The Way to a Man's Heart

by Ann Marie James

  “Eh. You’re human. You’re allowed to not be perfect, you know.”

  “Ha. Tell that to my dad.”

  “I would rather never speak to him again if I can help it.”

  “Yeah? I like that plan better.”

  “Thought you would.” Max gave him a hug then kissed Christian. As usual, the chaste kiss quickly heated, until they were interrupted by a throat clearing.

  James stood in the doorway with two new plates of food. “Damn. Sorry to interrupt. I’ll just put these on your desk here. Carry on, but not for too long or the food will get cold.” James set the plates down, laughing at his own joke, before walking back out and shutting the door behind him.

  Christian stared into the beautiful green of Max’s eyes for a moment, liking the way the man looked at him. “We should eat.” Christian’s stomach grumbled to emphasize the point.

  “Yeah.” Max stood and made his way back around his desk to sit down, pausing to grab them each water bottles out of his mini fridge, as Christian pulled his chair closer to the desk.

  Christian inhaled deeply to take in the scent of the hamburger and fries now sitting on his plate. Of course, it wouldn’t be a palace meal without something fancy about it. The huge hamburger sat on an obviously fresh brioche bun and avocado and bacon were sticking out of the sides. Picking it up, he took a big bite and moaned his pleasure as the different flavors danced on his tongue.

  A sudden sharp inhale from Max had Christian looking over to find Max staring at him with hunger of a different kind. He chewed and swallowed quickly. “Eat. Stop looking at me like that. I don’t want our first time to be with me bending you over your desk, not to mention the fact that I’m starving. I also have a meeting with His Royal Highness in”—Christian paused to look at his watch—“a half hour.”

  Max grumbled but dutifully picked up his own burger. “Yeah. I have a lot to do today myself. Much as I would like to spend the afternoon alone with you, there is way too much going on for that to happen.”

  “Oh? More than the usual?”

  “Yeah. I have to prepare for a meeting with Princess Zia and Stefan Guttschein on Thursday.”

  “Doctor Guttschein’s son? Really? Why?”

  “Doctor Guttschein asked permission to host a formal dinner here at the palace for a medical conference being held on the island in two weeks. The doctor is the committee chair for the event. Stefan graduated from Yale last year with a degree in business and marketing. Doctor Guttschein hired him at the hospital and put him in charge of planning the dinner with Zia. We have about two hundred and fifty medical professionals coming from all over the world. While not as large an event as the ball, it’s not exactly a small one either.”

  “Huh. I haven’t thought about little Stefan in years. It will be good to see him again. I hadn’t heard anything about an upcoming large dinner, though. I need to find out about the security in place for it.” Christian paused at the new look on Max’s face. “What?”

  “Um, your father said I couldn’t have any additional resources for the event, that it wasn’t in the budget. He said his staff was more than capable of handling a bunch of nerdy doctors.”

  Christian could feel a headache coming on but made a mental note to add it to the topics of discussion with the king. “I’ll handle it. Let me find out what’s what and I’ll get back to you.”

  “Okay. Sorry. Don’t mean to add to your workload.”

  “It’s fine. Goes with the job description, since the military is tasked with providing additional security whenever needed.”

  The two men finished their meal in companionable silence. Christian stuffed the last fry into his mouth just as the reminder alarm he had set on his phone went off. He silenced it then wiped his face with the napkin James had also provided before reluctantly standing and collecting all his lunch waste. “Mind if I use your bathroom to wash up?”

  “Not at all.” Max held out his hand to take the plate from him. “Here. Let me run this stuff to the kitchen. I’ll be right back. Don’t leave before I do.”

  “Okay.”

  Christian used the facilities, washed his hands and was just stepping out of the bathroom when Max returned, drying his hands on a kitchen towel. He threw the towel over his shoulder and made his way to Christian, crowding him into the wall with his hands on Christian’s hips. Christian grinned up at Max. “Can’t keep your hands off me?”

  “Nope. Plan on more of this, but naked, when you make it to my place tonight.” Max gave Christian a thorough kiss until Christian’s second reminder alarm went off. He reluctantly pushed Max away.

  “I’ve got to go.”

  “Yeah. See you tonight?”

  “As soon as I can break away.”

  “I’ll look forward to it.”

  Christian forced himself to leave, grabbing his messenger bag from where he’d left it before giving one last look at Max and striding out of the door and through the castle to the king’s office.

  King Raul’s assistant greeted him with a smile when he stepped in the outer office. “Lieutenant, it’s a pleasure to see you again. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you met with the king earlier this week.”

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Frances. It’s great to see you again as well. Glad to see you’re still here keeping the king in line.”

  “I heard that,” King Raul’s voice boomed from the open door to his office, right before he came into view.

  “I meant you to, Your Highness,” Christian answered back.

  “I would be offended if it weren’t true. I truly don’t know how Niles manages everything he does for me.”

  Niles beamed at his long-time boss and friend. “Lucky for you I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.”

  “Lucky me, indeed. Come on in, Christian. Let’s get this meeting started.”

  “Probably a good idea. We have a lot to go over.”

  “I had a visitor this morning.”

