But he couldn’t share a bed with her. And he couldn’t agree to her demands. “No, Your Highness. My job is your safety, nothing else.”
“I know I am only a job to you,” she snapped. Her wide eyes locked on his. “But while we are here, I am Lucia.” She took a step closer, placed her small palm on his chest. “Your wife.”
“We both know we are not actually married, Your Highness.”
Angelina grasped his shirt and tugged. She surprised him so that he let her bring him close. Her soft body bumped against his, sending fire blazing through his. “Don’t call me that,” his fierce little amore demanded. “I am Lucia. I am not a princess. I am your wife.”
What was wrong with him? She was not his amore. Could never be.
She rained tiny kisses along his jaw, little pecks with her lips. “Treat me like your wife, Rico. I want you to make love to me.”
He wrapped his fingers around her slender wrists and pulled away. “Don’t embarrass yourself.”
He strode from the bedroom before the tears welling in her eyes could spill over. Before he took her at her word and pushed her down on the wide bed and took her like the animal he felt like at the moment. He stopped at the windows overlooking the street. The sidewalk was busy with people now. “They are expecting us downstairs for breakfast. We will go down as soon as you pull yourself together.”
In the ensuing silence Rico’s training took over and he scanned the pedestrians below. He homed in on two men in black suits on the corner, looking up at the villa, appearing to look up at the bank of windows where he was standing. Rico slid out of view and lowered the blinds.
“You don’t understand.” The princess had stepped into the doorway. Her eyes still glistened but he was pleased to see no tracks of tears down her cheeks.
“I understand all too well, Your Highness.”
“You throw my title up as a wall between us.”
“It is a thick and high wall, Your Highness.”
“There should be no walls between us now.”
“Out there, no. Out there we must pretend. But in here. In here when it is only you and me, there must be a wall.”
“I don’t want a wall.”
“Wishing a wall doesn’t exist doesn’t stop it from being there.”
“It is if we both want it gone.”
That wall was all that was keeping him from taking her innocence. “I don’t wish it gone.”
“How can you be so calm? Am I the only one on fire?” She crossed the room in long, angry steps. “Don’t you lie to me, Rico. I saw your hands tremble. I heard your ragged breathing. Don’t lie to me.”
“It doesn’t matter if I do burn for you. I cannot do as you ask.”
“But why not?”
If she did not want to recognize the wall between them, he wasn’t going to waste his time repeating the obvious. “We must go down to breakfast. Are you ready?”
At first, he thought she was going to push it, perhaps resort to tears or begging, but instead she simply nodded. He peeked out through the blinds and saw with relief that the men were gone. They had probably been checking out the sky to get a handle on the weather. Clouds had begun to roll in. He almost groaned. If it were to start raining, he’d be trapped inside with the princess all day.
She would always be the princess to him. How could she not? They had both grown up in the palace. She was the adored Princess Angelina, her every desire indulged by her parents, her brothers, the palace staff. He’d been the son of a cook and a gardener. He’d never doubted his parents loved him, but he had never been spoiled. He’d helped his parents in the kitchen or the garden when he wasn’t in school. He remembered digging holes in the dirt for plantings, the sun beating down on his head, the sweat running into his eyes, while the princess had strolled the grounds in a white dress, carrying a parasol to block the sun.
He was tall, broad, hulking. She was slender, lovely, and graceful. She was young, naïve, romantic. He was nearly ten years older than her and a realist. She might think that an illicit liaison would be romantic, but he knew it would only cause trouble in the long run.
It was up to him to be the strong one.
Sitting next to Rico was a torture like Angelina had never experienced before. The five of them were crowded around a table meant for four. His thigh was pressed against hers. Their shoulders brushed as they ate. He seemed to take all the oxygen out of the room and she could barely breathe for the want of him.
They had just started eating the delicious frittata when Rosa asked, “Was the princess injured before you left the palace?”
Angelina felt Rico freeze, just as she did.
“Excuse me?” Rico replied
“The news report this morning. The princess is said to be recuperating in the palace after being injured in an automobile accident. I wondered how seriously she was injured.” Rosa looked at the two of them. They must have looked as shocked as Angelina felt. “I take it you didn’t know.”
Angelina shook her head. Evidently the palace decided to put out their own cover story to explain why she would be out of the public eye and confined to the palace.
“I’ll see what I can find out after breakfast,” Rico promised. “If she’s not in the hospital, I think we can hope she’s not too badly injured.”
As the meal went on, they told the first-meet story and the proposal story. Then, hoping to forestall requests for any other stories for which they had not planned, Angelina asked, “Rosa? Will you tell us how Giuseppe asked you to marry him?”
“Bah! It was so long ago, I don’t remember.” She stabbed her fork into the food on her plate.
Maria rolled her eyes. “Mama, you remember. Tell Rico and Lucia about the picnic. And the olive trees.”
Rosa’s face had turned bright pink. She shook her head and frowned at her husband who was grinning like a fool.
Angelina turned to Rico’s uncle. “Giuseppe, I bet you remember.”
