He ran to the shore. The boat was gone. There was no sign of Callie. Everyone had been shocked by his announcement of their engagement, and now Max was causing trouble again. He had a stark choice to make. Callie, or the future of Fabrizio. There was no choice. Stripping off his clothes, he dived into the lake.
Relief surged through him when he spotted her pacing the shore. ‘Callie,’ he exclaimed, springing out of the water. Striding up to her, he seized hold of her and demanded she look at him. ‘What’s wrong? What happened back there?’
‘You happened,’ she said.
Her voice was faint, but the fire in her eyes was brighter than ever. She was hurt, bitterly hurt. He knew all the signs. Max had always been an expert when it came to wounding with words.
‘Thank you for telling me how badly you needed an heir,’ she said tensely, sarcastically.
‘Meaning?’ he demanded.
‘I’m told your constitution demands it, if you’re to keep the throne.’ There were tears of anger and distress in her eyes. ‘I would have been quicker off the mark getting pregnant, if you’d told me.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he flared. ‘What on earth has Max said to you?’
‘Only the truth, I believe.’
A muscle jerked in his jaw. He couldn’t even deny it, and had to listen to his brother’s poison flooding from Callie’s mouth.
‘Max said that making an heir is the only reason you had sex with me.’
‘I didn’t have sex with you,’ he insisted. ‘I made love to you.’
‘Maybe.’ She hesitated a little. ‘But how do I know that’s true, now I know you had a motive?’
‘Why can’t you believe in yourself, Callie? Why won’t you believe how much I need you?’
‘Because it’s convenient for you to have me,’ she exclaimed. ‘A convenient womb, Max called me. He says your primary concern is to build a dynasty.’
‘My primary concern is you,’ he argued fiercely.
‘It doesn’t feel that way to me, Luca. You made the announcement of our engagement without asking me first, without giving me chance to consider what I’m getting into. My late father used to tell me what I could and couldn’t do, and I swore that I would never fall into that trap again.’
‘This isn’t a trap. You’re not thinking straight, Callie.’
‘I’m thinking perfectly,’ she fired back. ‘It’s just a pity I haven’t been thinking perfectly from the start.’
‘That’s your hormones talking.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ she warned him. ‘What was your plan, Luca? We marry, I have the baby, and then your people organise a convenient divorce? You don’t have much time to play with, do you? Pregnancy sets a clock ticking, and so does the constitution of Fabrizio, Max tells me. Tonight was the perfect opportunity for you to announce our engagement. I imagine you’d have had us married by the end of the month, so that everything would be finalised before my pregnancy becomes obvious.’
He couldn’t argue. So much of what she said was true, but his feelings when he’d discovered Callie was pregnant had been real and strong. A baby. A child. A family. Everything he’d always dreamed of had been suddenly within his reach. For a man used to subduing or ignoring his emotions, he’d been overwhelmed, and not just because Callie would provide him with the longed-for heir. She was the perfect woman, who would become the perfect mother. She would be his perfect bride, and would transition seamlessly into a much-loved princess. ‘What’s so terrible about becoming my wife?’
‘If you don’t know,’ she said, sounding sad, ‘I can’t tell you. I suggest you forget about me, and ask one of those princesses to be your wife. You’ll hardly be short of replacements for me.’
‘Aggravating woman!’ he roared. ‘I don’t want a replacement. I want you.’
‘You can’t have everything you want, Luca.’
‘Are you saying no?’ he demanded with incredulity.
‘I’m saying no,’ Callie confirmed.
‘But you’ll be a princess.’
‘Of what?’ she demanded. ‘All you’re offering is a temporary position, an empty life in a foreign country with a man who only wants me for my child-bearing capabilities.’
‘That’s Max talking. Don’t listen to him.’
‘I don’t want that for our child,’ she said, ignoring him, ‘and I don’t want to be a princess in a loveless marriage. I can’t snuggle up to a tiara at night. I’d rather be back home in one room with my baby.’
‘That isn’t your choice to make,’ he said, adopting a very different tone.
