by Rachel Hauck
Or if she could stay awake, she’d sit in the peace of her condo and wait on God. If there was a silver lining to the last five and a half years, it was the discovery of truth. Despite her pain and grief, she found comfort in a God of love and peace, who was everything he claimed to be.
But the off-site staff needed attention, awaiting assignments and answers. They didn’t know or care about Mark tying one on at his welcome party.
Truth? She struggled with the idea of Mark being her boss. The guy who partied his way through his first stint at good ole Beaumont Post.
“Darling, are you still here?”
Corina glanced through the low light to see Gigi making her way down the aisle, her svelte figure wrapped in a pale blue designer dress. What was she doing here? Corina thought she’d left with the last of the bull pen.
“Aren’t you going to Mark’s party?”
“I’ve spent enough time with Mark this week.” Corina closed e-mail and turned off her computer as Gigi perched on the side of her desk, laughing softly. She’d made up her mind. Time to go home.
“Come now, be a team player.”
“I’m the epitome of a team player. Save this speech for Mark. It’s not too late to change your mind,” Corina said. “He’s only been here a week. You can send him packing.”
“I see. Is this how you’re going to play it? I thought more of you, darling.” Gigi took a tube of lipstick and a mirror from her orange Hermes Birkin and traced her lips with a dark red. Then she clicked off Corina’s desk lamp. “Work is done for the day. Let’s join the others, shall we?”
“Give them my love.” Corina took her handbag, a Prada she’d had for years and still loved, and walked with Gigi toward the door. “I’m heading home. My sweet condo is calling me.”
She’d never really lived on her own. Not even from the womb, which she shared with Carlos. After high school she went to college and roomed with her best friend, Daisy, all four years. She did a year in Melbourne with Gigi right after college. Lived with her friend Tammy. And Daisy came down at least once a month for girls’ weekends.
Then Carlos joined the Marines and was selected for a joint international task force in Brighton. She tagged along to be with him, did freelance work for Gigi, and studied creative writing at Knoxton University.
And that’s how she met him. Her prince on campus.
Corina sighed.
“What’s this?” Gigi, always paying attention. Always watching. Listening. “Such a sigh.”
“Nothing.” But it was something. Recalling Stephen reminded Corina of the vast emptiness in her heart.
Gigi pushed the elevator button. “Never you fear, we’re going to find you a hot, hot story. You know, I don’t have a solid stringer in London. Nor Cathedral City, come to think of it. They all left me to have babies. The nerve of some women.”
“Yeah, what’s up with that? Women wanting to have babies, raise a family?” The elevator door pinged open and Corina stepped in to the melody of Gigi’s chortling.
“What am I going to do with you, Corina Del Rey?”
“Love me, I guess.” She laughed and pressed her hand on Gigi’s arm. “I’m not sure I ever said it, but thank you. Your call with a job offer saved me.”
Gigi squeezed her hand as the doors slid closed, and they rode in silence down to the glass-and-tile lobby with the high, exposed, steel beam arches.
They waved good night to the night security guard, Jones Parker. “Night, Ms. Beaumont. You too, Miss Del Rey. Take care out there. They say a tropical storm is heading our way.”
“And only the tenth of June,” Gigi said. “Well, it’s the price we pay for our Florida sunshine and glorious winters.”
“Yes, ma’am. They say she’s bringing lots of wind and rain. Calling this one Anna. She’s coming ashore on the weekend.”
Corina stepped outside, into the warm, dewy evening, into the stiff breeze channeling down U.S. 1 from the Indian River.
“Let’s be ready, Corina. We might want to close the office early tomorrow.”
Corina started across the parking lot toward her classic ’67 black GTO sitting under the amber-glowing lamp. “Be sure to tell your editorial director.”
Gigi laughed. “You’re keeping me honest.” Then she reached for Corina. “You know I want all the best for you. Your mother and I go way back, but I—”
“It’s okay, Gigi. I know, I know.”
