Lorenzo & Lily (Royals of Valleria #8)

by Marianne Knightly

  She kissed him long and deep. “Good to know.” She gave him a quick kiss, then rolled away towards the night stand where her phone lay.

  Alex realized he’d left his phone in the pocket of his robe and let out a short curse before he left the warmth of their bed to go get it.

  An acting king’s work was never done.

  Chapter Nine

  Lily had barely slept all night, and now her ringing phone was disturbing the little sleep she had gotten. She reached over, her hand banging against the night stand until she found her phone. She answered it with her face still half-buried in the pillow. “Hmm?”

  A low, amused, and entirely too sexy voice answered back. “Morning. Did I wake you?”

  She sighed, then rolled onto her back. “Morning, Lorenzo. Waking me would give the impression that I’d actually slept.”

  A pause. “Was it the move keeping you up?”

  “Among other things.” Her mind had whirled all night. Thoughts about Lily, the castle, her job, and too many about Lorenzo. Not to mention, the life she led now in relative anonymity would be over; once the move took place, her life would change once more, and so would her baby’s.

  “I’m sorry for it. Truly. I just feel we should act swiftly.”

  “I know. I know we’ll be more protected in the castle than we would be here.”

  “Even if you moved to a larger, better, more secure apartment complex, you still wouldn’t have the security you will here.”

  “I know. And Liliana’s pretty excited about it.”

  “So am I.” He paused again. “I want more time with our daughter, for her to get used to me and trust me.”

  “Lily’s very trusting. I’ve had to have discussions with her about it. Especially considering her new situation, it would be best to break her of the habit, and teach her to be more discerning.”

  “On that, we agree. Please give her a kiss from me when she wakes up.”

  “I will. So, was this just a wakeup call?”

  “No,” he said, all business; she remembered his ‘business’ voice. “The movers should be by at about eight. That gives you an hour and a half. Is that enough time?”

  Panic slid through her and she shot up from the bed. An hour and a half! “It’s not very long, but I suppose I’ll just have to make it work.”

  “I’m sorry. I should have called you earlier.”

  She blinked. He’d apologized, and meant it. She wasn’t used to that sort of consideration or kindness. “It’s fine, really. I just couldn’t get Lily’s room organized since she was sleeping. I’ll need to get her up and get breakfast sorted, then her room sorted. I’m worried I won’t have time for everything.”

  “Don’t worry about it. The movers will do everything, and they’ll be more than efficient about it. They’ll have your place packed up in no more than two hours, even if you haven’t organized Lily’s room yet.”

  She glanced around; her bedroom alone – though it wasn’t very big or contained a great deal – would take at least that, if not more. “You’re joking.”

  Amusement flickered in his voice. “No, I’m not. Care to wager on it?”

  Uh-oh. “Wager?”

  “I bet the movers will have the entire apartment packed up in no more than two hours. If I’m right, you give me what I want. You win, you choose.”

  “What do you want?”

  “A kiss from you.” That didn’t sound bad at all. In fact, in the late-night hours, she’d decided to try a relationship with him. They still had a lot to talk through, a lot to work through, but she hoped they could find their way together.

  “What would you like, Lily?”

  She scrambled to think of something. “If I win, you don’t kiss me. For a week.”

  He chuckled, the sound reverberating through her body in warm, happy waves. “You’re on. I’ve rearranged a lot of my schedule today, so I should be there not long after you arrive. I have a meeting in the afternoon I can’t miss, but my brothers and sister-in-law are nearby if you need entertaining.”

  “I’m fine on my own. So is Lily.”

  “I’m sure you were. But you’re not alone anymore, if you don’t choose to be. Think about it.”

  You’re not alone anymore. The words brought tears to her eyes. She couldn’t believe them yet. She’d thought before that others wouldn’t leave her alone, wouldn’t leave her to fend for herself. It would take some time for her to believe those words again, from anyone. “Okay. Let’s see how the day goes.”

  “Good. One more thing: the press releases will go out on a staggered schedule after you’re both safe at the castle. It should hit the Italian press sometime around noon. You should prepare yourself, just in case your family contacts you.”

  Her eyes went to a picture on her night stand, one of her and Lily together at the beach, taken by a passerby. Her family were not in any of the pictures in her house, because they chose society over her and their granddaughter. They had her new number, as she’d contacted them once Lily had been born, but they’d yet to use it. She was more than prepared in case they called her; she’d thought of their next conversation often over the years.

  “I’m ready. Can we make it clear in the press release I don’t have anything to do with them? I’m sure once they hear, my parents will release a statement praising you or some such nonsense to make it seem as though you’re a beloved member of the family.”

  “Hmm. You do have a point. I don’t know if this initial press release is the way to express that, however. I don’t want to give the press a chance to bring you down.”

  “They’ll do that anyway, though, won’t they? Won’t I be labeled as the heartless bitch who kept you from your daughter?”

  “No.” His voice was harsh and fervent. “I won’t let them tear you down for entertainment value. I probably should have run the press release by you first, but we’ve exaggerated things a bit.”

  Uh-oh. “What does that mean?”

