Chapter Seven

Elias cupped his hands around the steaming mug of coffee and wished he had some whiskey to doctor it with.

Because it turned out that finally living out the dream he’d had for so many years—that of telling his father that he’d found the missing princess—in no way matched his fantasy.

In his head, Albert Trebanti would’ve fist-pumped the air, given him a rib-cracking hug, and layered on the praise like whipped cream on top of apple strudel.

It wasn’t the accolade so much that Elias had dreamed of. It was finally taking that haunted look out of his father’s eyes. Lifting the shroud of the past the man walked around with every damn day and making him happy. That by finding the princess, his father would turn back into the laughing, lighthearted man Elias couldn’t remember, but had seen in photos.

Yeah, no.

“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, Papa. But duty required the royal family be notified first. You know how that goes.”

“Of course. Our duty to the Villani family is more important than anything.” It was a sentence he’d repeated to his son growing up as often as telling him to comb his hair or do his homework. Albert put a plate of eggs and bacon in front of Elias, then immediately turned back to the stove. Or, more to the point, turned his back on Elias.

As an attempt to stop this conversation, it was laughable. Elias never gave up. On anything.

Least of all, getting to the bottom of why, when his father should be relieved and ecstatic that his twenty-five year ordeal was over, the man was as stoic and closed off as any other Monday morning.

He looked around the small kitchen of the stone house he’d grown up in. White curtains still hung at the window overlooking the mountains. Copper pots still hung from a rack above the wooden table. But the explanation for his father’s relentlessly dour mood was nowhere to be seen. “So you’re not mad I’ve known for four days and only told you now?”

“I’m not mad.”

“You’re not happy, though, either. Not truly.” Eli pushed his coffee away to clasp his hands on the blue-checked placemat. “Papa, you getting this news should be like fifty birthdays and a hundred Christmases all rolled together into one magic burst of happiness. Your honor has been vindicated.”

“I’m proud of you for bringing Princess Valentina back where she belongs. But it doesn’t change or in any way diminish the dishonor of how badly I failed her all those years ago.” His father brought his own filled plate to the table and sat.

Neither of them picked up forks to so much as touch the food.

Searching for something to break the silence, Eli said, “It’s Kelsey, not Valentina. She wants us to use the name she’s known her whole life.”

A ghost of a smile almost flickered at the edges of his father’s mouth. “I cannot imagine Grand Duchess Agathe being happy about her granddaughter abandoning her royal name. Especially in favor of one so…very American.”

“Yeah, well, luckily my job is not to keep the grand duchess happy.” In an attempt to keep that smile flickering, Eli fell back on relating gossip about the guards. Because aside from his son, the bodyguards were the only thing in his father’s life. “Did you hear that she fired August Terrani last week? The man had twenty years in the Protection Service. Worked like a dog to be assigned to the inner circle of the Villani family. He didn’t last three days guarding her.”

The grand duchess’s temper was legendary. As was her biting wit that could sheer a person’s skin off with a handful of icy cold words. Elias worried about Kelsey holding her own against the formidable old woman.

On the other hand, maybe he should worry about Agathe holding up against Kelsey’s infectious spirit.

With a stiff nod, Albert picked up his fork. “I appreciate you bringing me this news. I’ll be sure to come to your medal ceremony.”

“What ceremony?”

“For finding the lost princess, of course. At the very least, the king will give you a medal of honor. At the most, a knighthood. Possibly a manor house to go with it.”

Fuck. Elias had assumed Christian had just been poking at him with the threat of a reward knighthood. Keeping the Villanis safe was all the reward he needed. He wasn’t one of the privileged elite. He worked for a living, and was damn proud of it. Sitting on his ass raking in money other people earned on his behalf was not how he planned to spend his life.

Now he’d have to find a way to head that off at the pass. On top of working out elaborate security plans for a princess who had to go incognito for two weeks.

And that was on top of working hard not to think about how good Kelsey had felt in his arms… Like a dream come true. Except more real, more fantastic than any dream.

But just as fleeting as a dream.

Maybe that was the problem. Maybe his father needed to see her to believe she was truly real, and not just a figment of his imagination. “Come meet Kelsey. I’ll look at her schedule and find a time. You’ll like her. She’s a breath of fresh air.”

“No.”

Right. The decades of embarrassment and guilt were holding Albert in place like quicksand. But Eli was throwing him a rope. All he had to do was let Eli pull him up. “It’ll give you closure. Once you see the princess, in the palace, you can finally put the whole thing behind you.” Having a plan kickstarted his appetite. He smeared a thick layer of loganberry jam on the toast.

