Secret Heirs: Royal Appointment

‘No.’ She hesitated. ‘At least, I don’t think so.’

Colour drained from her face. He could imagine the thoughts bombarding her brain. She was pregnant. Was the baby okay? Could she reel back the clock and walk across the road a few seconds later or sooner? Did she have any pain? She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, making him think she was examining her body, searching for signs of trauma, particularly in her womb. She slowly relaxed, which he took to be a good sign. And then she remembered him. He saw the recognition and surprise in her eyes turn to suspicion and anger, and then back again, when she remembered where they were and how they had got there.

‘You saved me,’ she breathed.

‘Grazie Dio!’ he murmured.

Her gaze hardened again. He was back. The man she had thought she knew had turned out to be someone else entirely. She’d flirted with him, and had had sex with a man she had believed to be an itinerant field worker, who had turned out to be a billionaire prince, and an important figure on the world stage. He could imagine her affront when she’d found out. It wouldn’t have taken her long. Settling back into her normal life, she could hardly avoid seeing his face in the press after his enthronement. In shock, she would be trying to process every piece of information, amongst which had to be what the hell was he doing here?

He followed her gaze as she glanced around to see if anyone else was hurt. He saw the tyre marks on the pavement left by the car as it had mounted the kerb, and realised how kind fate had been. Pockets of survivors were checking each other out. Numbers were being exchanged and arms thrown around complete strangers. This was human nature at its best. From what he could see, everyone was shaken up, but thankfully unharmed. Quite a crowd had gathered. People were calling on their phones. The emergency services would arrive soon. The police were already on the scene. The youth behind the wheel of the speeding car had been captured. Patrol cars had his vehicle boxed in.

‘Luca,’ Callie gritted out, managing to fill that single word with all the bitterness and uncertainty prompted by his supposed deception. When she was calm, she might realise they’d both been escaping their normal lives during their time in the lemon groves. Both had seized the chance to escape and explore a different, looser version of themselves. But none of that mattered now. All that mattered was that Callie was safe. However, she, understandably, took a rather different view. ‘I can’t believe this,’ she said, staring at him. ‘What are you doing here?’

Ignoring her understandable surprise, he concentrated on essentials. ‘Take it easy. Slowly,’ he advised as she struggled to sit up. ‘You might feel dizzy for a while. You’ve had a shock.’

‘To put it mildly,’ she agreed. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked tensely.

‘Don’t worry about me.’

‘You came down with quite a bang.’

He wasn’t interested in discussing anything but Callie, and was only relieved that he’d reached her in time.

‘Sorry.’ She started to giggle. Hysteria, he guessed. ‘But we must stop meeting like this.’

He couldn’t agree more. They were lying in the road on a bed of grime and oil patches. Hoping that laughter signified her body’s resilience to the blow it had just received, he huffed wryly, and for a moment they weren’t at loggerheads, but just two people caught up in an unexpected incident on a cold and wintry street.

‘Oh, no!’ Callie was staring at the stolen vehicle, which was planted in what appeared to be a dress shop window. ‘My landlady,’ she exclaimed, starting to get up.

‘Let me help you.’

She pushed him away in panic. ‘I have to make sure she’s all right.’

‘You have to get checked out first,’ he argued.

‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded as he shrugged off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders.

‘You’re in shock, Callie. You need to go to hospital for a check-up now.’

‘I’m fine,’ she insisted, starting to pull his jacket off.

He closed it around her. ‘You’re shivering. You’re in shock,’ he repeated, ‘and until the paramedics get here and check you out, I’m not taking any chances.’

‘So you freeze to death instead?’

‘I don’t think it will come to that,’ he soothed, ‘do you? I’m just glad I got here when I did. I couldn’t get here any sooner.’

‘I heard you’d been busy,’ she admitted.

A paramedic interrupted them. ‘You all right, love?’ he asked, proffering a foil blanket. ‘Let the gentleman have his jacket back, or he’ll catch his death of cold.’

‘I’ve been trying to give it back to him,’ Callie explained, ‘but he won’t take it.’

‘Well, if he’s happy for you to keep it.’ The paramedic shrugged as he arranged the foil blanket over the jacket for extra warmth. ‘Not too many gallant gentlemen left, love,’ he commented. ‘Better hang onto this one.’