He spread his arms wide. “Of course, I remember. It was a beautiful day. I asked Rosa to have lunch with me. I packed us some sandwiches and fruit, and took her up to the top of the hill overlooking her father’s olive grove.”
“It was such a hot day,” Rosa chimed in. She narrowed her eyes and frowned at Giuseppe. “And he didn’t tell me we would be walking that far and I wore some pretty little sandals that were not good for hiking up a hill.”
“Men never understand things like that, do they?” Angelina said.
“She liked it once we got up to the top.” Giuseppe raised his bushy eyebrows and grinned.
“I wonder why Tia is blushing,” Rico said. He flashed an unguarded smile at Angelina and she yearned to see him smile like that more often.
“I knocked her right off her feet when I asked her to marry me,” Giuseppe said with a laugh.
“You did no such thing.” Rosa slapped his hand. “You surprised me and my sandals made me clumsy.” He just laughed some more.
“He surprised you when he proposed?” Angelina asked.
“I was very young. And we had only been seeing each other a short time.” Rosa looked at Giuseppe over the top of her glasses. “A very short time.” She glanced at Angelina. “Like you and Rico, perhaps? I didn’t expect him to ask me to marry him that day.”
“Why not?” Giuseppe asked. “We had already said we loved each other. Why did you want to wait?”
Rosa frowned. “I didn’t say I wanted to wait. I said I was surprised.”
“So surprised,” Maria interjected, “that when Papa took the ring box out of his pocket, Mama fell backward and rolled all the way down the hill into her father’s olive grove.”
Rico laughed heartily. “I can’t believe I never heard that story.”
“Well, he ran down the hill to make sure I wasn’t hurt,” Rosa said, placing her hand over her husband’s. “When we got back up to the picnic spot, climbing all the way up that long hill again, we couldn’t find the ring.”
“You surprised me
with your tumble,” he said, his smile warm as he winked at Rosa. Then he looked back to Rico and Angelina. “I tossed the box aside when I ran after her and the ring fell out.”
“How long did it take you to find it?” Angelina asked.
“We didn’t find it,” Rosa said. “We searched the whole top of that hill, on our hands and knees. I never got the grass stains out of that skirt.”
“You never found it?” Rico asked.
“I found it,” Giuseppe said, thumping his chest. “After I took Rosa home, crying because we lost the ring—”
“I wasn’t crying. And you lost the ring.”
“You were crying, but yes, I lost the ring. I climbed back up the hill again and found it under the blanket.”
“And then he wouldn’t give it to me,” Rosa said with a sniff.
Giuseppe shrugged. “You wouldn’t say yes.”
“You wouldn’t give me the ring.”
“You talk too much. You always have to have the last say, don’t you?” Giuseppe asked. “You didn’t want to tell the story so let me tell the story.”
Angelina looked at Maria. “Do they always argue like this?”
“This isn’t arguing,” Maria said with a laugh. “You would know if they were arguing.”
“So what happened? How did you resolve the problem?” Angelina asked.
“Bah. She batted her eyes at me until I finally gave in.”
“Ha. You pouted until I finally gave in.”
“It’s possible.” Giuseppe laughed. “After you two have been married for over thirty years, your memory will be a little hazy too.”
“It’s a good thing,” Rosa added. “Neither of us is certain enough about some things to be willing to fight about them.” She reached out and patted Angelina’s hand. “Just remember that even when you are young and your memories are clear, pick your arguments. Decide which ones are worth fighting over. And which are worth letting go.”
Back in the apartment after breakfast, Rico pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I’ll see what I can find out about Enzo and Donato. And what the team has come up with. And see what story they want us to tell people about the princess’s injuries.”
Angelina nodded. She felt so isolated from everything her life had been up until now. “I wish I could have kept my cell phone.”
“Anyone with enough wealth and power to hire professionals to kidnap you could have the ability to trace your location from your cell phone.”
And if they did, it would strengthen the story that she was still at the palace. “I know. I just feel so cut off from everyone.”
Rico nodded. He probably felt cut off too. “You can— Hey, Tony! What can you tell me?”
As Rico listened to Tony, Angelina paced the small space. The entire apartment wasn’t as large as her suite of rooms in the palace. The bank of windows opened onto the street below. The rows of shops called to her. What fun it would be to wander in and out of shops and have no one pay attention to her.
Rico talked so softly into his phone, she had trouble hearing what he was saying. She tried to focus her attention on the shops in front of her and not on the sexy man behind her. She should be embarrassed by his rejection but Angelina wasn’t deterred. Of course he had to refuse at first. She understood his moral dilemma. It was going to be up to her to convince him that there was nothing wrong with having a sexual encounter while they were here.
Angelina had been the good girl her entire life. And after her mother died, she’d essentially put her life on hold to act as the royal hostess in her mother’s place. To be the proper princess and not look for a life outside the palace walls.
But now she was free of the royal duties for a little while. This was her time to celebrate her freedom and to experience what she hadn’t had the chance to up until now. She wanted her first sexual experience to be with Rico. Not some immature guy like the ones who had been at the party the other night.
Last night.
Had it really only been last night?
