Cursed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 5

by Jennifer Chance

  Soon, another man strode forward, then a third, and Vince reached for Edeena. With her as a translator, she was able to explain the problem in simple terms, conveying Vince’s sense of urgency that they take a completely different direction to remove the tree than what they were planning. Cell phones came out, and Vince visibly sagged with relief. “Thank God.”

  Edeena eyed him. “You didn’t think we had phones?”

  “This place looks like something out of a Disney movie,” he snapped back. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the chickens started singing.”

  Someone drove up with a truck a few minutes later, and this man apparently had more construction experience, because he understood what Vince was saying right away—which was good, because Edeena still didn’t. Still, to her surprise Vince accepted it when the local men bid him on his way. He shook hands, clapped shoulders, then turned and walked back to the car with her.

  She waited until they slid back inside the vehicle to turn to him. “You’re okay with them carrying on without further supervision? You’re not . . . I don’t know . . . worried they’ll do the wrong thing?”

  “They won’t,” Vince said, shaking his head. “So much of the time, people simply don’t know what they don’t know. It’s not so much that they’re trying to screw up, they’re just approaching the problem the way they’ve approached similar problems in the past. They don’t need someone to show them step by step how to do it correctly, they need to know that their way isn’t the right way forward. They can figure out the rest on their own.” He slanted a glance at her. “Make sense?”

  “It makes absolute sense.”

  She turned forward and realized the driver had been listening in on their conversation, but the man’s eyes were on the road, his manner easy, so she supposed there was nothing lost there. It made her feel good to know those strangers were going to save their house, protect their other homes from problems they wouldn’t have known about without Vince. It was all the craziest kind of coincidence, but if it helped someone . . .

  She reached out, touched Vince’s leg. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

  He looked at her with surprise. “For what?”

  She shook her head. She couldn’t say more for fear of saying or doing something inappropriate. The driver worked for the queen, but no one’s allegiances were fully set. She had to be careful. She contented herself with the briefest response she could summon. “For being you.”

  Vince reached down and squeezed her hand, below the eyesight of the driver. And he didn’t let go.

  The day’s visits were . . . not an unqualified success, Edeena thought hours later, but at least a step in the right direction. She’d met cousins she hadn’t seen in years, sharing an invitation with each of them to come to her engagement ball. She’d left extras as well. Some of the families she spoke with no doubt knew about the curse, some didn’t, still others didn’t realize that Edeena and her sisters were even part of their family tree, or why they should care. Only a few refused to see her, for one reason or another. And every time, Vince asked her why, gently compelling her to explain how fierce the Saleri pride was, and then reassuring her that pride so fierce would eventually prove stronger than any curse the ancients could throw at him.

  Now she looked at him, weariness gnawing her bones as they drove back through the countryside. “Probably not what you expected when you agreed to provide security for me on this trip, eh? Countless visits to cousins and aunts?”

  “Don’t forget uncles, grand matrons and more children than I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Vince laughed. His head rested back against the seat cushion, and his eyes were shut. But once more he grasped her hand with his, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for them to hold hands for no reason. “But they were good people, and their love runs deep. You should be proud of your family, Edeena. Even those who don’t know you.”

  She sighed and glanced out the window. “I only hope I make them proud of me.”

  Vince felt like he’d run a marathon backwards by the time he and Edeena bid farewell to their driver and turned into the palace. It was quiet and dark, and even the doorman was hushed. A light dinner would be sent to Edeena’s sitting room for both of them, they were informed, and the queen would content herself with getting the details of their journey in the morning.

  Dinner was waiting for them, enough to feed a family of six—dates and fruit and cheese and cold meats and bread, with enough wine and a clear liqueur Edeena called tsipouro to wash it all down. It took a moment for Vince to realize what was happening, but as he looked up to meet Edeena’s gaze, he understood she was way ahead of him.

  She stared from him, to the closed door, back to him.

  “We’re . . . alone,” she said.

