St Piran's: Prince on the Children's Ward

by Sarah Morgan

  ‘Y-You do?’ Stunned by his blunt admission, she stared at him. ‘You knew that?’

  ‘Of course. That’s why I was so surprised when you waltzed blithely into my hospital room and offered to help me out. Frankly, I was expecting a black eye from you, not assistance.’ He watched her cautiously. ‘Clearly I was right to be suspicious of your motives.’

  ‘But—’ Anger shot through her. ‘If you knew you’d behaved horribly, why didn’t you ever say anything? You could at least have said sorry.’

  ‘That would have defeated the purpose.’

  ‘The purpose?’ Tasha stared at him blankly. ‘I don’t get it.’

  ‘The purpose was to make you hate me,’ he said gently. ‘If I’d apologised, it wouldn’t have worked, would it?’

  ‘You—you wanted me to hate you? Why?’

  He gave a crooked smile. ‘Because every time I walked into a room you looked at me as though I was the only person there. Because you thought you were in love with me. You were crazy about me, and—’

  ‘All right, all right.’ She held up her hand like a stop sign. ‘Can this get any more embarrassing? Enough! I know exactly how I behaved. There’s no need to rub it in.’

  ‘I was going to say, “and I was crazy about you”.’ He spoke the words so softly she wondered if she’d misheard.

  ‘You—’

  ‘I’d never been with anyone who behaved as normally around me as you did.’

  ‘I hero-worshiped you.’

  ‘I know, and that was sweet, but the best part was that you were such fun. You were so unselfconscious. The first time I visited you kept trying to remember to call me Your Highness and then you just gave up and called me Sandro, and you were the first person who had ever done that. And you were so beautiful …’ He shifted position awkwardly, unconsciously trying to ease the pain. ‘Too beautiful. Josh introduced you as his kid sister but it didn’t take me long to realise you weren’t a kid. Especially when you wore those bikinis.’

  Tasha watched him, her heart thumping. ‘I wanted you to notice me.’

  The corners of his mouth flickered. ‘I noticed you.’

  ‘And then there was the ballgown.’

  ‘I wondered when we were going to talk about that. That night at the ball—’ his eyes glittered ‘—I couldn’t believe Josh had agreed to take you. The only way I’d kept my distance was because I kept telling myself you were a kid. And Josh kept telling me you were a kid. And then suddenly you were standing there in this scarlet dress that made you look like a sex goddess—’

  ‘You remember what I was wearing?’

  ‘And suddenly telling myself that you were a kid didn’t seem to be working.’ His eyes were very dark. ‘It didn’t help that you were so wildly determined to lose your virginity that night. To me.’

  Mortified at the memory of how brazen she’d been, Tasha covered her face with her hands. ‘Do we have to talk about this? Isn’t there just a nice deep hole I can jump into?’

  ‘I wanted you, too.’

  ‘Oh, sure.’ Still cringing, she shook her head. ‘Which is why you kissed me senseless and …’ He’d touched her, she remembered. Everywhere. The memory sent fiery heat streaking through her. ‘And then you walked away.’

  ‘And why do you think I walked away, Tash?’

  His intimate use of her name made her heart thud. ‘Because you discovered I was flat-chested? Because I had no idea what I was doing?’ His skill had left her trembling and boneless whereas she’d fumbled awkwardly, unsure of herself and of him.

  ‘I stopped because it was the right thing to do, and that is probably the only time in my life I’ve done the right thing, so you should be grateful, not angry,’ he confessed in a raw tone. ‘I didn’t know if you were a child or a woman. Damn it, I went into your bedroom to give you a message one day and your bed was covered in stuffed toys! One minute you were doing your homework, the next you were wearing a tight red dress designed to drive a man out of his mind. I wanted—well, never mind what I wanted. But I knew I had to do something drastic. That night of the ball I’d promised myself I was going to behave like a real prince. I was going to dance with you and not do anything else. But then we went out to the garden to get some fresh air and the next minute—’

  ‘You don’t need to spell it out.’

