He was close enough for me to see the specks of amber in his hazel eyes, and I could smell the spice of his aftershave.
My eyes closed as his lips met mine, and I melted against his body, my wrists wrapped around the back of his neck.
He supported me as he kissed me—long, hard, and thoroughly. The last shred of doubt left as his body pressed against mine. He loved me. He’d said it, and he was proving it with this kiss.
It felt like we’d never been apart, like the time since London had been minutes, not months. It felt right, so right to be in his arms. I’d been wrong to leave Falkenberg early. I should’ve stayed and fought for this.
But he was here now and I didn’t ever want to let him go. Judging by the way his lips caressed mine, Nico didn’t want to, either.
Minutes or possibly hours later, Nico finally broke our kiss. His voice was husky. “I hate to end this, but we should probably check on the twins.” He didn’t let go of me though. His body pressed against mine felt amazing. I could feel the hot, hard length between us, but I knew this wasn’t the right time or place. But hopefully we could be together soon and then we’d have six whole months together. That wasn’t an eternity, but after thinking I’d never see him again, it felt like a wonderful gift.
I straightened my blouse and skirt and walked beside him, his arm around my shoulders, mine around his back. “What happens after six months?”
“Then we go back. Live in the castle for another six months. That’s what I did as a child. Six months here, six months there.”
My heart leapt with excitement. Maybe they’d keep coming here for years. I couldn’t even imagine the enormity of that. But was it best for the children? I asked Nico about it.
“I think so. You’ve been here for a few weeks. Do you think they’ll like it?”
I thought about it. A place like this—being surrounded by their peers, it would’ve been too much for them when I’d first met them. But now it felt like they were ready. Plus, they’d have their dad here and me, too. The thought warmed my heart. “I think so.”
“Me too.”
“But won’t they miss Falkenberg? Gretchen and the queen? Oh, and what about Derrick’s falcon?”
Nico looked down at me, a strange expression on his face like he was fighting off a smile. “Yeah, about that last part… Apollo hasn’t worked out quite the way we hoped.”
“Really? What happened?”
“It turns out I forgot a very important fact about falcons,” he said, still looking reluctantly amused.
“What’s that?”
“One of their favorite foods is pigeon.”
“Oh,” I said, visualizing the pigeon sanctuary Derrick had created on the roof. “Oh no.”
“Exactly.”
We’d arrived at the top of a flight of stairs, but I paused, a new thought occurring to me. “When you take them back to Falkenberg in six months, will they have a new nanny?”
“Yes,” Nico said. “They’ll need a nanny. But not a new one. I’m hoping to rehire an old one, actually.”
“Really?” I breathed.
“Really—if you want to.”
“I do.” More than anything I wanted that. “But… I’m not sure if they’ll let me. I just started working here.”
“I think they will.” Nico said smugly.
Despite struggling to keep up with all the revelations, I couldn’t help responding to his smirk. “You must’ve been one hell of a star pupil for them to make all these concessions for you.”
“I was, of course,” Nico said with a teasing arrogance that made my breath catch. “But I’m not just a visiting royal anymore. I’m also the new European History professor.”
“You are?”
“Yep. I’m going to teach four lessons a week, two for the lower levels and two for the higher ones.”
My heart warmed at the thought. “I guess since you’re part of European history, you’re imminently qualified.”
“But I’m not a trained teacher,” Nico pointed out. “In fact, the headmaster suggested that I find another teacher to mentor me. Got any suggestions?”
My smile was so wide it stretched my skin. “I just might.”
“Good,” Nico said. “Because I think I’m going to need a lot of private lessons.” He hungry gleam in his eye made my pulse spike. He winked and kissed the top of my head before leading me downstairs.
I was so happy it felt like my feet were barely touching the ground. Whether it was this school or his castle, we were going to be together. And not just Nico and me—Derrick and Elyse, too. The future that I’d thought was lost suddenly opened in front of me like a shining path of light.
I walked faster down the hall, making Nico laugh. I couldn’t wait to see Derrick and Elyse again. It would be different because now I knew—we could do this. We could make it work. We could be a family. Finally, I was able to trust that we had a future. And trust in Nico’s love.
As long as we had love, we could overcome anything.
Together.
39
Epilogue
Cara
“Where on earth are you taking me?”
“You’ll see,” Nico said as he confidently drove down the freeway. The man hadn’t even been back in the US for six weeks, and already he was better at navigating California highways than I was.
“If we don’t get there by lunch, Derrick and Elyse will be so disappointed.”
“Are you kidding? They love spending time with Blake and Penny and the kids. I think Elyse would adopt baby Christopher if she could.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “And Zoe has a crush on Derrick.”
“Really?” Nico glanced over at me and winked. “He takes after his old man.”
“Eyes on the road, Romeo.”
Nico did as I asked… returning his gaze to the road ahead of us, but his hand snaked out and stroked my thigh. I rolled my eyes. He was incorrigible, but he sure as hell made life exciting. I grabbed his hand and held it with my own before he could be tempted to do anything more than just rub my leg.
“Hey, you’re going the wrong way.” I protested as Nico took an exit ramp.
