“How many bedrooms does this place have?” she asked as they made their way inside and up the wide tiled stairs to the second floor.
“Nine or ten, I think,” Petr said dismissively. “We can count them later, if you want to.”
He pushed open a thick oak door, revealing a step down from the hall level onto a red-tiled floor. A wide-bladed ceiling fan turned lazy circles above them.
In the center of the room was a massive bed with a white comforter laid over it. Petr led her past the bed and to a set of French doors, which he pulled open to let the air from the courtyard come in.
“The doors lock on the inside,” he said. “So even though the balcony is all connected, you can be sure of your privacy at any time.”
“Thank you.”
“You’ve got your own bathroom—” He pointed to another set of double doors. “And there are extra bed linens and towels in that closet, in case you need anything. But you should also feel free to ask me if anything comes up.”
“What about you?” she asked. “Where’s your room?”
“You want to see?”
She nodded.
He led her down the hall, taking a right turn, then another. The room he led her into was similar in layout to her own, but the comforter in this room was a deep forest green.
He opened the doors to the balcony and pointed out. “We’re right across from one another,” he said. “That’s your room over there.”
Naomi nodded. She had been keeping track of where they were in the house. “This place is amazing,” she said.
“Do you want to take some time to unpack?” he asked her. “Or maybe take a nap?”
“To tell you the truth, I’m not tired at all,” she said. “I got a lot more sleep on the plane than I would have expected. I’m kind of hungry, though.”
“Me too,” Petr said. “Let’s get something to eat.”
He led her back down the stairs and into a spacious, gleaming kitchen that occupied one whole side of the building. To Naomi, it looked big enough to serve a whole restaurant full of people.
Petr seemed to guess what she was thinking. “There’s usually a catering staff that works in here,” he said. “But they’re not here when the place is empty. And I didn’t bother calling them in, because I thought we’d want it to ourselves.” He opened the fridge. “Looks like they didn’t leave us wanting for food, though.”
Naomi stepped up beside him to see for herself. Sure enough, the fridge was packed with fruits and vegetables, meats and cheeses, beverages, condiments—everything she could have asked for.
Petr pulled out a couple of packages of cheese, took them over to the counter, and began to cut some slices.
“Can I do something to help?” she asked.
“Why don’t you check the pantry?” he suggested, pointing it out. “See whether you can find any crackers? And maybe a bottle of wine?”
She went to the pantry and pulled the door open—and gasped.
She had expected to see a cupboard full of food, like the pantry she had in her condo at home. But this was a walk-in room as big as her condo’s bathroom. The walls were lined with shelves featuring all kinds of dry goods. She located an entire rack of different kinds of crackers. Feeling as if she were at a grocery store, she chose one.
There was also plenty of wine. Naomi didn’t want to come out with the most expensive bottle—that would have felt incredibly awkward and entitled—so she chose one from the bottom shelf, hoping that personal pantries functioned the same way as LA bars in terms of where they stored the quality stuff.
Petr glanced at her as she emerged. “Is that really the wine you want?” he asked.
“Is it not okay?” She felt uncertain. Maybe she had chosen something expensive after all. Did he think she was taking advantage of his generosity?
“It’s fine,” he assured her. “It’s just not the best bottle we have in there.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well, maybe we can save the very best for a different night.”
He smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
* * *
They spent the following day wandering the streets of Barcelona, exploring the shops and seeing the sights.
Naomi was in awe of the architecture. They just didn’t have things like this in LA. She had always thought of her home as a beautiful place, but it was streamlined, simple, basic compared to Barcelona. The buildings here were so ornate.
“I could stand here all day and still be seeing new things,” she said to Petr as they studied the exterior of a church. “This really was a labor of love for whoever built it.”
“The whole city has that feeling to it, doesn’t it?” he said, opening his arms wide. “You get the sense that every building was important. Nothing is just functional.”
She nodded. “It’s exactly the opposite of what I’m used to,” she said. “Back home, everything is designed to be as useful as possible. Nothing is just about beauty.”
“Maybe that’s why America has always been so prosperous, though,” Petr said, a thoughtful look on his face. “There’s something to be said for a focus on utility, isn’t there?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well, look at this church,” he said. “Yes, it’s amazing to look at. But think about how long it must have taken to make this. Think about how much it must have cost. Wouldn’t the people have been better served, arguably, by just building a simple structure where they could congregate?”
She laughed. “You’re teasing me,” she said.
“Am I?”
“You’re not someone who wants to do things in the most practical way possible in order to save money!” she said. “You’re the man who bought us first-class airline tickets to get here. You’re the person who flies off to Barcelona on a moment’s notice just because you’re in the mood to do it. Those aren't pragmatic choices.”
He smiled. “Well, maybe not.”
“You can’t fool me into thinking you favor logic over beauty,” she said. “I know you too well to believe that.”
“Already, you know me that well?”
