“Will you introduce us, Luca?” a woman asked.
Amy snapped her head up to see only Luca and his sister were in the room.
Luca was as crisp and urbane as ever in a smart suit and tie, freshly shaved with only a hint of fatigue around his eyes to suggest he’d had a long day. His gaze sharpened on her, but Amy was distracted by his twin.
Sofia Albizzi was a feminine version of Luca, almost as tall, also athletically lean, but with willowy curves and a softer expression. Where the energy that radiated off Luca was dynamic and energizing, Sofia’s was equally commanding but with a settle-down-children quality. She wore a pantsuit in a similar dark blue as Luca’s suit. Her hair was in a chignon, and she offered a calm, welcoming smile.
Amy must look like a petitioning peasant, slouched in her shawl and slippers, hair falling out of its clip and no makeup to hide her distress. She felt awful coming up against this double barrel of effortless perfection. She wanted to turn and walk back out again, but Luca straightened off the edge of his desk.
“Your Highness, this is Amy Miller. Amy, my sister Sofia, the queen of Vallia.”
“Queen?” Amy distantly wondered if she was supposed to curtsy.
Sofia flicked a glance at Luca that could only be described as sibling telepathy.
“My new title is confidential,” Sofia said. “Only finalized within the last hour. There will be a press release in the morning. I hope I can trust you to keep this information to yourself until then?”
Amy choked on disbelief. “Who could I tell? You’ve cut off my online access.”
“We did do that,” Sofia acknowledged. “The prince said you understand the importance of limiting communication during a crisis, so we can project a clear and unified message.”
Prince. He’d been dethroned. By her. She was definitely going to faint. Amy blinked rapidly, trying to keep her vision from fading as she looked between the two.
Sofia came toward her, regal and ridiculously attractive while exuding that consoling energy. “I appreciate how distressed you must be, Amy. It’s been a trying day for all of us, but I hope you’ll allow us to show you the best of our hospitality for a little longer? And not frighten staff with threats of setting the palace on fire?”
Emotion gathered in Amy’s eyes, beleaguered humor and frustration and something that closed her throat because she suddenly had the horrid feeling she had disappointed Sofia. Not the way she consistently disappointed her mother. She wasn’t being held to impossible, superficial standards. No, Sofia simply projected a confidence that Amy was better than someone who made wild threats. Let’s all do better, she seemed to say.
Luca was right. She was an ideal ruler.
But there was no comfort in being the instrument that had installed her on the throne, not when it had cost her the life she’d worked so hard to build.
“I want to go h-home.” She was at the end of her thin, frayed rope.
“Our people will arrange that soon,” Sofia began, but Luca came forward with purpose.
“I’ll walk you to your room.”
Sofia shot him a look, but Luca avoided her questioning gaze and held the door for Amy.
From the moment the photos had emerged, he had been buried in meetings, phone calls and demands for his attention. He felt as though he’d gone twelve rounds, taking hits from every angle.
It was not in his nature to throw a fight. Keeping his mouth shut while his sister called for an HR investigation had been particularly humiliating. To protect the integrity of that report, he hadn’t spoken to Amy.
While they’d awaited a determination on whether Amy had been harassed by Luca, other factions had proposed throwing her to the wolves of public opinion to save Luca’s reputation. Several voices on the council had tried to cast him as the victim of a scheming woman, eager to make excuses for Luca’s lapse in judgment so they could maintain the status quo.
Sofia’s supporters had been equally quick to question what kind of queen Amy would make, forcing Luca to declare his intentions toward her.
“We seized a moment, that’s all.” He hated to reduce her to a one-night stand, but it was what they had agreed and it was better for her to be seen as collateral damage, not a contributor.
“The media storm will rage forever unless we take decisive action,” Sofia had pressed. “No matter how we attempt to explain it away, the photos will be reposted every time the king of Vallia is mentioned.”
“I’ve become synonymous with our father,” Luca said grimly, hating that it was true, hating that this was the only way, but he threw himself on the proverbial sword. “I won’t have his transgressions pinned on me.” On that he wouldn’t budge. “Vallia’s queens have always been bastions of dignity and honor. If I step aside, that’s what you’ll have again.”
That had been the turning point. Discussions had moved from if to how.
Luca had spared a thought to ensure Amy’s comfort, but he hadn’t allowed memories of last night to creep in. It would have destroyed his concentration.
That fog of desire was making him light-headed now, but he continued to fight it. He had sworn his misstep wouldn’t be repeated. His libido might have other desires, but tomorrow his sister would take the crown and Luca would once again become the Golden Prince, honorable to a fault.
Nevertheless, he owed Amy an explanation for how things had played out today.
“It’s standard protocol to shut down all the open networks and allow only secure messaging when incidents occur,” he told her as they walked. “And I wanted to shield you from the worst of what’s happening online.”
“I understand.” She nodded jerkily, looking like a ghost.
A pocket of gravel formed in the pit of his gut, a heaviness of conscience he wasn’t familiar with because he so rarely made mistakes.
“I assumed