“How can you know that if you don’t know where we’re going?” he asked with as much sincerity as he could muster—which wasn’t a whole lot. In the time since he’d returned to the US, he’d become more playful, more teasing, more flirty… more everything. It seemed to me—and to Penny and Blake, too—that he was becoming more like the person he’d been before the accident.
But unlike the slightly reckless man he’d been before, safety came first. He never did anything that might endanger me or the twins. Already today, he’d pulled over twice to check his texts. Normally, he’d have me do that while he was driving, but apparently, he didn’t want to ruin the surprise.
“Are we going to Long Beach?” The overhead road signs were a lot more forthcoming than the man next to me.
“Near there, yes.”
I stared out the window and wondered if I’d be dressed appropriately for whatever we were doing. Though it was a Saturday in late October, the weather was in the eighties. I’d worn a soft white shirt with a scooped, lacy neckline. My flouncy skirt was blue and came to just above my knees. It wasn’t the fanciest of outfits, but I’d noted before that Nico seemed to really like how my legs looked in this skirt.
Nico pulled off the freeway and made a series of turns. Finally, he pulled up at a coffee shop. I looked from him to the rather nondescript storefront and then back again. “You know, they had coffee when were left a couple of hours ago.”
“Did they now?” Nico’s voice was full of humor, but his eyes were on his phone again. “Okay, we can go in.”
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I waited for Nico to come around and open my door. He insisted on doing that kind of thing. As far as I could tell, European princes were a lot more chivalrous that the average boyfriend. Of course, I didn’t have a very large a sample size.
I too
k off my sunglasses as I entered and looked around. The place seemed clean enough though the décor left something to be desired.
Nico took my arm and led me to the far side of the room. Three of the tables by the window were empty. However, he seemed to be headed for the only occupied one.
A teenager looked up as we approached. She looked to be about seventeen. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore jeans and a T-shirt. She stood up and it wasn’t until I was a few feet away that I realized who she was: Teresa.
I stared at my former student in shock, my mind whirling. Why was she here? How had Nico arranged this? Before I could get over my shock, she was hugging me. I pressed her head against my shoulder, astonished that she was here. I’d tried to find her and I hadn’t been able to.
“Please sit down, Miss Andrews.” She smiled as she pointed to the spot opposite her. Nico held my chair as I sat but made no move to sit down himself. “Please stay,” Teresa added to him.
He shook his head. “You two catch up and I’ll get some drinks. What would you like, Teresa?”
“Could I have a Mocha Frappuccino?”
“Sure. Cara? Tea for you?”
“Yes, thank you.” I still didn’t know what was going on, but I did realize that Nico was tactfully giving us some time to talk. A bizarre thought floated in my head: did Teresa know that a genuine prince had just taken her drink order?
And how did she even know Nico? Or more importantly, how had he found her? I couldn’t even begin to imagine. It was like a dream. A very good one. I studied Teresa as she smiled at me. She looked different. A little taller than I remembered. And her hair was longer—it had been a year after all. The dark circles were still under her eyes, but on the whole, she looked better than before.
The memory of that day I’d last seen her came back. That horrible day after the principal had shut down the reading of our play. It had been the only thing I’d done all semester that had truly captured the students’ interest, and he’d shut it down like it was nothing. “I’m so sorry—” I began, but she cut me off.
“It wasn’t your fault.” There was no doubt she knew exactly what I meant.
“I should have stood up to the school.”
“You did,” Teresa said. “We all knew you did. Not just about that, but about other things.”
“It wasn’t enough.” Tears sprang to my eyes. “It wasn’t enough because it drove you away.”
“Yeah,” she said uncomfortably. “I know that was dumb, but it was just the last straw, you know? That place was horrible.” I nodded, and she continued. “I guess you do know, since you left it too.”
“He told you that?”
“Yes.”
I glanced up at the counter. Nico was still second in line. This place didn’t seem very fast. “How did you meet him?”
“It was a couple of weeks ago. Some lawyer contacted my family. I don’t know how he found us, we’ve moved twice in the past year, but the lawyer said that some rich dude wanted to set up a scholarship for me to go to college.”
“A scholarship?” My heart pounded almost painfully in my chest with love for Nico. He’d done all that to make things right—even though it wasn’t his fight. He’d wanted to make things better for Teresa and for me.
“Who is he?” Teresa said in a low voice. “Is he your boyfriend?”
“Yes,” I said, somewhat relieved that she didn’t seem to know about his royal status. Probably Nico wouldn’t want to attract attention to his generosity. “What kind of scholarship is it?”
“A full ride,” Teresa said, shaking her head as if she still couldn’t believe it. “But there are conditions.” She looked at Nico, and I did too. He was next in line.
“What kind of conditions?”
“I have to finish high school. I enrolled in one here the day after we met with his lawyer.”
That was smart of Nico to require her to complete high school. She had a lot of catching up to do before being ready for higher education. But still, I was concerned for Teresa. She was smart enough, no question, but she’d missed so much. Plus, many of her absences had been family-related. I asked her about it.
