“I’m twenty. I’m allowed to make mistakes. What’s your excuse?”

“What was the mistake? Etienne?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Have you told him?”

“No, I just broke up with him. No big.”

He studied her. “You are not wounded by your parting?”

“Wounded by our parting? You might want to think about communicating in a way slightly more relevant to this century, your highness. As for Etienne, no, I’m not wounded. I wanted him gone and now he is.”

Which sounded correct, but in Rafael’s experience, young women did not heal so easily from relationships.

“You were sleeping together?”

She frowned. “Get personal much?”

“If you were sleeping with him, then you should miss him.”

“Thanks for the news flash.”

“Why don’t you?”

“I never really liked him.”

Kelly immediately looked as if she wanted to call back the words.

“Why would you sleep with someone you don’t like?” he asked.

“Don’t you have a grovel appointment with Mia?”

“I am early.”

“Lucky me.”

“You are avoiding the question.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Why would you sleep with…” He nodded slowly. “Because your parents wouldn’t approve of him.”

She took a step back. “Whatever. I have to go.”

He didn’t take the hint. “So you wanted them to be upset. I have seen you with your parents. You have a good relationship with them, so you are not trying to upset them out of spite.”

“I would never do that,” she snapped. “Now just shut up.”

“I will not and you can’t make me.”

“That’s mature,” she muttered as she crushed out her cigarette, then picked up the butt.

“How is your dancing?” he asked.

“What?”

“You are doing well with the company?”

“Of course. They like me. I’m a hard worker. I’m moving forward with my career.”

There was something in the way she said the words. Something brittle and filled with pain. He felt he was close to the truth.

“Most girls your age are in college,” he said.

“I’m not a girl, you sexist pig, and so what? Why would I want to spend my day studying in some stuffy classroom when I can be on the stage? Do you know what a rush that is? Do you know how many really cute guys send me flowers after every show?”

He could relate to nothing in her conversation and yet he knew exactly what she felt. Perhaps because he had lived his whole life in a state of duty-doing what was expected rather than what he wanted.

“You must have spent a lot of time working at your ballet,” he said casually.

“Well, duh. Of course. Hours and hours. Francesca used to joke that we should get some kind of frequent flyer miles for all the times we went back and forth to the studio. She was great, staying with me through class and really encouraging me. My dad was just as proud. He…” She glared at him. “Why are we talking about this?”

“Because you feel guilty.” He felt triumphant, knowing he had found the key. “You thought this was what you wanted and your entire family sacrificed to make it happen. Perhaps not with money, but in time and effort. Perhaps the younger children had to give up time with their mother. Now you have what you vowed you always wanted and you hate it. You’re acting out in the hopes that you’ll so anger your parents that they will insist you quit and come home. You might even want them to punish you by sending you to college.”

Her eyes widened in shock. “You’re wrong!” she yelled. “You’re wrong and you’re stupid and you’re a liar.”

With that she turned and ran away. Rafael watched her go and knew he was right.

“What on earth have you done now?” Mia asked from the entrance to the rear of the house. “Was Kelly crying? Were you mean to her? I swear, Rafael, you’re really an amazingly useless human being.”

He turned to her. “Kelly is upset because I discovered her secret.”

Mia didn’t look convinced. “You’re not exactly someone any of us want to confide in.”

He walked toward her. “You’re right. She didn’t think she had told me anything significant, but she did. I recognized the symptoms. She is bound by duty.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”

“She isn’t happy dancing. She regrets her career choice, but because of all the sacrifices her family made for her, she feels too guilty to tell them. She’s acting out, hoping to shock her parents enough so that they will punish her by bringing her home. She may even want to go to college.”

Mia moved back into the house and he followed her. “You know I’m right,” he said.

“I do not.”

“Think about it. How unusual is her behavior? Hasn’t it come on fairly quickly? The drinking, Etienne. She admitted she doesn’t even like him. What twenty-year-old sleeps with a man she doesn’t like?”

Mia leaned against the kitchen counter. “Maybe,” she admitted. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”

“I have solved the problem of your niece, Mia. Admit it. That should be worth something.”

She glared at him. “This isn’t a barter economy.”

He eased toward her, enjoying the fire in her eyes. “Of course it is. You have something I want and I have something you want.”

“You have nothing I want.”

He touched her arm. She wore a sleeveless summer dress and he brushed his fingers down her bare skin to her elbow. He was close enough to feel her shiver and see the goose bumps that erupted.

Interesting. All her fury had not burned away her desire for him. He was pleased, because he still wanted her as well, but that wasn’t what he spoke of.

“I wish to have a relationship with my son,” he said. “You wish that as well.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. He had suspected she wouldn’t be comfortable saying she didn’t want him to be close to Daniel. What mother stood in the way of a boy and his father bonding?

“You’re still a pig,” she said.

“So Kelly informed me. The women of your family are not afraid to speak their minds.”

“We’re good at it.”

“I have noticed. Come. We will go see Daniel in his play and you will think about what I have said about Kelly. In time, you will admit I was right. I am not as insensitive as you think.”

“Don’t push it,” she grumbled as she collected her purse.

