The Trouble with Mojitos (13 page)

Oh yes.

It might not be love. It might not be what she wanted or needed. But she would take any crumb Rik was willing to give her. And the sex was guaranteed to be so good she wouldn’t care until it was too late.

***

A timid knock at the door brought Rik up through layers of sleep. Kenzie lay beside him, her top half bare, her long slim legs twisted in the duvet, her hair fanned out across the pillows. He smiled and pushed it back from her face. She didn’t stir.

The knock came again. He pulled on his jogging bottoms and a long sleeved shirt and crossed to the door.

“Good morning, sir,” Robert said as he opened the door. “I took the liberty of putting your coffee and papers in the morning room.”

“Thank you, Robert.” This was surreal. It was as if he’d never been away, as if the last four months had just been a bad dream. Except for the woman in his bed.

“I … um … thought you’d rather I didn’t serve it in your room this morning.”

“Good call.” Rik shut the door softly behind him.

“There are some outstanding papers for you to sign, and a few other issues that need to be attended to. Phoenix has offered to give Ms Cole the grand tour of the state apartments for her photographs while you’re busy with the Private Secretary.”

“Thank you. Where are my brother and his lovely bride-to-be this morning?”

“They went out for a bike ride but should be back soon. Is there anything else you require, Your Highness?”

Rik shook his head. “I have no claim to that title anymore.”

Robert lifted his chin. “Within these grounds you will always remain Your Highness. Besides, I’ve called you that since you were in your teens. How else should I address you?”

“You could call me Rik”. He laughed at the affronted look on his valet’s face. “Thank you, Robert. You can tell the Secretary I’ll be with him in an hour.”

He returned to the bedroom to wake Kenzie. He didn’t want to waste even another ten minutes without her.

He’d realised something incredible during the party last night and he wanted to share it with her. Perhaps not now, with matters of state to be dealt with and her location pictures to be taken, but later, when they had all the time in the world.

He stroked a hand down her back and watched goose bumps rise beneath his fingers. Then she murmured, opened her eyes, and smiled at him. And the rest of the world just had to wait.

***

What did one wear to breakfast with royalty? Kenzie hadn’t exactly packed for a palace stay, so jeans and her favourite green cashmere sweater would just have to do. The sweater was a Christmas gift from Lee who had a more than passing interest in fashion, so it fitted way better than her usual clothes. She brushed her hair back into a ponytail and joined Rik in the morning room for coffee.

He was already dressed, in grey trousers, with a buttoned-up shirt and charcoal sweater. He couldn’t have looked more preppy if he tried. “I would do anything to see you out in public in short sleeves,” she said, pouring coffee from the antique-looking silver coffee pot into a dainty porcelain cup. “Or better yet, shirtless.”

She glanced around the sitting room which resembled a spread from a Condé Nast magazine. “Do you have an afternoon room too?”

Rik grinned and patted his knee, inviting her over. “It’s called the morning room because it faces east and gets the morning light. Normally I’d have my breakfast alone in here, but with a house full of guests, breakfast will be served in the dining room.”

She sat on his lap and brushed back a lock of hair from his eyes. He’d found time to shave this morning. She missed the roughened stubble and too long hair, but it certainly made kissing him far more pleasurable. At least she wouldn’t have to face all the other house guests sporting stubble burn.

“I have some work to do, but after breakfast Phoenix will take you around the palace so you can get your photographs. Then you can use my office computer to upload the pictures.”

She looked down at the cup in her hands. “Rik … we need to talk.”

He laid a finger over her lips. “Not now. We can talk later.”

***

Max and Phoenix were already at breakfast, alone in the massive dining room that looked more like a film set than a real life room. Kenzie breathed a sigh of relief to see that none of the other house guests had yet emerged. She was equally relieved to see that both the Archduke and his fiancée wore jeans.

“You don’t look as if you partied all night,” Kenzie commented, helping herself to breakfast from the buffet.

Phoenix grinned. “As long as I stay away from champagne, I never get drunk.”

While they ate, Rik plied his brother with questions about new policies that were under debate, and how Max was getting on with the prime minister, until Phoenix threw her hands in the air. “You’re giving me indigestion. If you want to work, take it to the office and leave us in peace.”

They did as they were told, and as soon as they were alone, Phoenix turned to Kenzie with a smile. “So tell me – how did you and Rik meet?”

