He tried to gauge her reaction as she stood there, covered in kids, and the sense of oppression deepened. They looked as if they were extensions of her life force, made of her flesh. As they were. Partially. So many of the desires he’d repressed since she’d walked out on him besieged him, forced him to look, acknowledge. Things he thought he’d never have, because she’d left his life. Now, seeing her this way, the thought of her growing bigger with…
Paolo moved into his line of vision, interrupting his fevered musings. “I really hope you come to the right decision. You know what I think that is. You’ll make a helluva king, Leandro.”
“No need to kiss up to him yet, Paolo. We don’t know if he’s going to be crown prince this time or if he’ll blow it again.”
Silence fell like acid rain in the wake of Julia’s vindictive comment.
Then Paolo’s laugh boomed. “Mia moglie cara—my darling wife, the consummate diplomat. Guess Phoebe sucked that trait right out of your family’s gene pool and left you with none.”
“Yeah, and I don’t envy her the job it landed her with.”
Julia didn’t even try to disguise the glare she impaled Leandro with. To his delight. It gave him license to glare back.
But instead of teaching his nemesis that Phoebe wasn’t an extra in the play starring her, he just wanted to snatch Phoebe away. And never let her return.
“Say, caro, how about you and the kids show Leandro around?”
Leandro bared his teeth at Julia in a parody of a smile. “Thanks, but no thanks. We have to get going.”
Julia’s full lips thinned. “Okay, since you won’t take a hint. I want to talk to my sister. Alone. Do you mind?”
Phoebe couldn’t believe that Leandro had submitted to Paolo’s cajoling and left her and Julia alone. She’d thought there’d be an explosion. A belated one between the two most important people in her life who’d detested each other on sight. Probably more proof that she and Leandro weren’t meant to be.
Now accusation simmered in Julia’s eyes as she stopped her chair a couple of feet away. Then she stood up.
Phoebe winced. The effort it took Julia to stand always left her feeling traumatized. The two steps she took to come nose to nose with her were even harder. Julia really wanted to lay into her. And she could guess why.
“So that’s your secret,” Julia hissed, her voice rough with anger and hurt. “The reason you’ve been frozen ever since we came here, the reason you do anything you can to avoid having a personal life.”
“I have a personal life, Julia. I’m a person, and I’m alive—”
“Don’t. Just don’t, Phoebe.”
“Uh-oh. If I’m Phoebe now, things must be dire indeed.”
“Phoebe, shut up. I’m so angry I could kick your stubborn ass. You still think I’m just an invalid, don’t you? You still think you have to protect me from even a moment’s discomfort? What can I do to make you realize I’m not the clingy, needy mess I once was? That I can support the people I love? Support you? When will you stop giving and accept that I have something to give back?”
“Darling, of course you have…”
“Don’t you dare placate me, Phoebe. This isn’t about me, dammit. I’m not the center of the universe, so for God’s sake stop putting me in the center of yours. This is about you.”
“What about me, Jules? I have a wonderful, ever-growing family, you rabbit, an incredible job, a palace to call my home, and the fact that I haven’t yet found the man for me—”
“But that’s the problem, isn’t it? You think you found him ten years ago, and that’s why you never gave anyone else a chance. Even Armando, that droolicious hunk of a human being. You blew it with him, big time. And it’s all over that ex-royal pain in the rear, isn’t it?”
Phoebe’s lips twitched with distress and amusement. “He’s royal again as of this afternoon, by the way.”
“You’re not glossing over this, do you hear me?”
“I think the whole capital can hear you, sweetie.”
“Don’t sweetie me or I swear…ooh. And all this time you kept me in the dark, you overprotective, suffering-in-silence…rat.”
“Who said anything about suffering—”
“I say. I felt it. And I should have known what it was about. At my wedding when that hunk of rock almost made love to you on the dance floor and then dragged you out to the terrace and you came back looking turned inside out, I was sure he’d kissed you senseless. And that you, Ms. No Man Ever Gets Past the Inspection Stage, let him, worried me sick. I spent half my wedding night interrogating Paolo about him. He said he respected Leandro as a prince and a businessman, but that as a man, he thought there was no colder fish in the known universe. I laid into you the moment I returned from my honeymoon, but you were all, ‘I haven’t seen him again and nothing happened that night.’ But you were seeing him all the time, weren’t you?”
“I wasn’t exactly seeing him all the time, Jules. He didn’t live on Castaldini, remember?”
Julia staggered around, threw herself back into her chair with a furious screech. “You threw me off the scent so well, and I believed that not even that Roman god could fool you! I was in a bad way at the time, and I just dismissed the whole thing. Whenever your tranquil act cracked, I’d say, nah, not that, not Phoebes. Paolo did wonder how Leandro could afford to come to Castaldini so frequently during his campaign. But he was coming back for you, keeping you like a dirty little secret, forcing you to lie to me and to everyone, wasn’t he? And now he’s back and he wants to play some more, that…that…bastard.”
So she hadn’t been a good enough actress. Oh, well. Time to come clean. She sighed. “You’re talking as if I was a minor who was seduced by a dirty old man, Jules. He didn’t coerce me into anything.”
“But he’s coercing you now, isn’t he? Tell me he is. You can’t be that stupid twice in a lifetime with the same man.”
“He’s not as bad as you think, Jules. In fact, I’m discovering that he’s very, very good.”
“Oh, no, he’s messed with your mind again already.”
“Maybe. But as totally moronic as it may sound to you, I’m excited about this. I get to be his bridge back to Castaldini, and I believe I can do both him and the kingdom a serious service.”