And Luca?
He was an Italian male. Of course he’d want to be part of this. But he would also want to found a dynasty, and for that he needed a princess, not Callie from the docks.
She exchanged a cheery hello with the kindly shop owner who had rented Callie the flat and paused to help with a string of tinsel. ‘Thank you, darling,’ the elderly shop owner exclaimed, giving Callie a warm hug. ‘I can’t believe how you’re glowing. You look wonderful. Don’t you get cold outside, now.’
‘I won’t,’ Callie called back over her shoulder as she stepped out into the street.
* * *
He saw the car coming from the end of the street. Driven at speed, it was being chased by a police vehicle, sirens blaring.
No!
He wasn’t sure if he shouted, or thought the warning, but he did know he moved. Sprinting like a cheetah, he hurtled down the road. Shoving pedestrians from the path of the car, his sightline fixed on his goal. Time remained frozen, or so it seemed to him, with countless variables of horror possible.
Most people hadn’t even realised there was a problem. Callie was one of them. She was still walking across the street, oblivious to the danger hurtling towards her. Launching himself at her, he slammed her to the ground. There was a thump, a screech of brakes, and for a moment the world went black, then the woman in his arms, the woman he had cushioned from the edge of the pavement with his body, battled to break free.
‘Are you okay?’ she exclaimed with fierce concern, lifting herself up to stare at him.
Winded, he was only capable of a grunt. She stared at him in disbelief. ‘Luca?’
He gulped in a lungful of fumes and dust, mixed with Callie’s warm fragrance, then, as his brain clicked back into gear, he had only one concern, and that was Callie. ‘Are you hurt?’
‘No.’ She hesitated. ‘At least, I don’t think so.’
Colour drained from her face. He could imagine the thoughts bombarding her brain. She was pregnant. Was the baby okay? Could she reel back the clock and walk across the road a few seconds later or sooner? Did she have any pain? She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, making him think she was examining her body, searching for signs of trauma, particularly in her womb. She slowly relaxed, which he took to be a good sign. And then she remembered him. He saw the recognition and surprise in her eyes turn to suspicion and anger, and then back again, when she remembered where they were and how they had got there.
‘You saved me,’ she breathed.
‘Grazie Dio!’ he murmured.
Her gaze hardened again. He was back. The man she had thought she knew had turned out to be someone else entirely. She’d flirted with him, and had had sex with a man she had believed to be an itinerant field worker, who had turned out to be a billionaire prince, and an important figure on the world stage. He could imagine her affront when she’d found out. It wouldn’t have taken her long. Settling back into her normal life, she could hardly avoid seeing his face in the press after his enthronement. In shock, she would be trying to process every piece of information, amongst which had to be what the hell was he doing here?
He followed her gaze as she glanced around to see if anyone else was hurt. He saw the tyre marks on the pavement left by the car as it had mounted the kerb, and realised how kind fate had been. Pockets of survivors were checking each other out. Numbers were being exchanged and arms thrown around complete strangers. This was human nature at its best. From what he could see, everyone was shaken up, but thankfully unharmed. Quite a crowd had gathered. People were calling on their phones. The emergency services would arrive soon. The police were already on the scene. The youth behind the wheel of the speeding car had been captured. Patrol cars had his vehicle boxed in.
‘Luca,’ Callie gritted out, managing to fill that single word with all the bitterness and uncertainty prompted by his supposed deception. When she was calm, she might realise they’d both been escaping their normal lives during their time in the lemon groves. Both had seized the chance to escape and explore a different, looser version of themselves. But none of that mattered now. All that mattered was that Callie was safe. However, she, understandably, took a rather different view. ‘I can’t believe this,’ she said, staring at him. ‘What are you doing here?’
Ignoring her understandable surprise, he concentrated on essentials. ‘Take it easy. Slowly,’ he advised as she struggled to sit up. ‘You might feel dizzy for a while. You’ve had a shock.’
‘To put it mildly,’ she agreed. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked tensely.
‘Don’t worry about me.’
‘You came down with quite a bang.’
He wasn’t interested in discussing anything but Callie, and was only relieved that he’d reached her in time.
‘Sorry.’ She started to giggle. Hysteria, he guessed. ‘But we must stop meeting like this.’
He couldn’t agree more. They were lying in the road on a bed of grime and oil patches. Hoping that laughter signified her body’s resilience to the blow it had just received, he huffed wryly, and for a moment they weren’t at loggerheads, but just two people caught up in an unexpected incident on a cold and wintry street.
‘Oh, no!’ Callie was staring at the stolen vehicle, which was planted in what appeared to be a dress shop window. ‘My landlady,’ she exclaimed, starting to get up.
‘Let me help you.’
She pushed him away in panic. ‘I have to make sure she’s all right.’
‘You have to get checked out first,’ he argued.
‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded as he shrugged off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders.
‘You’re in shock, Callie. You need to go to hospital for a check-up now.’
‘I’m fine,’ she insisted, starting to pull his jacket off.
He closed it around her. ‘You’re shivering. You’re in shock,’ he repeated, ‘and until the paramedics get here and check you out, I’m not taking any chances.’
‘So you freeze to death instead?’
‘I don’t think it will come to that,’ he soothed, ‘do you? I’m just glad I got here when I did. I couldn’t get here any sooner.’
‘I heard you’d been busy,’ she admitted.
A paramedic interrupted them. ‘You all right, love?’ he asked, proffering a foil blanket. ‘Let the gentleman have his jacket back, or he’ll catch his death of cold.’
‘I’ve been trying to give it back to him,’ Callie explained, ‘but he won’t take it.’
‘Well, if he’s happy for you to keep it.’ The paramedic shrugged as he arranged the foil blanket over the jacket for extra warmth. ‘Not too many gallant gentlemen left, love,’ he commented. ‘Better hang onto this one.’
Callie hummed and smiled, though Luca wondered if her smile was for the paramedic’s benefit. ‘Was anyone else hurt?’ she asked. ‘The lady in the dress shop?’
‘Had just gone to make herself a cup of tea,’ the paramedic reassured her. ‘She was working in the shop window, she told me, only minutes before the car struck.’
‘What a relief,’ Callie gasped. ‘I was with her. I live over the shop,’ she explained.
‘It’s thanks to the quick thinking of your knight in shining armour that a young mother and her baby were also shoved to safety and saved from injury. He’s a real hero. Aren’t you, sir?’
‘I wouldn’t say that.’ Luca