“She could never marry you, let alone acknowledge you or your love-child in public either! How does that sit with you?”

“I’m going to get word to her I’m here in the greenhouse, waiting to talk to her.”

Dizo’s father patted his arm. “Corragio, figlio mio.”

This went beyond courage. Dizo didn’t have a choice but to face the situation head on. A scandal like this would rock the royal palace. It would undermine the honor of both his family and Gina’s.

He thought of other royal families who’d been caught up in similar situations. Once the press got wind of what was going on in Castelmare their lives would never be the same. They’d all be labeled and crucified. The torment would never end.

For himself, it didn’t matter. For Gina, he would do whatever it took to protect her.

Rebecca Winters, whose family of four children has now swelled to include three beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. With canyons and high Alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favourite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her Mills & Boon® Romance novels, because writing is her passion, along with her family and her church. Rebecca loves to hear from her readers. If you wish to e-mail her, please visit her website at: www.cleanromances.com

ITALIAN GROOM, PRINCESS BRIDE

BY

REBECCA WINTERS

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

“GUIDO?”

The wiry head gardener of the palace grounds turned around. He’d just lowered a bag of peat moss onto the pile inside the nursery shed behind the greenhouse. When he saw who it was, he made a slight bow.

“Buona sera, Principessa. I’m very sorry about your father.” Though he was civil to her, she’d always felt his reticence around her. Of late she’d sensed his antipathy.

No matter how many times she’d asked him to call her Regina, he’d always called her Princess and insisted his sons did, too. The rigid, class-conscious father of three would maintain his distance to the grave.

“Thank you, Guido. I am, too,” Regina murmured.

No one could have had a more wonderful parent than the man who’d reigned over the European Principality of Castelmare since before she’d been born. Lung cancer had finally taken her father and although it had been a blessed release, Rudolfo Vittorio IV had died too young.

Her mother was handling it exceptionally well, probably because his long suffering was over and she had a new three-month-old granddaughter to dote on. Regina’s older brother, Lucca, now king, and his wife, Alexandra, had each other and their darling Catarina. Everyone had someone. Now more than ever before Regina needed the one man she’d always loved, the man who’d been her closest friend and confidante from the age of ten.

“What can I do for you?”

“Is Dinozzo still on the grounds?”

“No,” was all he said before he went out of the doors to pull another bag off the bed of his truck. She flinched because Guido’s behavior bordered on open hostility.

Her watch said it was after 6:00 p.m. She’d planned to come this late so Dizo, her special nickname for him, would be through with any jobs his father had saved for him after leaving the university’s animal hospital. Filled with a fierce disappointment that she’d missed him, she followed Guido.

“If you should talk to him tonight, will you please tell him I’d like a word with him in the morning about some plantings we discussed earlier?”

He went back out to the truck to pick up another bag. “I would, but he left for Sardinia.”

She almost doubled over in shock.

Sardinia—

Without any other explanation, Guido returned to the shed to deposit the bag.

“W-when did he leave?” her voice faltered. She’d been counting on him being here so they could talk. In her loneliest hours she could always turn to him. He’d been there for her at every crossroad. When she’d been betrothed to Crown Prince Nicolas of Pedrosa at the age of twenty-one, she’d run to Dizo in turmoil. Somehow he had always made her feel better.

“Early this morning.”

Early meant even before the funeral. While Guido sounded exceptionally happy about it, pain seared her so deeply she couldn’t breathe.

While she and her family had been burying their father and husband in the plot that held all the past Castelmare rulers of the House of Savoy, Dizo had just left without letting her know why? He hadn’t even watched the burial from a distance when he knew how much her father had respected Dizo for putting himself through college and medical school.

“I see.” She fought to maintain her composure so Guido couldn’t take satisfaction in her devastation. Today was a national day of mourning in honor of her father. Now that Nic had become king and was pushing for her to marry him right away, this had turned out to be the blackest day of her life. “How soon do you expect him back?”

“I don’t.”

She swallowed hard. “Is someone ill?” The Fornese family had been born in Sardinia. They had extended family in Sassari. Dizo was particularly fond of his aging grandmother who lived with Guido’s brother.

Dizo visited them when he could, but between his studies at the University of Castelmare and helping his father in his spare time, there weren’t as many visits anymore.

Even so, Regina hated it whenever he had to be gone for a day or two at a time. She found herself counting the seconds until he returned.

“No. He will be getting married soon.”

That was a lie. Though Guido could have wished his eldest son had settled down with a wife years ago, it hadn’t happened. What he’d just said were the words of a wishful thinking father. If it were the truth, Dizo would have told her himself. Guido valued family over education, not wanting to admit his hardworking son could have both in time.

Choose the battle you’re sure of, Regina’s father used to tell her. This was one she would let pass. “I had no idea. Thank you for the information, Guido.”

“Prego, Principessa.” When he went back for the next bag, she realized she’d been dismissed.

As she walked away in agony, she saw Dizo’s younger brothers returning in one of the other trucks. Out of desperation she waved them down.

The vehicle slowed. Fonsi tipped his head out the window. “Princess? Is there something wrong?”

Wrong? her heart cried hysterically. Yes, something was wrong. “I came here to discuss the kind of trees I wanted planted at my father’s grave, but I just learned that Dinozzo left for Sardinia.”

Fonsi nodded.

“Your father said he’s going to be married.” They would tell her it wasn’t true.

“At the end of the summer,” Pasquale informed her from the interior of the cab. “He’s found a job there.”

Dizo had never breathed a word of it to her. He’d just passed his medical boards. She’d thought of course he planned to be a vet here in Capriccio where he could stay close to his family. She’d planned on it. Regina couldn’t live without Dizo.

She patently didn’t believe Guido. He’d made it up and his sons were in on the lie.

“Did you ask Papa for help?”

“Not yet, Fonsi,” she said out of wooden lips. “Your brother mentioned he had some ideas, so I wanted to talk to him about them first.”

“We are all very sorry about your father. Papa revered him and will be happy to plant something special,” Pasquale chimed in, but he was a little too eager for them to get off the subject of Dizo. It could only mean their father had coached them in what to say to her. He really disliked the spoiled princess of Castelmare.

Guido Fornese had always been in charge. He saw no reason for his boys to go to college when they all had a fine job on the estate. Fonsi and Pasquale, already married with children, would never usurp his authority by acting on something without his directive first. Dizo was different.

Though he showed his father respect and helped out as much as he could, he’d become a brooding, thirty-two-year-old bachelor who’d wanted more from life and had gone after it even knowing it displeased his parent. Unlike his siblings, Dizo had never lived in fear of Guido or anyone else.

Whatever had caused him to leave the country so abruptly, he’d done it of his own volition. That put the terror in her.

“I’ll talk to your father later in the week when he’s not so busy. Thank you.”

