The Royal House of Niroli: Secret Heirs: Bride by Royal Appointment / A Royal Bride at the Sheikh's Command

CHAPTER FIVE

ELENA and Adam had been in the little house and he’d been searching through his luggage for a tie.

“Seems an odd thing to wear on Niroli,” she said with a laugh.

“I know. Most disappointing.” He must have found one because she heard him place himself in front of the mirror and begin working with something. “But I was warned it would be wise to wear one, and, until I have the crown in my hot little hands, I figure I’ll be better off taking their hints seriously.”

“That would seem wise,” she murmured.

“I’m hoping to get to meet the old man tonight,” he added.

“The old man?” His tone horrified her and she turned slowly toward him. “Are you talking about the king? Your grandfather?”

“That’s the one.”

She frowned, genuinely disturbed by this way of speaking about her monarch. “Don’t you think you should have a little more respect?”

“For whom?” he shot back bitterly. “For the man who banished my mother from the kingdom so that he would never have to acknowledge me? The man who now finds he needs me after all, so is ready to throw blossoms at my feet? That’s the man I’m supposed to respect?”

“Yes. If you can’t respect the man himself, at least respect his position. He’s our King!”

“Not for much longer,” he muttered. “Then I guess you’ll be telling people to respect me, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

He laughed and chucked her under the chin. “You’re cute as a button, Elena, but you’re wrong.”

And that was where things had stood as he’d left for the palace.

Once he’d gone, Elena had stewed over what he’d told her for awhile, and then she’d called Susan Nablus, an old friend of her mother’s and an expert on Nirolian history. If anyone could give her the straight scoop on what had happened around the time of Adam’s conception, she could. Susan had just come in from shopping, but she was delighted to hear from Elena and she promptly sat down and offered to answer any questions her old friend’s daughter might have.

“Adam Ryder, you say. So that’s his name. Well, I had heard rumors that the powers that be at the palace were considering him, since they’ve run through all the more direct contenders and come up empty.”

“As Antonio’s son, I’d say he’s pretty directly related,” Elena protested.

“Yes, dear, but he’s illegitimate. And his mother has no standing.”

“I guess that is the point,” Elena conceded.

“I never met Adam, but I did meet his mother when she was here. My, it was over thirty years ago, wasn’t it? I believe her name was Stephanie. She was quite beautiful, one of those socialites with the good cheekbones who become supermodels for a few years, appear on the covers of all the magazines, then fade from sight—like those beautiful confections that melt away in the heat of the sun. My impression was that she was just one of those sweet, pretty girls who get passed around by playboys. She came to Niroli for a fashion shoot. It was just a couple of years after that horrible kidnapping where one of the prince’s twins was snatched. They said Antonio had been a perfect husband before that happened. Well, losing one of your babies is enough to unhinge anyone, I suppose.

“At any rate, Prince Antonio caught a glimpse of Stephanie and a moment later he was over the moon. Poor Princess Francesca had to endure a lot from her wayward husband after the kidnapping, but I think that affair was the worst for her. It was so public, you know. As far as the media was concerned, it was an affair to remember and the little wife and remaining baby sitting at home were old news.”

“Poor thing,” Elena commented.

“Yes. Well, it didn’t last long. Suddenly Stephanie was gone and the prince seemed bereft, but he managed to go back to his duties and soon it was almost as though it had never happened. He and Francesca had two more children and seemed quite devoted as the years went by. It was only later that we found out that Stephanie had been hustled out of the country once the king found out about her, and that she was pregnant at the time.”

“So she was banished by King Giorgio.”

“Oh, yes. Never to set foot on these shores again, et cetera et cetera. Of course, I’m sure they gave her plenty of money to keep her quiet.”

“Money.” Elena nodded. That did seem to be a common theme with the Ryder family. And that thought gave her a dull, unpleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach.

But that feeling faded as she spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for her evening party. Jeremy woke up and was completely agreeable, playing with Fabio, then helping her with the canapés and negotiating more piano lessons in a clever way that made her think he had more of his father in him than Adam realized.

