Alone with Charles wasn’t going to happen for Sandi. She’d be smarter and stop her physical reactions to his good looks. Electrons and protons and physical likes and dislikes were all preprogrammed. What was real was chemistry and biology and how cells combined. And hers would never combine with Charles’s.
Even if her parents expected her to finally fix the disasters she’d done to their business and marry this sexy man at her side.
Chapter 4
Charles talked to a woman in an emerald green dress that Sandi brought to meet him about her family of twelve--she had a Texas twang and a sense of humor that made it seem like her life was a comedy. He didn't see it. As funny as she was, he wasn't interested though how Sandi had found two Americans on such short notice was commendable and showed that Sandi had listened.
He glanced over his shoulder at Sandi, in her black dress. Long red hair, green eyes, and pale skin that tended to show her emotions. All that had been hiding under her bunny costume.
Sandi was the type of woman he'd never wanted but for a different reason.
Smart and not afraid to look ridiculous meant she honestly had the guts to get anything she needed without owing him or anyone else.
Which meant he had nothing to offer, no deals to play, and that made him want to hit the dessert tray and eat like he was still the young boy that overindulged.
Years of training hadn’t changed who he saw in the mirror. He would always carry that boy inside, despite how hard he worked in the gym every day to make that young, insecure, slightly chubby kid disappear.
The beep Sandi used went off and whatever the Texas woman said suddenly stopped. They said polite goodbyes, then he headed back to Sandi.
Soon, she’d leave him. She'd already realized that she wasn’t for him and that was before they'd even met.
His skin shouldn’t grow cold at the idea of being alone. He rubbed her lower back. “Is my time with your women over now?”
She'd been using her phone as a timer and now put it away. With innocence written on her face she said, “If you want to talk to anyone individually, you’re free.”
From the Texas girl, who'd be more comfortable in jeans, to his coworker clearly interested in the tall man she hadn't stopped laughing with, the ladies had all been wrong.
If he did marry and keep the title as Clara wanted, then whoever he chose in the end would need to be both a lady for Avce and someone he could take home as his partner.
No one fit the bill, but he tugged his ear and slid into the seat next to her at the tall bar table. “None of them are right for me.”
Sandi tilted her head. “I tried to vary the choices as I didn’t know your type or what you want in a wife exactly.”
“You tried to find Americans to help my business which was nice.” The air smelled like a simple rose around Sandi, not an overwhelming floral bouquet. “Truthfully I’m happy with the arrangement I made with your parents, if only you’d agree to be my bride.”
Her face went white like the makeup she’d worn with her bunny costume. “I already told you that won’t happen.”
He folded his hands in front of him and scooted closer. “Because I’m a bad idea for you.”
She sat back and pushed her empty water glass between them to use as some sort of shield. “Both of us would end up miserable if parents decided our lives.”
The party guests around them continued to laugh and the music grew louder.
Normally at parties, he found the prettiest woman and focused on getting her home and into bed, with him.
Life used to be simple, but here the royal family supervised from afar. Even his ex, who quite rightly had every reason to hate him, glared at him. What did they all want?
Adrenaline rushed through him as he tapped his thumb on the table and glanced toward the exit. “I suppose. I never had parents to worry about.”
Suddenly she reached for his hands. “You don’t have parents?”
The spark that raced through him made no sense.
Sandi wasn’t the girl for him. In fact she was smart, attractive, clever, and exactly the type that generally walked away from him without a second glance. He took his hands back. “You don’t know anything about me if you didn’t even know that.”
She leaned forward and said, “No. I only read a business article on you though there was a connection to the royal family mentioned.”
Sandi picked up her nearly empty cup and sipped the melting ice. As she put it down he said, “Well that’s refreshing to not have you judge me based on my birth.”
“I find myself wanting to talk more and learn more about you for myself.”
Charles slipped off his seat and tugged both of her hands. “Tell you what… meet me at the adjoining bar to the hotel for a glass of wine and we’ll talk about me and my needs for a wife.”
For one second she just looked at him. He was half-sure she’d leave him and say, "no." If he was a betting man, he’d choose those odds, but then she stood, patted his shoulder and said, “I’ll come with you now.”
And just like that… he had a date.
Only for an hour or so, because Sandi wasn’t the one-night-only type.
He felt a hint of excitement. He’d get a drink with the only woman he’d met in a long while that actually triggered any interest from him, even if Cassidy named her as his true love and he’d arranged with her parents to prove her wrong.
Now he headed into the dark bar with lots of corners for couples to have intimate talks, or where men and women might plot the next French revolution, out of the sight of strollers on the Seine. He ignored the strum inside his chest as he pressed on her shoulder and invited her to sit next to him as he said, “I thought you’d find a way to bring one of the women with you.”
Sandi’s dress accentuated her curves and her face practically glowed with innocence as she shuffled into the tall-chaired booth with him and placed her pocketbook on the small table near their knees. She sat beside him like they were old friends who didn’t mind touching as she said, “I almost did. Evagaline and Henri offered to come, but I said I could handle myself.”
His gaze swept the room but he saw no one he recognized. “Who is Henri?”