  ‘Believe me, walking away without looking back was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I hurt you, but at the time I couldn’t see any other way. I wanted you to hate me.’

  ‘You could have just told me you weren’t interested.’

  ‘I was interested. There was a chemistry between us I’d never experienced before. It was crazy, and—’ He broke off. ‘You were seventeen. Apart from anything else, it was barely legal.’

  A warm glow burned low in her stomach. He’d wanted her, too. Tasha wrapped her arms around herself. ‘Plenty of people have sex at seventeen.’

  ‘You had your head in the clouds and your eyes on the stars. You were still more of a child than a woman and I had no idea how to handle someone like you. The women I mixed with were usually my age or older—heiresses, society princesses who’d been fed cynicism and experience with baby milk. You were different.’

  ‘And it didn’t occur to you to have that conversation with me?’ Tasha swung her legs off the bed and stalked over to him, her eyes boring into his. ‘I had a brain, Sandro. And a mind of my own.’

  ‘I did the decent thing.’

  ‘Decent? You broke my heart, Sandro. You …’ She spread her hands, appalled. ‘What the hell is decent about making a girl feel totally rubbish about herself? Please tell me that.’

  ‘I didn’t make you feel rubbish. I saved you from making a big mistake.’

  ‘Saved me? Do you think you could have “saved” me before you ripped off my red dress?’ Her face was scarlet at the memory. The humiliation. ‘Then when I was totally vulnerable and ready to trust you with anything and everything, you suddenly backed away and told me to come back when I’d grown a chest. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst of it wasn’t struggling to get my ballgown back on so that a bunch of strangers didn’t see me naked—and you broke the zip, by the way, so I never actually managed to get it back on—the worst was when you walked away from me straight into the arms of a tall, skinny blonde. When you kissed her I thought I was going to die.’ It was good to remind herself what had happened, she thought grimly. Good to remind herself why she wasn’t going to be seduced by the chemistry again.

  ‘Tasha—’

  ‘You knew I was watching, didn’t you? At the time I assumed you didn’t know I was still there, but now I see you did it for my benefit. You wanted me to see you kiss her.’

  There was a stillness about him. A hardness about his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. ‘I’ve told you—I wanted you to hate me and forget about me. You were a kid.’

  ‘Did I feel like a kid when you stripped me naked?’

  ‘What do you think would have happened if I’d taken you that night?’ His tone savage, he took her chin in his fingers and lifted her face to his. ‘Think.’

  ‘We would have made love,’ she whispered. ‘You would have been the first.’

  His fingers tightened on her face. For a moment they stared at each other, sharing the memories through that single look. ‘I would have broken your heart.’

  The air dragged through her lungs and each beat of her heart felt painful. ‘You did that anyway. But I should be grateful. Because of you I buried myself in my books. I gave up on men.’

  ‘That’s not what I heard.’ His eyes were fixed on hers, his breathing heavy. ‘Josh told me you were engaged once—’

  Great. More humiliation. ‘That didn’t work out.’ Trying not to think about the fact he’d obviously discussed her with Josh, Tasha pulled away from him. ‘I’m not great with relationships. I’m the first to admit it.’

  ‘That makes two of us.’

  ‘You have
endless relationships. I read about them all the time in the paper.’

  ‘Those aren’t relationships.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I hurt you, Tash. I should have handled it a different way.’ He adjusted his balance. ‘Forgive me?’

  ‘No! I don’t forgive you.’

  He was standing close to her. ‘There’s always been something between us and it hasn’t gone away.’

  ‘I’m older and wiser now.’

  ‘You’re still the same Tasha,’ he breathed. ‘Feisty, emotional, warm, giving—’

  ‘Be quiet. I don’t trust you when you’re nice.’

  ‘I’m always nice, tesoro.’ His soft, velvety voice wrapped itself around her senses and she felt her willpower crumble.

  ‘I’m still really angry with you,’ she choked. ‘I’m always going to be angry with you.’

  ‘Even if I say sorry? Mi dispiace.’