They nodded before driving on.

Regina kept walking until she couldn’t see them anymore, then she broke into a run across the extensive grounds, her pain too deep for tears. When she reached the rear of the eighteenth century palace, she entered through a private door with one of her bodyguards right behind her and raced up the steps. Her suite on the second floor of the east wing overlooked the Mediterranean. Before she shut the doors, she motioned to the closest bodyguard to come inside.

“Rico, as soon as I pack a bag I’m leaving for Nice in the limo. My family knows nothing about my plans.” She didn’t dare take the helicopter or Lucca would hear it leaving and ask questions. “If you and Vito like this job, then keep this information to yourselves, please.”

“Capisco, your highness.”

Once he was out the door she phoned her pilot. “I’m flying to Alghero, Sardinia, tonight.” It was less than an hour’s flight to the northwest part of the island. “I’ll be at the airport in forty minutes. Be ready to take off. I have no idea of my return.”

After buzzing her private secretary who would arrange for a rental car to be waiting at Fertilia airport in Sardinia, Regina threw some clothes in a bag and left the palace the same way she’d slipped in.

The thirty-five-mile drive to the Fornese farm on the outskirts of Sassari wouldn’t take long. Secretly she’d always wanted to visit there with him, but of course that had been out of the question.

Not any longer…

Though she was betrothed to someone else, Regina needed this one night of freedom to love Dizo and no one was going to stop her…

Dinozzo Romali Fornese stood at the bar with his shirtsleeves pushed up to the elbows. He knew he was getting very, very drunk. That was good. His native Vernaccia d’Oristano always did the job. The pain of imagining Gina as Nic’s bride was too staggering to contemplate.

Tonight he needed to be totally blotto if he had a prayer of getting through it. One more drink to make certain, then he tread his way carefully to the entrance of the two hundred year old tavern. “See you later, Dinozzo,” the barman called after him in their native Sassarese.

The night air was soft, but it didn’t drip with the flower-scented sweetness that surrounded the palace, grazie a dio. No reminders here. Dizo climbed in his uncle’s truck and headed through the city’s ancient streets for the farm where he’d grown up as a boy.

Instinct, not faculties, was all he required to get him there. When he flew in for short visits he always slept in the back bedroom of the stone farmhouse, but this time he hadn’t come for a visit. If he was still alive tomorrow, he would have to find work and an apartment.

The last thing he remembered was turning onto the gravel track that led around the rear of the old family home.

“Dizo?”

No. No dreams. Not tonight.

“Dizo, caro—”

That voice. No one called him that except one person. “Leave me alone, Giannina,” he muttered in agony.

“You know you don’t want me to.”

He felt her arms go around him. The curvaceous mold of her figure melted into his hard body, denying him no part of herself. That mouth he’d likened to a wild red rose began devouring him with an insatiable hunger.

“You’re right,” he cried feverishly against those seductive lips. “Dio mio. I want you so much I could bite the heart right out of your beautiful body.”

“Do it, tesoro.”

With skin like velvet and glossy black hair filled with the scent of sweet orange blossoms, he was helpless to do anything but roll her on her back and begin kissing her the way he’d done so many times in his other dreams.

This one was different.

Instead of her suddenly vanishing from sight where he couldn’t find her, she stayed right where she was and kissed him in and out of oblivion. His legs tangled with her silky limbs. After all the years of aching, she was bringing him ecstasy. He wanted it to go on forever.

“Come here to me my precious, adorable Giannina. Closer—” he cried against her tender throat.

“I love you, Dizo. I always will. That’s never going to change.”

“Don’t leave me, amore.”

“Never. Have no fear.”

Once again he was swept away by rapture she brought with every sigh and caress. “I want to feel you just like this until the very second I wake up.”

“Let’s not wake up,” she whispered against his lips.

“You think I want to?”

“Then we won’t. We’ll go on like this into infinity.”

“Into infinity?” he whispered back in a husky voice. “That’s not long enough. If you knew the years I’ve been waiting…aching,” he cried.

His mouth enveloped hers, drinking in her sweetness. He plunged his hands into her hair, loving the way the curls wrapped around his fingers. Still his dream didn’t fade.

“Hey, Dinozzo—” came a discordant note out of the soporific waves. “I want to talk to my nephew. When are you going to get up? Do you know how late it is?”

Dizo realized his fantastic dream had ended. He couldn’t bear it. The alcohol he’d consumed last night was supposed to have wiped everything from his subconscious. Instead a silken pair of arms had transported him to a place where he’d been given a taste of paradise.

On a groan he started to get out of bed, but felt something warm and soft lying next to him, preventing movement. He opened his eyes that were having trouble focusing and discovered a female body lying facedown next to him. The cap of glossy black curls looked shockingly familiar.

His jet-black eyes took in the trail of his clothes and her shoes and jacket starting at the door and ending at the bed. The sheet partially covering both of them revealed that the woman he must have picked up outside the bar last night was wearing a pale yellow and white flowered tank top. With trembling hands he carefully turned her over.

Holy mother of God.

Giannina.

He couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.

Slowly her black-fringed lids fluttered open. Those brown eyes so fabulous because of their burgundy hue stared into his.

“Dizo—” came her urgent cry. Like a cat preening in the sun with delight, she stretched without inhibition and wrapped her arms around his neck. He felt her warm, sweet breath on his lips. Then it was the dream all over again as her mouth took him to that place he’d never wanted to leave.

This time there was a loud knock on the door bringing him fully awake. “Dinozzo! I’m getting worried. If you’re not up on the count of three, I’m coming in.”

Diavolo!

None too gently Dizo pushed her against the mattress. The second he threw the sheet over her head his uncle walked in.

“Your papa has already phoned twice. He has a mes—”

That was all that came out of his uncle’s mouth. Scratching his balding head, he took in the scene of what could only be labeled wanton desire with his-and-her clothing and blankets scattered, pillows askew. Their gazes locked in silent communication.

His uncle cleared his throat. “I’ll tell your father you’ll call him later.” He closed the door.

Muttering a curse, Dizo levered his tall, well-honed body off the other side of the bed. By some miracle he was still wearing his pants. While he was still disoriented, Gina peeked out from beneath the sheet covering her head. His heart slammed into his ribs to see her beautiful face framed by her disheveled curls. One dangled in the middle of her forehead. She was a living, breathing miracle.

In a minute he would demand answers, but for the moment all his befuddled brain could do was try to digest the fact that Princess Regina Schiaparelli Vittorio of Castelmare had spent what was left of the rest of the night in bed with him. Damn if he hadn’t been so drunk after leaving the tavern, he hadn’t been able to distinguish fact from fiction or realize that the divine pleasure she’d brought him was no dream.

