Rico Santori had just resigned from his position as head of royal security when all hell broke loose.
He’d been dreading the conversation with Prince Vittorio for weeks, but putting it off didn’t make it any easier to leave the only home he’d ever known. He would miss the friends he’d made over the years and the job at which he excelled. Still, it would be worth leaving everything he knew for a shot at a life of his own outside the palace walls.
And a way to get away from the temptation that had burned at his soul for months.
“Are you certain I can’t talk you out of it?” Vittorio had asked. Rico knew he’d surprised the prince with his announcement. Rico had never hinted he was planning to leave. He’d known Vittorio would try to talk him out of it.
It was long after midnight. Rico and his childhood friend, who also happened to be his employer and the Crown Prince of the small Mediterranean country of Mezzano, had been lounging in the prince’s private office, sipping on brandy and discussing the future. Vittorio’s concerned an upcoming royal wedding and eventually stepping up to the throne. Rico’s was much less ambitious, but just as important.
At least to him.
“No, Your Highness.” The plans had been put into place months ago. This conversation had been the final step. “I can recommend several men on the security team who could take my place.”
“Rico.” Vittorio’s tone was solemn. “There is no one who could take your place, my friend.”
“Thank you.” But Rico knew no one was indispensable. Unless perhaps one were first in line to the throne of Mezzano.
“I would like to hear of your plans,” Vittorio had said, just before the call had burst through the ear bud synced to the radio on Rico’s hip. What had followed was a blur of shouts and blood and too many questions.
Princess Angelina’s car had been attacked on the way back from a party she’d been attending. After Rico had seen that the injured men were getting medical help and that the rest of the team was sweeping the grounds for intruders, he sought out the princess. He had to find out what the hell happened.
He flung the door open to the private parlor where the princess was waiting for him. Her Royal Highness was perched on the edge of the upholstered sofa, flanked by Prince Vittorio and Mia, his fiancée. When Rico strode into the room, the princess shot to her feet. Rico’s suit jacket was still draped over her shoulders but it didn’t hide the splotches of scarlet staining her yellow dress.
“Enzo? Donato?” Her dark chocolate eyes were wide. Worried. And so very beautiful.
Enzo had been Angelina’s personal bodyguard for the past four years. He and Donato, the driver, had both been shot while thwarting an attempt to kidnap the princess. At least, that was what Rico assumed had happened. Neither one of his men had regained consciousness yet. He wanted to demand immediate answers from Angelina, but there were certain protocols to follow and he couldn’t command her to tell him what happened. Just as he couldn’t run his hands over her body to make sure she really was all right.
He acknowledged the royal family with a nod. “Still alive, Your Highness. I’ll keep you posted, of course.”
Her slender hand shook as she lifted it to brush her long hair from her face. Her gaze bounced around the room. “I tried to stop the bleeding…”
When Rico had thrown open the back door of the car, afraid of what he would see, Angelina had been pressing her colorful scarf onto the wound in Enzo’s side. Tears had been streaming down her face, but she’d been shouting at her bodyguard to hang on, and the fierceness in her expression made Rico think that the princess wasn’t quite as gentle a woman as he’d always thought.
“Your Highness.” He stepped in front of her and waited until her gaze locked on his. “I need to hear what happened.”
“Of course.” She sank back onto the sofa and gestured to Rico to sit in the chair opposite. “I’m afraid I didn’t see much. It was dark, of course, and I was tired, so I’d closed my eyes.” Her voice broke. “I should never have gone to the stupid party.”
Mia pulled her close. “It’s not your fault.”
Rico almost reached out and placed his hand over Angelina’s, but pulled it back and curled his fingers into a fist. He needed to know who’d done this and then he’d crack a few skulls. “Did the car stop? Or did someone start firing at the car first?”
The princess straightened, looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. “The car stopped suddenly. Something was in the road. Blocking the road, maybe? I don’t know what. Donato didn’t say. Enzo pushed me down to the floor. He said to stay down, just in case. Then he said he’d check it out.” She looked up into Rico’s eyes. “He got out of the car. Then I heard shouting. Then there was shooting.”
“Could you tell what was said? The shouting?”
She closed her eyes for a moment as if she was trying to hear it again. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t make out words. Just shouting.”
“Male voices? Female?”
“Male, I think.”
“What happened when the shooting started?”
“Donato opened his door. To help I’m sure, but…but I think Enzo yelled at him to get the car out of there. To…to get me out of there.”
Rico nodded. Gritted his teeth. “But he didn’t?”
“He tried. I know he did,” the princess said, passionately defending her bodyguards. “It all happened so fast. He started to shut his door, but then I heard another shot. Heard him cry out.” The pain at reliving the ordeal was clear in the princess’s voice. “I was afraid he was going to leave without Enzo so I crawled over to the open door.”
