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‘There will be no discussion. I will walk you back to your room.’ His hand touched her elbow and she practically shot into orbit at the contact, any argument fading on her lips as he guided her to the opening door.
‘Oh, and Meg …’ as the elevator glided open, as he declined the escort from his bodyguard, Luca managed to elicit a smile from her shocked lips ‘.you can call me Prince for short.’
As they walked through the casino, his hand still on her elbow, Meg’s mind was whirring. They made their way swiftly—he didn’t need to guide her through the throng of people because they all stepped back for him, heads turning, couples nudging each other as they passed, and Meg started to understand what he had been trying to tell her. A prince couldn’t date in the usual way, couldn’t walk into a bar unrecognised or linger over a coffee as he got to know a virtual stranger, and those thoughts were confirmed when finally they left the crowds behind and walked the long corridor to her room. ‘You didn’t know?’
‘No,’ Meg admitted. “Antoinette, the kitchen hand, did say something, but I thought she was.’ She gave a helpless shrug. ‘Shouldn’t you be locked away in a palace or something, with bodyguards protecting you?’
‘I should be according to my grandfather—the king,’ he added as Meg blew a breath skywards, the entire conversation so bizarre she couldn’t believe it was taking place. ‘But it is not how I choose to live; I like to work—to run my businesses. Here I get a shot of a normal life.’
‘Normal!’ Meg gave a wry grin. ‘Even before I heard your title, Luca, you didn’t fit into that description.’
‘I have a comfortable life—but I work hard for it. Yes, I can afford many things, and maybe I could just live off my title, but I still take pride in my work, my business ventures—that is why I mainly choose not to use my title, why here I prefer to be called just Luca, though naturally most people know who I am.’
They were at her door now and Meg wished they weren’t, wished somehow she were staying in some remote cottage at the end of a very long beach, instead of a shared room a mere ten minutes away.
She didn’t want the night to end—even though she’d terminated it, now she wanted to prolong it and it had nothing to do with his royal title, more the fascinating man behind it, the man she was starting to glimpse.
‘Thank you,’ Meg said simply.
‘For what?’
‘For coming over when you did. Things could have got out of hand otherwise.’
‘You have to be careful, Meg. Your friend is not much of an escort for you.’
‘I don’t need an escort,’ Meg answered stoutly, but Luca remained unmoved, shaking his head at her proud words.
‘Tonight things could have been very different—I see a lot of things that go on. Buy your own drinks, Meg, and hold onto your glass. Don’t let it out of your sight.’
‘You sound like my father.’ Meg rolled her eyes as she chatted. ‘When I say my father, I mean my adopted father. I had all the lectures before I set off on my trip—’
Her voice halted abruptly; she was stunned at her own words, at how easily she’d revealed a piece of herself to Luca. She’d been with Jasmine for weeks yet she had never revealed this, yet here she was, an hour into Luca’s company, and she was opening up like a flower in the sun with him. But Luca didn’t seem to notice the revelation, just carried on the conversation where she had so hastily left it.
‘I would not like to be your father.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘I am sure the man must never rest, worrying about his beautiful daughter.’ He’d called her beautiful and instead of flinching or refusing to take the compliment she absorbed it, even felt a little bit beautiful. Luca stared thoughtfully back at her. ‘You’re not going to come tomorrow?’ When she shook her head he pushed for a reason. ‘Can I ask why?’
She paused for a moment before answering, wondered how on earth she could explain that, though she wanted to, though she was more attracted to him than she’d ever been to anyone, it was just too dangerous, too damned scary to let him into her life. ‘I don’t want to complicate my life; the reason I’m travelling is that I’m actually trying to sort a few things out….’ Meg answered as honestly as she could without telling him her painful truth. ‘And, somehow, I don’t think spending time with you is going to help me achieve that.’
‘It might.’
‘I doubt it.’ Meg gave a rueful smile. How could a holiday romance with a royal prince possibly help her find the peace she craved? But never had she been more tempted to relent, the rigid self-discipline she usually lived by treacherously displaced by his presence. ‘It’s been nice meeting you, Luca.’
