Page 83 of Royally Roma
“You knew who I was. You knew the entire time.” He crossed the room until he stood less than an arm’s length away.
She fixed her gaze on his crimson tie. She didn’t have it in her to look him in the eye. Her resolve had a way of crumbling when he stood this close to her, especially when he looked at her with unexpected tenderness and vulnerability as he did now.
She squared her shoulders, but kept staring at his Windsor knot. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t know who you were until a few hours before morning. Imagine how humiliated I felt when I saw your face on every channel of my television.”
He was quiet, serious, as he contemplated her answer. Finally, he asked, “If you didn’t know who I was, then where did the copy ofNovella 2000I found in your flat come from?”
“From my friend Chiara across the hall. I went to her flat in a panic when I realized who you were. I showed her your picture and prayed with every fiber of my being that I was wrong.” She waved her arms at his luxurious surroundings. They may as well have been in Versailles. “Clearly I wasn’t.”
He angled his head toward her. “You found the idea of making love to a prince so abhorrent, did you?”
“Yes, frankly.” She crossed her arms. She needed a barrier between them, no matter how ineffective. She could feel her resolve slipping. With every word, every glance, she felt herself drawn to him once again.This cannot happen.“My family has a history, Nico. An ugly one. I don’t want to read about that ugliness in the papers again. Ever.”
He grew dangerously still. Quiet.
“Yesterday at the fountain, you were running from the press, weren’t you?” She felt like she might faint all of a sudden. How close had she come to being front-page news?
“No, actually. I was running from the palace staff.” He shook his head and let out an unexpected laugh. “Are you seriously telling me thatyouwere worried about ending up in the papers because ofme.”
“Exactly.” She threw the envelope full of money down on the table. Twenties, fifties, hundreds and that despicable check spilled out onto the floor. “And then you left me with this humiliating parting gift—without saying good-bye, I might add—so please explain to me the part where I’m supposed to be impressed by who you are.”
“But this is what you wanted. This was why I spent the weekend at your flat, was it not? I’m paying my debt.”
“Your debt totaled seven hundred fifty euros, notone million twenty thousand.” One million twenty thousand euros. It was absurd. She could barely bring herself to utter the sum out loud.
“The twenty thousand was an apology for getting you fired, and the million was for—”
She cut him off. “Keeping my mouth shut or having sex with you? I’m having trouble figuring out which.”
He jammed a hand through his hair. He suddenly didn’t look quite so regal. In fact, he looked almost human. “Piero told me about your father, then I saw the magazine and the photo on your phone, and I thought...” He shook his head, and went from looking human to looking every bit as broken as she felt inside. “I don’t want to say what I thought.”
“You don’t have to.” She blinked back tears. Of all the things she had to say to him, this was the most difficult to get out. “You thought I wanted to take advantage of you, that I would sell our story to the press. You thought when I looked at you that all I saw were dollar signs. Like father, like daughter.”
He closed his eyes, as if doing so could make her disappear.
She wanted to scream.Make up your mind.All she’d wanted was to disappear, to leave him behind forever. He was the one who’d had some poor valet wrench her off of her Vespa and drag her inside.
“You know what hurts the most, Nico?” she asked quietly. She wrapped her arms around herself, lest she fall completely apart. “I would have thought if anyone would understand that some things aren’t passed down through the gene pool, it would be you.”
A sob escaped her. It sounded like a noise a wounded animal would make. And she hated herself for being so vulnerable in front of him. Again. Why couldn’t she stay strong, detached?
Because I love him.
He opened his eyes, and she saw her pain multiplied tenfold in his gaze. “Keep the money, Julia. Keep the money and finish your master’s degree.”
“No,” she said. “I will do no such thing. Frankly, I can’t believe you have the audacity to even mention the money to me again.”
“Keep the money, Julia.” His voice went lethal again. “That is not a request. It’s a command.”
“Have you forgotten? I’m an American. I’m not one of your subjects. I don’t have to bow down to you like you’re Caesar reincarnated, and I most definitely do not have to follow your orders.” She lifted her chin in defiance and wondered what would happen if she dared to speak to him this way in his home country. She would probably be flogged or something.
Well that didn’t matter, did it, since she would never set foot in Lazaretto.
She pretended that particular fact didn’t make her heart feel like it had a gaping hole right through its center. She had to stop wishing things could be different.
She would have liked to see the place he called home. Not the palace, but the country. She would have liked to know the colors of the sand and sea he saw when he looked out his bedroom window. What kind of trees had he climbed as a boy?
But of course she never would.