“I will not.” He held open the door. “I have a surprise. I bought a new car so that I would fit in with the other parents.”

She stepped out and stared at the massive SUV. “That’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen. You think it’s inconspicuous?”

“It does not have diplomatic flags. And see? Oliver and Umberto are driving in a different car. No one will notice them. We are just like everyone else.”

“Oh, right,” she muttered as she walked over to the SUV and eyed the high step. “We’re the walking, breathing definition of normal.”

15

Although Mia had mocked Rafael about his new SUV, she was actually pretty grateful to arrive at Danny’s preschool in it rather than in a limo with diplomatic flags. As promised, Oliver and Umberto stayed in the background and did their security guard best to blend in. Which left her the yet unsolved problem of how to explain Rafael.

While she wasn’t close with the other mothers in the school, she did chat with them from time to time. She’d never mentioned a father for Danny. Not that anyone had asked. In today’s world of single mothers, no one thought it was unusual to be manless. But showing up with a well-dressed, gorgeous man who looked like a fallen angel and spoke like Antonio Banderas was bound to create just a little too much interest.

She stopped at the edge of the parking lot and looked at him. “I don’t know how to explain you,” she admitted. “To the people here.”

“Will they ask?”

“Danny’s been enrolled just over a year and this is your first time showing up. Not to mention the fact that you haven’t exactly been a subject of conversation.”

“All right. Tell them I am his father. We will smile pleasantly and keep moving. If you do not give them time to gather their thoughts, they will not be able to ask questions. Most people are too polite to pry in a setting such as this.” He smiled. “You may get a few phone calls later.”

She’d already figured that out. As for his plan, it was the only one they had.

“Let’s go,” she said, and led the way into the low, one-story building.

There were several small classrooms, three playrooms, and a big meeting room that currently had a stage at one end. Mia smiled at several of the mothers she knew and did her best to ignore their wide-eyed stares at Rafael. Oh yeah, there would be plenty of phone calls later.

The two of them took seats on the far side of the room, by a fire exit. There weren’t any other parents sitting there yet. She had a feeling that spot had been prearranged and that Umberto and Oliver were hovering just outside. She subtly shifted her chair a bit farther away from Rafael’s so there would be no accidental touching. Right now she didn’t need the distraction.

“I hope no one recognizes you,” she muttered. “I’m not a big tabloid reader, but lots of other people are. I wouldn’t enjoy someone standing up and screaming out your identity.”

“Nor would I.” He glanced around. “We do not have a camera. I did not think to bring one. This is Daniel’s first play. We must have pictures.” He started to rise. “Instruct them not to begin the play until I have returned.”

Mia put her hand on his arm. “Settle down. I have a camera.” Then she realized they were touching and that the heat from his skin burned her in a way designed to make her rip off her clothes and beg to be taken right that second.

She casually removed her hand and reached into her bag for her digital camera.

Why did he still have to get to her? If only they hadn’t made love. If she didn’t have such incredible and recent memories, she would be able to ignore her physical attraction to him. She loathed the man with every fiber of her being and she absolutely hated suspecting that if they were alone and he started to seduce her, she wouldn’t be able to say no.

In her head, she knew the opposite of love was apathy. That as long as she had energy in her feelings for Rafael, she was far from being over him. But in her heart, she wanted to slice her feelings away, like an unwanted disease. She wanted to forget how good he was with Danny, how he could be sensitive at the oddest times, how, until the Portuguese incident, he respected her intelligence.

Two months ago, her life had been relatively uncomplicated. Now it was fodder for a cable movie of the week.

“You told me Daniel is the star of the play,” Rafael said.

“No I didn’t. He’s a tree. I told you he has three lines, just like every other child. This is preschool, not Broadway. There are no stars.”

“But he is…” He lowered his voice. “He is the heir to the Calandrian throne.”

“Gee, you know what? I didn’t have that information when they were casting the play. What a shame, because if I’d told them I’m sure they would have made him the star.”

Rafael stared at her. “Do you not believe your son is special?”

“Of course. But because of who he is on the inside. Not because of his relationship to you. I thought he was the most amazing child back when he was the son of an antiquities smuggler.”

He frowned slightly. “I had not considered that. Were you angry when you discovered you were pregnant?”

“No. Not angry. Shocked. But I was going through a bad time, and finding out I was pregnant got me through it.”

She really didn’t want to talk about this. Why couldn’t they be arguing about the light bill like the other parents?

“You mean because you thought I was dead,” he told her.

“Whatever.” She stared straight ahead.

“Mia.” He leaned close until his mouth was almost touching her ear. “I did not mean to hurt you by letting you think I was dead. I did not consider that you would mourn me.”

She turned to glare at him only to discover their faces were very, very close. “I told you I loved you. I don’t say that to just anyone. I thought you were a real bad guy. I was violating every belief I had by being with you.”

“I see that now. I am sorry for not understanding it then. Returning to my real life was traumatic. My father was very angry. I had neglected many duties. There were complications, but I should have considered your feelings.”

It wasn’t much of an apology, but considering the source, it wasn’t bad. Unlike the last one, when he’d been whiny and had complained about being caught rather than being wrong.

“Fine,” she muttered, and faced front again.