“Good.” Gigi started off around the building for her car. “Then stop busting my chops.”
“Never. You’ll be telling me, ‘You were right,’ within six months.” If not before.
“Whatever, darling, whatever.”
At her car, Corina unlocked the door, tossed her bag across the red leather bench seat, and faced the wind. She loved storms. Natural ones, not emotional. She’d had enough of those for a lifetime.
A tropical storm would be new for her. Besides the security features of her penthouse, the builder guaranteed the construction could withstand a Category 4 hurricane.
Tipping back her head, Corina scanned the sky. So clear and beautiful, fresh and breezy, with no hint of a tropical storm among the glittering stars.
“Corina?”
She turned at the familiar voice, her heartbeat cresting. Stephen?
Sure enough, standing between the glow of the parking lot lights and the shadows of royal palms was Stephen Stratton, Prince of Brighton, hands in his jeans pockets, his dark hair twisting above his crystalline eyes with every gust of wind.
“Oh my gosh . . .” She caught her trembling breath as she collapsed against the car. “What are you doing here?”
“I tried your flat but your doorman said you’d not returned for the evening. So I came here.” He stepped closer. “How are you?”
“How am I? You flew four thousand miles to ask me how I am?”
“You look well.” The end of his comment dropped low, a husky resonance soaking his voice. “Beautiful as ever.”
“Five and a half years.” She gripped her hands into fists. “Not a peep out of you. No call, no letter, not even a text or an e-mail.” She caught a shift in the shadows, a broad, burly figure, inching his way toward them. “You have a protection officer?”
“Thomas.” Stephen motioned over his shoulder toward the man.
“What are you doing here?” She crossed her arms and squared off with the man she used to love. Wholeheartedly. Without reservation. With a passion she never knew she possessed.
“I’m here on a private, sensitive matter.”
“You flew four thousand miles to talk to me about a sensitive matter? What happened to Brighton’s telephone service? Is the palace still denying you e-mail? The ability to text?”
“Brighton Telephone is in fine order. And all of Brighton royalty is current with the world’s technological standards. But the matter for which I stand here now was not one for a long distance call or a by-the-by e-mail.” Stephen glanced around and hobbled closer, his left foot bound up in a walking boot. “Is it possible to sit in your flat with a cup of tea?”
Corina motioned to the palms. “I think the parking lot can handle whatever you have to say. As I recall, the last time we talked it was outside the rugby stadium with you wearing a sweaty kit.”
He sighed, leaning to check his fingers in the light, and her bravado faded. Her knees weakened, and her heart smacked her head with a one-two, demanding a more cordial response.
He’s here.
In my parking lot.
For five and a half years she’d waited for him to call. Now here he stood, three feet from her. He was as handsome and confident as ever, and try as she might to boil up some righteous anger, she felt like putty in his presence. And all she wanted to do was throw her arms about him. Kiss him. Adore him with everything she’d stored up in her heart.
But he’d tossed her off. He was not worthy of her.
“Yes, I’m sure the parking lot and the surrounding trees and brush will be tender with
our conversation, but I’m asking for mercy. We just arrived this evening and are a bit jet-lagged. If not for me, consider Thomas.” He motioned to his booted foot. “And my poor ankle could use a prop.”
Corina regarded him for a moment, drawing on the courageous Del Rey blood that flowed through her veins. “This is unbelievable. I don’t hear boo from you in years, but you have the gall to make demands. Once a prince, always a prince.”
“Once an American heiress, always an American heiress. I appeal to your mercy and charm, and your good southern graces.”
She wanted to laugh at his attempt to placate her. But he’d always been quick with his replies, cheeky and clever. Except when he was dark, sullen, and battle weary.
“How did you find me?”
“It wasn’t hard. You’re not exactly hiding.”
“Miss Del Rey?” Jones stepped into the night, calling from the lobby. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes, Jones, thank you.”
“Are you sure?”
