by Alyse Zaftig
"We can try."
He pulled me in for a hard kiss. I could taste his relief. It reassured me, because he'd sounded like he knew that I'd say yes.
When I broke the kiss, he ran his hands over my back. "Let me show you what I couldn't before."
"Like what?"
He smiled at me. "Let's take my helicopter out at dawn."
"I'm going to barf," I said into the microphone. I did not like the way that the ground was rapidly falling away from us. I didn't like the harness that was keeping me in the helicopter. And I especially did not like the way that the door didn't close. I closed my eyes, as if by not seeing it, the wide-open door would magically close.
"You're fine," Massimo said, his hand holding mine. "You can see everything like this."
The loud drone of the helicopter motors and the sound of the blades surrounded me. I was more than a little acrophobic. I cursed my past self for agreeing to a dawn helicopter ride. Not only had Massimo yanked me out of bed while I was having a nice dream, he'd poured coffee down my throat and pushed me into the shower. I wasn't wearing any makeup because I hadn't been awake enough to handle it.
We could see the sun rising on the horizon.
"It's beautiful," I said, even though my head hurt from lack of sleep.
"Not even half as beautiful as you, bella." He kissed my hand, which I could hear through my headset.
"Knock it off, you two. We can hear you flirting," the pilot said, his voice dry.
His co-pilot said, "I don't mind. I think it's sweet."
"Such a romantic, Jones."
"Leave them alone. They're in love."
I felt a spike of fear flare in my stomach. Was I in love? I'd barely learned that he was a wealthy crown prince before he'd brought me to this helicopter. It was what rich people did for fun. I'd never been in a helicopter before and after Massimo and I were done, I probably never would be again.
Now that I knew about his crown, I was aware that every minute we spent together was part of a race towards our breakup. But I'd drink the sweetness of every drop that I could get until then.
"We'll land soon," the pilot said. He lowered us onto a helicopter pad on top of one of the buildings that Massimo owned.
Massimo unbuckled himself and helped me unbuckle. He jumped out and then held his arms out to me. I yelped as I hurled into space. He caught me and spun in a half circle.
"You were so brave," he whispered in my ear. "Thank you for coming."
"Thanks for making me do this." I kissed his jaw. "But let's not do it anytime soon."
"I'm not making any promises," he said before kissing my temple and settling an arm around my shoulders. "Thank you. I'll see you soon."
The pilot and co-pilot waved back. They were talking to someone else with a clipboard.
Massimo took me downstairs and begin to whistle. "Where do you want to go to breakfast?" he asked.
"I don't know."
"There's a brunch place that's a hole in the wall. They make the most amazing bagels."
"Lead the way," I said. "I love bagels." Just thinking about it made my stomach growl.
When we got downstairs, we got into his car and sped away. We parked in front of the small restaurant. Instead of letting come around to open my door, I hopped out.
"You should wait for me to help you," Massimo said. "I can open your door."
"I'm perfectly capable of opening my own door," I replied. My stomach growled loudly enough that both of us could hear it. "Let's go eat."
"We'll revisit this discussion later."
We walked inside. Massimo caught my hand in his much larger one. The hostess was blonde with very short hair and dark eyebrows.
"Hello!" she said. "How can I help you?"
"Table for two," he said. As she eyed him, his hand grasped mine just a little more firmly.
"Of course," she said. I didn't like the flirtatious tone of her voice.
She sat us down at a table near the front, next to a big window. Massimo let go of my hand when we sat down on opposite sides of the table.
"Ashley will be with you soon to take your order," she said. "I hope you enjoy your time." She touched Massimo's shoulder and I almost leapt up to stab her with my knife.
"She touched you," I growled.
"Settle down," Massimo said, although he had a smile on his lips. "She can't hold a candle to you. I like it when you're jealous."
"I'm not jealous," I said, although my hand still itched for my knife. It was a weirdly huge steak knife.
"You are. It's sexy," he said, lowering his voice a little. "I wish that we were alone right now, bella."
Heat flooded my cheeks. "Massimo..." His foot touched mine. I jumped in my chair before tucking my feet under my own chair. He smiled like a cat who had just eaten a lot of cream.
He stroked my hand very gently. "Do you know what you want to eat?"
I licked my lips and looked at the menu. "Why does everything include steak?"
"It's a steakhouse," he said. "And in the morning, you can get steak for breakfast."
I looked at the options. "I'm probably going to get an egg with steak strips and two slices of toast."
"I'll get what I normally get, the Steakhouse: their biggest steak, cooked for 18 hours, with 4 eggs and two paninis."
I gulped hard. "How can you eat all that?"
"That's just to get me started. I normally eat dessert, too."
"For breakfast?"
"Yes." Massimo laughed a little. "And if you're nice to me, I'll let you share it. Maybe I'll feed you some chocolate cake, hm?"
"That sounds good," I said. "I love chocolate."
His eyes were on my mouth, as if he were imagining feeding me. But we were in public, in full view of a whole bunch of people. I took the menu from his hand and laid it down.
