The Keys' Prince (The Royal Heirs) (19 page)

Dario cleared his throat and took a sip of water, letting Carlos’ words hang in the heavily-saturated air.

“What happened to Stella and I twenty-five years ago won’t happen again, I can assure you,” Dario said, the calm in his voice betraying the anger pulsing through his hand as it shook inside Stella’s.

“How can you be so sure?” Carlos pressed on feeding off of the flames he’d breathed new life into.

“Because I won’t let you get that close ever again. You may be family by birth, but that’s all you’ll ever be, Carlos,” Dario said, never raising his voice. He didn’t have to. His words carried an unyielding strength that no one in the hall could deny.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Have you bothered to read the minutes from the Kristianico Economic Development Foundation?”

“I have, ever last line item, why?” Dario asked, his tone daring his uncle to tell him something he didn’t already know about the foundation.

“Did you happen to notice that several shares were sold while you were off playing in the States?”

“I did, and I approved the sale of those shares,” Dario said, wisely ignoring the flippant comment about his trip.

“You might want to look a wee bit closer at who you actually sold those shares to, Prince Dario,” Carlos said emphasizing the fact that Dario had yet to be crowned king.

Carlos took an obscenely large sip from his wine glass and slammed the crystal goblet onto the table, crashing its base against the edge of his huge plate of food. “And you call yourself fit to be king? What a joke.”

It was all Stella could do to sit still and keep her mouth shut. The man was a pig. There wasn’t a nicer thing to say about him. She didn’t doubt that he was more than capable of making a play against Dario, but the fact that he’d done it now when Dario wasn’t even on the throne yet was lower than low.

She wanted to stand up and throw her wine on the bastard, but she knew that wouldn’t help. First, this was Dario’s fight. If he wanted to rule his country, he’d have to figure out how to keep his family in line. Second, she had to act with the dignity of the queen that she might soon be, which probably meant hurling wine at the king’s uncle wasn’t acceptable. Although, in this dysfunctional family, it was anyone’s guess as to what might be within acceptable limits. They certainly did a lot more damage to each other than a glass of merlot could do.

“I should have known you wouldn’t have enough class to at least wait until your brother is buried before starting your bullshit,” Queen Meredith said, seething.

So much for protocol, Stella thought, turning to face the Queen as did every other person in the room. What she wanted to do was give her a thumbs up and a ‘u go girl’.

Queen Meredith was known to enjoy her wine, and Stella had counted tonight, last taking note of glass number five. Evidently, between glasses four and five, protocol could be abandoned.

“Had a little too much to drink again, Old Meredith?” Carlos sneered, his slurred words indicating that he’d certainly had enough.

“There isn’t enough wine in all of Kristianico to tolerate you, you stupid buffoon. The King should have banished your miserable ass years ago like I told him to do. And you can bet that I’ll be advising the new king to do the same,” Queen Meredith fired off, never hesitating a second to put the jerk in his place.

Now Stella wanted to jump up and hug her, which would probably cause get her slapped.

“I’m going to ask you one time, Carlos, and one time only, to excuse yourself and take leave of the palace grounds, immediately. If that’s not acceptable to you, I’ll personally have you removed. Have I made myself clear?” Dario asked, putting his napkin down next to his plate and moving back his chair.

“Well isn’t that an approach that would make your dear old dad proud? What are you going to do, have your wanna-be bride buy me out of this family?” Carlos asked, choking on his mouth full of prime rib.

With that remark, Dario was out of his chair and speaking into his watch, summonsing Stefan, who was standing guard outside the closed door to the dining hall.

“I’m going. I’m going,” Carlos said his face red from choking on his dinner, not from embarrassment at the end result of his behavior. Getting thrown out of a family dinner was all in a day’s work. “But just so you know, I can’t be bought out of this family or my rightful place in it.”

“I wouldn’t waste this family’s money or this country’s money on you, Carlos,” Dario said, smiling as Stefan and two of his men surrounded Carlos and led him to the door. “You’ll never be more than you are now, and that’s one mighty poor excuse for a human being. Don’t you ever insult Stella or my mother or any member of this family again. You do not want to test me on this point.”

“Speaking of tests,” Carlos called back, once Stefan and his men had him detained on the other side of the hall’s double doors, “what will it be, Alberto, my son? Whose side are you on? Mine or theirs?”

“I’ll stay on the honorable side, Sir, where I’ve always been,” Alberto said, rising from his chair and going to stand beside Dario.

“Honorable?” Carlos said, almost collapsing into a fit of laughter. “Oh, we’ll be talking about honorable very soon now. Won’t we, Meredith?”

Stella took a quick look at the Queen, whose wine glass slipped through her fingers and fell to the
hardwood floor, exploding into a shower of glass. 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Dario couldn’t get out of the palace’s dining hall fast enough. The other side of the world wasn’t far enough away from his family. Except for Alberto and Sophia, he didn’t care if he saw any of them ever again.

All he could do for now though was find temporary solace in his suite with the woman he’d gladly give it all up for. He hadn’t been back in Kristianico for twenty-four hours and already he was giving serious consideration to Alberto taking his father’s place on the throne.

Tomorrow morning was his official coronation, the private one, held in the throne room of the palace with only those in attendance who needed to be pursuant to Kristianico’s constitution. His father’s funeral would immediately follow the ceremony.

Becoming Kristianico’s king didn’t matter much to Dario anymore. Not long ago, he thought succeeding his father was his ultimate destiny, and one he could find happiness in. But that was when he thought he’d lost Stella forever.

Now that she was back in his life, everything had changed. He had everything he needed and ever wanted lying beside him in his bed—Stella.

What a night. What a crazy night, he thought, trying to make sense of it all.

