The Prince's Secret Baby Read online

  Suddenly she wanted to laugh. Was she getting ideas that she might actually become part of Sandro’s family? That was the path to madness. Better to just take this trip for what it was—a chance to get away from the mess she’d made of her existence.

  Like her ill-fated trip to the Georgia sea islands—where she’d been swept up in a storm and a tide of lust.

  Because it was just lust. She had to keep reminding herself of that. She hadn’t known Sandro long enough to develop any real feelings for him back then. She hadn’t known him long enough for that now.

  Lucky thing she had several hours to ask him probing questions. She turned to him—damn that striking aristocratic profile that made her heart flip—and drew in a breath. “If you could have one wish, what would it be?”

  “World peace.” He turned to her with an amused look.

  “Everyone says that. Everyone who isn’t a jerk, anyway. Something more personal. What would you really wish for?”

  He turned to look out of the windshield again. They were still climbing into the clouds. “I’d like to know who killed my father and grandmother.”

  Her heart sank a little, and she realized she’d been hoping for something romantic like “I’ve always wanted a big family” or “to live happily ever after with the girl of my dreams.” But he had a point. “I don’t blame you. That’s a situation where a lot of people might want revenge.”

  “I don’t even know if I want revenge because I don’t know who did it—or why. But they were both cruelly murdered and it was made to look as if they were engaged in bizarre sex acts. Since then my sister-in-law was kidnapped by people who wanted access to a secret Swiss bank account. We hoped we’d caught the murderers, but lie detector tests and questioning suggested that they’re not behind the deaths. I just can’t understand why anyone would kill them.” A muscle worked in his jaw. “It’s frustrating dealing with the unknown.”

  “Do you feel that you’re at risk?” Fear trickled through her. What exactly was she flying into?

  “No. If anyone’s at risk it’s my brother Darias, who is now king. He’s hired an ex-foreign-legion security chief to protect the family and investigate the murder. But every lead goes to a dead end. “

  His phone rang. She glanced at him. He had both hands on the throttle, now guiding the plane on a curve as they climbed higher. “Do you want me to get that for you?”

  “No, don’t worry about it.”

  She glanced down at his phone, which sat on ledge near him. She could read the name Maya and a number.

  So Maya was calling him. Green claws of jealousy scratched at the inside of her stomach. She didn’t want to think about Maya. On the other hand, she wanted reassurance that things were really over between them. “You took Maya to the premiere as a favor?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t even turn to look.

  “She didn’t try to get you back?” She hated how pushy that sounded.

  “We were out in public so we didn’t even have a private conversation. She did paw me like we were still together, but I couldn’t really shove her off me in front of the cameras.”

  Why not? She kept the question to herself. But another thing was gnawing at her. “I saw a headline speculating on whether she would soon be a princess.”

  He laughed. “That’s crazy.”

  “Nope. It was a Chicago paper. Because she’s from there it was on the front page.”

  “I guess it was a slow news day. Still, I’m surprised by that. Why were they even paying attention? I’m pretty anonymous most of the time. Just another Eurotrash royal.” He winked at her. “I guess she’s pretty big right now with the Academy Award thing.”

  “Yes.” She wondered if Maya had fed the story to the press. It was unusual for a paper to have a big headline based on idle speculation. “I think that was she who called just now.” She watched him carefully to see how he’d react.

  Sandro frowned. “I wonder why. I told her I would be out of the country and busy.” He turned to her, and his dark stare melted her. “I want to focus completely on you.”

  It was hard to catch her breath and form words the way he was looking at her. Especially since they were in a missile hurtling through space. “Shouldn’t you be looking out the windshield?”

  A mischievous grin crept across his mouth. “It’s hard to focus on my duties when you’re sitting next to me.”

  “Don’t scare me.” She wasn’t really nervous. They were high enough that there were no obstacles around them, and they’d left the Chicago area so she couldn’t even see another plane in the sky.

  He looked forward again. “I’d never do anything to scare you.”

  “You mean like making me pregnant?” She lifted a brow.

  “Okay, not intentionally.” He smiled and shot a quick glance at her belly—which heated under his gaze. How could she be aroused by him looking at her belly? She didn’t show at all yet, which was merciful under the circumstances. “See? I’m looking out the windshield and paying full attention to flying.” He winked at her again before turning back.

  She sighed. Sandro was hard to take. Way too sure of himself and whenever he looked at her, common sense started to fly for the nearest window. She’d definitely have to watch herself during this stay in Altaleone.

  “I can’t stay too long, you know.” She could hardly believe she hadn’t discussed the return trip with him, but that was partly because she didn’t want to decide the duration until she got there. She might take one look at the place and want to leave again the same day.

  “I have to be back in New York by next Thursday for a meeting with a potential new distributor for my solar technology. But we can leave earlier if you need to.”

  “I might get invited to do another interview.” Or at least that would be a good excuse if she wanted to run. She wasn’t sure how much proximity to Sandro she could take without losing her mind.

  “We’ll just take enough time for you to recharge and breathe—and get to know me a little better.”

