Читать книгу The Prince's Cinderella Bride - Christine Rimmer - Страница 9

Chapter Three

Max knew he was out of line to kiss her.

He’d made a bargain with her to keep his hands to himself, and yet here he was with one hand tipping up her soft chin and the other wrapped firmly around her trembling fingers. It was not playing fair.

Too bad. He wanted to kiss her, and at the moment she was going to let him do it.

So he did. Lightly, gently, so as not to startle her or have her jerking away, he settled his mouth on hers.

Pleasure stole through him. Warm velvet, those lips of hers. They trembled like her hand. He made no attempt to deepen the kiss, only drew in the haunting scent of her perfume: gardenias, vanilla and a hint of oranges all tangled up with that special, indefinable something that belonged only to her skin.

Lani. Yolanda Ynez. Her name in his mind like a promise. Her warmth and softness so close, calling to him, making him burn as he hadn’t burned in years.

Making him feel as he’d never thought to feel again.

She made things difficult when they didn’t have to be.

And yet, there was, simply, something about her. Some combination of mind and spirit, heart and scent and skin and bone that worked for him, that spoke to him. There was something in the core of her that called to him. Something within her that recognized him in a way he’d despaired long ago of ever being known.

He’d been asleep for almost four years, walking through his life like a ghost of himself, a dutiful creature, half-alive.

No more. Now his eyes were open, his mind and body one, whole, fully engaged.

Whatever it took, whatever he had to do to keep feeling this way, he would do it. He refused to go back to being half-alive again.

“Max.” She breathed his name against his mouth.

He wanted to continue kissing her for the next century or two. But she wasn’t ready for a century of kisses. Not yet. He lifted his head. “Not giving up on you,” he vowed.

For once, she didn’t argue, only stepped away and snatched up her laptop. He got his tablet and ushered her ahead of him out the door.

* * *

“Nicholas!” Gerta Bauer called sharply as the eight-year-old aimed his N-Strike Elite Retaliator Blaster Nerf gun at the back of his unsuspecting sister’s head.

Nick sent his nanny a rebellious glance. Gerta narrowed her eyes at him and stared him down. Nick glared some more, but he did turn the toy gun away from Connie’s head. He shot the trunk of a rubber tree instead, letting out a “Hoo-rah!” of triumph as the soft dart hit the target, wiggled in place for a moment and then dropped to the ground.

Connie, totally unaware she’d almost been Nerfed, continued carefully combing the long, straight black-and-white hair of her Frankie Stein doll. Meanwhile, Nick grabbed the fallen dart and forged off into a clump of bushes in search of new prey.

Trev, armed with his Supergalactic Laser Light Blaster, charged after him. “Nicky! Wait for me!” He pulled the trigger. The gun lit up and a volley of blasting sounds filled the air.

Gerta chuckled and tipped her head up to the afternoon sun. “Did I tell you that Nicholas is all grown up? He’s too old for his nanny. He told me so this morning before school. ‘Only babies have nannies,’ he said.”

Lani, on the garden bench beside her with Ellie in her lap, caught the butterfly rattle the toddler had dropped before it hit the ground. “He’s exercising his independence.”

“Me!” Ellie demanded, exercising a little independence of her own.

Lani kissed the top of her head and gave her back the rattle, which she gleefully began shaking again. “Is he still throwing fits when it’s time to do his homework?”

Gerta’s broad, ruddy face wore a self-satisfied expression. “For the past week, he’s been getting right to it and getting it done. I took your advice and had his father talk to him about it.”

Lani’s pulse accelerated at the mere mention of Max. Honestly, she was hopeless, telling him no over and over—and then kissing him last night.

She needed a large dose of therapy. Or a backbone. Or both.

Gerta was watching her. “What’s the matter?”

“Not a thing,” Lani answered too quickly. Gerta frowned but didn’t press her. And Lani asked, “So the homework is getting done?”

Gerta turned her head up to the sky again. “Yes, the homework is getting done.”

Ellie giggled and said, “Uh-oh. Poopy.”

She definitely had.

Gerta laughed, waved her freckled hand in front of her face at the smell and offered, “You could change her right here on the bench....”

