by Kathryn Shay
“Are you sloshed?” Rina asked, joining them.
He closed his eyes. Looked like his sisters’ plans involved him. “Come sit with me. Get yourself a drink first. Make me another gin and tonic.”
They scurried to the kitchen then came back out onto the porch with cocktails for all. His condo had offered the option of a Florida-like lanai on the back of the living area, and he’d paid extra to have his made larger.
Rina settled on the floor next to him. Millie sat with him on his wicker couch and Suzanne perched on one of the chairs. They all touched him in some way. He felt his eyes fill.
Millie started talking. “Having a rough night, buddy?”
“I thought you all had plans.”
“We did. This.” Rina was matter-of-fact.
“What is this?”
Suzanne’s brows rose. “An intervention.”
“What do you mean?”
“An intervention is when—”
“I know what an intervention is,” he interrupted, his tone surly. “What does it have to do with me?”
“You’re miserable,” Millie stated.
“Of course I am. Dad’s care has fallen to me because you three won’t speak to him.”
“Aw, poor baby.” This from Rina. “Cryin’ about the choices he made.”
“Not about that choice.”
“Ry.” Millie’s voice was tender. “We’re here to let you vent. Tell us what happened between you and Alexandra.”
Lying his head back on the cushion, he briefly closed his eyes. “I asked her to marry me.”
“What?” Rina exclaimed.
“What?” Suzanne echoed.
“Is that why she left town?” He hated the pity in Rina’s voice. “She said no?”
“She doesn’t care about you?” Millie asked.
“Not that.” He shook his head. “We went to Tiffany’s and picked out a ring. We were so happy....”
“Tell us all of it.”
“The afternoon after we picked out the rings, Dad had his heart attack.”
“You said you felt guilty because you had a fight and he keeled over.” This from Suzanne. “I told the girls. That wasn’t your fault.”
Rina snorted. “I was surprised to hear the bastard has a heart.”
Millie frowned. “How did that impact Alexandra leaving?”
“Even at the hospital, Dad was pissed at the injunction on her books and Alexandra’s refusal to tell us her background.” He explained about the injunction. “As soon as he regained consciousness, he went on a tirade about how these legal issues were going to ruin sales. He threw the shares thing in my face again. Even as the cardiac team was assembling, he started to get dressed to go deal with that woman.”
Millie huffed out a breath. “I can’t believe that.”
“I can.” Rina was particularly bitter tonight.
“So I told him that Alexandra was a real princess. Do you know about that?”
“Of course,” Millie answered.
“When it all sunk in, he started to laugh his head off. You know, the kind of I won ugly laugh. He said we could use her title to fight the suit.”
“What a bastard.” Suzanne was mad now, too.
“I did convince him then to have the surgery, but when I stepped out of the cubicle, he called a news outlet so he could get a jump on the story.”
Suzanne sighed. “And he exposed her.”
Ryder nodded.
“Why are any of us surprised?” Rina asked. “What I want to know is why you told him.”
“Weren’t you listening, Rina? I didn’t want him to die. If he’d left that hospital, he would have—”
“—gotten what he deserved.”
The harshness of Rina’s comment silenced them all. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“All right,” Millie put in after a minute. “What did Alexandra say when you called her to explain?”
“I didn’t call her.”
“Why not?” Suzanne asked.
“Because I chose my father’s welfare over hers.”
“She might have forgiven you, Ry.”
“I could never forgive myself.”
“You should—”
“No! This is for the best. She’s back in Casarina, and she should stay there. I hope she doesn’t come home for TV show appearances. I hope she forgets all about me.”
Chapter 16
Lexy sat in an office at the palace, at a desk situated in front of the window so she could see out to the grounds. It was time to write again, and she searched for inspiration in the grass and sunshine, where Pickles hung out. She’d made no decisions about going back to New York, but she was determined to finish the books.
In this one, Tater had hitchhiked in Princess Evvie’s pocket to The Evolution Store. Lexy spat out expletives a princess would never use. Then nostalgia came. It seemed like eons ago, instead of six weeks, since she’d visited the real museum with Ryder. They’d gone after dinner, not as client and boss, but as friends. He’d been so attentive, so sweet in helping her pick out gifts. Her heart contracted at the memory. Maybe she wasn’t ready to work on that particular story.
One of her father’s assistants, Thomas, knocked on the jamb of the open doorway. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, Princess Alexandra. But visitors are at the gate. They want to see you.”
Lexy had friends in the country before she left, but she hadn’t contacted anyone since she’d been back. Had somebody she knew seen her at the festival? “Who are they?”
“Three women. They told the guard they’d come all the way from New York.”
It couldn’t be. “What are their names?”
He glanced down at the pad he held. “Millicent Nguyen, Suzanne Reynolds and Rina Reynolds.”
“Oh my God.”
Thomas went ramrod straight. “What...are they...are you in danger?”
“Only my heart. Bring them up to the palace, please.”
