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“I know.” He did seem honestly contrite. “But the moment never seemed right. I wanted you to know me, at least a little, before we got into all of that.”
“Last night. At the Mansion. The nervous host …”
“Yes. I’m staying there. He knows who I am.” He took her chin, tipped it up to him. “But none of that matters.”
“Rule. Of course it matters.”
“Only if you let it. To me, what matters most of all, more than anything, is this …” And he lowered his dark head and claimed her lips.
And by the time that kiss was through, she was inclined to agree with him. “Oh, Rule …” She clung to him, feeling light-headed and slightly weak in the knees.
“I’ll leave you now,” he said ruefully, stroking her hair, his eyes full of tenderness and understanding. She thought how crazy she was for him—and how she would look him up on Google the minute he was out the door. One side of his mouth curled up in the gorgeous half smile that totally enchanted her. He said, “You’ll have time to look me up on the internet before I come to collect you for the evening.”
She shook her head. “You know me too well. How is that possible? We only met yesterday.”
“Forgive me. For taking so long to tell you …”
“I’ll consider forgiving you as soon as my head stops spinning.”
“One last kiss …”
She gave it. She simply could not resist him—and beyond that, she didn’t want to resist him.
When he lifted his head that time, he released her. She opened the door and watched him jog down the front walk to his waiting limousine.
As soon as the long, black car disappeared from sight, she shut the front door and went upstairs to get with Lani about her plans for the evening.
She found her friend on her knees filling the tub. Trev sat on the bathroom floor in his training pants, putting a new face on his Mr. Potato Head.
“Lani …”
“Hmm?” Lani tested the water, turned the hot water tap up a little.
“Just wondering if you were going out tonight?”
“Nope, I’m staying in. And yes, I’d be happy to watch Trev.”
“Wonderful.” So that was settled.
“Mama, see?” Trev held up Mr. Potato Head, whose big, red lips were now above his moustache and who had only one eye in the middle of his forehead. She bent down and kissed him. He asked, “Mama read a story?”
“After your bath, I promise.”
“O-kay!” He removed Mr. Potato Head’s red hat and reached for a blue plastic ear.
Sydney kissed him again and then ran back downstairs to her office off the foyer. She kept a PC in there and she figured she had maybe twenty minutes before Trev finished his bath and would come looking for her.
Sydney was good at research, and she knew how to get a lot of information quickly. By the time Trev came bouncing down the stairs and
demanded her attention again, she intended to know a whole lot more about Rule.
She found pages and pages of references to the courtship and marriage of Rule’s father and mother.
Evan Bravo was born in San Antonio, second of seven sons, to James and Elizabeth Bravo. Several sources cited early estrangement from his overbearing father. Determined to make his mark in Hollywood, Evan Bravo moved West at the age of eighteen. Talent and luck were on his side. He was never a big star, but at twenty-five, he won a Golden Globe and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a charming but crooked L.A. detective in a big-budget box office hit called L.A. Undercover. Then he met Princess Adrienne of Montedoro. There ensued a whirlwind courtship, a fabulous palace wedding—and celebrating in the streets of the whole of Montedoro when their first child, Maximilian, was born. Princess Adrienne, as the last of her line, was expected to provide her country with an heir and a spare and then some. She did exactly that, bearing eight more children in the succeeding eleven years.
Sydney read the story of the tragic death of Maximilian’s wife, Sophia—drowning while water-skiing, just as Rule had already told her. Also, she learned that third-born Alexander had been captured by terrorists in Afghanistan and held prisoner for four years, until somehow engineering a miraculous and daring escape only a few months ago.
Prince Rule, she learned, had obtained his degree in America, from Princeton. He was the businessman of the family, the glamorous bachelor, big in international trade, and was known to champion and generously contribute to several worthy causes. Over the years, his name had been linked with any number of gorgeous models and actresses, but those relationships had never seemed to last very long. Some sources claimed that he was “expected” to marry his longtime friend from childhood, HRH Liliana, aka Princess Lili, heir presumptive to the throne of the island state of Alagonia. However, no actual announcement of an engagement had so far been made.