“Angie!” Vittorio cried, the reprimand clear.
She whirled to send her brother a fierce stare. “I couldn’t stay hiding and not do anything. He…Dios…he was on the ground, leaning back against the side of the car. I could see the blood from the interior lights.”
“And that means whoever was out there could see you,” Rico growled.
There was no remorse in the princess’s expression. “All I knew was I had to get Enzo in the car before we took off. I couldn’t leave him there. I couldn’t.”
“You pulled him into the car?” Mia asked, surprise clear in her voice.
Angelina nodded. “Enzo saw me at the door. He glared at me.” She glanced over at Rico, her eyes blazing. “Don’t worry, Rico, you taught him well. He was willing to give his life for me.” She sniffed, tears filling her eyes. “I leaned out of the car and he fired another shot and then boosted himself up with one leg. The other…I think he was hit badly in the other leg. I grabbed him under the arms and pulled him in and then Donato took off.”
Rico had never been so angry and so proud at the same time. The princess could easily have been taken, but she’d risked her life to save her loyal bodyguard. “So Donato was able to get around whatever was in the road.”
“I guess so. I was too worried about Enzo. Then he lost consciousness and I was afraid I’d hurt him more by dragging him in.”
“I’m certain you saved his life, Your Highness.” Her hopeful gaze slammed into his gut. He hoped he was correct. There had been a hell of a lot of blood.
“Who would do this?” Vittorio asked. “We haven’t received any threats.” He turned his glare on Rico. “Have we?”
“No, Your Highness. None at all.”
“Do you need anything else from the princess?” Mia asked. Her arm was wrapped around Angelina’s waist. The princess had rested her head on Mia’s shoulder.
Rico had never been the nurturing kind but at this moment he wished he could gather the princess in his arms. Feel her head on his shoulder. But even if he’d been that kind of man, it would never have been the proper thing to do. He took a deep breath and pushed away the image of the princess in his arms.
“One more thing. I beg your pardon for asking, Your Highness, but is there anyone you can think of who would want to cause you harm? An unhappy ex-boyfriend, perhaps, seeking to hurt you in some way?” An entitled asshole with enough money to hire thugs to attempt a kidnapping.
The princess straightened, lifted her chin even as her cheeks grew pink. “Your security team keeps track of my every movement. You know I have had no opportunity to have a boyfriend, much less an ex-boyfriend, happy or not.”
Surely that wasn’t possible. A beautiful young woman like Her Highness? For the past few years, he’d let Enzo keep track of the princess’s comings and goings. Rico hadn’t wanted to know with whom she was spending time.
But he couldn’t imagine there weren’t dozens of handsome, privileged young men fighting for time with the princess of Mezzano. His stomach clenched unexpectedly at the thought. He cleared his throat. ”So there has been no one who has threatened you? No one you have spurned who might have a grudge against you? No one who wanted more from you than you were willing to give?”
The princess rose as gracefully as if she wore an elegant gown instead of a wrinkled dress stained with blood. She lifted her royal chin. “No one.”
He sprung to his feet and nodded. “Thank you for your help, Your Highness.”
Mia ushered Angelina from the room but Vittorio stayed behind. Rico turned to the prince. “Sir, could there be a possibility of an enemy of the country attempting to gain leverage by holding your sister hostage?”
“Mezzano has no enemies.” His gaze followed his sister and his lover as they left the room. “At least that I’m aware of.”
“No, Your Highness.” Rico knew the prince would be awakening his advisors for an early meeting. He almost hoped it would turn out to be a political strike. He tensed at the thought that Angelina had been targeted personally.
“I must awaken the king now and let him know what’s happened,” Vittorio said. “Find out who did this,” he ground out between gritted teeth.
“I will get the entire team on it immediately, of course. And I’ll have a list of recommendations on your desk in the morning.”
Vittorio turned back to him. “Recommendations?”
“For my replacement, Your Highness.”
The prince placed his hand on Rico’s shoulder. “Surely after tonight you will reconsider your decision to leave us.”
Rico thought of the office space he’d set up in the city, the contacts he’d made and the former security team members he’d recruited to join him. The unfurnished apartment above the office waiting for him to make it into his own personal space, his first ever that wasn’t within the palace walls. He thought of Princess Angelina and how with each day it became more difficult to stay away from her.
“I’m sorry, Vittorio.” He trusted the security team he’d trained to keep her safe. He had to. “I haven’t changed my mind.”
After the fear and the blood and the questions, Angelina was glad to finally be alone in her rooms. She stripped out of her ruined clothes and turned the water to hot before stepping under the spray. It took forever to scrub her hands clean.
