Nicky was safely tucked up in bed when the first guests arrived. Stella had spent hours getting ready, or at least it seemed like hours. She’d bought a new dress and shoes in the town, with a credit card Vasco gave her and told her to “enjoy.” She felt appallingly self-conscious flicking through racks of dresses at the local boutique under the watchful eye of the proprietor, who must know exactly what she was doing with Vasco every night.
She’d said “No, thank you,” to the more flirty dresses with low-cut cleavage and plunging backs, and picked a rather demure ice-blue satin dress that fell to her ankles. It draped flatteringly over her curves but didn’t reveal too much. Why give them more to gossip about?
“You look beautiful.” Vasco’s warm breath on her neck made her jump. She stood at the top of the stairs looking down into the foyer, as a well-dressed crowd of visitors trickled in, removing velvet capes and even furs despite the warm fall temperatures. All of the women were stunning, including the older ones, and dressed with the elaborate elegance of people who took seeing and being seen seriously.
“I’m a little nervous.” Her palms were sweating and she didn’t dare wipe them on her delicate dress.
“Don’t be. Everyone’s thrilled to meet you.”
“Do they know, about Nicky and you and…”
“Only that you’re my guest of honor.” He kissed her hand, which made the tiny hairs on her skin stand on end. If only this were all over and she could lie in his arms in “their” bed.
She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that the guests didn’t know the truth or worried that this meant they could therefore guess and speculate in all directions.
Vasco slid his arm into hers and guided her down the stairs. His proprietary touch silently introduced her as his girlfriend. The bright, winning stares of richly dressed females raked her skin like sharp nails and their tinkling laughter hurt her ears. Still she made her best effort at conversation—people spoke in English most of the time, presumably for her benefit—and managed to keep a smile plastered on her face.
Vasco looked devastatingly handsome in black tie. Somehow he made even the formal dinner jacket look rakish and daring. He touched her whenever they were near, just a brush of his knuckles along her hip, or a dusting of fingers over her wrist. Each time it made her heart leap into her mouth and her skin tingle with awareness.
Hushed voices, especially in Spanish or Catalan, made Stella’s face heat. She knew they were wondering and whispering. Did they think her too plain and ordinary for Vasco? Did they suspect a “compelling reason” of some sort to explain his interest in her?
“What brings you to Montmajor?” asked a woman about her age, with short dark hair swept into a glossy updo and a curious expression on her carefully made-up face.
“The library.” Stella smiled as sweetly as possible. “I’m a book restorer and the chance to work with these ancient volumes is a dream come true.” Ha. Didn’t even have to fib.
The woman smoothed an imaginary wrinkle out of her black lace dress. “Are you enjoying our local hotel?”
Stella swallowed. “Actually it’s easier for me to stay here at the palace. Closer to the library.” She cleared her throat.
“Of course it is.” A slim eyebrow arched upward. “Such a lovely building. With so many bedrooms.” Her voice dropped slightly for the last phrase. “I’ve seen some of them myself.” Her dark eyes sparkled a challenge.
“Really?” Stella tried to sound amused. “Are you one of Vasco’s old girlfriends?”
A crease appeared between the carefully plucked eyebrows. “Vasco and I are very old friends, but he could never claim I was simply his girlfriend.” She said the word as if it tasted nasty.
Stella felt herself shrink a couple of inches. She’d been so pleased and proud to have Vasco call her his girlfriend. “Oh, you were just lovers, then?” She couldn’t believe how bold she was being.
And it backfired again.
“Yes.” The woman glanced across the room, and her eyes darkened. Stella ventured a guess that she was looking right at Vasco. “Lovers.” A lascivious grin crept across her reddened lips. “That’s exactly what we are.”
The use of the present tense dried Stella’s response on her tongue. She took a hasty swig of champagne.
“Have I embarrassed you?” The velvety voice seemed to mock her. “I am accused of being blunt sometimes. But nothing embarrasses Vasco, I assure you.”
She turned and walked away, leaving Stella staring, openmouthed. This woman obviously considered herself to be Vasco’s current lover. Or one of them, at least. Maybe she was housed in some other well-appointed room at the palace. A square turret, perhaps, or an octagon.
She glanced around, looking for Vasco, and spotted him laughing with a bubbly redhead, whose pale breasts practically poured out of her red bustier. Now, that was what a royal mistress should look like.