She started to get up, pushing the sheet completely away. As she slid her shapely legs to the floor and rose to her feet, the yellow skirt that matched her top fell to her knees. She could wear any color and look gorgeous, creating a picture of summery elegance and sophistication only she could carry off.

Everything she bought or had made to wear was exquisitely cut to play down her curves, but he wouldn’t be a man if his senses didn’t quake at the sight of her voluptuous figure.

With unsteady hands he reached in the drawer for a clean T-shirt and pulled it down over his bare chest. “Explanations can come later,” he muttered. “What I have to do right now is get you out of here before my uncle learns who you are.”

“I don’t care if he knows.”

“You don’t mean that,” his voice grated. You can’t.

She was about to be married to the king of Pedrosa. In order to get near her, let alone touch her, you had to be royalty yourself. She was off-limits. Forbidden. That had been drummed into Dizo’s brain from the moment his father had taken the gardener’s job at the palace years ago.

Before her betrothal, more than one prince Dizo knew of had been after her. His brothers had kept him up on the palace gossip. From rumors they’d learned Gina’s mother had always favored the Spanish speaking Prince Nicolas, now king since his father had stepped down.

Dizo had seen him walking on the grounds with her. Occasionally they’d gone horseback riding. Many was the time Dizo had wished Nic’s mount had thrown him and broken his arrogant Catalan neck.

Gina’s expressive eyes glinted with pain. “You mean you don’t want me to mean it. Is that because you’re getting married at the end of the summer?” She faced him with the same forthrightness that had always been her trademark. Gina was only five feet five, but there were times like now when she took on invisible stature.

A tight band constricted his breathing. “Who told you that?”

“Your father. Who else? Is it true?” Her voice shook.

He grimaced. “We’ll talk about it later.”

“Then it is?” she cried. Her face suddenly lost color.

Gina… “It’s no secret you and I have always been attracted to each other, but that was all it ever could be. We both have to get on with our lives and right now it’s first things first.”

In spite of the tears glinting on those long black eyelashes, a daring smile broke the corner of her provocative mouth. “How do you propose I exit the room without your uncle seeing me?”

Dizo picked up her sandals and handed them to her. “Put these on and I’ll help you out through the window. There’s a fruit shed maybe a hundred yards from here. No one will be around at this time of day. Hide in there and wait for me till I come with the truck.”

If anyone knew she’d been here, in his bed, her reputation would be tarnished beyond all recognition. He didn’t even want to think how King Nicolas would react when he found out. Lucca would have every right to fire the entire Fornese family and shuttle them back to Sardinia. All the goodwill Dizo’s father had built up over the years with King Rudolfo and his family would be destroyed.

The media would have a field day with Gina who up until this stunning escapade hadn’t done anything to sully her name. Much to their frustration they’d never caught her in anything salacious. She’d remained as white and pure as the proverbial driven snow.

Until now…

After she’d slipped into her sandals he lifted the short-sleeved jacket to help her finish dressing. It took all his strength of will not to pull her back against him and finish what she’d started while he’d thought he was dreaming.

The untouchable twenty-six-year-old Princess Regina no longer bore that label. Her swollen lips showed signs of being kissed senseless. A faint rash from his five-o’clock shadow covered her high-boned cheeks. His touch was all over her even if he couldn’t remember details. Traces of her fragrance still clung to his skin. How in hell was he going to live with that?

She flashed him that captivating white smile. “Your uncle’s going to know how I disappeared.”

Dizo pulled the shutters back and opened the two panes that swung outward. “It won’t be the first time,” he muttered, “but as he was young once himself, he knows better than to say anything, especially with nonna in the house.”

For reasons he didn’t dare contemplate right now, it was imperative Gina leave Sardinia immediately. He picked her up none too gently and swung her through the opening, then lowered her until her feet touched the ground. When he would have let go of her hands, she held on.

“Last night you told me you desired me. Over and over again in every conceivable way,” she added with those wine dark eyes never wavering from his. “If the woman you’re supposedly going to marry is still unaware of your feelings for me, then it’s time you went to her with the truth.”

While he stood there reeling from the implication that more might have gone on than he could remember, she stole away.

His jaw set, he closed the window and put the shutters back in place. After he’d slipped on his shoes, he left the room and practically ran into his uncle who’d just come out of his grandmother’s room.

“I owe you an apology,” Dizo began in a quiet voice.

To his surprise his uncle broke into a smile. “No apology is necessary.” He patted his shoulder, seemingly more affable than usual. “Your papa has worried. You know. No women for a long time, but I phoned him just now and assured him there’s nothing wrong with his Dinozzo.”

Dio mio.

“Then you’ll understand I need your truck again for a little while?”

His head bobbed. “Si, si. I’ll explain to your nonna you have business in town but will be back soon.”

“I swear I won’t be long. Grazie, zio.”

He took off out the back door for the truck. The keys were in the ignition where he’d left them last night. Gina must have seen him drive away from the house and decided to wait for him to return. When she realized he was on the verge of passing out, she’d helped him in the house and things had gotten out of hand from there. That was the only explanation he could think of that made any sense.

“Princess?” he called to her once he’d reached the entrance to the shed. “Quick—come and get in—”

When she didn’t answer or appear, he frowned. “Princess?”

Nothing.

After climbing down from the driver’s seat, he went inside. A thorough investigation revealed no sign of her.

His mind replayed the moment he’d helped her to escape. Only now did it occur to him that after delivering her last salvo, she’d had no intention of hanging around for him. Too late he remembered she never went anywhere without her network of staff and personal bodyguards.

Now his crime had more witnesses who’d watched him lower her out his bedroom window. It was conceivable the news had already reached her brother’s ears. How long before Nic heard the worst—Dizo suddenly realized he was in the biggest trouble of his life.

He pounded a fist against his forehead. By now she was on the helicopter winging her way toward Castelmare. With no time to lose he raced back to the farmhouse.

After swearing his uncle to secrecy, he explained he had to go back to Castelmare on an emergency before the day was out. Six hours later his commercial flight landed in Nice, France. He rented a car at the airport, then drove over the speed limit to the capitol city of Capriccio in Castelmare fifteen miles away.

Before he did anything else he needed to talk to his father who would still be on the palace grounds. Since the death of Dizo’s mother, Guido never left for home before seven in the evening.

When he walked in to the greenhouse, three pairs of Fornese eyes widened to see him appear unannounced. His father’s slid away. Guilt had a way of revealing itself.

Over the years Dizo had worked out the important issues with his father, but he’d never been truly angry with him until now.

He flashed his brothers a speaking glance. “If you don’t mind, I have to talk to Papa alone.”

Both looked distinctly uncomfortable before they nodded and left, closing the doors behind them.

Dizo moved closer. “I’ve always been aware of your dislike for Princess Regina, but you chose the wrong day to tell her I left Castelmare because of my nonexistent impending marriage. Do you have any conception of the pain she was in after her father’s funeral yesterday?”

