She heard his sharp intake of breath. “Zoe trusts you and loves being with you. Under the circumstances, it’s an enormous relief to me.”
“I’m glad. As for me, she’s a joy to be with, Your Highness.” She had to keep calling him by his title to remind herself of the great gulf between them no ordinary human could bridge. If she were a princess …
But she wasn’t! And if she’d been born a royal, he would have run in the other direction.
For him, any attraction to her stemmed from forbidden fruit. She was a commoner. It was the nature of a man or woman to desire what they couldn’t or shouldn’t have. In that regard they were both cursed!
Fathoms deep in turmoil, she noticed his eyes lingering on the curve of her mouth for a moment. She glimpsed banked fires in those incredibly dark recesses. He was remembering those moments on the yacht, too. Dottie could feel it and the look he was giving her ignited her senses to a feverish pitch.
With effortless male agility he suddenly levered himself from the pool and disappeared inside the palace. When he was gone, the loss she felt was staggering.
“HI, MARK!”
“Hi!”
He got out of his father’s limo and hurried along the dock to get in the cruiser. Zoe’s brown eyes lit up when she saw him. The two fathers spoke for a minute longer before Alex joined them and made sure everyone put on a life preserver.
The prince piloted the boat himself and they took off. Excitement suffused Dottie, crowding out any misgivings for the moment. She found the day was too wonderful. It seemed the children did, too. Both wore a perpetual smile on their animated faces. Zoe pointed out more fish and birds as they drew closer to their destination. While they were communicating, Alex darted Dottie an amused glance.
She wondered if he was thinking what she’d been thinking. What if his daughter and Mark were to share a friendship that took them through childhood to the teenage years? What if … But she forced her mind to turn off and think only happy thoughts. The island of Aurum was coming up fast. She’d concentrate on it.
Somehow she’d assumed it shared many of the characteristics of Hellenica, but the mountains were higher and woodier. As they pulled up to the royal dock, Dottie had to admit her adrenaline had been surging in anticipation of seeing where they lived. When Alex talked about Aurum, she noticed his voice dropped to a deeper level because he loved it here.
He’d explained that the mountainous part of the island where the palace was located had been walled off from the public. This had been his private residence from the age of eighteen and would continue to be for as long as he retained the title of Duke of Aurum. She’d learned it had its own game preserve, a wildlife sanctuary, a bird refuge and a stable.
Somehow she’d expected this palace to resemble the white Cycladic style of that on Hellenica. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Through the heavy foliage she glimpsed a small gem of Moorish architecture in the form of a square, all on one level.
“Oh!” she cried out in instant delight the second she saw it from the open limo window.
Alex heard her. “This area of the Aegean has known many civilizations. If you’ll notice, the other palace leaves the stairs and patios open. Everything tumbles to the sea. You’ll see the reverse is true here. The Moors liked their treasures hidden within the walls.”
“Whoa!” Mark exclaimed. His eyes widened in amazement. He’d stopped talking to Zoe. Whoa was the perfect word, all right.
Dottie marveled over the exterior, a weathered yellow and pale orange combination of seamless blocks delineated by stylized horizontal stripes, exquisite in detail. The limo passed a woman who looked about fifty standing at the arched entry into a courtyard laid out in ancient tiles surrounding a pool and an exquisite garden. At its center stood a latticed gazebo. This was the garden Alex had referred to last week.
As he helped them from the car, a peacock peered from behind some fronds and unexpectedly opened its plumage. The whirring sound startled Dottie and Mark, but Zoe only laughed. It walked slowly, displaying its glorious fan.
“Whoa,” their guest said again, incredulous over what he was seeing. It was hard to believe.
Dottie eyed Alex. “We’re definitely going to have to work on the P sound.”
One corner of his mouth curved upward. He ran a hand over his chest covered by a cream-colored polo shirt. “Don’t look now,” he said quietly, “but there’s a partridge in the peach tree behind you.”
Slowly she turned around, thinking he was teasing her while he made the P sounds. But he’d told the truth!
Transfixed, she shook her head, examining everything in sight. A profusion of pink and orange flowers grew against the gazebo. She walked through the scrolling pathway toward it. Inside she discovered a lacy looking set of chairs and a table inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Dottie felt as if she’d just walked inside the pages of a rare first-edition history book of the Ottoman empire. This couldn’t possibly be real.
Alex must have understood what she was feeling because he flashed her a white smile. But this one was different because it was carefree. For a brief moment she’d been given a glimpse of what he might have looked like years ago, before he’d had a true understanding that he was Prince Alexius Constantinides with obligations and serious responsibilities he would have to shoulder for the rest of his life.
There was a sweetness in his expression, the same sweetness she saw in Zoe when she was really happy about something, like right now. But the moment was bittersweet for Dottie when she thought of the pain waiting for him back on Hellenica. A myriad of emotions tightened her chest because her pain was mixed up in there, too.
“Do you want to see my room?” Zoe asked Mark.
“I want to follow the peacock first.”
“Okay.” She tagged along with her new friend, still managing to carry Baby Betty in her hands.
Alex spread his strong arms. “Guys and girls. Human nature doesn’t change.” Dottie laughed gently, sharing this electric moment with him.
Porticos with bougainvillea and passion flowers joined one section of the palace to the other. The al-coved rooms were hidden behind. Zoe’s was a dream of Moorish tiles and unique pieces of furniture with gold leaf carved years ago by a master palace craftsman of that earlier civilization.
A silky, pale pink fabric formed the canopy and covering of her bed. Near a tall hutch filled with her treasures stood an exquisite pink rose tree. When Dottie looked all the way up, she gasped at the sheer beauty of the carved ceiling with hand-painted roses and birds.
Alex had been watching her reaction. “Your room is next door. Would you like to see it?”
Speechless, she nodded and followed him through an alcove to another masterpiece of design similar to Zoe’s except for the color scheme. “Whoever painted the cornflowers in this room must have had your eyes in mind, Dottie. They grow wild on the hillsides. You’ll see them when you and Zoe go hiking or horseback riding.”
She was spellbound. Her eyes fell to the bed canopied with blue silk. “Was this the room you and your wife used? It’s breathtaking.”
In a flash his facial muscles tensed up. “Teresa never lived here with me. Like my grandmother, she preferred the palace on Hellenica. She thought this place too exotic and isolated, the mountains too savage. This room was used during my mother’s time for guests. Since Teresa’s death, Zoe’s string of nannies have lived in here.”
Dottie couldn’t help but speculate on how much time he and his wife must have spent apart—that is,