“Occasionally I do, but honestly, I’d rather drive myself.”
“And bodyguards? You had those two beefy men with you at the nightclub.”
“It depends where I am and what I’m doing. In large crowds my mother insists we be covered. But because I don’t really count—
“Stop that. Of course you count.”
“Because my brother will eventually rule Monaforte, I’m off the hook, which means I have far more flexibility in my life. He can’t fly under the radar quite as easily as I can.”
“Though you sometimes make it impossible to be ignored.”
Zander laughed. “Ha! Yes, I suppose you could say that. Perhaps not intentionally, but sometimes I just do things, and sometimes those things kind of blow up.”
“Like Vegas.”
“Wellll... I wouldn’t say that blew up in that it was a bad thing. But rather it was maybe not such a great idea for the palace publicity machine.”
It was Andi’s turn to laugh. “Ya think? So like a guy to understate that.”
“What I mean is it was a crazy amount of fun. Maybe not really a good idea to do, but at the time it was insane.”
“You’re insane,” she said, poking her finger into his side.
“Takes one to know one.”
“Likely so,” she said. “Otherwise why would I drop everything and go off with the likes of you?”
“Because I’m so handsome? Or because I drove you wild in bed?”
“More like on the couch,” she said. “And that is definitely a selling point in your corner.”
She cocked her head and smiled, and Zander took a cue and placed his hand on the top of her thigh when he wasn’t changing gears.
Andi felt her pulse quicken as she thought about his hands on her last night. “You’re tempting fate with your hand there.”
“Oh? I thought I was about to feel you up.”
She blurted out a laugh. “Subtle, you are. Though I wouldn’t object, your honor. As long as you tell me where we’re going.”
“All I will say is we’re heading to the Monafortian Alps. Once there, you’ll figure things out.”
“I think we can rule out skiing, being that it’s summertime.”
Zander pretended to lock his lips and toss out the key. “Nothing more from me. Well, at least no information.” He winked at her as his hand moved between her legs. Andi’s breathing grew louder and she spread her legs to give him better access.
Zander moved her dress out of the way and his fingers slipped beneath her panties to find her already wet. Andi was almost embarrassed to be so obvious, but then again, nah. As Zander moved his fingers deftly over her, she closed her eyes and just soaked in the feel of him coupled with a flood memories of last night swimming in her head. She moaned softly and then much louder as she came with about as little effort as humanly needed.
Zander kept his hand there for a minute more, then glanced over at a most sated Andi, licked his fingers, and smiled.
Chapter Nineteen
THEY arrived at an intimate little albergo in a tiny Alpine village. The hotel could have been on a postcard, it was so cute. All it needed was snow on the roof and icicles suspended from the roof to be complete. Though really, all it needed was what she had right here in front of her—a doting and crazy-handsome man at her disposal.
The place couldn’t have had but a handful of rooms, and the proprietor clearly had left no details forgotten.
“I’ve left explicit instructions with the staff to use the utmost discretion,” he told Zander as he greeted them both with a two-cheek kiss and led them to their second-story room with a stunning view of the mountains. “Lorenzo has taken care of all details.”
“Grazie, mille,” Zander said. “I really appreciate your help.”
Andi could only marvel at the turn of events. Only days earlier, she’d been hiking in the nearby Swiss Alps under fairly simplistic conditions: bread and cheese for meals, no shower for days, sleeping in the cheapest ostello available. And now she was being treated like, well, for lack of a better description, royalty.
Andi eyed the bed, with its massive goose-down comforter, and decided to dive on it. Zander laughed and joined her.
“Oh, God. I’ve never slept on something so soft before,” she said. “I might get too used to it.”
Zander leaned over her and settled his lips on hers.
They kissed for a few minutes, but then Zander sat up.
“As much as I’d like to continue this,” he said, his hand rubbing his chin as if contemplating his options, I’m going to display a rare show of discipline and drag you out of here before I change my mind. We have to be somewhere.”
With that he grabbed her hand and led her back to the car.
