By the time they reached the Palazzo Cavelli, Nico had returned to the coolly arrogant prince that Lily had thought was gone forever. It confused and frustrated her. What had happened to the effortlessly sensual man she’d had a bath with this morning? The man who’d shared his body and his soul with her, cooked her breakfast, and slept with a toddler on his chest?
This man, this prince, was not the sort of person who would do any of those things. He was the product of a royal upbringing and right now he displayed every bit of haughtiness and coldness she’d noticed in his father and stepmother.
Lily worried her lip. Had she judged him wrongly once more? Had she made him into what she wanted him to be when in fact he only did what was expedient to his wishes?
They walked down the long halls of the palace, up a grand staircase, and down more halls until they reached their apartment. Gisela took Danny to his room and Lily was left alone with Nico. He seemed distracted as he gazed at their surroundings. Then he turned to her, his blue gaze distant and cool.
“I have a meeting with the king, cara. I don’t know when I will return.” Without waiting for her reply, he strode from the room. She heard the door click and he was gone.
Lily whirled, staring at the closed door for long minutes after he’d disappeared through it. Fear, anger, and hurt mixed in her stomach, pounded through her with the refrain that she’d made a huge mistake. She wasn’t really a princess and Nico would never really love her. How could he?
She’d lost any chance she’d ever had at happiness when she’d married him. Nico Cavelli had taken her career, such as it was, her baby, and very likely her heart. She wasn’t willing to call what she felt love just yet, but she feared that’s what it was. She ached with the desire to be near him. To see him happy.
Lily retreated to her room, but her things were no longer there. They’d been moved to Nico’s room, so she went there instead. She hadn’t been inside his quarters before and she stood there now with her heart in her throat. The opulence of the palace no longer staggered her, but still her breath caught at the magnificent antique bed, the gilded walls and plush furniture, the marble floors, the crystal chandeliers, and the priceless paintings. It was like living in a museum. She, who’d only been to a single art museum in her life, now lived in the middle of one.
It only added to her Alice-in-Wonderland confusion.
A knock on the door sounded and she turned toward it, almost grateful for the interruption.
“Yes?” she said, and then wondered if there was something else she was supposed to say. What did princesses say? You may enter?
A young woman in the palace staff uniform entered, her eyes downcast. “Scusi, Principessa. For you,” she finished, holding out a box.
“Grazie,” Lily replied, glad she’d learned at least that word. She didn’t know many Italian words, but Nico had taught her a few important ones. He’d also said they would arrange a tutor for her once they returned to the palace, so perhaps she would start lessons soon. The girl shot her a shy smile, then backed out of the room and closed the door.
Lily took the box over to a table and set it down. Then she pulled the lid off. There was a stack of newspapers and magazines inside. She lifted them out, confused as to why they’d been sent to her.
She unfolded one that was in Italian—and realized she was looking at a photo of herself. It was grainy but not unflattering. She shuffled through the papers until she found something she understood.
Her stomach dropped to the floor and her knees wobbled. She sank into a chair and stared at the paper in her hand.
Crown Prince Marries Daughter of Alcoholic Stripper, Endangers Relations with Neighboring Nation
Chapter Fifteen
By the time Nico made it back to his quarters, he was mentally exhausted. He’d spent the last several hours wrangling with King Paolo of Monteverde and his father over the state of the treaty between their nations.
Paolo had at first demanded he divorce Lily, repudiate his son, and marry Antonella. The man was insane, and Nico didn’t mind saying so. His father, however, urged a different course. Paolo was posturing for the best deal he could get and using whatever ammunition he had in his arsenal to obtain it. The public humiliation of his daughter being jilted was fairly substantial in his mind, though it would never have escalated to this point had he not bandied it in the press before the engagement had been formalized.
Nico felt sorry for Antonella, but only because her father was a self-important fool. She was a beautiful woman and would command many offers for her hand once her father let this go.
Right now, however, Paolo wanted to hold further talks about the treaty in Monteverde. Nico didn’t want to go, but his father urged him to do so. As Crown Prince, it was his duty. As architect of the current impasse, it was his responsibility. He could hardly refuse the invitation. To be seen in Monteverde with his new wife would go a long way toward normalizing relations. It would show that Montebianco needed Monteverde’s good will, and it would give Paolo a chance to appear both important and magnanimous.
Like it or not, Nico was going. And so was Lily.
The residence was quiet when he entered. He wasn’t as late as he’d thought he might be, though perhaps Lily had gone to bed. Nico headed for their room, anticipation pumping through his veins. He’d had her things moved to his room and he hoped she approved. Would she be naked in their bed, waiting for him? Would she be dressed in something slinky and enticing? Or would she be wearing that silly night shirt with the cat on it?
He laughed to himself. It didn’t matter which garment she wore—or didn’t wear—because his reaction was the same no matter what. He wanted her, plain and simple.
But when he opened the door, the sight he found was not what he’d hoped for.
Papers littered the floor, scattered haphazardly like a tornado had blown through. Lily sat in the center of them, reading. She looked up at him, her eyes red. “Hello, Nico. Have a good day at the office?”
