To Kiss a King (14 page)

His phone rang, and he glanced at the readout. Instantly, he answered it and fought the sudden hot ball of worry in his guts. “Terri? What is it?”

“Boss, I’m sorry, but you
did
tell me to stick to her and—”

“What happened?” In his mind, he was seeing car wrecks, holdups, assassins…

“She had me drive her to L.A. and—”

“Uh, Garrett…”

“Shut up,” he muttered, then to Terri he said, “L.A.? Why L.A.?”

“Garrett!”

His gaze snapped to Griffin.

Pointing to the bar, his twin said, “You need to see this.”

He turned to look. Terri was still talking in his ear, but he hardly heard her. There was a flat screen TV above the bar, the sound muted. But he didn’t need the sound. What he saw opened a hole in his chest. He snapped the phone shut and stared.

Alex was on the TV. But an Alex he hardly knew. Her long, thick hair was twisted into a complicated knot at the top of her head. Diamonds winked at her ears and blazed at the base of her throat. She wore a pale green dress that was tailored to fit her beautifully and she looked as remote as a…well, a
princess
.

Garrett pushed out of his seat, crossed the room and ordered the bartender to, “Turn it up, will you?”

The man did and Garrett listened over the roaring in his own ears. Someone shoved a microphone at Alex and shouted, “Princess, how long have you been here and why the big secret?”

She smiled into the camera, and Garrett could have sworn she was looking directly at him. His hands curled around the edge of the polished wood bar and squeezed until he was half afraid he was going to snap the thick wood in two.

“I’ve been in America almost two weeks,” she said, her voice low, moderate, regal. “As for the secrecy of my visit, I wanted the opportunity to see the
real
America. To meet people and get to know them without the barriers of my name and background getting in the way.”

People in the bar were listening. Griffin had moved up alongside him, but Garrett hardly noticed. His gaze was fixed on Alex. She looked so different. And already so far away.

“Did it work?” someone else shouted.

“It did,” she said, her gaze still steady on the camera, staring directly into Garrett’s soul. “I’ve enjoyed myself immensely. This is a wonderful country, and I’ve been met with nothing but kindness and warmth.”

“You’re headed home now, Princess,” a reporter called out. “What’re you going to miss the most?”

There was a long, thoughtful pause before Alex smiled into the camera and said, “It’s a difficult question. I loved Disneyland, of course. And the beach. But I think what I loved most were the people I met.
They
are what I’ll miss when I go home.
They
are what will stay with me. Always.”

She was leaving.

And maybe, he told himself darkly, it was better this way. But even he didn’t believe that.

The camera pulled away and an excited news anchor came on to say, “Princess Alexis of Cadria, speaking to you from the Cadrian Consulate in Los Angeles. I can tell you we were all surprised to get the notice of her brief press conference. Speculation will be rife now, as to just where the princess has been for the last week or more.

“But this afternoon, a private jet will be taking her back to her home country. A shame we didn’t get to see more of the lovely Princess Alexis while she was here.”

Garrett had already turned away when the woman shifted gears and launched into another story. Walking back to their booth, Garrett sat down, picked up his burger and methodically took a bite. There was no reason to hurry through lunch now.

“Garrett—”

He glared his twin into silence and concentrated on the burger that suddenly tasted like sawdust.

Twelve

Everything was just as she’d left it.

Why that should have surprised Alex, she couldn’t have said. But it did. Somehow, she felt so…changed, that she had expected to find the palace different as well.

Standing on the stone terrace outside the morning room, she turned to look up at the pink stone walls of the palace she called home. The leaded glass windows winked in the early morning sunlight and the flag of Cadria, flying high atop the far turret, snapped in the breeze.

She was both comforted and irritated that life in Cadria had marched inexorably on while she had been gone. But then, her emotions were swinging so wildly lately, that didn’t surprise her, either. Since coming home a week ago, she had slipped seamlessly back into the life she had so briefly left behind. She had already visited two schools and presided over the planting of new trees in the city’s park. The papers were still talking about her spontaneous visit to the U.S. and photographers still haunted her every step.

Now, when she wanted to go shopping, she couldn’t just walk to the closest mall or wander down to the neighborhood shops. A shopping excursion became more of a battle strategy. There were guards, which she told herself, Garrett would thoroughly approve of, there were state cars and flags flying from the bumpers. There were stores closed to all other shoppers and bowing deference from shopkeepers.

God, how she missed being a nobody.