‘
He picked me up in a bar,’
didn’t sound quite right. Nor did ‘
He was drunk and I let him sleep in my bed rather than being arrested.
’ So she went with door number three, the sanitised version: “He helped me scout for locations for a film shoot.”

“Was it love at first sight?”

Kenzie choked on her toast. “Lust at first sight, maybe. Rik and I … love doesn’t come into it.”

Kenzie squirmed beneath Phoenix’s sceptical gaze. She was grateful when the door opened to reveal a bleary-eyed house guest. For about half a second.

“Adam Hatton?”

Of all the baroque palaces in all the world, he had to walk into this one.

Charlie’s best friend.

He looked up, rubbing the back of his neck, and it was a moment before recognition dawned in his eyes. Followed immediately by something that looked a lot like loathing.

If she could have crawled under the table and hidden from sight, she would have. But with Phoenix’s curious gaze flitting between them, she straightened her shoulders and forced a smile. Then with limbs so stiff she could hardly walk, she rose from her chair. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to fetch my camera.” The nausea was back, stronger than before.

Phoenix nodded. “I’ll meet you at the main staircase in ten.”

Kenzie fled.

Kenzie folded the gift wrap and stuck it down with trembling fingers. She’d managed to keep a smile on her face and to chat with Phoenix as they’d gone from one state room to another, but her feet had felt like lead and her mouth had been too dry, and she was sure Phoenix knew something was wrong.

The clues had all been there. How had she not put them together?

Adam lived in Hertfordshire. His family’s pile wasn’t that many miles from her own childhood home. Rik had been to The Waffle House.

Adam’s family owned a holiday home in the Caribbean. She’d never known exactly where, but he’d kept a yacht there.

They both played polo.

She should have made the connection.

And she really should have Googled Rik rather than trying to pretend he wasn’t who he was. That was the least she would do for a job, yet somehow the thought never even occurred to her when it came to her love life. A therapist would have a field day with that.

And even without Google, she should have known that everyone in that circle, the wealthy, the titled, they all knew each other. And they stuck together, while she was just an outsider.

Now it was merely a matter of time before they talked and that past she’d tried so hard to outrun caught up with her again.

With extra care she twined ribbon around the package and tied a bow. She’d bought this gift for him on her walk home from the tube station after the long flight. At first she’d thought she’d been jet-lagged and hadn’t believed her eyes as she’d looked in the window of the hospice shop. She’d planned to mail it to Rik, but since he’d shown up at her door she’d decided to give it to him in person. Phoenix had supplied the paper and tape, and Kenzie prayed it would help ease the inevitable conversation.

The door opened and her heart contracted, but it wasn’t Rik. Not yet.

“I’m sorry,” his mother said. “I was hoping to find Rik here.”

“He’s downstairs with Max.”

It was obvious that Archduchess Anna had been a beauty in her youth. She still had the bone structure and the figure. But aside from the eyes, that same midnight blue shade as Rik’s, there was very little resemblance between them. However, Max was definitely his mother’s child.

Anna closed the door and crossed the room to her side. “Are you okay?”

Everyone kept asking her that. Couldn’t they see she wasn’t okay? Kenzie swallowed and nodded. “I’m fine. I’ve just got a bit of a tummy bug. I think I picked it up in Los Pajaros.”

Anna perched on the edge of the sofa beside her, her hands folded demurely in her lap. But the way her knuckles turned white gave away her tension. “Has Rik forgiven me?”

How the hell should I know?
But Kenzie bit her tongue. “I don’t know.”

“Will he speak to me?”

This was what happened when you let someone in. You landed up
involved
, slap bang in the middle of someone else’s issues. Kenzie squirmed. “I’m sure he will.” She hoped.

“He hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you.”

Anna looked down at her hands. “The last time I saw him, he said ‘I hate you’.”

“People say things they don’t mean when they’re angry.” Adam had said a lot of things when he was angry too. She hoped he’d calmed down since then.

“He hasn’t returned my calls for nearly four months.”

“He needed time. I gather he hasn’t done much of anything these last few months, but he’s here now and that must mean something.”

Anna’s head came up, the look in her eyes sharp. “What do you mean you ‘gather?’ How long have you known Rik?”

“About a week.”

The older woman’s eyes opened wide. Which at least proved that her lack of wrinkles was completely natural. She’d never have managed such a stunned expression with Botox. “You’ve known Rik a week and he brought you home to meet the family? And you’re staying here in his rooms. I assumed he’d known you for months. He’s usually very careful that way.”

