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For the rest of the night he was aware of Sadie somewhere close by, and he looked for her constantly. No other woman had ever affected him this way, and he couldn’t explain the feeling. It took his sister linking arms with him to return his attention to where it should have been all along.
‘I can’t thank you enough for tonight,’ Annalisa said as she snuggled into his side. ‘It’s more than I deserve—’
‘A lot more,’ he agreed dryly.
They laughed together. Annalisa was the one person in the world who could shake him out of his city tension. There were so many plates to keep spinning he could barely spare her a moment when he was in Madrid, but Annalisa had always gone where angels feared to tread, and tonight was a special occasion.
‘Are you happy? Are you sure about the Prince?’ he asked with concern as his glance swept over the man in question and his party, who were doing their best to drain the last bottle of wine in the cellar of El Gato Feroz.
‘I know I love you,’ his sister told him fervently as she stared up into his eyes. ‘You do know that, don’t you, Alejandro? You’re so stern, I wonder sometimes if you realise how much I appreciate all you do for me. I just hope the day will come when I can do something for you.’
‘Behave yourself,’ he said mock sternly. ‘That’s what I want you to do. And don’t worry about me.’
‘But I do worry about you,’ Annalisa insisted. ‘You should be thinking about your life going forward, not mine. What would it take to make you happy, Alejandro?’
‘Whatever it takes for you to have a good life,’ he said, glancing with concern at Annalisa’s husband-to-be, who seemed more interested in talking to the pretty woman at his side than looking after his sister. ‘You will tell me if anything goes wrong, won’t you?’
‘I know you’re always there for me,’ she said. ‘But I don’t want to talk about me, I want to talk about you. It’s time you did something for yourself, instead of always for other people. You deserve happiness too.’
‘Nobody deserves anything,’ he stated firmly. ‘You just concentrate on your upcoming new life as a princess.’ As he said this, he wondered how much of Annalisa’s latest romance was based on the idea of becoming a princess, rather than the reality of marrying such a weak man. His sister wasn’t a fool, but she was a dreamer. It wasn’t up to him to live Annalisa’s life for her, he reminded himself, though living up to that wasn’t easy. ‘Happiness is fleeting,’ he warned as he held her gaze. ‘Grab it while you can.’
‘That’s a lesson for you too,’ his sister told him. ‘I know you’re thinking about our parents when you say things like this, and I also know they’d want you to be happy. Grab some happiness while you can, Alejandro, and hug it tight.’
He smiled. ‘You’re a lovely young woman and I’m very proud of you. You know that, don’t you?’
‘If I don’t,’ his sister assured him with one of her sideways looks, ‘I’m sure I can rely on you to tell me.’
They laughed together, and for a few moments everything was simple and warm, as it had always been before the Prince came on the scene. ‘Just make sure you tell me if the Prince lets you down,’ he said, turning serious.
‘You’ll be the first to know—your cast-iron security team will make sure of it,’ Annalisa added with a cheeky glance as she turned away to her friends.
He watched the young women in their huddle at the table, wondering what they were discussing so avidly. He soon found out.
‘We want the chef to step out so we can thank her for the most marvellous evening,’ Annalisa came to tell him.
‘Annalisa!’ he exclaimed as she bolted away. Too late. She’d already attracted the attention of the maître d’.
A few minutes later, his sister returned with a slightly pinker version of Sadie, who emerged from the kitchen to a storm of applause. In spite of Chef Sorello’s absence, the food had been absolutely delicious and everything had gone without a hitch. He surprised himself by leading the applause, and even offering a personal vote of thanks. When their eyes met, Sadie held his stare with that same mix of professional cool and not quite hidden glint of something more. It was a combination that made his senses roar.
It was the early hours before the guests began to leave. As the restaurant emptied, he stepped outside to find a hint of dawn tinting the night sky lavender. It was a particular light that reminded him of daybreak in the mountains he loved, because it was there, in the wild, dramatic land of his mother’s people, where he felt most at ease. His mother and father’s very different personalities would always war inside him, he supposed. Striving to be the best of both of them was his life’s work. His mother had bequeathed vision and passion, while his father had instilled in him a stern sense of responsibility that insisted his life in the city must always take precedence, because it was here that he cared for his sister and ran a business upon which countless families depended for their livelihood. This thought was only underlined when he noticed Annalisa’s fiancé, the Prince, ignoring the wait staff as he strode out of the restaurant, surrounded by his cronies.
‘Where is he going?’ he asked Annalisa as she stared after the Prince with concern.
‘To a club, I think...to celebrate our engagement,’ she added quickly when he stared at her, frowning.
‘The very least the staff deserve after such a marvellous evening is a word of thanks. And shouldn’t you have a lift home? Don’t worry, I’ll take you,’ he said, seeing Annalisa’s crestfallen expression. Why such a generous-hearted woman should attract such selfish men was utterly beyond him.
He made up for the Prince’s oversight by giving the staff the recognition they deserved, and he enjoyed talking to each of them in turn to thank them personally for making the evening so special for his sister. His only irritation was that when it came to showing his appreciation to the woman who’d saved the night, Sadie was nowhere to be found.
* * *
Resting back on her narrow bed in the attic room above the restaurant, Sadie sighed with relief and contentment...marred with just a little bit of racing heartbeat, thanks to a pair of dangerous dark eyes that kept flashing back and forth inside her mind. At least she could report to Chef Sorollo that everything had gone well. And now that she was back in her safe place, she was confident she would never need anything more than this.
Except relief from images of the Duque de Alegon, Sadie concluded with an impatient huff as she punched her pillows into submission. Turning over repeatedly also failed to banish the all too vivid picture of Alejandro de Alegon. It was ridiculous. She’d probably never see him again. Which would be far better for all con
cerned, Sadie concluded. He stirred such turbulent feelings inside her, and she’d learned as a small child that passion was a destructive force that led to nowhere but anger and violence. Witnessing her parents’ unhappy relationship had more than proved that.
Closing her eyes, she turned her thoughts determinedly to what had been an astonishing evening. What a setting! What a night! The team had really proved their worth. And then there were the looks she’d shared with Don Alegon...she’d remember those for ever.
So much for blotting him out of her mind!
Alejandro...
She murmured his name out loud, for the pleasure of tasting it on her tongue. Imagining his firm lips on hers, and his lean, bronzed hands leading her towards the type of pleasure she couldn’t even imagine, was inevitable.
And that’s enough! she told herself firmly. However wonderful the evening had been, she would wake up in a few hours, shower and change, ready to prepare lunch.
* * *
Service in the restaurant at lunchtime the next day didn’t go as smoothly as Sadie had anticipated. It seemed incredible that, yet again, a crisis had stopped everyone in their tracks.
‘Oh, my God, no!’ Sadie exclaimed, incapable of hiding her feelings when she heard the news. Gripping the stainless-steel countertop to steady herself, she tried to take in the newsflash on a colleague’s phone. Complete with lurid pictures, it showed a car crash, and the text underneath read that Alejandro, the Duque de Alegon, and his sister, Annalisa, had been innocent victims of a pile-up on their way home from a party last night at El Gato Feroz.
Seeing Annalisa so happy only hours before, and Alejandro so vital and strong, she hardly dared to ask the question. ‘Are they badly hurt?’
One of her fellow chefs was quick to reassure her. ‘They were relatively unscathed, it says in a later bulletin,’ he explained, showing her the screen on his phone. ‘It’s a miracle, some are saying, especially as Don Alegon risked his life, saving his sister from the smoke-filled car. They’re keeping them in hospital as a precautionary measure only, it says here.’