‘Are you threatening me?’ she said quietly.
‘I’m reminding you that you’re carrying the heir to the principality of Fabrizio, and that neither you nor I can change that fact.’
‘And thank God for it,’ she whispered as blood drained from her face. ‘But there is something I can do.’
‘Which is?’ he demanded suspiciously.
‘Unless you intend to keep me here by force, I can return home to spend Christmas with friends I can trust. You took my trust and abused it,’ she accused. ‘And tonight I learned that you took my body and used that too.’
‘What? Dio! Never!’ He raked his still-damp hair with frustration. ‘Don’t we know each other better than this? Yes, passion drove us initially. And yes, your pregnancy was convenient. I won’t deny it. But it means so much more to me now. You mean so much more. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I feel—’ He stopped. He couldn’t even put into words how many feelings he was dealing with. For a man who’d spent most of his life avoiding emotion, he was drowning in them. ‘I respect you and I always will,’ he stated firmly. ‘Please give some thought to what becoming my wife will mean.’
‘I have,’ Callie assured him quietly, ‘and it’s not what I want.’
‘What do you want?’ he demanded fiercely. He’d do anything to put this right.
‘I want love and respect on both sides,’ she said without hesitation. ‘I want friendship that makes both of us smile, and I want trust like a rock we can both depend on. I want to honour the man who is my lover, my friend, and the father of my child, as he honours me. And I want my independence. I’ve fought too hard to lose that now.’
‘You’ll have it as my wife,’ he asserted confidently.
‘And as your Princess?’ When he didn’t answer, because he knew only too well the restrictions that royal life imposed, she continued, ‘I’ve spent too much of my life caged, and I won’t exchange one cage for another, however big an upgrade that might seem to you. And it’s not what I want for our child. I want us all to be free. I know I’m a fantasist,’ she added in a calmer voice, ‘and I know I want too much. I should have realised that from the start.’
‘Callie!’
‘No. Don’t try to stop me,’ she called back as she ran back to the lake. ‘We were never meant to be together. Max is right. I can’t marry a prince—this is over,’ she flared, trying to shake him off when he caught up with her.
‘It doesn’t need to end here,’ he said firmly, holding her still.
‘Yes, it does.’ With a violent tug she broke free. ‘Goodbye, Luca—’
‘But I love you.’
She stopped on the edge of the lake. Whether she intended to swim back or row back, he had no idea. He did know she was furious. ‘You love me?’ she said tensely. ‘Yet you didn’t think to tell me this before tonight? It sounds like you’re desperate to keep me here.’
‘I am desperate, but not for the reasons you think. You’re more to me than you could ever know, more than Max could even comprehend.’
She shook her head. ‘You had to be sure of me, didn’t you, Luca? That’s why you made the announcement of our engagement tonight in front of so many witnesses.’
‘You’re not listening, Callie. I love you. And you’re right. I should have told you long before now, but I didn’t realise it myself. I didn’t recognise the symptoms,’ he admitted ruefully, raking h
is hair with frustration. ‘I’m not exactly familiar with love in all its guises.’
‘Your father didn’t love you?’ she challenged with an angry gesture.
‘The Prince loved me, but it wasn’t easy for me to trust him enough to return his love, not as soon as he wanted, anyway.’
‘He must have been a patient man.’
‘He was.’
‘Know this, Luca. Nothing will change my mind. I don’t want a work in progress, while you discover your feelings. I want the boy who made his home in the Coliseum and dreamed of what he would one day become. I want the man who made that happen. Don’t you dare make your past an excuse. I haven’t.’
That was true. She shamed him. ‘How can I prove that I love you?’
‘By letting me go,’ she said with her usual frankness.
* * *
Back home at the Browns’, the ache in Callie’s heart at the absence of Luca was like a big, gaping wound that refused to heal. Even the Browns’ famously over-the-top Christmas preparations couldn’t do anything to mend it. Seeing Anita again had helped, Callie conceded as she smiled across the room at her friend from the lemon groves. Anita had become a most welcome fixture at the Browns’. On her return, Callie had persuaded Anita, who lived alone in a rented room, to take a job close by, and the Browns had offered to rent her a room. They always welcomed help with the younger children and Anita would never be alone again, Ma Brown had promised. Anita had a proper family now—if she could stand the noise and chaos. Anita could certainly do that, and had fitted right in.