His father’s dark head with only a sprinkling of gray lifted abruptly. “How do you know what I said to her?”

“She told me.” In person. In Technicolor. Dizo was still in shock.

“Of course. The telephone.” He slapped his own leg. “That young woman never leaves you alone. Because she’s the principessa of Castelmare, no place is far enough away from her, is it.”

After what had happened to Dizo last night, he couldn’t honestly answer his father.

“I may not have your college education, figlio mio, but I’m not as unintelligent as you think I am.”

“That’s your assessment, not mine.”

“Basta!” He shook his head in fury. “It’s exactly because I knew how hard it was on her I said what I did.” His index finger lifted, a sure sign a lecture was coming. “Since I took this job here sixteen years ago, I’ve seen her traipse after you like a lovesick puppy and you allowed it knowing nothing could ever come of it.”

Tell me something I don’t know, Papa. Gina’s destiny had been decreed the moment her royal parents knew another royal baby was on the way.

“Before your mother died, she made me promise I would put a stop to it, but I couldn’t persuade you to go back home to college. You planned your life so you could be around the princess. You think I don’t know you could have made triple the money doing another kind of part-time job away from the grounds?

“Only one man has ever mattered to her besides her father. That man is you!

“When she came hightailing it in here yesterday after the funeral looking for you, I took matters into my own hands. She’ll be marrying King Nicolas of Pedrosa in the very near future. As long as you finally showed the good sense to leave Castelmare for good, I decided to make certain the umbilical cord got cut once and for all!”

Dizo inhaled sharply. “I’m afraid it didn’t work.”

“Obviously not. You’re back here in twenty-four hours looking like the very devil despite my big brother’s news that you were with a woman last night. What did the princess do? Order you back to the palace on some excuse about the plantings at her father’s grave?”

He experienced more pain remembering the day they’d talked about her father’s love of pine trees and how they could be incorporated when everything else was more tropical. It hadn’t been that long ago.

“She did worse than that, Papa. It’s the reason I’ve come to you for advice.”

“My advice?” he mocked. “Since when did you ever want it?”

“Since this morning when I woke up to find her in my bed.”

A stunning silence followed.

Aghast at the revelation, his father paled and staggered over to the chair to sit down. The two men stared long and hard at each other. “She showed up at the farmhouse?” he asked incredulously.

“I’m afraid so. I left Zitta’s bar around two. Nothing else registered after that except that I had this fantastic dream about her. When I woke up, there she was.”

A ruddy color spilled into his father’s cheeks. “Did you—you know what I mean—”

Yes, Dizo knew esattamente what he meant.

“I don’t really know. She still had her clothes on.” Though admittedly not all. “I was wearing my pants and nothing else.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” he muttered.

Dizo had been thinking about that and had come to the same conclusion. “That’s why I’m here.”

His father wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Did my brother see her?”

“He saw someone in the bed, but I got her out through the window before he could identify her. Unfortunately you and I both know her bodyguards had to be close by.”

“Si, and bodyguards talk.” A serious moan came out of his father before he crossed himself.

“That’s all I’ve been thinking about. I told her to wait for me inside the fruit shed, but when I drove up in the truck, she was gone.”

He jumped to his feet. “It was a trick! She knows every one of them.”

And they work every time.

Dizo rubbed the back of his neck. “Whatever it was, it got me back here on the double.”

His father started to pace, then stopped in front of Dizo. “You don’t have a choice but to go to Lucca and tell him the whole truth. Once King Nicolas finds out—” He shook his head in despair. “If there’s any chance at all you impregnated the princess, her brother has to know before anyone else! That’s one thing the bodyguards don’t know yet.”

“And then what, Papa? If she’s carrying my child, she would never abort it. Nic would have to live with the knowledge that she’d been with another man first.” There was a secret part in Dizo’s heart that rejoiced at the very thought of her giving birth to his son or daughter.

“She could never marry you, let alone acknowledge you or your love child in public, either! How does that sit with you?”

He shut his eyes tightly. “It doesn’t. I have to pray to God I didn’t make total love to her.”

“But you don’t know for sure.”

“No,” he said in a tormented whisper. “She’s the only one who can tell me the truth.”

“Have you ever known her to lie?”

“No.” Gina didn’t have a deceitful bone inside that breathtaking body, but since last night he realized she’d been willing to risk the unthinkable to be with him. He couldn’t believe she would go that far. On the day she’d buried her father, she’d flown all the way from Castelmare in the dead of night to find him. It went against everything her royal training had taught her from the cradle. But it secretly thrilled him.

“Then you have to ask her what happened,” his father said, bringing him back to the present.

“I intend to. No matter the answer, I’ll go to her brother. He deserves to know exactly what happened before King Nicolas finds out.”

Guido nodded. “Lucca’s the only one who has the power to control her.”

Dizo hated to tell his father, but no one controlled Gina. She’d always been a law unto herself. That was part of her incredible appeal. He’d been friends with Gina from the beginning. Their relationship had penetrated class barriers, allowing them to share their thoughts and interests.

His poor father came from a culture that couldn’t conceive of a commoner being friends with royalty. Much to Guido’s chagrin, Dizo’s desire for Gina had gotten into the mix, making everything so much more complicated and painful.

What if Dizo had made love to her and she was carrying his child? He’d had dreams where it had happened, but he’d never wakened up before to find her luscious body under the covers with him.

When she’d been away at college in London, she’d managed to come home most weekends to study. He almost had heart failure every time she sunbathed on the grounds where he was planting or weeding. She’d lie on her stomach in shorts and a fetching little top with her head in a book. He’d stabbed his hand more than once with the trowel just watching her turn over.

“We Fornese’s are honorable people.” His father’s sad voice trailed.

“You’ve always been honorable, Papa. My behavior has been questionable since the day I stopped listening to your warnings.”

When their family moved to Capriccio, Dizo had been sixteen, old enough to tease his younger brothers and Gina who was six years younger than himself. Assuming she was a spoiled little terror, he’d determined to ignore her, but she’d turned out to be completely different. She fascinated all of them because although she was a real princess, she was fun and a good sport.

Though she had lots of cousins and friends, Dizo realized she preferred the company of the gardener’s son. Being that she had an intelligent mind aided by a superior royal education, it flattered his ego. When she asked him to teach her his native language, he discovered she was an excellent student. He found he enjoyed her hanging around him while he worked.

Time went by. The day she came running to him because their family dog had died, he’d put his arms around her to comfort her. It had been the first time he’d ever really touched her except to help her in and out of the ornamental pool or help her down from a tree or some such thing.

But this time other feelings took over. When he eased her away from him he realized she’d grown up and filled out. It seemed like overnight the lovely young girl had become a beautiful woman, inside and out.