  “With your move into the castle, though it’s not explicitly stated, the assumption will be that we’ve decided to move forward with a relationship.”

  “What?” Her voice started as a screech, then to a harsh whisper when she remembered Lily sleeping in the next room. “Don’t you think that’s something we should actually decide before you announce it to everyone?”

  “Lily–”

  Her heart started beating faster. She felt trapped, cornered. History was repeating itself and she felt mind-numbingly out of control. “You took away my choice. Just like everyone’s done to me my whole life.”

  “Lily, my God. I never meant–”

  “Nobody means to do it, but it happens all the same. They take me for granted and push me around.” She shook her head. “I thought you’d be different. I thought this would be different.”

  “It is. Lily, please.” His anguished voice was not enough to distract her, though it did give her pause.

  “I was going to give us a chance. Give our relationship a try. I’d just decided last night after you left.”

  “Lily.”

  “What’s the point now, since my feelings doesn’t matter?”

  “They do matter. Lily, please. The press release is just to manage things, just for the press. I’m not trying to force you into any kind of decision. I’m just–”

  Realization dawned on her. “Trying to make yourself out to be a family man? If you infer we decided not to have a relationship when we found out about the baby, that gives you an excuse for sleeping around the last several years.” She scoffed and fisted her hand around her phone. “And how will you explain how I’ve been living? Surely the daughter of a prince would have better accommodations.”

  “We don’t need to go into details like that. If we ever do, however, we’ll just say we wanted to give Liliana a life away from the spotlight and the press for a few years.”

  “You think anyone will really buy that?”

  “It’s not uncommon. Other European monarchs have
done the same.”

  “Those children are often, and wrongly, considered less worthy, or something equally heinous. I don’t want that to happen to our daughter.”

  “Would you rather I tell them the truth? That a mysterious someone conspired to keep you away from me, which kept my child from me as well? The press will dig deeper, but they’ll leave Liliana alone. They’ll dig into your family’s past, which is not unexpected, and they’ll try to figure out how we met.”

  She gasped. “Are you revealing your last mission to the press?” She never thought that would happen.

  “I also made some decisions last night. I can’t reveal everything that happened to me, but I can reveal I was deployed and needed help when I came back. I’ve wanted to destigmatize mental health issues for veterans for a while now, and I think this is the time to do it.”

  Damn it. It was hard to be mad at him for wanting to do something worthwhile, but she felt as though it was at her expense. “That’s a very worthy goal, but I don’t agree that a press release announcing our daughter exists is the best place to bring up our history, nor for you to make a plea about mental health.”

  “I realize that. I’ve being doing press releases a lot longer than you.”

  Her skin felt hot, as though she’d been slapped. Her fears came tumbling out. She didn’t know enough, wasn’t experienced enough, wasn’t worthy enough to be his, to be a princess by his side.

  “The release will be fairly straightforward and focus on Liliana. The press always asks follow up questions, and through subsequent articles over the next few weeks we’ll make the past known, which will eventually lead me to announce my mental health initiative.”

  His breathing was heavy on the other end; hers was, too. Fighting was natural. It was human. However, she didn’t want Liliana to experience her parents fighting, not yet, not when everything was new and unsettled.

  “The most important thing to me right now is keeping you both safe.”

  “Lorenzo–”

  “We’ve both got a busy day ahead of us. I apologize for any inconvenience the press release will cause, but I won’t change it. I’ll forward you a copy for your records.”

  “Lorenzo–”

  “See you soon.” He hung up without saying goodbye.

  Lily had been right. It wasn’t fair to put them forth as a fake couple, even if he wanted to be a couple in real life, and even if she wanted that, too. Though they’d just fought, she still wanted to give him a chance, give them a chance. She’d wanted him for five years; one fight wouldn’t change that, not for her. But would it change things for him?

  He had been right, too. She’d seen her own parents manage their public persona during and after the scandal. There was never just one press release or one article; there was always a slew of them, carefully timed, each revealing a little more. Being away from that life for so long, it had been far too easy to forget things like that. In the heat of the fight, it was far too hard to remember.

  She bit her lip as a sinking feeling dug a hole into the pit of her stomach. He was trying to make the best of a tough situation, a situation that she had caused, to some extent. It was true someone forced them apart – and she knew she’d face that person again soon after the news broke – but she had made the decision to break up with Lorenzo to save herself from jail, and to save her family from further scandal.

  How many times had she struggled with that decision? How many times, in the dark, long nights, had she wished she lay in his arms again?

  She let out a shuddered sigh and buried her head in her hands. What a mess she’d made of things. Again.

  “Mama?”

  Her head shot up to see Liliana in the doorway rubbing her eyes. “Come here, honey. Snuggle with Mama for a minute.”

  Liliana walked slowly to the bed. The only time she didn’t run at warp speed was first thing in the morning. She pulled her into the bed and cuddled with her. “Did you have sweet dreams last night?”

  “Yes. I dreamed we were in a pretty castle. Do you think Papa’s castle is pretty inside?”

  “Almost all castles are pretty. Are you happy about the move? A lot of things will be different from here on out.”

  “Will you be there?”