Stella glanced down at her frosty-colored ensemble. Maybe she would have been better off with more va-va-voom so these women might see her as competition. She hated the pointy little spears of jealousy that pricked her as he took the woman’s hand and kissed it, just as he’d done with hers earlier that evening.
Vasco was a charmer. A ladies’ man. He couldn’t help flirting and teasing and seducing women. Which made him utterly unsuited to any kind of lasting relationship.
A rather chinless young man asked her to dance and she accepted, glad of the opportunity to keep busy. They chatted about books and the local language and culture in his halting English while he whirled her around the floor to a brisk waltz. Stella inadvertently looked at Vasco a couple of times, but was never gratified by him staring jealously back. He seemed to be enjoying himself and had probably forgotten she was there.
After midnight and the end of a multicourse buffet dinner she was tempted to sneak upstairs on the pretext of checking on Nicky and not come back. As she slipped out a side door of the ballroom into a quiet corridor, a hand on her arm made her jump.
“I’ve missed you tonight.” Vasco’s eyes glittered. “I prefer being alone with you.”
“Me, too,” she said honestly.
“Let’s go to our room.”
Her whole body said yes. In the privacy of the round chamber, Vasco peeled off her dress and devoured her with a ravenous gaze that made her feel like the most gorgeous woman on earth. He feasted on her with his tongue and she enjoyed caressing and tasting his whole body. A banquet much more tempting and satisfying than the one downstairs.
By the time they finally made love she was so aroused she thought she’d climax immediately, but Vasco made a meal of delaying and slowing his movements, taking her right to the brink, then pulling back, until she was almost hysterical with passion. They climaxed together then lay breathless and happy in each other’s arms.
No one else mattered. How could they? When she was alone with Vasco everything was perfect.
But when she woke up later in the night he’d gone. Did he go back to join the party? Possibly even to share his advanced lovemaking skills with another woman? She’d left her son in the care of a sitter night after night for a man who claimed they were a family but offered no permanent commitment.
Sooner or later riding this emotional roller coaster was going to catch up with her.
Vasco returned to the party feeling a buzz that didn’t come from the vintage Montmajor wines they enjoyed. Time with Stella always left him feeling refreshed and glowing with good cheer.
“Hey, Vasco.” His old friend Tomy called to him from near the bar. “I thought we’d lost you for a while there.”
“I had some urgent business.” He took a glass of champagne from a waiter.
“I noticed. The American girl seems to have quite a hold on you.” Tomy raised a blond brow.
“She does indeed.” He sipped the bubbly liquid, which only echoed the fizzing of arousal that still pumped through his system. “She’s the mother of my son.”
Tomy’s eyes widened. “So the rumors are true.”
“Every word of them. Little Nicky has brought life to the palace and so much joy to all of us.”
“Why didn’t any of us know about him?”
“It’s complicated. I didn’t know about the boy until recently. I’m having to move carefully and take my time.”
“You will marry her, won’t you?” Tomy looked skeptical even as he asked the question.
Vasco’s muscles tightened. “You know the Montoya men aren’t cut out for marriage.”
“That’s never stopped them before. You know the people of Montmajor will expect it of you.”
“I’ve spent my life defying expectations and I don’t plan to stop now. I have no wish to marry anyone.”
“What does the girl think about this?”
Vasco frowned. “We haven’t discussed it. Like I said, it’s early days, and she’s a freethinking American who values her independence. She’s not looking for a man to marry.”
They hadn’t discussed it, mostly because despite the intimate tie of Nicky, they were just getting to know each other. How many people started discussing marriage after a month? Usually people dated for years before committing these days. She probably didn’t know what she wanted yet any better than he did.
Tomy’s lips curved into a smile. “So you intend to keep her here as some kind of concubine?”
“No!” He took a swig of his champagne. “Of course not.”
“A lover, then.”
Vasco took in his friend’s amused expression. “Yes, a lover. Why not?”
“Because women are never satisfied with simply being a lover. Maybe it won’t happen this week, or this month, or even this year, but sooner or later she’ll want some kind of commitment from you, in the form of a ring. Especially since there’s a child involved.”
“I’ll keep her happy.” He’d found that a kiss soon dissolved any tension or confusion that arose between him and Stella.
Tomy gave him a wry smile. “For a while you will, then she’ll want to marry you.”
“A fate to be avoided at all costs.” Vasco glanced around at the crowded room. At five in the morning the party was still going strong. “Marriage ruins all good relationships. How many of the married couples in this room don’t despise each other? They all go out to parties so they can dance and flirt with other people. The wedding day is when a relationship starts a perilous downhill journey to hatred and resentment.”