  She felt the warmth of his hand against her head and the heat of his body close to hers. He was a breath away from kissing her again and her eyes closed.

  ‘No, Alessandro—please don’t …’ There was a tense silence and all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing. ‘I mean it—I don’t want you to touch me.’

  For a moment she thought he was going to ignore her and then she felt his hand drop and he moved away. ‘All right.’ His voice was hoarse. ‘I won’t touch you until you ask me to.’

  Disappointment mingled with relief, and the confusion of it infuriated her.

  It wasn’t logical to be disappointed when she was the one who’d asked him to move away.

  ‘That will be never.’ Tasha opened her eyes and looked at him, feeling as though the whole centre of her balance had shifted. ‘I’d better find you another nurse.’

  ‘Why? Last time I looked my leg was still in a cast and my ribs were still bruised.’

  ‘I don’t think I can do this,’ she said desperately. ‘I thought it would be easy, but it isn’t. We’re—You’re …’

  He was still standing close to her. The warmth of him, the scent of him, wound itself around her insides and sent anticipation skittering through her.

  She swayed towards him and then she saw the dangerous burn of heat in his dark eyes and remembered how long it had taken her to recover last time she’d fallen for this man.

  She was hopeless at relationships, wasn’t she? She didn’t want one. She had a career she loved. And she had to concentrate on sorting out the mess she’d made of her professional life.

  ‘You hurt me, Alessandro.’ Tasha forced the words past her lips. ‘I have more self-respect than to let you do it again. I’ll stay and look after you because I gave my word, but it’s not going to be any more than that.’

  ‘We thought maybe a carefully placed interview with a celebrity magazine, Your Highness, focusing on your hopes for the future …’

  As his advisers droned on, Alessandro stared out of the window towards the waves. It was early morning and there was only one surfer in the waves.

  Tasha. She was out there again, enjoying the swell beneath her board and the spray on her face.

  Seeking distraction …

  It had been three days since their conversation and she’d kept their interaction on a strictly professional level, but that didn’t alter the tension that added an edge to the atmosphere whenever they were in a room together.

  ‘Your Highness?’

  Alessandro dragged his gaze from contemplation of the surfer. ‘Sorry?’

  His advisers exchanged glances. ‘We were suggesting ways in which you could potentially raise your profile even though you’re …’ one of them cleared his throat and looked at Alessandro’s leg ‘… incapacitated.’

  ‘Featuring in a celebrity magazine?’ Alessandro didn’t bother to conceal his contempt for the idea. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘It would be—’

  ‘Shallow and useless,’ Alessandro snapped. ‘I don’t want to be portrayed as some royal layabout. I run a successful multimillion-dollar business.’ Or he had until his brother’s death. Now a select team ran it in his place and he was only involved in the major decisions.

  ‘The important thing is that the people want to see you, Your Highness. They want to know their prince. They’ll pay an enormous sum for the interview.’ His chief adviser named a figure that made Alessandro shake his head in disbelief.

  ‘They’ll pay that much to take pictures of me lying on the sofa with my leg in plaster? The world has gone mad.’

  ‘The money would be given to your favourite charity, Your Highness, and that would be excellent publicity.’

  ‘And both contrived and manipulative.’ Alessandro felt bitter distaste for the workings of the media. ‘If they have that kind of money to throw around then let them just donate it to the charity in the first place. Cut out the middle man.’

  ‘Her Highness, the Princess Eleanor wants—’

  ‘I know what my mother wants.’ His tone cold, Alessandro stared at the thick file they’d brought with them. ‘What do you have there?’

  ‘We’ve outlined proposals for various ways of supporting charity and generally raising your profile in these …’ the man’s hands trembled slightly as he pushed the file across the table ‘… difficult and limiting circumstances. The ideas have been approved by the palace. The one that Her Highness particularly wanted us to draw your attention to is—’ He broke off, a sheen of sweat on his brow.

  ‘Is?’ Alessandro’s silken prompt made the man flinch.

  ‘Is the suggestion that you announce your engagement, sir.’

