Her Royal Bodyguard (17 page)

Maria blushed. “Right. Sorry.”

Rosa laughed. “And I was so happy for the reason to throw a party.”

“
Tia
, I thought I would take Lucia up to see the olive grove,” Rico said. “Can we still get up the hill?”

“Of course,” Rosa replied. “I will pack you a picnic lunch. It should be a beautiful day for a walk.”

“What a lovely idea,” Angelina said. She’d love to see the place where Giuseppe proposed to Rosa, and the hill she rolled down after her surprise. “Does your family still own the property?”

“No. When Beatrice and I finally admitted we were not interested in olive trees, Papa sold the property to the neighbor.”

“Was it difficult to tell him the truth?” Angelina asked softly. “When you knew what you had to tell him would probably hurt him?”

Rosa caught her gaze, held it. “It was difficult, of course. But the truth is always the best, don’t you think?”

Angelina grabbed her coffee cup and stared into its depths as if she could find the answer there. “Yes. And thank you for the picnic lunch.” She fingered Rico’s ring. “I’ll have to be careful not to lose my ring up there.”

“You should have taken it to the jeweler and had it sized,” Rosa said sternly. “You could do it today.”

“When we get home,” Angelina said and glanced to Rico for help.

“This may be our last day here,” Rico explained. “We’ll take care of the ring as soon as we get back.”

“Last day?” Maria cried. “But you just got here. You can’t leave already.”

“I wish we could stay longer,” Rico said. “Unfortunately, we have real life to get back to.”

Real life.
Angelina knew she couldn’t avoid her real life forever, but a few more days—weeks—years couldn’t be too much to wish for. Talking to her father this morning made her a little homesick, but not enough to want to leave Tuscora. Not yet. Not before she decided what she wanted her real life to be from now on.

And not before Rico had a chance to fall in love with her.

The sky was a brilliant blue, the green and golden hills rolling as far as he could see. Rico remembered coming up to the top of this hill when he was a boy. Now with Angelina by his side, he thought the view was just as breathtaking as he remembered. The first time he was here, he’d felt as if he was at the top of the world and even after all the traveling he’d done since then, Rico still felt the same way now.

“What a gorgeous view,” Angelina murmured. She slipped her hand into his and squeezed. “Thank you for bringing me up here.”

“Of course.” For some reason, he wanted to share this place with her, this spot where he’d first realized how big the world was. Where he’d realized there was a huge universe outside the palace and that anything was possible.

“So this is where Giuseppe proposed to Rosa?”

He came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Yes.”

Angelina peered over the brink of the steep hill. “And that’s where Rosa rolled all the way down.” He smiled at the delight in her voice. “And those are the olive trees. Right down there.”

He tightened his grip on her waist. “Careful. Don’t get too close to the edge.”

“I’m going to miss Tuscora when we go back,” she said, leaning back against him. “The town. The people. I’ve had such a good time here.”

He sighed. It was time to talk about going back. They couldn’t continue to pretend they were a couple in love, couldn’t continue to pretend a small town like this was where they were meant to be. They could no longer pretend they were doing anything but making memories.

“You can come back to Tuscora anytime you want, you know,” he said. “The town is not going away.”

“I know. But the people of Tuscora may not want to see me again when they learn the truth.”

He shrugged, released his hold on her waist and turned from the view. “You’re the princess. They’ll forgive you.”

“Perhaps.” She helped him spread the blanket on the grass and take out the food his aunt had packed for them.

They’d rushed up to the apartment after breakfast and made love again amid the tangled sheets. He knew Angelina felt the same desperation he did, the same sense of time ticking away. He had a bad feeling about that rotten duke and he was certain Tony or the prince would be calling soon to bring them home.

“How do we tell them the truth?” Angelina asked. “I can’t bear to think about the disappointment they’ll feel. I’m sure they’ll be angry at being lied to. We deceived them. And I can’t blame them if they are angry.”

“When we tell them it was because your life was in danger, they will forgive you,” he assured her.

“I hope so. I like your family and their friends here very much.”

They ate in that comfortable silence Rico had recognized at the beginning of the trip. The more he got to know Angelina, the harder it was to think of her as a princess, a member of royalty who was out of his reach. The more he got to talk to her, touch her…taste her….his mind started to play with those dangerous what-if thoughts.

What if she wasn’t a princess?

What if he wasn’t leaving the palace?

What if her father wasn’t the king?

What if they were equals?

It all came down to that. If they couldn’t be equals they could have no future together.

“Angelina…”

She looked up at him through thick lashes. “You know, my friends call me Angie.”

“I already have too many names to remember for you,” he said glibly, but he couldn’t help but see the hurt that flashed in her eyes. It was better to start putting the wall back up. He didn’t want anyone back home to see that they had been anything to each other but a princess and a bodyguard.

His mother had recognized the interest in his eyes when he looked at Princess Angelina, long before he’d even admitted it to himself. She’d pulled him aside and warned him about her as she’d warned him about Vittorio all those years ago.

For a few years when they were young boys, he and Vittorio had been equals. Neither of them had cared whether their parents were royal or servants. They were simply two boys who both loved to climb trees and roll in the grass and chase each other around the palace grounds. His mother’s words hadn’t made sense until the day Vittorio had come up to him in fancy clothes and told Rico he had to start calling him, “Your Royal Highness,” because he was more important. Because his father was the king and Rico’s father was a gardener. Because he was a prince and Rico was just a little boy.