Whenever it was, Angelina hadn’t been tempted to give her virginity to any of the young men at the party, even if they hadn’t already been matched up with other women there. None of them had been strong, physically or emotionally. None of them had looked at her as if she were someone special. None of them had sent her pulse racing.
She wanted Rico.
“Your Highness?”
She whirled around and took a few steps toward him, almost afraid to ask. This was what she should have been focusing her attention on. “Enzo and Donato? Are they going to be all right?”
He nodded. “Yes. They both came through surgery without incident and are expected to fully recover.”
Enormous relief washed over her and she flung her arms around Rico. “I’m glad. I was so worried.”
Rico cleared his throat and stepped back, out of her embrace. Her arms fell to her sides. “The security team is working hard, but they have no leads yet. We aren’t going to be able to go home as soon as we had hoped.”
“Okay.” She realized she wasn’t all that disappointed. “What’s the story about the princess’s injuries?”
“Keep it general. The same as the news report. If anyone asks, we’ve heard she’s going to make a full recovery.” He handed her the phone. “We are hoping that whoever did this may be concerned that you were shot along with the bodyguards. We may be able to draw him out this way.”
“That’s a good idea.” She looked down at the phone in her hand.
“Call whoever you want.”
But now that she had the answers she wanted, Angelina couldn’t think of anyone she wanted to call right now. Her brother and father didn’t need to stop what they were doing to try to make her feel better. Mia would listen, but she’d fuss. It was time Angelina grew up and handled things on her own.
“Thanks, but I don’t want to talk to anyone on the phone right now.” She smiled up at him. Her heart fluttered. “I want to practice.” She took a step closer. “Kissing.” Another step. “Touching.” Another step. “More.”
His expression hardened. “Your Highness…”
She’d known it wouldn’t be easy, but her father had told her often that nothing worth having would be easy to come by. “If we can’t have sex, then I want to go out. I want to go shopping.”
“No.”
Chapter Five
“I can’t stay locked up in this little apartment the whole time we’re here,” Angelina cried.
“And I can’t protect you if you flit around all over the village.” Rico knew he should have thought this through before he took the princess away to a town like Tuscora, full of shops and restaurants and views to rival anything on the coast. He should have talked to King Alberto himself, convinced him that keeping his daughter in the palace would have been the best way to protect her.
“No one knows I am here. No one knows who I am.”
“All it takes is one person to recognize you.” He didn’t think she’d be in danger here, but he wasn’t going to take any chances.
“If your family hasn’t recognized me yet, I think I’m okay.”
They couldn’t get over-confident. “Not necessarily.”
She paced the small space between the back of the sofa and the dining table. “You can’t keep me prisoner here.”
“It is not a prison. It is for your safety.”
“I don’t want to go out alone. You’ll be with me. You’ll keep me safe.”
As if he wanted to go into boutiques and art galleries. But Rico knew it probably would be easier in the long run than staying shut up in this small space with the princess. This small space with a bed just a few steps away and a sexy woman who was trying to convince him to take her virginity while they were here. It was bad enough that he already burned to run his hands over her soft skin. To lose himself in her graceful body.
But he couldn’t. He strode into the bedroom and grabbed the sunglasses he’d dropped on top of the dresser. “All right. We
can go out. You will wear these sunglasses,” he said. “And you must stay with me no matter what. No running off on your own.”
She frowned but placed the over-sized sunglasses on her face. “I’m not a child.”
“I realize that.” He held out his hand. “Come.”
He shouldn’t have been surprised that the first shop she wanted to visit was the bakery. “Hungry?” he asked.
“A little.” She sounded a bit defensive. He knew she’d eaten as much as he had for breakfast. She couldn’t be hungry. She yanked open the door to the bakery and stepped inside.
Rico followed closely. His mouth watered from the wonderful aromas. A few people wandered around, gazing at the baked goods behind the glass. But the princess wasn’t looking at the baked goods as much as the shop itself.
He stepped up to her as she scanned the room over the top of the sunglasses. “What are you looking for?”
“I’ve never been in a bakery, all right?” she whispered. “I’m supposed to work in one, remember? It’s how we told everyone we met. I thought I should at least look at one and imagine what I would have done here.”
She’d surprised him again. He nodded. “Of course.”
He left the princess to her studying, walked up to the counter and bought two cookies. When he returned she told him she was ready to go. He handed her one of the cookies and they grabbed a bench on the sidewalk in front of the shop.
“I worked the counter,” Angelina said thoughtfully. “Taking orders and making change. Chatting with the customers. I could do that.”
“Of course, you could. You can do anything you put your mind to.”
She flashed him a wide smile that made him smile back. Then she took a bite of cookie while she looked around them. After a moment, she asked, “Has the village changed a lot since the last time you visited here?”
“Not much,” he replied. He’d not been long out of the academy when he last visited his aunt, uncle and cousin here. It had been shortly before he’d joined the palace security team. He’d only seen them a handful of times since then. He knew they acted differently than what the princess was used to, but after years of following protocol and watching his words, Rico thought their lack of pretense was refreshing.
Her Royal Bodyguard Page 5