"I'm getting the Jamaican Beef Wrap. I know it's early, but they serve it now."
“I changed my mind. I’m getting the Steak Parmi," he said. "I guess we both aren't in the mood for breakfast at the moment. But we'll be getting that chocolate cake to go."
When the food arrived, we stopped talking. I couldn't shovel the food into my mouth fast enough, frankly. Finally, I got to the end.
"I feel like an overstuffed balloon," I groaned. "I don't think I'll have room for that cake."
"Just wait," he said. "It's Mississippi Mud Cake. Believe me, you'll like it."
I put a hand on my round stomach. "I'll believe it when I see it."
He got up to pay the bill at the counter. The waitress dashed into the kitchen to get a slice of cake. She came out still closing the box. She put two plastic forks into the bag and gave it to him with a smile. I saw him give her a $20 AUD bill.
"I hope you have a good day," she told both of us.
"We will," Massimo said. "Come on." He gave me the bag of cake.
I followed him to the car. I looked at the cake in the bag at my feet.
"I'd like for you to take me home," I said. I could already imagine him feeding me cake while both of us were naked. I was supposed to be mad at him, helicopter ride notwithstanding, but spending any time with him made me melt like ice cream on a hot Cairns day.
"I'd like to talk."
I stared at my hands. "What do you want to talk about?"
He put a hand on my chin and made me meet his eyes. "I'm here because I want to be with you."
"You're here on a business trip, due to the investments that your country's huge fun is making in Australia."
He sighed. "That's true."
"Don't pretend that this is about me, because it isn't." I swallowed the lump in my throat, but it didn't go anywhere. "I'm just convenient."
"If I hadn't come to Cairns, I never would have met you. And that would have been a shame."
"You're a prince," I said. "And I don't have a drop of royal blood."
"It doesn't matter to me. I've grown up my whole life surrounded by people with royal and noble blood."
"You're di
gging yourself deeper." My hands were twisting in my lap. I had the urge to run out of the car, but we were in motion. I'd probably get hurt if I tried to get out of the car now. I just had to endure a few more minutes of conversation. "I want to go home."
"We need to talk."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Cara," Massimo said. It was a reprimand and a plea. "Just give me a chance to talk through this."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Just let me talk."
"Okay." I knew that I wasn't going to get out of the car for a while.
He took in a big breath and parked on the side of the road on Martyn Street.
"I wanted to tell you," he began.
"But somehow you didn't find the time to do it? During the hours we spent together, never once did you have a chance to tell me that you were a prince?"
"I wanted to enjoy what we had. The two of us...we had something special."
"I thought we did, too. But I didn't fall in love with Prince Pietro."
"Massimo is my name," he interjected. "Prince is a title, nothing more. My mother has always called me Massimo."
I shook my head. "I'm not ready for this. I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready for this."
"Give us a chance," he said.
"I don't want to go on helicopter rides," I replied. "I just want to spend time with you. Just you."
He unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled me into his lap so that my legs were straddling his lap. Our noses were almost touching.
"I can't promise you a lot of things. I'm not in control of everything that will happen to us. But I can promise you this: I will try my best to keep us together."
In that moment, I knew that it was the best offer that I'd get. So I lowered my mouth onto his, breathing in his scent and the coffee that was on his tongue.
He kissed me like I was ice water on a steamy Cairns day. He drank me in like I was drinking him in, as if he could never get enough of me. Here in the car, we weren't getting wild. We were necking like teenagers.
When a car honked on the street, I broke the kiss, although his hands were still on my back.
"I am not sure about this," I said. "But you are hard to resist."
"So are you." He kissed the tip of my nose. "We should get inside before we give some paparazzo sells pictures of us in a car for too much money and my PR team has to do damage control."
He pulled back out onto Martyn Street. We were heading back to his apartment when his phone rang.
Mother’s Phone Call
He apologized. "I'm sorry, it's my mother." He cleared his throat before accepting the call. "Hello."
"What do you think you're doing?" I heard a female voice scream. "There are photos all over the Twitter of you kissing some girl in a car! We didn't send you to Australia to dally with some random whore."
My heart thumped painfully.
"Mamma," he said. "Please calm down."
"Calm! You tell me to be calm! You are getting on your jet and flying home to Italy at once. You're a disgrace to our name," she hissed. "And we'll discuss this further when you're here."
He looked at me. "I won't be getting on a plane today, Mamma."
"Don't you even think about staying in Australia with that hussy," she said, her voice very quiet now, like a snake waiting in the grass.
"I have deals in motion." Massimo squeezed my hand.
"You will leave them. You will come home and explain your behavior to your father."
"Dad's reputation is far worse than mine," Massimo said. "Before he was married, he dated..."
"I know that I am not the first woman he dated. But I made sure that I was the last. Be careful before you end up shackling yourself to some commoner."
"She has a name, you know."
"I don't care, because you're going to forget it soon. I don't even want to know it. Pay her off so that she never breathes a word about this to anyone and come home."
"I'm not leaving Cairns, Mamma."
"I will call your father," she threatened.
"Please call him," Massimo said. "The country comes before any concerns that you have."
