m kind of tied up.”

He glanced at the handcuffs and smiled. “Do you travel alone?”

“I’m pretty independent. But don’t get too comfy with the idea. If I don’t check in with my dad every couple of days, he goes completely insane. We’re talking about notifying four-star generals. Did I mention my father went to West Point?”

Diego had smiled then. “Release her,” he told the others, speaking Italian. “She amuses me. She may stay. But make sure she doesn’t go out by herself. And monitor her phone calls.”

“I understood him, of course,” Mia said to her sisters. “I thought he was the bad guy. I thought he was the one I was supposed to watch.”

“Isn’t the fact that he wasn’t a good thing?” Katie asked. “Doesn’t that make you feel better?”

“It should,” Mia admitted. “It’s just…” She drew in a breath. “I agonized over what was happening. I knew I was falling for him and that it would affect my judgment. I got in touch with my contact and begged him to get me out of there. I said I was at risk of compromising the assignment. But they left me in play. Every day he was there and every day I tried to resist. One day I couldn’t.”

“Okay, that’s the part I want to hear about,” Brenna said with a sigh. “In detail. Speak slowly.”

Mia grinned. “It was another dark and stormy night. I remember sitting outside on a porch. Nearly everyone had gone into town. It was late and there were so many shadows. Suddenly, he was there.”

He hadn’t said anything-he hadn’t had to. They’d looked at each other and then they were kissing and touching. He’d taken her without saying a word.

“The next morning I wondered if I’d dreamed the whole thing, but when I went to breakfast, he had me sit next to him. We were together from then on.”

There were so many memories. So many times when she’d tried to walk away.

“I didn’t want to do the wrong thing,” she admitted. “If you knew how I tried to stay strong, to remember why I was there. I knew I was breaking every rule, I knew I was going to get fired. I told myself it wasn’t so bad because no one’s life was on the line. But I was wrong.”

Two weeks after she and Diego became lovers, a rival gang attacked.

“I knew about it in advance from my handler. I was supposed to use the confusion to bring Diego in. If he resisted, I was supposed to shoot him. I wanted to warn him. For two days I nearly told him the truth.” She laughed harshly. “For all I know, he arranged the whole damn thing.”

“You think it was part of the plan to get him out of there?” Francesca asked.

“Maybe. I’m not sure. I do know that when the moment came, when I tried to take him with me, he wouldn’t go. When I pulled a gun on him, he told me I wouldn’t be able to shoot him. He was right.”

“Did you try?” Katie asked.

“I knew it was the right thing to do, but I couldn’t pull the trigger.”

Mia had agonized over that. During her debriefing, she’d been grilled again and again about why she hadn’t shot him when she’d had the chance. Now, knowing who he really was, she wondered if he’d replaced her bullets with blanks. It sure wouldn’t surprise her.

“The fighting got closer,” she continued, remembering the noise of that night. The sharp sound of gunfire, the cries of those who had been injured, then the roar of her helicopter.

“I didn’t want to leave him, but I had to get out. I knew that. I begged him to come with me.”

He’d smiled at her then, had kissed her hard and told her to remember him. Because he’d known she was about to “see” him die?

“He literally tossed me onto the helicopter,” she said. “I don’t think I would have gone otherwise. As we lifted up, two men rushed him. I screamed, but it was too late. They fired and he fell and there was so much blood.”

She would remember that for the rest of her life. The sound of the helicopter, her own screams, and the bright light that showed the rapidly widening pool of blood as Diego died.

Except he hadn’t died. It had all been an elaborately staged event. Like a Broadway show.

Mia shook away the past and glanced at her sisters. “I thought he was gone. I went through my debriefing, then I quit and came here.”

“And someone in the government told him you were dead?” Katie asked.

“That’s what he said. I know they’re not likely to give out information on operatives, even lousy ones.”

“Mia, you were put in an impossible situation,” Francesca told her. “Give yourself a break.”

“I understand that in my head,” Mia admitted. “But in my heart, I think about everything I did wrong. That’s what’s so hard for me. That I fell for the wrong guy again. You’d think Ian would have cured me of that.”

“Is he the wrong guy?” Katie asked. “He’s not the enemy anymore. He’s a nice guy.”

Brenna raised her eyebrows. “Nice? I don’t think he’s normal enough to be nice. He’s royal, Katie. Does the man even know how to put toothpaste on his toothbrush?”

“He’s doing it now,” Mia said. “Unless Grammy M is sneaking into his bathroom every night to take care of that. When he was Diego, he had to act like everyone else. I know he’s a prince and all, but he knows how to exist in the real world. At least he did.”

“So now what?” Francesca asked.

“That would be my question,” Mia said. “I’m trying to reconcile who he is with who he was and figure out where Danny fits in all this.”

Brenna raised her glass. “I’ll give you this-none of the Marcelli women are boring.”

