The Duke (Billionaire Royals Book 3)

by Sophia Summers

  She peeked in her bag. Nikes, leggings, and a t-shirt. “We working out?” The thought of Trane, bulging muscles, sweating, and working made her blood race.

  “Not in the way you’re thinking, I’m sure.”

  “And what am I thinking?”

  “I don’t totally know but your eyes wandered over me like a hot coal.”

  She blushed. “Did they?” She turned form him and rushed back inside to change.

  Once they were on their way, he turned down a dirt road and headed for the remote part of the island.

  “Oh, the falls?”

  “We’ll see them.”

  “But there’s more. The caves?”

  “Nope, not today.”

  She craned her neck ahead of them as though that would provide the answer. Stretching up to the sky, Mount Galapo rose to the clouds. “The volcano?”

  “And she guessed it!”

  “I haven’t done that in years.”

  “Nor I. But it’s supposed to be beautiful in the spring; there are multiple new species of flowers.”

  “Thank you Trane. This is just what I needed.” And the hike would take hours. The thought of hours on end with this handsome man couldn’t be any better.

  They pulled to a stop at the edge of the wilderness area. “No cars past this point.”

  He pulled two bikes off the back of the jeep. She hopped on hers, adjusted the seat and then followed him down a long dirt path. It started out wide so they rode side by side and talked of everything. He pointed out birds while she signaled towards trees. They talked of high school memories and common quirks their royal families shared.

  “I went to a public middle school.”

  “You did not.”

  She nodded. “I did. For one month.”

  “That had to be the worst.”

  “Well, it was. They were nice enough, but the body guard thing didn’t go over well. The kids thought I was way more weird than cool. Some of the guys created accounts dedicated to me and how far they could get.”

  Trane immediately bristled. “Jerks.”

  “Jerks.” She laughed. “I can think of a couple other more choice words.”

  “And I’m sure they deserve them, but I do not need to sully my mouth because someone else was disgusting.”

  Phina liked that. “You keep those lips clean. I have a vested interest.”

  He stopped, dust billowing up all around him. “Do you now?”

  She scooted back so they were side by side. “I do.” She leaned close. “I want these lips just how they are.” She pressed her mouth to his, enjoying the warm insistence of his response. Then she sighed. “I keep asking myself when this will end.”

  “And I hope your self answers appropriately.”

  “What should she say to me?”

  “I hope she knows that Trane is all…In.”

  She let his words wash over her in a great assurance. “I hope so.”

  He reached out and ran his hand down her cheek. “I haven’t given you much history to go off of as an example, but I’m determined. We will make this work and take it where it goes.” His grin turned sheepish. “At least as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Then as far as I’m concerned too.” And she knew she loved him. As she always had. More of her opened to a hope that they could be together. But if he ever let her down again, the fall would be worse than ever. Could she ever recover? She didn’t know. But looking into his warm eyes, sparkling love back at her, she knew it was worth it. At least she told herself that it was.

  They took off again. The road narrowed and he took her up and down bike paths, through forests and across great meadows until the area around them turned rocky, filled with great climbing boulders and narrow footholds.

  They left the bikes, and she followed him up the summit. Black rock, red lava rocks, and white tipped areas surrounded them. She pulled out her phone to snap multiple pictures, including several of Trane from behind because she couldn’t resist.

  At last they reached the top, the rim of a great volcano, long since cold. The crater was filled with a brilliant blue water and rimmed with great volcanic rock.

  “So beautiful.”

  Trane looked out over all the land in every direction and she wished she could read his thoughts. He looked calm. He turned to her. “You know Jo had a hard time understanding that the crown comes first.”

  Seraphina took a minute to grasp where he might be going.

  “When the press went after her father, when they went after her and her relationship with Nico, she almost didn’t care enough to weather it out and stay. She left, you know.”

  “I wondered where she went. Suddenly during the coronation there was no news of her, no pictures, no footage.”

  Trane smirked. “You are a Jo fan.”

  Seraphina shrugged. “She’s the best kind of queen.”

  “We are all better off because she married Nico and stuck with it. She came back.” He turned to her and took her hands. “She came because her love for Nico was stronger than any of her fears.”

  Seraphina swallowed. “That’s beautiful.”

  Trane held his arm out. “This.” He turned in a circle, sweeping the island in his gesture. “This means everything to me.”

  Phina turned away. “I know, Trane.”

  He reached out and gently turned her head so that he could look into her eyes. “But I’m looking for a love even stronger.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “I’m looking for a love that can outlast all the sacrifices that come with being a royal, with being a Valdez. One that can weather any storm, which will last through the generations, all of them, that life brings.”

  Phina’s eyes welled with tears and she swallowed.

  “I’m trying, Phina. I want that with you.” His warm thumb wiped at a tear running down her cheek.

  “Trane. These past few weeks have been magical with you, what I always hoped they could be, what I knew they could be, if we had a chance.”

