“I ruined myself. I ruined my friends’ livelihood.”
“Quit being so hard on yourself.”
“Quit being so obtuse! Just because I don’t run a country doesn’t mean my actions don’t have consequences.” She snatched up her phone and tapped to play her mother’s message from the beginning, increasing the volume so Luca got the full benefit of her mother’s appalled disgust.
“For God’s sake, Amy. You’ve really done it this time, behaving like the worst sort of trollop. Neville is putting me on a plane back to London. He doesn’t want to be associated with me. I’ve had your father on the phone, too. How can I tell him you’re reliable enough to take control of your trust when you do things like this? You really never learn, do you?”
Amy clicked it off so they didn’t have to hear the rest.
“I thought you were already disinherited.”
“My father has control of a trust fund that was set up for me when I was born. I was supposed to start receiving income from it ten years ago, but I was expelled from school.” She didn’t tell him why. “They decided I wasn’t responsible enough. I was supposed to assume full control at twenty-five, but my career promoting high-society parties online wasn’t deemed serious enough. Daddy moved the date to my thirtieth birthday, eighteen months from now. Apparently, that’s now off, as well.” She threw her phone back into the blankets.
Luca swore again, this time with less heat, more remorse.
“I don’t care.” It was mostly true. “I’ve learned to live without their financial support. But when I took your contract, I had a fantasy of finally telling them to shove it. I wanted to prove I’d made my fortune my own way, which was pure pride on my part. Looks like I’ve got more time to make that dream come true. Problem solved,” she said with facetious cheer while bitterness and failure swirled through her chest.
Why was life such a game of chutes and ladders? Why did she always hit the long slide back to zero?
“I had no idea.” He came back to sit on the bed.
“Why would you?” She wrapped her cold hands around the hot cup of coffee, ignoring that it was wet down one side. She couldn’t help fearing her earlier mistake with Avery Mason would emerge. It had been covered up, and all the key players had more reason to hide it than expose it, but it was still there, lurking like a venomous snake in the grass.
His firm hand gripped her calf through the blankets. “You have to let me help you, Amy.”
“Luca.” She jerked her leg away. “If you offer me that money one more time, you’re going to get a cup of hot coffee in the face. It will turn into a whole thing with your bodyguards, and I’ll wind up Tasered and rotting in jail. Not the best path to saving my reputation so leave it alone.”
He didn’t back off one iota. He found her leg again and gave it a squeeze. “Are you really prone to arson and violence?”
“No,” she admitted dourly. “But after my own parents left me fending for myself at eighteen, I’ve become hideously independent. The worst thing you could have done yesterday was leave me alone like this, helpless to solve my problem.”
“Because it’s not your problem,” he insisted. “That’s why I didn’t ask you to solve it.” He shifted so he was looking at the wall, elbows on his knees, hands linked between them. He sighed. “I didn’t see how much damage this would do to you. I want to help you fix it, Amy. Tell me what I can do.”
She sank heavily into the pillows. “If I had a clue how to fix it, I would have busted out of here and done it already.”
“Let me talk to your parents. I’ll take responsibility, patch things up.”
“Pass. There’s too much water under the bridge there...” Her nose stung with old tears she refused to shed. “And I don’t want someone to talk them into forgiving me. I want them to want to help me because they love me.” She was embarrassed that they didn’t and turned her mind from dwelling on that old anguish since it would never be resolved. “I’m more worried about London Connection. I might have to resign.”
“You’re not losing your career because you did your job,” he said forcefully.
“No one can know that, though, can they? To the outside world, I got involved with a client and caused him to lose his job. No one is going to hire the sordid one-night stand who caused a king to be overthrown. If I resign, London Connection can at least say they cleaned house in the same way that Vallia is dumping you.”
“That’s rubbish.” He rose again, all his virile energy crackling around him like a halo. “You’re not a martyr and you’re not a tramp. You’re not something that needs to be swept under a rug or out a door. The answer is obvious.”
“A tell-all to the highest bidder?” she suggested with a bat of her lashes.
“Pass,” he said with flat irony. “No. Once Sofia is clearly established as Vallia’s queen, you and I will take control of our narrative, as you like to say. We’ll reframe our affair as a more serious relationship.”
“You want to keep sleeping together?” Shock echoed within her strained words.
He wanted that so badly, he had to stand on the far side of the room so he wouldn’t crowd her or otherwise pressure her into it. “Appear to, at least. I understand if you’d prefer to keep things professional.”
“Because we’re so good at that.” Her chuckle was semihysterical.
He took perverse comfort from the helplessness in her choked laugh. He wasn’t the only one who felt this irresistible pull between them.
“I’m just saying, now that I fully grasp how our affair complicates things for you—”
The noise she made drew his glance.
“Do I not understand?” He narrowed