‘May I kiss you goodbye?’
She’d been about to shake her head, to refuse his request for a kiss goodnight, but his choice of words had her hesitating. It really was goodbye.
A chance encounter that would never in her life be repeated—men like Luca didn’t come around twice in a lifetime—and Meg bit down on her lip, torn between fear and want, sensing the danger yet lusciously curious.
‘I don’t think that’s a very good idea,’ Meg breathed, her hormones weeping in protest as she denied them the goodies that were clearly on offer as her mind scrambled to regain control. ‘Anyway, I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.’ He was watching her mouth as she spoke, as she attempted a joke, attempted to delay the inevitable. ‘We’re supposed to kiss and then you turn into a prince!’
‘For you, maybe there is better.’ His hand was on her cheek, his thumb playing with her lower lip. ‘You deserve better,’ Luca elaborated. ‘Maybe your kiss would make me a king.’
She didn’t know if he was joking, didn’t know if it was just a light-hearted response, and frankly she didn’t care—Luca was as skilled at flirting as he was at manipulating. His mouth was just inches away, teasing her with his breath as he spoke, honing in on her distraction, asking for something only moments ago she wouldn’t have considered.
‘Don’t go to Mont Avellana tomorrow—spend the day with me instead.’
Breathless, dizzy and deliciously disorientated, she struggled with what now seemed a straightforward question, her mind trying to recall the reasons she should decline.
‘The day?’
‘I’ll show you Niroli—and maybe then you’ll decide to stay on for a while, maybe you can find the peace you crave here.’
She opened her mouth to protest, to remind him why she couldn’t stay, but with a few words Luca had made the impossible suddenly feasible. Taking a strand of hair, he brushed it behind her ear, all the while staring into her eyes. ‘We are two very different people but with one constant.’ He didn’t need to elaborate, their arousal, their attraction achingly evident, but Luca broke the contact, stepped back into the hallway and asked her a very pertinent question. ‘Did refusing my kiss give you peace?’
She didn’t say anything but Meg’s answer was obvious, her whole body screaming a protest at Luca’s rapid withdrawal.
‘I will be in the foyer tomorrow at nine.’
He walked away then—Luca’s bid clearly in, leaving it for Meg to decide. He didn’t even offer a backward glance as he walked back along the corridor, leaving Meg jumbled and confused, fumbling in her bag for her keys, then entering her room and sitting on the bed, somehow trying to make sense of all that had occurred.
They couldn’t last.
That much Meg understood.
But they couldn’t end yet either, Meg realised; the attraction was too strong, the emotion too intense to just walk away.
Pulling out her purse, Meg slid her fingers into the wallet and pulled out a well-worn picture, one she hadn’t looked at in weeks, but occasionally, at times like this, when decisions needed to be made, it was called upon. Even though she’d seen it a thousand times, even though she’d lived it, still the image shocked her.
Pained eyes in a gaunt face stared back at Meg, her skeletal frame engulfed by a wheelchair, a nurse at her side holding her hand as she struggled to come up from her lowest point.
There were a million reasons to set her alarm for six and get the hell out of Niroli, to organise her backpack and literally run for the hills.
But there was one very good reason to stay. Falling asleep with the photo still in her hand, Meg was only vaguely aware of Jasmine bumping around in the night, her mind focussed on one thought only.
Tonight, for the first time in her life, and only with Luca, she’d actually felt beautiful.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘I’M GLAD YOU decided to stay.’
As Luca joined her in the crowded foyer, Meg was glad she’d decided to stay too. The hour between waking and seeing him had plagued Meg with doubt and indecision. She was almost sure that her vision of the man she had met last night wouldn’t stand up to the scrutiny of the morning glare, that somehow seeing him again could only taint the delicious memory.
Wrong.
If anything, Luca was more stunning.
Dressed casually in dark denim jeans and a black T-shirt, unshaven and unkempt, he looked even more ravishing, but there was no time for awkward small talk, no time for anything at all really, as Luca took her by her arm and shepherded her out the foyer and straight into the luxurious confines of a sleek silver sports car.