They drove for about twenty minutes into a valley and pulled into the parking lot of a small airport. With her very basic understanding of Italian, Andi didn’t recognize the words on the sign at the entrance.
But pretty soon she understood.
“Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head. “ Uh-uh. I am so not going up in the airplane and jumping out of it.”
Zander wrapped his arms around her from behind, nuzzling her ear. “I promise it will be the second most exciting thing you’ve done this week.”
“The first being?”
Zander arched an eyebrow.
Andi smiled. “And you seriously think scaring the crap out of me is going to rank up there with that?”
“I promise it’s amazing,” he said, squeezing her tightly. “The view is out of this world, and the sensation is intoxicating. We’ll jump together, and you’ll be paired up with someone so you’re not on your own.”
Andi scrunched her nose. “I promised my mother I’d be safe.”
“I promised your mother you’d be safe too.”
Andi looked at him with questioning eyes. “You talked to my mother about me going skydiving?”
Zander laughed. “I suppose you missed that memo. When I tried to track you down, I reached out to your mother. So when I decided to bring you here, I thought it would be the right thing to do to ask your mother’s approval. I know how mothers can be.” He kissed her cheek.
“I knew you’d texted her, but I had no idea you were still in touch,” Andi said. “Huh, so my own mother sells me out. She might as well have just come to push me out of the plane.”
Zander laughed. “She gave me permission to do that too.”
Andi turned around and pretended to bang her head into Zander’s chest, then said with resignation, “I guess I’m a victim of a grand conspiracy. Who am I to object to such collaboration?”
Zander lifted his brows, hopeful. “You’re ready to put on your jumpsuit?”
Andi held out her hands as if ready to be handcuffed. “I surrender. Take me.”
“Oh, trust me, I plan to do that later as well.”
Their pilot, who had been in the background rewrapping a parachute from an earlier jump, came over and introduced himself as Franco, then handed them both jumpsuits and goggles to put on.
They both stepped into them and then pulled goggles over their heads, laughing at the look.
“If only my mother could see me now!”
Franco went over all the instructions and introduced them to the men to whom they would be attached for the jump. They climbed into the small prop plane where they received more instructions about timing while they were harnessed to the men who were truly in charge of their lives for the next twenty minutes.
The plane took off and climbed skyward. Andi was so anxious she could practically taste metal in her mouth, her stress levels were so high.
“You sure this is a good idea?” she asked over the loud din of the plane. It was hard to hear or be heard between the roar of the propellers and engine.
Zander just gave her a thumbs-up while holding her hand.
“We will be first to jump,” her partner, Giancarlo said. Which didn’t exactly thrill her.
“Why me?”
&n
bsp; He pointed at Zander, who shrugged and said, “I knew you’d never go otherwise!”
As they climbed, the pilot pointed out base jumpers nearby, those insane thrill-seekers who jump from sheer cliffs in bird suits. It only made Andi want to throw up.
“If I survive this, I may never forgive you, Alexander,” she said, grumbling.
“You sound like my mother using my formal name,” he said with a laugh.
“Yeah, well, maybe I’m starting to empathize with her a bit.” Andi shook her head.
They soon reached jumping altitude, and Giancarlo gave her a count of twenty, in which time she had to shimmy like an upended turtle with a human as a shell on her back, out onto a metal bar attached to the wing of the plane.
Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up, Andi muttered to herself, but of course no one could hear her because she was just barely connected to the airplane, with one hand on the bar and her feet dangling over the edge of the door frame, and then Giancarlo pushed from behind and they were free-falling from twelve thousand bloody damned feet, but the feeling was indescribable. Andi went from fear of death to complete sense of invincibility once she was away from the frightening propellers, perfectly happy that someone else was truly in charge of what she had to do, because if she had to remember the minutia she’d be a human pancake on the valley floor below in about a minute.
And then she was plummeting toward earth at a rate of speed that should have terrified her but suddenly felt amazing.