Corina surveyed the contours of Stephen’s face, highlighted by the glow of the streetlights. His chest and arms were thick and broad, more developed and taut than when she said yes to his proposal. She turned her attention to answer Jones.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
What she wouldn’t give to have Jones call the police. But what good would that do? Stephen had diplomatic immunity. And there was no law against talking to a friend, er, an ex-wife, in the parking lot.
Stephen glanced toward the Beaumont Media building as Jones stepped inside, then faced Corina for a long, quiet moment.
“So?” she said. “Why are you here?”
“I guess there’s no use bandying about.” He drew a long inhale, striking a buzz through her nerves. What bothered him so much? “Corina,” he said. “We are still married.”
Her arms fell limp at her side, her courage draining. “W–we’re what?”
“We’re married. The Grand Duchy of Hessenberg has a new archbishop, and he discovered our marriage certificate hidden away in his office when he was preparing for remodeling. I suppose Archbishop Caldwell stuck it there for safekeeping. In turn, the new archbishop sent the certificate to Nathaniel.”
“You said the one we signed was never filed with the Court, therefore invalid. We could just walk away.”
“I–I was mistaken. Apparently, since we were married in the Church by an archbishop, and I’m a royal, the Court was not needed. Our vows are legal and binding.”
Corina dropped against the car. Married? “I asked you, remember? How the marriage was legal for us to go on a honeymoon but not legal when you wanted the marriage to be over. You said, ‘It just is.’ You lied? So blatantly? To get your way? Why?”
“I didn’t lie. I thought we could walk away, as if it never happened.”
Never happened? His words twisted deeper today than they did five years ago. “But it did happen, Stephen.”
The scents and images of his romantic proposal possessed her. The windy ride on the ferry. Rattling the archbishop awake. Their honeymoon, stowing away in her flat, hiding from the world, even Carlos, knowing their days together before his deployment were coming to an end.
Of sharing intimate love. Their first night together.
She needed to think. To drive. To open up the GTO down the dark lanes of U.S. 1. “I have to go.” Corina slipped behind the wheel and fired up the engine, gunning the gas.
“I’ve brought annulment papers.” Flat. Calm. As if nothing in this conversation stirred his emotions at all. Well, she’d long suspected he’d lost his heart somewhere in the Afghan desert.
“You have the papers?” She wrapped her hand around the steering wheel. “Why thank you. How convenient.” She stepped out of the car, slamming the door behind her, leaving the engine in a soft rumble. “Stephen, what if I’d met someone else? Gotten married? Had children?”
“Why do you think I’m standing here now? To tell you the truth.”
“And have me sign annulment papers?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, soft, low with a hint of tenderness.
Corina glanced up at him, catching the whites of his eyes. “What are you not telling me?”
“I’m telling you we’re still married and I have the annulment papers.” He jerked his thumb toward Thomas and the dark car parked by the front of the building.
“Just like that?” Corina snapped her fingers in the dewy, warm air. “Hey, Corina, I’ve not seen you in forever, sign this paper.”
He stepped away from the car. “I didn’t want to tell you in the car park, but you didn’t want to leave.”
She felt sick and weak. “Stephen, this is not about the parking lot. This is about you showing up and ramming that annulment at me. When I’m still not sure why our marriage ended in the first place.” Corina got behind the wheel and gunned the gas, shifting into reverse. But she could not hit the gas. With a fast glance up at him, grounding down the whisper of regret, she said, “You know where I live?”
“I do.”
“Then I’ll see you there.” She fired out of the parking lot, powering down the convertible top, gunning down U.S 1 toward home, the GTO, her entire world, rumbling beneath her.
FOUR
His ankle was killing Stephen as he hobbled across the parking lot with Thomas to the front entrance of Harbor’s Edge, a luxury condominium on the bank of a river.
The doorman greeted them with a dubious once-over. “Here to see Ms. Del Rey?”
“She’s expecting us, yes.”