She fixed her heel like it bothered her and massaged the back of her foot. “Tall, thin guy, glasses?”
His mind raced and landed on the man who his employee had been laughing with--the Frenchman was a computer tech billionaire who helped businesses advertise in the new medium. “Ah. Yes.”
Sandi put her foot down and the waiter came over. He ordered her a bubbly Bouvet Ladubay white wine as it was similar to what she'd had at the charity event. She pointed toward it in the wine list indicating "white is good" from her thumbs-up. The waiter left and she said, “From what I understand they knew each other in high school. Evagaline had no idea what happened to him as he'd moved out of their small village in his last year.”
If Evagaline played her cards right, she’d marry the boy and live a life of leisure. He would have to find a new secretary. He pressed his hand on Sandi's knee as the waiter returned with the bottle and poured for them. “Well, they certainly seemed to hit it off. It’s nice to reconnect with people we thought were lost.”
The waiter left and she picked up her bubbly wine and sniffed it before she tasted it. As she finished her eyes widened like she was surprised it was good. “I guess. I don’t know of anyone in my life who I wish was still close to me though.”
“Not even your ex doctor?”
“He’s not lost. He left because I wasn’t his choice.”
His mind sorted through his lovers and other than Sheena, his many women all dissipated.
The truth was Sheena was the first and only good girl who'd given him the time of day and he hadn’t respected that trust she'd put in him. He'd always wondered why she'd given him a chance as they were from two very different worlds.
The same as Sandi. She shouldn’t be sitting next to him when at the end of the day he wa
s bad news for any good woman.
At least she understood she needed to stay away. He said, “You’re any man’s dream.”
“No. No I’m not.”
“I’m the better judge of men in this instance as you’re what we all want. I know quite a few women who were happy to see me disappear from their lives.”
Her lips pressed together like she took his words seriously. “That can’t be true.”
Trust wasn’t good. He’d ruin that. He always did, so he tugged his ear and asked, “What do you know about me, Sandi?”
She put her glass down and turned it like she was fascinated with how the liquid moved. “You’re a duke. You must marry before you turn thirty-one. You’re from Avce.”
Normally the smart women after him had a dossier on his life. Her parents surely must have had a file before agreeing to the email proposal. He’d never been much for being someone’s science project so he'd avoided the calculating types. Sandi'd had forty-eight hours after their first meeting to order information on him, which she surprisingly hadn’t. “That’s it?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to pry,” Sandi said. “And I chose not to read the dossier or listen to my mother talk about you.”
Interesting. He folded his hands on the small table with their drinks and met her green-eyed gaze that shone with innocence and trust. “First, I’m almost thirty-one but because I just got my title awarded to me I have until my birthday in a month to find a wife.”
She put her glass down and nodded. “Interesting. Yeah, my parents called me about your business deal and marriage proposal. It shocked me. I went to see you right away but you didn’t tell me much—then again, I didn’t ask for a lot of details. I didn’t want to read the email after meeting you because it seemed like snooping.”
So he was sitting beside the one woman who knew very little about him.
It was almost refreshing. His life before he’d stormed into Avce and claimed his heritage wasn’t perfect but he’d been judged based on his own actions and nothing else. But that Charles without care had disappeared that day. He coughed and wondered if he should tell her, but Sandi needed every reason to marry him but keep her emotional distance.
Love wasn’t real.
So he said, “I’m the illegitimate son of the king.”
She leaned closer with her eyes wide as she brushed against his shoulder and asked, “That’s a real thing?”
His face grew hot. Perhaps it was because she was American and had no idea about life in Europe, but his collar felt tight. “Yeah. And my mother gave me up before I was born, really, so she could marry a lord and never talk about me or her mistakes.”
She sat back but pressed her hand to his heart. “How do you give up a child before they're born?”
This was the reaction he’d seen throughout his life when someone discovered the truth about him. He'd felt the same. No teenager with a computer and phone should have to wonder and research and discover a truth hidden away like unwanted news. “She made arrangements and dropped me off at a convent.”
Sandi reached for his hand, sending a shockwave through him. “That sounds horrible.”
Discovering his parentage wasn’t the worst part. His mind replayed being alone, still in diapers, and screaming in the rain at the train station.
He’d been left. Behind. On purpose. In the beginning of the revolution.
Then a gray-haired angel had taken his hand and escorted him inside to a warm room. In the bar, Charles blinked and decided to tell Sandi everything. He would break the wariness in her eyes.
She’d for-certain leave him. Everyone else had, except for Clara. He squeezed her fingers. “Then when Avce was invaded, I was abandoned and left to probably die.”
Her gaze narrowed like she shared his pain. “How old were you?”
“Two. Almost three.”
Her lips parted and she stared at him in combined shock and anger. “Who? They just left you?”
No one had ever cared before or since with one exception. He shook his head. “It was kill or be killed, and the nuns chose to leave me.”
For a second neither of them moved.
Near their table another couple got up and paid their bill, and a different group of friends sat.
He started to take his hand back but then Sandi patted the outside of it. “So, what happened to you?”