Alexandra couldn’t believe that Ryder’s sisters had come to see her. Unless...she went out to the porch and as soon as they were close enough, she ran out to the car. They all exited. “Is Ryder all right?” she asked without greetings.
Millie, the oldest, stepped forward. The royal guard who’d escorted the women moved in between them.
“It’s all right,” Lexy said to the man. “They won’t hurt me.”
She heard Rina murmur under her breath, “Don’t bet on it.”
Lexy hid a smile. If nothing else, these girls were devoted to their brother.
Millie answered her question. “No, Ryder is not all right. He’s disconsolate. We’re all worried about his frame of mind.”
Suzanne joined Millie. “We were with him two days ago, and we’ve never seen him so bad off.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. But why did you come to me?”
Rina stepped the closest. “You’re kidding, right? We came to bring you back to him.”
* * *
It was just like having her sisters in the palace. After explaining their mission, and settling on the porch overlooking the pool, Lexy asked for espresso and biscotti to be served. And then the girls besieged her—verbally, as the guards stood watching from a distance.
Millie began. “We know this is a drastic step, to come thousands of miles to see you, but we’ve never seen Ryder go into this kind of funk. He believes he’s really lost you.”
“He has.”
“Oh, no,” Suzanne said. “Not without you knowing all the facts.”
“I know the facts. I told him in an intimate moment after he asked me to marry him who I was. Soon after, my identity was all over the news.”
“My father had a heart attack.” Rina’s non sequitur nonetheless shocked Lexy.
“Is he all right?”
“Yeah.” This from Rina. “He’s a stubborn bastard and came through the surgery. He’s recuperating now at home.”
“I hope he recovers, but I don’t see what this has to d
o with me. Even if his father was taken ill, he could certainly have found a minute to call me back and explain why he betrayed me.” She bit her lip. “I tried all day and night to get in touch with him, so he could tell me why he did such an awful thing.”
“We know.” Millie again. “He purposely didn’t call you because he thought that was best for you. He thinks he did an unconscionable thing, and he felt unworthy of even trying to explain what happened to you.”
“You seriously expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
She scowled. “I’m not following any of this.”
“We don’t expect you to believe it without explanation.” Rina looked to Millie.
“Ryder and my father were fighting about you and the injunction brought against you. Ryder said he’d quit and never see our father again if he stopped the publishing of your books. He chose you, Alexandra, over his job and his father. Richard worked himself into a tizzy and he’d had heart issues for months that he’d kept from the family. He had a heart attack right in front of Ryder.”
Lexy felt her eyes tear at what Ryder must have felt, but fought for composure. “Again, I’m sorry to hear all this, but—”
Rina stepped in. “Richard regained consciousness, and he went on and on about you and how he was going to handle the injunction. He refused the surgery until he could settle the issue. That’s how he gets when he’s obsessed with something. The doctors were insistent that he have an emergency bypass immediately, so Ryder did the only thing he could think of. He told the old man about your background, which, if made public, would erase any doubt that your stories were the real deal.”
“Do you expect me to believe this wild story?”
Suzanne looked down her nose at Lexy. It was the same expression Frankie donned went she was dealing with someone stupid. “Do you honestly think we’d come thousands of miles if we didn’t believe there were extenuating circumstances?”
“No, I think you believe coming here, and this explanation, is a way for me to forgive Ryder for what he did. But I’ve already forgiven him, Millie. I knew the reason he betrayed me must have been something important. I just don’t want to share my life with him anymore.”
Suzanne arched a brow. “If you think things are hopeless between you two, then why are you still wearing the engagement ring?”
* * *
After his ill-conceived night with his sisters, Ryder had felt like shit for three days. Part of his state of mind had to do with the effects of the gin and tonics, and part of it came from the hope the girls kindled inside him. Their encouragement made the stinging pain of loss even more acute.
So he’d come to the gym before work to do something positive to make himself feel better. Stepping on the treadmill, he ran his ass off for twenty minutes, trying to blank his mind. After that, he headed to the weight room and stretched out on the bench, lifting his usual poundage, feeling the strain in his muscles and back. Finally, he spent fifteen minutes in the whirlpool, which took away the aches he’d incurred, then showered. When he left the gym, he was feeling marginally better. Perhaps, someday, he’d get over Alexandra.
As he neared the office, he blinked hard. For a minute, he thought the woman seated on a bench in front of his building was her. She had the same long dark hair, slight build...
He walked closer... Her posture was erect, exactly like Alexandra’s.
Even closer... The tilt of the woman’s head was familiar.
Three feet away, he stopped short. Oh, my, God. His heart pounded. He wasn’t ready for this. He hadn’t prepared. Emma hadn’t called him to tell him she’d be back for The Morning Show.
Her head turned and she saw him. She didn’t smile. She didn’t cry. She just stared at him. He moved toward her in slow motion. She stayed seated and looked up as he reached her.