“It’s still hard,” she said. “But we have extended family down here. There are more people to watch my little brothers and to help with my grandparents. Also, everyone is excited. No one in my family has ever gotten a university degree, so everyone wants me to succeed and earn the scholarship.”
“How’s it going?”
“Okay,” Teresa said, her face tightening a little. “It’s a good school—much better than the other one. But I’m really far behind. I talked with the counselor there, and she thought I could join the junior class instead of repeating my sophomore year. It’s been kind of difficult to catch up.”
“You can do it. I know you can. It’s not going to be easy, but I know you can do this.”
Teresa studied me. “You’re the only teacher who’s ever thought that. Everyone else didn’t expect much of me.”
“So prove them wrong.”
“I’m trying,” she said. “I mean, I will. But so far it hasn’t been easy.” She hesitated. “Do you think maybe… maybe we could talk on the phone sometimes? So I can tell you how it’s going and, well, so you could…”
“Encourage you? Be a cheerleader?”
“Something like that. A cheerleader-slash-academic advisor. Or maybe that’s all just part of being a teacher.”
Her words made me smile. “I’d love to. How about a weekly check-in session on Skype or Facetime?”
“That would be great.” She broke into a lovely smile.
With impeccable timing, Nico appeared, joining us at the table. As we sipped our drinks, waves of gratitude all but overwhelmed me. He’d made this happen. He’d helped this stranger just because she was important to me.
We chatted for a while. Teresa asked about my new teaching position, and I inquired about her family. I would’ve liked to stay longer, but I explained that were meeting up with Nico’s children.
Teresa understood. She fished for something in her bag and then pulled out a card. “This is for you.” She handed the card to Nico. “It’s not much, but my whole family is just so thankful. Do you speak Spanish? Some of them can’t write much English.”
Nico shook his head, taking the card. He spoke a smattering of a half dozen different languages, but Spanish wasn’t one of them.
“I can translate for him,” I said.
Teresa smiled at me as we all stood to leave. Nico gestured for her to go first, and she walked past us toward the front door. Before Nico could follow, I reached up and grabbed hold of the collar of his gray shirt. Pulling his head down, I gave him a brief, fierce kiss. “I can’t thank you enough,” I whispered in his ear.
He winked, his smile wide as he took my hand and escorted me out of the restaurant.
Once outside, Teresa gave me a big hug and shook Nico’s hand. “Thank you so much to you both.”
“It was all Nico,” I said, but she shook her head.
“It was both of you. I’m going to work very hard and won’t let you or my family down. Or myself,” she added.
Nico put his arm around me as we watched Teresa leave. But she’d only gotten five or six feet away when she turned back to me with an impish smile. She glanced at Nico and then spoke to me in rapid Spanish. I put my hand over my mouth and chuckled as she walked away.
“What did she say?” Nico asked.
I waited until Teresa was out of sight, and then I smirked up at him. “She said my boyfriend is really hot.”
For a moment, Nico’s jaw hung open. Finally it snapped shut and his face turned red. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him at a loss for words. I couldn’t stop giggling until we were back on the freeway.
* * *
“Cara!” the twins cried as we spotted our people standing in front of the castle wall. Not Nico’s castle, but Cinderella’s. Derrick and Elyse had been thrilled when Nico
had suggested a trip to Disneyland.
“Daddy!” Elyse added, when we walked up.
“Why do I always get second billing?” Nico grumbled as he shook Blake’s hand. “Thanks for doing double parenting duty this morning.”
“No problem. Did you have a good morning?” I could tell that Blake knew about the detour we’d taken before arriving here.
“Excellent,” Nico said.
Penny bustled up with Christopher in her arms. “Gimme,” I said, eager to hold the cute little guy.
“Oh sure… now that I’ve changed his diaper, you get the fun part.” She kissed me on the cheek when she handed over the adorable baby.
“Oof, he’s getting heavy,” I said as I cuddled him to my cheek. His fine hair smelled so good.
“Did you eat lunch?” Nico asked.
“Yes,” Derrick answered for everyone. “Can we go on some more rides now? We’ve already been on the teacups and the Jungle Cruise and Minnie’s House. I wanted to go to Mickey’s House, but they outvoted me.” He indicated his sister and Zoe.
“Just wait until Christopher’s old enough to vote,” Blake said with a grin. “Then we’ll have even numbers.”
We shepherded the children through the castle. Zoe tugged on Nico’s sleeve until he stopped and bend down to hear her. Whatever she said made him grin. He whispered something back and patted her on the back.
When I caught up with him, I asked him what she said.
He grinned. “She said that my castle is nicer.”
The afternoon passed quickly if not orderly. Elyse and Zoe wanted pictures with every Disney Princess they spotted. Derrick had a list of rides he was dying to try. At one point, Blake and Nico stated they wanted to get coffee and catch up on a little business, but we later spotted them in the FastPass line for Space Mountain.
It was a fun and exhausting day.
“It’s too bad your sister couldn’t come,” Penny told me as we handed out ice cream bars to the children.
Dashing: A Royal Cinderella Billionaire Story Page 27