“Why would she want to meet me?”

“She’s meeting an entire country’s worth of new people. It’s…disconcerting. Difficult. The princess trusts me, feels at ease in my presence in a way she doesn’t yet with most others in the palace. When I say I want to introduce her to my father, she’ll do it, no questions asked.”

“Your father, yes, I’m sure. But why would she want to meet me?” Thumping his fist against his sternum hard enough to make a knocking sound, he continued in a much louder tone. “Me, Albert Trebanti, the guard who let her be kidnapped?”

Elias shoveled in a forkful of eggs to have an excuse not to respond.

Because, hell no, he hadn’t told the princess about his own, very personal connection to her disappearance. He’d barely talked her into leaving Manhattan as it was. Knowing that his own flesh and blood was—technically—to blame for her abduction wouldn’t have given her any reason to walk out the apartment door with him.

His dad had raised him, knew his tells. And even after years of training to keep Elias stoic and poker-faced through any and everything, a parent always had intuition about his child.

Albert’s eyes narrowed. Then, with the most emotion he’d shown all day, he pounded on the table.

“Aha! The princess doesn’t know, does she?”

He dodged the accusation with as much finesse and speed as when he’d dodged Christian’s rapier-thrust when they’d fenced last month. “We’ve thrown a lot at her in a very short span of time. There’s only so much she can take in at once. I think it’s up to King Julian or Prince Christian to relate the official version of what happened when she was abducted. Right now, they’re too busy plotting her future to bother wallowing in the past.”

There. That sounded reasonable. Believable.

Not at all like it was already knotting up his gut to keep this from Kelsey. She’d poured out her heart to him. How was Elias repaying her? By half truthing it on one of the biggest pieces of his life.

The entire reason he’d joined the Royal Protection Service was to try and give his father the assurance that the Trebanti name would reclaim its honor with his devotion to the royal family. His best friend was the prince because he’d had free rein of the palace due to his mother being lady-in-waiting to the queen. And the disappearance of Princess Valentina had shadowed his life every bit as much as it had the Villanis.

“Son, this is a mistake. You need to tell her Highness before she finds out from someone else.”

“There are about a million and ten things she needs to know right now. Everything’s a top priority. A pair of Siamese octopuses couldn’t juggle everything being thrown at the princess.” His phone shimmied on the table as it vibrated with a notification.

Odd that it was from Sir Evan. They weren’t exactly drinking buddies. Why would Duchess Mathilde’s secretary need him? She had her own protection team.

One swipe gave him the answer. Or rather, a whole truckload of trouble. Short on detail but big on impact, it read,

THE PRINCESS IS ON TWITTER!!!!!!

Normally, Eli would roll his eyes at the string of exclamation marks. But today? With this news? They were barely enough to convey the enormity of the situation.

He pushed back from the table, took a fast swig of coffee. “There’s been a complication at the palace. I’m sorry, but I have to go. Please think about meeting the princess.”

“That would be a mistake.”

Well, it wouldn’t be the first of the day. This situation with Kelsey could flip from a huge mistake to huge danger in a matter of minutes. Three bites of breakfast were not enough fuel to get him through this next battle. So Eli called in reinforcements, texting Christian to meet him ASAP in the palace’s south wing.

Because there was no way Kelsey could be allowed on the internet.

…

Elias made sure to stay at the prince’s elbow.

Striding through the halls of Alcarsa Palace together meant he had to add on a couple of layers of formality. At least, to any observers they passed.

They were walking too fast, however, to be overheard. So Elias let it rip.

“Did you get whacked in the head with a mallet when you fell off your polo pony last weekend?”

“Destiny isn’t a pony. He’s a full-blood Arabian that stands at seventeen hands. And I didn’t fall off. I got unseated.”

“Either way, your brains have to be semi-scrambled. I heard you put fifty litva into the Harbor Protection’s pool for tonight’s soccer game.”

“Betting’s not illegal. I’m going to go down there and watch the game with them. A few wagers will make it more interesting.”

True. Plus, he appreciated this gift-wrapped chance to hassle the prince. As a friend. As a citizen and an employee of the royal family, however, Elias knew better. “But you bet against Moncriano’s team. What if word gets out?”

Christian gave an evil grin, full of teeth and threat. “I hope it does. Then the coach will finally realize he used his balls for brains when he traded our three best defenders. The team is a disgrace this season.”