“Um, hello.” His throat croaked like a frog’s.
“Hello, back.” Her voice was thick with emotion. She moved a few inches over. He took that as an invitation to sit. Being near her, feeling her presence, being filled with her flowery scent just about killed him.
“I’m sorry...”
“I don’t know exactly...”
They spoke simultaneously. “You first,” she said.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what, Ryder?”
“For choosing my father’s welfare over yours.”
“That hurt. A lot.”
“I don’t know what more to say.”
“You don’t have to explain how your father had a heart attack, threw a fit about the injunction and was leaving the hospital to salvage the situation so you told him my background.”
His jaw dropped at what she blurted out. “How...you couldn’t...Alexandra, how do you know all that?”
“Your sisters paid me a visit.”
“In Casarina?”
Dear God in heaven. Those girls shouldn’t...oh, God, he never felt more loved.
“Was it awful having them there?”
“We had some tense moments. But they stayed for a few days until our plane could be available to come back. I showed them the palace, the capital we live in.” She chuckled. “But you know what they were most enamored of?”
He shook his head.
“The garden where Pickles and her buddies live.”
“There’s a real garden?”
“Yes. When I first got home, I destroyed it. Then I rebuilt it and put the dolls in place.”
“But you’re back here.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Why?”
“Not for The Morning Show, I’ll tell you that.”
“Then why?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “For you.”
Ryder bolted up, startling Alexandra. “No, no, don’t say that. I can’t even live with what I did. I don’t expect you to forgive me.”
“That’s not your choice. It’s mine.”
“You’re too kind. Too generous. I did a horrible thing.”
“In some ways, you did. But when I told the girls about my sisters, I thought about Calla. She hurt Connor deeply by leaving him to go home and marry the man my father had chosen for her. When she realized her mistake, Con forgave her. They’re married now with a baby.”
He sighed. “It matters that I did this, Alexandra.”
“Of course it does. But it also matters that I love you. And I’m not going to let a mistake, albeit a big one, determine the course of my life.” She took his hand. “Are you, Ryder?”
* * *
As soon as the hotel room door closed, Ryder eased her up against the wood as gently as he could and brought his mouth to hers. He kissed her with all the sorrow he felt for hurting her, and all the gratefulness he had for her generosity.
For about thirty seconds. Then his body took over, as had happened the other times they’d made love. As if of their own accord, his chest, his torso pressed into her, aligning them in a fit like God had made for Adam and Eve. He deepened the contact, moaning, groaning. And then he was hit by a wave of remorse so strong, he had to pull back. He met her forehead with his. “Give me a minute.”
“What? Why?” She drew his head back. “Oh, Ryder.” Tears streaked down his face. She scrubbed them away with her hands. Then held him.
He quieted. When he was more composed, he picked her up and brought her to the bed. Gently, he took off her blazer, pulled the T-shirt over her head and kissed the swell of her breasts. He disposed of her bra and feasted on her breasts. Squirming, she tried to push her own pants down, but he knelt, removed them with her shoes. She drew him up. She was as hurried and rough as he’d been gentle. She had his clothes off in under a minute.
“Shh, slow down.”
“Next time.”
“All right, next time.” He smiled and laid her back onto the bed, then joined her.
“Now, Ryder.”
Alexandra was more than ready when Ryder finally plunged inside her. “I can’t wait, love.”
“M-me eithe
r.”
It only took two more thrusts and the orgasm hit her fast and hard. She screamed his name. Ryder joined her in his own release, calling for her, too.
Later, after another, gentler lovemaking, they lay under the covers, her head resting in the crook of his shoulder. He brushed his hand down her arm. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Do something for me, please, Ryder?”
“Anything.”
“Stop talking like that. We both know what you did. You’re sorry and I think I can live with it. If later we find out this whole thing is causing us problems, we’ll deal with those issues, maybe with professional help.”
“All right. Will we still marry?”
She held up her hand and the ring sparkled. “We will. But we’ll table those plans for a while.”
“I understand.”
“Boy, just you wait, though.”
“What does that mean?”
“A wedding in Casarina is unlike anything you can imagine. Think of what it will do for our books.”
“No, we’ll think about how we’ll be married. I love the sound of it. Mrs...what will it be? What’s the tradition in your country?”
“Actually, I think we should make our own tradition.”
“Oh, God, your parents are going to hate me more than they probably already do.”
“You can ask them tonight at dinner.”
He rose up and leaned over her. “Don’t tell me they came back here with you?”
“They did. Papá dropped everything. Mamá is missing some important meetings on her schools.”
“Do they want this between you and me?”
“In most ways. I think they had some difficulties of their own getting together. They’ll address what you did head on, I think.”
“I can take what they have to say to me.”
“Of course you can.” She grinned impishly. “Because you’ll get me in the end.”
“And that, Princess Alexandra Marcello Gentileschi, is the most important thing of all.”
* * * * *
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