Twice Upon a Time (2 page)

But Cinda didn’t often paint people. Her teacher always said that to paint people you had to look into the soul of the subject. Cinda had never really wanted to get that close to anyone.

‘This is amazing,’ the guy said, looking down at her painting.

He had an accent that Cinda couldn’t quite place. Was it French? English? American? Or all three?

Cinda could see two men a way back on the path, both wearing polo shirts and dark sunglasses as they looked out at the view.

‘Thanks,’ she said, now seeing a thumb mark on the sea and trying not to think about how much the canvas had cost. ‘You can have it,’ she offered with a smile, knowing there was no salvaging it now.

‘Really?’ he seemed touched and surprised, and Cinda felt bad for doubting him before.

‘Can you sign it?’ he asked hopefully.

Cinda laughed. ‘I’m not famous or anything, just a lowly art student on a tour of Europe.’

He smiled and Cinda saw perfect white teeth, made brighter by his tan and big blue eyes. He really was ridiculously good looking. For a moment she wondered if she might have a bit of a fling while she was in Positano. Then again, she was only there for another day, so what was the point? But she had always been a sucker for beauty.

‘No, no,’ he said firmly. ‘I see a very beautiful artist.’ His eyes flickered over her appreciatively, and Cinda knew she blushed at his stare.

Cinda flipped her backpack onto the ground and took out a thin brush and a tube of black paint. She smudged a little paint onto the back of her hand, dipped the brush in, twisting it to take off the excess paint, then signed the painting with a swift and practised movement.

He turned the painting to him and looked at her name.

‘Cindy?’ he asked.

‘Cinda,’ she corrected, her eyes meeting his. She felt a sharp spark between them.

‘As in Cinderella?’ he gave her a slightly lopsided smile that made him seem less sophisticated and almost boyish. She felt her stomach jolt.

‘As in Lucinda,’ she said with a smile.

He propped the painting against the rocks and stretched out his hand to her. ‘Ludo,’ he said.

‘As in the board game?’ she asked, a slight smile on her lips. She’d just decided that all bets were off with a boy as cute as this. How could she not flirt with such eye candy?

‘As in Ludovic,’ he replied.

Their eyes were still locked, and Cinda felt the heat rise in her cheeks. He wasn’t the first guy to hit on her in Europe but, besides a Dutch guy in Paris (whose very wet kiss had fizzled their flirtation), she hadn’t felt interested in anyone until this moment. And now she was interested – very interested.

‘I must pay you for the painting,’ he said, a little smile playing at the corners of his mouth. ‘It seems only fair.’

‘No really, it’s not worth anything,’ she laughed, shaking her head.

‘Maybe not yet,’ he corrected her. ‘But you never know what might happen.’

Cinda wasn’t sure if he was talking about the art or something happening between them, and she found she didn’t mind either thought. She lifted her chin and met his eyes.

‘Yes, I suppose you never know what might happen,’ she said, allowing the double entendre to hang in the air.

God, she never acted like this with guys. What had happened to her?

Cinda returned her black paint and thin paintbrush to her backpack and swung it over her shoulder. ‘I better get back,’ she smiled. ‘It was nice to meet you.’

‘Oh, is there someone waiting for you?’ he asked, flashing a sexy smile.

‘My friend Jonas. We’re travelling together.’

‘Your boyfriend?’

‘Is that any of your business?’ she asked, but she wasn’t really offended by his question – quite the opposite.

‘No,’ he replied, clearly not having taken any offence. ‘I assume a girl like you would have men chasing her all the time.’

Cinda shrugged. ‘You only get chased if you run, and I’m not running anywhere. Just climbing.’ She gestured up to where she had been painting.

Ludo laughed. ‘You’re smart.’

Cinda shrugged and smiled.

‘Where are you staying?’ he asked, putting his hands in his pockets, looking not unlike a Calvin Klein model.

