She nodded without looking at him. “Of course.”
The bands constricting his breathing loosened a little. “Thank you. On Saturday I’ll run you and Zoe over in the cruiser. We’ll skip her preschool next week.”
“Are you still going to go ahead with the arrangements for the Varney boy to come home with Zoe after class tomorrow?”
“Yes,” he murmured. “Any distraction would be better than her being around my grandmother, who’s not in a good way right now. She’s always been a rock, but she never saw this coming with Stasio.”
“You sound exhausted, Alex. Tomorrow will be here before we know it. Let’s go back to the palace.”
She sounded like Hector. Go back. Do your duty. Forget you’re a man with a man’s needs.
Full of rage, he made a sharp U-turn and sped toward the palace tight-lipped, but by the time they reached the entry, he’d turned into one aching entity of pain. He watched the only person who could take it away for good rush away on her gorgeous legs.
Dottie could tell Zoe felt shy around Mark Varney. She stuck close to her daddy at the shallow end of the pool.
They’d just returned home from the preschool. Mark was a cute, dark blond first grader who sported a marine haircut and was a good little swimmer already. He didn’t appear to be nervous as he floated on an inner tube at the deep end, kicking his strong legs. Dottie sat on the edge by him.
“My mom told me she talks funny. How come?” he said quietly.
“Sometimes a child can’t make sounds come out the way they want. But I’m working on them with her. One day she’ll sound like you, but for now I’m hoping to get your help.”
He blinked. “How? She’s a princess.”
She looked at his boyish face with its smattering of freckles. “Forget about that. She’s a girl. Just be friends with her. In a way, you can be her best teacher.”
His sunny blue eyes widened. “I can?”
“Yes. You’re older and you’re an American who speaks English very well. If you’ll play with her, she’ll listen to you when you talk and she’ll try to sound like you. You’re a guy, and guys like to dare each other, right?”
He grinned. “Yeah.”
“Well, start daring her. You know. Tell her you bet she can’t say bat.”
“Bat?” He laughed.
“She’s working on her B‘s and T‘s. Make a game out of it. Tell her that if she can say bat right, you’ll show her your MP3 player. I saw you playing with it in the limo on the drive to the palace.”
“Don’t tell my dad. I’m not supposed to take it to school.”
She studied him for a minute. “If he finds out, I’ll tell him you’re using it to help Zoe. She’s never seen one of those. There’s an application on it that makes those animal sounds.”
“Oh, yeah—”
“It’ll fascinate her.”
“Cool.”
“See if you can get her to say cool, too.”
“Okay. This is fun.”
Dottie was glad he thought so. After trying to learn Greek at school and home, it had to be a big release for him to speak English. “Let’s go have a war with her and her daddy.” She took off her beach coat and slipped into the water. “You get on the whale. I’ll push you over to them and we’ll start splashing.”
“Won’t the prince get mad?”
“Yes.” Dottie smiled. “Real mad.”
His face lit up and they took off.
Hopefully Alex would get mad enough to forget his own problems for a little while. She’d suffered for him and his family all night. No matter her misgivings about spending full days with Zoe until the coronation, she couldn’t have turned Alex down last night. The look in his expression had been a study in anguish, aging him.
Once they reached their destination, the happy shrieks coming out of Zoe were just the thing to get their war started. For a good ten minutes they battled as if their lives depended on it. The best sound of all was Alex’s full-bodied laughter. After knowing how deeply he’d been affected by his family’s problems, Dottie hadn’t expected to hear it again.
When she came up for air after Alex’s last powerful dunk, his eyes were leveled on her features. “You’ve been holding out on me. All this time I thought maybe you couldn’t swim well. I was going to offer to teach you, but I was afraid you’d think I was a lecherous old man wanting to get my hands on you. After I showed up in your cabin on the yacht, now you know it’s true.”
She was thankful for the water that cooled her instantly hot cheeks. In the periphery she noticed Mark pushing Zoe around on the whale. He was talking a blue streak and had captured her full attention. The ice had been broken and they were oblivious to everyone else. Dottie couldn’t have been more pleased.
Alex followed her gaze. “Your experiment is working. She’s so excited by his attention, she hasn’t once called for either of us.”
“I’ve asked him to help her. He’s a darling boy.” In the next few minutes she told Alex about their conversation. “If all goes well today, how would you feel about Mark coming home with us from school on Friday?”
“I’m open to anything that will help her speech improve and make her happy.”
“Mark seems to be doing both. I’ve learned he’s been unhappy, so I was thinking maybe he could even come to Aurum with us on Saturday. Naturally you’d have to talk to his parents. If they’re willing, maybe he could make a visit to the island next week. You know, after his morning class at preschool. Zoe would have something exciting to look forward to and I know it would be good for him, too.”
His eyes glinted with an emotion she couldn’t read. “I can see where you’re going with this. If you think his being there will prevent her attachment to you from growing deeper, you couldn’t be more wrong. But as a plan to entertain them and help her, I like the idea.”
“Honestly?”
He ran suntanned hands through his wet black hair. Adonis couldn’t possibly have been as attractive. “I wouldn’t have said so otherwise.”
She expelled the breath she’d been holding. “Thank you. I was thinking Zoe and I could ride the ferry to Hellenica and meet him at the dock after he’s out of class. He could ride back with us and we could eat lunch on board. Mark can help her pronounce the names of foods, and she can teach him some more Greek words.”
Alex nodded. “I’ll fly him back with me in the helicopter in the evening.”
“You’d be willing to do that?”
He frowned. “By now I thought it was clear to you I’d do anything to help my daughter. In order to ensure that you stay with her until her uncle Stasi has been proclaimed king, I’ve even gone so far as to promise I won’t touch you again.”
She knew that and already felt the cost of it.
If he had any comprehension of how hard this was for her, too … They had no future together, but that didn’t mean she found it easy to keep her distance. She’d come alive in his arms. Because she was unable to assuage these yearnings, the pleasure had turned on her so she was in continual pain. This was the precise reason she didn’t want to have feelings for any man, not ever again, but it was far too late for that.
“Your Highness?”
Hector’s