  She gave her a squeeze. “I’m your Mama. I’ll always be there for you.”

  “Then it’s okay.”

  She gave her a kiss on the head. “Your Papa will always be there for you, too, now.”

  Liliana’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

  “Of course. He likes you a whole lot.”

  “He does?”

  She nodded. “In fact, he told me to give you a kiss for him when you woke up.” She kissed her temple.

  Her girl giggled. “Is it nice having a Papa?”

  Another reminder of the consequences of her actions. “Yes, honey, it can be. Not all Papas are nice, but yours is very nice. And he’s one of nine children. That means you have lots of aunts and uncles.”

  “Can I have a sister?”

  Lily stiffened. “What?”

  “Now that I have a Papa, I can have a sister, too, right? Julia at school said the Mama and Papa make babies. So you and Papa can make a baby.”

  Oh my God. Time to change the subject. “Well, honey, it’s not as simple as that. We can talk about that later, but right now I have something else I need to talk to you about.”

  “What, Mama?”

  Bless the short attention spans of four-year-olds. “Well, it’s about your name. See, your Papa always called me Lily.”

  “That’s me!”

  “Yes, honey, that’s your nickname. That’s why I picked that name for you, because your Papa liked it so much. But it’s going to get confusing now if we’re both called Lily.”

  “Oh.”

  “And now that you’re a princess, you name will be changing.”

  She frowned. “Who will I be now?”

  Lily pulled her close. “Oh, honey. You can still be who you are. You can be anyone or anything you want to be. It’s just that now we’ll be living in the castle, and your Papa’s protecting us. So, you can also change how you’d like to be called. A lot of people will call you by your full name: Princess Liliana Santoro.”

  “Oh.”

  “Do you like that name? Or would you like, maybe, Princess Ana Santoro?”

  Liliana’s head tilted to the side, then back to her mother. “I think Lil-ana.”

  “Lil-i-ana.”

  “Lil-ana. That’s what I said.”

  Lily laughed and kissed her forehead. “Close enough. Are you sure you’re okay about your name changing?”

  “Yes. It means I have a Papa now. I like Papa. He played with me and acted like he was a fairy.”

  Lily held back a laugh. “It’s not always fun, though. Sometimes, just like me, he might ask you or tell you to do things, and he might scold you if you’ve done something wrong.”

  “Like you?”

  “Just like me.”

  “Oh.”

  “But I told you, he likes you a whole lot, and he wants to be the best Papa he can. He’s going to try very hard to make you happy, honey.”

  “What about you?”

  “Me?”

  “Will Papa make you happy?”

  A loaded question, if ever there was one. “He will, honey, I’m sure of it. Now, we’ve only got a little time before the movers come. Let’s eat some breakfast and get dressed.”

  Lorenzo walked into Perez’s room, startled but fucking pleased to see he was up. A tray of half-eaten food was nearby; half-eaten was better than un-eaten.

  Progress.

  “Heard from the doc you went to PT yesterday. Guess you wanted to hear about last night, didn’t you?”

  Hector picked at a non-existent thread in the bedcovers. “No. Just felt like going.”

  “Good. That’s a fuck of a better reason to go to PT than hearing about my life.”

  The corner of Hector’s mouth tipped up. “But your li
fe is so interesting. Tell me what happened.”

  “First tell me why you skipped tea yesterday. I was looking for you. Plus, my brothers are here visiting and I wanted to introduce them to you.”

  Hector shrugged. “PT took a lot out of me, that’s all. Wanted some rest.”

  “I sent a VSO volunteer up here with some food.”

  The corner of Hector’s mouth tipped up. “She was, um, nice.”

  “Nice? She’s beautiful, intelligent, and spends her free time volunteering for a noble cause. She’s a catch. She’s leaving the VSO to focus on classes when she starts back at university in January. Since she wouldn’t be a volunteer anymore, you’d be free to ask her out on a date.”

  Hector’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know so much about her?”

  Lorenzo rolled his eyes. “I know all the VSO volunteers who come to the MARC, because I meet them during the training they’re required to take.”

  “Oh.”

  “Thought I’d had my wicked way with her?”

  “No,” he said quickly. “Of course not.”

  “Well, just so we’re clear, I don’t socialize with VSO volunteers, not in that way.” At least, not since Lily. “You going to PT again?”

  Hector sighed. “Yes. Later today, if they can fit me in.”

  “But you don’t want to wait, do you? You had a taste of real exercise for the first time in months, and you’re itching to get back, even if it is some of the hardest shit you’ll do in your life.”

  “Something like that. You feel like this?”

  Lorenzo nodded. “When I got back, after I got physically better, I didn’t want to move. I wanted to stay in bed. I wanted my family to stop visiting, giving me those pitying looks. I went back to PT for the wrong reasons. I did it just to shut my family up. If I went, they thought I was improving. I realized I liked the high of exercising, but it can become like a drug. Your body convincing you you’re happy, even when you’re not. It was then I found a therapist, and he started me on a path that’s working.”

  Hector frowned, and went back to picking at the bedspread. No. He was toying with the shell Lorenzo had given him yesterday, the shell he was currently trying to keep out of sight.