Oh great. So she was just the mistake he’d made when he stopped being careful? She could only pray Rik didn’t agree. Especially after he heard whatever Adam had to say.

She needed to get to him first. She needed to be the one to tell him what happened with Charlie all those years ago.

But she wasn’t the only one who needed to talk to Rik. Watching this composed woman, as dignified as a queen, twisting her hands in her lap, Kenzie’s heart went out to her. His mother had a much bigger claim. “You might find him in his office,” she said.

Anna smiled. “Thank you.” She rose, with a grace Kenzie couldn’t hope to emulate, and walked to the door. “I hope we have a chance to get to know each other better.”

You and me both
. Because if she was still around to get to know his family better, then it meant he hadn’t given her the boot. Strange that three days ago she’d been ready to walk away from Rik, sure it was the best thing to do.

Now, the thought of never seeing him again was like a physical blow to her chest. Absence really did make the heart grow fonder, even if it was only of hours.

She would make this right between them. She’d go to Rik’s office and she’d tell him everything. The whole sordid story, even the things she’d never told another living soul.

Everything always worked out in the end. She had to believe that.

But first she’d give his mother half an hour with him. And pray that by the time they were done his mood wasn’t wrecked.

***

Rik returned to his own office, relieved to leave Max to his job. Considering he’d had no hand-over whatsoever, Max had done a remarkable job picking up the pieces. Almost as though he’d been born to it. Who’d have thought his easygoing little brother would have had an aptitude for running the country?

He grinned. And for keeping the prime minister in check.

He surveyed the wreckage of his desk and began to right the mess he and Kenzie had made last night. Most of this stuff could be binned, anyway. It wasn’t like he’d need any of it where he was going. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel even the least regret.

He’d spent so many hours within this room, closed in, out of the sun, often late at night when the day’s meetings and parliamentary sessions were done. The room smelled musty now. He longed for the fresh, clean air of Los Pajaros. And the freedom to bare his skin to the sun.

Time and distance really could work miracles. Or maybe it was Kenzie who’d wrought the miracle.

He started to sort through the papers as a knock sounded on the door. Kenzie. He smiled in welcome, his entire body electrified at the mere thought of seeing her again.

“Come in,” he called, and the door swung open. Instant buzz kill. “Hello, Mother.”

“Do you have a moment for me?”

He’d promised Kenzie he’d listen. So he sat on the edge of the desk, arms crossed over his chest, and nodded.

His mother stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. She didn’t take a seat, but hovered, uncertain of her welcome. He’d never seen her at such a loss, even on that night he’d confronted her in her rooms in Waldburg with the results of his DNA test.

“I’m listening,” he said.

“I hoped you’d forgive me by now.”

“For what – for lying to me about who I am all my life? For lying to the man you claimed to love? Or for sleeping around before you married my …  your husband?” He choked on that last word. It was still impossible to think of Christian von Waldburg as anything but his father.

“We all make mistakes, Rik. None of us are perfect.” She drew in a deep breath. “Even your father. You idolised him, but he kept his own secrets too.”

“Which father would that be – the drunken tryst in a nightclub, or the prince?”

She levelled her gaze on him. “You only ever had one father.”

Rik cleared his throat and voiced the one thing that weighed most heavily on him. “I thought you loved him. How could you keep this secret from him?”

“I kept my secret
because
I loved him. He was so excited when he realised I was pregnant, and he wanted you so much. I didn’t have the heart to take that from him.” Her eyes glazed with unshed tears. “He would have loved you just the same, no matter whose son you were, and he would have treated you the same as he treated Max. But he was also an honourable man. He would not have raised you as his heir had he known the truth.” She sighed. “The world was a very different place thirty-five years ago. Christian might have treated you as his son, but the rest of the world would have seen you as a bastard. I wanted to protect you from that. But you’re a grown man now. You can handle the truth.” A single tear slid down her cheek. “You’ll perhaps never truly understand this, but a mother loves her child so much she’ll do absolutely anything to protect it. Even lie to the man she loves.”

Kenzie had understood.

He pushed away from the desk to pace the room.

“You had to know the truth would come out eventually. You knew the law required a DNA test before my accession could be ratified by the government.”

She nodded. “And I knew the test would only be done after your father’s death, when the truth could no longer hurt him.”