They stopped in front of the double doors to Kelsey’s suite. Elias nodded at Lathan, who was bowing to the prince. “It’ll probably get loud in there for the next few minutes. How about you take your break now?”

Lathan shook his head. “I couldn’t possibly desert my post.” But Elias caught the way the corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement.

Damn it. Sir Evan must’ve blabbed. Lathan wanted to stay and listen to the show. “You eavesdrop like an old woman.”

“I collect information.”

Annoyed, Elias used the side of his fist rather than his knuckles to deploy a volley of knocks. “Your Highness? Are you decent? May we come in?”

“I’m still jet-lagged, so the chances of my behaving with total decency are down to about fifty-fifty.”

He and Christian exchanged faint smiles. Apparently, the grand duchess hadn’t scared the stuffing out of her. Yet. Elias opened the door for the prince and followed him in.

It was after nine, so he’d expected the princess to be up and about to launch into Sir Evan’s formidable schedule. But he hadn’t thought about jet lag making her sleep later.

He also hadn’t prepared himself for the sight of Kelsey in bed.

Her hair was mussed, mussed in the way it’d be if he spent the night in bed with her. Sunlight flooded the room, so her violet eyes practically sparkled. And oh, sweet Lord, the ideas it gave him to see her centered in the four-poster bed amidst tumbled covers and a stack of pillows.

His mouth went dry. His pulse jack-rabbited up. Elias could all too easily imagine how soft and warm and pliable she’d be underneath the duvet. Hell, he could all too easily imagine swiping his tongue across her lips to taste the marmalade he saw glistening on the corner of her croissant. Undoing those lavender buttons with his teeth to slide a hand under her top and knead her breast while they kept kissing…

Mallory’s squeal pulled him out of his lust daze. Holy hell, how had he not noticed that her sister was over by the window? Then there was a thud as her knee hit the table as she tried to jump up and curtsey at the same time. It knocked over the chair, and almost knocked her sister on her ass.

Good physical comedy more than made up for the coffee he hadn’t gotten to finish.

“Your Highness.” On the second try, Mallory sank into a deep, flawless curtsey that looked utterly respectful even in pajamas and bare feet.

“Good morning, Miss Wishner. Kelsey.” Christian gave both sisters his half-assed, official smile, along with a nod of his head.

Guess he was nervous about laying down the law to Kelsey after their less than stellar meeting two days ago. Hard to be strict with someone while you also wanted them to instantly connect with you. Clearly, Elias needed to get a move on that conversation-topics list for the prince.

Kelsey didn’t budge or smile. “Two of us are dressed wrong for this meeting,” she said dryly. “How about you give us an hour to shower and get dressed, and then we’ll regroup for whatever this is?”

“I’m afraid this can’t wait.”

“I’m not fully caffeinated.”

“Join the club,” Elias muttered. Shit. That was probably too familiar, too relaxed of a comment to make in front of Christian. Luckily, the prince’s attention seemed to be focused on the other Miss Wishner, who had moved behind the heavy draperies swagged at the French doors. Her head angled sideways around them as she unhooked the tasseled rope pulling them back.

“Mallory, what are you doing?”

“I don’t have a robe in here. I can’t stand in front of the prince in my pajamas.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Last Halloween you wore a bikini with hay sticking out of it to prove scarecrows could be sexy. Since when did you turn into a prude? I’ll bet you five dollars—wait, what is it you use for money here? Euros?”

Rubbing his forehead, Christian winced. “Not yet. Ask me again in six months to see if the answer’s changed.”

Elias couldn’t believe she’d managed to step right onto that conversational land mine. Maybe he should make a list of topics for Kelsey of questions that shouldn’t be asked…yet.

She poked at a thick white binder with her foot from under the covers. “I’ll bet you five whatevers that there’s nothing in this protocol manual that says it’s against the law to wear PJs in front of the prince. Right?”

Christian put his hand on his lapel and inclined his head. “In fact, when in my bedroom, I quite stringently uphold the opposite of that rule.”

Mallory’s eyes widened. Kelsey waited a beat before crawling to the foot of the bed where Christian stood. “Did you just make a dirty joke?”

“Yes.” This crown prince who regularly handled conversations with world leaders, Nobel prize winners, and working-class people equally smoothly cast Eli a panicked, “oh crap, what have I done” glance. Then he extended his arm, palm upraised, toward Kelsey. “Unless it offends you, in which case I’d write it off as something going wrong in translation.”