  He sat on the nearest boulder and patted the place next to him. “Let’s keep it this way. It will take work. I will need to keep trying with the time I have, but I think you’re worth it. We are worth it.”

  She nodded. “Thank you.” She nudged at the rock in front of them, kind of absentmindedly kicking at it. “Although.”

  “Although? Who says although after a statement like that?”

  “Well now, stay with me. Although, I’m going to be the busy one for the next few weeks.”

  “What do you mean?” It’s not like they swapped being busy. He was always, perpetually busy.

  “I mean. I have a lot to do over the next few weeks and several important deadlines. I’m here for work, you know.”

  And a portion of his elation at their romantic moment fizzled. “I am well aware you are here on assignment.” His voice sounded clipped.

  “Well, there’s no need to be huffy about it. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong.” He looked the other direction. “Well, ok, something’s wrong. It would be nice to know you were actually here for me also. Not just some story for the paper, some goose chase for a fault in our treatment of the Mediterranean.”

  “Some story? Trane, do you know me at all?”

  “Oh I know you. Just how far will you go to get this story of yours, Phina? What dregs of humanity are you making deals with?”

  She leaned away from him. “What are you talking about?”

  “Well here you are on assignment to report on our use of the Mediterranean. You don’t find dating the Duke of Torren, who is running the summit on this very thing, a bit of a conflict of interest?”

  “I guess I hadn’t let it get complicated like that. I can keep the two separate.”

  “Can you? Should you?” How did their conversation go this direction?

  “What are you saying?”

  “I didn’t realize how much the whole idea of your reporting bothers me.”

  “My
job bothers you?”

  “No, Phina, well, yes, when your job involves reporting about me and my family.”

  And suddenly she recognized how being hours into a wilderness preserve might not be the best thing. What did he want her to do? Quit? “What are you saying?”

  “I’m not saying anything, well, I guess I’m asking something. Where do your loyalties lie, Phina?”

  She stood. “That’s not a fair question. What you are really asking is what will I do if I discover a story that makes you Valdez princes look bad.” She had asked herself that same question every day since receiving the assignment from her boss. “How can I even know the answer to that until the specific situation arises?”

  He huffed out a breath and the silence that followed weighed her down. Finally, he said, “I would be able to answer that question, no problem.” He pulled out his phone.

  “What are you doing? Do you even have service up here?”

  “Calling the helicopter.”

  “You want to go? Trane, let’s talk about this.”

  His eyes had turned icy. “What is there to discuss. I discovered all I need to know. I’m giving everything I’ve got to us. And you’re still not sure if we even matter.” He wandered up a few boulders and began a conversation. Soon he pocketed the phone and kept climbing, leaving her alone, staring out over the country of Torren. She had never been more relieved and devastated at the same time when she saw the circular blades touch down on a large flat outcropping.

  Chapter 10

  Trane resisted the urge to haunt Phina’s rooms at the palace. He knew she left. What good would it do to sit in her empty rooms while the staff cleaned? He walked by the couch in his own rooms, his eyes lingered on the piece of rug that caught him when he fell. He turned to the door she stood in, power emanating off of her in great femininity. He couldn’t believe how much he put himself out there, focused all his attention on her, on the potential of them. Only to have it reciprocated in such a nonchalant uncaring manner. To think that not only did she not put forth the same effort, but that she might be using him to get a story, might try to expose them all with some twist-of-the-truth angle she would dream up.

  A sane voice inside reminded him that she had been simply on the receiving end of his experiment, that she hadn’t committed to him, only accepted his attentions. He groaned and fell down onto his couch, scooting over to be far away from the end where his lips had explored hers.

  “Oh, don’t be so pathetic.” Lucan stood in his doorway, Tripp at his side.

  Tripp shook his head. “Leave him alone, Lucan. He wants to mope. It makes him feel better.”

  “Shut it, you two. I don’t expect you to understand.” He frowned. “And Lucan if you so much as smirk an I told you so…”

  His brother held up his hands. “I’m not even thinking it. I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  Trane eyed them both and asked the question that had been pounding around in his mind. “So, should I still take her as my date to the ribbon cutting?”

  Lucan sat in the nearest chair. “If you remember, you were supposed to stay close to her, keep her near…”

  Tripp joined him on the couch. And he began to feel a little bit surrounded.

  “What, are we having a meeting?”

  Tripp’s hand gripped his shoulder. “Lucan’s going to ask you to do something hard.”

  Trane leaned his head back against the couch. “When has he not?”

  “I need you to get back together with Seraphina.”

  He opened one eye and felt a sick sense of exhilaration. What was wrong with his masochist brain? Did he need more torture in his life? “Why?”

  “Well, for one, we need the press all over her. We need her at your side as your date at the ribbon cutting, and she may not go with you if you are still at odds.”

  “You still want to keep her close, keep tabs on her.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m not that heartless that I could do such a thing. What beats in your chest? Feelings are involved here.”

  “Well, mother is of the opinion that you guys will eventually end up together so this is really just aiding you along.”

