Can't Buy Me Love

by Abigail Drake

  Couldn’t life be simpler? He groaned as he lowered himself onto the sofa, exhausted, and dropped his head into his hands. What would he do if the wedding was off? What if it wasn’t?

  He sprang up, unable to sit still and rummaged in the desk drawer for his keys. He still had his rented car, parked in town, without the Queen’s knowledge. He’d snuck out of the palace for secret rendezvous with Alix away from her guards and grandmother.

  He’d memorized the way to the staff stairway by now, which was quite a feat with the palace having four hundred rooms and probably several miles of stairs and hallways. Once out the service gate at the back of the palace, he ran down the sidewalk and didn’t stop until he reached the town center half an hour later.

  Relieved that his car was still there, despite it being abandoned for weeks, he unlocked it and climbed in. He breathed the smell of freedom before he turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the parking space. He didn’t know where he was going, he just started driving. He kept going until he thought he recognized a crossroads. On a whim, he turned down the narrow road and as he passed a stone cross, he remembered being here on one of his first visits. Alix drove them down this road. They parked on top of the cliff and then climbed down to a small bay with sandy beach. He’d been terrified of falling then thrilled at having the secluded spot for themselves. They’d made love in the waves. He thought he couldn't love her more. But that was before he really got to know her, before he understood just how deep his love for her could be. It was like a force of nature, unbridled and scary because of how little control over it he had. But that was the Alix effect.

  ****

  Seb and his brother Jarrod had been celebrating a successful new deal for the family company by flying to Florida for a surfing holiday. Jarrod’s then girlfriend Maya went with them, and at times, Seb felt like a third wheel. One evening, Maya stayed back at the hotel because of a headache. Jarrod wanted to stay with her, but Seb begged him to be his wingman and Maya wanted peace, so in the end Jarrod agreed to go with him.

  The first two evenings at the Sand Bar on the beach, Seb had spotted a pair of blonde girls who sounded like New Yorkers. He hoped to see them again tonight and to make a move on the shorter, cuter one. But his plans went awry just twenty minutes after their arrival to the beach bar.

  She walked past their table with her head held high if her grasp on the serving tray was a bit wobbly. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t seen her before—she was new on the job. Her rich brown hair was tied in a loose but stylish bun on top of her head, her smile was radiant.

  As her hips swayed just inches past his eye level, he nearly choked on a sip of beer. Coughing to clear his throat his gaze followed her as she delivered the drinks to a table of loud foreigners. He didn’t understand their exclamations but she seemed to take it all in her stride as she grinned at the guys and girls.

  “Did you see that?” Seb turned to Jarrod.

  “What?” Jarrod’s hair had always been several shades lighter than Seb’s but the sea and sun of the past couple of days had practically bleached it.

  “That girl.” Seb pointed over his shoulder but when he looked back he couldn’t see her anywhere, he’d lost her in the crowd.

  “What girl?” Jarrod frowned. Seb could tell from his expression he was only asking to get him off his back. Jarrod only had eyes for Maya for the past three years and now with an engagement, it appeared it would be that way forever.

  Seb searched for her behind the bar and amidst the tables. “She was this absolutely gorgeous brunette. Shaped like a goddess and with a supermodel’s face. I’ve never seen more perfect lips. Full and juicy and just slightly turned up in the corners. I could just …”

  “Dude,” Jarrod protested.

  Seb looked at him. “Sorry. She was just …”

  “She must’ve been something alright,” Jarrod chuckled. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Seb wondered if it wasn’t an overreaction to feel insulted at Jarrod’s all too familiar mocking. After all, they’d been through this every time Seb set his sights on a pretty girl. But this one wasn’t just pretty. There was something about her that took his breath away in a way that had never happened before. “No, not a ghost. I just saw the future mother of my kids.”

  Jarrod choked on his beer, spluttering and coughing through his amusement. When his guffaws settled, Seb insisted, “I’m serious, man.”