  “You don’t know me well either. How come you’re not asking me probing questions?” Maybe he wasn’t really interested in anything except her outward appearance?

  A dimple appeared in his cheek. “I’m more subtle than that. I prefer to let you reveal yourself to me.”

  “Don’t forget I’m used to revealing a carefully curated version of myself to the world.”

  “I’m not the world. You don’t have to pretend to be anyone but who you are.”

  “Whoever that is,” she quipped. “I’m so used to putting on my game face and being the person others want me to be that I’m not even sure who’s inside anymore.”

  “How did you get started? It seems odd for such a private person—one who won’t even tell her own family she broke up with her boyfriend—to want to share her life with the public.”

  “At first I wrote a few blog entries just to see if I could. Then my blog started to catch on and I made some money. More money than I was making at my job at the college library. I put more time and energy into it, and it kind of snowballed from there. These days I make more money from videos. Blogging is the part I like best—maybe because it’s easier to hide behind the printed word—but my audience wants videos.”

  “In addition to being interesting and thoughtful you have to look fabulous and be charming.” He shot her a warm glance. “You’ve had a lot of practice for being royal.”

  She laughed. “I hardly think it’s the same thing. If anything, being a pastor’s daughter is better training. I had to be on my best behavior all the time or everyone would be talking about me.”

  “Are you close to your dad?”

  “I used to be. It’s hard to keep that closeness when you grow up and live hundreds of miles away. And it’s hard to talk to him about what I do. He doesn’t say much, but I can tell he things its silly to pontificate about makeup and dating. I don’t think any parents would be too excited about that.”

  He chuckled. “My dad
would have liked it if I shared details of my love live with him. He was the kind of man who liked to sit around with the guys and smoke cigars and talk about women. None of my brothers are really like that, though. I think we all have too much respect and love for our mom.”

  “That’s sweet. It can’t have been easy for her to raise ten of you.”

  “She devoted her life to us. Even though we had a large staff, she always read us bedtime stories and kissed our bumps and bruises better.”

  Serena had a flashback to putting a bandage over a cut on his forehead the night they met. The cut she’d inflicted when she smashed a vase over his head. “Speaking of which, yours healed nicely.”

  “There’s a small scar.” His dimple appeared again. “But it was worth it to meet you.”

  “They do say scars are masculine and sexy.” She was lucky he hadn’t sued her.

  “What do you think?” He flashed her a glance that heated her skin.

  She shrugged and tried to act cool. “I really don’t have an opinion.”

  “That’s definitely the curated version of you.”

  “Get your eyes back on the windshield.”

  He chuckled and turned back to face the front. “I think you had all kinds of ideas of what you should look for in a man, and that they were all wrong. You wanted someone nice and dull and predictable who’d live a safe and comfortable lifestyle with you. Maybe you’d have two point three children when you were both good and ready. Or maybe you’d never get around to it because the timing would never be right.”

  She sighed. “I wish I could argue with you, but it’s true. I wanted to have my first baby when I turned thirty. I figured I’d have enough money saved by then for me to take some time off.”

  “How old are you now?”

  “Twenty-five. And I have zero savings and took out a crazily huge mortgage on my condo, using my advance as a down payment. I’ve since been trying to sell the place, and no one is even looking. That’s why the success of this book is so important to me. I need money coming in or I’ll have to go looking for a real job, which, given my rather unusual résumé for the past couple of years, could turn out to be quite a challenge.”

  He laughed. “Ugh, don’t get a real job. I tried that once. It was a nightmare. They expected me to show up to the same place every day, even when it was a great day for flying or skiing or taking my sailboat out on the water.” He gave a mock shudder. “Never again.”

  “It must be nice to have the luxury to say that, but the rest of us have to hustle. I promised myself and my followers that I’ll put out content three times a week.”

  “Content? That sounds so clinical.”

  “I prefer to think of it as businesslike.”

  “And what kind of content does your audience like best?”

  She stiffened. “Makeup videos are my bread and butter, but they love hearing personal stories. Which is hard as I’ve shared most of them by now.”

  “It’s not like you’ve stopped living. Did you tell them the story of getting stuck on the Georgia sea islands in a big storm?”

  “I did.” She cast a sideways glance at him. “Though I left out the part about you being there. I’m embarrassed to say it, but I recorded the whole thing as if Howard were with me. I didn’t actually lie, but I didn’t tell the whole truth, either.”

  “How did Howard feel about that?”

  “I doubt he noticed. He never watched my videos. Or read my blogs.” She lifted a brow. “I bet you haven’t, either.”

  He winced. “Ouch. I admit it didn’t even cross my mind.”

  “I’ll try not to take that personally.”

  “Perhaps I’m only interested in the real, in-the-flesh version of you, not the well-lit video one.”

  “They’re both me.”

  He turned to look at her. “Good point.” He looked at her steadily for a moment. “On that note I think you should record a vlog right now. Tell your audience that you’re in a plane, on your way to the most beautiful place on earth.”

  “Being flown by a handsome prince?”

  “That’s the best bit.”

  She laughed. “I wish I could.”

  “Why can’t you?”

