Susan Mallery - The Marcelli Princess

He had been hard for hours. Every time he managed to get his desire under control, he remembered the taste of her kiss and the feel of her breasts, and blood rushed to his groin.

Nothing helped, he thought grimly. Not thoughts of sports or finance or discussing the particulars of growing tomatoes with Grandma Tessa. He simply had to hear Mia’s voice or catch sight of her, and he ached to take her.

Ironic that in this one area he did not have to pretend. He meant what he said-she was spectacularly sexual and he was desperate to revisit their passion.

A sharp scent caught his attention. He turned and saw a cigarette tip glowing in the darkness. He moved toward it and recognized the smoker.

“Good evening,” he said.

Kelly Reese glanced at him. “Are you going to rat me out?”

“Of course not. What you do with your life is your business.”

She sighed and continued to lean against the side of the garage. “Whatever. Aren’t you going to lecture me about the perils of smoking?”

He shrugged. “Do you want me to?”

“Not especially. I know it’s not great for my endurance, but it helps me keep my weight down. Let me tell you, being this skinny isn’t pleasant. I’ve been hungry since I was fifteen.”

He looked her over. She had the typical dancer’s build. Powerful, lean muscles without an ounce of body fat to soften the lines. She was tall with perfect posture and wild, curly red hair tumbling down her back.

“So you suffer for your art,” he said.

“That’s me. Cliché girl.”

Her phrasing reminded him of Mia, which made him hard again. He swore silently.

“How long have you been dating Etienne?” he asked, knowing the shadows would keep his secret. He did not want this child to think he was interested in her.

“A couple of months. Everybody hates him. It’s the Euro-trash thing. You’d think I’d know better. My mom married some guy who was supposed to be a count or something and he wasn’t. But, hey, it’s not my problem.”

“Did Etienne tell you he came from a titled family?”

“No. His dad is a policeman and his mother works in a bakery.”

Working class, which fit his accent. Etienne might not be much for personal grooming, but at least he wasn’t a liar. Not that Rafael cared one way or the other.

“So you knew Mia from a long time ago,” Kelly said. “Obviously, what with you being Danny’s father. It’s weird. Why didn’t you come after her before?”

“I was told she was dead.”

Kelly stared at him. “Huh. So she thought you were dead and you thought she was dead. Interesting coincidence.”

“More sad than interesting. I mourned Mia for a long time.”

Kelly’s green eyes seemed to see more than most. “At least it’s a good story,” she said at last.

“You do not believe me.” How could she not?

“What I think doesn’t matter. Mia has always known what she wanted and no one gets in the way of that. If she wants you, no one will be able to change her mind.”

“You don’t like me,” he said.

Kelly inhaled on her cigarette, then dropped it to the ground and stepped on it. “I’m not real keen on the Euro-trash set.”

He stiffened. “I am Crown Prince Rafael of Calandria.”

“I know. I’m sure the housing is much nicer, but you’re still the type. Playing on what you have to get what you want. Right now you want Mia.”

The child saw too much. Old before her years, he thought, recognizing the symptoms. For him the reason had been his upbringing, for her it was her commitment to ballet. He could both admire and sympathize with her position.

She picked up the butt and slipped it into her pocket. “I’m going to give you some advice, I don’t know why. Maybe in exchange for you not mentioning the smoking thing. Don’t screw with her. Joe will kill you.”

“That is not possible.”

Kelly grinned. “You think those two bodyguards could protect you? Not in this lifetime. Nobody gets to Joe’s family, and Mia is one of his favorites.”

Her total confidence surprised him. “He would be killed as well.”

“Maybe, but you’d be dead first. This is a friendly warning, worth what you paid for it.”

Kelly walked away. Rafael watched her go. The child’s words did not frighten him-nor did the thought of facing an angry Joe Marcelli. But he was surprised to feel something like regret.

It was increasingly obvious that Mia could be hurt by his plan. He didn’t want to wound but he did require his son. Was there perhaps another way?

He immediately shook off the question. Sacrifices would be made by all. If Mia’s were greatest, so be it.

Mia sat curled up in an old leather chair in the library. She loved the room with its high arched ceilings and the tall bookshelves filled with everything from rare first editions to her old copies of Seventeen magazine. She loved the quiet and the fact that no one ever thought to look for her here, but mostly she loved that the room reminded her of her grandfather.

Lorenzo had been gone five years. He’d never known about Danny, hadn’t lived to see Joe and Darcy marry. Right now she missed the old man and his gruff ways. She had a feeling he would cut right to the heart of the matter with Rafael.

But what would he say? Would he tell her to marry the father of her son and be a good wife or would he shake his head and say that in a world that runs by computers, who needs princes?

The door opened. Mia tensed slightly, not sure she would welcome any interruption. Then Rafael stepped into the room and she felt her heart flutter in anticipation.

Great. She was falling for him again. Just what she needed, because her life wasn’t complicated enough these days.

“I am interrupting?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Not really. I’m going over my classes for the fall term at law school. I’m getting down to the serious stuff for my specialty and it’s…” She blinked at his look of surprise. “What?”

“You plan to continue to attend law school?”

She put the catalog on the desk and scrambled to her feet. “Did you think you would stop me?”

“Of course not, it is just if we are married, you will not be able to practice law. Not in the traditional sense,” he added quickly, then smiled. “You are right. You should complete your education, so when you speak before our parliament, you know exactly what you want to say.”