  He grinned, thoughts of food momentarily forgotten. “You noticed that, huh?”

  She pursed her lips, her gaze drifting to the clock on the wall. “I wonder if anyone will notice that you’re here . . .”

  “Probably,” he said, stepping closer to her, “but we do have dinner to consume. And we’re both, undoubtedly, extremely hungry. I suspect we have maybe an hour before a staffer will discreetly knock on the door, asking us if, I don’t know, we want port or tea or something.”

  “Port?” she asked, a smile teasing her mouth as he reached her. She gazed up at him and his arms went around her, cradling her close. “We aren’t really much for port in Garronia. We are much more a tsipouro drinking country.”

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you people.”

  Vince leaned forward and kissed Edeena, feeling the weight of her, solid and sure in his arms, as if she was meant to be there. Two days, three—he didn’t know how long he had with her, and in this minute, he couldn’t think that far ahead. He could only think the forty or fifty minutes they had separate and safe in this room, away and somewhere else from where everyone expected them to be.

  “How hungry are you?”

  In response her arms came up around him, her body arching up into his. “Not so hungry that I want to miss a moment of this,” she whispered. She pulled away from him, unslinging her bag and rummaging through it for a moment before she plucked free a foil package. Vince’s eyes went wide.

  “You were carrying around a condom in your purse?” he protested, half-laughing as she pulled him deeper into the room, through a door that led to a shadowed chamber. “What exactly were you expecting to happen in the countryside of Garronia?”

  “I didn’t know.” In the darkness, Edeena’s voice suddenly sounded small, and Vince moved quickly toward her. She was standing several feet away from her bed, and he realized she was shaking there in the shadows, as if she could maintain all her strength and good cheer for the rest of the world when the lights were on, but once the brightness dimmed, she could only bow under the weight of her own charade.

  Vince wrapped his arms around her, her back to his chest, and they stood there for a long moment in the darkness. Then he sighed ponderously, plucking the foil package from her fingers. “Well, it seems as if it would be a crime not to reward your practical preparedness,” he said, his words met by Edeena’s half laugh, half sob. He tucked the package into his watchband, then drifted a kiss over her hair. “If only you were so resourceful as to also secure us a bed . . . hey, wait a minute.”

  He stepped back and turned Edeena around to face him, resolutely ignoring the tears shining in her eyes. He didn’t want Edeena to have reason to cry. Not today, not ever. But there was only so much he could control.

  He could control the next few minutes, however.

  He lifted his hands to either side of her face, cradling it with his palms, and leaned forward, kissing her lips softly. “I don’t usually make women cry until after I take off my clothes, you know,” he whispered, and she coughed a short, hiccupping laugh.

  “I guess there’s always a first time.”

  “Not for this,” he said. “But let me see if I can recover my dignity.” He stepped back from h
er and pulled his shirt off in one smooth move, his body tightening as her expression changed from one of wistful sadness to distinct desire. Edeena stared as he made short work of the rest of his clothes, until he stood in front of her, fully naked.

  “Better?” he rumbled, and a smile tilted her lips as her hands drifted up, her fingers spreading wide on his chest. As always, her touch galvanized him, and his abs knotted under her gentle touch.

  “Better,” she said. She took another step forward, then lifted up on her toes and kissed him, the pressure whisper soft. “But now I feel out of place.”

  She moved to unbutton her blouse but Vince caught her hand, moving it gently aside. “Let me,” he said, and she blinked in surprise as he smoothly and methodically unbuttoned the silky material, letting it hang free as he focused on her bra. He slid his fingers over the edge, palming her breasts through the thin fabric, and was rewarded as Edeena’s eyes drifted half-shut. He quickly slid her shirt off, and she let it fall to the floor, then his hands were at her waistband, peeling back the cool linen skirt, snagging her panties along the way. Edeena had already kicked off her sandals, so it was short work to toss the skirt to the side. As he came up again, he lifted her in his arms, smiling at her startled cry.

