The Royal Couple: A Christian Romance (Royals Book 1)

by Nicole Taylor

  “So, now that we’re done, William, may I ask you off the record, are you seeing anyone?” Conchita asked as she flipped her raven hair over one shoulder with the confidence of a woman who knows how pretty she is.

  William raised an eyebrow. He didn’t respond at first. Instead he slowly raised the glass of club soda to his lips and watched her. He considered how he should answer and where this line of questioning was going.

  At another time in his life, Conchita was someone he would have dated. She was pretty, intelligent and funny. Now, though, his thoughts just drifted again to Barbara. He compared her to this sparkling woman and, as always, found that no other woman could match Barbara’s charm. No other woman in the world. He sighed inwardly. If he was not successful in wooing her back maybe he’d just join a monastery. She had clearly ruined him for any other woman.

  “Why do you ask, Conchita?”

  “To satisfy my personal curiosity, I guess. You must know that Forbes recently published a list of the ten most eligible billionaire bachelors and you were at number one.”

  William snorted. “What was the criteria?”

  “Obviously, you’ve got to be a billionaire. Then you’ve got to be single. And while there were two on the list who had a net worth slightly higher than yours, you killed in the looks and youth department. Hence, your number one position. So, is there a Lady William Lamport anywhere on the horizon?”

  William still didn’t answer her question. He was thoughtful for a moment as he reflected on what she had said about his net worth. He leaned towards Conchita and asked softly, “Exactly what is the purpose of a list like that do you think?”

  Conchita threw back her head and laughed, as though tickled. “Why, to let women know exactly what’s available for when they’re going shopping what do you think?”

  William leaned back again. “Ahh. Interesting. I guess other important factors like how these men treat women, whether they are good citizens, sober, kind etcetera, never enters the picture.”

  Conchita looked confused. “I’d say those things would certainly be assets.”

  “I’d think they should be the first consideration. If they aren’t a woman could easily find herself married to a man who’s fifty shades of nasty.”

  Conchita cackled. “Oh, William, you’re so funny.”

  “I’m actually quite serious, Conchita. Money isn’t everything. Personally, I’d prefer to know that a woman was more interested in getting to know me than getting to know the size of my bank account.”

  William’s thoughts turned to Barbara as he said this. He had never gotten the impression, even when they had first met, that she was interested in what he possessed. Just like he hadn’t cared about her stardom. Their interest in each other had to do with their personalities and characters. Of course she was a hugely successful woman in her own right but even if she was to lose everything, her money, her fame, her good looks, he’d still love and want her, because of the type of person she was. That’s what had won his love.

  Conchita shrugged. “Considering who you are it may be difficult to determine whether a woman is attracted to you for who you are or what you have. What woman wouldn’t want to marry a fabulously wealthy man especially if he looks like you? She would be a very rare person.”

  “Oh, I assure you there are such women out there.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Barbara was in traffic and she wasn’t too happy. No, the traffic part was okay. It was the William Lamport situation that was causing her extreme discomfort.

  She had dismissed the idea of asking William Lamport to invest in her movie out of hand. She didn’t have to pray about it. She knew that it was the sensible thing to do. It was like asking God if she should walk in front of a bus driving at top speed. Some things were just common sense. She wanted to put as much distance between her and William Lamport as possible, not get him more entangled in her affairs.

  The man had only been back in her life for three weeks and already he was disturbing her equilibrium. Take Sunday at her mother’s house, for example. She had let down her guard for that short period. Allowed him to get close to her again. It was certain that no good deed goes unpunished. He had repaid her by interrogating her about why she had married Jacques so quickly after he had dumped her. Just the nerve of it, the cheek, the temerity made her shake her head in annoyance.

  She remembered his sunglasses in her bag and contemplated tossing them in the nearest bin when she got home. He was loaded. He probably had a pair of sunglasses for each day of the week. He’d hardly miss them if they were gone.

  Barbara cringed as she was instantly convicted of her uncharitable thoughts.

  No, what she should do was post them to him. In fact, now that she thought of it, she should have asked Beverly to take them over to him herself.

  Drop them off at his hotel, a voice in her head said.

  Barbara groaned. Fine, she would drop them off – at the reception desk. She didn’t need to see William. In fact, it was clear from his loud silence that he didn’t want to see her anyway.

  In the lobby, she put on her own large sunglasses and made a beeline for the reception desk. She wanted to be in and out as fast as possible. She didn’t want to risk running into him.

  A pleasant looking young man greeted her. “Good afternoon ma’am. Welcome to the Waldorf International Hotel and Towers. How may I be of assistance?”

  “Hi, I just have something to leave for William Lamport. May I leave it with you?”

  The young man’s smile broadened with dawning recognition. “Certainly, Miss Dickson,” he replied. “Would you like me to see if Lord Lamport is in or do you just want to leave the item with me?”

  Barbara glanced at the young man’s name tag. “Um, Tom, I’d be happy to leave the item with you,” she said with a forced smile.

  “Would you like me to take a message to accompany the item, Miss Dickson?”

