The Royal’s Pretend Wife (14 page)

Finding her best friend proved easier said than done. In fairly short order, she realized that the yacht was an impressive craft, not terribly far off from being a cruise vessel. She learned very quickly that it was simple enough to get lost, and even simpler to get turned around.

She must have been a sight, wandering around with two shrimp cocktails in her hands, but as she became more frustrated, she only became more stubborn. She wasn't going to be defeated so easily, and she redoubled her search for her friend.

Of course, that only meant that she became more lost, and finally, she somehow ended up bumbling through a door to find herself in a gorgeous little solarium. One entire wall of the room was clear glass, looking out over the Mediterranean. She could see the beautiful blue of the sky and the glassy clarity of the water beneath her.

For a moment, she forgot about her mission. She forgot about everything. Instead Anastasia stood stock still, staring out over the water with a near-religious awe.

A polite cough ended her reverie. The room's other occupant sat at a small table to the right of the door, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

“So what's your name?” he asked, a hint of impatience in his voice.

“I…I'm Anastasia,” she stuttered, taken aback by his brusque tone. She wondered if he was a member of the crew, and it struck her that perhaps she shouldn't have been there.

“Hm, I haven't heard of you.”

“I'm sorry, I am on the passenger list, I promise, I'm looking for—”

“Oh, I can imagine who you are looking for,” he said with a snort.

To her alarm, he got up and stalked towards her. When he was standing, she could see that he was a tall lean man. His features were twisted with irritation, but otherwise, he would have been handsome, with his olive skin and mane of dark hair. At least, she would have thought so if he weren't advancing towards her so intently.

“Er, I'm sorry, I don't know who you mean.”

“Oh, and I suppose those cocktails are just for you?”

She stared down at them, wondering why he sounded so accusatory over her—or rather Trinity's—choice of snack.”

“Would…would there be a problem if they were just for me?” she wondered, and he laughed sharply.

“But they're not, are they, pretty girl?”

Her anger, slow to arrive, finally flickered into life at his careless endearment.

“All right, I don't know who you are, but you don't have the right to call me a girl. I'm not a dog or…or some random waitress that you can flirt with, and frankly, you shouldn't call your waitress that either!”

He looked slightly taken aback by her vehemence, but he shrugged.

“All right, what shall I call you then?”

She scowled at him.

“From the way you are acting, how about if you don't call me anything at all?” she snapped. “Most women who come wandering through don't have any interest in being…being attacked, all right?”

He raised an eyebrow. He really was more handsome when he wasn't being so aggressive, but she really didn't care about that at the moment.

“Attacking? Is that what I was doing?”

“Yes,” she said, staring up at him. She realized that she wasn't the most threatening person in the world when her only defense was a pair of shrimp cocktails, but she was damned well going to try to do her best.

“I came in her looking for a friend of mine. You pounced on me as if…as if I were a baby seal, and then you start being threatening. I'll tell you right now that is not going to fly, mister!”

He frowned, and he started to say something but she cut him off with a sharp shake of her head.

“No. I really don't care to hear it. In fact, unless you can tell me where my friend is, I don't think we have anything to say to each other.”

She stalked towards the door, her delight in the solarium entirely ruined. Or at least, she meant to do so. He put his arm across the door, blocking her path unless she was willing to try to duck underneath it. Instead Anastasia glared up at him.

“I might be able to help you out if you could tell me who your friend is.”

For a moment, Anastasia thought about simply ignoring him and, if he didn't unbar her way immediately, possibly finding out how he looked wearing two shrimp cocktails. Then she lifted her chin with all of the arrogance and contempt that her background could bring to bear.

“Well, if you happen to know where I could find Princess Trinity Buros, that would be grand.”

To her gratification, his eyes did widen. With his attitude, he certainly didn’t do anything as useful as working on the ship, but perhaps he was a random guest.

“You know the princess?” he asked, a little more respectfully.

“Yes,” Anastasia replied. “I do. And now if you don't mind, I would like to find her.”

