A Royal Amnesia Scandal

“Fine. You know more about this than I do,” he told her.

She shifted, peeking at him over her shoulder. “I know about scheduling, but this is your life, Luc. Give me some input here. I can add or take away time. Usually, when you don’t want to stay at an event too long, I make an excuse and cut the time back.”

His brows quirked. “Seriously?”

“Well, yeah. How else would you escape and still look like the charming prince?” She laughed.

“Wow, you really do everything for me.” With a sigh, he straightened. “What you have works for me. You’ve done this for a year, so you obviously know what you’re talking about.”

Kate turned fully in her chair and narrowed her eyes. “That’s the Luc I used to work with. You never wanted to help with the schedule. You always trusted me to make it work.”

Another flash of Kate in a snug suit, black this time, filled his mind. A dark-haired woman stood next to her. Luc closed his eyes, wanting to hold on to the image, needing to see who it was. Who was this woman?

Alana.

The image was gone as fast as it entered his mind, but he had a name.

“Luc?”

He opened his eyes, meeting Kate’s worried gaze. She’d come to her feet and stood directly in front of him.

“Who’s Alana?” he asked.

Kate jerked as if he’d slapped her. “Do you remember her?”

“I had a flash of you and her talking, but I couldn’t tell what you guys were saying. It’s like a damn movie that plays in my head with no sound.”

He

raked a hand down his face, meeting her eyes once more. “Who is she?” he repeated.

“She was a woman you used to date.”

Luc tried to remember more, but nothing came to mind. Only that the woman’s name stirred emotions of anger and hurt within him.

“Were we serious?” he asked.

Kate crossed her arms and nodded. “You were.”

She was really sticking to the doctor’s orders and not feeding him anything more than he was asking. Damn it, he wished she’d just tell him.

Pacing across the patio, Luc came to a stop at the edge by the infinity pool and stared out at the ocean. With the world at his back, he wished he could turn away from his problems so easily.

Alana Ferella. The name slid easily into his mind as he watched the waves roll onto the shore. His heart hardened, though. What kind of relationship had they had together? Obviously, not a compatible one or he’d still be with her. Something akin to rage settled in him. She hadn’t been a nice woman, that much he knew.

He didn’t want to keep asking Kate about an ex-girlfriend, and most likely Alana didn’t matter, anyway. He just wished he could remember more about Kate, more about the plans they’d made.

“Are we getting married soon?” he asked, turning back to face her.

She blinked a few times, as if his question had thrown her off. Hell, it probably had. He’d just gone from quizzing her on his ex to discussing their own nuptials.

“There’s no set date,” she told him.

That was weird. Once they’d announced their engagement, wouldn’t the proper protocol have been to set a date? “Why not?” he asked. “With my birthday approaching, the throne in question and being a member of a royal family, I’m shocked we don’t have something set.”

Biting on her lip, Kate shrugged. “We can discuss the details in a bit. Can we finalize this schedule first? I’d like to make some calls later, if the cell service is working, to confirm your visit. I also need to let my dad know, so security can be arranged.”

She was dodging his question for a reason. Did she simply not want to discuss things because of his memory loss, or was there something more to it? She’d admitted they’d argued before his fall. Had they been arguing over the wedding? Had they been arguing over...what? Damn it.