  She fidgeted in her chair, fingers still grazing her belly. “I suppose I could. My book tour is over. I did reveal that I broke up with Howard.” She didn’t say that she’d mentioned she had a new man in her life. If she showed Sandro they’d all—correctly—assume it was him.

  “Go on. Do it.” He took his hand off the controls and placed it on her arm—which instantly broke out in goose bumps.

  “I’m scared.”

  “You were scared to fly in my plane, but you’re doing it anyway. What’s one more thing?”

  “I could do it, couldn’t I?” She was asking herself really, not him. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and switched on the video recorder.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Hello, everyone.” Was her makeup still okay? She couldn’t believe she hadn’t checked first when she was known for her makeup tutorials. For some reason Sandro had made her feel so glamorous she hadn’t even thought to glance at herself. Must be the way he looked at her.

  “You all know I’ve been busy with my book tour, and today I was rescued from snow-bound Chicago and invited to fly to Europe. Can you hear the sound of the engine? Yup, I’m in a plane right now.”

  This was where she should turn the camera on Sandro and introduce him. He looked at her expectantly, a half smile on his face. Once she introduced him to her followers there would be no turning back. They’d be fascinated by him. Who wouldn’t be?

  He was good content. This was business, right?

  She captured him in the frame. “This is my friend Sandro. He lives in a small country called Altaleone, and he’s invited me there for a break. As you can see, Sandro is flying the plane. Sandro, without taking your eyes off the windshield, could you tell my viewers a little about yourself?”

  That was much safer than introducing him herself and potentially saying something stupid or wrong.

  He turned and flashed his pearly smile. “Hello, Serena’s fans.” She cringed. She never thought of them as fans. That made her seem too self-important. She was a nobody, really. If she stopped providing content they’d all be gone in a week or two. “I’m Sandro Leone, and I had the pleasure and privilege of spending Christmas with Serena on the Georgia coast.”

  She froze and felt her eyes open wide. He wasn’t supposed to tell them that! Now they’d know she broke up with Howard weeks ago.

  Though they’d figure out the timeline sooner or later once she made her pregnancy announcement. She tried to stay calm.

  “And luckily I convinced her to join me for a week in my mountain homeland.”

  “Tell them what you do, Sandro.” She wanted him to say he was a prince. That was good material.

  “I’m an engineer by trade, and I design solar technology that powers small devices. My goal is to put solar power in the hands of every man, woman and child in the world.”

  “That’s a big goal,” she gushed, glad to be talking about something other than herself. She looked at the camera. “And Sandro is also a prince.” Then she turned to him. “Right?”

  Okay, that sounded dumb.

  He raised a brow very slightly, as if a teeny bit annoyed that she’d played the prince card. “Indeed I do have the privilege of being a member of the royal house of Leone, which has governed Altaleone since the time of Charlemagne.”

  Serena was pretty sure no one would know who Charlemagne was, especially since she had no idea herself. “How long ago was that?”

  “More than twelve hundred years.” He stared straight ahead, guiding the plane. “Some like to credit my ancestors’ prowess in battle for our long rule. Personally I give credit to the formidable mountain ranges that surround our tiny country.”

  She pointed the lens at herself. “Well, I can’t wait to see it, and I’ll be sure to post vlogs to shar
e with you. For now I’m going to catch some shut-eye before we get there. Thanks for joining me on this adventure.”

  Now she needed to post it to YouTube. “Is there an Internet connection up here?”

  “Indeed there is. You know that satellite Internet is one of my passions.”

  “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that. I can put this out there right now.”

  “Do it.” He gave her the Wi-Fi password, and she logged in and posted the video and captioned it. Before she’d logged out again there were thirty-seven views.

  “That’s it? Don’t you have to edit it?”

  “Sometimes I do. I have a flashy graphic that a friend created for me. But I find that people like homespun-looking stuff that looks like I just recorded it on the fly.

  “People want the real, authentic you.”

  “Yeah, shame I’ve been giving them something else lately.”

  “You told them about your breakup, and now they’ve met me. You should feel good about that.”

  “It’s still not the whole truth.” She sighed and looked down at her belly. “But I’ll get there in time.”

  He turned to her with a warm half-grin. “That’s the spirit.”

  They flew into New York, where Sandro’s Tesla was waiting at the airport. He drove her to her apartment, where they picked up Lucky and his crate and toys and food, and she shoved some clean clothes into a bag, then they grabbed takeout dinner and headed back to the airport in the dead of night.

  “The timing is perfect. We’ll arrive in the morning, and you’ll get to see my country in all its glory.”

  Serena felt more relaxed this time as they taxied and took off, with Lucky sleeping in his crate nearby. You’re part of the jet-set. The thought assaulted her and almost made her laugh.

  Then she reminded herself that this was just a strange interlude. She was likely just another notch in Sandro’s royal bedpost, and she wouldn’t be the last.

  But dammit, she needed a break and she was going to enjoy this trip.

  Serena woke from a deep sleep when sunlight broke through the clouds in a bright shaft that poked into the cockpit. It took her a moment to realize where she was. Sandro smiled at her from the pilot’s seat. “You said you weren’t going to sleep.”