Callie hummed and smiled, though Luca wondered if her smile was for the paramedic’s benefit. ‘Was anyone else hurt?’ she asked. ‘The lady in the dress shop?’

‘Had just gone to make herself a cup of tea,’ the paramedic reassured her. ‘She was working in the shop window, she told me, only minutes before the car struck.’

‘What a relief,’ Callie gasped. ‘I was with her. I live over the shop,’ she explained.

‘It’s thanks to the quick thinking of your knight in shining armour that a young mother and her baby were also shoved to safety and saved from injury. He’s a real hero. Aren’t you, sir?’

‘I wouldn’t say that.’ Luca had acted on instinct. There had been no planning involved. There’d been no time to think. He’d done what was necessary to avert disaster, in his view, and that was all.

‘Accept praise when it’s due, sir. You’re a genuine hero, sir,’ the paramedic assured him. ‘Now, excuse me, miss, but we’d better get you to hospital for a check-up. If the gentleman wants to come too—’

‘He doesn’t want to come,’ Callie said with a glance his way. ‘You obviously know where I live,’ she added, narrowing her eyes, ‘so we’ll speak later.’

Shepherding her to one of the two waiting ambulances, the paramedic steadied her as she climbed inside. ‘What are you doing?’ Callie demanded when he swung in behind her.

‘Collecting my jacket?’ Luca suggested dryly.

The paramedic gave him a broad wink, but had the good sense to appear busy with paperwork when the doors closed and the ambulance set off. Callie disapproved of him accompanying her to the hospital. Too bad. As she had been a member of his staff, he had a duty of care towards her, and with a baby on the horizon that duty had doubled.

‘You saved her, mate,’ the paramedic put in as he settled down.

This wasn’t how he’d pictured his reunion with Callie. He just wanted her to be safe.

‘Have you been spying on me?’ Callie asked, careful not to let their companion hear her conversation.

He shrugged. He wasn’t going to lie. It was a fine line between his security team’s protection service and overstepping the mark. ‘Your welfare and that of our child is my only concern.’

She blenched. He didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone so pale. ‘Are you all right? Pain? You’re not—’

‘No. At least, I don’t think so.’ Her eyes were wide with fear as she stared at him. She reached for his hand. For the first time, she looked vulnerable. This was a very different woman from the Callie he’d met in Italy. This was a woman afraid for her unborn child, and discovering she cared for that child far more than she cared for herself. ‘Don’t,’ she said. ‘Don’t look at me like that.’

‘Like what?’

‘As if I’m special and you’re glad you’re here.’

‘You are special. You’re about to become a mother, the mother of my child. And if I am looking at you, it’s only because you’re covered in grit and filth and need a good wash.’

‘Charming, mate,’ the paramedic piped up, proving that he wasn’t lost in his work after all. ‘Which charm school did you attend?’

‘I didn’t go to school until I was ten,’ Luca admitted wryly. ‘And then it was the school of hard knocks.’

‘Hey, wait a minute,’ the paramedic exclaimed, turning to stare at Luca intently. ‘Aren’t you that billionaire bloke who started life in the gutters of Rome and became a prince?’ And when Luca didn’t reply, he added, ‘What are you doing in Blackpool?’

He winked at Callie. ‘I’ve been checking out a new set of gutters, mate.’

‘Don’t you worry,’ the paramedic told Callie. ‘I won’t tell a soul. And you’re going to be okay, love, we’ll make sure of that.’

The atmosphere lightened a little, and Callie didn’t resist when Luca put his arm around her and drew her close.

CHAPTER SEVEN

LUCA WAS BACK. Callie’s mind was in turmoil, and as for her heart... What a time for him to choose to come back! The best time, she conceded gratefully as the ambulance raced towards the hospital. She knew shock was playing a part in her mixed-up feelings, but on top of the accident and Luca returning to find her, and above all the fear that her recent fall had harmed the baby, her thoughts were spinning around and around.

‘Okay?’

Had she really believed that putting distance between them would lessen her feelings for him? This wasn’t the Amalfi coast where she could make the excuse of her senses being heightened by sunlight and laughter, but a grey northern coastal town in winter, and yet Luca was as compelling as ever.

‘Hey,’ he whispered. ‘You’re safe now.’