Looking back, Rico knew that his friend had simply been repeating what he’d been told and had not intended to hurt Rico, but things between them had never been the same after that. They had remained friends, but were never equals.

His mother’s warning came to mind now as he sat on a blanket in the grass, rubbing knees with the princess of Mezzano. She wore shorts and a long T-shirt but she still looked every inch a royal. Her familiar scent wrapped around him and he wanted nothing more than to lay her down and make love to her again.

He should never have touched her in the first place. Should never have let his desire for her become apparent. Should never have given in to her at all.

“I thought we were friends at least,” Angelina said softly.

“I can’t be friends with you, Your Highness.” He couldn’t go through life pretending his feelings for the princess weren’t much stronger than friendship. Thank goodness, he’d already decided to leave the palace. He wouldn’t have to try to avoid Angelina every day. He just had to get through the next couple.

“I see.” She looked down at her hands clasped in her lap, then back up to him. “I’m not even Angelina now?”

“We don’t need to make this difficult,” he said smoothly, “but we need to plan as carefully for when we return as we did when we came here.”

“Plan what? Our story?” She shook her head. “No. I’m sorry. I’m not lying any more. I won’t tell anyone we had sex, but I’m not going to pretend we didn’t talk and laugh and get to know each other. I can’t do that.”

“I understand,” he said. “We can make that work.” It was more realistic. Everyone in the palace knew they had been pretending to be husband and wife. A bit of familiarity was to be expected.

“Make it work?” she snapped. She started chucking things back into the basket his aunt had packed for them. “I thought things might work out, but it doesn’t look like it, does it?”

All of a sudden Rico felt lost. Somehow this conversation had gotten out of control. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

“I’m going to tell you.” She slammed the lid on the basket and turned to glare at him.
Dios
, she was beautiful. “I’m going to be honest with you because I’ve been lying to everyone else in the world and I’m tired of it.”

“I know.”

“You do?” She laughed, but it was a quick, bitter laugh. “Well, do you know that I’ve fallen in love with you?” Her voice dropped, softened, while he was still trying to process the words. “Because I have. I love you, Rico.”

Angelina shouldn’t have been surprised by the shock on Rico’s face. Maybe that’s why she’d blurted it out like that. He’d gotten all calm and logical again and it irritated the hell out of her. So many emotions were roiling around inside of her and there was no way she could remain calm. So why should he?

“Angie. I…”

She couldn’t help but notice he’d called her Angie for the first time. “It’s okay,” she interrupted. The last thing she wanted to hear was some pitiful excuse he’d struggled to come up with to keep from hurting her feelings. Didn’t he know that anything other than an immediate declaration of love was going to hurt? “I didn’t expect you to say it back,” she said, although she’d foolishly hoped. “I know it’s only been a few days, but they’ve been a pretty intense few days.”

“Yes, but…you shouldn’t
love
me.”

“Why not?”

He didn’t answer her question. “You don’t really love me,” he said instead. “It’s the sex. It makes you feel good and think you’re in love.”

She crossed her arms in front of her. “So did you think you were in love with the other women you had sex with?”

“No, but—”

“Did you think you were in love with me after we had sex?”

He didn’t meet her eyes. “Um, no.”

“So there goes that theory.”

She rose to her feet and he did the same. Even though she didn’t get the response from Rico she’d hoped for, it was a relief to finally speak the truth about something. Now it was time to change the subject. “I’m ready to go. On our way back through town I want to buy a new pair of sandals to replace the ones that got ruined in the rain.”

The rain. The kisses. The wild happiness. She’d never regret those kisses in the rain. Or what came after. If Rico wanted to regret them, that would be his loss.

“Okay,” he replied grudgingly. “One last purchase.”

“We still need to get a gift for Rosa and Giuseppe too.”

He didn’t even try to stifle his groan. “What should we get them?”

“I don’t know. We’ll find something. Come on.”

They both bent down to pick up the blanket and their hands touched, clutched. Rico tugged and she fell on top of him as they both tumbled to the ground. His lips were on hers in an instant.

They rolled around on the blanket. Lips, teeth and tongues were all involved in the hungry kisses. Their hands grasped and stroked and tugged. Their legs intertwined, their groins pressing together, bringing them as close as they could be with clothing still on. Why was their clothing still on?

She ached with arousal and reached for Rico’s belt buckle between their bodies. He was on top of her, once again a welcome weight. Then he moved his head to nuzzle her throat and the bright sunshine made her squint. She groaned with the reminder that they were at the top of the hill in full view of anyone who walked by. She dropped her hands to the rumpled blanket.

“We’re out in the open here,
amore
,” Rico murmured, his heavy breathing loud in her ear. He caught her lobe with his teeth and tugged lightly.

She moaned. “Yeah.” She nipped his ear in response.

“Let’s get back to the villa where we can continue this in private.”

Even though her body cried out to do just that, she knew they couldn’t yet. “Shopping first.”

He rubbed his face against hers. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“We may not get another chance.”

He groaned, but helped her to her feet. “If Tony calls in the next hour and tells us to head home immediately, I will be very disappointed.”

She cupped his face. “Me too.”

This could still work out. They’d be going back to the palace together. They could continue to see each other. Grab quick kisses when no one was watching. Take long walks around the grounds. Sneak into each other’s bedrooms late at night. She’d talk to Vittorio about giving Rico more free time. He could take her out on more dinner dates.