  “Let me guess. My father?”

  “Yep. He isn’t happy he wasn’t contacted about or kept in the loop about the security breach last night.”

  “There was no need to involve his staff last night. My team and I had it under control. I have a meeting with him after I’m done here.”

  The king looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Actually, he will be joining us in a half hour.”

  “Ah. Okay.”

  “He is Castle Commander and has been for years.”

  “And I get that. It doesn’t mean he’s not on my suspect list.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “I just found out he didn’t investigate when the bottle of brandy went missing a few months ago, and he refused Max’s request for additional security for the convention dinner in a couple of weeks. Said he and his team ‘could handle a bunch of nerdy doctors’.” Christian held up his hand to stop the king from saying anything yet. “I was also able to waltz right into the castle the other day. Some of the security knows me, but certainly not all anymore. My presence, even in the royal wing, was never even questioned. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s guilty of anything, but the head of security should not pick and choose who is worthy of his attention, nor should security be this lax.”

  “Were you wearing your military uniform?”

  “Yes, but again, no one even asked for my credentials. Even at the front gate, the guard was ready to let me in from me stating my name alone.”

  “That is a bit concerning. Let’s see what Juan has to say about it when he gets here.”

  “That’s fine, but I’m not ready to read him in to everything.”

  The king sat back in his chair and gave a long sigh. “I think we need to tell him what happened ten years ago. I shouldn’t have told you to keep it to yourself. Your father has not been the same since.”

  “My father hasn’t been the same since my mother died. That was when he stopped pretending he gave a damn about me.”

  “That’s not true. Your father has always loved you.”<
br />
  “Ha.”

  “How can you think I don’t love you?” His father’s voice from behind him made Christian jump and Christian immediately hated himself a little bit for it.

  He stood and turned to face his father. He opened his mouth to speak when the king cut in.

  “Uh-uh. Let’s go into the conference room first. You know it’s soundproof. The whole castle doesn’t need to hear you two arguing.” King Raul pressed a button on his phone. “Niles, please hold all calls. We’re heading into the conference room. Reach me via the intercom if you need me. Actually, why don’t you call it a day, because this is probably going to take a while. Your kids are visiting, are they not?” He paused for a moment, listening to Niles response. “I don’t have a lot on my schedule this week. Why don’t you take tomorrow morning off too, since they are leaving tomorrow afternoon. Go ahead and go. Thanks, Niles.” Hanging up the phone, the king pointed to the conference room on the other side of his office. “Go have a seat, gentlemen. We’re going to work this out.”

  When the king used that voice, Christian knew there was no getting around doing what he wanted. He didn’t often use an authoritarian tone, but there was no arguing when he did. Christian made his way into what he and Prince Sebastian had named ‘the bat cave’ when they had been younger. There were no windows in the room and only one door. It served as a soundproof conference room for delicate negotiations. The table was huge and could seat twenty people comfortably. The double doors didn’t have a lock, so people wouldn’t feel they were being held hostage when they were in it, but the absence of any outside noises once the door was closed could be disconcerting.

  There was a mural on the back wall that had always fascinated Christian as a child. It had the royal slogan written across the top, in Latin of course—Et regnum cor erit utilis et in dilectione. Translated, it meant ‘The kingdom will thrive with love and heart’. The heart, of course, being a play on the family name of Hart and the kingdom name of Corazón. The mural showed the king standing in front of the castle in full royal garb, complete with crown. The royal banner was flying above from a turret. A visitor in strange clothing was presenting the king with a treasure chest overflowing with jewels, most notable of which was a ruby in the shape of a heart sitting in pride of place on top.

  Christian took comfort from the familiar sight that he and Ryan had spent many hours staring at when they had been young. There were so many details in the mural that he still wasn’t sure he had seen everything in it. Christian went in and sat down after pulling off his messenger bag where he had it draped across his body and placing it on the table. He grabbed his tablet out of the bag, as well as a folder with printouts of everything they had so far. Taking out the pad of paper and pen he also kept in the bag, he set them next to the tablet. Once he had everything positioned as he wanted them, he sat back in his chair and finally looked at the other two men to find them staring at him.

  “What?”

  “Are you ready now?” King Raul asked with a sardonic eyebrow lift.

  Christian glanced at the items on the table before answering. “Yep.”

  Juan looked down and squeezed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger for a moment while shaking his head. He looked up after muttering to himself and addressed Christian again. “How can you say I don’t love you?”

  “How can you even pretend that you give a damn about me?”

  “You’re the one who screwed up then ran away with your tail tucked between your legs.”

  “Actually, he didn’t,” King Raul interjected before Christian could respond.

  “What do you mean? He got drunk at the party and failed to protect the princess.”

  “Zia drugged Christian so she could slip out to a party she wasn’t allowed to attend. We, meaning the queen and I, asked him not to tell anyone. That was a mistake on our part, as it led Zia to think that she could get away with anything, with repercussions for everyone but her.”

  “What? What do you mean Christian was drugged?”

  “Well, Castle Commander Diaz, you would know if you had even bothered to ask me my side of anything. Ever. Royal doesn’t always mean right. Sorry, Your Highness,” Christian said as an aside.