Jesus, Jonas will die when he meets this guy
. She had to make that much happen. Guys like this just didn’t exist back home.

‘The Cinzia Hotel,’ she heard herself saying, even though she knew it was a bad idea to tell guys you’d just met where you were staying.

‘Excellent,’ he said, beaming at her like a goofy kid.

The two men in the polo shirts walked towards them on the path. Ludo looked at her and nodded his head in a slight angle, his body language changing somehow from interested to formal.

‘Thank you, Cinda. Lovely to meet you.’

He lifted her hand and pressed it to his warm mouth. It was a gesture as old-fashioned as it was sexy. Cinda felt her knees weaken a little as he picked up the painting and turned and walked down the path, striding along as though he had an invisible cloak flying out behind him.

2

Prince Ludovic Charles Victor Emmanuel, Archduke of Sardinia, known as Ludo to friends and family, was competitive by nature. Despite the fact that he covered it up with a laid-back manner, he hated coming second, which his mother, the Queen of Sardinia, blamed on two things. First, his Leo nature. And second? The fact that he’d been beaten to the royal throne by his identical twin brother, Augustus, by three minutes.

His walk around the Sentiero degli Dei had taken him less than two and a half hours. He had wanted to beat his brother’s record of two hours and forty-five minutes.

He might have come in closer to the two-hour mark if he hadn’t stopped to help the girl with the painting, but the sight of her perched on the rock had been too much, her tanned thighs and fabulous curves luring him, as all pretty girls did.

But this girl wasn’t just pretty. She was sexy and beautiful. And she was interesting. The girls he knew painted their nails, not exquisite landscapes.

He looked at the painting she’d given him, propped up on the mahogany sideboard in his room.

Cinda
, the signature read. He smiled at the memory of her quick response to his name
. As in the board game?
He found himself wanting very much to get to know her better.

Ludo showered and changed into jeans and another white linen shirt from Hermes and slipped on his Tod’s loafers.

He looked like every other European guy, he thought approvingly as he glanced at his reflection.

He opened the door of his suite and stepped lightly up the stairs and onto the deck.

He could hear music playing from the south side of the deck and for a moment he hesitated. Maybe he should just forget about the girl and get into whatever fun was happening right now without him. But then he thought about her striking face and the curves of her body and pulled on his sunglasses.

He walked across the deck and down the stairs to the dock, where he lowered himself into the waiting speedboat. He slid into the driver’s seat and started up the engine, waiting as his bodyguards jumped into the boat with him.

Although Ludo understood that the bodyguards were just doing their jobs, he resented that they went everywhere with him. Even when he was in the bathroom one of them wasn’t far away.

There had only been a few times when he’d managed to escape them, but those triumphs were hardly worth the wrath of his mother when he returned home.

Though her role in the small principality was largely ceremonial, Queen Sofia of Sardinia was strict on tradition and proper conduct, and not even charming Ludo could escape her eagle eye for long.

Mooring the speedboat, he let the bodyguards tie it up while he went ahead in search of the Cinzia Hotel.

He found it easily enough in the dirty end of town. It was a tired-looking place, with pink paint peeling off its walls and its window boxes adorned with a few straggly geraniums that looked like they hadn’t been watered all summer.

Backpackers were sprawled on plastic chairs on the front balcony, and Ludo could smell the distinct aroma of bud as he walked up the wooden stairs and into the foyer.

He walked towards the reception desk, past the noticeboard covered with posters for tourist activities and places to stay around Italy, and handwritten ads for odd jobs.

‘
Ciao. Lucinda è qui?’
he asked the woman who was standing behind the front desk, holding a mop.

She looked up at him and then tossed her head in the direction of the stairs.

‘
Sul tetto
,’ she said, and then leant over the counter to take a closer look at Ludo.

He was glad he had left his sunglasses on; he was pretty sure the woman would have recognised him. He stepped away from her Chianti-soaked breath and turned to take the stairs to the roof.