His arms seemed designed to protect. They had certainly protected Callie when she’d needed him. And now Luca’s embrace was sending a very different kind of shiver spinning down her spine.

‘Look at me,’ he whispered. ‘I said, you’re safe.’

Even with his hair tousled and grazes down one side of his face, Luca looked what he was: a hero, her hero. When they’d first met it had been lust at first sight for Callie, but now it was something much more.

‘Callie?’

Instinctively nursing her still-flat stomach, as if to protect the child inside, she stared into Luca’s eyes.

‘We’re here,’ he explained gently. ‘We’ve arrived at the hospital.’

‘Oh...’

The paramedic stood aside as Luca helped her down from the ambulance. She clutched the foil blanket tighter as the wind whipped around her shoulders. The only part of her that felt warm was her hand in Luca’s. His grip was warm and strong, and it was with reluctance that she broke free from him in the screened-off cubicle when a doctor came to check her over.

‘I want an exhaustive examination. Whatever it costs,’ Luca emphasised.

‘She’ll have the best of care,’ the doctor assured him. ‘We’ll be careful that nothing escapes our notice.’

‘She’s pregnant.’

Luca knew everything. He probably had a drone positioned over the house. But when he thanked the doctor and turned around, she could only feel warm and thankful that he was back.

* * *

He was unharmed and impatient to leave, but first he had to make absolutely sure that Callie was okay. He’d wait as long as it took. Mud spattered his clothes. His jeans were ripped. Every bit of exposed skin had taken a battering. The nurses wanted to treat his wounds, but all he cared about was Callie. He sat outside the exam room while she was put through various tests. They were both ecstatic at the outcome. Babies in the womb were surprisingly well protected against trauma, the doctor told them both, and Callie had got off lightly with a sprained ankle and a colourful selection of scrapes and bruises. Apart from the shock, she was fine and could go home. The medical staff had been superb at every stage. He showed his gratitude with a generous donation, which was very well received.

‘And now for your bath,’ he told Callie as he escorted her off the hospital premises.

‘My bath?’ she queried, looking at him in bemusement.

‘Yes.’ They’d cleaned up her minor injuries in the emergency room, but like him she was still covered in dirt from the road, and he had plans. A short drive to the airport would be followed by a flight to his superyacht where Callie could enjoy a rest at sea. Heading south to the sun would be the perfect remedy, allowing her to chill out in privacy while they discussed the future.

‘I can have a bath at home,’ she said. ‘Leave me here. I’ll take a cab. Thanks for all you’ve done—’

‘You will not take a cab,’ he assured her. ‘You can play tough all you like, Callie Smith, but the rules changed when you got pregnant.’

‘It took two for me to get pregnant,’ she reminded him.

‘Which is why I’m prescribing rest for you.’

She gave him a look and then pulled out her phone.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Calling my landlady to check she’s okay, and calling a cab. And guess what,’ she added after a few moments of conversation with someone on the other end of the line. ‘Turns out an unknown fairy godmother has waved a magic wand, so builders and window fitters are already on site at my landlady’s shop, securing the building. I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that?’

‘Fairy godfather, please.’

She hummed and gave him a look.

‘About that cab,’ he said.

‘Please respect my independence, Luca.’

‘I do,’ he assured her.

‘Anywhere I want to go could easily turn into wherever you plan for me to go, and I need to get used to you being back first.’

He had no answer for that. She was right.

‘Are you going to log my every move?’ she asked with a welcome return of her customary good humour.

‘Only some of them,’ he said straight-faced.

‘My lift is on its way,’ she said. ‘Give me a chance to think things through. It’s all been such a shock. And I don’t just mean the accident. Finding out your true identity, and then the months we’ve spent apart. The gifts you sent. The notes you wrote.’

‘Would it have been easier if I hadn’t contacted you?’

A brief flash of pain in her eyes said it would have been hell. The same went for him.

‘I knew we had to talk when I discovered I was having your baby. I would never leave you in the dark. I just need time to process everything that’s happened today. Just the fact that your security team has been watching me is unnerving. I realise you’re a prince and I’m having your child, but that doesn’t give you the right to put me under surveillance.’

‘Your safety will always be my concern.’

‘Just don’t let it become your obsession.’

