The Playboy Prince and the Nanny (Royal Duology 1)

“If you want. I can leave you, if you like. I know you’re not happy with me.”

She’d taken a large, succulent bite of spicy shrimp, and she savored it before she answered. “I’m not mad anymore. Not at you, anyway.”

“I should have told you,” he admitted. “I set it up with the security team the day after our picture got into the paper. I didn’t want you to get caught off guard by the press or anyone else. But not telling you was wrong.”

“It was, but I can forgive it. I know you were just trying to protect me. This is all new to me, that’s all. And you came striding across the sand when I was feeling tired, and cranky, and foolish.” It was all she was willing to admit, but it was the truth.

“Maybe next time you can take a friend.”

Rose laughed. “A friend? I’m friendly with the staff, I suppose. But I don’t have friends, not . . . not a girlfriend.” Not like she’d had back in England. She was suddenly very homesick.

“Are you lonely, Rose?”

She met his gaze. He was opening the wine, his strong wrist turning the corkscrew as he watched her. She put down her fork. “Sometimes. Not often. I’m busy here, and everyone is lovely. They really are. The children keep me occupied and entertained, and I have anything a girl could want. My own suite, the gardens, even the camaraderie in the kitchen at night, for a cup of tea and a sneaky piece of cake.”

“But it’s not family.”

“I’m used to being away from them.”

“And used to not being a burden on anyone? Being the one to take care of others instead of letting others take care of you?”

She speared a chunk of chorizo. “That’s not a bad thing.” Then she sent him a grateful smile. “And just tonight, both you and Stephani have made sure I’m cared for. So there.”

He chuckled and handed her a glass of wine. “Nice try. It might have worked if you hadn’t added the ‘so there.’”

She chuckled in return and ate some more, then took a restorative drink of wine and sighed. This was better. Senora Ortiz’s excellent cooking and a fine wine, while sitting across from a real-life prince. She laughed again, staring into her bowl.

“What’s so funny?” He looked amused as he waited for her reply.

“This is just so surreal. I’m in a bloody castle, you see? And I’m entertaining a prince in my room. El Principe, Diego,” she said, the accent rolling smoothly off her tongue. “I’m pretty sure that no one in my family would quite believe it.”

Except Hayley, of course. Hayley was already pumping her for information in her e-mails. Rose loved her sister, but she would never betray the Navarro family. With or without the confidentiality agreement she’d been asked to sign.

“I’m just a man, Rose. The title . . . that’s an accident of birth. And yes, as you said today, I live a certain way. It comes with the title. But underneath all this”—he waved his hand around the room, then placed it on his chest—“I’m just flesh and blood, same as you. I have needs and wants, same as you. I have feelings that have nothing to do with me being a prince or you being the nanny, and everything to do with you being an incredibly compassionate, strong, beautiful woman.”

“Diego.” Her heart pounded now, thumping against her ribs as his words sounded in her ears and went straight to her soul. This would be such a mistake.

“I know, I know. And I don’t have the answers, Rose. I should but I don’t. All I know is that I have these feelings and they’re not going away.” He put down his glass and focused his gaze steadily on her face. “You make me want to be a better man, Rose. And that is something I have never felt before.”

It was unimaginable that he was saying these things to her. And yet she knew he was, because he was sitting right across from her, as earnest as she’d ever seen him.

“What would you have me do, Diego?” Simply asking the question scared her, because she hadn’t come right out and said no. That she was entertaining the idea was insane. “What if Raoul found out? What about the children?”

He got up from the table and spun away. “So neither of us should be free to have a personal life away from obligation? That’s cruel. And if and when the time comes, I’ll deal with Raoul and our father.” He sounded so sure of himself. Confident and strong.

“Your father is the king,” she reminded him.

“And a man,” Diego persisted, coming over beside her and kneeling by her chair. “He’s not heartless. He’s a man who once loved a woman no one approved of.”

He put his hand over hers.

“Don’t use that word,” she whispered. “It’s . . . precipitous.”

Too soon. This was all too soon.

He lifted her hand and kissed the base of it, by the pad of her thumb. She bit down on her lip, bracing herself for what she was sure was going to be seduction. With each passing moment, she was less inclined to fight it.