But Lani was already shouldering the baby bag and lifting Ellie into her arms as she stood. “No. It’s a little chilly out here.” Ellie dropped the rattle again. Lani caught it as it fell and tucked it in the bag. “Plus I doubt a few baby wipes are going to cut it.”

Ellie giggled some more and pecked a baby kiss on Lani’s chin. “Nani, Nani...” The weak winter sunlight made her hair shine like polished copper. Even with a loaded diaper, she was the sweetest thing. Lani felt the old familiar ache inside as she gently freed her hair from the perfect, plump little fist. It was an ache of love for this particular child, Syd’s baby girl, all mixed up with a bone-deep sorrow for what might have been, if only she’d been a little wiser and not nearly so selfish way back when.

Gerta held up a key. “Use our apartment. It’s much closer.” She meant the palace apartment she lived in with Nick and Connie. And Max.

Lani’s thoroughly shameless heart thumped faster. Would Max be there?

Not that it mattered. It didn’t, not at all. No big deal. She knew the apartment’s layout. She and Gerta sometimes filled in for each other, so Lani had been there to help out with Nick and Connie more than once. Once she’d let herself in the door, she would go straight to the children’s bathroom, clean Ellie up and get out. Fast.

She took the key. “Keep an eye on Trev?”

“Will do.”

* * *

The apartment was quiet when she let herself in. The maids had been and gone for the day, leaving a faint scent of lemon polish detectable when she pushed the door open, but quickly overpowered by what Ellie had in her diaper.

No sign of Max. Lani breathed a quick sigh of relief.

In the children’s bathroom, she hoisted the diaper bag onto one of the long white quartz counters, shifting Ellie onto her hip as she grabbed a few washcloths from the linen shelves by the big tub. Returning to the counter, she pulled the changing pad from its side pocket and opened it up. Ellie giggled and waved her arms, trying to grab Lani’s hair as Lani laid her down.

“You need a toy.” Lani gave her the butterfly rattle, which she promptly threw on the floor. Lani played stern. “If I give you another toy, you have to promise not to throw it.”

Ellie imitated her serious face. “K,” she replied with a quick nod of her tiny chin.

There was an apple-shaped teething ring in the bag. Lani gave her that. She promptly started chewing on it, making happy little cooing sounds.

Lani flipped the water on and set to work. She had the diaper off and rolled up nice and tight and was busy using up the stack of cloths, wiping and rinsing and wiping some more, when her phone in the diaper bag started playing “Radioactive.” It was the ringtone she’d assigned to her agent, Marie.

Her heart rate instantly rocketed into high gear.

Okay, it could be nothing.

But what if it wasn’t nothing?

What if this was her moment, the moment every wannabe author dreamed of, the moment she got the call, the one that meant there was an actual publisher out there who wanted to buy her book?

She let out a moan of frustration and wiped faster. Not a big deal, she promised herself. She could call Marie back in just a few minutes. If there was an offer, it wouldn’t evaporate while she finished mopping Ellie’s bottom.

“Let me help,” said the wonderful deep voice that haunted her dreams.

Slowly, her heart galloping faster than ever, she turned her head enough to see him lounging in the doorway wearing gray slacks and a light blue shirt.

The phone stopped ringing and she scowled at him. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Only a minute or two.” He straightened and came toward her, all confidence and easy male grace. “I was in my study and I heard your voice and Ellie’s laughter....” He stopped beside her at the counter. His niece giggled up at him as she drooled on her teething ring. “Give me the washcloth.”

“I... What?”

“The washcloth.” He reached out and took the smelly wet cloth in his long-fingered, elegant hand. “Return your call.”

“No, really. I’ll do this. It’s fine.” She tried to grab it back.

He held it away. “I have two children. I know how to diaper a baby.” Ellie uttered a string of nonsense syllables, followed by a goofy little giggle. “See? Ellie knows I can handle it.” On cue, Ellie babbled some more. “Make your call,” he commanded a second time as he stuck the washcloth under the water. He wrung it out and got to work.

Lani washed her hands, grabbed her phone and called Marie back. She watched Max diaper Ellie while Marie Garabondi, the agent she’d been working with for just over a month now, talked fast in her ear.