She didn’t know if Adam would be back in time to join her entertainment. From what he’d said, she was pretty sure he would be engaged at the palace until fairly late that night. And he hadn’t exactly brimmed with enthusiasm for her party.

“I’m having some people over tonight,” she told him as he was preparing to leave for his meeting. “So when you get back …”

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep out of your way.”

That wasn’t what she’d been about to say. In fact, she’d been about to invite him to join them.

“Actually, I’d rather as few people as possible know about me being here,” he reminded her.

“I understand,” she said, though she was disappointed.

“How many people do you suppose already know?” he asked her.

“Well, there’s Gino, of course.”

Adam laughed shortly. “Can we have him bound and gagged and held in a cellar for a few days?”

She smiled but said, “No.”

“Damn.” He turned toward her. “Still, if no one but Gino knows I’ve been here, we might be alright. I was hoping I would have a day or two before the hyenas descend.”

“I’ve never known a man so sure he was at the center of the universe,” she said, only half teasing.

And yet, he had reason to feel as though everyone had him in their sights. Right now, he was the man of the hour in Niroli. How odd to think that she had that very man right here with her. It was rather exciting.

The hour was late when Adam got back. He took a cab from the palace and had it drop him off in downtown Monte Speziare, then walked the few blocks to Elena’s house. He could see that she still had people with her. The sound of talk and laughter followed him as he went to check on Jeremy, who was sound asleep once again in the guest house, probably exhausted from meeting all of Elena’s friends and romping with the dog. He paused for a brief space of time, looking at the boy. He looked so angelic in sleep. And for just a moment, Adam felt love swell in his heart.

If only he knew how to reach out to Jeremy, to make him into a real son instead of an annoying charge and an antagonist. If only he knew how Elena did it. If only a lot of things.

Going out into the yard, he made another attempt to get through to his business partner in Los Angeles and finally made the connection. Zeb had only bad news to report. Celluloid Images, the firm trying to buy out Ryder Productions, had petitioned to file final papers. If he didn’t get some funds soon, he would lose his company. He had to close this deal.

He completed the call and tried to push aside the feeling of doom it had brought on. His meeting at the palace hadn’t given him much to hope for, either. In fact, the more he met with these people, the more he wondered if he could bring off this royal makeover in a convincing way. The counselors had tried to paint a cheery picture of what life as a king would be like, but he could see through their fantasies. He was going to be working hard for the money. And how he was going to get out of some of the strictures, such as having to stay here in Niroli full time, he wasn’t sure. Still, he would deal with that later. Right now, he just needed the money.

The sounds of the party drew him closer, but he lingered in the backyard garden, reluctant to go in and have to try to explain to Elena’s friends who he was and why he was living there. She must have told them something to explain Jeremy. He didn’t want to complicate matters.

But he wanted to see her. And suddenly, there she was through the window. She looked like an angel. His heart started to pound just looking at her. She’d finally shed her dark glasses and her eyes were huge, dark and luminous. She’d freed her hair and it fell in wispy ringlets all around her shoulders. She wore a strapless sundress, which was spectacularly form-fitting, emphasizing the thrust of her breasts and her tiny waist and exposing a lot of smooth, creamy skin. He wanted her so badly, he was beginning to ache for her again—and that was ludicrous! He had to stop this.

But he couldn’t stop watching her. She moved with such grace and looked so beautiful.

And more than that, she was so brave. Her vulnerability was deep and abiding and it couldn’t be erased from the experiences of her life. And yet, she put herself out there every day, let it all hang out and laid it all on the line. Why couldn’t he do that, if only a little bit? He knew it would make him a better person. It slowly began to dawn on him that he admired her as much as he desired her. Maybe more. And all he could do was watch.

Elena’s good friend Natalia Carini was helping her clear away the mess from her party. Most of the guests had gone home, but some of her closest friends stayed behind to make sure she didn’t get stuck having to do all the clean-up herself.

They’d been laughing over a joke Natalia had made when suddenly her smile faded and she stared out through the window into the dark night.

“Elena, there’s a man skulking in your garden,” she said.

Elena’s head came up. “What sort of man?” she asked, a thread of interest apparent in her voice no matter how she tried to disguise it.