  Trane lifted his chin to Lucan. “But brother here thinks she’s in league with terrorists.”

  “No, just friends with terrorists. That’s different from being in league with them.” His small smile grated.

  “I won’t do it. I’m not going to pretend to be anything with Phina. But I will ask her to still be my ribbon cutting date.” He stood. “She’ll come. Best seats in the house.”

  Seraphina closed out her email window on the laptop. Trane’s assistant had begun emailing her the itinerary for the ribbon cutting, where she needed to be and when. From the looks of it, she was still Trane’s date. That simplified a few things with their planning. But Trane had not reached out since the helicopter dropped them off on the helipad behind the palace. He had nodded to her, thanked her for a lovely outing, in a very business-like voice, and then turned and walked away.

  She opened up a word document. Writing always helped to calm her thoughts, organize her emotions. She couldn’t be letting her own emotional preferences rule the day here. She needed to focus. The EcoFresh group let her know of some interesting leads she would check out this afternoon and before then, she worked on the beginnings of an article.

  She had done her own research to discover that a whole fleet of green yachts were being designed and would soon be available. Reusable water containers and eco-friendly habits could do much to improve the situation. Besides the traditional yachts, over-fishing was another risk to the Mediterranean not likely discussed much. But she discovered most of the areas outside of Turkey and Greece were barren. The Mediterranean was fast becoming a dead sea. But the areas closest to Spain and Italy still had healthy marine ecosystems. And the best news of all, to help combat the idea that the countries would lose money gained from fishing, the marine reserve off of Spain earned many times more in tourism revenue than they could from fishing the same waters. The efforts they took to preserve the wildlife was regenerating the fishing population.

  The clincher for her occurred this morning. A whale was found washed ashore. It died shortly thereafter. And when they did an autopsy to discover the cause, they found 64 pounds of plastic in its system.

  Phina was ill. She had gone over, taken pictures and investigated herself. Tears burned her eyes again while she typed. Where did humans think the garbage went when they tossed it into the sea? She was embarrassed to be a human. And her writing was fueled by emotion as her fingers furiously flew across the keyboard.

  The Valdez family thought they had their resources protected, but the very lifestyles of the Valdez brothers proved otherwise. They could do more, lead out in green friendly yachts, in banning water bottles, in a temporary halt in fishing.

  She whipped out a text to her boss, explaining the bullets of her article. She could almost hear his hands rubbing together in his response. “Stay on it. Keep digging.”

  Nothing could pull her from this story now. Once she had seen the stats of how many fish swam in the nearby waters, she thought of her people, who relied on fish as their main sustenance. She thought of the generations of people, in future years, who would require a healthy ecosystem in these waters. And she thought of that whale. And her blood boiled. She stood up, almost tipping her laptop to the floor. Her breathing heavy, she clenched her fists, then sat again and pounded anew all her emotion, all the words she could think of, to plead for a better way.

  But what good would this article do if she published it after the summit? Perhaps it should be a series. And perhaps she should start today. If it generated enough attention before the summit, the leaders could add it to their discussions.

  A quiet voice suggested she send a copy of her concerns to Trane before she sent the article to the paper. But doing so would lessen the effect for change. They would hear the problems in a diplomatic manner and be ab
le to create reasons not to address them. Once they again heard about it via the press, they would already have that first no in their heads. No, he would have to hear it with the rest of the Mediterranean countries before the summit. That would give them all time to address the problems. If they would. She hoped they would. She would work to make her article as convincing as possible. Common courtesy persisted its urging, so she sent a copy to the main press desk where they likely received hundreds of such potential articles. There, she’d done her due diligence.

  The hotel front desk called that flowers were waiting. She asked someone to bring them up to her. Security stood outside her door. Things were so much easier when she stayed at the palace, and so much more complicated. Trane sent them. “I am happy you are still my date. See you at the first summit event. Regards.”

  So formal. She suspected he didn’t even send the flowers. She should write his assistant a thank you note. If Trane could return to the cold and distant ways they had been used to, then she would feel no qualms exposing his family’s habits to the world.

  Her phone dinged. She had another meeting with EcoFresh this afternoon. She had been unable to get them tickets into the events, but she could at least give them details of where and when everything was happening so they could wait outside, perhaps bring people to demonstrate. They would need all the publicity they could get if they were going to make a difference.

  Chapter 11

  Trane slammed the newspaper down on his desk. How could she do this? A simple email and he could have explained Torren’s policies on each one of these issues, their plans to reform some of their practices, and a commitment to discuss others. Instead, she went straight to the press. And the resultant pundits and opinion blogs and news talk shows had exploded. The pristine Valdez reputation as dirty as the Mediterranean? Trane just doing lip service? Real change needed now. That last one, Trane appreciated. It was a piece Phina wrote as a follow-up and he agreed with all of it. She expressed so aptly his thoughts on environment and change. What a bitter pill to have further evidence he and Phina were so well suited, when he knew they could not be together. He felt betrayed in every way.