ALONE.
Not a soul around.
Annabelle made her way along the deserted beach with the bright moonlight guiding her. She had no destination in mind. There was no place she needed to be. And no one who was expecting her.
She should be kicking up her heels and savoring this moment. Or at the very least feeling as though she’d gained something huge—her freedom. There were no longer people looking over her shoulder. There were no reports filed with her father, detailing any of her activities. And that’s because the security detail had been officially dismissed not long after Drago was arrested.
Annabelle stopped walking and turned to the water. It wasn’t until that moment she realized her freedom was not what she’d been truly craving all of this time. Because if it was then she wouldn’t feel so utterly alone and adrift.
Grayson was gone.
For a moment after he’d packed his bags and walked out the door, she’d thought he might change his mind. She’d prayed that he would come back to her. She’d assured herself that he was just having some sort of reaction to the scene at the landmark. Maybe it was shock or fear and it would pass. It didn’t.
But how could he just walk away? He did care about her. Didn’t he?
There had been lunches and dinners. The chariot race. The gown he’d given her. Their collaboration over the coded messages. And there were so many small moments...a look here or a touch there. Didn’t those all add up to mean something special?
Or had she just been fooling herself?
Maybe if she’d been more open, more honest about her feelings for him instead of keeping it all locked safely inside. Maybe if she’d have taken a chance, he’d still be here.
A breeze off the water rushed over her skin and combed through her hair. She folded her arms over her chest and rubbed her arms with her palms. At last, she realized that freedom wasn’t something anyone could give her. Real freedom came from living her life to its fullest and opening her heart to others—something she’d never done with any man—including Grayson.
She missed him so much that her heart ached. There was a gaping hole in it and she didn’t know how to stop the pain. By now, he’d be on his way to Italy or California.
How was it that this man had crashed into her life on a city sidewalk and so quickly, so easily snuck past all of her defenses and burrowed so deeply into her heart? And how did she learn to live without his warm smiles, his deep laughs and his gentle touch?
She groaned with frustration. This was a time when a girl really needed her mother. Tears blurred Annabelle’s vision and she blinked them away. What would her mother say to her?
Would her mother ask her how she’d fallen so hard? Would she want to know how Annabelle had mucked things up so quickly? And what would she say to her mother? Would she blame it on the severe restrictions her father had unfairly placed upon her? Or would she take responsibility herself for what had happened?
How had she let all of this happen? How had she let herself fall in love only to lose him so quickly?
And then to her horror, she realized her father hadn’t put her in a gilded cage, she’d done that all by herself—she’d done it by keeping everyone in her life at arm’s length. If she truly wanted to be free, she had to be willing to open her heart...the whole way.
In that moment, alone on the moonlit beach, she knew what she had to do next. It was time she took that long-thought-about trip to the United States.
But she wouldn’t be running away—she’d be running toward something—or rather toward someone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
AT LAST HE WAS on his way.
Grayson had stood for a very long time outside the gates of the palace waiting for the taxi to pick him up, at least an hour, if not longer. When he’d first called for a ride and given them the address, they’d thought he was joking. They had no idea that joking around was the very last thing on his mind.
It was almost as if fate was giving him time to change his mind—time to calm down. Well, he had calmed down. The panic over how close Annabelle had come to being hurt had passed.
But what hadn’t passed was his determination to leave here—leave Annabelle. They didn’t belong together. They came from very different worlds and he had no idea how to fit into hers. And she was too reckless for him to even consider sharing something serious with her.
He’d thought that by walking away from Annabelle he would start to feel better. After all, he’d cut things off. He’d protected himself and her.
Now, in a taxi, speeding toward Mirraccino International Airpor
t, Grayson leaned his head back against the seat. He assured himself that he was doing the right thing. So why did he feel so awful?
He sighed. He’d already decided to cancel the rest of his Mediterranean trip. The expansion project would go on, but he’d put someone else in charge. He needed some distance from the sunny shores, blue waters and everything else that reminded him of Annabelle.
She was reckless with her safety. He couldn’t be with someone like that. He needed someone in his life who was...what? Cautious? Sedate? Anything that wasn’t Annabelle.