Romancing The Crown: Lorenzo and Anna: The Man Who Would Be King / The Princess And The Mercenary

All right, so maybe he couldn’t hold her responsible for what her cohorts did. He was still stuck with her, like it or not. He had to tolerate her, but that was it. He didn’t have to like her ingenuity, didn’t want to admire her tenacity, and sternly ordered himself not to find her Katharine Hepburn-type looks attractive in any way. He couldn’t allow himself to forget that anything he said or did while he was with her could be splashed all over the front page. He hated that, but there was nothing he could do about it—the king had ordered him to accompany her back to Colorado. His objective was to find Lucas, hopefully alive, and he couldn’t do that without Eliza.

And that meant he had to find a way to work with her. “Look,” he sighed, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you and it certainly wasn’t my intention to treat you like a suspect. I’m not happy with the king’s orders, but I had no right to take that out on you. I won’t do it again.”

As far as apologies, it was much more than she’d expected. Pleasantly surprised, she said, “Thank you. I appreciate that.” Now that peace was established, she was more than willing to cooperate. “I don’t know what else I can tell you about Willy other than what I already have. He doesn’t deliberately lie—he’s just so suspicious that he’s paranoid sometimes.”

“But you believe him? You think he really found the scarf where he said he did?”

“Yes, I do.”

“But you just said that he’s paranoid sometimes. How do you know that he didn’t find the scarf at the crash site and just imagine it was somewhere else? He doesn’t sound very stable, if you ask me.”

Eliza couldn’t argue with that. There were times when Willy wasn’t very stable. But she believed him, and she couldn’t even say why. “I don’t know how to explain him to you. After he found the scarf, he must have called me a dozen times at work. He was truly concerned that the king was going to accept the fact that the prince was dead and name a new successor to the throne.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if he had,” Lorenzo replied. “Everyone knows that if Lucas showed up alive, even if it was years from now, that he would be the king’s heir. He’s his son. No one else could ever take his place.”

“You and I know that, but Willy isn’t always playing with a full deck. In his eyes, once the king named a successor, Prince Lucas would lose his place in line forever, and he couldn’t let that happen.”

Still skeptical, he could only shake his head in wonder. “And this is the man who’s going to lead us to the prince. God help us all.”

Eliza couldn’t argue with that. Prince Lucas had been missing for a year, and what clues there were that might lead to his whereabouts had probably long since dried up and blown away. Every major law enforcement agency in the country had already looked for him, without success. If they were going to find him, they were going to need all the help they could get.

Lorenzo had never met anyone who could fall asleep so easily. After Eliza told him everything she could about Willy Cranshaw, she pulled her notebook computer from her satchel, busily typed her notes, then tucked it away again. Just seconds after that, she leaned back in her seat and was out like a light almost immediately. Not knowing her intentions until she dosed off, he felt guilty for not offering her a bed in the lounge at the back. Then, as he found himself studying her in spite of his best efforts not to, he was glad he hadn’t.

Why did she have to be so pretty?

The thought slipped into his head uninvited, irritating him no end. He would have sworn he didn’t care much for redheads, but there was something about her corkscrew curls that he found incredibly feminine and appealing—especially when they were piled on top of her head as they were now. He wanted to touch them to see if they were as soft as they looked—but he didn’t dare.

Glancing away, he sternly ordered himself to ignore her. He might as well have told himself not to breathe. She’d forgotten to take off the small, hornrimmed glasses she wore when she worked, and they’d slipped down on her pert nose. He should have left them alone, but before he could stop himself, he found himself reaching for them.

Too late, he realized his mistake. When he gently lifted the glasses from her nose, she sighed in her sleep and turned slightly toward him, snuggling too close for comfort. The faint scent of her perfume drifted to his nose, teasing him. Swearing soundlessly, he clenched his teeth on an oath and carefully laid her glasses on the tray in front of her, then quickly turned his attention to a news magazine he retrieved from his briefcase. The words blurred before his eyes, but he didn’t look at his companion again. It was just safer that way. And though he realized it might be even safer for him to move to another seat in the otherwise empty cabin, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her presence. It was as if she held him there, by her side.

“Your Grace, we will be landing in Denver in approximately ten minutes,” the flight attendant said.

Jerked awake by the softly spoken words, Eliza sat up with a start, only to frown when her gaze fell on the tray in front of her…and her glasses. She had no memory of taking them off, let alone laying them on the tray.

Suddenly suspicious, she glanced at her companion, but he never raised his eyes from his magazine. Had he taken them off for her? she wondered, only to dismiss the idea with a soundless snort. Not likely. He might have apologized for his curt behavior, but he’d admitted he wasn’t happy about working with her. He would tolerate her, but she didn’t expect him to be considerate. She’d probably removed her glasses herself and just forgotten about it.

