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He gazed into her eyes. “Seriously. It’s our secret.”
She nodded.
“What about Jack?”
Charlotte frowned, not understanding.
“Are you going to tell Jack?”
“No.” Her brother had never been privy to her love life before. “Are you going to tell Raine?”
Alec shrugged. “Your call.”
“She’s suspicious, you know.”
“Really?”
“After you yelled at me this afternoon, she asked if you’d made a pass at me. She thought you were mad because I’d turned you down.”
“She’s not far off the mark,” he said.
“I told her we’d kissed.” Charlotte settled more comfortably against Alec’s chest, toying with the edge of the white sheet.
“Are you going to tell her…” His voice trailed off.
Charlotte didn’t exactly know what to call it, either. A one-night stand? A fling?
But one thing she did know, she wasn’t going to get all needy on him and start demanding to know what this meant and where it was going. She’d gone into it with her eyes wide open. She knew what and who Alec was, but she’d hopped into his bed anyway.
“It’s better if she doesn’t know,” Charlotte admitted. “But I don’t want to lie to her. My grandfather—” She stopped.
She wasn’t going to start borrowing trouble here. Her grandfather didn’t need to find out. Nobody needed to find out. Unless Alec was a complete cad, and she certainly didn’t think he was, this interlude would remain locked in her heart forever.
“How long have you worked for the ambassador?” Alec asked, obviously prepared to move on.
She followed his lead. “Since I was a teenager. I started off helping in the office. Then, after college, I worked full-time. And when his executive assistant quit to get married, I stepped in temporarily.”
“When was that?”
“Three years ago. Right before I met you the first time.”
“Ahh.” He nodded. “Rome. You should have taken my key that night.”
“Right. And I’d have made the front page, scandalized my family and been fired from my job.”
Alec paused. “That’s altogether a worst-case scenario, isn’t it?”
“It’s a likely-case scenario. You nearly ruined my life.”
“Good that we waited, then.” He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, gathering her close. “Honestly—right now, I’m very, very glad we waited.”
Charlotte didn’t know what to say to that. He made it sound as if they’d done it deliberately, as if they’d had some kind of connection, as if they’d been thinking about each other over the past three years. Had he thought about her after Rome? Did he even remember her in the long line of women he flirted with?
She gave herself a mental shake. She wasn’t going to make more of this than there was.
“Is Kiefer still worried about rumors of you and Isabella?” she asked, moving on.
“We seem to have an ally in Ridley Sinclair.”
“We do?” Charlotte hadn’t even met the man yet.
“I hear he generally has an affair with his costar.”
Interesting. “And he’s staying in the same villa as Isabella?”
Alec nodded. “That he is.”
“You think they’ll have an affair?”
“Rumor has it they already are,” said Alec. “Though that rumor may have been started by Kiefer.”
Charlotte laughed. “I think I’m starting to like Kiefer.”
“You be careful of Kiefer.” There was a serious note in Alec’s tone that caused Charlotte to twist to look him in the eyes again.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Kiefer has a way with women.”
“And you don’t?” She glanced down at her naked body, the twisted sheets, the comforter that had been kicked off the bed an hour ago. If she needed to be careful of anybody here, it was Alec.
“I hear your father’s due tomorrow.” Alec changed the subject. She didn’t blame him. What more was there to say?
“I heard that Lars has a few more days of secondunit work,” said Charlotte. “But they want to start rehearsals for the major scenes.”
“Will it bother you?”
“The major scenes?” Charlotte expected it to become even more chaotic at the château. But they’d known this was coming.
“Seeing your father. Is it worse than seeing Jack?”
“It’s nowhere near the same,” said Charlotte, burrowing farther beneath the sheet to combat a growing chill from the open window.
Alec reached to the floor and retrieved the comforter, spreading it over both of them.
“Thanks.” She sighed as their body heat formed a warm cocoon.
“Your father?” Alec prompted.
“It’s funny,” she admitted. “I think I always knew David was a terrible father. Even when my mom was alive, he was never around. When she died, I honestly thought it would be Jack who took care of me.”
“How old was Jack?”
“Nine. But he seemed very worldly wise. He used to pour me juice, make me sandwiches and read me bedtime stories.” She smiled wistfully at the memory.