  “You’re always serious. For about a minute or so.”

  He’d prove it to him if only he could find the girl again. There was still no sign of her behind the bar or anywhere else.

  “I’ve heard you say it so many times before, I’d be an idiot to take you seriously.” Jarrod watched him with a pensive expression on his face. “Don’t you think you’re old enough you could at least try to keep a relationship for longer than three weeks?” Jarrod sounded more serious than sardonic, which took Seb by surprise. Jarrod had never interfered in his private life, more like he avoided knowing anything about it as if Seb’s womanizing ways would taint him or something.

  Seb knew it would be pointless repeating he was serious this time when he didn’t even know the woman. He also refused to think about how his affluent family would look on him having a serious relationship with a waitress. First, he needed to find the girl.

  “Is that her?” Jarrod asked, staring over Seb’s shoulder.

  She was walking in his direction, no tray in her hands this time. The group of youngsters she’d served earlier were right behind her.

  “Excuse me, miss?” Seb raised his hand, but at first she didn’t notice him. When her eyes spotted him, a mix of confusion and interest crossed her beautiful, tanned face. Her eyes were the deepest blue he’d ever seen.

  “Could we get another round of beers, please?” He pointed at his and Jarrod’s empty bottles, noticing Jarrod’s quizzical gaze.

  “Pardon?”

  She pronounced the word oddly but her expression was still pleasant, almost amused. She glanced over her shoulder at the foreign group. This close, he could tell they were speaking French and it seemed as though she spoke French too as she grinned at one of their comments.

  “Two more beers?” he tried again.

  One of the guys, a tall, blond jock, laughed. “He thinks you’re a waitress.”

  His English was perfect, except for the French accent. There was something else wrong there. He had spoken to the girl in the cut-off jeans who was now watching Seb, amused. Her lips quirked up, her eyes danced with quiet laughter.

  “I am so sorry.” Seb got up from his chair. “I didn’t mean it as an insult. I saw you carry a tray earlier … I just presumed … I apologize.”

  She tilted her head to the side, ignoring the scoffing comments from the others who Seb realized were her group of friends not patrons of the bar.

  “Apology accepted,” she said, at last, her manner refined and elegant.

  She turned to leave. Desperate to stop her, to speak with her if only a minute longer, Seb blurted, “Will you go out with me?”

  More taunting followed, a loud “Woo-hoo” which had the other patrons turning their way, and a gasp which must have come from Jarrod. But Seb ignored everything except her. He only saw the girl and how her eyes didn’t darken with rejection. “Please,” he said.

  “You want to go out with me?” She sounded incredulous as if she couldn’t believe it. She looked like a girl who got asked on a date every time she was out in public. But maybe she had a boyfriend.

  “If you’re free. I’m Sebastian, by the way.”

  He offered her his hand and she observed it for a moment before grasping it in hers. Soft skin, firm grasp. “Nice to meet you, Sebastian. I’m Alix.”

  “Alix. What a lovely name. Worthy of a princess.” He was only half joking. Everything about this woman was perfect.

  The group erupted in loud cheers and laughter. They were starting to get on Seb’s nerves. What was their problem?

 
; Alix grinned at him. Her hand was still in his and the fact that she didn’t try pulling it away made his heart stutter. “See you,” she said with her smooth, soft voice and French accent.

  Seb brought her hand to his lips and kissed it, helplessly smitten with this foreign beauty. He couldn’t believe she might leave before he even got to know her. He had to believe she was staying a few more days at least, he didn’t let himself despair. “I’ll see you.”

  This time, when she smiled, it was a sweet smile which made her eyes glimmer.

  He spent four hours at the beach bar the next evening, waiting for her to show up. In the end, accompanied by Jarrod’s ridicule and Maya’s compassion, he returned to his hotel feeling more dejected than when his longest relationship had broken up. It wasn’t that he didn’t get to see Alix, what threw him for a loop was his visceral reaction to her. If he were a more spiritual man, he’d think he’d loved her from a previous life. As it was, he was completely whipped. None of it made sense.

