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I ate fresh fruit—guava and mango, melon—and drank coffee.
Erin fed me a strawberry from across the table, and giggled when I sucked her finger into my mouth. She smiled, purred, even.
Silas cleared his throat and Viktor nodded at me. “So, we have six days left.”
“I’m aware.” I didn’t know if he wanted a calendar countdown or what the purpose was of reminding me how little time I had left with her.
He laughed. “Touchy.”
Maybe I was, but I didn’t like thinking about what was going to happen after our week was up. I sure as hell didn’t want anyone pointing out to me how soon it was going to happen.
“I’m not touchy.” But I sure as hell sounded like it. “Okay. I am, but if you understood what my life is about to become...”
Now I sounded like a spoiled rich boy who didn’t want to go home to his mansion. And it was true. I didn’t want to go home to the castle or the woman who would be there waiting to marry me.
“Why does it have to be something you don’t want?” Silas didn’t understand, but I couldn’t blame him.
“And even if it does have to be that way, why can’t you just enjoy the time you have here?” Viktor nodded like he’d just found the solution to world peace. “Just let go. You’re not the crown prince here.”
It didn’t matter how many times they said it, it was never going to be true. I was the crown prince of Lichtenstein, no matter what country I happened to be sleeping in. And there would always be people looking at me, watching me, waiting for me to be the disgrace other royals had proven to be. I couldn’t do that to my family, to my father. He was counting on me.
“Tell him.” Silas looked at Erin.
She held out her hand and I laid mine on top, giving a little squeeze. “Yes, do tell me, Erin.”
If for no other reason so I could hear her voice before I packed my bags and headed home. I’d made the decision last night on the beach that I wouldn’t be staying the whole time. It would be too painful to go to bed alone every night while they did, God knows what in theirs.
I just hadn’t told anyone yet, and with her hand in mine, I wasn’t itching to say it now.
She smiled and the room was brighter for it. “We have six days.”
Again, I was aware, and it was getting painful to keep hearing it, but I didn’t say so.
“And I don’t want to waste whatever time you can spare me in those six days.”
She pushed her chair back and walked around to stand beside me. I moved back so that she could sit on my lap and when she did, I put my arms around her.
Erin went on. “I know you’re worried about peeping toms and photographers getting rich off your name and catching you in a compromising position. But we won’t let that happen.”
Silas nodded. “That’s right. We’re going to make sure that what happens in Ibiza, stays in Ibiza.”
Ray, who’d been silently watching television in the corner—he’d become quite addicted to telenovelas—looked up. “You know, if you take this love festival to Lichtenstein, Erin, this wouldn’t be a problem. What happens behind palace doors is your business, your highness.”
He added a sarcastic bow at the end and in the old days, he would’ve been flogged for such impertinence, but that was just Ray, and I was used to his insolence in the name of friendship.
“Makes for a good Plan B,” Silas said, looking at me like what I was going to do mattered in the grand vacation scheme. But we all knew if I left for home, they would stay, continue having a good time. “What do you say, pal?”
I looked at Erin, then at Viktor, then at Ray. Maybe what I did mattered or maybe it didn’t. But I wasn’t willing to take a chance that it didn’t.
I couldn’t go. I’d regret it forever. I wanted to stay here with them and I might never get a chance to be with Erin again. I might never even see her again. The papers were signed, and the marriage dissolved. After this week, or the next or the one after, we would all be returning to our lives, to the obligations and people counting on us. I wouldn’t get another opportunity for happiness like this.
“A week. And then we can see. Maybe France or London. Or maybe Lichtenstein.”
I didn’t know how it happened, but in a few minutes, a few sentences, my plans had been flipped on their head.
One thing was for certain. There was no way I was going home without them. And I had a week to convince them all that it was the right thing.
To return home to my palace. To the stress, the obligation and the prying eyes.
Heaven help me.