Of course, her family didn’t see it that way. They were all delighted to have her back. Her oldest brother was about to become engaged, and the other two were doing what they did best. Immersing themselves in royal duties with the occasional break for polo or auto racing. Her parents were the same, though her father hadn’t yet interrogated her about her holiday and Alex suspected she had her mother to thank for that.

And she appreciated the reprieve. She just wasn’t ready to talk about Garrett yet. Not to anybody. She was still hoping to somehow wipe him out of her mind. What was the point in torturing herself forever over a man who saw her as nothing more than an anvil around his neck?

“Bloody idiot,” she muttered and kicked the stone barrier hard enough to send a jolt of pain through her foot and up her leg. But at least it was
physical
pain, which was a lot easier to deal with.

“Well,” a familiar voice said from behind her, “that’s more like it.”

Alex looked over her shoulder at her mother. Queen Teresa of Cadria was still beautiful. Tall and elegant, Alex’s mother kept her graying blond hair in a short cut that swung along her jawline. She wore green slacks, a white silk blouse and taupe flats. Her only jewelry was her wedding ring. Her blue eyes were sharp and fixed on her daughter.

“Mom. I didn’t know you were there.”

“Clearly,” Teresa said as she strolled casually across the terrace, “care to tell me who the ‘bloody idiot’ is? Or will you make me guess?”

The queen calmly hitched herself up to sit on the stone parapet and demurely crossed her feet at the ankles. Alex couldn’t help but smile. In public, Teresa of Cadria was dignified, elegant and all things proper. But when the family was alone, she became simply Teresa Hawkins Wells. A California girl who had married a king.

She had bowed to some traditions and had livened up other staid areas of the palace with her more casual flair. For instance, when she became queen, Teresa had made it clear that the “old” way of raising royal children wouldn’t be happening anymore. She had been a hands-on mother and had remained that way. Naturally, there had also been governesses and tutors, but Alex and her brothers had grown up knowing their parents’ love—and there were many royals who couldn’t claim that.

None of Teresa’s children had ever been able to keep a secret from her for long. And not one of them had ever successfully lied to their mother. So Alex didn’t even bother trying now.

“Garrett King,” she said.

“As I suspected.” Teresa smiled as encouragement.

Alex didn’t need much. Strange, she hadn’t thought she wanted to talk about him, yet now that the opportunity was here, she found the words couldn’t come fast enough. “He’s arrogant and pompous and bossy. Always ordering me about, as bad as Dad, really. But he made me laugh as often as he made me angry and—”

“You love him,” her mother finished for her.

“Yes, but I’ll get over it,” Alex said with determination.

“Why would you want to?”

The first sting of tears hit her eyes and that only made Alex more furious. She swiped at them with impatient fingers and said, “Because he doesn’t want me.” She shook her head and looked away from her mom’s sympathetic eyes to stare out over the palace’s formal gardens.

She focused on the box hedge maze. The maze had been constructed more than three hundred years ago, and Alex smiled, remembering how she and her brothers used to run through its long, twisting patterns at night, trying to scare each other.

The maze was so famous it was one of the most popular parts of the castle tour that was offered every summer. But the most beautiful part of the garden was the roses. They were Alex’s mother’s pride and joy. Teresa had brought slips of California roses with her when she’d given up her life to be queen. And she still nurtured those plants herself, despite grumblings from the head gardener.

Their thick scent wafted to them now, and Alex took a deep breath, letting the familiar become a salve to her wounded pride.

“Alex,” her mother said, reaching out to lay one hand on her daughter’s arm, “of course he wants you. Why else would he refuse to take money for protecting you?”

“Stubbornness?” Alex asked, shifting her gaze to her mother.

Teresa smiled and shook her head. “Now who’s being stubborn?”

“You don’t understand, Mom.” Alex turned her back on the garden and pushed herself up to sit beside her mother. The damp cold from the stones leached into her black slacks and slid into her bones, but she hardly noticed. “It was different for you. You met Dad at Disneyland, and it was magic. He fell in love and swept you off your feet and—”

She stopped and stared when her mother’s laughter rang out around her. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, sweetie,” Teresa said as she caught her breath again. “I didn’t mean to laugh, but…maybe your father was right. When you were a little girl, he used to tell me I was spinning too many romantic stories. Filling your head with impossible expectations.”

Confused, Alex just looked at her mother. “But you did meet at Disneyland. And you fell in love and became a queen.”

“All true,” her mother said, “but, that’s not
all
of the story.”

Intrigued, Alex let her own troubles move to the background as she listened to her mother.

“I did meet Gregory at Disneyland,” she said, a half smile on her face. “I was working at the Emporium and he came in and bought half the merchandise at my station just so he’d have an excuse to keep standing there talking to me.”