‘I thought today was supposed to be relaxing!’ Meg attempted as the car sped away from the casino.
‘Now, it will be,’ Luca said cryptically, glancing in the rear-view mirror and finally slowing down. ‘I’ll ring Luigi now and tell him I haven’t been kidnapped.’
‘Your bodyguard?’ Meg checked as Luca nodded and punched in speed-dial. Even if her Italian was extremely limited, it soon became clear that Luigi was less than impressed at his boss’s hasty exit.
‘Sorry about that.’ Luca grinned when the call ended. ‘Luigi is supposed to accompany me whenever I go outside the casino or palace. I do not like it.’
‘I wouldn’t either.’ Meg smiled, glancing shyly over to him. ‘I’m glad it’s just us.’
‘Me too.’ Luca nodded. ‘You look wonderful!’
‘Er, I doubt it.’ Meg grimaced. Never had her backpack’s offerings appeared more measly. She’d been hoping to spend yesterday getting acquainted with a washing machine, but for the biggest date of her life she’d been left with no choice other than faded denim shorts and a pale lemon halter-neck. Still, given it was Luca, she’d bypassed her runners for some gorgeous leather sandals she’d purchased in Rome, and instead of scraping her hair back into its usual sightseeing fare of a pony-tail had blow-dried it and left it down. ‘I wasn’t exactly inundated with choice.’
‘Inundated?’ Luca checked.
‘Spoilt …’ Meg attempted to no avail. ‘I don’t have many clothes to choose from—I’ve tried to pack something for most eventualities, but a day trip with royalty wasn’t something I’d planned on!’
‘We may not get into the restaurant I wanted to go to for lunch—I don’t think they allow shorts.’ Luca shrugged ‘.but that’s no problem.’
‘Sorry.’ Meg flinched.
‘I tease you.’ Luca laughed. ‘There are some perks to being a prince—you could be wearing nothing more than a bikini and we would get the best table. I meant what I said—you look wonderful.’
She did.
Luca, too, had been wondering what to expect this morning. So many times before the raw beauty he’d witnessed in a woman had disappeared the second she’d found out who he was—commandeering the salon, spending up in the boutique. He’d almost resigned himself to greeting a stranger this morning, yet here she was, more beautiful, more vibrant, more sexy than the woman he had met last night—acres of soft, browned skin on show, her hair a blond fragrant cloud, and just a slick of gloss on those incredibly kissable lips….
‘Where are we going?’
‘Does it matter?’
Turning his attention from the road for a second, he held her gaze and Meg bit down on her lip, processing his question for a moment before answering, her single-word answer the boldest thing she’d ever said.
‘No.’
In fact, if they never set foot out of the car, Meg wouldn’t have minded. Dressed more casually, and well away from the extravagance and decadence of the casino, Luca was infinitely more relaxed, his company engaging. But Luca actually did have plans for the day. He wanted to show her all that Niroli had to offer and show her he did, gliding the sleek car through the steep hills, at every turn the view even more stunning.
‘No more!’ Luca grinned when Meg begged him to stop for yet another photo shoot. ‘Or you will run out of space—wait till we get to the ruins. We stop now at one of the wineries and I’ll ask them to make us a picnic.’
Which, when it was Luca Fierezza asking, meant that a blanket was included, the hamper groaning under the weight of Niroli delicacies, and Meg wanted to taste them all, only not just yet—first they spent a sun-drenched day exploring. Luca steered them well away from the usual tourist haunts in the south of the island and instead headed north where he showed her the ancient Roman ruins, regaling her with tale after tale, making her privy to information that could never be gleaned from a history book. But as excellent a tourist guide as he made, as much as he seemed to enjoy showing her Niroli, the day was about them—the sultry air thicker somehow when blended with desire, awareness thrumming as they explored, not just the temple and amphitheatre, but each other’s minds. And by the time Luca spread out the blanket and they shared their picnic, Meg knew a single day could never be enough to scratch the surface of all it had to offer—only she wasn’t thinking about Niroli!