The night kept playing out in her head. The shouts. The shooting. The terror.
Rico had eased her from the car after Enzo was whisked away. She’d been shivering, but not from the cold. Rico had murmured comforting words and shrugged out of his ever-present suit coat and draped it over her shoulders. He had to have been itching to get back to his team, but he’d ushered her inside the palace and then stayed with her until Vittorio and Mia had come to be with her.
The tears started to fall as she watched the red-tinged water flow down the drain. Enzo had been with her for so long, following her everywhere. The rough-looking bodyguard with the soft heart had suffered through many shopping trips with her girlfriends and stupid parties like the one tonight.
Angelina had been so excited for this party. Since her father had only recently rescinded the royal marriage decree, she no longer had to restrict her search for a husband among royalty. Not that she was looking for marriage at twenty-one, but she’d avoided any serious dating because she’d been terrified she’d fall in love with someone she could never marry.
Any royals she’d met in the past few years had been too old, too young, too whiny, or too mean. She’d been paired up with a number of them at various charity functions or royal celebrations, but she’d never been on a real date. Not like she’d read in books or seen in the movies. Dinner and dancing and soul-searing kisses in the moonlight. She wrapped her arms around herself. Would she ever know such a romantic evening?
Of course, she would. Now was her time to have fun and let love find her. She’d hoped to meet some eligible young men at that stupid party, but the few who showed up were already matched with young women. No single men at all. And now Enzo and Donato had almost been killed simply because she wanted to meet guys.
After drying off, she couldn’t relax. She slipped on silky lounge pants and a matching top, then padded barefoot to the door. She couldn’t sleep without knowing how they were doing. She hoped whoever was standing guard outside would have an update.
Angelina flung open her door and saw Rico stationed there. Tall, broad, perfectly filling out one of those black suits he always wore. He’d replaced the jacket that lay in a heap on her bathroom floor. He used to shave his head, but she’d noticed recently he’d let his dark hair grow in. Not much. Close-cropped. Still bad-ass. Still so sexy.
His dark eyes widened and his gaze slowly ran over her before he pulled his eyes away and glanced up and down the hallway. He’d been talking softly to whoever he was wired into, then broke off abruptly when he saw her.
She had to swallow to moisten her suddenly dry mouth. “Rico? I didn’t expect to see you here.”
He straightened, then glowered at her as if he was angry she’d left the safety of her suite. “I’m only standing guard until your new bodyguard arrives.” He glanced at the gold watch on his wrist. “Tony will be here in a few minutes.”
Tony? He’d always been Mia’s bodyguard. “Any news on Enzo and Donato?”
“They’re both still in surgery but it sounds like they’ll make it. Tony will watch over you until Enzo is well enough to resume his duties.” Rico’s dark gaze told her he still wasn’t happy with her. He took a step closer until he loomed over her. “When your guard tells you to do something, you follow orders, Your Highness. Do you understand? Princess or not, you must obey your bodyguard.”
“It all happened so fast. I didn’t have time to think about what was smart. Just what was right.”
His expression softened slightly. “We’ll find out who was behind this, Your Highness, but...” Rico paused, as if he debated whether to share more information with her.
“What?” This was her life they were talking about. “Don’t you dare hold anything back from me. I have the right to know.”
“There was no sign of anyone on that stretch of road. No blood. No bullet casings. Nothing.”
“What does that mean? Someone stopped our car. They shot Enzo and Donato. I didn’t imagine it.”
“Of course not, Your Highness. What I meant was this tells me these people were professionals. This was a planned attack and that they had the experience and the resources to quickly cover their tracks.”
Angelina shuddered. Why would anyone like that be after her? It seemed surreal. “I told you I can’t imagine anyone who would do this. Except…” Silver eyes and long blond hair flashed in her mind. A handsome face but a thin smile and a slimy kind of charm. His face red with anger.
“Except?” Rico repeated, taking a step closer. She had to tip her head back to look him in the eye. He looked so strong, so forbidding.
So hot.
She took a deep breath. Had she ever noticed his spicy scent before? It made her mouth water. “I’m sure it’s nothing. I just remembered the last charity dinner I went to. I was paired with Phillip, the Duke of Larkin.” Her face grew warm. This wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to have with Rico. With anyone. “He…he groped me.”
Storm clouds darkened Rico’s face. “He touched you inappropriately?”
“You could say that.” He’d pounced on her in the backseat of the limo on the way back from the dinner. She shivered as she remembered the way Phillip had suddenly turned into an octopus, hands everywhere, pushing her down onto the seat. She shuddered as she remembered. “But I know how to use my knee.”
Rico grinned and she realized how seldom she saw him smile. He always looked like the big bad bodyguard. She knew he was supposed to look intimidating, not sexy. He looked sexy now.