‘My security team check out anyone I’m seen with. They report to me, and I can hardly avoid reading what they put in their reports.’

‘I accept that,’ she said, ‘and I thank you for being so honest with me. And most especially for saving my life,’ she added in a softer tone.

‘I don’t want your thanks. I want your time.’ He was impatient for a very good reason. The royal council was pressing him to find a bride. The country was waiting. He needed an heir, and Callie’s pregnancy had set a clock ticking. He needed things settled between them before the ticking stopped.

‘You left me without an explanation, Luca, and now you’re back I’m supposed to snap to attention?’

‘I never misled you.’

‘You never told me you were a prince, either,’ Callie pointed out. ‘You allowed me to believe that you and I were on the same level.’

‘As we are,’ he insisted.

She laughed and shook her head. ‘That’s a fantasy. You’re a prince and a billionaire, and who am I?’

‘The most determined woman I’ve ever met.’

‘Flattery doesn’t wash with me, Luca. We had sex, the deepest intimacy of all, and then you simply turned your back and walked away. That means one thing to me. You’re incapable of feeling.’

‘You disappeared and pitched up here. Is that so different?’

‘I was never going to stay in Italy for ever. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. I always knew I’d come home at some point. And now I intend to study and go on to make a purposeful life. You might be used to women throwing themselves at you, but—’

‘Not in the way that just happened,’ he said dryly.

She couldn’t bear this. She couldn’t bear the mash-up of feelings inside her. Her body was bruised. Her thoughts were in turmoil. She was in love with Luca. Their short, passionate time in Italy had left an indelible brand on her heart, but he was a man she could never have. He knew that as well as she did, surely?

‘There’s fault on both sides,’ Luca insisted. ‘You didn’t reply to my letters. You refused to see me. You rejected my gifts. And, yes, I can see it must have seemed to you that I’d callously walked away, but I hope you can see now that there was a very good reason for my absence. Spend some time in Fabrizio. See the type of life our child will have.’

Fear speared through her at his words. Hormones. She knew she was overreacting, but he would sweep her away if she let him. He would expect the royal child to live with him. Yes, she should get to know his world. Luca was no ordinary man. She could never compete with his wealth, or royal status, but she believed just as strongly in her own values, and in her ability to bring up their child. They had to talk, but not right now. ‘My cab’s here—’ She looked at his hand on her arm.

‘What are you proposing, Callie?’

Luca’s tone had changed, hardened. Their baby wouldn’t benefit from parents at war. ‘Truce,’ she said. ‘I’m proposing a truce. You’re a hero. You saved me. You saved our child’s life. I can never thank you enough for that. If nothing else, I’m sure we can be friends.’

‘Friends?’ Luca frowned.

‘Please? For the sake of our child.’

Her cab rolled up at the kerb. Talking was done. He ground his jaw. Why wouldn’t she take the lift he’d offered? He could call up a diplomatic limousine in minutes. Was this how it was going to be? He couldn’t allow Callie a free hand. The heir to Fabrizio was too precious for that.

‘I can’t believe my new phone is still in one piece,’ she said, glancing at it before putting it away.

‘Give me your number.’ He pulled out his phone.

‘Give me your number,’ she countered, ‘and I’ll call you when I’m ready.’

‘Can I at least know where you’re going,?’

‘I’ll call you,’ she said as she climbed into the cab.

Seething inside, he gave her his number. After the accident and the shock of seeing him, he had to cut her some slack, but seeing Callie again was non-negotiable. He had every intention of keeping track of his unborn child. Grinding his jaw as the cab drove away, he had to remind himself this wasn’t the end of anything, but just the start of their return match.

* * *

If her feelings had been mixed up before, they were ready to explode by the time she walked down the steps of the civic building to find Luca waiting outside. Lounging back against a sleek black car, he was staring at her with the lazy confidence that suggested he knew exactly what had happened at her job interview. Of course he knew.

Firming her jaw, she quickened her step towards him. The sooner they got this over with, the better. She’d had her suspicions at the start of her interview. It hadn’t taken her long to realise she was never going to get the job, and the director of tourism was just curious to meet her. Even he’d admitted she was everything they were looking for; gregarious and well informed, she had read up on the history of the famous illuminations from the nineteenth century to the present day.