‘Come on, our Callie,’ Ma Brown insisted as she bustled into the room they called the front parlour. ‘Anita, I need you to help me in the kitchen, and, Rosie, you and Callie still have the rest of those crêpe paper streamers to hang.’
‘And make,’ Rosie pointed out as she glanced at the uncut reams of crinkled paper and then at Callie’s preoccupied face. ‘Come on, I’ll help you.’ Kneeling down at Callie’s side, Rosie waited until her mother had left the room before putting an arm around Callie’s shoulders. ‘I know you haven’t said anything in front of the family, but you can’t keep bottling this up. And you can’t keep refusing to speak to him,’ Rosie added. ‘If Prince Luca comes to England to see you—’
‘Do you know something?’ Callie asked. Her heart soared at the thought of seeing Luca again, even as her rational mind told her she could never be a princess, so it was better not to see him at all.
‘Not exactly,’ Rosie admitted uncomfortably. ‘I’m just saying that if Luca did turn up, you should see him.’
‘I don’t have to see anyone,’ Callie argued stubbornly, but her heart was beating so fast just at the thought of seeing Luca again that she could hardly breathe. Was he in the country, maybe somewhere close by? There was no smoke without fire, she concluded, glancing at Rosie, who refused to meet her eyes.
‘We’d better get these streamers made,’ Rosie said, acting as if the lack of paper decorations was the only crisis looming, ‘or there’ll be hell to pay.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
CALLIE FROZE. THEY had just sat down to the most mouth-watering Christmas feast when an imperative knock sounded at the door.
‘I’ll answer it,’ Pa Brown insisted when Callie moved to get out of her chair.
‘Let him go,’ Ma Brown said to everyone with a calming gesture. ‘Whoever’s there, we can’t leave a stranger on the doorstep today.’
That was no stranger, Callie thought, shivering inwardly with excitement as the distinctive sound of Luca’s dark, husky voice made everyone sit up and take notice. The air changed, stilled, and was suddenly charged with electricity as, quite improbably, His Serene Highness, Prince Luca of Fabrizio, stood framed in the narrow doorway. Radiating glamour, presence, and an irrational amount of heat, Luca was a starry visitor to the homey Christmas at the Browns’. His stare locked briefly with Callie’s. That short look carried more heat, more passion and determination than she could stand. It was almost a relief when he turned to greet everyone else in the room.
‘This is wonderful,’ Luca exclaimed, sucking in a deep, appreciative breath as Pa Brown relieved him of his rugged jacket. ‘I didn’t realise how hungry I was, until I smelled this delicious food.’ His gaze swept over Callie before he smiled at Ma Brown. ‘Do you have room for one more?’
‘Most certainly,’ Ma Brown exclaimed, leaping up from the table.
In a midnight-blue fine-knit sweater that clung lovingly to his magnificent frame, and beat-up jeans moulding his muscular thighs, Luca was an improbable giant in their midst. Callie couldn’t help but remember having those thighs locked around her as they made love, and her longing for Luca surged as his stare found hers and this time lingered. Her heart was gunned into action. She hadn’t realised how much she’d missed him. Snow dusted his ink-black hair, making it twinkle and gleam. If she’d never met him before and didn’t know his history, if someone had told her that Luca was a cage fighter she’d have believed them. He certainly wasn’t her childhood idea of Prince Charming. But fairy tales were a long way behind them now. Sex radiated from him like sparks from a Catherine wheel, though his eyes were full of warmth for the Browns, and for Anita. ‘Don’t I know you from Italy?’ he asked Anita.
‘You do, Your Serene Highness,’ Anita admitted, blushing.
‘Call me Luca,’ he said. ‘You know the rules.’