No other female compared. To his surprise and dismay, the women he had dated during college and graduate school only illuminated the difference between her and every other female. He found he wanted Gina in all the ways a man could want a woman. The rest didn’t come close.

A deep sigh came out of his father. “This is all my fault. As soon as I saw what was happening between you two, I should have taken the family back to Sassari.”

“Don’t, Papa—her father asked you to come to Castelmare and work for him because you were the best gardener in Sardinia. I’ve always been so proud of you, yet this is how I show it,” he said in bitter self-abnegation.

“I shouldn’t have lied to her in her pain. That’s what caused her to do something not even I would have expected.”

“No. The blame lies squarely on my shoulders. I didn’t know how to say goodbye to her so I chose not to. That’s what drove her to do something reckless enough to cause real trouble. While the funeral was going on, I thought it the best time to leave.”

Palace gossip had reached his ears that now her father was dead, her marriage to King Nic was imminent. Dizo hadn’t wanted to deal with the pain and thought to escape it by going back to Sardinia.

Who would have dreamed Gina would come after him like that? It wouldn’t surprise him if he were suddenly struck by lightning for feeling the joy of it. Heaven knew he’d been playing with fire for years, but he was so selfish, he hadn’t counted on anyone except himself getting burned.

“I’m going to phone the palace. Her secretary will get word to her I’m here in the greenhouse waiting to talk to her.”

Dizo’s father patted his arm. “Corragio, figlio mio.”

This went beyond courage. Dizo didn’t have a choice but to face the situation head-on. A scandal like this would rock Nic’s world. It would undermine the honor of both his family and Gina’s.

He thought of other royal families who’d been caught up in similar situations. Once the press got wind of what was going on in Castelmare, their lives would never be the same. They’d all be labeled and crucified. The torment would never end.

For himself, it didn’t matter. For Gina, he would do whatever it took to protect her.

CHAPTER TWO

REGINA was on her way home from a town council meeting when she saw that her secretary was trying to reach her. She answered the call. “Si?”

“Your Highness? Dinozzo Fornese is in the greenhouse awaiting your instructions about the trees you want planted at your father’s grave. What shall I tell him?”

At last!

Her pulse raced so fast she went weak from excitement. “Tell him not to leave yet. I’ll join him within five minutes.”

“Very well.”

After hanging up, Regina told her chauffeur to drive her straight to the greenhouse at the northwest end of the palace grounds. Dizo wouldn’t have asked her to meet him there if his father and brothers were still around. This summons meant he’d arranged it so they would be alone. Good. No Guido to interfere.

She smiled. No matter how angry Dizo might be with her, he hadn’t been able to forget memories of last night and this morning—those moments of unleashed passion they’d shared even in his highly inebriated state. His desire had brought him back on the first plane leaving for Nice.

Regina had never seen him drunk. Her tall, intelligent, fiercely proud, disciplined Dizo with those aquiline features and piercing black eyes of his Sardinian race didn’t make mistakes. Except for last night.

To realize his secret flight from Castelmare to Sardinia had to be shorn up by emptying a bottle of alcohol lent him the vulnerability she’d been waiting years to discover. He would have slept in the truck for the rest of the night if she hadn’t opened the door and coaxed him into her arms.

Caught with his guard down, he’d succumbed to her kisses. By the time they reached the back room he hadn’t fought her as she helped him get ready for bed. Once her jacket came off, he pulled her down almost savagely and began kissing the daylights out of her.

She moaned when the alcohol he’d consumed finally took over and he fell asleep first. Regina slept a little, but toward morning she awakened to study the beautiful man who held her so possessively even in sleep. The hair on his chest matched the darkness of his wavy hair he wore longer most of the time because he was too busy to get it cut.

Though she had olive skin, his was darker. Such a strong, powerful man could have no idea how safe she’d felt cocooned in his arms. She’d pressed her face into his neck, loving the male scent of him. For so many years she’d only been able to look, not touch. To suddenly have him all to herself where she could show him what he meant to her made her euphoric. How could she possibly marry Nic after this?

Breathless for the sight of Dizo, she jumped out of the limo the moment it stopped in front of the greenhouse and told the chauffeur she wouldn’t need him anymore. She noticed Dizo’s rental car parked to the side. It took every ounce of composure to walk inside as if she really were going into the office to consult with one of the gardeners on a legitimate landscaping matter.

Her feet stilled the second she saw Dizo standing in front of a window looking out over the grounds. In a navy crew neck shirt and dark trousers, he took her breath. He was half-turned, giving her a glimpse of his chiseled profile. His thoughts had to be dark for lines to bracket the mouth that had driven her mad with desire during the night. It sent a frisson of nervousness down her spine.

“Dizo?”

His dark head whipped around giving her the full brunt of his scrutiny. With no alcohol left in his system he was totally in charge. Gone was the lover who’d cried her name over and over before morning, begging her never to leave him. Her joy dissipated as she sensed his quiet fury and was shaken by it, but she didn’t dare let him know it.

His sharp intake of breath reverberated in the enclosed space. “The fairy tale came to an end when I woke up and found you in my bed this morning.” His voice grated. “I only have one question.”

She’d anticipated it. “We didn’t cross the forbidden line.”

“Whose fault was that?” His eyes held an ominous glitter.

“I flew to Sardinia to talk to you and find out why you left without telling me, but you were too drunk to do more than kiss me before you fell asleep.”

“Grazie a Dio.” His hands formed fists. “Will you please get your brother on the line and ask him to come down to the greenhouse?”

The blood pounded in her ears. “No, Dizo—”

“Yes, Principessa—” he fired back. “If you don’t, I’ll call him myself right now.”

Regina had never seen Dizo this forbidding in her life. She didn’t know him like this. His mouth had gone a bluish-white around the edges.

“W-what are you going to say to him?” she stammered.

He moved closer to her. “That’s my business.”

She shook her head in terror. “Don’t make me do this.”

“Hand me your cell phone, or do I have to take it from you.”

Her eyes filled with liquid despite all her efforts to maintain control. “Dizo—”

“Tears won’t work. You’re about to be married to another man. End of story!” He grabbed her purse and felt inside for her phone. “Do I surprise your brother who might not be in the right circumstances to hear my voice coming from the other end? Or do you find a way to get your brother down here without causing him any more stress than necessary? The decision is up to you.”

He meant it—every word of it. She hadn’t expected him to go this far. Once Lucca knew…

“Time’s up.” He pressed button one, her private line to her brother.

In the last second she took the phone from him and put it to her ear. She could hear Lucca talking. “Regina? What are you doing? Where are you? Alexandra’s about to give Catarina her bath. Come and join the fun.”

Her brother sounded so happy she couldn’t bear for that to change, but it was going to.