  “You don’t have to—I can walk!”

  “I know you can,” Vince said, nuzzling his face in her hair. “But this isn’t so bad, is it?”

  She sighed and relaxed against his chest, and he held her, memorizing the feel of her in his arms. Before she could ask him what he was doing, he stepped forward, carrying her across the wide room to her bed. He laid her in the middle of what had to be a hundred pillows of various sizes, and she collapsed into them, her smile finally broadening as another notch of tension slipped away.

  “I confess, I sort of wondered what you’d do with all these pillows,” she murmured, as Vince climbed into the bed. He sent a torrent of the smallest pillows over the far side of the mattress, then finally reached Edeena.

  “I’m a fan of pillows,” he said against her lips, “there are many, many things we can do with the right amount of pillows.”

  She giggled and he somehow felt that he’d won a victory, then she launched herself at him.

  Vince rolled easily, allowing Edeena to straddle him in the center of the ridiculous pile of pillows, and she reached for his watchband, sliding the foil packet free. “As much as I look forward to a circus of the hundred and one pillows, I have something else in mind,” she said huskily. “Is that okay?”

  “More than okay,” he managed as she ripped the foil packet open then sheathed him, smoothing her hands over his cock with a studied care that nearly made his eyes cross. She shifted her body until she was straddling his hips, looking like every Greek goddess he’d ever imagined in the fevered dreams of his youth. But Aphrodite had nothing on Edeena Saleri, and when Edeena slid forward and back in a mesmerizing cadence, his body bucked convulsively. “Where . . . how. . .” he managed, but his own need redoubled as she lifted her body slightly, then guided his cock inside her, sliding home with such a smooth, tight movement that his sight went white for a split second.

  When his vision cleared, she was looking down at him again, smiling with radiant pleasure, and Vince knew he would never, ever be the same.

  “I like the way you look right now,” she murmured softly. “I like it far too much.”

  She stretched over him again, and he was lost.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The morning of the most important day in Edeena’s life wasn’t going according to plan. Less than an hour after she and Vince had arrived in their room the previous evening, a discreet knock had come at the door, and if the waiter had noticed that they both seemed freshly showered, he didn’t mention it.

  Since then, she hadn’t been alone with Vince again, had only been alone herself when she’d slept, the bed offering no sanctuary anymore, as filled as it was with memories of Vince. So finally, after two solid days of lunches, brunches, dinner parties and musicales, she’d convinced the guard at her door . . . then at the front door of the palace . . . and then, finally, at the gate in the wall, that she simply wanted to go for a walk.

  Alone. Without Vince, without an armed escort, alone.

  And she’d made it all of thirty steps before a marginally familiar and yet completely unexpected voice had hailed her.

  “Oh, my God! It’s Edeena, right? Edeena Saleri. How cool that you’re back. We just pulled in from France ourselves!”

  Edeena turned to see Nicki Clark pounding up the pavement, the athletic all-American girl slowing to a jog as she rounded the corner. Nicki looked appropriately drenched from a run, her compact figure radiating heat despite the coolness of the Garronian morning.

  “Are you going for a walk? That’s awesome. Mind if I join you for my cooldown?”

  Edeena peered at her mistrustfully, but it was impossible to deny Nicki’s wide, happy grin. “I’m not moving anywhere nearly as fast as you were,” she said, indicating her walking shoes and long linen pants. “I only wanted to get some air.”

  “That’s perfect!” Nicki fell into step with her as Edeena sighed, giving up on the total solitude she’d hoped for in this walk. In truth, though, she didn’t mind that much. As one of the four Americans who’d recently captured the hearts and minds of the first family—let alone the attention of half of Garronia and all of its press corps—Nicki was about as different from the rest of the castle’s occupants as she could get.

  “When did you return?” Edeena asked as Nicki fiddled with her sports watch, logging her workout.