Somewhere in the third or fourth sentence, Marie said the longed-for word: “offer.” And everything spun away. Lani listened from a distance, watching Max, so manly and tender, bending over Ellie, doing a stinky job gently and efficiently.

And Marie kept on talking. Lani held the phone to her ear, hardly believing, understanding everything Marie was telling her, only somehow feeling detached, not fully present.

She held up her end, answered, “Yes. All right. Okay, then. Great.” But it all seemed unreal to her, not really happening, some odd little dream she was having in the middle of the day. “Yes. Good. Let’s do it, yes...” Marie talked some more. And then she said goodbye.

Lani was left standing there in the bathroom holding the phone.

Max had finished changing Ellie and lifted her onto his shoulder. She promptly pulled on his ear and babbled out more happy sounds that didn’t quite amount to real words.

“Well?” he asked. Lani blinked and tried to bring herself back to reality. “Lani, what’s happened?” he demanded. He was starting to look a little worried.

She sucked in a long breath and shared the news. “That was my agent. We have a deal. A very good deal. I just sold three books.”

Max smiled. It was the biggest, happiest smile she’d ever seen on his wonderful face. And it was for her. “Congratulations,” he said.

Ellie seemed to pick up on the spirit of the moment. She stopped pulling Max’s ear and clapped her hands.

Very carefully, Lani set her phone down on the bathroom counter. “I’ll be right back.”

Max didn’t say anything. He just stood there grinning, holding the baby.

And Lani took off like a shot. She ran out into the hallway of Max’s apartment, shouting, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” When she got to the kitchen, she turned around and ran back again, shouting “Yes!” all the way.

Max was waiting, leaning in the bathroom doorway with Ellie in his arms, when she returned to him. “Feel good?”

“Oh, yeah.” She wanted to grab him and plant one right on him, to take his hand and lead him back to the kitchen where they could sit and talk and...

She stopped the dangerous thought before it could really get rolling.

“Nani, Nani...” Ellie swayed toward her.

She took the little sweetheart in her arms. “I’d, um, better get back. Gerta will wonder.”

He was still smiling, but there was something somber in his eyes. “All right, then.”

Neither of them moved.

“Nani...” Ellie patted her cheek—and then started squirming. “Dow, Nani, dow...”

Lani broke the tempting hold of his gaze. “I need to get back.” He was blocking the doorway. “The diaper bag?”

He went and got it for her. “Here you are.”

She took it from his outstretched hand and carried the wiggling toddler out of there, away from him.

* * *

“It’s time and you know it,” Sydney said the next day.

They were at the villa, just Syd and Lani, sitting at the table in the kitchen, sharing a late lunch while Trev and Ellie napped.

Everything had changed with that single call from Marie. And the time had come for Lani and Syd to deal with that.

Lani couldn’t seem to stop herself from arguing against taking the next step. “But I love Trev and Ellie. And I have plenty of time to write and to take care of them.”

Syd wasn’t buying. “Why do I have to tell you what you already know? You’ll be needing to network, to put together a PR plan. And what about that website you still don’t have? And you keep saying you’re going to establish more of an online presence, see if you can do more to boost the sales of those three e-books you have out.”

“You’re making me dizzy. You know that, right?”

“What I’m saying isn’t news. It’s what we always agreed. As soon as you were making enough with your writing to live on for a year, you would put all your work time into building a career. This sale does that for you.”

“I know, but...”

“But what, Lani?”

Lani let out a low cry. “But it’s all happening so fast. And what about Ellie and Trev? They’re used to my being with them all the time. How will they take it, having some stranger for a nanny?”

“They will do fine.” Syd reached across the distance between them and ran a fond hand down her hair. “They grow up, anyway. To a degree, in the end, we lose them to their own lives.”

Lani wrinkled up her nose at her friend. “Okay, I get that you’re trying to make me feel better. But come on. Ellie’s still in diapers and Trev’s four. It’s a long time until they’re on their own. And I know you and Rule are planning to have more children. You need me, you know you do.”

“And you need to get out there.” Syd set down her fork. “Listen, don’t tempt me, okay? You’re amazing with the kids. They love you so much—almost as much as I do. You’re part of the family and I hate to let you go.”

