Claiming the Royal Innocent (Kingdoms & Crowns)

by Jennifer Hayward

“Yes. She did a concert once for us at the hotel. She’s retired now, but I was thinking she’s heavily into her charitable causes. What if you threw a birthday bash for Galina? Nina sings, you donate a sum of money to her charity, everyone wins. It’s an experience money can’t buy. Exactly what might entice Galina to Larikos...”

  His brows came together. “How do we even know Galina is that much of a fan of jazz? People say all sorts of things in profiles to look interesting.”

  “She has one of the most complete collections in the world. The interviewer was wowed by it.”

  He rubbed a palm against the stubble on his cheek. “We don’t have parties, Alex. It’s a poker game.”

  “So you have an opening night reception before you start playing. This is Nina Karvelas. If we could get her to say yes, it would be the coup to end all coups. How could Galina not come?”

  “If her existing birthday plans can’t be changed.”

  “So you find out. I could ask my mother to ask Nina in the meantime.”

  He pursed his lips. Stuck his hands into his pockets.

  “Have you heard from Dimitri?”

  “No.” He gave her a long look. “I need to think about it. And you need to get some clothes on.”

  They walked back to the Jeep and drove back to the Great House. She changed when they got there, had dinner with Aristos, throughout which she kept her mouth shut, a low profile...until he walked her to her bedroom door that was, when she couldn’t resist speaking up.

  “What you told me the night before last,” she said, looking up at him as he rested a palm against the frame of the door, “about your past...about that strength of character you needed to survive, that’s what I took away from our conversation. Not the mistakes, not the dark parts, but the courage, the strength you must have had inside you to not only walk away from a life you knew was wrong, but to cross an ocean, to leave everything you knew behind to be something different.” She shook her head. “That I think is amazing.”

  His gaze darkened. “So good at building fairy tales, Princess. You’re a natural.”

  There he went again, deflecting praise, admiration. Anything that might be construed as good about him. Refusing to acknowledge who he was beneath the layers, because heaven forbid, someone might get close to him.

  She was getting the impression Aristos didn’t know how to be intimate in anything but the physical sense. He didn’t believe in love, treated his relationships like transactions and preserved that protective shell around himself at all costs because he had been built that way, because whatever had happened in his early years to drive him onto the streets had scarred him badly. Impaired his emotional IQ.

  “All right,” he said, still striking that same indolent pose, palm against the door. “You win, because frankly, I need the carrot to dangle in front of Dimitri. Call your mother and see if Nina could make an appearance here. But don’t make any promises.”

  A surge of satisfaction flooded through her. Finally something to sink her teeth into. Now she only hoped Nina would say yes.

  Aristos’s gaze narrowed. “This game is a well-oiled machine, Alex. It runs itself. You’re making one phone call, that’s all.”

  “Yes.” She nodded her head vigorously.

  “As for tonight,” he said softly, straightening away from the door, “you’ve signed your warrant. You have now earned yourself a babysitter in the truest sense of the word.”

  A wary skitter went up her spine. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you and I are going to be joined at the hip, angel. I intend on returning you to Nik in one piece.”

  She pressed her lips together. “That isn’t necessary. I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t take a step out of line.”

  “No, you won’t, because I will be there to make sure you don’t.”

  “Aristos...”

  He sauntered off down the hall toward his room. “Start thinking of creative strategies to keep ourselves in line, Princess. I’m already off and running.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ALEX MADE THE call to her mother the following morning on a still, quiet Akathinian day in which the Carnelian military exercises continued on the waters bounding the two nations, the only sign anything was amiss. Having assured herself her mother was okay, she explained the situation Aristos faced and how Nina could help.

  I owe Nina a call, her mother had said. I’ll see what I can do.

  Setting down the phone, Alex crossed everything. Her impulsive and admittedly recalcitrant behavior last night had had far-reaching consequences. If she could pull this off and Nina said yes, if the Smirnovs took the bait and came to Larikos, she could make amends for her thoughtlessness by planning this party for Aristos. Channel her frustration into something constructive.

  True to his word, Aristos was on her like glue. He had lunch with her, dropped by her surfing lesson in the afternoon and joined her for dinner that evening. When he didn’t have an eye on her, he had one of his dangerous-looking guards keep vigil. It was all getting a bit old by the next morning when her mother called to tell her Nina had said yes—the singer would consider doing the appearance on Larikos in exchange for the proposed donation to the charity of her choice.

  She almost jumped out of her chair with glee, particularly when Nina’s charity turned out to be a program that encouraged kids to learn to read through the power of song. As the singer talked her through it in their follow-up call, Alex’s excitement grew. It was exactly the type of work she wanted to get involved in with her love of reading, she’d told Nina. Something she could really make a difference with.

  She practically flew over the beach to Aristos’s office, one of his professional shadows hot on her heel.

  “You’ve made your point,” she said, stopping in front of his desk. “You can call the dogs off now.”

  “I don’t think so,” he drawled, sitting back in his chair, gaze lingering on the sweep of her legs in the shorts she wore. “I like having you on a leash, Princess. It gives me great peace of mind.”