“You haven’t exactly been standoffish,” she said, tilting her head and giving a smirk.
“I suppose you have a point,” he said, taking her hand.
They went to the market and bought baskets of nuts and figs, which they snacked on as they walked along the city streets. “I’ve never had figs before,” Naomi admitted, biting into one.
Petr gave her an astonished look. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not,” she told him. “I know, I’ve been missing out.”
“You’ve been missing out on a lot of things. It’s a good thing you and I met when we did,” he said. “You’ve sorely needed to have your horizons broadened a bit.”
“Maybe that’s true,” she said. “It has been enlightening, I admit that. I’ve tried more new things in the time since I met you than I had in the past year.”
“Well, there’s more on the horizon,” he promised. “I have no intention of letting you go back to your ordinary life.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “I’ll have to go back to it,” she said. “I hope that you and I will remain in each other’s lives, but Barcelona can’t last forever. Eventually I’m going to have to go home and go back to work.”
“It could last,” Petr countered. “We could make it last.”
“What do you mean?” She frowned. She was going to have to go back to work. Those were just the facts. She couldn’t afford to stop working. And even when her inheritance came through…well, she just couldn’t count on that.
Besides, she liked having a job. Even though she hated the specific job she was in, she liked knowing that she had work, and that the things in her life were things she had earned. That was a good feeling.
Letting Petr pay for everything during this trip was an indulgence she was allowing herself. But she wouldn’t allow it to continue when the vacation was over. She would stand on her
own two feet. So whatever he meant about not letting her go back to her ordinary life…no. That couldn’t happen. She wouldn’t become reliant on his generosity.
“I just don’t want this to end,” Petr said earnestly. “What’s been happening between us has been incredibly special.”
What would he say has been happening between us? she wondered, remembering her accidental use of the word relationship in her own mind. What would Petr say this was? Would he use that word to describe it?
She wished she could ask him. But after such a short amount of time knowing each other, it seemed presumptuous. She’d fallen for him…fast. But did he feel the same?
Then again, he had shown up at her condo with tickets to Barcelona. Maybe she wasn’t the one who needed to worry about looking presumptuous.
God, this thing is on such a wild trajectory!
But Naomi had to admit that she didn’t want it to end, either.
* * *
“All right,” Petr said grandly. “Here is the good wine.”
It was two days later, and they were sitting in the hot tub on the patio, looking out across the courtyard at the setting sun. Naomi accepted the glass of wine that Petr was holding out to her and took a sip. It was earthy and rich, and she felt a happy shiver pass through her.
“That’s really good,” she said.
Petr nodded. “That’s my father’s favorite,” he said. “It’s from a vineyard in Burgundy, and it’s almost impossible to get.”
“Should we be drinking it?” Naomi asked. “Won’t your father miss his favorite wine?”
“No, he has a few more bottles,” Petr said dismissively. “Besides, we have to drink it now. I’ve already opened it. It will be ruined if we let it sit.”
“That’s true,” Naomi admitted. She took another sip and leaned back against the wall of the hot tub, allowing the water to lift her feet up in front of her so that her toes poked up out of the water. On the sly, she peeked over at Petr, his chiseled shoulders, arms, and six-pack abs glistening with water. She sighed at the sight as her heart rate increased.
“Have you been having a nice time so far?” Petr asked. “Enjoying Barcelona?”
“Oh my God, yes,” she said enthusiastically. “I can’t believe I’m here. Everything is so beautiful. Thank you so much for bringing me.”
“So you’re glad you came?”
“Very glad.”
Though she wouldn’t have admitted it to Petr, she had been checking her email every morning to see whether Rick had gotten in touch to demand that she come back. It hadn’t happened yet. He hadn’t reached out to ask her about her invented health crisis either, but Naomi didn’t mind. It seemed as if her boss had decided to simply leave her alone, and that was exactly what she preferred.
“I just wish we had a little more time,” she said. “I can’t believe we have to go home in two days.”
“We don’t have to, you know,” Petr said. “We could always extend our stay.”
Naomi sighed. He had been saying things like this all week, dropping hints that this vacation didn’t need to end. “I’ve been telling you, Petr, I have to go back to work,” she said. “I really do need the money.”
“One more week couldn’t possibly make that much difference,” he said, draping his arms over the edge of the hot tub behind him.
“I’m out of sick time,” she said. “I can’t take any more time off that way.”
“But you had vacation time,” he said. “You mentioned that, back in LA.”
“I also told you that I didn’t want to use that time,” she said. “Rick would judge me if I did. He’s really harsh with people who take any time off work.”
“I don’t see how he can be,” Petr said. “Doesn’t the law require him to give you time off?”
“Yes,” she said. “But it doesn’t require him to be nice about it. And he’s allowed to fire people for any reason. If he gets mad at me for using my vacation time, he could decide to fire me because I don’t represent the values of the company. Only he and I would ever know what the real reason was.”
