The Lost Princes of Ambria 06 - Taming the Lost Prince (3 page)

She watched for a few minutes longer, caught up in the magic. How wonderful to be royal and to live as though you were the star of it all. Just being here in the castle made her feel as though she were blessed. But it also made her feel a new and more intense responsibility to her country and her people. She wondered if Max would start to feel a little of that soon.

She could pick out most of the princes. So handsome, every one of them—so tall and strong. They looked like men who were confident in themselves and ready to take on the world. She could hardly believe Max was about to take his place alongside of them.

There was Prince Mykal, sitting on the sidelines, still recovering from a horrendous motorcycle accident from a few months before. Prince David, one of her favorites, was dancing with beautiful Ayme, who had recently become his bride. Prince Joe, still looking like a California surfer with his sun-streaked hair, was laughing with Kelly, his own new bride. And newly crowned King Monte had Pellea in his arms and was leading her around the floor with such obvious passion, you’d think the honeymoon was starting that night. That made her laugh softly to herself.

She searched the crowd. Where was Max? Her gaze lingered a moment on Princess Kim. She was glad to see her looking happy after all that she’d been through on the enemy side of the island with the Granvilli partisans. It was good to have her safe and sound, back in the castle where she belonged. But where was Max?

At first worried, she began to get angry. If he had slipped away again …!

And then she saw him.

Max was standing with a group of men she didn’t recognize. As she watched, the men moved away and a beautiful dark-haired woman was brought up to be presented to him. Kayla felt a tug on her heartstrings, but she tried desperately to suppress it. She couldn’t be jealous. There was no sense behind it. She had to keep it down. Max was not hers and never had been. Never would be, especially now that he was a prince. There was no justification for any jealousy. She couldn’t let it happen.

She watched as they danced. He moved so well, as if he were floating on air. He was talking to his partner and she was blossoming in his arms. He could have been born for this—and of course, he really was!

The dance was over. She could breathe again. And now, she really had to go. But she watched for just one minute more, and suddenly his head was tilted up. He was looking right at her. And as she watched, he lifted a glass of champagne and smiled at her, giving her a toast. Her breath caught in her throat and she gasped. He gave her a nod, and then a lascivious wink. Her face felt hot as she pulled back, away from where anyone could see her. She was laughing, though. That wink was guaranteed to keep her warm that night. Trust Max!

But as she turned and left the balcony, her amusement evaporated. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t be watching Max from afar and reacting every time he noticed her. Nothing good could come of this. Much better that she should stay as far away from him as she could get. If he really wasn’t attached, it would be his duty to find a bride as soon as possible. Watching him fall in love would be tough to take. And if he ever found out …

No, keeping in touch with Max was much too dangerous. She had to find a way to avoid it.

She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and she was starving. Glancing at her watch, she knew it was too late to pick up Teddy before he went to sleep. Her heart ached as she thought about that. She missed him. Her baby was only a little over a year old and she missed him when she had late days like this. Sighing, she knew she had to speak to Pellea about it. She really didn’t want to be away from her child this long. At the same time, she was so lucky to have this job …

She stopped in at the all-night café and got a salad to eat once she got home.

Then she headed for her sister Caroline’s room, just two doors down from hers.

“Hi,” she called softly, opening the door with her own key. “How are they?”

“Sleeping like lambs,” Caroline said, rising from the couch where she’d been reading and coming to give her sister a hug.

Just two years apart, they looked enough alike that there was always someone who asked if they were twins. Caroline wore her blond hair short, pixie-style, and had a more sleepy, languid look about her, but otherwise, they were practically replicas and had always been especially close.

They stood together looking down at where the two little boys, one dark-haired like his father, the other as blond as his mother, lay side by side, sound asleep.

Caroline’s husband, Rik, was a rising star in the Ambrian royal guard. Right now he was on a mission on the Granvilli side of the island and would be gone for a few days. Luckily, whether Rik was home or not, Caroline loved having Teddy in to play with her own boy.