And that was for the best, she assured herself. She didn’t want any favors from him, didn’t want any reason to like him. They didn’t have to be friends for her to do her job—they just had to be civil. Then when they each returned to their very different worlds, they could part company without any regrets.

So she tucked her glasses back into her purse and didn’t say a word, and neither did he. For the next ten minutes, the silence between them was deafening—until they landed and passed through customs. Then suddenly they realized there was a lot to do, and they hadn’t discussed any of it.

“We need a rental car…”

“I need to call my boss…”

“I’ll make sure the luggage is brought to the rental office…”

“I should have called Simon from Montebello. The paper might pay for the rental…”

“The king authorized me to pay for all expenses—”

Both speaking at the same time, they froze abruptly and only just then realized what the other had said. Frowning, Lorenzo said stiffly, “There’s no reason to call your boss. I’m paying for everything.”

His tone dared her to argue with him, and for a moment, Eliza had to struggle not to smile. If he thought Simon was going to object to him using his American Express card, he was in for a rude awakening. “I’m sure Simon will appreciate that, but I still need to call the office and check in. It won’t take long.”

“Then I’ll collect the luggage while you’re doing that and meet you at the rental car office.”

His head high and his bearing regal, he strode off, and watching him, Eliza could well understand why King Marcus had considered Lorenzo as his successor. Confident and proud, he looked like he could take on the world with one hand tied behind his back.

Not, she reminded herself, that he was ever likely to be king. Not now that there was a good chance that Prince Lucas was alive. Was that a disappointment to him? she wondered. She’d have to ask him and include that in her story.

Her mind already working on the opening paragraph, she stepped over to the bank of phones against the wall and quickly punched in Simon’s number. “Hey, LaGree,” she teasingly greeted him when he answered with a rough hello. “I’m back and you’re never going to guess what happened.”

“It better be good, Red,” he growled, “because you’ve got a column to file and a four o’clock deadline. Or did you forget that while you were having tea with the king and queen?”

“We never got around to tea,” she chuckled, “but you don’t have to worry about the column. Thanks to an exclusive the king granted me, I’m going to have enough material to fill the entire front page section.”

“Get out of here! You got an exclusive?”

“Oh, I got more than that,” she replied, grinning. “Duke Lorenzo flew back with me to talk to Willy and investigate where he found the scarf, and I’m going to be working with him during the search. Of course, this means I’ll be out of the office for a while. I hope that’s not going to be a problem.”

“Are you kidding?! Damn it all, Red, I underestimated you! Listen, you follow this to the end, you hear me? Keep good notes and check in every couple of days so I’ll know what’s going on, okay? This is going to get you a Pulitzer, Red. And if you pull this off and help find Prince Lucas, you deserve it.”

It wasn’t often that he called her by her first name, and just that easily, he touched her heart. “Thanks, Simon,” she said huskily. “Knowing you believe in me means a lot.”

“You better believe I believe in you,” he retorted. “Why do you think I didn’t let Little Miss Priss steal this story right out from under you? She wouldn’t know what to do with it if you handed it to her on a platter. And don’t you worry about her while you’re gone,” he added. “She’s happy in La-la land, and I plan on keeping her there as long as possible.”

Her smile rueful, Eliza appreciated that, but they both knew Deborah would be a threat to her as long as her daddy owned the paper and she wanted to play Brenda Starr. “Maybe Brad Pitt’ll fall for her and she’ll never come back.”

“We can only pray we get that lucky,” he said dryly.

Grinning, she said, “I’d better go—I’ve got to meet the duke at the rental car office. Thanks again, Simon. I’ll be in touch.”

“Hey, who’s paying for this?” he said quickly before she could hang up. “You didn’t commit the paper to anything, did you?”

He suddenly sounded so worried that she couldn’t resist stringing him along a little. “What do you think? I know how badly you want this story.”

“Dammit, Red, don’t do this to me!”

Laughing, she hung up.

She was still smiling when she reached the rental car office and found Lorenzo loading their luggage into the back of the Tahoe SUV he’d rented. “I thought we might need something rugged since we’re going up into the mountains,” he told her. “Were you able to talk to your boss?”

Grinning, she nodded. “He told me to take all the time I need.”

“Good. Then let’s go.” Always the gentleman, he opened the passenger door for her, then stepped around the vehicle and slid behind the wheel. Starting the motor, he put it in gear, then arched a brow at her. “Willy lives north of here, correct? In Boulder?”

“That’s right,” she said as he pulled away from the curb. “Turn right at the signal light.”