  The king waved him off.

  Juan pounded his fist on the table. “You should have told me.”

  “I was ordered not to. No one was to know about the drugging or attempted rape.”

  Christian watched with grim satisfaction as his father paled. “Attempted rape?” Juan’s voice went up high at the end of the question.

  “Yep. The princess had an accomplice. Ryan interrupted whoever it was and got me to the infirmary before anything more serious than the removal of my shirt and unbuckling of my pants had occurred.”

  Juan turned his scowl on the king. “Why wasn’t I told, Your Highness? It not only should have come under my purview as the Castle Commander, but Christian is my son.”

  Christian scoffed. “Since when has that mattered to you? All I have ever been to you is a tool to be used to protect Sebastian and make your job easier.”

  “What? That’s not true.”

  “No? When did you even ever try to spend time with me?”

  “He did take you on that month-long trip when you were sixteen…” The king stopped when he saw the obvious guilty expression on Juan’s face. “What?”

  “He sent me for training with a mercenary group. He’s the only one who had a vacation.”

  “Really, Juan?” The king’s tone sharpened. “You were under orders to reconnect with your son. That’s what you said you wanted.”

  “I know. I know. But this opportunity came up for him to go on an excellent training exercise with a buddy of mine. It was supposed to be an easy in and out, done in a week. They were training him on jungle tracking. I thought he would enjoy it.”

  The king rested his forehead in his hand for a moment before looking back at Juan. “What happened?”

  “They ran into some trouble. It took three weeks and Christian got bit by something that made him horribly ill on the last day of the mission. The doctors still don’t know what it was exactly. Christian spent three days in the hospital before he could come back to the resort with me. I felt horrible.” Christian scoffed again. “What? I did.”

  “Yeah. Well, you had a funny way of showing it. I believe your words to Domingo, the team leader, were, ‘Leave it to my son to get taken out by a literal bug’. I don’t think you could have put any more condescension and disappointment in your tone if you’d tried.”

  Juan jumped up and started pacing. “I was worried!” Juan’s shouted words made Christian start. “I couldn’t do anything to fix it. The doctors weren’t sure what had bitten you. They weren’t sure you were even going to make it.”

  “Well, maybe if you’d let me—I don’t know—stay at the resort with you instead of traipsing through the jungle with a bunch of strangers, it wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place!” Christian was yelling himself now and he forced himself to take a calming breath. “At sixteen, I needed to have a father. I didn’t need to know how to extract a hostage from a drug cartel.”

  “What? That wasn’t what you were supposed to be doing. It was supposed to be a training exercise only.”

  “Well, guess what? They got a phone call and plans changed. Since you weren’t answering your phone, they decided to just take me with them. After all,” Christian added snidely, “you signed all the releases.”

  “They didn’t tell me any of that.”

  “And you never asked. You never ask. You just make these grand assumptions and everyone else has to pay the price.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “No? Well, I think it is, especially since I have the examples to prove it.”

  “Yeah.” Juan stopped his pacing to try to stare Christian down. “What else?”

  Christian tapped a finger against his bottom lip. “Hm. Let’s see. We have the mercenary example, the dr
ugging by the princess example and lastly, the poisoning of the king’s brandy. Max came to you in good faith for your help with a security issue. You blew it off.”

  “The likelihood of it being anything dangerous was small.”

  “Is that your defense? Statistics?”

  Juan looked embarrassed for a moment. Christian didn’t think he’d ever seen his father that way in his life. He dropped his chin to his chest so Christian could no longer see his face. He had to strain to hear what his dad said.

  “Max was always asking about you, asking how you were doing, if you were well. I could never answer him, because I didn’t know. It…embarrassed me. You walked away and I hadn’t heard from you since.” When Christian made a sound of disbelief, his father looked at him again and Christian was surprised to see tears in his eyes. He never cried. He hadn’t even cried at his wife’s funeral. “I know. I didn’t give you a chance to explain anything.”

  “I’m not perfect, Dad. I never will be.”

  Juan dropped back into his chair with a heavy sigh. “I didn’t want you to be perfect.” He didn’t let Christian reply before plunging on. “I needed you to be safe. I needed you to be able to handle anything that life threw at you. After your mother was killed by that addict who was looking for his next fix, I reviewed the tapes. She would still be alive if she had been paying attention to her surroundings. She walked right into the situation. She also would have been able to save herself if she had even known basic self-defense.

  I failed to teach your mother, always assuming she would be with me so I could protect her, but that’s not how life works. I decided I would train you so nothing could hurt you, but again, I failed. When you needed me most, I wasn’t there for you—first in the jungle and then with the drugging. I was so mad at you for not following my training and getting yourself into a bad situation—getting drunk, losing control. I never gave you any credit for the great person you were. Now you talk to everyone but me.”

  Christian slumped back in his chair. “I don’t know what you want me to say. You stopped being my father when Mom died and became my commanding officer instead.” Christian held his hand up to stop his father from interrupting. “I hear what you are saying and intellectually I understand why you did things the way you did, but emotionally I lost both parents a long time ago.”