Her mouth was flapping with the force of the wind against her face, and she was grateful for those silly-looking goggles; her arms and legs were splayed as she and the now-most-important-man-in-her-life, Giancarlo, plummeted toward terra too-damned-firma. And then he motioned that he would release the parachute, and with a sharp tug from the force of air against the parachute, their descent slowed dramatically, and they drifted, taking in the spectacular panorama, from snow-capped mountaintops to the green valley below and waterfalls plunging from steep precipices. Only then did she look up to see Zander’s chute open, not far behind her, and she waved her arms wildly at him as she took in the view.
The four-minute descent went so quickly. Before she knew it, they’d landed with a hard thud on the ground, and Giancarlo detached their harnesses and she removed her goggles. Andi jumped up and down, squealing as Zander detached from his jumping partner and came running toward her and gave her a huge kiss.
“So?” he asked, his eyebrow raised.
“Omigod. Omigod. Omigod. It was the best thing I’ve ever done. Ever!” She was breathless with excitement.
“Ever?” Zander asked with a sideways glance, grinning.
Andi smiled. “Maybe you should remind me so I can compare and contrast.”
Zander stripped off his jumpsuit and urged hers off. “Your wish is my command.”
Chapter Twenty
THEY had shared three magical days in their quiet mountain retreat. Late breakfasts in bed, pleasant hikes by day, and quiet dinners at the Albergo. They had managed to fly under the radar in this tiny village near the Swiss border, often just because Zander wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, which made him look like every other guy.
They even took in a little shopping, as promised.
“I want you to have a special dress,” he said. “Something you’d never buy for yourself.”
Andi laughed. “That’s pretty easy, being that I don’t buy any clothes for myself anymore.”
“But you look so beautiful in them.”
“It doesn’t fit my lifestyle, or my budget, for that matter,” she said with a shrug.
“What if you had a special event to attend?”
“I suppose I’d have to find the funds for it. But I don’t, so I won’t.”
“Let’s just pretend. Humor me,” he said as they walked into an exclusive shop in a larger town nearby.
Andi had never seen such a store in her life. The clothes were custom fit to each customer, and the dresses were ball gowns. Something she would basically never need in her life.
“But Zander, this is a waste of good money,” she said. “There’s simply no reason.”
“Maybe there will be someday,” he said. “In the meantime, let’s just see. I want to see how you look in them.”
Andi tried on a succession of dresses from fluffy meringue-type gowns with full tulle skirts and elaborately beaded bodices to slinky columned evening gowns, like something you’d see on an actress at an awards show.
And then she found one she fell in love with: a deceptively simple, two-piece pink-and-magenta color-block gown. The cropped halter top, which crisscrossed in the back, hugged her body perfectly, contrasting with a flowing wrap skirt that trailed behind her and allowed her to show a little of her long, lean legs. It so perfectly fit her straightforward style: no muss, no fuss, but lent her an elegance that suited her wonderfully.
As Andi stood before a mirror, she held her hands to her mouth in surprise. “It’s magnificent,” she said with a small gasp. “I’ve never worn something so beautiful in my life.”
Zander came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her neck. He looked up and they stared at one another in the three-way mirror.
“Maybe now’s the time to pinch me,” Andi said.
Zander looked at her in the mirror with questioning eyes.
“So I know I’m not dreaming all this,” she said. “This defies all my wildest dreams. Honestly, I never even had very wild dreams until a year ago. Which I can almost thank you for.”
“Don’t thank me,” Zander said, turning her to face him and moving his head closer to hers. “I love that you enjoy living your life to the fullest. It’s no credit of mine. You’re the one who did it.”
“Yeah, but not without your getting me fired.” She smiled and winked at him.
He put his forehead up to Andi’s and whispered. “If getting you fired gets me this, well, then I did myself a big favor.”
Zander asked the sales woman to wrap the outfit.
“Zander, I can’t thank you enough. This is just amazing.”
“Well, you needed something to wear to a royal wedding, didn’t you?”