“Something we can cling to,” Katie said. “I’m not sure that helps Mia, though.”

Mia drank more wine. “I might be beyond help. Right now I’m dealing with crazy situations. Rafael is Danny’s father. I can’t change that, even if I wanted to, and I’m not sure I do. He’s interested in his son, which is a plus, but what do I know about him?”

“You were once in love with him,” Katie said. “Does that count for anything?”

Mia tried to laugh, but instead made a sound suspiciously close to a sob. “Not when you consider that the man I fell in love with was supposedly a notorious thief with a reputation for killing the competition.”

“Maybe you sensed his goodness,” Francesca said.

“I’m not that intuitive,” Mia muttered.

“Are you attracted to him now?” Katie asked.

Brenna rolled her eyes. “Well, duh. Of course she is. Did you see the man? Did you think about him being naked?”

“Of course not! I’m a happily married woman.” Katie sipped her wine. “I would never do that.”

Mia looked at her, as did Brenna and Francesca. Katie sighed.

“Okay. Maybe. For a second. Yes, he’s pretty amazing in the studly department, but that’s no excuse to give in a second time.”

“Ah, isn’t knowing how good the sex was and could be again going to work against her?” Brenna asked.

Katie looked at Mia, who sighed. “It doesn’t help,” she admitted.

“Trouble,” Francesca said. “All this is trouble. But you’ll get through it.”

“I don’t see a way not to. I’m just glad Joe is around.”

“Did you call Mom and Dad?” Katie asked.

“Yesterday. They’re understandably shocked, but happy. I begged them to stay in China. Rafael will still be around when they get back.”

“He’s staying that long?” Brenna asked.

“I don’t have exact dates, but I got the impression he would be parked here for a while. Even if he heads back to Calandria, there are going to be visits back and forth.”

“So you have time,” Katie said. “You can consider your options. Think with both your head and your heart.”

“Don’t make the same mistake twice,” Mia said, and meant it.

“I have something for you, Danny,” Rafael said as he entered the family room.

Mia sat on the floor with the boy on her lap. They both looked at him and smiled, Danny with more excitement than his mother.

“What is it?” Danny asked as he eyed the long, cloth-wrapped package. “A truck?”

“Better than a truck. I had it sent over from the palace.” Rafael knelt on the floor and peeled back the quilted fabric. When he’d exposed the gold-and-jewel-covered scepter, he paused expectantly.

Danny stared at the scepter. “What’s that?”

“The royal scepter of Calandria.”

Danny looked at his mother. “What’s that?”

Mia cleared her throat. “Well, it’s a very important and beautiful part of your heritage. It symbolizes who you are.”

“I’m Danny.”

“Okay, yes, but you’re also your father’s son. Which makes you his heir.”

“I’m the Crown Prince of Calandria,” Rafael said, determined to be patient with the child. It was not his fault he didn’t already know this. “I will rule as king and you will rule after me.”

Danny considered that, then asked, “Where’s Calandria?”

Rafael had come prepared. He pulled a European map out of his pocket and spread it on the floor. “Here is Italy and France. This is Spain. This is the Mediterranean and here is Calandria.”

Danny stared at the island and wrinkled his nose. “It’s small. Can I be the heir to a bigger place? What about Australia? Mommy and me read all about it in a book. There are kangaroos and crocodiles. I want to heir Australia.”

As he spoke he reached for the scepter and slammed it against the floor. Rafael winced.

“Okay then,” Mia said, grabbing it from him. “Maybe we should put this on a shelf until you’re a little older. Why don’t you go see Grammy M in the kitchen? I know she’s making cookies. Maybe she’ll let you help.”

“Okay.”

Danny scrambled to his feet and ran off to the kitchen. Mia turned to Rafael. “Sorry about that. He’s still pretty young. I don’t think he’s grasping the whole ‘heir’ thing, which isn’t a huge surprise as the rest of us are having trouble with it as well.”

“He will have to learn,” he told her, remembering how many responsibilities he had had when he had been little older than Danny was now. He needed to get the boy back to Calandria, where his real education would begin.

But that journey was a few weeks away. He had best remember not to rush his plan.

“You have done well with him,” he told Mia. “A woman alone with a child, especially a boy.”

“Hardly alone. Once I knew I was pregnant, I moved back here. It worked out well. I had help and I’m close to the campus for my studies.”

“What happens when you graduate from law school?”

“I’ll get a job and move to Los Angeles. By then Danny will be in kindergarten.” She paused. “Well, that was the plan. I guess now I’ll be discussing things like that with you.”

“There is plenty of time for that,” he said. In truth she would most likely still get a job in Los Angeles. The only difference was that her son would be in Calandria.

But that conversation was for much later. First he had to convince Mia to trust him…and seduce her into wanting him again.