  “Call them off,” she said firmly, “or I will phone my mother back and tell her Nina’s services aren’t required. She said yes, by the way.”

  A slow smile curved his mouth. “Nicely done.”

  “I have been negotiating contracts for the hotel for years,” she said crisply. “Do we have a deal?”

  “Yes. But if you ever wander off like that again, there will be consequences, angel.” He crossed his arms over his chest, that lethal gaze resting on her. “Don’t let my imagination run wild.”

  Her lashes lowered, heat shimmering through her. She couldn’t help but imagine what those consequences would be. She should be ignoring him. Instead she couldn’t stop thinking about that fantasy he’d painted of her in his bed, kissing, tasting her all over...

  “Still working on those creative strategies?” Aristos’s taunting gibe brought her gaze up to his. “Looks like it’s still a work in progress.”

  Diavole. She folded her arms. “How are yours coming? You seemed quite interested in my legs when I walked in.”

  He lifted a shoulder. “I’m a leg man, Alex. I’d have to be dead not to look at yours. Besides, I have strategies.”

  “Like what?”

  “I drew up a list of dinner topics. Wait until you sit down—you won’t believe how dry it’s going to be. The weather, the spectacular meteor shower that’s coming and the fascinating scientific phenomena behind it, what a charitable board member does in all its intricate, excruciating detail so you have your expectations set...” He waved a hand at her. “All guaranteed to have us dying for a good book.”

  All guaranteed to ensure they didn’t have to engage in the intimate type of conversation he clearly preferred to avoid.

  “How studious of you,” she said. “My strategy is to get Galina to bite so I can plan this event and have something to do.”

  “If I let you plan the event.”

  “Oh, didn’t I mention that?” She put her
fingers to her mouth. “That’s part of the deal.”

  He gave her a long look. Summoned her into a chair to go through the details. She sat, crossing her legs to give him maximum view, enjoying the power that surged through her when he took advantage of the opportunity to study the scenery with unabashed fascination.

  “The exciting thing,” she said, “is that Nina’s new charity is about engaging youth in education through the power of song. She said we can talk when she comes, and if it seems like a good fit, we could work together.”

  He tore his gaze away from her legs. “A match made in heaven. That’s good news. A happy princess might actually allow things to return to normal around here.”

  She made a face at him. “Do you want to hear the details? Nina has some requests.”

  “Go ahead.” She went through the list of conditions the jazz singer had detailed. When Aristos approved them all, she left him to call Dimitri.

  It was midafternoon, her surfing lesson about to begin, when he found her on the beach, a triumphant glitter in his eyes. “He said yes.”

  Her heart swelled, a buzz of excitement zigzagging through her. “Will you let me plan the party?”

  “Yes.” His gaze narrowed. “You own those two hours before the game. Work with Carin on the logistics. She’ll have my security team do background checks on Galina’s guests. But not another foot out of the box, Princess. You and this game are not mixing.”

  She gave him a salute. “Aye, aye, captain.”

  “Also, you are not supposed to be here. You will simply be Alex that weekend. Understood?”

  She nodded.

  He waved her off to join Diego. She turned and headed toward her instructor, a huge smile on her face.

  “Alex?”

  She swung around.

  “Thank you.”

  A warm feeling spread through her. “Don’t thank me yet. I still have a party to throw.”

  * * *

  Alex took her mandate and ran with it. With the party only two and a half weeks away, there was a great deal to do in a short period of time. She created a menu for the party, a special bohemian decor for the bonfire setting and liaised with Nina on her requirements for the performance and her travel and with Galina on her guests and special requests for the evening.

  Luckily, event planning was a skill she’d mastered at the hotel. She created a critical path of things to do and checked them off as the days slid by, working furiously to ensure that every detail of Nina’s performance would be perfect, because impressing the Smirnovs was so critically important to Aristos.

  Aristos continued to work day and night between his spot checks on her, his tension palpable as the poker game approached. He rose with the sun and worked late into the night, more driven than any human being she’d ever encountered.

  Now she knew where that drive came from. He had known what it was like to have nothing, had built his business from the ground up, and that business was being threatened.

  If the questions in her head grew ever more persistent—about the early experiences that had caused him to cut himself off emotionally from the world, what had happened to send him out onto the streets—she kept them to herself as they tiptoed around their perpetual awareness of each other.

  She was finding her feet. It felt good to be contributing. Her mantra was to stay out of trouble, pull off a great party. Which meant keeping her attraction to Aristos buried deep.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  HIS KEY INVESTORS locked down for the game, Aristos turned his attention to the rest of his business he’d been neglecting as he attempted to hold the Akathinian project together.

  It was a daunting task. With thirty-three hotels in eleven countries, he relied on his property and country managers to handle issues in his absence and keep things afloat. Luckily, the team he’d handpicked was superior, and by the Thursday before his poker weekend, he’d caught up to a point where things were once again running like a well-oiled machine. His creative strategies for avoiding his attraction to his princess, however, could use some work.