A wide smile broke across her face. She planted a palm in the middle of his chest and pushed. Caught off guard, Christian staggered back a step.

“Are you kidding? That proves you’re getting comfortable. Breaking down the formal walls. You made a thoroughly inappropriate joke. That’s the best thing that’s happened to me since we landed.” Her gaze slid up, over his shoulder to where Elias stood near the fireplace. “Or at least the second best.”

Eli’s pulse soared again, but this time out of apprehension. Was she going to just blurt out to her brother that they’d kissed?

Was their kiss really the best thing that had happened to her?

He couldn’t risk giving her the chance to bring it up. “Your Highness, we’re here on a matter of some urgency. I apologize for not stipulating this previously, but you need to be on social media lockdown. No emails, no Instagrams of the palace, and definitely no Twitter.”

“What? You can’t cut me off like that. This isn’t a police state. Is it? I’m still an American citizen. I have rights, and one of the main ones we hold dear is freedom of speech. If I have to march out of here straight to the American embassy, I’ll do it.” She’d climbed out of bed and gone toe to toe with Elias. Her eyes flashed and her chest heaved and holy hell, she was beautiful all worked up like that.

After clearing his throat, Christian added, “You also need to quit your job.”

Whew. Glad Christian took the lead on that pronouncement. It should at least shift her ire to the prince for a few minutes.

Instead of more fiery anger, Kelsey deflated. The corners of her pale-pink lips drooped. Disappointment muted her like fog rolling off the ocean and blocking the sun. “And here I thought we were making progress.” She crossed over to Mallory and whipped away the curtain. “Stop being ridiculous. We have bigger problems than your sudden, weird shyness. Christian’s family now. Get used to it.”

“He’s not my family,” Mallory muttered. But she did sit down in a chair. Drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them in tight with her arms, though.

Kelsey stayed by the French doors, one hand tight on the gilt handle. Eli hoped she wasn’t about to make a break for it. She’d be safe on the palace grounds, but it’d be harder to keep her true position a secret if she streaked across the formal gardens in her nightclothes.

She put her other hand on the side of her throat as if her head was too heavy to hold up by itself. “Christian, you can’t tell me what to do. Perhaps technically you can, since you outrank me. As my brother, though? Nope. Ask Mallory. She’s tried to boss me around our entire lives. Does it ever work?”

“Almost never,” her sister affirmed in a disgusted tone.

“And, Elias, unless you’re giving me an order that’ll get me out of the way of a bullet, you can’t tell me what to do, either. I’m fairly logical, reasonable. If you talk to me like a person, with, oh, explanations for a request, I’ll listen with open ears and a mostly open mind. Ordering me around? That’ll just make me dig in my heels.”

Eli didn’t dare risking a look at Christian. No doubt his friend regretted the way they’d handled this as much as he did. Why had they charged in, issuing commands? Was it a knee-jerk reflex to Kelsey being an American, rather than thinking of her as a Villani? Or was it an instinct to overprotect because they knew she was the princess?

One thing was undeniable—they’d screwed up. And he wouldn’t wait for Christian to kick off the apologies. Elias needed to do this for himself. For her. To keep the tenuous trust they’d built so far.

“Your Highness, I’m sorry if I came off as high-handed. We were concerned, convinced that every lost second could result in another tweet you fired off.”

Her hands fell to her sides. “What on earth is so concerning? Do you think I’m leaving bad reviews for your country on Yelp?”

Elias bit back a grin. It would draw Christian’s attention if he reacted. “Right now, very few people know we’ve found you. Revealing your return will require considerable strategy. For every one thing we control, there will be a hundred world-wide actions and reactions that are out of our control.”

Batting away his words with her hand, Kelsey said, “A surprise, yes. A headline blip for a few days, but after the big reveal, there isn’t any more news. Then it’s just a private matter as we work out how to be a family.”

Christian, in his own half-assed apology, squeezed her upper arm. “It is considerably more complex than that. You’ve come back to Moncriano at a…tricky time. Our country is caught up in a divide the likes of which hasn’t been seen for centuries. Tensions are high. Everything the royal family does has a ripple effect on those tensions.”

She gathered her hair into her fists and held it on top of her head. The motion pulled her top taut against her breasts, and Elias honestly wondered if he’d get an erection in front of the prince for the first time in his life.

Unprofessional.

Unacceptable.

Almost unstoppable.

He looked away, over to the antique clock on the mantel. It was fanciful; pale-green porcelain with pink roses and gilt curlicues around the edge. Staring at it dropped his lust surge immediately.

