by Ella Brooke
“Your mouth says no, but the rest of you? I think it’s saying something different.”
Andre reached around to grab her waist. When she slapped his hand away again, his other hand came up and knocked her back. Vanessa was stunned, so when someone suddenly came between them and sent Andre crashing to the ground, she didn’t immediately know what was going on.
“She asked you to leave her alone,” boomed a familiar voice.
“Hey, she’s not worth it, man,” Andre said.
Vanessa pushed herself up to see Lorenzo there, towering, powerful, and very annoyed.
“Go. Away,” he ordered.
Andre scrambled up and back so fast that Vanessa would’ve laughed if her ears hadn’t been ringing. A moment later, Lorenzo knelt down and offered her a hand up.
“Where did you come from?” she asked. “I thought you’d gone home today, too.”
“James wanted me to stick around and keep an eye on you. Good thing.” Lorenzo followed her to the door. “I think I should stay in your place tonight. I don’t believe that man would come back, but he might. I suppose that was the boyfriend Arlon has been telling people about?”
“Apart from the picture he’s been passing around with me and my gay roommate, yeah, that would be my one boyfriend.” Vanessa rubbed her cheek as she started up the stairs. “Is that what that was about? Arlon contacted him?”
“He had plans to take a picture of you two together, most likely. I sent his photographer away twenty minutes ago.”
Vanessa could imagine how Lorenzo would “send” someone away.
“Thank you,” she said.
“It’s my job.” Lorenzo sighed. “James isn’t going to be happy.”
“Maybe we just don’t tell him. I’m fine, right?”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Honesty is best in relationships and matters of personal security.” He stopped on the stairs for a moment. “Do you take these every damn day?”
“This is New York. Walk-ups are the norm, not the exception. Rethinking staying the night?”
“It’s my job,” Lorenzo muttered unhappily.
For the first time that day, Vanessa managed a smile. James had left his guard for her. And the apartment for her. He was doing his best to make her life easier in his absence. She wasn’t able to get in contact with him that night, but she hoped, soon, she would be able to sit with him and just tell him about her day, and hear about his.
Chapter Twelve
James
“How many more meetings are you planning for today?” James demanded.
Marcus looked a bit like he’d been run through a dishwasher backwards, but his focused expression told James he was nowhere near done. “We have to meet with the Intelligence Committee, and then I suppose we can call it a day.”
James had been running ragged since he’d arrived in Rusteria. After sleeping on the jet, thanks to a pill and sheer force of will, he’d walked off the tarmac into a private car, where he had been immediately taken into a phone call with his brother. From there, it had been back to back meetings, until it was quite late, at which point, Vanessa and Jonah would be out the door for their next day. Today looked to be the same. He was hoping to catch them on Sunday, but she would probably be busy with the move.
Which was as much his own fault as anything, but hindsight was always perfect. He’d sent her a long email apologizing for not having called that night, and it looked like he was going to have to do it again, even though she hadn’t responded yet. That was probably because she only checked her mail once a day and didn’t have a lot of data on her phone (which was practically an antique as far as mobile phones went).
“Have you been doing this since I left?” James asked, walking quickly to keep up with his brother. They were both the same height, but Marcus has always walked as though he were being chased. Fast, but in a smooth and gliding way that barely ruffled his hair.
“Doing what?”
“Working like mad. Is something wrong?”
“I’m just trying to get out in front of this. You remember how quickly things spiraled when Dad died.”
James sped up a tick and stepped in front of Marcus. He nearly fell over, stopping so abruptly.
“What are you doing?”
“Something I’ve been practicing with Vanessa: Making you take a breath.” James touched Marcus’s arm. “Whatever positions you assign me, I am your brother, first. You need to learn to delegate more. The king can’t be everywhere, nor should he be. You should only be attending the most important of these meetings.”
“You just do not understand the responsibilities of the crown,” Marcus said, deepening his voice.
“And God willing, I never will.” James crossed his arms. “And don’t use the King Voice with me.”
“I… don’t mean to.” Marcus let his arms fall to the side. “Just come with me to my office? We have a few minutes before the meeting.”
Marcus had more than one “office,” but this was his personal study, where they wouldn’t be bothered. His brother gestured to a chair as he shut the door behind them.
“It won’t do for us to argue where others can hear,” Marcus said.
James rolled his eyes as he sat down. “So you’re going to argue that you in fact should not be delegating these matters? You’re taking on too much, Marc.”
“Dad went to a lot of meetings himself,” Marcus pointed out.
“He also had several personal advisors who covered non-essential meetings and reported back to him.”
“Be that as it may, you remember how touchy things have been since I took over.” Marcus folded his hands in his lap. “I’ve been giving the Senate and the Committees extra personal attention, because frankly, it was the best way to keep everyone on our side after we had to deal with Uncle Alberico.”
“That was five years ago.”
“Five years is not a lot of time in the wider scheme of things,” Marcus argued.
James sighed. Marcus was twice as stubborn as Vanessa. Possibly because he lacked her ruthless logic to help him sort out how to trust people and test risks.
