Seduced by the Spare Heir

Gabriel frowned as he looked at Luca. “That good, eh? Should I go ahead and call Hector?”

“Señor Vega already knows, Your Grace. Ernesto called a moment ago to let me know that Señor Vega was already on his way here to speak with you.”

Great. Gabriel would much rather use his spare time to get acquainted with every square inch of Serafia’s body, but instead he would be discussing damage-control strategies with his high-strung press secretary. He had only met Hector a few times, and that was enough. The man consumed entirely too much caffeine. At least, Gabriel hoped he did. If the man was naturally that spun-up, he felt bad for the mother who’d had to chase him around as a toddler.

Hector made him anxious. Serafia made him calm. He knew exactly who he preferred to work with. He had to convince her to stay beyond the end of the week, be it as a paid employee or as his girlfriend.

“Let me see the damage before he gets here,” Gabriel said, reaching out for the paper. “It must be bad if Hector immediately hopped in his car.”

Gabriel glanced at the headlines, expecting the story to be about him, but instead he found a scathing story about the Espina family. He looked up at Luca. “Have you told Miss Espina about this, yet?”

“No, sir, but she should be down for breakfast momentarily. Would you like me to warn her?”

“No, I’ll tell her.”

Maybe they could have a game plan before Hector arrived and started spinning.

Turning back to the article, he started reading it in depth. Apparently, back when the coup took place in the 1940s, there were rumors about the loyalty of the Espina family. He hadn’t heard that before. Surely if there had been any legitimacy to that claim, their families wouldn’t have vacationed together and his father wouldn’t have allowed Serafia to work with him these past few weeks.

Of course, his father had been quite curt where Serafia was concerned. He’d alluded to her family being unsuitable somehow, but Gabriel hadn’t had a moment alone with his father to press him on that point. He was sure it was nothing to do with Serafia herself. Gabriel had chalked up his father’s bad mood to jealousy. That was the most likely reason for his behavior since they arrived in Alma.

“Good morning.” Serafia slipped out onto the patio in a pair of black capris and a sleeveless top. Her dark hair was swept up into a ponytail and she was wearing bejeweled sandals instead of dress pumps. They didn’t have any official events on the calendar today, so she had apparently dressed for a more casual afternoon by the sea.

“Hector is on his way,” he replied, not mincing words.

Serafia’s smile faded and she slipped down into the other chair. “What happened?”

“Apparently the newspaper headlines have gone from speculating about your role as future queen to speculating about your family’s role in the overthrow of the Montoros.”

Serafia’s eyebrows drew together in concern as she reached for the paper. “What are they talking about?” Her gaze flicked over the paper. “This is ridiculous. Our families aren’t enemies and we most certainly didn’t have anything do with the coup. Have they forgotten that the Espinas were driven from Alma, too? They lived in Switzerland for years until the dictatorship fell in Spain. I was born in Madrid just a few years after they left Switzerland.”

Gabriel shrugged. “I am deficient in Alman history. We should probably fix that. I didn’t even have a clue our families had been rivals for the throne at one point.”

“That was over a hundred years ago. How is that even relevant to what’s going on now?”

“It has everything to do with what’s happening now,” Hector Vega said, appearing in the doorway and butting into their conversation. He, too, had the newspaper under his arm. “Your family had the crown stolen away from them two hundred years ago. The Espinas and Montoros fought for years to seize control of these islands. The Montoros ended up winning and eventually the families did reconcile. They even planned to marry and combine the bloodlines.

“But,” he continued ominously, “Rafael the First broke off his engagement with Rosa Espina to marry Anna Maria. There were more than a few hurt feelings about that and plenty of rumors went around during the time of the coup about the Espinas’ involvement. Your whole family vanished from Alma right before everything fell apart. Some see that as suspicious.”

“And now?” Serafia pressed. “I think my family has gotten over the embarrassment of a broken engagement during the last seventy years. There is no reason to suspect us of anything.”

“Isn’t there? With the Tantaberras gone and the Montoros returning to Alma, your family is closer to reclaiming their throne than ever before,” Hector explained.