“I-I’d love to—” she stumbled over the words “—but right now I’m at the greenhouse trying to decide on the trees to plant at Papa’s grave. Dinozzo is here.” She could feel his eyes impaling her, forcing her to carry out his demand. “If you could come f-for just a minute and help me make the final decision before he has to leave?”

After a definite pause Lucca said, “You don’t sound yourself. Something’s wrong. I’ll be right there.” He clicked off. Her brother’s uncanny radar picked up on anything and everything. It was in full force tonight.

Regina averted her eyes. “He’s coming,” she whispered shakily.

Like a drowning victim she saw her life flash before her eyes. The one with Dizo. To imagine the rest of it without him was incomprehensible to her. How could she marry Nic?

While she stood there in agony, her body started to ice up and she felt sick to her stomach. Then she heard a strange ringing in her ears. The next thing she knew Dizo had lowered her into a chair.

“Put your head between your legs.”

Dizo’s hand had gone to the back of her neck giving her no choice. For a minute her head swam. He leaned over. “Princess?” he whispered anxiously. She hadn’t thought there was a particle of concern for her left in him, but she was too light-headed to analyze it.

When the world finally righted itself again she lifted her head. “I’m all right.”

Lucca chose that moment to walk in on them. After one look at her he muttered, “You’re as white as a ghost.” He hunkered down next to her and grabbed her hand. “What’s wrong, piccina?”

Regina didn’t know where to start. Her brother’s worried gaze shot to Dizo for an explanation.

“Your sister has something to tell you, but before you arrived she came close to fainting. I’ll get her some water.”

She shook her head at Dizo, unable to believe he could be this cruel. He pulled a bottle of water from the minifridge. After removing the top he handed it to her. Needing the sustenance she drank thirstily. “Thank you.”

“I’m sending for the doctor.” As Lucca pulled his phone out of his trousers, she put a hand on his arm.

“I don’t need medical help.”

She must have convinced him because he ended up lounging against the edge of a table with his arms folded and waited. Dizo stood a few feet away with his legs slightly apart, his hands on his hips in the ultimate male stance.

Regina was too devastated by his betrayal to speak. Somehow she’d believed he’d loved her enough that he would risk everything for her the way she had him. Not true. By summoning her brother, he’d caused her to question the belief system she’d clung to all her life.

In flying to Sardinia to let him know how much she loved him and couldn’t live without him, she’d totally humiliated herself for nothing!

Dizo was marking time until she made her little speech. She’d already shown weakness by losing it in front of him a few minutes ago, but that was the last time it would ever happen.

She took a deep breath and stood up. Without giving Dizo a glance she faced her brother. “I did something foolish and went to visit Dizo in Sassari last night without being invited. Kind of a twist on the droit de seigneur thing, but he didn’t appreciate it. Have no fear. He sent me on my way so fast my head is still spinning. It’s clear he’s terrified I compromised him and his family.

“Since it’s evident he’s afraid I won’t leave him alone, he flew here this evening and demanded that you be told about it. Actually I’m glad he insisted you come down to the greenhouse. That way I can swear on the love of our dead father that Dizo has no more reason to fear me embarrassing him or his family again. After sixteen years he’s free of me, so help me God.”

Regina’s head jerked around in Dizo’s direction. “Does that satisfy you, or were you hoping I would give him chapter and verse? Before tonight I could have sworn you were my friend at least. However, all that has changed now that I’ve found out I made an earthshaking error in judgment by placing any faith in you.

“That’s what’s so sad about growing up in one night. You discover you can’t depend on anyone but yourself. Papa gave me that warning more than once, but I thought he was talking about his own life as king.

“Arrivederci, Dinozzo Fornese.”

To her joy his face had gone as pale as hers beneath his tan. The bleak expression in those black slits was cause for celebration. While she was still energized by excruciating pain, she left the greenhouse on her own power.

* * *

Gina’s footsteps faded on the gravel outside, leaving an emptiness inside Dizo he couldn’t begin to describe.

“You were right to come to me about this,” Lucca spoke at last. “I’m not unaware my sister has always done the chasing where you’re concerned. This was a lesson she’s been needing for a long, long time.”

Dizo had gone numb.

“My father often talked about his admiration for your family, for you. Before he died, Regina told him you passed at the head of your class. It made Papa very proud.”

He couldn’t take much more of this. “Thank you. I felt the same way about him. He was a wonderful man. We’re all sorry for your loss.”

Lucca nodded. “It’s been hard, but he’s out of his misery now for which our family is grateful.”

“Of course.”

He felt Lucca’s eyes on him. “You’re a fine man, too. There’s none better. If I know my sister, and I do, with her marriage to Nic soon to take place, she’ll never come near you or embarrass you again.”

A shudder racked his body. Though Lucca had spoken the truth, Dizo already knew she’d keep her promise. He’d done the unforgivable to ensure she stayed away permanently. Now that she was out of his life for good, the feeling had left him beyond desolate.

“Tell me your plans, Dottore Fornese.”

Dizo took a steadying breath. “There are several veterinary practices in Sassari I can join, but I’m looking into other locales, too. In the meantime I’ll stay with my uncle and grandmother. When I’ve found the situation that seems right, I’ll get a place of my own.”

Lucca extended his hand. “Congratulations on becoming a vet. Your father hides his feelings well, but he makes little comments here and there that let me know he’s bursting his seams with pride over your accomplishment.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

“I’m Lucca. Surely after all these years of reminding you, you can finally bring yourself to call me by my first name.”

Dizo liked and respected Gina’s brother more than any man alive except his own father. “Grazie, Lucca.”

“Prego, Dizo. I know that’s Regina’s name for you. It’s a good one. Clever, just like my incorrigible sister.” He stared directly into Dizo’s eyes. “You have my undying respect for the way you’ve handled her attention to you all these years. Any other man would have taken advantage long before now.”

“I’ve hurt her by coming to you,” he muttered, “but I didn’t know any other way to protect her.”

“I thank you for what you’ve done for her, Dizo. One day when she’s married with children of her own, she’ll thank you, too.”

“No.” He shook his head. “Let’s not deceive ourselves about that.”

Lucca put a hand on his shoulder. “If there’s anything I can do for you, all you have to do is ask.” The man’s sincerity resonated deep inside. “Castelmare needs more vets.”

Not this one. When Gina married Nic and went to Pedrosa to live, there would still be too many memories of her for him to stay on in Castelmare. “I’ll think about it,” Dizo lied.

“That’s good because there’s a new vacancy in Savono. As you know, my father was a great animal lover. One of his best friends ran the practice there, but he had to retire because of health problems. Another vet is temping until a permanent replacement can be found. Before father passed away, he asked me to tell you about it. Frankly he hoped you would take the position.

“The animal clinic is on the main street across from the civic center. Before you leave Castelmare, will you look into it as a personal favor to him and me? I understand you specialize in small animals, the clinic’s specialty.”