Then Kelsey laughed. And Elias realized there was nothing that could tamp down his attraction to her. “Considering I didn’t know anything about Moncriano a week ago, I can easily promise not to weigh in on whatever this is. I’m not qualified to go spouting off opinions.”

Shaking his head, Christian said, “Your mere presence will be an influencer. You see, there’s a vote coming up about our joining the European Union. I presume you know what that is?”

Mallory’s legs fell to the floor, and she straightened. “The grouping of twenty-five nations that came together politically and economically approximately twenty years ago.”

Evidently spouting facts cured her shyness.

It earned her a tight smile of approval from the prince. “One faction sees it as a leap toward the future. The other faction would prefer to cling to the nationalism of the past. Support of the monarchy is a big piece of that.”

Something that looked an awful lot like hope brightened Mallory’s eyes. “If you join the EU, will it dissolve the monarchy?”

It was almost laughable how much these Wishner sisters considered being a princess a problem. In fact, Christian’s mouth twitched and came damned close to breaking into a grin at the ridiculous prospect.

“No, but how we reveal the princess, every statement made about the royal family being made whole again, those will trigger a strong—to put it mildly—response by the monarchial party. It could be seen as us trying to tip the vote. When, in fact, we bend over backwards to not do that. That would, of course, enrage the other side. Nationalism versus opportunism.”

Kelsey hoisted herself up onto the foot of the bed. “I only emailed my boss to explain that I’d be unavailable for two weeks on a family emergency. Then I emailed a profuse apology to the man who’s going to be stuck covering for me. Oh, and I tweeted a happy birthday gif of a cat drinking beer for my friend Priscilla.”

Thank goodness. Of course, Eli would still comb through every post she’d made to check. “At first blush, that seems harmless, yes? But what if someone sees it as a Marie Antoinette moment? That now that you’re a princess, you’ve embraced a life of drunken debauchery and urge your friends to do the same.”

“It’s a burping cat, with its little paw covering the hole in the can to shotgun the beer. PETA might give me side-eye, but it certainly isn’t debauched.”

“Things on Twitter can escalate fast,” he said grimly.

Christian had wound up sitting across from her sister. He pointed at her now. “What if you and Mallory post a selfie from the garden? Pretty roses behind you, nothing outrageous. Except that there’s an accidental photobomb of the prime minister in the courtyard. There wasn’t a meeting on his public schedule with the king. Is this proof of collusion? Are we secretly insinuating ourselves into the voting process? Buying favor with members of Parliament?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Mallory shot back.

Elias didn’t disagree. But that didn’t change the facts. “That’s the internet. That’s why, Your Highness, you have to stop. As royalty, everything you do or say will be picked apart through a very different lens.”

She crossed her arms under her breasts, forcing him to look away again. “I didn’t agree to stay past two weeks. If I don’t stay, I still need a job. The rent won’t pay itself.”

This time Christian did laugh out loud. “You have an immensely large trust. Since you were never declared dead, it’s been held for you. You won’t ever need a job again.”

“Needing isn’t the same as wanting. I like my job. I like what I do. I like having a purpose.”

Elias adored her dogged refusal to back down, even though it made his job twice as hard. This woman knew what she wanted.

Christian was holding onto his patience well. Even though Elias knew he didn’t have the ten minutes to spare today that they’d already spent in here. The prince said calmly, “Do you like it enough to not leave them in the lurch? Even if you don’t stay in Moncriano, your world will be turned upside down. You won’t be able to continue the life you had before. That isn’t a command. It is simply a fact of what comes with your new status.”

A status that hadn’t quite kicked in yet, which gave Elias an idea. Normally, he wouldn’t contradict the prince in front of others, but he couldn’t take the sadness that drew her mouth into a kissable pout.

“What if we give the princess a week to wrap up a few projects? To post all the memes she wants on Twitter. Instead of going cold turkey—which never works—we ease her off gently?”

Christian’s eyebrow shot up at Eli’s public challenge. Then, after a brisk nod, he strode to the tall double doors leading to the hallway. Decision made and discussion over. “You can have one week. That’s as long as we’ll be able to keep your return a complete secret. Maids talk. Members of parliament talk. We can hold off the official announcement, but I guarantee rumors will be swirling by Saturday.”

He left without waiting for any acknowledgment from the Wishners. Elias had no choice but to follow him. Christian may have thought the matter settled.

Elias knew better. And he knew, hoped, Kelsey would need him.