“Your parents were married for more than forty years.”
“And despised each other for every second of it. They only married because my dad was forced into it when she became pregnant with my brother. They may have even loved each other once but there was no evidence of that during my childhood.”
“Your father did like to share his affections.”
Vasco snorted. “With every woman in Montmajor. My mother only put up with it because she hated scandal and drama.”
Tomy shrugged. “That’s how it goes. You marry the pretty mother, then continue to enjoy extracurricular activities. No need for the fun to end because you find a queen. Have your cake and eat it too, as the Americans say.”
Vasco shuddered. “No, thanks. Too much cake will rot your teeth and clog your arteries. There are some Montoya traditions I mean to break with.”
“We noticed when we saw your proclamation making relations legal between unmarried couples.” Tomy grinned. “Very romantic.”
“There’s no reason to make the mother of my child a criminal.”
“You’re such a sweet guy.” Tomy shoved him playfully. “No wonder every woman in Western Europe has the hots for you. You do know all the other girls will take your unmarried status to be an open invitation.”
“If I got married they’d just see it as an intriguing challenge.” Vasco raised a brow. “I think I’m safer single.”
Tomy shook his head. “If only I was you.”
The ball, with its large and gossipy guest list, set rumors buzzing round Europe. Stella found herself drawn to the websites of paparazzi rags which linked her name with Vasco’s and speculated openly about Nicky.
It was humiliating to know that people all over the world could ooh and ahh and guess over their romance—and she didn’t know any more about where it was headed than they did.
“You’re taking it too seriously,” protested Karen, when she phoned her late one night. She knew Vasco would be waiting for her in “their room” and she hated herself for being so eager to head there. “Let loose and enjoy yourself.”
“Trust me, I have been. That’s half the problem. If I had any discipline I’d confront him and ask him where this is going.”
“Why don’t you just let things take their own course?”
“I’m trying.” She sighed. “But I have a feeling we’ll carry on like this forever.”
Karen laughed. “What’s wrong with that? It sounds like you’re having a fabulous time.”
“I came here to Montmajor so Vasco could get to know his son. I’ve done everything his way and I’ve even discovered that I love it here. But I can’t stay here, sleeping with him every night, as some kind of live-in girlfriend.”
“Why not? Sounds perfect to me.”
Stella stretched herself out on the bed in her own room. “I guess I’m not cut out for prolonged dating. I must be old-fashioned. Remember how I was always trying to get Trevor to go one step further?”
“That’s because you wanted kids.”
“Yes, but I also wanted to get engaged, and married. Does that make me strange?”
“No, it makes you boringly normal. Don’t be boringly normal. Seize life by the horns and Vasco by the…well, whichever bit sticks out most.”
“You’re horrible. I don’t know why I even called you.” She couldn’t help smiling as she let her head rest on the pillows. “And of course that’s exactly what I’ll go do the moment I hang up this phone.”
“Thank goodness. I’d hate to think of him going to waste. I saw the pics of you on the Hello website and he’s seriously droolworthy.”
“You’re looking at those websites, too?”
“Human interest. Those of us who don’t have a life of our own live vicariously through the exploits of lucky ladies like you.”
“All I wanted was to quietly raise my son and restore books.”
“Now you’re doing both of those and sleeping with the hottest guy in Europe. Oh, and he’s a king. I’m crying into my coffee for you.”
“Be serious. I have to decide whether to stay here with Nicky, or bring him back to the States. Vasco wants me to stay, but I’ve already decided that I can’t live here as his lover indefinitely. It’s not fair to me or to Nicky. We’ve been here a month and I’m sure it’s starting to feel like home to Nicky. I need to know whether it will be our permanent home, or if I’m just another in a long line of girlfriends.”
“A month isn’t a very long time.”
“It’s been long enough for me…” To fall in love. She didn’t want to say it out loud. Right now it was just her secret.
A month might not be much in a conventional relation ship where you meet the person for a date once or twice a week, but they were living together and saw each other all day long, not to mention all night long. Well, except those lonely early mornings. It was a fast-forward kind of relationship, and in the public eye, too. If total strangers wondered and gossiped about where they were headed, she’d be foolish not to want some concrete answers, too.
“What, you’re bored with him as a boy toy already?”
“I wish.”
“Uh-oh. I think I get it now. You’re getting in deeper than you imagined and you want to know whether to go all the way or pull back while you can still save yourself.”