She wasn’t totally buying the sudden transformation. “Why would I be speaking before parliament?”

“Because you will never be silent, Mia. It is, how do you say…Not your style? You are life and you must be a part of things. I think that if you were to come to my country, you would want to tax the casinos more to pay for education. Perhaps you would start a teaching hospital so our future doctors did not go away to France or England.”

“So you’re saying I could affect policy.”

“Of course. As queen you can do anything.”

Except live a normal life.

He motioned to the chair she’d been in and waited until she sat before claiming the one next to it.

“What troubles you?” he asked. “I know you are finding it difficult to resist my charms.”

She laughed. “That pesky ego. Doesn’t it ever get heavy, carrying it around all the time?”

“No. I am used to the weight.” His smile faded. “Tell me, Mia. I wish to know.”

She drew in a breath, not sure she could even articulate her concerns. “Calandria is very far away.”

“That is true. However, you will have access to several private jets to take you wherever you want. Your family is no more than eight or nine hours away. They would also be welcome to visit us whenever they wanted.”

“I’m not really princess”-she couldn’t bring herself to say queen-“material. I’m not royal or rich or anything special.”

His gaze narrowed. “What more would you require to be special? You are uniquely yourself.”

She sensed that he was going to reach for her hand and snatched it back just in time. He grasped air, then raised his eyebrows.

“I know you enjoy my touch,” he began.

“Too much,” she muttered. “There will be no more touching until I get things figured out.”

He smiled with the contented confidence of a man who knows how to please women. “You are afraid I can seduce you.”

“I’m not afraid, I’m prudent.”

“A good quality in a wife.”

“You could say the same thing about a dog.” She shook her head. “You would have to let go of the hot-and-cold-running women at your house on the rocks.”

“There have been women in my life. Of course, I’m a man. But none at the house. I take no one there, Mia. You will be the first.”

Whoa. “You’re serious?”

“Why would I lie? You could easily check the truth. I have not brought a woman to my house.”

Good to know. “It’s just I…” She clutched the arms of the chair. “You’re different. I knew Diego. I understood him. But Rafael is a mystery to me.”

“We are not so different. Not the Diego you knew.”

“What about the real one?”

He shrugged. “He was angry. By a fluke of birth, he lost the crown. His brother never cared, but Diego was angry from the time he understood what it meant to be king.”

“Did it change you to pretend to be him?”

“I am already a man ready to take what I want,” he said. “But Diego was a fool.” He dismissed the other man with a flick of his fingers. “Now he is dead.”

The ruthlessness didn’t surprise her. She’d seen it in him before. Men only crossed Rafael once. Which made his sense of humor and flashes of tenderness more fascinating. Rafael could laugh at the world. More important, he could laugh at himself.

“Why me?” she asked.

He stared directly into her eyes. “Because in all the years we have been apart, I have never forgotten you. I am very good at forgetting women.”

He rose. “I wish to return home, Mia, but my business there will wait. You are the most important part of my world. I will stay here until you are comfortable with me.”

“And if it takes years?” she asked, not sure she believed him.

“I am a young man. Despite what you have heard, I am also a patient one. You are worth waiting for. Take your time. I will be here.”

He left and she was alone. A normal person would have felt relief, but suddenly she was lonely and wanted to call him back.

He’d always been a smooth talker. She had to remember that. No one came into a situation like this without an agenda. But he had an answer for everything and she didn’t know how to deal with that.

Worse, she didn’t know how to stop herself from wanting to believe it was all true.

“You’re trying to make me feel bad on purpose,” Mia muttered as she flopped on her bed.

“Not at all. I dance in the corps and I live in San Francisco, which, as you know, is about the most expensive city next to New York, so it’s not like I have a lot of extra cash.”

Mia eyed Kelly as the tall, slender redhead pulled on a skinny-strapped sundress Mia hadn’t been able to fit into since before Danny was born.

“So go to the mall.”

“Your closet is closer.” Kelly turned and studied herself in the mirror. “It’s too short.”

“And too loose. God, I hate you.”

Kelly grinned. “I happen to know you adore me, despite my height and lack of body fat.” She spun in the pale green dress, then pulled it over her head. “What’s next?”

“Have at it,” Mia said, pointing at the closet. “My old clothes are your old clothes.”

Kelly flipped hangers. Mia studied her narrow back and the clearly visible bones of her shoulders and ribs.

“Not to get too maternal on you,” Mia said lightly, “but are you sure you’re eating enough?”

“Uh-huh.”

“But you’re so-”

“I’m a dancer, Mia. In my line of work, they don’t like chunky. I’ll eat when I retire.”

“Most people just want to garden.”

Kelly shrugged, then dove back in the closet. She emerged with a long dress in a muslin bag. “I know what’s in here.”

“Me too.” Mia sat up. “I haven’t looked at that in years.”

Kelly unzipped the front and pulled out the handmade wedding gown all the women in the family had lovingly beaded when Mia had been planning on marrying David.

“That was what, more than eight years ago?” she asked more to herself than Kelly. “I can’t believe it. Was I ever really that young and foolish?”

“You were in love,” Kelly reminded her. “I think it’s very romantic.”

“We were babies. Just eighteen and still in college. What were we thinking?”

“That you wanted to be together.”

Mia remembered the heated longing of her first real love. “We were worlds apart,” she said as she fingered the stunning beadwork. “I’d started college at sixteen, so I was already a junior. He was a freshman and had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. I was going to get my master’s in international relations and be a diplomat.”