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“Tell me about it.” Their need for each other was off the charts. He couldn’t get enough of her. “You’ve got to stop me, Fausta. I need to go downstairs and get a room. I was assigned bodyguards before I left La Valazzura. Combined with yours, our every move is being watched.”
She kissed his features. “Now you’re going to find out what it’s like to be royal. I’ve always hated it, Nico.”
“Understood,” he whispered. “What an irony of ironies,” he said against her luscious mouth before devouring her all over again. His need for her was out of control and always had been since the evening they went to Prospero’s. But eventually he was forced to call on every atom of self-control to let her go.
“In the morning I’ll come by your room and we’ll go to breakfast before driving over to the orphanage. I want to see what magic you’ve performed.”
Fausta hugged him harder. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“You think I do?” His voice shook. “But I know we can’t do this right now. Too much is at stake, above all your reputation.”
She made a sound of exasperation and eased out of his arms. “I’ve told you before that I’m not concerned about what my parents want.”
“I’m afraid I am.”
Her expression closed up. “You’re thinking like a royal already.”
He shook his head. “I’m thinking you and I have a lot to talk about in the next thirty days.”
“Why thirty days?”
Nico let out a troubled sigh. “That’s when I have to let Signor Bruno and the prime minister know if I’ve decided to return to La Valazzura and take on my father’s mantle.”
“I see.”
“The queen will have to be in agreement before I’m presented to the parliament for a vote. Even then Giuseppe could be the one who prevails in that fight. Until then, all options are on the table. Now I need to get out of here before I can’t!”
* * *
Fausta couldn’t stand it to watch him tear out of her hotel room, but she had no choice. If he only knew he’d left her so unsatisfied physically, she was in pain and clung to the back of one of the chairs for support.
What did he mean that all options were on the table? There were only two. Either he remained a doctor in Domodossola, or he embraced his destiny in La Valazzura.
She spent the rest of the night in absolute turmoil. When he’d driven here to see her, she’d thought he’d come to tell her he was in love with her and wanted to marry her. If he never found his parents it didn’t matter, because he didn’t want to continue his journey without her. And if one day he did get the information he’d been looking for, Fausta would be with him and the future would take care of itself.
Together they’d fight any opposition from her parents and settle down in an adorable house with a picket fence and children. They’d be a married couple with a whole life ahead of them until circumstances changed for them. Fausta had gone crazy waiting for him to show up at the hotel so she could tell him she loved him more than life itself.
Nothing in a million years could have prepared her for his astounding news after he arrived. It was one thing to learn he’d found his parents. But to be told he was the undeclared, beloved son and heir of King Carlo Umberto of La Valazzura had turned her inside out.
The noble part of the orphaned boy engrained inside Nico would be overjoyed and want to honor his father by following in his footsteps. Everything that had happened to him in his life until the arrival of Signor Bruno had been a preparation. Fausta believed it and had pointed those things out to him because she knew he’d already made the decision in his heart.
But her heart wasn’t in it. How could it be when she’d wished she hadn’t been born a royal? The restrictive life had brought her little pleasure. At Enrico’s coronation, Fausta had told Donetta she planned to marry a commoner and nothing would ever change her mind. Her sister had replied, “Be careful what you wish for.”
A shiver racked her body now.
In making that wish, the commoner she’d fallen head over heels in love with had turned out to be the son of a king. She couldn’t be happy about it, not for him or for herself.
With this knowledge, Fausta’s world had forever changed because Nico would always be the love of her life. But sadness had enveloped her because he wasn’t who she thought he was. It cha
nged everything.
Fausta tried to shake off her sadness as they drove over to the orphanage after eating at a trattoria. She had to keep reminding herself that this entire situation was about him, not her. It was beyond selfish of her to feel this torn up.
He’d achieved the goal in his life to find out who he was and where he came from. But when she’d fallen madly in love with him, little did she realize what rivers of sorrow she would have to cross as a result.
When they arrived at the orphanage, the children were out in the back courtyard playing. Nico followed Fausta inside.
“What do you think?” She was anxious to know his reaction.