“You have amazing insight. I’ve never felt like this about anyone, including Trevor.” Not even close. “And I know from my years of living on this planet that this kind of relationship ends in marriage or tears.”
“Or both.”
“Thanks for your support.” Stella rolled over. Vasco would wonder where she was if she didn’t leave soon. Maybe she should keep him guessing for a change, so he wouldn’t take her for granted.
“Just ask him.”
Stella laughed. “You make it sound so easy. Hey, Vasco, will we be getting married or are you saving yourself for someone hotter?”
“Leave out the last part and you’ll be fine. Or ask him to marry you.”
Stella sucked in a breath. She could never do that. The prospect of rejection was far too agonizing. But there was another possibility. “Maybe I could ask him if he intends for Nicky to be his heir. If he doesn’t marry me, then Nicky doesn’t inherit. At least not if Vasco has another child.”
“Go for it. That could be a good deciding factor on whether you stay. Does Nicky seem happy there?”
“Very. He’s gone from being shy and almost nonverbal to the most babbling and outgoing little boy. I think he loves being doted on by caring relatives rather than competing with lots of little go-getters in day care. The slower pace of life here works nicely for him.”
“And for you.”
She hesitated. “I do love it here. It’s a bit like living in a five-star hotel all the time. The people are so lovely and I have work most restorers could only dream of.”
“And Vasco.”
“For now.”
“Go ask him.” Karen sounded firm. “Just find out what’s in his mind. And don’t call me back until you do!”
The abrupt dial tone sent a frisson of anxiety through Stella. She peeled herself off the bed and slipped her feet into her shoes. Vasco would be waiting for her with that warm, seductive smile on his sensual mouth and a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. She had to get her question—whatever it might be—out before she fell under the spell of his touch and his kiss and all sensible thought retreated into oblivion.
She passed one of the porters in the hallway and nodded a greeting. She wasn’t even too embarrassed anymore about running into people on her nightly perambulations. Surely everyone in the palace knew what went on between her and Vasco. No doubt they accepted it as a normal and natural part of life in a royal house.
With a royal mistress.
She didn’t feel like a “girlfriend,” whatever that was. She lived in his palace and ate his food and wore designer clothes he paid for. Girlfriends took care of their own rent and phone bills and went out for nights on the town with their other friends. She was a kept woman right now, even if she did have a job that paid far more than the going rate.
“El meu amor.” Vasco’s deep voice greeted her from the darkness of the round chamber. My love. Did he feel the same way she did?
She closed the door behind her and searched for Vasco’s moonlit outline on the four-poster bed. Silver rays picked out his muscled torso and proud, handsome face. He lay naked on the covers, arms outstretched to welcome her. “Come here, I’ll undress you.”
She steeled herself against a desire to climb right into his embrace and surrender herself. “I’ve been here a month.” Better spit it out before she succumbed. “I want to know where Nicky and I stand. Long-term, I mean.”
“You live here and it’s your home.”
Her heart beat faster and her courage started to fail her. Did she want to risk losing what they had? “I can’t be your girlfriend forever.”
“You’re far more than that.”
“I know, I’m the mother of your son, but what does that mean for us in the future?” She straightened her shoulders. “Will we marry? Will Nicky be king one day?”
He laughed. “Already looking ahead to when I’m dead and gone?”
“No.” The word shot out. How rude she seemed with her demands. “No, not at all.” The prospect of Vasco dying was unimaginable. A more vital and indestructible man would be hard to find. “It’s just that…I want us to be a real family and…”
Her words trailed off. I want us to live happily ever after. Her face heated and she was grateful for the darkness. There, she’d said it. Put all her pathetic hopes and dreams out into the dark air, where they now hung in silence that stung her ears.
“Stella.” He rose off the bed and moved toward her. “We are partners in every way.”
She braced herself as he came close. The warm masculine scent of him drifted into her nostrils, taunting her. “I don’t want to be a royal mistress. People are talking. All the papers are speculating. It’s embarrassing.”
“People always talk and write about members of the royal family. It’s just part of life in the public eye. There’s no need to read that stuff or trouble yourself with it. Our life is ours alone and no one else matters.”
He slid a powerful arm around her waist and her belly shuddered in response. Why did he always sound so sensible and make her feel she was being silly?
She tried to picture the worst-case scenario. “Do you plan to marry someone else one day? Another aristocrat perhaps?”