“Then why don’t we just keep it like it is for a while?”

Syd refused to waver. “Uh-uh. No. You need to do this. And it’s not like you’re moving back to Texas or anything. You’ll see them often, every day if you want to.”

“Of course I want to see them every day. I love them. I love you.”

“And I love you,” Syd said. “So much. I’m so crazy happy for you.”

Lani’s throat clutched and her eyes burned.

“Oh, honey...” Syd grabbed the box of tissues off the windowsill and passed them to her.

Lani dabbed at her eyes. “Somehow, I didn’t expect it to be like this. To get what I’ve always wanted—and just feel all weepy and lost about it.”

“It’s all going to work out. Change is a good thing.”

Lani shot Syd a sideways look. “Keep saying that.”

“You’d better believe I will—until you stop trying to go backward and move on.”

Lani pushed her plate away, braced her elbows on the table and rested her chin between her hands. “Unbelievable. Seriously. And yeah. Okay.”

Syd chuckled then. “Okay, what?”

“Okay, you can find a new nanny.”

“Excellent. You’re fired, as of today. And I’m perfectly capable of watching my own children until I find someone else.” In the old days, before she’d married Rule, Sydney had worked killing hours at her law firm in Dallas. A full-time nanny had been a necessity then. Now, Sydney had projects she took on, but her schedule was flexible and she enjoyed being a hands-on mom. “And Gerta’s terrific. I know she’ll be willing to accept a nice bonus and keep an eye on all four kids if I get desperate.”

“I can help if you get desperate.”

“The main thing is you’re a full-time writer and you’re getting out on your own.”

“Yes. Fine. I’ll start looking for a place. Something in Monagalla, maybe...” The southwestern ward was close to the palace. It was known as the tourist ward because room rates were relatively low there. But housing in Montedoro didn’t come cheap no matter where you lived.

Syd seemed to be reading her mind. “If you need help with the money...”

“Don’t even go there. I have enough to tide me over until the advance check comes. I’m just...a little freaked out at making the move.”

“No kidding.”

Lani pulled her plate close again. “God. I’m a basket case. Thrilled. Terrified. Sure that Marie will be calling any minute to tell me never mind, it was all a big mistake.”

Syd sipped her coffee and set the cup back down with care. “Is it a guy?”

Lani almost choked on the chip she’d just poked in her mouth. She swallowed it whole and it went down hard. “Whoa. That came out of nowhere.”

“Did it? I don’t think so. Something’s been bothering you since the beginning of the year. I keep asking you what. And you keep not telling me. Who is he?”

Lani was so tired of lying. And Syd didn’t believe her lies anyway. Still, she tried to hold out. “Syd, come on...”

“No, Lani. You come on. Whatever this is, it’s got you really on edge. And it’s got me more than a little bit worried for you.”

“Don’t be. I’m all right.”

“No, you’re not. You’re kind of a mess lately.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Just talk to me.”

Lani waffled. “It’s only, well, I’m afraid you won’t approve.”

Syd made a sound that was midway between a laugh and a groan. “Don’t give me that. We’ve been friends for too long. There is nothing...nothing you could do that would make me love you any less.”

Lani stared at her friend and wanted to cry again. “You are the best. You know that, right?”

“So tell me.”

The words were right there. And so she just said them. “I slept with Max on New Year’s Eve.”

Syd’s green eyes bugged out and her mouth fell open. “Max. As in Maximilian, aka my brother-in-law?”

Lani drew herself straight in her chair. “Yes. Maximilian as in the heir to the throne. That Max. You know the one.”

“Oh, Lani...” Syd shook her head slowly.

Lani made a low, pained little sound. “See? I shouldn’t have told you. Now you’ve gotta be certain I have a screw loose.”

Syd’s hand came down on top of hers. She squeezed her fingers tight. “Stop.”

Lani turned her hand around and grabbed on to Syd’s. “I know you’re shocked.”

“No—well, surprised, maybe. A little.”

“More like a lot.”

Syd gave her a patient look. “I knew the two of you were friendly....”

“Right. Just not that friendly. I mean, the prince and the nanny ending up in bed together. Ick. It just sounds so tacky.”