  Barbara groaned inside. So much for in and out. What was this, 20 Questions? “No, Tom. As you can see the ‘item’ is a pair of sunglasses. Just tell Lord Lamport that I dropped them off, no further explanation needed.”

  “Thank you, Miss Dickson. I will certainly do that. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

  “Nothing at all.”

  “Very well, Ma’am. Have a wonderful day!”

  “You too, Tom.” Barbara said and turned away from the marble counter with a sigh of relief.

  She froze.

  Approaching from the elevators just to her left, was William Lamport. And he was laughing with a gorgeous, dark-haired woman who was really working it in a too short, too tight skirt and impossibly high heels.

  Chapter 17

  William was walking Conchita to the lobby. He’d been forced to hasten her departure. Her body language had suggested that she was flirting and he needed to put a halt to it right away. Sure, she was an attractive and intelligent woman but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t looking for a woman. He had already found the only woman he wanted.

  He had politely explained to Conchita that he had other business to attend to so they would have to part company. The other business, of course, was to contact Barbara as soon as possible. He missed her like crazy and he needed to hear her voice, even if she was still mad at him. He could take whatever she dished out. What he couldn’t take was this distance and silence.

  He escorted Conchita down in the elevator and on their way to the lobby he was laughing at a funny comment she had made when he looked up and his heart threatened to leap out of his chest.

  Standing several feet from him was Barbara.

  William couldn’t help it, his face broke out in a grin so wide he felt as though his face would split in two.

  Conchita followed his gaze.

  “That’s Barbara Dickson!” she exclaimed in surprise.

  William nodded. “Yes it is. I need to talk to her. Please excuse me.”

  Conchita’s shrewd brown eyes darted between Barbara and William.
She’d finally figured out the pieces to the puzzle. Conchita felt any hope for romance with William Lamport die. She saw the besotted look on his face as he stared at Barbara Dickson. How could any woman on Earth or Mars compete with that?

  Ever resilient, she decided to see if she could at least get an interview with the movie star out of the whole thing.

  “Could you introduce us William? I’d love to interview her for Riches. I hear that she has managed to make and amass great wealth through shrewd investments. Plus she’s a successful business woman. I’d love to have her share her experience and wisdom with our readers.”

  William briefly considered Conchita’s request. He really wanted to get Barbara alone as soon as possible, but he didn’t want to appear rude or churlish, especially since he had just hurried her out of his condo.

  “Sure, Conchita,” he replied.

  They walked towards Barbara. Was it his imagination or did he see a spark of jealousy in her eyes. The look was gone so quickly and replaced by a relaxed, nonchalant demeanor that he wondered if he had imagined it.

  While he felt like hugging her tightly, he instead leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

  “Hello, Barbara. Great to see you. This is Conchita Ochoa. She’s a reporter from Riches Magazine. We just finished an interview. Conchita, Barbara Dickson.”

  Conchita laughed and stuck a bangle-jingling hand towards Barbara.

  “Miss Dickson, so happy to make your acquaintance. I begged William for an introduction. I’d love to do a feature on you for Riches.”

  “Pleased to meet you as well. I’m sure that interview can be arranged.”

  “Great,” Conchita gushed. She reached into her purple bag and took out a business card. “Is there a number I can reach you or your assistant at?”

  Barbara gave Conchita the contact number, then Conchita thanked William again for the interview and was gone.

  Barbara and William stood in the lobby watching each other.

  William grinned at her. Barbara glared at him.

  Finally, she said, “I came to drop off your sunglasses. You left them at my mother’s house on Sunday. I gave them to Tom at reception. Goodbye.”

  She turned to go, but William caught her arm. He stepped closer to her and said in a low tone. “Not so fast. We need to talk.”

  “I can’t—”

  “Yes, you can and you will. We can talk now in public or we can talk back in my condo in private, whichever you prefer. But we will be having a conversation.”

  For a few beats she continued to glare at him, then she sighed. “Fine.”

  “Fine what?”

  “We can go to your condo. But I can’t stay long.”

  “I think you should unfold your arms and stop pouting. People may think we’re having a lovers’ quarrel.”

  That did the trick.

  Instantly Barbara dropped her hands, relaxed her face, and assumed a more casual, relaxed posture.

  William hid his smirk.

  As they rode the elevator, Barbara commented, “She’s pretty.”

  “Who?”

  “Ms. Ochoa.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay what?”

  “Okay, if you say so.”

  Barbara glanced at him with narrowed eyes. “Are you saying you didn’t notice?”

  William met her eyes in the reflective elevator doors. “I’m saying that I’ve only got eyes for one woman. And frankly every other woman pales in comparison to her.”

  He watched with interest as a flush made its way across Barbara’s cheeks. She didn’t respond for another minute, then she cleared her throat and said, “So, I guess you’ve been busy huh?”

  William fixed his gaze on the floor numbers. He had no intention of having an intimate discussion with Barbara in a hotel elevator.

  70, 71, 72, 73.

  He shrugged. “I guess you can say that. You as well huh?”

  79, 80, 81, 82.

  “Yes. Definitely.”

  87, 88, 89, 90, Ping.