“Look, I left my family to be here with you, and you have my support and my vote. But at some point, Vanessa and Jonah may need me more. He’s my son.”
“I understand that as a father, but when it comes to it, James, you really ought to just bring Jonah here.”
“Vanessa isn’t going to just uproot her life.” Granted, he’d barely put forward the possibility, but moving to a foreign country permanently while he flitted around as a diplomat wasn’t ideal.
“You don’t necessarily need her approval. Jonah is your child, too. You should have an equal say in his raising,” Marcus said, his brows furrowing.
James blinked. “It sounds as though you’re suggesting I have Jonah taken from her. And my say in how my child is raised includes him not being ripped from his mother. Vanessa is a very devoted and capable parent. I’m a novice.”
“Still, Jonah is of the royal family, he should be—”
“This is not a conversation we are having. You’ll meet Jonah if I ever manage to get back to New York to convince Vanessa to take a vacation. Until then, you’ll have to content yourself with whatever pictures she sends me.” James rose to leave. “Please, for all of our sakes, get another assistant. Barda is good, but you need another. And you need to use her more.”
“Honestly, I had hopes that after your time abroad, you’d feel capable of taking on more here,” Marcus said.
James froze at that suggestion. Clearly his expression was horrified, because Marcus laughed outright.
“Well, tell me how you really feel.”
“I am simply… surprised.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t force you.” Marcus stood as well. “And maybe you are right. I could, maybe, send Barda out to do more. It’s very difficult to let go of control after the way we nearly lost it.”
“Isn’t that always the way.” James rubbed hi
s fingers thoughtfully as they headed back out into the hallway. “Control is so difficult to keep.”
James sat in his bedroom with his laptop. After two weeks of relentless meetings, they’d finally had their first vote in the Senate, and it was, finally, a break for him. He’d been emailing Vanessa back and forth, with messages becoming increasingly heated. She told him about her day, and what she was wearing. He told her about how dreary all these politics were, and how he wanted to touch her, and so on.
It would only be seven p.m. there, but he was six hours ahead, so in the late night, or early morning, he opened his program to see if Vanessa would be there on time.
“Hey!” Her lovely face appeared, and on her lap was Jonah, waving. “Say hi to Jamie!”
“Hi, Jamie! We miss you!”
“I miss you, too.” James leaned back against his headboard. “Are you in the bedroom?”
“Yes. All the furniture got set up just fine before we moved our personal effects in. We’ve been trying to make it homey for you.” There was a bit of wistfulness in Vanessa’s voice. James could hear it, but he hoped these calls would help.
“I can’t wait. What a reward it’ll be, after being in the thick of it for so long.”
“I thought you were used to all those boring political things.”
“I’m used to boring international immigration regulations, which I know very well. Marcus has had me helping him with quite a lot recently. I think Arlon put himself right out of a position by annoying Marcus.”
Vanessa’s eyes shifted slightly, and she nodded. Jonah was squirming, so she set him down before looking up to the screen again. “We’re doing pretty well. As best as we can, anyway.”
“It’s sort of cute how you pretend to be so stiff upper-lip, but I can tell something is wrong,” James said.
Vanessa shook her head. “I knew how hard it would be without you in my life after I let you in again. It was the main reason I resisted.” She swallowed. “So maybe it’s better that we only get to talk face to face once a week. It’s reminding me what’s supposed to go in that hole in my side.”
She looked away again, wiping her eyes and taking a deep breath.
James frowned. “Van, babe, I love you. Please don’t cry.”
“Trust me, I’m trying not to.” She closed her eyes and forced a smile. “Living in your penthouse… It just reminds me every day that you should be here with us. Even if you lived in that tiny little apartment of ours, that’s where you should be. I should’ve said this before you left. I’m such a coward.”
“You’re not a coward at all! You have too many people to think of, and you forget to think of yourself.” James squeezed his fist tightly. “We’re going to make this work.”
“If they need you this much,” she said, her voice breaking. “It might not. Then what? What happens to us?”
“Don’t worry about that.” James rubbed his forehead. He’d been foolish to leave her again and think it wouldn’t tear her to pieces. “I’ll write you as often as possible. I can stay up every night to talk to you like this.”
“No,” she said. “Don’t wear yourself to the bone just for that. Do your task, do it well, and come back to us.”
James couldn’t fathom how she was managing when this hurt her so much. He hated to see Vanessa cry, and it seemed like the only thing in the world that could make her do that was his absence.
While James had seen Arlon around the palace during his visit, he had actively avoided the man until now. He reviled him after what had happened with Vanessa, but Arlon was possibly the only person who had the ability to ease Marcus’s burden enough that James wouldn’t be needed around the capitol quite so much.
He approached Arlon in the northern garden, and to his surprise, the man seemed to jump upon seeing James.
“Calm down, Ar. I’m just here to talk,” James said.
“Are you?” Arlon tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
James sighed. “I just wanted to discuss whether you’d be interested in helping Marcus with some of his responsibilities.”