An inner voice screamed to shut up and change the subject. In school kids had made fun of his orphaned state despite Clara taking him in. She'd named him, fed him, and had tried to adopt him though she never had the right paperwork about who he really was.
He stopped talking. He glanced down at how their hands fit together--his large and olive-skinned, hers slender and pale. “I’ve never told anyone.”
Sandi whispered, “Was it horrible?”
Yes. When it rained at night, he still had memories of screaming into the dark and no one caring.
If Clara hadn’t taken hold of his hand, in a mistake, he’d be dead.
He sucked in his breath, half-afraid if he spoke out loud, somehow he’d not be so lucky again. “I don’t tell anyone because I don’t like to answer questions. Usually I change the topic.”
She traced the inside of his palm and that woke him up. “We can. You don't have to tell me.”
The kindness in her eyes made him wish this moment would never end. He brushed a small piece of her red hair off her forehead. “I know you’re smart, and your vacation ends in a few days, and for once I want to share the truth--but you need to swear you won’t tell anyone else.”
“Okay. I promise,” she said, and the charge between them made him believe it was just the two of them alone, with no one else around.
The night that normally paralyzed him, played in his mind. He’d been way too small. But somehow the words came out as he told Sandi, “It was dark and raining and everyone rushed around as shots fired from guns and bombs blew in the air. Clara Belrose…pulled me on the train. Her hand guiding me was the first hope I had that maybe I was saved.”
Sandi tilted her head. “Clara Belrose?”
He’d been brought to a room on the train and given warm apple cider. He wasn’t sure he’d ever had that sweet drink before, but it had tasted so good. His clothes had been wet, his diaper hadn’t been changed in hours. Then when the older woman returned, he wasn’t sure what she’d do.
The memory replayed of how Clara had studied him and covered her lips and he'd been filled with fear that she’d toss him out. Then she'd hugged him and no one’s hug had ever made him feel like that before; safe and wanted. Charles said in a thick voice, “Yes, when Clara settled us into her cabin, she broke down in tears.”
Sandi had a tear in her eye that she didn’t bother to swat away. “Why?”
Charles still felt that childhood guilt of having someone take care of him because of someone else’s tragic end. He leaned forward, not to kiss Sandi like he normally would in a darkened bar at night, but instead he told her his deepest secret. “Her daughter and grandson were both killed the day before. In the confusion of the station, when she saw me, she took my hand and saved me because her mind was confused in those seconds. She thought I was her grandson.”
“I’m so sorry.” Tears rushed down Sandi's face.
He wiped her cheeks with his thumb and his heart thumped slightly different. He couldn’t explain what he was feeling as he said, “Don’t cry for me. It worked out. Clara decided she’d take me in as I had no one either. She was the only mother I ever really knew and Clara is the only person in the world I try to please.”
“I cry so easily sometimes and I’ve never developed a poker face which makes me a horrible business person—either way, I'm sorry.” Sandi sniffed and then gave him a huge smile. “I’m glad you both had each other then. Clara sounds like a wonderful woman.”
Wonderful didn’t begin to describe her. Getting Clara regular treatment for her heart disease was now a weekly appointment for both of them, and the real reason he’
d accepted the title. More money meant better treatment, not that anyone had ever asked his motives. With Sandi he was able to say, “She’s why I accepted the title and lands in Avce. It comes with the ticking clock until I meet all legal requirements.”
Her eyes dried as she asked, “Like having a wife?”
“Yes.” How he wanted to kiss her.
She slowly pulled her hand free and adjusted her rose necklace. “Thank you for telling me.”
Trusting people never worked out. He sat back, a chill of warning racing down his spine that he’d been vulnerable tonight. “So, my number one requirement in a woman…”
His lips tingled to kiss her and he stared at her rosy mouth.
She blinked and sat forward as she asked, “Yes?”
Right. He'd accepted the title and lands and if he married, he'd keep the money. He sucked in his breath and told the truth. “All I truly need… is for Clara to approve. She’s the only one that matters.”
Sandi strummed her fingers on the table like she was playing the piano keys. “What did she think of your Sheena?”
Interesting question. Sheena had been his choice until Clara had shared her doubts. He might not be her son, but she was the only family he had. “She didn’t think Sheena and I were suited. She was right even then.”
He’d chased after Sheena because she had money. Clara'd had her stroke and he'd been warned it could happen again without proper care. Not that it explained his behavior, but quick cash had been the number one reason he’d pushed so hard for her.
Sandi’s cheeks had a blush as she asked, “So you want me to bring women to meet Clara?”
If Sandi talked directly to Clara, and Clara approved, then he’d follow the order from Antonio. It would be impossible for him to not accept Sandi as his wife, even though she didn't want to be.
That was for the best. Yes. She needed to go back to America fast and let fate destroy him. He’d marry someone else, who didn’t dig the truth out of him. He picked up his drink and gulped it. “That’s probably the smartest way to find me a wife as that’s the real requirement.”
Forbidden Bastard: Opposites Attract Matchmaker Romance (Princes of Avce Book 10) Page 4