A Night of Royal Consequences

‘I saw her talking to Max,’ Michel told him in a worried tone.

‘What?’

‘You said you wouldn’t shout,’ Michel reminded him.

‘You’re right,’ he admitted, placing a reassuring hand on the older man’s shoulder. ‘But who invited Max?’

‘Does Max need an invitation to visit his family home?’

Luca ground his jaw. He should have known that Max would never keep to their agreement that he stay out of Fabrizio. ‘So, where the hell is she?’ he repeated as he raked his hair with tense fingers.

‘I saw her running out of that door not ten minutes ago,’ Michel informed him, staring across the ballroom towards the French doors leading onto the garden and then the lake. ‘And that was straight after talking to Max.’

‘Ten minutes?’ Luca exclaimed, frowning. ‘Did I leave her alone for that long?’

‘The ambassador can be garrulous and difficult to get away from,’ Michel said in an obvious attempt to placate him. ‘And His Excellency was more than usually talkative tonight.’

Luca could not be placated. His one concern was Callie. He should have told her long before now what she meant to him. The convenient plan that had fallen into place when he found out she was pregnant hadn’t figured in his thinking when he’d made the announcement that they would be married.

All right, so maybe it had, he conceded grimly as he made a visual search of the ballroom to make sure she’d gone. Would he stick around under similar circumstances? So, where could she be? In her room, or had she tried to return to the island? His heart banged in his chest at the thought that she might have taken the rowing boat. Navigation was easy for him in the dark. He’d been rowing on the lake for most of his life. So he knew about the clinging weeds and treacherous rocks. If Callie took the wrong route, she could be in serious trouble. He didn’t wait to consider his options. Cutting through the crowd, he hurried away.

He ran to the shore. The boat was gone. There was no sign of Callie. Everyone had been shocked by his announcement of their engagement, and now Max was causing trouble again. He had a stark choice to make. Callie, or the future of Fabrizio. There was no choice. Stripping off his clothes, he dived into the lake.

Relief surged through him when he spotted her pacing the shore. ‘Callie,’ he exclaimed, springing out of the water. Striding up to her, he seized hold of her and demanded she look at him. ‘What’s wrong? What happened back there?’

‘You happened,’ she said.

Her voice was faint, but the fire in her eyes was brighter than ever. She was hurt, bitterly hurt. He knew all the signs. Max had always been an expert when it came to wounding with words.

‘Thank you for telling me how badly you needed an heir,’ she said tensely, sarcastically.

‘Meaning?’ he demanded.

‘I’m told your constitution demands it, if you’re to keep the throne.’ There were tears of anger and distress in her eyes. ‘I would have been quicker off the mark getting pregnant, if you’d told me.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he flared. ‘What on earth has Max said to you?’

‘Only the truth, I believe.’

A muscle jerked in his jaw. He couldn’t even deny it, and had to listen to his brother’s poison flooding from Callie’s mouth.

‘Max said that making an heir is the only reason you had sex with me.’

‘I didn’t have sex with you,’ he insisted. ‘I made love to you.’

‘Maybe.’ She hesitated a little. ‘But how do I know that’s true, now I know you had a motive?’

‘Why can’t you believe in yourself, Callie? Why won’t you believe how much I need you?’

‘Because it’s convenient for you to have me,’ she exclaimed. ‘A convenient womb, Max called me. He says your primary concern is to build a dynasty.’

‘My primary concern is you,’ he argued fiercely.

‘It doesn’t feel that way to me, Luca. You made the announcement of our engagement without asking me first, without giving me chance to consider what I’m getting into. My late father used to tell me what I could and couldn’t do, and I swore that I would never fall into that trap again.’

‘This isn’t a trap. You’re not thinking straight, Callie.’

‘I’m thinking perfectly,’ she fired back. ‘It’s just a pity I haven’t been thinking perfectly from the start.’