  The elevator doors slid open. William gestured for Barbara to exit ahead of him. Once in the Condo, He invited her to have a seat in the living room.

  “Can I get you anything to drink?” he asked as she sat. Alfred had gone to run errands for him.

  “No, I just had lunch,” she primly lapped her long legs and stared him down.

  “Not even water?” he teased.

  His remark coaxed a smile out of her. “No, not even water.”

  He sat beside her. “I know that a gentleman lets the lady go first but in this case I think I need to lead off. Barbara, I was way out of line on Sunday. I had no right insinuating that you shouldn’t have married Jacques Annuad. After the way things ended between us I had no right to expect anything from you.”

  She looked down at her hands for a short while then she met his eyes and replied, “I’m sorry too. It was wrong of me to respond so angrily. I lashed out at you and I know I said some really hurtful things.” She paused and took a deep breath. “The truth is I don’t place you in the same category as Jacques at all. I believe now that you didn’t mean to hurt me. I think you did what you thought was right. You –”

  “Do you think I did what was right?” he interjected urgently.

  Her eyes widened and she hesitated. “I…I’m not sure.”

  “You still think that I should have abandoned Victoria after getting her pregnant.”

  “What was really the worse that could have happened if you’d chosen to marry me instead?” She finally asked.

  “She miscarried anyway so I guess in the end, nothing. But say she hadn’t miscarried. For me it would have been the absolute disgrace of having abandoned the mother of my child to raise my son – or daughter – on her own.”

  “But knowing the type of man you are she wouldn’t have raised the child on her own. You would have had a part in raising that child.”

  “My bastard you mean.”

  “William!”

  “No, Barbara, let’s be blunt. While ‘bastard’ may be considered an outdated term in some circles, not so in mine. Imagine my son having to grow up with the stain of that label. Being sent to all the fine private schools, sharing space with nobility and being teased about the circumstances of his birth, and I would have caused that. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself. Not to mention the fact that Victoria would have had to bear that shame all her life. She would’ve been considered tainted goods in our circle. No self-respecting nobleman would’ve married her after that. As a divorcée she would have stood a better chance.”

  “Maybe you could have married her and then divorced her. I don’t know.” She shrugged helplessly and looked down at her lap.

  “Is that really the type of man you would have wanted in your life. A man who made a commitment, exchanged vows with a woman, with every intention of breaking them?”

  Twin red spots rushed to Barbara’s cheeks. “I guess not,” she said in a small voice.

  “Do you see why I made the choice I did, then?”

  Her eyes met his. “Yes. But why did you still keep your engagement with Victoria for weeks after she miscarried. Why didn’t you jump on the first plane and come get me after she’d lost the baby if you really did loved me.”

  “I wanted to, you can’t imagine how much I wanted to, but she was so distraught I felt that it would be too much for her to cope with, losing the child and then losing me.”

  “But you still broke up anyway so what changed?”

  “She recovered from the whole thing surprisingly quickly so I was confident she’d cope if I broke our engagement. So that’s what I did. I wanted you back so badly. My only concern was that you wouldn’t take me back. I never dreamt that you would have married someone else.”

  She took a deep, shaky breath. “You’re right about one thing, I shouldn’t have rushed headlong into marriage with Jacques. It was as though I felt I needed a man to complete me. I have come to realize that’s not true.�
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  William’s pulse raced as terror gripped him. What on earth did that statement mean? “So all I’ve just said means nothing then?”

  “I understand now your reasoning back then, but I’m not willing to risk everything again the way I did when we met. I was too heavily invested in our relationship. I gave everything emotionally to you. I don’t ever want to be that vulnerable again, William. I can’t give another person that power over me.”

  “So does that mean that if I had contacted you before you’d married Jacques and begged you to forgive me and take me back you wouldn’t have?”

  Barbara closed her eyes and ran her hands over her face. When she opened them they were shining with tears.

  “Yes, I’m sure I would have,” she whispered. “I was so in love with you. There was a part of me that kept wishing up until the time I married Jacques that you’d turn up and whisk me away. I hate to admit it but that’s one of the reasons I don’t hold any ill feelings toward Jacques. I consider him as much of a victim as I was. You see, when I married him I knew deep down that I was still in love with you. I just wanted to feel valued, and I also wanted to show you that another man wanted me, to prove to you that what you’d done hadn’t mattered. He might have been unfaithful to me in his actions but I was unfaithful to him in my heart.”

  “So what has changed? What’s the difference between then and now. I’m here asking you to give us another chance.”

  “Haven’t you heard a word I said? I’ve matured that’s what’s changed.”

  “You call this maturity, building walls around your heart, shutting me out?” he asked, incredulously.

  “William, let’s not argue about this, please. Just respect my wishes.”

  “Your wish that…”

  “That we be just friends, for now.”

  He pinched his lips together. It was emotionally draining battling this stubborn woman.

  “Fine.”

  “Thank you.” Barbara reached for her handbag and stood. “I have to leave.”

  William stood with her. “I’m glad you came over. Glad we had this talk. Friends again?” he stuck out a hand.