“That’s insane,” Petr said.
“That’s what I’m dealing with,” Naomi said. “He’s putting up with my absence right now because he thinks I’m literally hospitalized. But if he finds out that I’m gallivanting around Europe, he’s going to be upset.”
Petr was silent, pensive, staring off at the distant sunset.
She allowed herself to lean against him. Her heart beat a little faster as she did so. They were both in their swimsuits, skin to skin. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I wish I could stay. I do.”
“I know,” Petr said. “I wish we could too.”
He put his arm around her. She rested her head on his shoulder, questioning anew whether this could be considered the start of a real relationship. She was beginning to feel more certain that it was. Right now, it felt impossible that they would ever be apart.
But would the magic dissipate when they got back to LA? Would things go back to normal, and would Petr fade from her life?
Naomi closed her mind off to her worries. For now, she would live in the moment.
Chapter 8
The following day was their second to last in Barcelona.
“What do you want to do today?” Petr asked over breakfast.
Naomi shrugged. She knew she was being too quiet, but she couldn’t help it—yesterday’s conversation had left her in her own head.
She was dreading their return to the States, the end of the fantasy in which she had been living for the past week. How excruciating it would be to go back to work after this! And what if Petr stopped wanting to spend time with her once they returned home?
“Why don’t we go to the beach?” Petr suggested. “We haven’t done that yet.”
Naomi nodded. “I’d love to see the beach,” she said. Maybe that would be distracting.
She changed into her swimsuit and a cover-up. “Do we need to take a car?” she asked.
“No cars go to the beach I have in mind,” he said, leading her out the back door of their estate and down a winding path.
She frowned. “Where are we going?”
“The property extends for about a mile in this direction,” he explained. “If you listen carefully, you'll be able to hear it.”
She quieted and listened. A moment later she heard the distant sound of waves crashing against the shore.
“Is this a private beach?” she asked, surprised.
Petr nodded. “It was important to my mother to have beachfront property,” he explained. “Almost all of our homes outside of Sovra are on beaches.”
“Sovra’s not a coastal country, is it?” Naomi asked.
“No,” Petr said. “That was always frustrating for Mother. We’re very close to the Mediterranean—right between Italy and Slovenia—but we don’t actually have a coast of our own.”
“I can’t believe there was a beach back here all this time and you never told me!” Naomi said as they came over a hill and were faced with a view of white sand and blue sea. She put her hands to her hips, her elbows jutting out. “I would have spent a lot more time here if I had known.”
“We’ll have to come here again someday,” Petr said. “Assuming I can’t convince you to stay longer on this trip.”
Her heart clenched. Had he saved this beach for the second to last day as a way of trying to get her to prolong the vacation? She knew that was what he wanted.
But I can’t. I have to go home.
To avoid engaging with the topic, she kicked off her shoes, stripped off her cover-up, and raced across the sand and down to the water. She jumped over the first breaker as it crashed against her ankles, then dove forward into the sea, swimming against the waves.
When she had exhausted herself, she came up for air, panting, her body bobbing up and down in the swells. She turned around to see how far she had come from the beach.
And found herself face-to-face with Petr.
&n
bsp; She gasped, so surprised that she stopped treading water for a moment. The next swell came up behind her and hit her in the back of the head, making her sputter.
He laughed but reached out to help gain her equilibrium. “Are you all right?”
“I didn’t know you were right behind me!” she said, splashing water at him.
“You’re a strong swimmer.”
“So are you, apparently. How did that happen, growing up in a landlocked country?”
“We traveled a lot,” Petr said. “I had plenty of occasions to practice my swimming.”
Then he dove down. Naomi turned and saw that a big wave was approaching. She ducked under it as well.
They swam together for about half an hour, then allowed the waves to wash them slowly back to the shore. Naomi crawled up on to the beach, lay on her back, and allowed the sun to begin drying her.
Petr laid down beside her. “This has been one of the best weeks of my life,” he said.
“Mine, too,” she admitted.
“I really don’t want it to end.”
“We can do this back home,” she said. “We can go to the beach together. We can go out to eat. The good times don’t have to end just because the vacation is over.” Perhaps now was the time they would finally talk about their relationship, or whatever this was.
He sat up and brushed the sand from his shoulders. “I want that,” he agreed. “I want us to keep spending time together. I want you to be a part of my life, Naomi.”
She felt a thrill of excitement. Definitely a relationship talk.
“I feel the same way,” she told him. “Exactly the same way.”
“I have a question for you,” he said.
“Okay.”
“It might seem a little crazy,” he warned.
She thought of the day he had come to her with plane tickets and laughed. “I’m getting used to that kind of thing from you,” she said.
“Well, I might be about to outdo myself,” he said. “But I promise you, I’m being completely serious.”
The Prince's Devious Proposal Page 6