“But it hurt me.”

She straightened her shoulders and looked him in the eye. “It made you.”

He stopped pacing to stare at her.

“You are a fine man, Rik, and I’m proud of you but you also have a tendency to think too much and to take life too seriously. As Archduke you would have done your duty but you would have died inside. You were fast on your way to becoming a real bore.”

She stepped closer, laying a hand on his arm. He didn’t shrug it off. “I’ve never seen you more relaxed than you were last night, in spite of everything. For the first time, you didn’t care what anyone else thought, you simply let yourself go.”

He remembered that devastating dance with Kenzie, the way she’d felt in his arms. The way he’d taken her away from the party without a care as to who saw them leave. The way he’d taken her right here on this desk. He had let go with her, over and over again.

As if sensing where his thoughts strayed, his mother smiled. “You never once looked at Teresa the way you look at Kenzie.”

Probably because he’d never once felt the urge to lay Teresa across his desk, unable to endure another moment without being inside her.

“I like her. She brings out your impulsive side.” This time his mother’s smile lit her eyes. She looked lighter.

“I plan to tell her today that I love her.”

Perhaps only his mother would understand what a big deal this was. Or Kenzie.

He grinned. He was done with putting this off. He needed to talk to her
now
.

His mother looked up at him, with those eyes that mirrored his own. “Are we ok?”

He nodded. “We’re ok.”

With a bounce in her step, she headed toward the door, blowing him a kiss as she left the room. He smiled. When they were children, his mother had tucked him into bed every night, and every night she’d blown him a kiss from the door.

That single kiss wiped out every doubt he’d struggled with these last few months. He’d been loved. His mother hadn’t lied to save herself. She’d lied because she loved him. Perhaps sometimes the end did justify the means.

He felt lighter too. Kenzie was right, and he was glad he’d agreed to listen. She must surely have finished taking her photographs by now. She should be here at any moment to upload them. Then … 

He heard voices outside in the corridor, his mother greeting someone as they passed. He hurried to the door and opened it wide. But it wasn’t Kenzie.

Adam, his old uni friend and the owner of the guesthouse he’d been crashing in the last few months.

Sheesh. He’d hardly had this many visitors when he’d been Archduke in training.

He managed a grin, even as he glanced over Adam’s shoulder to look for Kenzie. “Hey there, I missed you last night. I gather it had something to do with a brunette? Some things never change.”

Adam thumped him on the shoulder in greeting. “And you left the party early. Some things do change.”

He flopped into the leather armchair, and Rik followed to sit on the edge of the desk again. He left the door ajar so he could listen for Kenzie. “I really appreciate that you’ve let me stay in your villa so long. I’ll clear out of there soon.”

“No need. Stay as long as you like. The place is just standing empty anyhow.” Adam lounged back in the chair. “And my offer stands if you’re getting bored of the islands. You have that first in economics and you’re welcome to a job with us any time you want.”

Investment banking. It wouldn’t be so bad if Adam’s family didn’t own the company. But to be the outsider in someone else’s family business …  the contrast with his own family business would be too stark.

Besides, the thought of swapping this office for another held little appeal. Kenzie was right. He had the chance to be anything, do anything … 

He grinned. “Thanks, but I think I’m a little old to retrain. I plan to stay on in Los Pajaros.”

“What – ferry tourists around the islands and get lucky with the pretty ones? I’m really pleased you’re starting to live it up at last, but you’ll be bored stiff.”

The thought of getting lucky with anyone but Kenzie held zero appeal. And there was no chance he’d grow bored. Not as long as he had her at his side to challenge him.

But as much as Adam was one of his closest friends – as close as one could be when they’d lived in separate countries since their uni days – Rik wasn’t ready to share his revelation. He wanted Kenzie to be the first to hear it.

Adam leaned forward in his seat, his face suddenly serious. “There’s something you should know about your date.”

“What is it?”

“She used to date Charlie.”

It took Rik a moment to place the name. Charles St Aubyn had played polo with them in their Oxford days. He and Adam had been good friends. “Is there anyone in England Charlie didn’t date?”

“Not like that. They were serious.”

A knot formed in Rik’s stomach. He didn’t like the thought of Kenzie with anyone else, and as for Charlie – he’d been a thoughtless, selfish playboy with more money than brains. If she’d dated him, it was no wonder Kenzie had ended up hurt. And it would explain her issues with trust fund wastrels.