He removed his sunglasses and hung them on the front of his shirt as he jogged up the three flights of stairs to the door to the roof.

He pushed against it, only to find it was stuck or locked. But surely it wouldn’t lock from the outside? He tried again but the door wouldn’t budge.

‘Can we help, Your Highness?’

Ludo turned to see Sergei and Alexi behind him.

‘Can you please open this door?’ he asked, stepping back and gesturing to the door.

Sometimes the goon squad has their uses
, he acknowledged as the men pushed against the door with their impressive shoulders. The door flew open. Ludo smiled his thanks and asked them to discreetly wait downstairs. ‘I don’t want everyone knowing who I am,’ he said.

Stepping through the door and onto the roof, he saw Cinda sitting on a wooden box, a sketchbook in her hand. He was reminded why he had bothered to find her. She looked even better than he remembered.

‘Hello,’ he said, and she turned around at the sound of his voice.

‘Oh, hey,’ she said, looking surprised to see him. ‘I’ve been waiting to be rescued,’ she laughed. ‘The door was stuck. How did you get out?’

‘I used my muscle,’ Ludo said, which wasn’t a complete lie.

Cinda stood up, and put down her paper and charcoal. An exquisite sketch of the Positano rooftops stared up at him and he bent over and picked it up.

‘This is wonderful,’ he said, turning to her. ‘Really lovely.’

He was pleased to see she blushed with pleasure at his words. He was pretty sure neither of them were clear on whether he was describing the art or Cinda herself.

Her long dark curls were in a ponytail, but fine tendrils fell down around her neck and he had an overwhelming desire to brush them away with his lips.

‘So, why are you here, Prince Charming?’ she asked lightly, and he felt himself wince a little at her choice of words.

‘To pay for your artwork,’ he said with a smile, but Cinda shook her head.

‘There’s no need, honestly. The painting’s worthless.’

‘Don’t speak about your work like that,’ he said firmly. ‘It’s not good for your ego.’

She raised her eyebrows at him. ‘Trust me, my ego’s not that fragile. The painting is worthless because you smudged it,’ she said, crossing her arms.

Ludo groaned. ‘Oh god. I'm sorry. It might have been a masterpiece!’

‘I won’t take money for it,’ she said firmly.

Ludo raised his hands in resignation, then put them in his pockets, thinking about his next move. ‘I’m having a party on my yacht tonight. Just a few friends, nothing major. Would you and your friend like to come along?’

Cinda tilted her head to the side. ‘Sure, why not?’ she said with a shrug. ‘We’ll come along. It’s not like the nightlife around here is off the chain.’

Ludo laughed. ‘You have to make your own fun, Cinda. And I am quite good at making fun.’

‘I don’t doubt that for a second,’ she said, clearly flirting with him. He loved it when women who didn’t know who he was flirted with him.

She was so beautiful. She looked like the Italian movie star that his grandfather was rumoured to have had an affair with all those years ago.

Ludo could feel himself becoming more smitten with her as each second passed. She was just who he needed to pass the rest of the summer with.

‘I will meet you at the pier, to take you out to the yacht,
si
?’

‘
Si
,’ said Cinda sassily. ‘Eight okay?’ she added as she moved past him, her shoulder lightly touching his as she headed across the roof and back through the door to the stairs.

‘Perfect,’ Ludo muttered under his breath, watching her move as he followed her down. He was relieved to see that Alexi and Sergei had taken his order and disappeared from sight.

‘See you tonight, then,’ he called as she disappeared into a room off the main corridor, closing the door behind her.

Ludo stood on the landing for a moment before he turned to leave.

‘Oi, Prince Charming!’ he heard, and he turned to see her beautiful face peeking out of the doorway. ‘Thanks for rescuing me from the tower.’ She winked before closing the door again.

Prince Ludo felt his stomach flip. There
was
such a thing as love at first sight.

3