Natalie Anderson - Mr Right All Along

‘You’ve made their day,’ Stella said softly when the woman returned to the kitchen with the giggling little girl running ahead.

‘It’s not me,’ Eduardo answered drily. ‘It’s the title. It’s my job.’

She lifted her fork and pointed it at him. ‘Your brother is a prince too, and he doesn’t get that reaction from people. It’s you. Not your title.’

He sipped some water.

‘You don’t believe me?’ She jabbed her fork harder in the air. ‘You have such power. You can bring people to everyone’s attention.’

‘Are you prepared for everyone’s attention?’ he asked in a low voice.

‘Sure. Bring it on. I’m not afraid of a challenge.’ She eyeballed him, hot tension swirling between them again.

‘No. Not of issuing them.’

They ate quietly, hungrily. It was simple, but delicious.

‘Come on. Let’s use some of my supposed power, shall we?’ Eduardo said once Stella had lowered her fork, utterly replete. ‘I think they’re on to us anyway.’

‘You think...?’ Stella sighed.

He stood and talked quietly to the woman. The woman’s face lit up like fireworks and she scurried to the kitchen. Seconds later she returned, phone in hand.

Startled, Stella looked at Eduardo. He simply smiled his best ‘Prince Eduardo’ smile.

‘Are you sure?’ Stella whispered out of the side of her mouth as they posed for a photo.

Eduardo merely put his arm around her waist and drew her closer. ‘Smile, my Princess. This is the first of many.’

‘But she’ll probably put it on social media in seconds.’

‘She’ll have snapped some pictures in secret anyway—it’s better to give her permission to make the most of it. And it won’t be social media. I’m sure she’s savvy enough to sell them.’

Stella turned to look up into his eyes and saw the hint of bitterness. He expected not to trust the woman. Expected that his private moments would be sold even when someone had promised him they wouldn’t. Just as his ex-girlfriend had sold his secret about Alessia.

He didn’t trust anyone. Yet he’d told her about Alessia and his own involvement. Did that mean he trusted her?

For a half-second she hoped so. But then she remembered that he’d been savvy enough to ensure she’d signed a contract—binding her to silence. Now she understood why he’d felt the need to.

‘It will become the most popular restaurant on the island,’ Stella said as they left the woman and the girl waving from the café.

‘For a while.’ He nodded.

For a long time, she’d bet.

Eduardo looked at his watch, his eyes narrowing. ‘Come on, we need to get going.’ He turned away from the marina and started walking quickly.

‘We’re not going back in Miranda?’

‘It would take too long and we’d get lost at sea.’ He took her hand. ‘I phoned for the plane. It’s here now, and a car is on its way to take us to the airfield. We’ll meet it along this road in a minute or so.’

He’d what?

‘Plane? Where are we flying to?’ Stella hurried to keep pace.

‘San Felipe,’ he answered briefly. ‘It’s only a short flight—we’ll use the baby jet.’

A laugh bubbled from her. ‘That’s what you call it?’

‘It’s not as big as Antonio’s.’ He sent her a look as a sleek car pulled in alongside them.

‘Never mind.’ She patted his shoulder soothingly before she climbed into the back seat. ‘You don’t have to prove yourself to me.’

‘I know,’ he muttered with a wicked smile, his tone mimicking her earlier whisper. ‘Because I’ve already captured your heart.’

He thought it was a joke, but his words held too much truth for her comfort.

Ten minutes later they walked across an airstrip to board the waiting plane. Eduardo might consider it a ‘baby’, but it was the biggest private jet she’d ever been in. All luxurious fittings and gleaming paintwork. But as the powerful engines were fired up she couldn’t relax and enjoy it. She’d thought she’d have more time to prepare before facing mainland San Felipe. She’d thought she have another night alone with him on their secret island.

‘Under no circumstances are we to be disturbed.’

She sank into one of the plush chairs as Eduardo instructed his staff.

‘Of course, Your Highness.’ The man disappeared through the door that Stella guessed led to the cockpit.

She belted up for take-off as Eduardo took the seat opposite hers. She refused to meet his eyes but knew he was watching her relentlessly. She knew what he wanted. Mile High Club, here she came. She’d be willing if she wasn’t so worried about what was going to happen when they landed back on solid ground.

‘Do you play cards?’ He sprawled back in the seat opposite her as the plane levelled out. ‘Doesn’t every soldier carry a deck?’

‘Not all. I do. But I prefer Patience to poker. I’m guessing you’re a poker player?’

‘And I’m guessing you prefer a challenge of skill and strategy over chance and fate?’

‘You’re a quick learner too,’ she acknowledged.

‘Observant.’

He wasn’t just a pretty prince...

‘What about a board game instead?’ He stood and opened one of the storage compartments.

‘You have board games on the plane?’ Somewhat bemused, she watched him pick out the third box from a stack. ‘It’s not all lap-dancing flight attendants and whisky?’

‘Maybe later—if you’re lucky,’ he drawled.

‘You’d give me a lap dance?’ She gazed up at him, for a moment indulging in a vision of him slowly stripping his formal uniform from his body.

He turned and his eyes locked on hers—clashed in a slam of suggestion and want. He actually flushed. Heat burst within her. The plane was suddenly very, very hot. His eyebrows were raised and she looked away, burning up.

He unfolded the playing board on the table between their chairs. He handed her a pile of plastic pieces and sat back down in his seat. ‘See if you can defeat my army and we’ll negotiate.’

Swallowing, she put one of the plastic toys upright on the board with a click, pushing away the unruly X-rated images in her head. ‘Soldiers, huh?’

‘It’s the closest I’m allowed to get to any battlefront,’ he muttered, faux mournfully.

‘You know you can play with this soldier any time?’ she murmured, still enjoying the way she’d made the colour in his cheeks deepen with her lap-dance request.

‘I intend to—once I’ve conquered her every last defence.’ The truly relaxed, flirtatious Eduardo had returned. ‘I’m thinking lap-dancing and whisky...’

But they played the board game for the duration of the flight. It didn’t take long for him to run through the rules and for her to grasp the idea. He was a good tactician, but so was she. Both advanced quickly to secure large tracts of the board. Both claimed territory the other had held. Both took prisoners. Both held the board steady on the table through the descent. And once the plane had landed and slowed to a stop Eduardo met her gaze with a belligerent edge to his jaw.

‘I’m not leaving until you have capitulated control of the south-west quarter,’ he said.

‘Well, I’m not leaving until I have your ultimate surrender,’ she answered smugly.

‘You do not do things by halves, do you?’ He shook the dice furiously. ‘And you never give in.’

‘As if you do!’

Their eyes met again, the frisson of tension building. She liked it that he was as determined, as competitive, as dominant as she. She liked so damn much about him. And the more she got to know him, the more she liked. Which made her even more determined to beat him—to have something over him, just the once.

She had no idea how much time passed before his phone buzzed. He ignored it the first time. And the second. It wasn’t until the seventh consecutive buzz of the device that he finally reacted.