“I don’t want to have to tell you again,” Syd scolded. “Stop beating yourself up. You like him. He likes you. You’re both single. It happens. Men and women find each other. I mean, where would we all be if it didn’t happen?” Protectively, she laid her other hand over their joined ones. “I did notice how he was always finding a reason to talk to you, always hanging around with you and Gerta and the children.”

“Well, his kids were there, too.”

“Lani. Let me make myself clearer. I should have guessed.”

“Why should you guess? I mean, everyone talks about how much he loved his wife, about how he’ll never get married again, how nobody has a chance with him.”

“Nobody until you, apparently.”

She pulled her hand free of Syd’s comforting grip and ate another chip without really even tasting it. “It was one night, that’s all.”

Syd leaned a little closer. “Do you want it to be more?”

Lani hardly knew how to answer, so she didn’t.

Syd kept after her. “Is he treating you like it never happened or something? Do I need to kick his ass for you?”

Lani pushed her plate away again, then pulled it back, ate a slice of pickle and teased, “You think you could take him? He’s pretty fit.”

“Answer the question. Has he been disrespecting you?”

“No, he hasn’t. He’s been wonderful. Last night, he kissed me and said he won’t give up on me, even though I’ve done everything I possibly can to chase him away.”

“Wait. Stop. I’m getting whiplash, this conversation is so confusing. He wants to keep seeing you—and you’re just not interested?”

Lani pushed her plate aside for the third time so that she could bang her head on the table. Then she sat up, sucked in a hard breath and said, “No, actually, I’m crazy about him.”

Syd stared at her for a long time. Then she said gently, “So give him a chance.” Lani only looked at her. Syd spoke again. “This is not eleven years ago.”

Lani almost wished she’d never confided in Syd about what had happened when she was eighteen, the terrible choices she’d made and the life-altering domino effect of the ugly consequences that followed. But they were best friends and best friends shared the deepest, hardest secrets. “I just don’t want to get my heart broken, okay? Been there, done that. It almost destroyed me. I don’t want to go there again.”

“The way I remember it, you broke up with Michael Cort because you wanted more than just safety in a man....”

“Yeah, I know that, but—”

“Save the buts. I don’t get this. A big part of the reason I went to lunch with Rule that first day I met him was because you told me to get out there and give another guy a chance. You knew how many times I’d been messed over, and that I was scared it was only going to happen again. But you pushed me to see that you don’t get what really matters without putting yourself out there, without risking big.”

“Well, I’m having a little trouble right now following my own advice.”

“Just think about it.”

“Are you kidding? I do. Constantly. I just made the big sale. I’m living my dream. But all I can think about is this thing with Max.”

* * *

The apartment, in an old villa on a narrow street in Monagalla, had one bedroom, a tiny kitchen nook and a six-by-ten-foot balcony off the living room that the landlady called a terrace. From the terrace you could see the hillside behind the building, and a forest of olive and rubber trees and odd, spiky cactus plants. Lani took the place because the old Spanish-style building charmed her. Also, it was available immediately at a good price and it was only a short walk from the front door up Cap Royale to the palace.

One week after she got the call from Marie, she moved in. She had all the furniture she needed, courtesy of Rule and Sydney, who had led her down into the warren of storage rooms in the basement of the palace and let her choose the few pieces she needed from the mountains of stuff stored there.

It took her two days to make it livable. She designated half of the living room as her office, positioning her desk so she could look out the glass slider at the little square of terrace and the olive trees on the hillside. And she found a housewares shop nearby where she bought pots and pans, dishes, glassware and cooking utensils. The shop had all the linens she needed, too.

At the end of the second day of fixing the place up, when she had it just the way she wanted it, she cooked herself a simple dinner in her little kitchen and she ate on the plain white plates she’d bought from the nearby shop. After she ate, she sat down at her computer and wrote ten pages and felt pretty good about them. It was well after midnight when she closed her laptop and saw the pink sticky note she’d slapped on the top: Call parents.

Actually, she’d been meaning to call them for days now—ever since she made the big sale. They would be thrilled for her, of course. But she’d been putting off making that call.

