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Alex leaned back, but his brother’s penetrating glare pinned him in his seat.
Leo stood behind his massive desk. It was a desk that had belonged to their father. Alex had been in this same position many a time in his youth. His father would tower over him as Alex hunched back in the seat, struggling to keep his spine erect in the face of the man who he seemed to continually disappoint.
There was never anything he could do right. Alex didn’t sit tall enough. He never walked with long enough strides. He didn’t speak with enough commas. He spent far too much time chewing his food. He went back for seconds.
The happiest moment in Alex’s life was giving up trying to please his father. He remembered the moment with absolute clarity. They’d been in this very room. Alex had spent the weekend in the Bahamas sampling every variation of conch, a sea creature native to the Caribbean. While there, Alex had worked with an initiative that dealt with environmental pollution in the Caribbean Sea. But all the press picked up on was that he’d chatted up a Bahamian beauty queen who had also been involved with the initiative.
The paper with salacious headlines had laid flat on his f
ather’s desk. His father was red faced as he laid into Alex. He hadn’t listened when Alex tried to tell him about the flavorful food. He turned a blind eye when Alex had spoken of the sea’s pollution and his aide.
It was as if Alex was invisible unless he was making trouble or making headlines. The only one who believed the truth of his philanthropic ways when it came to food and feeding the hungry was Omar, the Marquis of Navarre. And that was only because he’d seen Alex working on his ventures a few times.
No one else in his family had cared or even considered investigating what Alex truly got up to when he was away. That day in his father’s office, he had shrugged when his father finally stopped his shouting and demanded Alex shape up. There was nothing wrong with the shape of things. Everyone chose to see him in one way, so there was no harm if he kept doing what he wanted to do.
“Alex!”
Alex snapped back to the present and the current king.
“Are you even listening to me?” demanded Leo.
Leo’s face wasn’t red. He wasn’t shouting at Alex. But he did have the same disapproving countenance to his features as their father.
“I don’t know what game you’re playing,” Leo pointed a finger. “But if you hurt that girl … Well, you’ll have Esme to deal with.”
That was a cringeworthy thought. Esme was a force of nature. Alex had yet to be on her bad side.
“Whatever scheme you’ve talked her into, you need to talk her out of it.”
“It hasn’t occurred to you that Jan may have fallen hopelessly in love with me?”
Leo snorted, finally taking a seat behind the big desk. “She’s far too intelligent for such nonsense.”
“Ouch.” Alex placed his hand over his heart in mock offense. But in truth, Leo’s words had hurt.
Leo had never pressured Alex to get married, not after his own arranged marriage. But Alex knew his brother expected him to settle down one day and continue the family line. Alex also figured Leo would be pleased that he hadn’t brought home a socialite, or a model, or heaven forbid, an actress. He’d brought his own intended’s BFF home. So, where was the praise and the cigars?
“She’s not your type,” Leo said. “You two have nothing in common.”
“We have a lot in common, like our love of food.”
“Similar taste buds do not a lifelong partnership make.”
“Food is the common language of all human beings.”
“I thought it was math.”
“You would.”
Where did Leo get off immediately dismissing that there could be anything between Alex and Jan? Why was it laughable that she could love him? Come to think of it, Jan had laughed when he’d first proposed.
“Is this some kind of stunt?” asked Leo.
“Jan agreed to be my partner in life.”
“For life?”
Alex nodded his head. The movement was smooth, certain.