The look on her face made his gut churn. It was as if she’d suffered a loss and wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it.
He crossed the room and dropped to snatch a paper off the floor. Fury settled into his bones like a permanent chill when he realized what he was reading. An upended box lay under the table and he knew that someone had saved everything until they’d returned.
Nico’s belly roiled with anger. He wanted to strangle Queen Tiziana because he had no doubt it was she who’d done this. It was just like her to be so heartless. The more innocent the victim, the crueler she could be. Her treatment of him over the years had changed in proportion to his size and age, but when he’d first arrived, he’d been fresh meat. Just as Lily was.
He shuddered at all he’d endured from her. The cold silences, the punishments, her refusals to show him any mercy whatsoever. He’d been a child and she’d treated him with disdain and cruelty. He despised her—and he despised her even more for hurting Lily.
If the queen outlived his father, she would be lucky if Nico didn’t banish her from the kingdom entirely. As it was, she would live the rest of her days in one of the smaller palaces as far away from him and his family as he could manage to send her.
He’d known there would be articles about him and Lily, but he’d avoided the papers during their honeymoon. Seeing Lily’s dismay, he regretted that decision very much. He was so accustomed to shrugging off whatever the gossip magazines said that he hadn’t stopped to think he might need to prepare his wife better.
“They know everything,” Lily said numbly. “My mother, my father—the town I grew up in, the fact our family took public assistance, and that my mother once stripped for a living. They called me a gold-digger, said I tricked you, that Danny isn’t yours—”
“I know Danny is mine.”
She waved the paper she was holding, her eyes shining with tears. “Maybe you’d like to tell them that? Issue a statement or something?”
“It does no good to answer thes
e swine,” he said bitterly.
She scrambled to her feet and faced him squarely. Fury was the dominant emotion chasing over her face, which surprised him considering the state she’d been in only a moment ago.
“I don’t know how to do this, Nico. I’m not a princess, I’m not meant for this. I won’t let them hurt Danny—”
“No one will hurt Danny,” he growled.
“Then why won’t you make them retract these lies?”
He sighed. “Montebianco is a free society, Lily. I can’t make them do anything. Nor can I make the European gossip rags do what I wish either. The best course is to ignore them.”
She looked stunned. “Ignore them? You would ignore people calling your son a bastard and your wife a whore?”
He wanted to strange Tiziana. “I’m a bastard, cara. And I assure you it makes no difference. The furor will die down soon enough. You are the Crown Princess now. You must learn to handle these things.”
She sucked in a breath. Her lower lip trembled. “I didn’t realize that part of the job was learning to ignore lies and put up with insults.”
“You worked for a newspaper,” he said, his voice harsh. “How can this surprise you?”
“I worked with reporters who had integrity, Nico. No one would dare print a lie that was easily disproved. It isn’t professional.”
Nico raked a hand through his hair. “Yes, well, tabloids don’t have the same standards. They thrive on lies. The more outrageous the better.”
She gaped at him. “How can you be so dismissive? It’s embarrassing to me, but it makes you look incompetent.”
“You are missing the point, Lily. It doesn’t matter. It will go away tomorrow, or the next day. As soon as there’s nothing left to feed on, they will move to another target.” He reached for her. “Come, let’s go to bed and forget this. It will look better in the morning.”
She jerked out of his grip. “I can’t believe you would allow an insult to our son to go unchallenged. I don’t expect you to defend me, but—”
“There’s nothing to defend,” he roared as the frustration of the day took its toll. “Cavolo, I don’t have time for this! We are flying to Monteverde tomorrow. I need you to be prepared.”
Lily wrapped her arms around herself and looked away from him. Her chin quivered harder. Guilt speared him. Perhaps he should be more patient, should help her through this with more compassion. He’d had a bad afternoon, but that was no excuse to allow his exasperation and frustration to show. “Lily—”
“Monteverde?” she cut in. “Isn’t that where Princess Antonella lives?”
“Si.”
Her laugh was unexpected. “Fabulous. Just fabulous. What if I refuse?”
Cold anger flooded him. “You cannot refuse. It’s your duty.”
“No, it’s your duty.”
Nico stiffened. “You are my wife, Liliana. We will be in Monteverde tomorrow night, and you will appear to be happy about it.”
“Of course, your supreme majesty,” she bit out. “Is there anything else you wish to command, oh Lord of Everything?”
“Lily,” he said, unable to keep the sudden weariness from his voice. He didn’t want to fight with her. He wanted to strip her naked and worship her body with his. Then he wanted to sleep in her arms. He’d enjoyed their time together away from Castello del Bianco. He wanted more of that. More of the woman whose company he’d been enjoying. Her smiles, her laughter, the way she lay beneath him and moaned as he moved deep inside her. He wanted to eat meals with her and laugh over their son’s antics. He wanted to know her better, and he wanted her to know him. He’d never really had that with a woman before.
But none of that was on the table right now. He could see it in the stubborn set of her jaw, the fire in her eyes.
She sucked in a breath, her chin quivering faster now. He knew it wasn’t weakness. It was anger that made her cry.