As Anita and Luca laughed together, Callie thought him so infectiously warm, so vital and compelling. ‘I hope I’m not intruding,’ he said, noticing that the Browns were all staring at him open-mouthed.
‘Not at all,’ Pa Brown was quick to reassure him.
‘Good,’ Luca declared, ‘because I’m here to claim my bride.’
The younger Browns stared at Luca, while the rest carried on as if nothing unusual had occurred. Callie moved first. Pushing her chair back, she put down her napkin. If it hadn’t been for Pa Brown’s restraining hand on her shoulder, she would have left the room and taken Luca with her. What right did he have to come storming in like some medieval feudal lord, interrupting the flow of everything around the Christmas table and demanding that she be his bride. ‘Steady girl,’ Pa Brown murmured discreetly.
Everyone closed their mouths and pretended to concentrate on their food as Callie sat down again. All except one. ‘You can have my chair, if I can have a ride in your sports car,’ young Tom Brown told Luca.
‘Sounds like a deal to me,’ Luca agreed with a smile.
‘My name’s Tom,’ the youngster supplied as he and Luca bumped fists.
‘Come on, everyone...shuffle up,’ Ma Brown instructed. ‘Let’s make room for the Prince.’
‘Now, there’s a phrase you don’t hear said every day,’ Pa Brown ventured, only to receive a stern look from his wife.
For a while everything was good-natured chaos as chairs were swopped around, and new cutlery was brought out of the drawer. Once crockery and glassware had been located, everything was settled for their guest.
‘I envy you,’ Luca told his hosts midway through the most succulent meal of turkey with all the trimmings.
‘You envy us?’ Pa Brown exclaimed, only to receive a second hard stare from his wife, who sensibly steered the situation.
‘More gravy with that extra helping of meat, Luca?’
‘Yes, please.’
With Ma Brown setting the tone, all the Browns began to behave as if His Serene Highness were any other neighbour who’d called around to share their Christmas cheer. Now that was class, Callie thought. Stuff Max and his cronies. They couldn’t hold a candle to these genuine folk. The meal could have been tense, and Christmas could have been ruined, but with Luca at his relaxed best, and Anita and the Browns just being themselves, the irreverent, good-natured banter soon resumed.
‘So, what’s it like being a prince?’ young Tom enquired.
‘Busy,’ Luca told him economically.
‘Don’t you have to smile at people you don’t like?’ anoth
er boy asked.
‘That’s called diplomacy,’ Pa Brown put in. ‘Something you could all do with a lesson in.’
‘No, he’s right,’ Luca intervened. ‘That’s why it’s so good to be here.’ He flashed a wry glance at Callie, who raised a brow.
‘Didn’t you have anywhere else to go at Christmas but here?’ young Tom demanded.
Luca’s lips quirked as he thought about this. ‘I had a few places, but nowhere as special as here.’
‘Pudding?’ Ma Brown enquired.
‘Yes, please,’ Luca confirmed. ‘But first...’ He glanced at Callie, and then jerked his head towards the door.
‘Of course,’ Ma Brown agreed. ‘I’ll keep the pudding warm for both of you.’
Callie wasn’t sure how she felt. She didn’t feel any more forgiving towards Luca, but they did need to talk, and the sooner, the better.
‘So now you know,’ she said. Having wrapped herself up warmly in her winter coat and scarf, she was sitting in the front seat of Luca’s bright red car.
‘Know what?’ he asked with a frown as he started the engine.
‘Where I come from.’
‘You’re lucky. It’s wonderful. That’s the best Christmas I’ve ever been part of.’
‘And it hasn’t even started yet,’ Callie said wryly. ‘Wait until they start playing parlour games.’
‘Parlour games?’ Luca queried.
‘What people used to do before TV.’
He shot her a sideways look. ‘Sounds interesting.’
‘You said you’d give me time, Luca,’ she reminded him as he pulled into the light Christmas Day traffic.
‘How much time do you need?’
‘More,’ she insisted.
‘I’m afraid that’s not possible. I have other places to be.’
A Night of Royal Consequences Page 14