He looked forward to both activities, especially the latter. He still found her most appealing, although he’d never been able to say exactly why. She was attractive, but great beauties populated his world. She was more intelligent than most women of his acquaintance, not that he set a great store by a woman’s mind.

No, it was something else. He remembered the feel of her skin and how that had aroused him. Her scent, even when she was fresh from the shower, had lingered in his mind long after she had disappeared from his life. He had been with a great many women and most of those encounters blurred. Oddly, he remembered nearly everything about making love with Mia, and that remembering made him want to be with her again.

If she were someone else, someone with even minor titled connections or the daughter of a great leader, he would consider making their marriage a permanent connection. But she wasn’t, and when it came to whom he would have more children with, he had to consider his obligation to the throne. Still, they were together for now and he planned to enjoy every minute of it.

He reached for her hand and rubbed his thumb against her knuckles. “You have been most patient and understanding.”

She smiled. “Not much choice there. You’re Danny’s father. The prince thing is a bit of a shock, although it doesn’t come close to the one about you not being dead.”

He shifted closer and let his gaze drop to her mouth. “Are you glad I’m not dead?”

“Of course.”

“I can say the same about you. I was most distressed when they told me you were gone. And later, when I thought you’d been killed…” He hesitated just enough to give the words a sincere ring. “Mia…I had just found you.”

“Found is strong,” she murmured. “I was sort of thrust upon you by the agency. I was there to do a job.”

“As was I. Instead we found each other.”

He spoke easily, mostly because it was all true. He had been delighted to find her. He’d known about the American operative and knew the wisdom of beginning an affair with her as a means to ending his time as Diego. He would have seduced her regardless, but with Mia what could have been effort had turned into true pleasure. For both of them.

He had even missed her when he’d returned to his life at the palace. Perhaps not as much as he indicated, but more than he usually did. Under other circumstances, he would tell her that and know she would be grateful.

“Let us not be parted again,” he whispered.

Her eyes widened. “Rafael, I-”

He touched her mouth with his finger. “Shh. I think we are done talking.” Then he lowered his head so that he could kiss her.

A heartbeat before he finally claimed her with his mouth, he heard footsteps in the hallway and a familiar and irritating voice saying, “I sure have a habit of showing up at the wrong time, don’t I?”

“Do I need to lecture you?” Joe asked when Rafael had excused himself and Mia had scrambled onto the sofa.

She leaned back against the cushions and sighed. “Maybe. I know it’s crazy to get involved with him and I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you appeared when you did.”

“But?” he prodded.

“But knowing I shouldn’t get lost in the past and not getting lost in the past are two very different things. He knows how to push all my buttons.”

“Don’t take it personally. He’s a professional playboy by career and temperament, Mia. He’s had plenty of practice.”

Not exactly what she wanted to hear. Still, the information needed to sink into her brain. “Keep telling me he’s the enemy,” she said. “Apparently I need help not making a fool out of myself.”

There was something about Rafael. His physical appearance might be different enough to make her nervous, but the chemical attraction between them didn’t seem to care about things like scars and a change in eye color.

Joe slapped down a folder on the coffee table. “The preliminary report on Rafael.”

She eyed the pages inside. “And?”

“He’s who he said. Heir to the Calandrian throne. Not married. Not even a fiancée waiting in the wings. There have been rumors of various arranged marriages, but nothing seems to happen with them.”

“Good to know.” What with the almost kissing.

“He was educated in Europe. Graduated from Oxford. No career, of course, if you don’t count the whole soon-to-be king gig. He partied hard when he was in his early twenties-nothing too kinky. He’s a thrill seeker, but that’s calmed down, too. No dead bodies, no bastard children.”

Mia shook her head. “Oh, there’s at least one we know of.”

“Okay, but aside from Danny, he’s clean. Which means Danny’s the real heir.”

“What if he marries and has legitimate children?” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m actually discussing this. Legitimate children. Like we’re in Elizabethan times.”

“There’s nothing like dealing with a royal family to bring up the past,” Joe told her. “Per Calandria law, it’s the acknowledged firstborn son of the crown prince/ king. Whoever he is at the time. So if Rafael doesn’t marry you or he doesn’t officially acknowledge Danny, then there will be no Marcelli rule of Calandria.”

“Gee, and we were all so anxious to expand our winery business. What’s involved in officially acknowledging?”

“Paperwork mostly, and a presentation to the parliament. He’s taken the DNA test, Mia. My guess is he’s going to acknowledge Danny as his heir.”

“Swell.”

“Look on the bright side. If Danny’s a prince, you have to be something too, right?”

“Screwed. I believe I’m mostly screwed.”

“It’s not as bad as that.”

She leaned forward. “In all likelihood my son is going to one day rule Calandria. How long do you think he’s going to be allowed to have a normal life?”

“Whatever happens, you’re his mom. You’ll be there to protect him.”

“I know, but king. Jeez. I better get going on teaching him to tie his shoes.”