Vasco’s throaty laugh filled her ears. “Never. Never, never, never. Our son will be king and you will always be my queen.” He pressed his lips to hers and a flash of desire scattered her thoughts. “Let’s enjoy tonight.”
His hand covered her breast through her thin blouse. Her nipple thickened under his palm and her head tilted back to meet his kiss. How did he always do this to her? Already her hands roamed over the warm, thick muscle of his chest. Again she was intoxicated by the sheer pleasure of the moment.
Maybe she wanted too much. Couldn’t it be enough to enjoy life here in this lovely place with a man she was crazy about? Vasco undressed her slowly, working over her body with his tongue. She arched her back, letting herself slide into the ocean of pleasure he created around her. Most women would kill for a lover this sensitive and creative, let alone all the other things she enjoyed in the palace.
She ran her fingertips over the hard line of his jaw, enjoying the slight stubble that roughened his skin. Vasco’s eyes gleamed with desire as he looked up at her while sliding her pants off. The chemistry between them was undeniable. She’d never felt anything like it. Would she seriously walk away from Vasco because he didn’t plan to marry her?
Her whole body shouted “No!” Vasco took her in his arms and they rolled on the bed together, wrapped up in each other. Her body craved his and judging from his arousal and the soft words he breathed in her ear, the feeling was mutual.
She exhaled with relief as he entered her, and they moved together in a dance of erotic joy that swept them both up into their own world of bliss, where no one else existed. Afterward, she was too tired to think, let alone speak.
But she phoned Karen the next day, as promised.
“He said I’ll always be his queen.” It sounded pretty promising when you said it out loud like that.
“What more could you want?”
“A wedding date. You remember how Trevor always put me off with excuses and reasons for delay. All that We’re too young. We have our whole lives ahead of us. You can’t rush these things. Maybe he even meant it at first, but he got comfortable with the way things were and decided not the change them.”
“Vasco’s not Trevor, thank goodness.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last decade, it’s that a man who’s determined to dig his feet in can stand like that forever. After we broke up, Trevor got more honest and admitted that he’d never have married me or had a child. He didn’t want the responsibility.”
“I always told you he was a creep.”
“He’s comfortable living in a pleasant limbo between carefree boyhood and the responsibilities of family life. He wanted the reassurance of knowing he had a date on Friday, but not the commitment of diapers to change or college fees to pay.”
“Or a wife to still cherish and adore when she had silver hair and crow’s-feet.” Karen chimed in. “He’s like my ex. They like to keep the escape clause open.”
“I can’t live like that. Not anymore. I decided that when I broke up with him and made the choice to start a family by myself. I chose a life on my own terms and embraced it, and I’m not going to turn around and live life on someone else’s terms that I don’t agree with, and that’s what I’m doing right now.”
“One month, Stella. It’s not exactly the same as nine years.”
“That nine years happened one month at a time, because I just kept waiting. Never again. It’s worse now because people I don’t even know are curious. You should see the headlines—‘Royal wife or royal mistress?’ It’s totally humiliating.”
Karen sighed. “I think I could get used to being a royal mistress, if there were enough diamonds involved.”
“Oh, stop.”
“But I have a crazy idea.”
“Knowing you it really will be crazy.”
“Listen, if you asked him whether you’re getting married and he fobbed you off with some fluff about being his queen, then maybe you can call his bluff.”
“How so?” Already a nasty sense of misgiving writhed in her gut.
“If you told one of those gossip rags that you and Vasco were getting married, would he deny it?”
Stella shrugged. “Probably not. He’d just nod and smile and say ‘one day’ or something like that.”
“But what would he do if you told them you definitely weren’t getting married?” Her voice had a calculating tone.
“You’ve lost me.”
“He’s used to running his life the way he wants it and having everyone follow along nicely. If you, the mother of his child and heir and the woman he sees as his queen, says she won’t marry him, he’s bound to protest, right? Men always want what they can’t have. It’s reverse psychology.”
“Well…” Karen had a point. He probably would be upset by an outright refusal.
“And he’ll want to prove you wrong.”
“By proposing and making me his wife within the week?” She laughed, but the idea was oddly intriguing. “I don’t know, Karen. It’s not my style.”
“You’ve tried your style and it’s not working. If he won’t discuss your future with you in private, flush him out in the open. At least then you’ll get your answer one way or the other. If you really want it, that is.”
Stella bit her lip. “You’re right. If he’s not going to marry me I’d rather know now, so I can move on with my life. Your idea is crazy, but it just might work.”