Her Royal Bodyguard (21 page)

“I’m sorry to call so late, Your Highness. I wondered how many other guys there were whose calls you blocked. If there were any other men who might have tried to get your attention because they couldn’t talk to you.”

Her annoyed huff was no longer soft. “I gave all that information to Tony. He’s looking into it. You don’t work here anymore, remember?”

She hung up and Rico sank down onto the bare mattress of his new king-sized bed. No, he didn’t work for the royal family anymore, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t stop thinking about the princess.

It didn’t seem to matter that they weren’t in Tuscora anymore. The memories had followed him home. It made no difference that he hadn’t seen her in over a week. He could still remember the softness of her skin. The sharpness of her scent. The pain in her eyes and the understated anger in her royal voice.

Prince Stefano had surprised him when he asked to come work for him. Rico would be glad to have the experienced prince on his team, but he couldn’t see it working for long. How could a prince take orders from a man he used to give orders to?

The prince would be back in a few days and Rico had nearly finished hiring enough people to get a good start. They would necessarily start small and expand as their reputation grew. Rico had no doubt it would happen quickly. Soon he would be working nearly around the clock again.

Apparently, that was the way he liked it.

“I have to get out of here,” Angelina cried as she paced the length of Vittorio’s office, but her brother just shook his head. “I’m going crazy,” she went on. “I’m getting claustrophobic. I want to go. Somewhere. Anywhere.”

“You know it’s for your safety.” He paused and nailed her with that big-brother gaze. “And the safety of your bodyguards.”

“No fair,” she grumbled. Enzo and Donato were both out of the hospital and recuperating with family. Of course, she didn’t want to put Carmine or any of the other guards in danger. “Phillip has been gone for a month. How much longer do I have to wait before I can get a breath of fresh air?”

Vittorio crossed to the window and threw it open. “We want to be absolutely certain you’re not in any danger before we relax our restrictions.”

If she had wings, she’d be out that window and far away in a flash. “That could be for the next fifty years. Come on. No one can ever be sure. I might as well be a prisoner here.”

“You’re being melodramatic.”

“And so are you.” Hundreds of rooms and acres of grounds and all Angelina could think about was getting away. Maybe even going back to Tuscora. She’d started hanging out online with Gina, one of her biggest inspirations. When her future didn’t turn out the way she’d imagined it, she’d grabbed a chance to build another future that had brought her happiness.

Angelina had first looked up the website Gina had told her Marco set up. Then it was simply a matter of responding on the contact page. Now they instant messaged a couple times a day.

She’d felt free while she was in Tuscora, and that made being confined to the palace now even worse. And the knowledge that Rico was so close, but so out of reach made her even crazier. And now Stefano was working with Rico. Every day she had to resist the urge to ask her brother how Rico was doing.

She thought of him every day. She woke up with the memory of his arms around her. Saw his smile as she ate breakfast. Tasted his kiss in every glass of wine. Cried herself to sleep in her lonely bed every night.

She was tired of being melancholy. Mia had asked her if she’d like to help plan her wedding to Vittorio, and Angelina was ready to jump into the plans with both feet. Vittorio was the Crown Prince. Their wedding ceremony would be the kind of international spectacle Angelina used to think she wanted for herself, so she had plenty of ideas. Designers. Florists. Colors and textures and guest lists.

It would be a good distraction from her heartbreak and perhaps by the time the wedding came around, she would have forgotten all about her former bodyguard.

Why did he think he could handle the business side of his business? Rico groaned and pushed away from his desk, rubbing his tired eyes. He’d spent all morning wrestling with a new payroll software. This one was supposed to be more user friendly than the first program he’d tried to use, even though that program had come highly recommended as well. How was he supposed to know it was a piece of shit until he had to use it?

The billing system he finally got set up was working, but using it took more time than he’d originally anticipated. And an hour ago, a potential client had stopped in and complained that he couldn’t find a website for Santori Security. A website was on the list…somewhere near the bottom. Maybe he needed to move it up a little higher.

He could take care of scheduling appointments, but that meant he had to be available to speak to the potential clients. He wanted to be the one assigning manpower and until he could completely trust the other members of the team, he insisted on assessing each new client and their needs personally as well. If he was lucky, he’d get to work some jobs himself once things settled down into a routine. But just like the pesky details of setting up his apartment, Rico quickly lost patience for the housekeeping details of the business. He was chafing to get back out in the field.

He was going to have to give up control of some of these details. And that meant he would have to hire somebody. Soon.

Amazingly, Stefano was working out well. He was just one of the guys. He worked well with other members of the team and his expertise was an asset to the company. Rico’s only problem was that he was reminded of Angelina whenever he saw her brother. He couldn’t help but wonder if she’d found another man to take her out on a dinner date. If she’d found a way to spend her time that made her happy.

Every day he had to stop himself from asking Stefano how she was. Every day he had to push away the memory of her smile and the sound of her laughter. The way her sweet lips had tasted and how soft her skin was. How vulnerable she’d looked when she’d handed him back his ring.

Rico turned back to the computer. Every task took longer than he thought it would. He had to figure out this program before the end of the month. Which was the end of the week. Why couldn’t these things just do what they were supposed to do? Learning curve was his least favorite phrase.

And now he’d had a call from his
Tia
that just threw a monkey wrench into all his carefully scheduled time for the rest of the week.

Angelina was at her desk having a great time researching wedding dress designers and scheduling appointments for Mia to talk with them, when she was surprised by a request to see Beatrice Santori. Angelina hadn’t been down to the kitchen in years and as she made her way down through the familiar halls, she wondered what Rico’s mother wanted to talk about.