  “Late last night—and by late, I mean no o’clock in the morning,” Nicki said. “Everyone else is dead to the world, but there was no way, no how Lauren was going to miss your ball tonight. She’s been Skyping with designers about dresses since the queen called us about it a few days ago.”

  Edeena laughed, well imagining Lauren Grant, the most sophisticated of the foursome and the love of Dimitri Korba’s life, arranging an armored-truck full of dresses to be delivered for the Americans to try on over the course of the day. “Well, I hope she won’t be disappointed. Tonight’s ball won’t be that big of a deal.”

  Nicki stared at her. “Are you nuts? It’s totally going to be a big deal. First, you pick your husband in a not-too-different way than Kristos was supposed to pick his bride-to-be a few months ago. Months. That’s like decades in royal gossip years. Then the queen decides to extend an open invitation to Garronois nobility and their friends and neighbors, making it easily the biggest ball of the year. Neither Fran nor Emmaline could miss that.”

  “Friends and neighbors?” Edeena asked weakly. Setting aside the fact that Francesca was practically betrothed to Prince Aristotle and Emmaline was betrothed to Prince Kristos, it made sense that they would attend such a grand affair . . . but when had her engagement ball transformed into such a circus? “How will they fit them all?”

  “They’re going to let everyone spill out into the open-air portion of the Visitors Palace, according to Emmaline,” Nicki said, practically bouncing on her toes. “I’ve had enough formal balls to last me for a lifetime, but dancing under the stars? That’s going to completely rock. I may even get Stefan to un-kink himself enough to smile.” She laughed brightly, and Edeena found herself grinning, too, thinking of the zealously expressionless ambassador. The four Americans had truly brought a breath of fresh air into the castle, and she certainly could understand that—her own Vince had blown into her life like a summer storm.

  Her own Vince. Not so much hers, but he’d be there tonight, at least. She wouldn’t have to face her future alone. Not quite yet.

  She and Nicki chatted all the way down to the center of town and Edeena’s favorite coffee shop, then sipped the dark heady brew as they made their way back to the castle. There was something uniquely perfect about Garronois coffee, Edeena had to admit. The country got many things right, and coffee was one of them.

  Beside her, Nicki groaned. “
I may have to move here simply because of the java,” she said, inhaling the rich aroma. Then she quirked Edeena a glance. “But your sisters aren’t here. Is that weird? Shouldn’t they be?”

  “I asked them not to come. It’s a long flight, and if things don’t go right, I don’t want Silas badgering them to marry before they can flee the country again. Besides, they’re enjoying their time in America. They should continue to get their bearings there.”

  Nicki made a face. “I thought my mom was obnoxious. Your dad totally has her beaten. Has he been insane to you this week?”

  Edeena smiled ruefully. “He’s not been around for most of it, thankfully. His new wife is giving birth anytime now, and she’s been having a hard time of it. He’s refused to let anyone from his side of the family see her, other than the queen by royal command, but I think she’ll be okay. He’s been taking it hard, though.” She shrugged. “Hard enough that he’s only had time to accost me once a day with sharp suggestions about his recommendations on my husband.”

  “Girl, that is still so weird.”

  Nicki’s frank assessment of Edeena’s family dynamic made her burst out laughing, and she shook her head. “Weird, it definitely is. But it’s law, and no one has seen fit to change it because, well, it generally doesn’t get enforced. And in Garronia, we’re a little nostalgic about all our old, ridiculous laws.”

  Nicki snorted. “Which is all well and good until one of them ruins your life.”

  Edeena didn’t have an answer to that. They finished their walk in silence, and when she stepped back inside the courtyard of the castle grounds with Nicki, she didn’t miss the American’s quick glance around the space.

  “You were sent to babysit me, weren’t you,” Edeena said flatly, and Nicki shot her a quick smile, then shrugged.

  “Eh, I was out anyway, and you created a small firestorm with your determined march out of the castle. They care about you, want you to be safe. But they also seem to think you’re at your breaking point. I can totally relate to that.”