“Ah, well, come follow me. I just saw her a little while ago.”

Anastasia eyed him suspiciously.

“This better not be some kind of ridiculous trick,” she said ominously. “I know her quite well, and her husband too.”

“No tricks,” he said, with a slight grin. “I am sorry that I behaved so poorly. I would like to start over.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Get me to Trinity, and we'll see.”

He laughed at her, shaking his head and leading the way.

“I deserved that.”

“You did.”

With unerring accuracy, he led her through the yacht. When he passed by the men who worked on it, they nodded at him deferentially and he greeted them by name. Anastasia was beginning to wonder who this man really was when he led her up a spiral of stairs to what seemed to be the very top of the yacht itself.

They emerged into a comfortable viewing room, lined with elegant couches and containing just a handful of people.

Trinity, a sarong wrapped around her hips, stood up with a grin.

“There you are, Ana! I was beginning to think that you had forgotten all about me and went back to sleep.”

“I wouldn't have done that when you were threatening to roll me out no matter what I was wearing,” Anastasia grumbled, but she handed her friend a shrimp cocktail and accepted a brief squeeze on her hand in return.

“And I see you brought our other recluse with you.”

She started to ask what Trinity meant, but then her friend was turning to the man who had brought her up to viewing area.

“ I was wondering if you were going to sulk for the rest of the voyage.”

The man smiled at Trinity, and even Anastasia could tell that it was a real smile. It transformed him, taking him from a curmudgeon to a man who was breathtakingly handsome. Suddenly, she realized that she knew him.

'You're…you're Apolo's brother!” she exclaimed.

He nodded at her wryly.

“I generally attempt to be a little more memorable than simply being Apolo's brother, but I suppose I'll have to take it,” he said. “And you're Anastasia. I didn't get it until we were talking, but we met at the wedding.”

“We…we did,” she said, aware that a blush was coming up on her cheeks.

Trinity was eying the two of them closely, her eyes slightly narrow.

“All right, what's up with the two of you?” she asked warily. “Augustine, what did you do to my friend?”

“Nothing!” Anastasia blurted. “I mean, I ran into him in the solarium and—”

“I was unspeakably rude to her, and she bullied me into helping her find you,” he said calmly, speaking right over her panicked rush. I had assumed she was another one of my brother's attempts to draw me out, and I acted rashly. She said that I was attacking her.”

Anastasia felt her stomach drop down somewhere near the vicinity of her feet. It was her worst nightmare come true. In the halls of New York, where she was sure of her footing and about her cause, she was unstoppable. Apparently, when you took her away from New York and put her on a cruise, she lost all of that confidence.

Trinity, however, didn't seem to be the least bit worried that her friend had been a bullying shrew to her brother-in-law.

“Ah. Then you are very lucky that your bad behavior didn't end up with you wearing this delicious shrimp cocktail.”

“I almost did!” Anastasia blurted out, making Trinity giggle.

“I'm sure he deserved it. Let me make a formal introduction. I've been making so many of them as princess that it's quite second nature to me now.

“Prince Augustine, may I present Anastasia McFadden, my dear friend from the states, general do-gooder and all around good person. Ana, this is Augusting Buros, second prince of Greece, my dear husband's beloved younger brother and my dear brother-in-law..”

“I…I'm pleased to meet you,” Anastasia said, fiddling with her shrimp cocktail. If she was very still, perhaps she wouldn't need to remember all of the things she had said to him. Maybe he would simply nod and take off, content with the social maladroitness of Americans and find someone else to talk to.

“Ah, I am very pleased to see you again,” he said. There was a softer light in his eyes now, and abruptly, she realized that he was making fun of her.

Almost as if in slow motion, she saw him reach for her hand, as if he meant to kiss it. As if she were someone he wanted to…to court or something. She couldn't stand it, so she simply did the first thing that came to her mind.

Instead of allowing him to take her hand, she shoved the shrimp cocktail towards him. When he took it in surprise, she nodded at him, not meeting his eyes.