  After the failed attempt at seeing her again, he looked forward to leaving in two days. It was enough of this nonsense. He didn’t have time to fall head over heels for some foreign chick when his father expected him to take over the family’s business empire. It was one thing to reason with himself during the day. He had little control, however, when Alix’s smiling face cropped up in his dreams and he woke up out of sorts. It didn’t help that Jarrod kept teasing him about it.

  “Shove it, Jarr,” he snapped over lunch.

  Jarrod opened his mouth for no doubt another insensitive joke, but Maya sent him a warning look. Seb was grateful. Maya’s opinion of his personal life was evidenced by how she pressed her lips tightly together whenever his love life was talked about, but she at least never commented on it.

  Lacking the energy to go for one last surf, he spent his afternoon packing for the early flight the next day. Maya and Jarrod were lounging by the pool when Seb left the hotel. He didn’t plan on going to Sand Bar, but he ended up there anyway.

  The three beers made him melancholy. Perhaps Jarrod was right and it was time he grew up. After all, he was thirty. When he watched Jarrod, this growing-up business seemed so natural and effortless, even though Jarrod was three years his junior. Jarrod had changed into a responsible adult seamlessly when it seemed Seb couldn’t do it without regretting the loss of freedom and frivolity of his younger days. They used to have fun together, pranking friends, partying, taking advantage of their family’s money and status. Then one day, Seb realized Jarrod no longer took part in these exploits, and he couldn’t tell the exact moment when it had happened. Jarrod just grew out of it.

  “A penny for your thoughts.”

  Seb jerked around, not at the words but at that soft voice and the French ‘r’. His heartbeat sped up.

  “It’s you,” he blurted. He scanned the bar for her group of friends but he couldn’t hear any loud laughter and French joking. She seemed to be on her own.

  “May I join you?” she asked, but she had already pulled out a chair from the table and dropped down with the effortless elegance Seb associated with French women. How could a culture affect the way people moved?

  A waitress walked up and Seb could see how foolish it was of him to mistake Alix for a waitress the other day. The girl who took her order now had none of Alix’s grace. Despite Alix wearing a sporty halter top and a pair of striped shorts, there was something polished about her, something which suggested a good, even the best, up-bringing and a level of sophistication he’d never seen in any of his previous girlfriends—lawyers and doctors among them.

  She watched him with that amused half-smile that drove him crazy. It seemed to suggest she knew something he didn’t. He wanted in on the secret. Desperately so.

  “No friends this time?” he asked, hoping they wouldn’t suddenly appear and ruin his chances with her again.

  “I wanted to see you alone. They can get too loud sometimes.” She pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. Her tresses flowed down past her tanned shoulders and were peppered with salt crystals. Seb longed to see her in a bikini, her skin glistening with water droplets.

  “So you’re here on vacation with your friends?” he asked in an attempt to stop his imagination from going too wild with the image of her in a bathing suit.

  She sort of nodded, sort of shrugged. It shocked Seb how much her avoiding answering him directly bothered him. He wanted to know everything about her, every little detail.

  “Tell me about yourself,” he asked. His words held a begging undertone. He suspected he’d drop to his knees to get her attention. What was happening to him? He spearheaded a multi-million dollar corporation, dealing with business partners from around the globe, and he felt helpless when faced with a pretty woman. Although he could tell Alix wasn’t just any pretty woman. There was something special about her.

  “My full name is Alixandra,” she said, and he leaned closer to her not to miss anything in the loud bar. Or maybe just to see her full lips from up close.

  “And you’re French?” he asked.

  She made a sound as if that should be obvious.

  “What do you do?” He knew he sounded like an inquisitor, but now was the chance to find out as much as he could about her.

  She touched her hair again in what seemed like a nervous gesture. “I used to ride horses competitively. This week was my last competition. My friends and I were celebrating my retirement the night we met.” Her eyes glimmered with laughter, probably remembering his embarrassing mistake.