“I didn’t ask for any of this, Nico. I’m here because you forced me to be here. You’ve tried to turn me into something I’m not. If you don’t like how I do the job of being your wife, then you have only yourself to blame for making a poor choice in the first place.”
Nico gritted his teeth at the unfairness of her statement. “I didn’t force you to give me your virginity two years ago, nor did I put a hole in the condom so you would get pregnant. It happened, Lily. Now we deal with it.”
She made a sweeping motion with her hand. “So this is how we deal with it? Ignore the lies and hope they’ll go away? Have you stopped to think what might happen when they actually manage to track my mother down in whatever third-rate honky-tonk dive she’s holding up a barstool in and ask her how it feels to have a daughter marry a prince?”
“They won’t find her.” Of that he was certain.
She went very still. “What do you mean they won’t find her?”
“Because I found her first. She’s in a treatment facility.”
She looked as if he just said he’d sold her mother into slavery. But what had she expected? Of course he’d had her family investigated. And what he’d learned about her mother had necessitated action. The woman had been drunk in a Baton Rouge nightclub when his people found her. And, contrary to Lily’s belief, she was most certainly still stripping for a living. Once she’d sobered up, she couldn’t even remember her grandson’s name. Had, in fact, insisted she wasn’t old enough to be a grandmother. The woman was a real piece of work, that’s for sure.
“You sent my mother to rehab? Without telling me?” He watched as a range of emotions crossed his wife’s face. Her voice sounded hollow when she spoke. “I haven’t talked to her since shortly after Danny was born. How did you find her? Why?”
He hated that she was in pain. “I have many resources. And I had to do something for precisely the reason you’ve stated.”
“I wanted to help her, but she never would listen, and I didn’t have the money…” He had no idea what she might do next, but she suddenly gave up the fight and crumpled into a nearby chair. “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you? I should have known you would.”
“I have no choice, Lily. I must do what’s best for Montebianco at all times.”
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you married me.”
“There was no choice in that either,” he said softly. “I married you because we have a child together.”
She laughed, but the sound was broken. Then she swiped her fingers beneath her eyes. “Not the best criteria, was it? But duty called, I suppose.”
He resented the way she made it sound like he’d committed a crime. He’d done what was right. And he’d done it at a personal cost that was still being tallied. “Yes.”
“I wish you’d considered how it would affect me and Danny before you imposed your royal will.”
His brows drew together. What could he have done differently? He’d given them wealth and privilege and a life far removed from what it would have been. She should be thanking him, not chastising him.
“Your lives are immeasurably better now that we are married.”
She speared him with a watery gaze. “Oh yes, very much so. I’ve never been happier.”
In spite of her sarcasm, he wanted to go to her, wanted to sweep her up and take her to bed and make this whole thing go away. Because she had been happy just a few hours ago. He’d have staked everything he had on it.
But she wouldn’t welcome him with open arms, not like she had this morning. It was as if that was merely a moment in time and it was gone now, never to be repeated. The thought bothered him more than he cared to admit.
He went over and picked up the palace phone. It was answered immediately. He issued orders for someone to come clean up the mess of papers.
“Go to bed, Lily,” he said over his shoulder once he’d dropped the phone. “Tomorrow will be a long day.”
She didn’t answer for a long minute. When she did, her voice was so soft he had to strain to hear her. But he didn’t miss a
word of what she said.
“I liked the man I knew in New Orleans, the one I spent the last few days with. Where is he, Nico? What happened to him? Because I don’t like the crown prince of Montebianco very much at all.”
Nico swallowed a hard knot in his throat. Was he so different when he was here in the palace? He knew he felt more constrained, but he’d not thought he completely submerged his personality beneath the pomp and circumstance of his duty. Perhaps he did. Perhaps she was far more perceptive than he.
“I am the same man,” he said without turning around.
“I wish that were true. But I don’t believe it is.”
A few moments later, he heard papers shifting and crinkling as she stood and walked across the floor. A door closed. For the longest time, he heard nothing else. And then the snick of the lock fell into place.
The next day was a whirlwind of activity. Lily welcomed the distraction. She was caught in a flurry of fittings and beauty appointments to prepare for the gathering at the Romanellis’ residence in Monteverde later that night. Unlike the trip to Paris, these women came to the palace to attend her. Gisela brought Danny in from time to time, and he amused the ladies to no end with his baby chatter and adorable antics. Lily was gratified by the comments that he looked exactly like his father.
Of course he did. Anyone with eyes could see he was his father’s child, and yet she was still angry with Nico for refusing to correct the tabloids. When she’d worked at the Register, people sent in corrections to stories all the time. And the paper printed them.
She’d thought she wanted to be a journalist someday, but now she knew that was impossible. And she’d realized, after last night, that she really didn’t have the necessary bulldog attitude it required. Some of what the papers said was true—her mother’s alcohol addiction, the fact she’d once been a stripper—but Lily would never be able to write something so cruel and see it published if it meant someone would be hurt by it.
Filthy Rich Prince: A Filthy Rich Billionaires Book Page 14