Alex could enjoy the story even more now that she had been to the famous park and could imagine the scene more clearly.

“We spent a lot of time together in the two weeks he was in California and, long story short, we fell in love.” She smiled again, then picked up Alex’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “But it wasn’t happily ever after right away, sweetie.”

“What happened?”

“Your dad left. He came back here, to the palace.” She swept her gaze up to take in the pink castle and its centuries of tradition. “He told me he was going to be a king and that he couldn’t marry me. That we couldn’t possibly be together. His parents wouldn’t have allowed it, and his country wouldn’t stand for it.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!” Alex immediately defended her. “Cadria
loves
you.”

“Yes,” her mother said with a laugh. “
Now.
Back then, though, it was a different story. I was heartbroken and furious that he would walk away from love so easily.”

She and her mother had more in common than Alex knew, she thought glumly. But at least her mom had eventually gotten a happy ending. But how? “What happened?”

“Your father missed me,” Teresa said with a grin. “He called, but I wouldn’t speak to him. He sent me gifts that I returned. Letters that went back unopened.” Nudging Alex’s shoulder with her own, Teresa admitted, “I drove him crazy.”

“Good for you. I can’t believe Dad walked away from you!”

“Centuries of tradition are hard to fight,” Teresa said. “And so was your grandfather who had no interest in a commoner daughter-in-law.”

“But—”

“I know, sweetie. Your grandfather loved me. Once he met me, everything was fine.” She sighed a little. “But, your dad actually had to threaten to abdicate before his father would listen to reason.”

“Dad was willing to give up the throne for you?”

“He was,” Teresa said with another sigh of satisfaction. “Thankfully, it didn’t come to that, since he’s a very good king. But once his father saw how serious Gregory was, he promised to make it work. He went to the Law Chambers himself to see that the country’s charter was rewritten to allow for a commoner as queen.”

“Wow.” She didn’t know what else to say. Alex had had no idea of the intrigue and passion and clashes that had been involved in her parents getting together.

“Yes, wow,” Teresa said, laughing again. “When it was all settled, in a record amount of time, thanks to your father being an impatient soul, Gregory came back to California with his grandmother’s ring in hand and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Holding up her left hand as proof, Teresa wiggled her fingers, letting the ancient diamond wink and glitter in the sunlight.

“I had no idea.”

“Of course you didn’t, and I should have told you the whole truth sooner. But, Alex, I had a point in telling you this now,” her mother said and reached out to give her a one-armed hug. “And that is, don’t give up on your young man. Love is a powerful thing and, once felt, it’s impossible to walk away from. If your Garrett is anything like my Gregory…” She smiled again. “There’s always hope.”

“Excuse me, your majesty.”

Teresa looked to the open doorway into the morning room. A maid stood in the shadows. “Yes, Christa?”

“I’ve laid the tea out, ma’am, for you and her highness.”

“Thank you, Christa,” Teresa said, “we’ll be right in.”

A quick curtsy and the maid was gone again. A moment later, Teresa scooted off the parapet, dusted off the seat of her slacks and said, “I’ll pour the tea. You come in when you’re ready, okay?”

Nodding, Alex watched her mother go, as her mind whirled with possibilities. Was her mom right? Was there hope? Yes, her parents’ love story had turned out well in the end, but the King of Cadria had been in love.

Whereas Garrett King
refused
to be in love with her.

She turned her head to stare out over the gardens, to the ocean beyond and to the man on the other side of the world. Hope, she thought wistfully, could be a both a blessing and a curse.

“She sent it back.”

“What?” Griffin looked up as Garrett stormed into his office.

Tossing a small package onto his brother’s desk, Garrett complained, “The necklace I sent to Alex two days ago. She returned it!”

“And this is my problem because…”

“You’re my brother, and it’s your job to listen to me,” Garrett told him as he stalked the perimeter of his brother’s office.

“Actually, it’s my job to look into the file we just got on our Georgia client and—”

“Why would she return it?” Garrett asked no one in particular, thinking of the platinum and onyx piece he’d had commissioned just for her. He hadn’t asked himself why it was so important for him to give her a memento of their time together. It simply was. He couldn’t have her, but damned if he could entirely let go, either.

These past two weeks without her had nearly killed him. Nothing felt right to him anymore. Without Alex in his life, everything else was just white noise. He kept as busy as possible and
still
her absence chewed at him, widening the black hole inside him every damn day.

His fingers closed around the box that had been returned to him just a few minutes ago. Shaking it for emphasis, he blurted, “It was a trinket. Sort of a souvenir. You know, help her remember her holiday.”