  “A rider, huh?” He checked out her nicely shaped body. She was fit and gorgeous, not too skinny. He should’ve known she was an athlete. “What are your plans now?”

  She shrugged. “Enough about me. I saw you surf. Just for fun?”

  The only time she could see him surf was the day after they first met. That she had paid so much attention to him made his heart speed up. So she wasn’t indifferent. It wasn’t hopeless. Except he was leaving in twelve hours and she’d go back to France, possibly never to return to the States.

  “I only surf to unwind. I have enough of competitiveness at my job and not nearly enough time to relax. I’ve always liked extreme sports. The adrenaline rush makes you forget about stress and you’re exhausted afterwards. Makes sleep come easier.”

  “Mhm, an over-stressed manager, then?” She grinned but there was a question in her eyes.

  “Something like that.” He’d learned not to reveal any details about his family and their fortune when he was twenty-four and an ex-girlfriend knocked on his door claiming she was pregnant with his child. The timeframe was off but it still took a paternity test to sort things out legally.

  “You’re probably familiar with stress, too, huh? Only you’ve had a different sort of stress at your ‘job’.” He air-quoted the last word.

  Her agreement was barely audible and her expression seemed far-off. She didn’t look sad, exactly, more like very grown-up and responsible. She was younger than him, that he was sure of. Maybe Jarrod’s age. But athletes always seemed more mature, even as teens.

  “What do you do to relax, then?” he asked.

  The tension melted from her face and she settled into her chair more comfortably. “I find horseback riding very relaxing when I’m not competing, so that’s pretty much all I do.” She smiled in a dreamy sort of way. “Animals are so simple and trustworthy.” She sighed deeply as if she’d been betrayed time and again by people. Seb felt an urge to reassure her that people, too, could be trustworthy. But who was he to claim that? Business was full of devious tricks and he’d used all of them in his career so far. Not to mention his history with women.

  “How long are you staying?” he asked to change the topic.

  “Three more days.” She leaned her head back, closing her eyes. “Three glorious days.”

  How he wished he could make her days, and nights, glorious. They could have something special, he felt it in his gut. This woman could be the turning point for him. J
ust talking to her felt as though things would never be the same again. And yet, in the morning, he would leave all this behind, passing up the chance.

  “You?” she asked, opening just one eye to look at him.

  “My flight’s in ten hours,” he said, checking his wrist watch.

  “Ten hours,” she repeated, thoughtfully, both eyes now open, trained at his face and a curious expression on hers. “Where are you staying?”

  He only hesitated for a second before he told her. Was she asking what he thought she was asking?

  She leaned forward. “It would be a shame to waste ten hours, don’t you think?” she said, softly. Her voice caressed his skin which broke out in goose flesh. But through the sweet promise of a fun night he could feel a sting of disappointment because of the limited time. Ten hours was not nearly enough for this woman.

  She linked her arm through his as they walked along the beach toward his hotel. She was silent and he didn’t want to interrupt the magic of the murmuring waves in the dark. He watched her beautiful profile, enjoying the way her long hair whipped his upper arm in the wind, taunting him with its sweet smell of jasmine. When he licked his lips, he tasted the briny air, imagining how it would taste on her skin later. But it was her own taste which eclipsed everything else. Never before when kissing a woman had he questioned his motives or thought of the future. He’d had sex—immediate and satisfying. With Alix, he imagined, dreamed and longed for something he was helpless to understand. Every time he wanted to murmur promises, she shut his mouth with a kiss as if she knew he couldn’t keep them. Maybe she didn’t want his promises. The thought hurt, so he sought comfort in her smooth, warm body.

  “Can you postpone your flight?” she whispered at five in the morning when she brought a tub of ice cream to bed which she’d ordered from room service. When she licked an icy drop of vanilla from his chest, he agreed.

  She kept distracting him as he searched for his phone only to find the battery dead. “Can you lend me your phone so I can message my brother?”