“Tall. Handsome.” Natalia laughed softly. “He just winked at me.”

“Ah.” A feeling of excitement swept through her, though she tried her best to suppress it. “That must be Jeremy’s father.”

“I see.” Natalia leaned over the counter to get a better look at him. “He seems lonely out there, don’t you think?”

Elena nodded, fighting back a smile. “I’ll go out and see if he needs anything.”

Natalia turned and pretended to scold. “I’m not sure I approve of you dallying with strange men in the garden.”

“He is strange,” Elena admitted with a laugh, “but I can handle him.”

Lisa and Ted Barone had lived in the neighboring house for years, so knew Elena about as well as anyone. It was Lisa who, witnessing this, turned and called softly to her husband. “Will wonders never cease? Elena has a man in her life.”

Elena had started for the door, Fabio trotting right beside her, but she turned back at that. “No, I don’t,” she said uneasily. “No, no! This is not a man in my life.”

Lisa struck a pose. “Really? What is it, then? A giraffe? A leopard?”

Natalia shook her head as though she was sorry, but had to side with Lisa. “Looks like a man to me.”

Elena had to laugh. Her friends were being annoying, but in a good way. “He’s a man all right. But he’s not in my life. Not in the intimate way you mean.”

“Bring him in,” Natalia urged, “and let us make the judgment call.”

And so she did. She went out into the cool night air and zeroed in on where he was standing right away.

“Adam?”

“Right here.”

He leaned down to pet Fabio, then agreed to come in and meet her friends. Still, to cover the bases, they went over a quick game plan first.

“I know you don’t want to use your real name,” she said, thinking. “It has been in the papers. So-o-o … let’s see. We’ll call you Rex.”

“Rex?” He grimaced, not at all sure about that. “Don’t they call dogs Rex?”

“And kings,” she reminded him. “But you need a last name, too. And it should be relevant so we can always claim there was a point to this. How about Hollywood?”

“Rex Hollywood?” He groaned. “I may be something of a sham, Elena, but I’m not that kind of a phony. Anyway, technically, my base production center is in Burbank, not Hollywood.”

“Rex Burbank? Perfect.” She beamed, pleased with the results of their attempt at skullduggery.

And so Rex Burbank was who he became to her friends. He met them one by one and was charming and personable to each. The only one who had a problem with him was the predicable one— Gino.

“Rex Burbank?” he said in unalloyed disgust. But he shook hands and didn’t say any more once Elena had jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

“So, Rex,” he said when the introductions were over, exaggerating the name to the point where it was almost comical. “How do you like our little island nation?”

Adam shrugged, accepting a drink from Natalia and smiling his thanks. “An island is an island. I’ve been to lots of them.”

A ripple of quiet outrage went through the small crowd around him, but Gino was the one who continued to question him. “You find nothing unique about Niroli?”

Adam looked about at the faces turned up to his and realized he ought to temper his cynicism a bit, for public consumption at least. “Actually I haven’t had time to do much looking around,” he assured them all. “Once I do, I’m sure I’ll start appreciating Niroli’s many special qualities.”

“Maybe you should do more sightseeing and stop bothering people in their homes instead,” Gino said, his chest thrust out confrontationally.

Things might have escalated out of control from there, if Natalia hadn’t pulled Adam away to show him a display of early Nirolian musical instruments Elena’s mother had collected and kept in a glass case at one end of the living room. There were items that looked very much like violins, others like wind instruments and a set of strangely formed drums. Each had roots in forms that were familiar, but each also had something very unique in its design and development, something contributed by Nirolian natives from centuries past.

“Elena’s mother was a music archivist,” Natalia explained. “She did a lot of work for the Nirolian National Music Society at the palace twenty years ago or so.”

Adam nodded, impressed by the professional look to the display. “I take it she is deceased.”

“Yes, she had a heart attack about ten years ago. Luckily, Elena’s grandmother was still alive at the time and so she wasn’t alone.”

“And now she’s lost her grandmother, too.”

“Yes, fairly recently. But she’s strong.” Natalia smiled impishly. “You’ve noticed that, I imagine.”