“Good for you, Your Highness.”
“Phillip did apologize profusely afterward, but I’m not sure it was sincere.”
The grin was gone and Rico was glowering at her again. “Why didn’t you mention this earlier when I asked you?”
“I didn’t want Vittorio to know.” She didn’t even want to imagine how that conversation would have gone. “You know how he is. I’ll always be his little sister and if he heard about something like that, he’d go crazy. And he’d tell our father and he’d go ever crazier.”
Rico’s expression almost looked a little crazy, but his calm mask was up in an instant and she wondered if she’d imagined it. He took another step closer, close enough to touch if she dared reach out her hand. “I can recommend someone to teach you self-defense.”
“Will you teach me?” Angelina was shocked at the way the words slipped out of her mouth on a soft, breathy whisper.
He cleared his throat and backed away, his expression carefully blank. Her face burned. “We have experienced trainers for that job, Your Highness.”
Job. That’s all she was to him. A job. She would have to remember that. She stiffened and took a step back as well. “Never mind. I took care of it without any training. Anyway, I can’t imagine kneeing a letch would be enough for him to hire men with guns to kidnap me.”
“Still, the team will look into it. Anyone else?”
She didn’t want to tell him about the other royal men she’d angered in the past couple years. A few of them had acted as if being matched up for one occasion meant that they had carte blanche to put their hands on her, even assume a future with her. She’d remained firm with them, blocked their calls so she didn’t have to hear from them again, and was coolly polite if she saw them again at another boring function. She’d been raised to be polite, the good princess, no matter what.
Her skin crawled at the thought of any of those men touching her again. Now the man standing in front of her, he was another story. Tingles danced on her skin for an entirely different reason.
Rico had been around the palace for as long as she could remember. She’d had a silly crush on him when she was younger. When he’d been her oldest brother’s best friend. Before everything changed and they’d grown up and she’d come to realize what the royal marriage decree had meant. Rico became one of the many men who’d been forbidden to her.
But not anymore. She let herself look at Rico now as a man. A real man.
He had large hands, long fingers that surely would touch her with finesse, not with immature groping or self-important squeezing. And that mouth. Those lips. What would he taste like? What would his lips feel like if he kissed his way down her body? She’d have nothing to compare it to, but she’d love to know.
She moistened her lips with her tongue. She was certain Rico wouldn’t plant a sloppy kiss on her, shove his tongue between her lips before she’d allowed him that much access to her. She shivered as she let her gaze caress his lips.
“Your Highness?”
Angelina blinked. Rico frowned down on her. What had they been talking about? “I’m sorry? What did you ask?”
“Is there anyone else we should talk to?”
“No. No one.” But now that she thought about it, there were several other members of royalty who’d glared at her at the last gathering, her father’s birthday ball. Some who avoided her or…
“No one,” she repeated. None of her girlfriends who’d broken up with boyfriends had them send armed kidnappers after them, and none of the men Angelina had rejected were more than acquaintances. It was ridiculous. “You’d have more luck questioning my father or brother to get your answers.”
“I will be doing exactly that as soon I know you are safe.”
“I’m safe here at the palace. It was built as fortress. No one is going to get me here.” She was done with this conversation. She wanted to get back in her rooms where she wouldn’t look into his eyes and know she was nothing more than a job to him. Nothing more than a problem to solve. She waved him away. “You are free to go.”
“I am remaining until Tony gets here.” There was that commanding tone and forbidding expression. It shouldn’t have made her feel all shivery.
“You are wasting time you could be spending searching for the person responsible for this.”
His gaze darkened, but it didn’t appear to be in anger. “Your Highness, seeing to your safety is not a waste of time.”
She swallowed. “Oh.”
Could that really be attraction she saw in his eyes? It didn’t creep her out like when Phillip, the Duke of the slimy smile and sweaty hands had undressed her with his gaze. Or Prince Viktor, whose smile was slightly evil and whose touch was cold. Or Ferdinand, who was gorgeous and knew it – and let everyone else know too. Rico’s smile held heat and promise.
Before he pulled back and hid behind that polite mask.
Her body was warm now, warm and fluid and aching for something she’d never been able to find. She knew she shouldn’t feel such desire when Enzo and Donato were fighting for their lives. But she could have been injured too. She could have been kidnapped. She could have been killed.
She looked up at Rico. His dark gaze made her all tingly. She saw Rico in a new light now. Did he still see her as Vittorio’s little sister? Or as the young princess? Could he possibly see her as the woman she’d become? What did he see when he looked at her now?
Words flew out of her mouth. Words she’d had no intention of saying. “You know, I’m not a little girl anymore.”