Andi’s eyes grew large. “Huh?”
“If you’re going to accompany me to my brother Adrian’s wedding, I can’t have you wearing your beat-up old jeans, right?”
Andi covered her mouth with her hand. “Z, I can’t go to your brother’s wedding. I don’t even know him! I don’t even know your parents. I’ve never met anyone. I’m not like you.”
“Maybe you’re not like me, but you like me, right?” he said. “And that’s all that matters.”
He pointed at her. “I like you,” he said, then pointed at himself, “and you like me. And I want you to meet my family. I know they’ll adore you.”
“But—”
“No buts. It will be my pleasure to bring you as my special guest.”
Andi had never been inclined to swoon. Until now. Because it seemed that His Royal Highness Prince Alexander had officially royally swept her off her feet.
~*~
They woke early on the final day of their holiday, wanting to savor the last few hours of their quiet getaway. After making love, then falling back asleep, Zander was awoken by his phone yet again.
Must remember to put that inconvenient thing on “do not disturb mode,” he thought as he reached for his phone. He saw he’d missed several calls, including one from Lorenzo and four from his mother.
“FLYING PRINCE”? REALLY, ALEXANDER? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK? YOU DO KNOW YOU ARE SECOND IN LINE TO THE THRONE. THAT DOES NOT ABSOLVE YOU FROM RESPONSIBILITY TO ACT IN A WAY THAT DOESN’T ENDANGER YOU. AND WHO IS THIS STRANGE MYSTERY WOMAN SUPPOSEDLY “FALLING” FOR YOU. FROM AN AIRPLANE, FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE. THIS WOMAN IS A BAD INFLUENCE ON YOU, ALEXANDER. YOU NEED TO BE WITH SOMEONE WHO WILL MAINTAIN THE DIGNITY OF YOUR ROLE IN THIS COUNTRY. NOT SOMEONE WHO WILL DRAG YOU OUT OF A
N AIRPLANE. AND WHERE IS LORENZO? I ASKED HIM TO WATCH OUT FOR YOU!!!!
Zander started punching in a Google search to find out what the hell his mother was talking about. And there he found it, on the cover of Blitz, one of Europe’s more sordid tabloids, a picture of a jumpsuited Zander and Andi, locked in a kiss after their skydiving experience. While Zander’s face was easily discernable, Andi’s remained somewhat shadowed, so not easy to deduce who that “mystery woman” was.
“Crap,” Zander said, leaning over to gently kiss Andi awake. Not the way to end the perfect holiday escape from reality.
Chapter Twenty-one
ZANDER dropped Andi back at Pippa’s place on the way home from the mountains. He failed to mention either the rage-o-gram message from his mother or that little detail about Andi appearing on the cover of a tabloid. He was too afraid it would sink all the progress he’d made so far. He figured he could get things ironed out with his family, make sure everyone was on the same page, be sure to get Andi’s name on the list for the wedding, and all would be just fine.
~*~
Christopher intercepted Zander upon his arrival back at the palace.
“I am so damned lucky to have you as a big brother,” he said, smiling broadly.
Zander squinted at him, trying to figure out the joke.
“Because I look like a saint by comparison in Mum’s eyes,” he said with a chuckle.
“Ha-ha. So funny I forgot to laugh. How bad is it?”
“Be glad you weren’t here for breakfast. The woman needed no caffeine, she was so hepped up on fury,” his brother said. “Frankly, I don’t see what the big deal is. So you went skydiving. And you were off with some mystery woman. Sure, you could get killed doing that, but more likely by some disease you’d get from one of those women you pick up.”
Zander threw his keys at his brother, hard.
“Ow, that hurt!”
“Good.”
“Okay, let’s be serious here. I’m on your side. I’d do the same thing, especially if I found a hot blonde like that—”
“Let’s not start with the color commentary.”
“Just calling it as I see it. Long blond hair? Check. Looks hot even in a jumpsuit? Check. Legs that keep on going? Check. I’ll take her if you don’t want her.”
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