‘Here,’ Luca said proudly, pouring her an icy glass of champagne as she gazed around the amphitheatre. ‘There are often concerts held here—there will be one this weekend….’
‘For the Feast?’
‘You have heard about it?’
‘One of the shopkeepers told me.’ Meg gave an abstracted nod, biting into slivers of bitter orange dipped in dark chocolate and closing her eyes as she relished the taste. ‘This,’ she declared, ‘is the nicest thing I’ve ever tasted.’
‘You said that about the olive dip, and then the cannoli. It is good to see someone who likes their food.’ Luca frowned at her reaction. ‘Why does that make you laugh?’
‘It just does.’ Meg’s answer was evasive, a first date not really the best time to slip in the little gem of the eating disorder that had ruled her for years, but, closing her eyes, Meg lay back and smiled as the warm sun bathed her, relishing the moment, his casual observation a revelation. Here, away from it all, for the first time in the longest time, she’d actually forgotten her problem, had just enjoyed food as it should be enjoyed. Oh, she was long past the frantic calorie counts, way, way past controlling every morsel she consumed, but to simply enjoy … Luca could never have even hazarded a guess as to how much this moment meant to her.
‘You are having a good time?’Luca enquired, lying down on the blanket beside her, his body just inches away, so achingly close all Meg wanted to do was reach over and touch him. She could feel the hum of sexual energy between them, his masculinity bathing her now, only with more ferocity than the sun, her skin tingling as even with her eyes still closed she could feel him watching her.
‘It’s been great.’
‘It has …’ Luca let out a long sigh, his body so close she could feel his chest move beside her. ‘It is nice to relax.’
‘I don’t suppose you get much chance,’ Meg offered. ‘What with work and …’ She gave a tiny frown, peeped her eyes open to look at him. ‘Do you have to do all the ceremonial, well … stuff?’ She gave a helpless shrug but thankfully Luca understood.
‘Always there are commitments. Take this weekend—there will be many events I have to attend as a royal prince.’
‘You don’t sound as if you want to?’
‘It is not about want, it is about duty,’ Luca explained. ‘It is what is expected of me—and lately.’ He didn’t finish, just shook his head, but Meg’s curiosity was piqued now.
‘Lately?’ she pushed.
‘You ask too many questions. It is not correct.’
‘Excuse me?’ Meg’s eyes were wide open now as Luca attempted to put her in her place.
‘You should not pry so much. I will tell you what you need to know.’
‘I don’t need to know anything.’ Meg gave a shocked laugh. ‘I was asking because I wanted to know. And don’t pull rank on me when it suits!’
‘It is not about pulling rank—when you are out with royalty—’
‘But I’m not,’ Meg broke in, disarming his rather terse response with a smile. ‘I’m out with Luca—remember? That was the reason you left Luigi behind, that was the whole point of today—to get to know each other a bit better away from it all.’
‘Are you always this argumentative?’
‘Always.’ Meg smiled as Luca’s face blackened. ‘Now, if there’s something you’d prefer not to discuss, then you just have to say so, but, please, don’t hide behind your title!’
Closing her eyes, she lay her head back down and even though her heart was hammering in her chest at the small confrontation, she certainly wasn’t about to let him know that. If Luca thought he could talk to her like that, then he’d better do a quick rethink! And, Meg decided, if he didn’t break the angry silence, then she certainly wouldn’t—she’d start snoring if she had to!
‘When I was younger I.’ as Luca conceded, as he struggled to find the right word, Meg felt her heart soar as she opened her eyes and looked over to him ‘.was a little wild.’
‘A little?’ Meg checked.
‘A lot,’ Luca admitted. ‘Always I was in trouble. Now I stay out of trouble, but the king has a long memory and so do the people of Niroli. He spoke to me recently—told me I have to.’ He gave a frustrated shrug. ‘Now, I prefer not to discuss family business.’
‘Fine.’ Meg smiled. ‘That’s all you had to say.’
‘So, now it is my turn—why did you come?’
‘Because you asked me to.’
‘Not here.’ Luca shook his head. ‘Why did you choose to travel? You said you were here to sort things out. Can I ask what?’
