A Royal World Apart

“Good morning, Mak,” she said, looking up from her breakfast, her tone telling him there was nothing good about seeing him at all. So, she wasn’t so different from last night’s Eva.

“Morning.”

“What’s on my agenda for the day?”

“You are housebound.”

Her head snapped up, her expression fierce. “Is that the way it’s going to be, then?”

“There is a ball coming up at the end of the month.”

“Ah yes, a ball. What is the function of those balls do you suppose? To trot me out before potential suitors.”

“And for women to parade themselves before your brother, right?”

“True. As long as Stavros is single there will be balls. And minor royals gagging to marry a future king.”

“And your brother is as interested in marriage as you are, I take it?”

“Less.” She looked up at him again and for the first time, he saw a vulnerability in her eyes. He also saw her beauty, beauty that was impossible to ignore. “Although he’ll do it. And he’ll do it without argument. That’s how he is. He does what’s best. Feeling … well, feeling never comes into it for Stavros. Is it really house arrest until I’m engaged? Is that my only option?”

“What is it you want, Eva?” He moved to the table and sat across from her. “Beyond creating scandal?”

“Something. Anything. A chance just to be myself for a while. A chance to have some freedom. To live.”

He ignored the slight twinge in his chest. “Your life is different, Eva.”

“Ah yes, I’m a princess. Which, ironically, means I have less control than your average person. Not more.”

“I find it difficult to muster any sympathy for you.”

“So … in lieu of that you plan on watching me eat breakfast?” she asked, finely groomed brow arched. She was stunning. A study in refined beauty. In another life, well, this same life, but a part of it that was so long ago it might as well not have existed, he never would have been able to speak to a woman like her. A woman of her station.

And yet, things had changed. He had found great success. And with every step in his professional life, with every dollar added to his bank account, more had been torn away from his heart, more of the things he loved stripped from him.

Now he was a billionaire. Self-made royalty. The most highly regarded man in his field. And in so many other ways he was bankrupt. He could relate in some ways to her, more strongly than she could imagine.

Still, she was here. She could use her legs, her mouth, her mind. She had so much, and she seemed to appreciate nothing.

“Breakfast, then maybe coffee out on the terrace? Lunch later. A thrilling day for us both.”

She rolled her eyes, the expression making her look like a rebellious teenager. He wasn’t that much older than her. Just nine years. It felt like so much more. “How can you stand this?”

“Simple. I’m getting paid to be here.”

“You don’t need the money.”

“You’re right about that.”

“Then why?”

He shrugged. “I have nothing else to do, and I don’t believe in an idle life. I have built my company from nothing, I have a reputation to protect, and I intend to do it. I see a job through to completion and I don’t intend to stop now.”

“Well, you might have chosen your life, Mak. But I didn’t choose mine.”

He laughed at that. Laughter was a rare thing in his life, yet Eva seemed to make him laugh more easily than most. Unintentionally of course. “I didn’t choose my life, any more than you chose yours. But what I did was make something with it.” No one, not a single person in history, would have chosen the path he’d walked, not knowing where it led. He was certain of that.

“But you said you didn’t have to work … you.”

“I don’t. But I choose to, because I believe in what I do. I started my business for the same reason anyone starts a business. To make money. I did. I kept going, I made more. And now I am here.” He looked around the dining room, bright, with large windows that overlooked a turquoise sea. “I started a job here, and like every job I have ever started, I will see it through to the end. Honor, keeping my word, that’s more important than money. Something I realize you don’t understand.”

“That’s low,” she said, pushing her plate back. “I get that you pride yourself on reading people,” she looked up, her dark eyes blazing, clashing with his, “but you don’t know me. And you won’t until you’re facing a future filled with nothing but endless … endless darkness. An eternity serving other people with no consideration to yourself.”

His stomach tightened. Painfully. It was still so easy to find himself back at Marina’s bedside in his mind. Watching her face, so lovely at one time, contorted with pain, her lips opening for silent screams her damaged mind wouldn’t allow her to articulate. Then sometimes she would scream. Sometimes …

He stood, trying to ignore the raging of his heart. He couldn’t afford an emotional reaction. Not now. Never.

“I will make you a deal, printzyessa. I won’t assume to know you, so long as you don’t presume to know where I’ve been in my life. There are other paths to walk down than the one you speak of. There is darkness you can’t imagine. Darkness no light can cut through.” He breathed in deeply, ignoring the stricken look on her face, finding a foothold in his control and taking it. “Are you through eating?”

“Yes.” She stood too, a hint of curiosity mingling with the anger in her eyes.

“Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind showing me the grounds of the palace?”

Eva couldn’t even pretend to be happy about playing tour guide to Mak, particularly since she didn’t believe, for one second, that he wasn’t well-versed in everything pertaining to the Kyonosian palace and its grounds. He’d read her file after all.

“So, now that we’ve covered every wing of the palace, and half of the gardens, be honest with me,” she said. “You already know about everything I’ve told you, don’t you?”

His expression remained stoic as he studied the little alcove. It was on the far end of the gardens, shrouded by hedges, with lattice and grapevines arching over them like a domed ceiling, providing shade and privacy. The ground was covered in stone carved with scenes from ancient stories. It was a sacred place, one her family never seemed to have time for. But she’d always liked it.

“I’ve been over the schematics for the palace in detail, and of course I’ve walked the perimeter, both of the grounds and of the palace itself.”

“This was just to keep me busy.”

“The bodyguard equivalent to a nanny’s cartoon,” he said, his tone as stoic as his face.

She shot him her deadliest glare. “And now you’re being an ass on purpose.”

A small smile curved his mouth. “I have to make my own fun.”

She studied him for a moment, the hard lines of his face. Hardness not even the slight show of humor softened. “You don’t look like you care one way or the other about fun.”

He looked at her, his gray eyes intense. “You’re right. I don’t.”

Being on the end of that look, of those eyes, made her feel hot all over. “So … so you can’t really understand my problem.”

“Your problem?”

She swallowed. “Yes. The fact that I want a life. You can’t understand it because you have no desire to have one of your own.”