Under the circumstances Dizo couldn’t very well turn him down. “I appreciate the suggestion. I’ll drive up there in the morning.” Before I leave the country for good. “Thank you.”

“Thank you. Ciao, Dizo.”

Dizo went out to his rental car and took off for his father’s house, staggered by events that had plunged him from one inferno into another. No matter what decision he made, he was going to be scorched alive.

If he were totally honest with himself, Sardinia held no attraction for him anymore. He’d found that out last night when it had taken a whole bottle to help him bear the thought of being back for good. Though he would always go there for family visits, his old roots didn’t tug at him. He’d made a life in Castlemare and had become entrenched ages ago.

Tonight while he was driving along the coast road and saw the white renaissance palace in the distance, his heart burned within him…because he knew Gina was there. Sixteen years of memories couldn’t be torn out of his soul.

Her brother didn’t know he’d opened up a new can of worms by mentioning the job opportunity in Savono. Dizo was touched by King Rudolfo’s interest in him. He could picture the town in his mind’s eye. It was only a mile above Capriccio to the west. Not far enough away from her at the moment, but then neither was Sardinia.

After her avowal tonight, he knew she’d leave him alone. With her wedding imminent, there was nothing more to fear on that score. They’d be living in Pedrosa. If he never ventured on the palace grounds again, the chances of meeting up with her were one in a billion. She would function with Nic in their privileged world, sealed off and protected from the average citizen. That’s what was destroying him now.

With emotions eating him alive, he found himself taking the hairpin turns up the steep mountain road past pink and ochre villas whose gardens hugged the cliffs. Soon he reached his destination and drove through Savono, one of the most charming locales on the Ligurian coast.

Nighttime brought out the tourists. They strolled in and out of shops and ate on the café terraces while enjoying the view of the yachts in the bay far below. The jewelry stores with their displays of diamonds for which Castlemare was famous stayed open for business until late, drawing in the crowds.

He slowed down in front of a cluster of buildings across from the civic center. The plaque on the middle door read Savono Veterinary Clinic And Boarding Kennel. Dizo pulled to a stop, drinking in the perfumed air.

He could easily imagine himself living here, except that everything reminded him of her.

If he lived in Sardinia, nothing would remind him of her, but that wouldn’t stop him from thinking and aching. His pain would probably be worse.

There was no question where Guido would like him to settle. His father loved Castelmare. He’d stayed on after Dizo’s mother had died and his brothers weren’t going anywhere.

Dizo stared at the clinic. A referral from Lucca and his father were as good as a guaranteed job offer. His dream to make something of his life was coming true, but without Gina, there would be no joy. This was worse than death. If she’d been the one to die, he would have been forced to accept it and go on living.

Unfortunately his beautiful Giannina was very much alive and going to be married to someone else!

Not unfortunately—

Dio mio, he didn’t mean that. He didn’t know what he meant anymore. An abyss had swallowed him whole. Everywhere he turned he bumped into terrifying darkness.

As soon as Regina reached her suite in the palace, she kicked off her shoes and phoned her secretary.

“Will you please fax a note to Nicolas in the morning? Tell him I’m sorry it has taken me this long to respond to his invitation, but my father’s passing prevented me from doing so until now. Let him know I’d love to spend the weekend with him.”

Regina didn’t care how it looked. She’d done all the mourning for two men there was to do in one life. Enough of that. If Nic wanted to make final wedding plans, so be it!

“Yes, Your Highness.”

No sooner had she hung up than she heard her brother’s rap on the outer door of her suite. She’d been expecting him. If he thought he would find her convulsed on the bed, he was in for a shock.

She grabbed a nail file out of the drawer in her bedside table and sat in the middle of her bed cross-legged against the silky duvet. “Come in, Lucca!”

When he walked in her bedroom furnished in shades of cream and pale green, she looked up at him. “If you’ve come to check on me, I’m fine. Go home to your wife and child.”

He stood at the end of her king-size bed without saying anything. She could tell he was really angry with her. It shook her. He’d always been her sibling, but now he was a lot more than that. Somehow she hadn’t fully realized it until now.

“You do understand why Dizo reacted the way he did—”

“Of course. I went too far and he called my bluff because he’s the iron man. I thought I’d test him to see if he had an Achilles’ heel.” She flashed her brother a broad smile. “He doesn’t, at least not where I’m concerned. I get it.”

She started filing the nail of her index finger.

“It’s called decency, Regina. Respect for the crown. What shocks me is that you thought you had the right to cross the line with him.” Her brother was truly upset with her. Now that their father had passed away, he was feeling the weight of his responsibilities and she was one of them. While she waited for him to speak, she didn’t realize she’d filed her nail down to the skin.

“From the age of sixteen when Dizo first came here, he has known that any romantic association with you was out of the question. Taken to its furthest degree, he could never marry you. When he left for Sardinia, it was to start a new life as a vet. He never once made a wrong move with you.”

“You’re right! He’s got a stone where his heart is.” Fire filled her cheeks. “How come you managed to get away with enjoying all the off-limits-women in your life?”

“They didn’t work at the palace,” her unflappable brother came back with his indisputable logic. “Their fathers didn’t have the kind of friendship Guido enjoyed with our father.

“Dizo is the product of his own strict upbringing. The Forneses have an enviable code of ethics handed down from their ancestry and are the finest people I know. Would that Alexandra and I can instill that kind of character in Catarina. He did the honorable thing so you could preserve your reputation. Think what you did by flying to Sardinia—”

“Honor be damned. When all’s said and done, he didn’t want me.” A brittle laugh escaped her throat. “Saving my reputation,” she mocked.

“Yes. And his family’s. And Nic’s.” He stared her down. “In the end that’s all any of us has.”

Guilt smote her.

“I guess it’s as good an excuse as any for admitting I don’t have what it takes to turn him on.” She tossed her head back. “Well, he did a superb job of it. Never mind those hours we were in bed together where he couldn’t stop telling me how much he wanted me. That was only the alcohol talking in the heat of the moment. As soon as he was sober, he couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.

“You should have seen his eyes light up once I told him he didn’t need to worry about becoming a father. Would you believe he was so drunk he fell asleep before anything major could happen? Even out of control, Dinozzo Fornese was in control.” Her voice shook. “The joke’s on me.

“Even if Guido lied about Dizo’s forthcoming wedding, he was being prophetic. One day soon I’ll learn that Dizo married a local girl from Sassari. They’ll help take care of his grandmother and everything will be just as it should be in the Fornese corner of the world.”

She tossed her file on the table. “Just so you know, I’ve accepted Nic’s invitation for this coming weekend. He wants to talk over wedding plans. I think it’s time. Let’s agree that miracles only happen once. You got yours when Alexandra swept into your life at the midnight hour setting you ablaze.