He grinned back at her. “Yes. And I know she wants to be independent.”

“Oh, yes. What she wants most right now is to find a way to take advantage of the scholarship she won to that New York music school.”

Adam remembered that Gino had hinted about some sort of opportunity overseas. “She won a scholarship?”

“Yes. It’s in a program that uses music as a type of therapy for troubled children. The only problem is getting to New York and then paying for housing while she’s there. And being able to do it on her own. All that is quite an undertaking for a woman who’s been raised in such a small, protective environment. Not to mention a woman who is blind.”

“She can do it.” He made the claim without the slightest sense of irony. The conviction that she could do just about anything she put her mind to seemed to have implanted itself deep inside him and he had no doubts.

“We all know that,” Natalia responded. “But it will be quite difficult. And possibly very painful.”

The others caught up with them and the conversation moved in other directions, but Adam couldn’t get Natalie’s last words out of his head, and he kept looking at Elena, wishing he knew how to make things easier for her in some way. “Difficult … painful.” Those shouldn’t be factors looming large in the future of a woman like this. And yet, instinctively he knew that trying to protect her from them would be a form of abuse in itself. There were going to be hazards she would have to face on her own. Luckily, she seemed a lot more ready for them than he was to let her experience them. He was going to have to force himself to back off and leave her alone.

But what was he thinking? He wasn’t going to be around long enough to be involved in any of that, was he? Even if he became King, Elena wasn’t likely to fall into his circle at the palace. Because, if the truth be known, despite all the rules they were throwing at him about how much time he had to spend here, he wasn’t planning to make Niroli his permanent home.

“Take the money and run,” was pretty much his game plan. All that was left was to see if he could get his plan to execute.

Still, he had a hard time ignoring how appealing Elena was tonight. Her body was enticing and her face was as beautiful as any woman he’d ever seen. And now he had time to study those eyes that she was finally revealing, and he was amazed at how gorgeous they were. They didn’t look like most eyes. It was quite evident that no sight was taking place—at least not in the obvious sense. But there was a warmth there, a sort of incandescent perception that was beyond normal vision.

She can’t see my face, he thought to himself, but she can see inside my soul.

That was, of course, much too fanciful for a man like him to tolerate so he immediately made fun of himself for even thinking it. Still, the concept lingered in his mind and wouldn’t let him go. This woman whom he’d only known for hours was looming so large in his view of life, it almost seemed like magic.

Or as if someone had cast a spell on him.

The last holdouts at the party were beginning to contemplate taking their leave. Adam was looking forward to having Elena to himself soon. And he especially anticipated losing Gino’s unwelcome company.

The man had dogged him for the entire evening. It was only later that he found out that Elena had told him in no uncertain terms that he was not to sleep on her couch, no doubt adding fuel to his resentment.

Adam had amused himself a few times making slightly disparaging remarks about Niroli just to see Gino rise to the bait like an angry shark. Elena had stepped between them twice before the evening was over, and Gino was obviously boiling.

“I’ll be back first thing in the morning and I expect a full report,” he said fiercely as he prepared to leave.

“A report of what?” Natalia whispered at Elena’s ear.

“Never mind,” Elena whispered back.

Natalia laughed. “Poor Gino. He’s afraid of losing his little protégé.”

But he did leave, and so did the others, calling out their last good wishes as they went. Adam turned to Elena. Her cheeks were pink and her lips were rosy and he wanted to kiss her right there with her friends still in sight. But he didn’t.

“I liked your party,” he said instead. “It was very urbane, very sophisticated. Very continental.”

She smiled, obviously aware he was half teasing, so he went on.

“For living in such a small town, you all seem so … big-city European.”

“European?” She laughed. “How would you know what ‘European’ was like?”

“I’ve traveled in Europe. Many times.”

“Really?” She laughed again. Everything he said was amusing her. “And how did our little gathering compare to your Hollywood parties?”

He turned away in disgust. “Oh, please. Hollywood is full of phonies. I hate Hollywood parties.”

He picked up a couple of stray dishes and began to carry them into the kitchen. “There are real people living in Los Angeles, you know. If you’ve got to go to parties, go to real people parties. Like this one.”