They loved her and they worried about her. And every time she talked to them they wanted to know when she was coming home. They didn’t seem to understand that she was home. She’d tried to explain to them that she was never moving back to Texas. So far, they weren’t getting it. Sometimes she doubted they ever would.

Midnight in Montedoro meant five in the afternoon yesterday in Texas. Her mom was probably still at her clinic. But her dad might be home. She made the call.

Her dad answered. “Yolanda.” He sounded tired but pleased to hear from her. “How are things on the Riviera?”

She told him about the sale first. He congratulated her warmly and said he’d always known it would happen. And then she couldn’t resist bragging a little, sharing the dollar amount of the advance.

He got excited then. “But this is wonderful. You won’t have to spend your time babysitting anymore. In fact, you could come home. You know your mama and I would love to have you right here in the house with us. But I know you probably don’t want to live with the old folks. You would want your own place, and we understand that.”

“Well, I already have a place. I moved out of the palace and got myself an apartment.”

“But you could—”

“Papi. Come on. I’ve told you. I don’t want to leave here. I love Montedoro and I plan to stay.”

“But not forever. Your home is here, near your family. And you’re almost thirty. It’s time you found the right man and made me a doting grandfather.”

She didn’t say anything. It seemed pointless to argue.

He kind of took the hint and tried to put a positive spin on what he considered self-destructive stubbornness on her part. “If you have your own apartment there in Montedoro, does that mean you’re not babysitting Sydney’s kids anymore?”

“Yes. That’s what it means.”

“Well, I’m glad for that. You have great talent. I always told you that. If you’re going to take care of babies, they should be your own.”

She couldn’t let that stand. “I’m an excellent nanny, Papi. And I enjoyed every moment with Trevor and Ellie.”

He got the message. More or less. “Well, of course, you will excel at whatever you do.” He said it much too carefully.

That was the problem now, with her and her parents. In the awfulness of what had happened more than ten years ago, something essential had been lost. They continued to go through the motions with each other, but there were barriers, things they didn’t dare talk about with each other—or maybe didn’t know how to talk about.

She asked how he was feeling, and how Mama was doing. “Fine,” he answered. “Very well.” And then he told her that her brother, Carlos, and his bride, Martina, had bought a house in San Antonio. Martina’s family was in San Antonio, and Carlos would be opening a new restaurant there. “Of course, your mama and I are happy for them, and you know how proud we are of Carlito’s success.”

“Yes, I know.” She made her voice bright. “He’s done so well.”

“And they are already trying for a baby. A first grandchild is a precious thing.”

A first grandchild. The words stung, though Lani knew she shouldn’t let them.

After that, the conversation really began to lag. She told him she loved him and to give her love to her mother. They said goodbye.

She went to bed feeling empty and lonely and like a failure as a daughter. Sleep didn’t come. She just stared up at the ceiling fan, trying to turn her mind off.

But instead, she thought about Max.

She’d had zero contact with him since that afternoon in his apartment when he’d diapered Ellie for her while she took the call from Marie. Nine days. And nothing. She hadn’t seen him during the week she was still at the palace. And for the past two days, she’d put all her effort into setting up her place.

He’d made no attempt to get in touch with her. So much for how he wasn’t giving up on her. No doubt he’d had enough of her pushing him away. She didn’t blame him for that. He’d tried and tried and she’d given him nothing back.

She sighed. So all right. It was over between them.

Over without ever really getting started.

And, well, that was fine with her. It was better this way.

Except that it wasn’t.

And she was a complete coward who’d driven away a perfectly wonderful guy. Even if he was too much for her, too overwhelming, way more than she’d bargained for. Even if he was probably still carrying a torch for his lost wife. Even if it scared her a lot, how gone she was on him.

She turned over onto her side and punched at her pillow. But sleep wouldn’t come. Her mind thrummed with energy. With longing. She started thinking about calling him—and yeah, she knew that was a very bad idea.

So she tried not to think about calling him.

And that only made her want to call him more.

She had his cell number. He’d given it to her months ago, long before New Year’s, just taken her phone from her one day when they were out in the gardens with the children and added himself to her contacts.