The man stepped back with a nod. “Top floor. Penthouse on the right.”
In the elevator, Stephen rode in silence, grappling with his thoughts, sorting his feelings. She awakened something in him he thought he no longer possessed.
“She’s very beautiful,” Thomas said, staring straight ahead.
“She is.”
“Rather decisive too.”
“Yes, rather.”
“I like her.”
Stephen faced his protection officer as the elevator slowed, delivering them on the top floor. “We’re not here to like her.” While Thomas was an employee of the Royal Guard, he’d also become Stephen’s friend over the years. He’d been a near constant companion when Stephen traveled with Brighton Eagles for every international match.
“I’m merely saying—”
“Well, don’t say it.” Stephen patted the messenger bag slung over his shoulder. “I came here to ask her to sign the annulment papers. End of story.”
“All business?”
“Yes, all business.”
But he lied, making himself feel better by wrapping it with some thin ribbon of the truth. He did come for the annulment, but more lurked beneath the surface. The moment he spoke her name and she turned toward him, his feelings for her awakened and butterflied in his chest.
He liked her. Still. Very much. But his feelings did not change why he came. Nor the secret about Afghanistan he harbored.
He could not tell her the real truth as to why he ended their marriage. For the sake of national security, his personal safety and that of the family, and for the welfare of his country, the Crown, and the four-hundred-and-sixty-year-old House of Stratton, the details of that day in Torkham were sealed under “Top Secret.”
The elevator eased to a stop and the doors opened. Stephen walked with Thomas through the corridor to Corina’s door. He paused, inhaling deep, before knocking, then glanced at Thomas. “Listen, mate, can you give us a moment? An audience seems a bit inappropriate.”
Thomas backed away with a single pat on Stephen’s shoulder. “I’ll be right out here.” He pointed to a plush settee against the wall, holding up his phone. “I can catch up on e-mail.”
“Thanks, mate.” Another breath or two and Stephen knocked lightly. Then a third time with more vigor, listening for sounds from the other side.
When he first returned from Afghanistan with a heart of stone, he’d convinced himself Corina had to go. One
, he couldn’t give his heart to her because if she knew the truth, she’d despise him.
Second, every time he saw her, he’d remember what he wanted to ardently forget.
Third, she could not be trusted with the truth. The Defense Ministry determined the incident to be one of national security. Corina and the Del Reys were a powerful family with access and influence.
With the truth in their hands, they could have exposed everything. And Stephen’s plan to excise his demons on the rugby pitch would’ve come to ruin.
The door flew open, startling him. “Come in,” she said with a sweep of her arm.
He hesitated, then stepped inside. “Thank you.” Was it possible she still took his breath away? He wanted to push Pause and simply stare at her for a moment, refilling his cup with the light of her hazel eyes. He itched to weave his fingers through the long silky flow of her dark hair.
He’d first noticed her as she walked across Knoxton’s campus, her long locks flowing behind her as if baiting the breeze to follow.
“Where’s your protection officer?”
“In the hall, waiting.” Stephen remained just inside the door. The sprawling loft was very much Corina. Elegant and classic with hardwood floors, cathedral ceilings, arched doorways, and ornate crown molding, yet lived in, cozy and homey. “Your place is lovely, Corina.”
“Thank you. I like it.” She switched on a kitchen light that spilled a golden glow down the walls. “Can I get you a bottle of water?”
“Water would be lovely.” Stephen spied a pile of newspapers by the rocker-recliner and a familiar twist tightened in his chest. Their honeymoon month had been the last time he had known real peace and true comfort.
“Here you go.” Corina handed him the water and remained standing.
She wasn’t going to invite him farther in, was she? He pointed to the newspapers. “I see you still enjoy the printed news.”
“I do,” she said without looking at him.
His memories congealed, forming a soft reminiscence in his heart, but there was no wisdom in strolling down memory lane. He had a task to do.
“So what do you need from me?” Her crisp, sharp voice sliced into his thoughts.