Signora
Bea had gotten a little grayer in the past few years, but otherwise she looked just as Angelina remembered. The head cook poured them each a cup of coffee and Angelina joined her at a table in the corner of the dining room.

“I heard from my sister Rosa today,” Beatrice told her after they had exchanged pleasantries. “She said that Maria and her boyfriend are coming here for a visit. They will be staying with Leo and me for a few days.”

“That’s wonderful,” Angelina said. “I like Maria very much. I’d love to see them while they’re here.”

“I’ll let them know. My sister had many nice things to say about you.”

“I liked Rosa very much too.” So quickly, Rico’s aunt had begun to feel like a second mother to Angelina. “She opened up her home to me and was so very gracious, even after she learned we had not been truthful.”

“She wanted me to tell you again that she understood. They all understood the reason for the deception.”

Angelina swallowed down a thick lump in her throat. “It was very difficult to lie to everyone.”

“Yes. You are a good person.” Beatrice hesitantly placed her hand over Angelina’s. “Your Highness, I think I may have done you a disservice.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My sister thinks you and Rico became close while you were in Tuscora. But I can see you are far apart now.”

Angelina felt her face grow warm. She pulled her hand away and picked up the coffee cup. “No. No. We were just pretending.”

“Rosa thinks there was no pretending in the way my Rico looked at you. And the way you looked back at him.”

Tears prickled Angelina’s eyes. She was so tired of the tears. And the lies. She wasn’t going to pretend anymore. “I will admit I grew to have feelings for Rico, but your son was quick to tell me that he didn’t have any feelings for me. That he never would.” She winced as her voice broke.

Beatrice surprised her by getting out of her chair and drawing her into a hug. “I am sorry, Your Highness. I fear that is my fault.”

Angelina eased away and then realized she missed the warm embrace. “Again, I don’t understand.”

Signora
Bea sat back down. “I will explain.” She took a drink of coffee while Angelina took her seat again. “When Rico and your brother were young they ran around the palace like two of a kind. You were not born yet so you didn’t see how they did everything together. Because he was such a good friend to the prince, for a long time my Rico was indulged almost as much as Vittorio was. But unfortunately, as they grew older, there had to come a time when Rico could not go where Vittorio went. He could not be treated as Vittorio was. And it hit my son hard when he realized he was not the same as his best friend. That he was not as important. Not equal.”

Angelina hurt for the little boy Rico had been then. “But Rico and Vittorio are still friends.”

“Yes, but not as they were at the beginning. And I admit in order to shield my son from more hurt, I often urged him to remember those differences. To keep the walls up. And when I saw him looking at you, saw the yearning in his eyes, I warned him to stay away from you as well. To build those walls high.”

Could that really be why Rico had pushed her away? “You think he might actually have feelings for me?” Now she sounded like that needy girl again.

Beatrice swept her hand over Angelina’s hair. “Oh, my dear, I know he does.”

“You know he’s old enough now to make his own mistakes” Angelina said. “To decide for himself whether the risk of hurt is worth the rewards.”

“Yes, Your Highness. But he’s been told so often that he was not equal to the royals he grew up with that I fear he may never accept a relationship with you.”

“Then,
Signora
Bea, I fear you’ve done your son much more of a disservice than you ever did me.”

It had been a long time since Angelina had driven a car. The old rattletrap smelled just as badly as she remembered, but it got her past the palace gate without a second glance and she made it into the city with only a couple wrong turns.

Angelina didn’t fear for her safety. Nothing had happened in over a month and she was sure the slimy Phillip had been to blame for the attack on that dark road. But just in case, she didn’t want to risk the lives of her bodyguard and driver.

She’d had to concentrate on driving so that by the time she’d parked and was walking down the sidewalk toward the building that housed Santori Security, she still had no idea what she was going to say to Rico. She just knew that she had to make him realize that he was a better man than his mother ever gave him credit for.

Angelina took a deep breath and blended into the crowd on the sidewalk. She was glad she was in her old jeans and T-shirt. She knew now that dressing down didn’t mean she wouldn’t be recognized, but if she was lucky she could remain incognito for a few more minutes.

His building was only about a block from where she’d parked, but she found her feet dragging the closer she got. She still didn’t know what she was going to say to him. What if he wouldn’t talk to her? What if he wasn’t there? He could be working a job. Maybe he was acting as bodyguard for a young, beautiful woman. Maybe they would have to find refuge in a tiny hotel room or in a secluded village pretending to be a couple in love.

She was going to drive herself crazy dwelling on the possibilities.

And then suddenly she was standing in front of a door with elegant lettering.
Santori Security.
Her heart thudded in her chest. Was she going to risk it again for a man who’d already told her he was never going to love her? What had possessed her to do this? Just because his mother and his aunt thought he was in love with her? What did they really know? They could be totally wrong.

She’d never know until she walked in the door.

The elegant atmosphere carried through the room into which she stepped. Black glass and dark wood. Abstract paintings on the walls. An impressive reception desk behind clear glass. Sitting behind it was a harried looking, sexier-than-sin bodyguard. He had a phone up to his ear and he was squinting at a computer screen as he nodded at whatever the person on the other end of the line was saying.

Rico hadn’t seen her yet, so she was able to take a moment to study him. To let her gaze sweep over his handsome features, his close-cropped hair, the now clean-shaven jaw. She itched to strip that black tie from beneath the white collar and open the buttons leading…down.