“Why don’t you leave him here for the night?” she suggested. “He’s used to sleeping here after the last week when you were in Paris. And it was so hard to put them down tonight, I hate to wake them up and have to start all over again.”

“Are you sure?” Kayla felt guilty, but she was so tired, it sounded like a good thing to do.

“Absolutely. You’re only two doors down. I can get you over here fast if I need you. Just come on over first thing in the morning and it will all be good.”

She stayed for half an hour, sharing her salad with her sister while they talked, watching her baby while he slept.

And then she was back in the corridor, on her way home and looking down toward the public area, wondering how the ball was going. It was interesting to live this way, with everything happening so close at hand. The castle lifestyle was growing on her. She had been new to it a year before when she’d come to work here, but she was used to it now and it seemed a comfortable way of life. She compared it to living on a huge cruise ship.

She opened her own door and went in, yawning and kicking off her shoes as she did. A tap on a switch turned on a soft light in the kitchen, which did enough to light the path to her bedroom. She made her way slowly through the apartment, casting off clothes as she went, first her jacket, then her skirt, then her sweater.

She was thinking about crashing straight onto her bed and closing her eyes and not opening them again until morning. Heavenly peace. No dreams, please. Just wonderful sleep. Her eyes began to droop in anticipation.

But it was not to be. Two steps short of her destination, just as she was reaching back to unhook her bra, a dark hulk rose from her overstuffed chair in the corner.

“You know,” the hulk said ruefully, “I’d love to let you go on with this, but I have a feeling you’d hate me in the morning. Just a hunch.”

She screamed, grabbing her sweater back again and pressing it to her chest. At the same time, Max jumped forward and took her by the shoulders.

“No, don’t scream,” he said urgently. “I get into so much trouble when women scream.”

She glared up at him, quickly pushing him away, startled and exasperated all at once. She could smell alcohol on his breath, but that was hardly surprising. Still, she was wary enough to be careful.

Handsome men, liquor and a moonlit night—the recipe for disaster.

“Then don’t jump out at them from dark corners, maybe,” she suggested sharply.

He shrugged as though anxious to make up for scaring her. “Okay, okay. It’s a deal.”

“Oh, Max.” She glared at him as she tried to keep covered in all the most delicate areas. “Why did you let me get this far before you said anything?”

His eyebrows rose. “Are you kidding me?”

“Oh!” She shook her head, but she was calming down. “Look that way,” she insisted, pointing to the wall. “And don’t turn around until I tell you to.”

He turned obediently and she began to search her drawer for fresh clothes to wear. “What are you doing here?” she demanded at the same time.

“I wanted to see you. We need some time to talk. Old times and all that.”

She pulled on a comfortable top.

“Maybe call first next time,” she suggested grumpily as she dug for something to pull over her legs. “How did you get in here anyway?”

He chuckled. “Princes pretty much rule around this castle. You tell people you’re a prince and they want to do things for you. The housekeeper couldn’t wait to do me a favor.”

“That’s a problem.” She sighed. “Okay, you can turn around.”

He turned and looked at her and he was knocked out. Here he’d just come from a royal ball filled with beautiful women who’d all spent half the day in the beauty shop and were dressed to kill and no one he’d seen there turned him on the way Kayla did wearing a simple sweatshirt and black leggings, with her hair looking like a tornado had just come through.

“I think I love you,” he said, taking in all her rumpled glory and smiling. “I know I’ve missed you like crazy. It’s so good to see you again.”

She gazed into his warm blue eyes and melted. She knew he was kidding, that this was his way of joking about emotions instead of dealing with them. But she also knew he was recognizing the ties between them and ready to embrace them, just like it used to be.

Still, she had to wonder if he remembered that last night as clearly as she did. He had done nothing to indicate it. As far as she was concerned, she hoped he had a touch of amnesia. That night had been a crazy rush of pain and grief and anguish and they hadn’t handled it very well. Best to forget it. If they could.