“This has been fun, but I think I want to explore the deck a little,” she babbled. “Trinity, I know I was supposed to hang out with you, but maybe in a little while? I feel like I should go stretch and get my sea legs.”

Trinity started to protest, but Anastasia could be fast when she wanted to be. She darted down the stairs again, her heart beating fast.

Great. She had been on the trip for less than three days, and she had already made a fool out of herself. She couldn't wait to see what the next few days were going to bring.

Augustine looked down at the shrimp cocktail in his hand with bemusement. When his sister-in-law chuckled, he glanced at her with a frown.

“What?”

“You shouldn't let the shrimp go to waste. They're quite good.”

He looked at her impatiently.

“That's not all you wanted to say.”

“Not at all,” she said smoothly. “I'm just amused that you seem to have met your match.”

“Oh? And what do you mean by that?”

“Augustine,” she said fondly. “I have been going to public functions and fundraisers with you for the past six months, and in that time, I'm pretty sure that I've seen at least two dozen women rage, cry and ice over at the very mention of you. The newspapers call you a playboy, but I'm pretty sure that anyone who falls into your bed takes off pretty darned quickly when they run into that mouth of yours.”

“Well, that's pointed,” he murmured, eating a shrimp, but she shook her head.

“It's not even a criticism,” she said cheerfully. “The truth is that most of the people you are so blunt with deserve it. They have been puffed up by yes-men and sycophants for so long that hearing anyone say something close to the truth destroys them.”

Her eyes looked briefly distant as she remembered some of those women, a slight smile on her face.

“Honestly, some of those people really did deserve to have the truth walked right up to them. You're honest, and people hate that. Now you've run into someone who doesn't mind honesty, but who hates bullies.”

“Is that what your friend is?” he asked, keeping his voice casual. Trinity's grin told him that he wasn't fooling her at all.

“That's Anastasia for you. She does the more good than anyone I know. If it's about water, she's all over it. I once saw her shout down an entire group of people who didn't seem to believe that chemical companies are bad for our waterways, and she did it in a way that it stuck, too. The only problem is that when it comes to anything else, she's a bit shy.”

“She sounds…utterly adorable,” he said. “Like a kitten.”

Trinity snorted.

“Let me let you in on a little secret. I've never gone for the helpless or hapless, either in friends or in relationships. Go on, see how far you get calling her a kitten. I'll be sitting by with popcorn to see how well that goes for you.”

Augustine eyed her warily.

“You have a lot of faith in your friend.”

“Well, yes, but I have a great deal of faith in you, too.”

“What in the world is that supposed to mean?”

Unexpectedly, she set down her shrimp cocktail and gave him an enormous hug.

“You know what? I don't think I'm going to tell you. If you can't figure it out by the end of the trip, come talk to me and we can sort it out.”

Another one of her friends called for Trinity's attention, and she was off, ever the social butterfly, leaving Augustine standing there with a shrimp cocktail that he had to admit was very good.

He wasn't sure what to make of his sister-in-law's statements, but he did know that he wanted to see Anastasia again.

The yacht was a beautiful piece of work, enormous, but with graceful lines that recalled an entirely different age. When Anastasia walked on its decks, she could imagine an era where this was the only way to cross the oceans, when it might be a voyage that would only ever be undertaken once or perhaps twice at most in a lifetime.

She ended up at the rail, staring out over the water. In the distance, she could make out the dark shore of Greece. If she adjusted her view, she would look out over endless water, dotted here and there with small islands that made up the Greek coast. There was something at once comforting and intimidating about the fact that this was the view that had been seen by Mediterranean travelers for thousands of years.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

The familiar voice made her turn quickly, a flush of guilt on her face.

I haven’t done anything wrong,
she told herself.
I have just as much right to be here as anyone else.

“It is,” she said cautiously, watching as Augustine came to join her at the rail. “I could watch the coast pass by for hours.

“I have always loved staring out over the sea,” he said, gazing into the distance. “It is eternal, and we are not. That alone would be enough. Is it the same way for you?”