“And then he abandoned you.”
“No, he didn’t.” She knew none of it had been Jack’s fault. “But for years, I expected him to come and get me. I don’t know what I thought, that he’d turn eleven, get a paper route and we’d live happily ever after. Pretty absurd, huh?”
Alec straightened the comforter around her. “You were a little girl.”
“Who took a very long time to wake up to reality.”
“Do you think you might be angry with him?”
She shook her head. “I missed him. That was all.” She still missed him. She wanted a brother, and what she had was an acquaintance.
“Tell me about you and Raine.” Charlotte knew she should go back to her own room before anyone else got home, but she didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want it to end just yet. “Did you protect her? Tease her? Gang up with her against your parents?”
Alec chuckled. “I was Raine’s worst night—”
A deafening boom shook the château. Orange flames lit up the sky. Alec instantly threw himself on top of Charlotte, bracing her protectively against the bed.
“What the hell?” he ground out, glancing to the window behind him.
Charlotte blinked at the fire, smoke and ash rising toward the dark sky.
“You okay?” he demanded.
Her ears were ringing, and she’d experienced an adrenaline shot strong enough to stun an ox, but she nodded jerkily.
Alec sprang from the bed, crossing to the window while he stuffed his legs into his slacks. “Good God. One of the trailers is on fire.”
“It blew up?” Charlotte stated the obvious as she clambered out of bed herself, glancing around for her dress and shoes.
He dialed his cell phone with one hand, pulling his dress shirt on with the other as he headed for the bedroom door. There, he paused. “Will you be all right?”
“I’ll be fine,” she called. She could hear sirens in the distance, and people were shouting down on the lawn.
She prayed that nobody had been hurt. But the sirens were getting closer, and the shouts were getting louder. She struggled into her dress and into her shoes, then she clattered down the stairs to find out if she could help.
The front lawn looked like a disaster zone. Staff members and crew rushed to the aid of those lying on the ground. Alec was in the middle, shouting to his staff to bring blankets and first aid, while helping the gardeners to set up hoses to soak the semitrailers and a small cottage that were next to the fire.
Charlotte stopped, unsure of what to do.
She glanced at the man next to her. His face was black with soot, and he was cradling his left arm, his sleeve covered in blood.
“You’re hurt,” she stated, moving closer.
He looked down at his arm. “It’s just a cut.”
“Anything else?” She gingerly supported him on the uninjured side, helping him to the porch where he could sit down.
“It was the FX trailer,” he rasped.
She separated the torn sleeve, revealing a long, deep cut on his forearm.
“They were getting the pyrotechnics ready for the battle scene.” The man seemed to be in shock.
Charlotte’s gaze shifted involuntarily to the burning trailer. Alec was silhouetted against the flames. The fire trucks arrived, and he signaled them forward, clearing people out of their path as the firefighters jumped down and began connecting hoses.
If anybody had been inside…
A member of the housekeeping staff appeared, and Charlotte quickly latched on to a couple of towels and a bottle of water. She soaked one towel, carefully cleaning around the wound. Then she pressed the other towel against the cut, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
“Am I hurting you?” she asked.
The man barely shook his head, his attention fixed on the firefighters and the approaching ambulances.
The attendants ran to a couple of people lying on the ground, and Charlotte wasn’t sure whether she should flag them down.
“I can wait,” the man said, guessing her thoughts.
“Are you sure?” The towel was soaking up a lot of blood.
“Charlotte?” It was Raine’s voice.
Charlotte looked into Raine’s stark expression.
“What happened? We just got back—”
“Can you get us a paramedic?”
Raine’s gaze jumped to the injured man. “Of course.”
She scooted across the lawn in her skirt and high heels. She stopped a woman in uniform and pointed to Charlotte. The woman grabbed a black case and trotted toward them.
“Thank you,” said Charlotte as the woman knelt down.
“I’m fine,” said the man.
“Let’s take a quick look,” said the attendant, swiftly removing the towel.
She opened the case and retrieved gauze, disinfectant and medical tape.
“I’ll be sending you in for some stitches,” she told the man.
He simply nodded, looking exhausted.