She gave herself a moment to really look at him. Pellea had found him a striking uniform to wear to the ball, but he’d taken off the jacket and pulled open the shirt, displaying some gorgeous skin and manly chest hair. Now he looked less than formal. She shook her head at the sight, but despite everything, she enjoyed seeing him. She always did.

“How did you get away from Pellea?”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t easy. The woman was watching me like a hawk.”

She sighed and sank into a chair, gesturing for him to sit on the couch across from her. “She’ll probably be calling me any minute to organize a search party.”

He moved her discarded jacket and dropped down onto the arm of the couch, then leaned toward her. “You won’t give me up, will you?” he said with a puppy-dog look.

“Are you kidding?” she told him crossly. “Of course I will. I’m not risking my job so that you can play hooky.”

He laughed. “Good point.” Then he frowned. “What is your job exactly?”

“I’m the queen’s personal assistant. I do whatever she needs to get done but doesn’t have time to do herself.”

It was a good job and she was proud of it. As a single mother without anyone to count on but herself, she was lucky to have it. If she ever lost it, for any reason, she would be in real trouble. There weren’t many good jobs for women in Ambria right now and the queen was a wonderful woman to work for. With a two-year-old of her own, Pellea understood the problems Kayla had to face and was ready to give her a lot of leeway.

“Ah,” Max said, “impressive. Quite another level from the job you had in Trialta.”

She smiled, thinking of it. “Selling T-shirts to tourists from a kiosk on the beach. Yes, I didn’t get much chance to show my skills and talents at that one.”

But it hadn’t mattered then. Her days were spent waiting for Eddie to come back from a flight, and her nights were filled with wine, music and friends. For a few months, life had been carefree and exciting. But you had to pay for everything, one way or another, and she’d been paying the price ever since.

Max was staring at her as though he could see what she was thinking. “And yet, here you are, barely two years later, assistant to the queen.”

She gave him a look. “I do have a university education, you know.”

He appeared surprised. “No, I didn’t know. When did you get that?”

She smiled. “Long before I first met you.”

“No kidding.” He frowned, thinking that over. “That’s more than I’ve got. And they think they want me to be a prince.”

Her smile wavered a bit. It was true. From what she knew of his background, he might have a bit of trouble. He’d never been shy about it. While sipping drinks in the sidewalk cafés of Trialta, he’d regaled them with tales of his childhood living on the streets, always making it sound hilarious rather than tragic. But she’d often thought the raw tattered ghost of deprivation lingered in the shadows of his eyes.

He’d had a rough childhood. Any breaks he ever got he’d worked hard to achieve. That was very different from what most royals experienced. The newspaper accounts had filled in some of the parts of his background she hadn’t known before, but she didn’t know how accurate they were.

“From what I’ve read in the newspapers and magazines, they seem to think that you were spirited off on the night of the rebellion,” she said to him musingly. “When the Granvilli family attacked and burned the castle—when your parents, the king and queen were killed, and all the DeAngelis royal children went into hiding.”

She shuddered just thinking of it. Those poor kids!

“Do you know how you escaped? Do you have any idea who it was who saved you by carrying you off that night?”

His shrug was careless, as if he didn’t know and didn’t really care. “Whoever they were, they didn’t take very good care of me. By the time I was seven or eight, I was fending for myself on the streets. Before that, there were various strangers—at one point I think I was staying with a pickpocket who tried to teach me his tricks. But as far as I know, nobody was around for long at anytime. There’s no one I can claim.”

It broke her heart to think of a child being abandoned like that. She knew from his stories during their Trialta days that he’d been taken in by a fisherman for a while, but the man was cruel and he eventually ran away. It wasn’t until his late teens when he was given a corner to sleep in and a job cleaning the chapel that he met a wonderful older man—a pastor—and his kindly wife, who made it their business to see that he was clothed and had a safe place to stay.

The pastor had a hobby of flying ancient aircraft—planes from twentieth century wars. Pretty soon he was teaching Max the ropes, introducing him to aviation, and after that life was much brighter. Max joined the Ambrian Air Force as soon as he was old enough. And that was pretty much all she knew.