“As Dizo informed me in his doomsday voice a little while ago, the fairy tale is over for us. I’m ready to marry Nic. The sooner the better. Unlike you, I want a life and children before I reach my thirties. By then I’ll be too old to get down in the dirt and make mud pies with them.”

There would be no fire with Nic. Nothing could equal what had taken place in the privacy of Dizo’s bedroom where Regina had known rapture of a kind she had no idea existed. She looked away from her brother’s all-seeing gaze.

“By now Catarina will be waiting for her papa to kiss her good-night. You’d better go or Alexandra will start to worry.”

“I’m going, but I want you to call me if you need me.”

“Thank you, but I won’t.”

The brother she loved had become even more protective now that their father had passed away, but there was only one man she needed and he was permanently unavailable.

CHAPTER THREE

“DR. FORNESE?” The voice of the receptionist came over the speakerphone in the surgery. “There’s an important call for you from the palace in Capriccio.”

Steady, Dizo.

Two weeks had passed since the night at the greenhouse. This phone call couldn’t be from Gina. It was as if she didn’t exist.

“I’m still putting in some sutures,” he called through his mask. Signora Rossini’s terrier had tangled with her neighbor’s pit bull. The terrier had gotten the worst of it.

“Tell them I’ll return the call when I’m through with this operation. Put the number on my desk.”

Twenty minutes later he pulled off his gloves and mask and went into his office. After shutting the door, he sat down in the chair and reached for the cell phone in his lab coat pocket. He didn’t recognize the number written on the paper.

After he punched in the digits it rang twice, then he heard the deep voice of Gina’s brother. “Ciao, Dizo. Come va?” The king’s private line?

“Va bene, Lucca.”

“I was pleased to discover you took the position in Savono.”

“Thanks to you it’s working out very well. Did you receive my note?”

“I did. It was much appreciated.”

On the surface everything seemed fine, but Dizo sensed undercurrents and broke out in a cold sweat. “Is your family well?”

“Our little girl is thriving.”

“That’s good to hear.” What about Gina? Was something wrong with her? Dizo got to his feet waiting for the other shoe to fall. It wasn’t long in coming.

“A situation’s come up I need to see you about. What’s your schedule like this evening after you leave work?”

All his evenings were the same. Nothing went on. Not a damn thing. Some nights he spent with his family before returning to his apartment. Work was saving his life right now. “I’m free. If you want, I can be there within the hour.”

“Good. Come to my office at the palace. The staff at the north portico will let you in. For your information I’ve asked your father and Regina to join us.”

His heart thumped in reaction. Gina was going to be there?

“I thought the four of us should meet unofficially before it turns into official business. A presto, Dizo.”

His cryptic remark brought Dizo’s pacing to an abrupt halt. It was a good thing Lucca had hung up. The groan that came out of Dizo would have deafened the party on the other end.

No amount of speculation was going to give him the answers he needed, but the fact that his father had also been summoned meant a situation of nightmarish proportions had developed. They’d been sitting on a time bomb after all. Yet as ugly as he knew it was going to get, the thought of laying eyes on Gina again caused an overriding explosion of excitement nothing could dampen.

Regina couldn’t imagine why her brother wanted to see her in his office, but obviously he was working late. She explained that she needed to change out of her T-shirt and sweats. A shower was in order first, but he told her not to bother. He’d be waiting for her in the small conference room.

When he spoke to her like that in what Alexandra teasingly called his monarch’s voice, no one dared argue with him, especially not Regina. Once upon a time she could tease her brother and get away with it, but no longer.

“I’ll be right there.”

She ran a brush through her hair before leaving her suite. Too bad she hadn’t worked out in the gym this morning, but there hadn’t been time. For the last two weeks she’d doubled her capacity to get things done in between visits to Pedrosa to be with Nic. As a result she hadn’t been able to fit in the gym until an hour ago. Much as she hated the sticky feeling, her brother’s request had first priority.

After passing by frescoed walls framed with gilt cornices, she descended the white marble staircase to the main floor with its checkerboard design of white and rose marble. It led to his work area that took up the entire west wing of the palace.

“Piccina.” Her brother motioned for her to come in and sit by him at the conference table. He had a packet of papers in front of him. It looked like he’d called an emergency meeting and she was the first to arrive.

“What’s happening?” She took her place at his right side. “Who else is coming?”

A sound at the entry supplied the answer. Guido. He had the look of a deer caught in the headlights.

Her head jerked toward her brother, but he was already on his feet to shake the head gardener’s hand and ask him to be seated on his left.

Before their father’s funeral, their mother had talked about erecting a flowered arbor at the end of the east rose garden. It was their father’s favorite spot on the grounds. Regina was glad Lucca had decided to act on the suggestion. The fact that their mother wasn’t here meant he intended to surprise her.

“Buona sera, Guido,” she greeted him. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen him dressed in anything but a work shirt and trousers. Tonight in a business suit and tie, he looked different. Attractive. Though shorter than Dizo, the resemblance to his oldest son in coloring and facial features was more pronounced. His brothers had inherited more of their mother’s softer traits. At the thought of Dizo she fought to quiet the sob in her throat.

He nodded. “Principessa.”

An uncomfortable silence followed. While she was wondering what her brother was waiting for, Dizo suddenly appeared in the doorway.

A gasp escaped her lips.

He’d flown all the way from Sardinia to be here? Their gazes collided for a heart-stopping moment. Her hungry eyes fastened on his fiercely handsome face, reminiscent of an ancient Sardinian warrior. A light gray suit covered his tall, masculine physique. He looked absolutely…incredible.

Too late she realized she was staring and averted her eyes.

Don’t pass out, Regina. Don’t let him know the kind of power he has over you. Never again.

“Dizo?” Since when had her brother addressed him by the nickname she’d given him? “Would you mind closing the doors so we can be private?”

After doing Lucca’s bidding, he sat down next to his father.

The shock of seeing him like this released a burst of adrenaline. It caused the back of her skull to throb, the sure sign of a headache coming on.

“I want to thank everyone for being on time. A situation involving the four of us has developed, one I can no longer ignore. At this point it needs to be resolved speedily because we’re running out of time.”

Lucca reached in the packet and pulled out some photographs. “During the last month before our father’s death, Regina’s pain reached its zenith. Our mother worried over her behavior. Frankly, so did I. To make certain she was all right, I asked her bodyguards to keep a close watch on her and report back if they thought she was in trouble and needed me.”

Humiliated by the admission, Regina bowed her head.

“After her unannounced trip to Sardinia in the dead of night, they brought me some pictures they took to give me proof she might be endangering herself.”

He distributed them around. One of the eight-by-ten black and white glossies showed Regina propping Dizo in the back doorway of the farmhouse. They were fused together in a clinch that practically set fire to the paper.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.