‘And I know every nook and cranny of the town,’ she’d assured him, explaining she’d visited Blackpool on numerous occasions.

‘In short, you’re perfect for the job,’ he agreed, just before he shuffled awkwardly in his seat and explained that the vacancy was no longer available.

So why see her at all? Callie had wondered, until the director of tourism had added, ‘Don’t look so disappointed. I’m told you have a glittering future ahead of you.’

‘What did it cost you?’ she challenged Luca tensely. She’d come to a halt in front of him, and was determined to get the truth out of him, whatever it took.

‘Cost me?’ He frowned.

‘How much did it cost you to spoil my chances for that job?’ she demanded tight-lipped.

‘Nothing,’ he admitted.

‘You’re lying,’ she said quietly.

‘I think you should calm down,’ Luca remarked as he opened the passenger door of his car. ‘Climb in.’

‘Not a chance.’

‘Please.’

She started to walk past him, but he caught hold of her arm. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he asked. ‘You can’t go back to the shop. It’s all boarded up.’ His voice was still low and even, but it had taken on an edge. ‘Your landlady is spending the night in a very comfortable local hotel while my builders complete their repairs.’

‘Your builders,’ she snapped. ‘That says it all. Your hand in my failure at interview just now. And you say you’re not controlling? What else do you have in store for me, Luca?’

Releasing her arm, he stood back. ‘I provided a faster solution for your landlady than her insurance company could hope to offer, and that is all. As for your job interview, how are you going to work as a tour guide when you’re heavily pregnant? I can’t risk the mother of my child being exposed to people who might exploit her to get at me. Your situation has changed, Callie, whether you like it or not.’

‘It certainly has,’ she agreed. ‘I was free and now I’m not.’ She was furious. ‘How did you get an appointment to meet with the Director of Tourism so fast?’

‘His secretary recognised me.’

‘Of course she did. Since your enthronement you’re all over the news. “The world’s most eligible bachelor”,’ she quoted tensely, ‘who just happens to have a pregnant and discarded mistress on the side.’

‘Very dramatic,’ he said.

‘Dramatic? Since you came into my life, everything’s been dramatic—’ She bit off her angry words, remembering that without Luca she’d probably be dead and so would their unborn child. Hormones again, she realised. Definitely hormones. The next thing she knew there were tears in her eyes. She drove them back. ‘You said it cost you nothing to stand in the way of me getting that job. What did you do, Luca? You must have said something?’

‘I did,’ he confirmed, shielding her as the wind blasted them. ‘I offered reciprocal marketing of our two very different holiday destinations.’

‘There must be more.’

‘There was,’ he confirmed evenly. ‘I told him I wanted you to work for me.’

‘What?’

‘Get in the car.’

She was shivering violently. It was freezing cold. They stared at each other, unblinking. They both knew there could be no walking away this time. Callie had very little money left, and nowhere to stay tonight. Even a simple boarding house at this time of year, when the illuminations were drawing crowds to the resort, cost far more than she could afford to spend.

‘Where will you take me?’ she asked.

‘I thought you had a sense of adventure.’

‘I don’t like surprises.’ But her options were zero. They had to speak at some point. Why not now? Surely two intelligent human beings could come to an amicable agreement?

Seriously?

Yes, because this wasn’t about either of them, but about their child, and with their histories Callie was prepared to bet that both of them would put that child first.

The passenger door closed with a soft clunk, enclosing Callie in a very different world. This was a world that only the super-rich could afford. It wasn’t the spicy warmth of the lemon groves, or the anodyne interior of a five-star hotel, but was so comfortable that it could easily muddle her mind. It was far too tempting to relax and not think of anything but getting to her destination, wherever that might be, safely and warmly. Soft classical music played in the background, while the scent of soft leather assailed her senses. In spite of all the warnings to self, she relaxed and drank it in.

This was the scent of money, she thought as Luca swung into the driver’s seat. He only added to her pleasure with his natural warmth, and the scent of warm clean man, laced with the light, exotic fragrance he always wore. He pressed a button and the engine purred. The sexy black car pulled effortlessly out into the flowing traffic. There were no brash noises, no sharp edges, nothing to alarm. The vehicle was precision engineering at its finest, rather like the workings of Luca’s mind.