  It was like being caught in an avalanche. The cold slammed into him, suffocating him and chilling him right to the bone.

  When he didn’t speak, the man cleared his throat. ‘It’s been a while, Your Highness, and everyone assumes—’

  ‘I know what everyone assumes.’ Alessandro barely recognised his own voice. He leaned back against the sofa, suddenly exhausted. ‘Leave the file. I’ll read it and tell you what I intend to do.’

  ‘Yes, Your Highness.’

  They left and Alessandro stayed where he was. The file remained unopened.

  The thought of allowing sycophantic journalists and photographers into his private life made him cold inside. But the thing that made him coldest of all was the prospect of announcing his engagement. The last thing he wanted was marriage. Given the choice he would have stayed single rather than risk the sort of relationship his parents had. But he didn’t have the choice, did he? It was up to him to produce the next generation to rule the Mediterranean island of San Savarre. It didn’t matter whether he liked it or not.

  Filling his brother’s shoes.

  He needed to talk to Miranda. He needed to see Miranda. But instead of seeing Miranda’s sleek blonde hair and elegant clothes, he saw Tasha putting chilli in his food, undaunted by royal protocol. Hope I’m not supposed to bow or curtsey.

  Tasha, walking away from him.

  Since their heated, tense exchange they had hardly seen each other and Alessandro knew that she was staying out in the surf as long as possible to avoid him.

  Telling himself that it was probably a good thing, Alessandro hobbled through to the bedroom and turned on the television in the hope of distraction.

  By the time she arrived back from her session in the waves, he’d pulled himself together and he focused hard on the screen as she whirled through the apartment like a tornado, singing to herself as if nothing had happened between them.

  Alessandro watched her steadily. She was putting on an act.

  ‘Hi, there, hopalong!’ she called to him as she stripped off the jacket she’d put on over her wetsuit and walked jauntily towards her bedroom. ‘Surf’s up today and this time I’m not saying that to make you want to thump me.’

  ‘Tasha—’

  ‘Need to get out of my wet things!’

  He had to admire her performance. If he hadn’t known better he wou
ld have said she was indifferent. But he knew she was far from indifferent. Watching her breeze through the house, he wondered how long she was going to keep up the pretence that nothing was happening between them. ‘When I finally get this damn plaster off my leg, I’ll join you.’ They were going through the motions. Talking about surfing, even though that wasn’t the topic uppermost in their thoughts.

  He heard the soft hiss of water as she turned on the shower and immediately he started thinking about Tasha naked. And thinking about Tasha naked—

  Cursing softly, he picked up the remote control and flicked on the sports channel.

  ‘How did your meeting go?’ She was standing in the doorway, wearing a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Her hair was still wet from the shower and her feet bare. ‘What do they want you to do?’

  Get married.

  ‘The usual stuff. Palace promotion. I’m afraid I’m not very good at being told what to do. I’ve always been a bit of a rebel that way. Antonio was the dutiful one. He was the Good Son.’ He felt the bed give as she sat down next to him.

  ‘You must miss him terribly. I know you were close.’ Her voice was soft and for the time being she seemed to have abandoned her act. ‘I can’t begin to imagine how I’d cope if I lost a brother.’

  ‘We both had our roles. I was the bad boy. Even as kids it was the same. It never occurred to me I’d have to play his role. The truth is, I’m not good at it. No matter how much my parents would like me to be, I’m not my brother.’ Alessandro wondered why he was telling her this. He never talked about it. Not to anyone.

  But talking to Tasha had always been easy. She had a way of making a person spill the contents of their minds.

  ‘No, you’re not your brother. You’re you, an individual.’ She hesitated. ‘I suppose you have to find a way to do it that suits you. A way you’re OK with. I mean, Josh and I are both doctors but we’re not the same. We don’t approach things the same way. He’s very analytical whereas I’m more emotional. But I don’t think either one of us is better or worse than the other. We’re just different.’

  ‘The problem is, my parents don’t want different. If they could have chosen, I would have been the one who died in that car.’