After making sure that Carlos was no longer on palace grounds, and then bidding goodnight to the rest of his family, most of whom were staying overnight in the palace so they’d be close by for tomorrow’s events, Dario had made the long walk back to his suite alone.

He’d had Franco take Stella back ahead of him, not wanting her to witness anymore of Carlos’ outbursts as he was being escorted out.

He rubbed his temples with his thumbs and then the bridge of his nose. It was no use. Nothing seemed to ease the tension that seemed to grow each minute closer he got to his coronation. He’d never felt the weight of his family’s future so heavily on his shoulders and in his heart. He’d never been so unsure about his place as the new king of Kristianico.

“You’ve been awful quiet since we got home,” Stella said, snuggling up beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Not that I blame you. Some family dinner, huh? Not that any I’ve been to have been much better.”

Leave it to Stella to say exactly what he needed to hear. Dario couldn’t help but laugh. She did have a valid point. Maybe it was just his nerves getting the best of him on the eve of his coronation. It probably didn’t help that he’d escaped to Sarasota, far away from the royal drudgery, long enough to temporarily forget how dysfunctional his family really was. Figuring that since his father had passed that his relatives would be on their best behavior was nothing more than wishful thinking. The sad part was that they probably were on their best behavior.

“You’re right, baby,” he said, pulling her closer to his chest and burying his head in her short, soft locks. “I don’t know. I did fine until Carlos took a stab at you, and then I blew up.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I thought you handled yourself extremely well. I don’t know how you keep your cool. It was all I could do to keep from drowning the jack ass in his merlot.”

Dario laughed again. Gosh, it felt good to have her back in his life. She always knew how to make him feel better, even in the worst situations. No wonder she was a helluva fantastic business woman. He wished he could be more positive like she was. She managed to see the glass not just half full, but she also had fun with it—a gift he hoped would rub off on him as they built their life together.

“Now that I would have paid handsomely to see,” he said, meaning it too. He’d love to see Stella put Carlos in his place, and he had a feeling the rest of his family would be cheering her on, even if silently.

“It wasn’t my place, baby. And besides, you were doing just fine with him. But what do you say we forget about Carlos for now? I’d much rather take you up on your dessert offer. With all of the excitement, we seemed to have missed that course downstairs.”

“Dessert, huh?” Dario asked, pulling her over on top of him and kissing her until he thought about nothing except what he was going to do to her next.

• • •

Now that was dessert, Stella thought, lost in the afterglow of the wonderful night they’d spent making love. And Dario was right. There was no way after being wrapped in his arms all night long that she’d be returning to her bed in the adjoining apartment. She couldn’t be that far away from him, knowing that she could be cuddled up next to him, instead.

They certainly had a mess to figure out with his family, but they knew where they belonged in each others’ lives. And for now, their love would see them through whatever they needed to do to clear the way for their future together.

Stella wanted to ask Dario about the woman and four young adults she’d seen in the palace garden and tell him that his mother had a bruise that she was hiding on her cheek, but he was so upset after the latest family free-for-all that she didn’t want to bring it up just yet. With his coronation and his father’s funeral, he had enough to worry about today.

She took a few moments and sipped more of her tea before getting dressed.

Dario had chosen another stunner of an ensemble for her to wear. He knew what looked great on her, and better yet, he knew what she was comfortable wearing. She’d never been one who could carry a look with confidence if she wasn’t comfortable first. Stylist didn’t always understand that philosophy or approve of it, but Dario did. If he kept it up, Stella wouldn’t need her stylists, who were due to arrive in Kristianico the day after tomorrow.

Dario came out of his walk-in closet, which was more of a room than a closet, fiddling with his cufflinks.  

With his Riviera tan and dark hair, he looked terrific in his white, military uniform with its purple sashes and cords denoting his ascension to the country’s highest rank.

Needing to get a move on so they weren’t late, she slipped on the white Chanel suit with royal purple piping that Dario had picked out for her and waited while he connected the clasp of the amazing deep amethyst and diamond necklace he’d borrowed for her from the Queen’s jewels. As he placed on her right ring finger a matching ten-carat ring, her hands shook.

With each of them wearing royal purple and white—the colors of Kristianico’s flag—for their first appearance as a couple, they’d make a united and powerful impression in front of the country’s top dignitaries and foreign guests.

“I can’t wait to put a ring on that other finger too, baby. And I will, I promise, as soon as we get through all of this,” Dario said, his hands also shaking as he settled the ring in its place on her finger.

“What’s the rush?” Stella said and laughed, reaching for any source of humor she could find to lighten up his somber mood.

She’d give anything to save him from all of this pomp and crazy circumstance. Seeing him so nervous and out of sorts was unsettling. She was used to him being strong. Her chest tightened. Her heart hurt for him and all that he’d have to endure today.

“Good one, baby. I love that you can keep your sense of humor. I sure hope some of that rubs off on me in the years to come.”

“I’m thinking it will be humor that ultimately saves us,” she said. “Well, that and our love, of course. Come here and let me straighten your tie.”

He stepped up close so that their bodies rested against each other and lifted his chin so she could get her hands on the knot and smooth it out. His ties were always beautiful. She loved the feel of the silk, cool to the touch. She also enjoyed fussing over him like this. She’d always wanted to be the woman who fixed his ties.

“I hope you always take all of this so well. Trust me, it gets old real quick. If it wasn’t for the sense of duty I feel to Kristianico’s people, I wouldn’t be going through with this.”

“I know, baby. And I respect you for that. Your people have always shown you nothing but love, graciousness and respect. It’s just your family that doesn’t. Try to remember that. Maybe it will shore up your resolve a bit.”