“You want me for that? After having him strip me of mine for the high crime of protecting this family from scandal?” Arlon straightened his tie and struggled to keep looking James in the eye.
“You were trying to create a scandal,” James said sharply.
“Well, it didn’t work, I suppose. We didn’t even get the picture.”
James was about to launch into his “responsibility” speech for family and country, but he stopped cold. “You sent me the picture. Vanessa told me all about it.”
“No, we never got a picture. That guard you left behind scared off my photographer.”
James stepped uncomfortably close to Arlon then. “You sent a photographer to follow Vanessa? And my son?”
“Really, James. How sure are you that he’s your son?”
“Completely. Answer the question, before Marcus has to scold me on proper family etiquette and why it doesn’t include broken noses.”
Vanessa
“Be sure to put your bag by the door in your room,” Vanessa instructed as the elevator door opened.
Jonah hustled dutifully into the hallway that led to their bedrooms. She was proud of him, adjusting to all of this change. He was doing a better job than she was, in some ways.
“Thanks for seeing us up, Lorenzo.” Vanessa gave him a wan smile and headed to the kitchen. “I’m going to go ahead and make dinner, if you want to go up to your bedroom. I’m sure we’ll be fine down here.”
Someone rose from the sofa near the fireplace, and Vanesa jumped nearly a foot in surprise.
“Oh my God! James!” Vanessa dropped her bag and ran into his arms. They circled around her, firm and secure.
“You’re slipping, Lorenzo,” he said dryly.
“I knew it was you,” Lorenzo said, rolling his eyes as he walked toward the staircase.
“Jamie!” Jonah said suddenly. He darted in from the hallway, and James opened his arms to catch him. “I thought you would be gone forever!”
“Not forever! Never forever.” James squeezed both of them before stepping back. “I just had to work through a few things on my end.”
Vanessa looked at him curiously. Two weeks ago, that hadn’t been the case. Two weeks ago, they were still looking at a few months apart.
Lorenzo came up and took Jonah’s hand. “Why don’t you come up to the roof with me, kid? Let your mom and ‘Jamie’ talk.”
James frowned at him, but Vanessa turned to give Jonah a nod of approval. He just needed an adult with him up there, and Jonah trusted Lorenzo like he was some funny, quiet uncle by now.
Vanessa reached up and combed her fingers through his hair. “God, I can’t believe you’re here. Did you solve everything you needed to? All the… votes or…?”
“Not entirely. I have worked out an interim solution.” James shrugged and pulled her with him back onto the sofa. “I couldn’t be in two places at once. I realized that, when I talked to you, Van. I can’t be in my country full time, and be a diplomat full time, and be there for you, full time. I had to make a choice.”
He paused. “And I found out about Andre.”
Vanessa’s eyes widened. “He wasn’t anything. That was a trick—”
“No, Arlon told me what he tried. It’s unfortunate. He’s family, but we can’t really trust him in the capitol anymore. They’re moving south to live with his wife’s family. Marcus and I had to work out a different arrangement, tap a few cousins further out in the family tree and promote a few people from within the government. That way the king has the support needs, and I can be more of a traveling advisor to the throne.” James squeezed her around the waist. “I still want you to come with me. I would give up my title entirely, and live here with you, if that would make you happy.”
“I don’t know that I do want that.” Vanessa leaned into him. “I want Jonah to know his family. And to be able to see more of the world than
a few blocks at a time.”
“So…” James pushed Vanessa’s hair behind her ear. “You would come with me this time? Here, there, everywhere else? I can get tutors for Jonah.”
“I can’t keep pretending that things are okay without you. It was just easier, until we met up again. I was able to convince myself that I was really happy, as long as I stuck to my rules and boundaries, but I was really just stuck.” Vanessa closed her eyes. “I’ve been training someone at the bakery to take my place when I’m not there. Since I don’t really need the money, we can pay her for that. And you and I…” She climbed into his lap and kissed him. “I’m so glad you came back! I don’t know how I was going to manage another day alone in that bed!”
James grinned up at her. “Is that so? I ordered the king, right? It’s big enough?”
“Yes, Your Highness, you did. And the first few nights, Jonah came to sleep with me, because he wasn’t used to it. Then, he adjusted.”
“Kids are resilient. Or so I’m told.” James winked at her. “Show me this mean, terrible bed.”
Vanessa hopped up and took his hand, leading him down the hallway, walking backwards for part of the way, into the master bedroom. It was still a little bare. Her belongings hardly filled the place up. But houses were like that. They took on their character from the lives being lived in them.
The bed, though, had been installed with a large, fluffy comforter and more pillows than she’s ever thought necessary in her life. The bedroom looked almost rustic, otherwise, with that brick exterior wall and wooden floors. Vanessa liked it. In fact, James had pretty good taste.
James closed the door behind them and closed the distance between them. Their lips met in a heated rush. Their weeks apart were too much; right now, a day seemed too much, and now they were drawn together like paired magnets. Her hands pushed into his hair, and his moved down her back. With each new kiss, she felt a surge of elation. With each touch from his strong hands, her heart felt more secure.