"The nerve!" she screeched. She started cursing in fluent Italian. He pulled the phone away from his ear and pushed the mute button. He leaned over and said, "I'm sorry" right next to my ear. I squeezed his knee. My parents weren't a nightmare, but she reminded me of my craziest aunt.
"Mamma, I'm busy at the moment," he said when she stopped to take a breath. "I'll call you back later. Goodbye."
She screamed as he hit the red button and ended the call. He turned off his phone immediately. He put his hands on the steering wheel but didn't pull out onto the road.
"I'm sorry about her. Sorry about everything."
"We need to get off of this road. The paparazzi are probably still around."
"Right," he said. "I shouldn't have kissed you in this car."
"I don't regret kissing you. Ever."
It was strange, but the phone call from his mother sort of unified us. I knew that he was responsible to people who cared about whom he dated. He drove us into his apartment complex and pulled me into the penthouse elevator. I had the bag with chocolate cake in it in one hand. He rested his chin on the top of my head as his giant hands went around the indent of my waist, overlapping on my back before he threaded his hands together.
"I want to be with you," he said, and I thought that he was saying it to himself as well as me. I understood that he was willing to make sacrifices to be with me. He was willing to defy his mother.
As soon as the elevator got into the penthouse, he pulled me out of it. "I need to talk to my PR team to do damage control. I planned on feeding you cake, but..."
"I'll eat it all as punishment," I teased. He smiled, but there was something tired in his eyes. "I'm kidding. I'll save some for you." I wanted to make him happier and lighten his burden, not make it heavier.
"I'll be with you as soon as I can, darling."
"Thank you." I pulled him down for the lightest of kisses before stepping back. There was a spark of flame in his eyes, which he carefully concealed as he pulled his phone out of his pocked and went into his office.
I got a fork and knife before I carefully cut the cake into two equal pieces. I ate one very slowly as I heard the explosion of Italian going on behind me. The safest place for me right now was Massimo's rented penthouse. He had a security team here. We'd be safe.
I laid out of the couch and turned on the TV. There was some kind of program about caring for dogs. I loved the way that the dogs posed and the way that they looked when they were soaking wet. My eyes drifted shut as I watched a reporter interview a dog owner about her dog's Instagram fame.
Flying to New York
When I woke up, Massimo was holding me in his lap. It wasn't sexual, really. His arms were around me. My head was resting on his firm shoulder. His body felt incredibly good, like the most expensive couch ever that somehow was warm and smelled like heaven.
"Hello," I said, my voice a little sleepy. "What time is it?"
"I don't know." Massimo shrugged a little, which made my head move. I nestled closer to him.
"What's going on?"
"My mother is insisting that we go to New York."
"Why?"
I saw his jaw clench. "She'll be there soon."
"But you have business deals in Australia."
"I can fly back. How would you feel about a flight back to the US with me?"
I didn't want to leave Australia yet. "I still haven't gone on a tour of the Paspaley pearl farms."
"I can bring you back here, I promise." He kissed my forehead. "This doesn't have to be the end."
He was holding me so tightly that I could barely breathe. I could sense just a touch of desperation in his voice.
"Is this important to you?"
"Yes," he breathed.
"Then I'll come back to New York with you. I can visit my hometown in Jersey."
He lowered his
perfect mouth to mine. Warmth melted my entire body as he pushed his tongue inside of my mouth and hit all the right spots.
"I love you," he said. For other people, that would've been affirming. It should've made me warmer.
Instead, my blood ran cold.
"Don't say that like you're saying goodbye," I whispered. I kissed his jaw. "Please don't say it like that."
I'd never been in a private jet before. When I walked up the staircase, I was surrounded by mahogany and leather. All of this was normal for him, but I sat down in the buttery soft seats.
"You like them?" he asked.
"It's my first time."
"I can think of another first time that we can have," he teased, winking at me.
"Are you talking about the Mile High Club?" I asked.
He only laughed and gave me a short kiss that was a promise.
We didn't have any cabin crew. There was just the pilot explaining where to put things and that we'd need to be seat-belted for take-off and landing. Then the jet was ready to go into the sky.
"It's not big enough to fly all the way back to New York. We'll have to make fueling stops on the way. We could've flown commercial, but..." He shrugged. "It's easier to go in my own plane. Have you ever been to Hawaii?"
"No," I said.
"You're about to."
The small jet jumped into the air. It felt like I was in something the size of a toy. Commercial airlines were way bigger. This jet was moved by every little gust of air. But as we gained altitude, I relaxed. It felt really fun.
"Let me take you to the back," Massimo said unbuckling my seat belt and his.
In the back, there was a small room with a queen-size bed in it. He started yanking off my clothes.
"If I scream, the pilots will hear," I said.
"They have headphones on. And I guess you'll just have to be quiet."
Then the rest of my clothes were off and he was yanking his off.
We'd had times when we indulged in long, slow loving but my initiation into the Mile High Club was quick and fast. In a few minutes, both of us were breathing as if we'd just finished a marathon and I was sticky.