  With both of them on their best behavior and Alex immersed in the party planning, he would have thought the undercurrent between them would have faded. Instead it had grown stronger.

  If he’d found her undeniably attractive before, Alex in her element, brimming with confidence, was even sexier. It was impossible not to respond to the vibrant, enthusiastic flip side to her vulnerability as she chatted about how the party was coming along at dinner and the ideas she had. It was like watching her potential surface, and it did something funny to his insides.

  She was smart, creative and perceptive, her glass-half-full approach to life a fascinating, compelling foil for his jaded view of the world. Which subsequently rendered his list of strategies, his attempts at dry, safe dinner conversation, wholly ineffective. He, a creature who thrived on self-inflicted solitary confinement, looked forward to her company at dinner every night.

  A buzz sounded from his desk. His gaze flicked to his mobile. David.

  “Just checking to see if you’re still alive,” his mentor said drily. “You’ve gone deep underground.”

  Which in the past had not always been a good sign. When his darkness caught up with him... He got up to roam to the window, the moon a thin new slice in a dark sky. “Been busy pinning down investors for the game.”

  “Got everyone you need?”

  “Now I have. Dimitri was being elusive.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. “You sure you trust him? I can try to line something else up here.”

  “I’ve got it,” he said, his tone clipped. He wasn’t about to let his mentor, a man who owned half of Las Vegas, rush to his rescue. Especially when David had made it clear he thought he’d pushed it too far this time.

  “I appreciate the offer,” he added in a more conciliatory tone. “But I’m good. I am looking forward to seeing you, though. Going to ditch those amateur bets you were making last year?”

  “Going to get over the need to prove yourself? You’ve done it a hundred times over, Aristos.”

  And there it was, David’s usual slice of advice delivered in a succinct left hook. He picked up the stress ball sitting on the windowsill and crushed it between his fingers. “Maybe when Akathinia’s done.”

  Maybe when he felt he had the respect due to him that had never quite seemed to come. When his critics finally stopped finding reasons, trumped-up flaws in his visions, to leave him waiting in the wings while his competitors graced the covers of glossy magazines.

  David bantered on for a few minutes, then signed off to go to bed. Aristos put the phone down, rested his palms on the sill and looked out at the perfection of a clear Larikos night.

  The sense of accomplishment the rush of the week had provided faded in the silence of the darkened room, a bone weariness settling over him. When are you going to get over trying to prove yourself?

  He was tired of fighting, he acknowledged. Exhausted from attempting to one-up the competition to get to the pinnacle—to be the name on everyone’s lips in a fickle entertainment industry that changed on a dime. He thought maybe Akathinia had to be it. The one. Wasn’t sure how much he had left in him.

  He stared out at the clear, bright sky, littered with a sea of stars. What weighed on his mind, ate away at him when he allowed himself time to think, was what he would find when that day came—when he’d exorcised his demons, what he’d find underneath. He suspected it would be an empty shell—that he’d traded his soul for success.

  It was why being in perpetual motion was the only way he knew how to operate. Pushing away from the window, he was about to return to his desk to finish up the report he’d been working on when a flash of white caught his eye, picked up by the floodlights on the beach. Alex, who’d stopped working hours ago with most of the details for the party wrapped, stopped under a palm tree, reached into her beach bag and pulled out a blanket. Shaking it out on the sand, she sat down, her eyes on the
sky.

  The meteor shower was tonight. He’d totally forgotten. In actual fact, despite his sarcasm, he found them fascinating and stunningly beautiful.

  Like the woman who sat waiting for the show.

  He should finish the report. Instead he found himself shutting off the lights and heading for the beach, his footsteps measured and purposeful. Just like that night in the palace gardens, it was clear to him he should be walking in the opposite direction from the one he was. But he was afraid he’d think too much in his own head, so he walked toward temptation instead.

  He’d been resisting her for two weeks. Surely he had this down by now?

  Alex looked up as he approached. “There are still front-row seats available.”

  “You remembered.” His gaze touched her tanned, shapely thighs revealed by the modest hem of the shorts she wore, the kind of curves that stopped a man in the street. He didn’t need to see more to know they were the perfect toned framework for the fantasies he’d had. Fantasies that involved him ordering her to wrap them around him as he demonstrated what steady-as-they-go Sebastien had clearly not had in his repertoire.

  Hot, hard and memorable.

  Color darkened her cheekbones. “Your scintillating, well-versed recap of the sight to be seen wouldn’t allow me to stay away. I will, however, point out those types of looks are not within our rules.”

  “True,” he agreed, settling himself down beside her on the blanket. “I, however, am in a bit of a mood. You want careful, Princess, you should send me on my way.”

  She stayed where she was, still as a statue. His excellent peripheral vision caught the big inhale that lifted her chest before she pulled her knees up to it and wrapped her arms around them.

  “I thought you’d solved your biggest problem with Dimitri.”

  He settled himself back on his elbows. “I’m not getting a good vibe from him. I still have to convince him not to bolt.”

  “What happens if he does?”

  “It leaves me one hundred million dollars short of financing. Not to mention the precedent that could set for other investors.”