She’d laughed and said she didn’t need his number. They saw each other all the time. If something came up and she had to reach him, Rule and Sydney had his landline on autodial.

But he’d said he wanted her to have it. Just in case...

Lani reached out a hand through the darkness and felt around on the nightstand until she found her phone. She punched up his number and hit Call without letting herself stop to think about how it was too late and she’d already blown it and calling him at one-thirty in the morning was hardly a good way to reestablish contact.

Not surprisingly, he didn’t answer. The call went to voice mail. She knew she should just hang up. But she didn’t.

“Hi, Max. Um, it’s me. Lani? Yeah, I know it’s almost two in the morning, not to mention you’ve probably decided you’re better off giving me what I said I wanted and leaving me alone. And I, well, I get that. I mean, why wouldn’t you finally just give up on me? I haven’t been anything but a headache lately. Why wouldn’t you just...?” She stopped, closed her eyes and let out a whimper of utter embarrassment. “Okay, this ridiculousness is stopping now. Sorry to bother you. Sorry for everything. ’Night.” She disconnected the call, dropped the phone on the nightstand and then grabbed her pillow and plunked it down hard on top of her face.

For several seconds she lay there in the dark, pressing the pillow down on her nose and mouth as hard as she could. But it was all just more ridiculousness and eventually she gave up, tossed the pillow aside and pushed back the covers.

If she couldn’t sleep, maybe she could work. Not pages, no. Not tonight. But she did need to get going on a marketing program. She could look around online, see what resources were generally available. She needed to find a website designer. And maybe enroll in a few online classes. Things such as how to make the most of social media and how to create an effective PR plan. When the first book in her trilogy came out, she needed to be ready to promote herself and the books, and do it effectively. Gone were the days when an author could sit around and wait for her publisher to set up a few book signings.

Her phone rang as she was reaching for her robe.

Her heart lurched and then began thudding hard and deep in her chest. Sweat bloomed between her breasts, under her arms and on her upper lip. She craned her head toward the nightstand to see the display.

Max.

She dropped the robe and grabbed for the phone. “Uh, hello?”

“Gerta says you’re no longer working for Rule and Sydney.” His voice was careful, measured. Withdrawn. Still, that voice had the power to make her breath come uneven, to make her thudding heart pound even harder. “And I understand you’ve moved out of the palace.”

“Yes. That’s right. I’m not at the palace anymore. And Max, really, I’m sorry about—”

“I don’t want your apologies.”

“Um. Well, all right. I’m okay with that.”

“You’re okay.” His tone was too calm. Calm and yet somehow edged in darkness.

“That’s what I said, yes.”

“You’re okay and you’re no longer a nanny working for my family. No longer at the palace.”

Anger rose up in her. Defensive anger. She reined it in and tried to speak reasonably. “Look, I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I shouldn’t have called you tonight. It was wrong of me to do that and I—”

“Not so.”

“Excuse me?”

“You were very right to call me tonight.”

“I—”

“But you were wrong to run off without a single word to me.”

“Max, I did not ‘run off.’ I moved. I certainly have a right to move without checking with you first.”

He was silent.

“Max?” She was sure he’d hung up on her.

“Where are you?” Low. Soft. But not in any way tender.

“I don’t—”

“An address. Give me your address.”

“Max, I—”

“I must tell you, I could have your address so easily without asking you. Gerta would give it to me. I could get it from Rule. And there are other ways. There are men my family hires to find out whatever we need to know about anyone with whom we associate.”

“Max, what are you doing? I really don’t like this. Is that a threat?”

“No threat. Only an explanation. I can find out whatever I want to know about you. But I would never do that. I care for you. I respect your rights and your privacy. So please. Give me your address or hang up the phone and never call me again.”

“Max, this isn’t like you. Ultimatums have never been your style.”

“My style, as you put it, is not serving me well with you. Make a choice. Do it now.” There was nothing gentle in that voice. He didn’t grant her so much as a hint of the compassionate, patient Max she’d always known.

Obviously, her sweet and tender prince was being a complete jerk and she needed to hang up and forget about him. Let it be and let him go. Move on. It was only what she’d repeatedly told him she wanted.

He spoke again. “Lani. Choose.”

She gave him the address.