Chapter One
"Has his Royal Highness arrived yet?" Graciela Mendoza Hernandez shifted her red leather carry-all to her opposite shoulder and glanced down at her watch. She'd arrived for her flight to Monterra with twelve minutes to spare. She turned her attention back to the private jet and the pilot who stood on the tarmac awaiting her arrival. "I was hoping to get here before the prince."
The pilot's smile was genial. "Prince Alejandro has been here for close to half an hour."
She thanked him and boarded the royal jet, not surprised in the least that she'd arrived well after Santa Rosa's crown prince. A long list of administrative tasks had arrived via email, courtesy of Prince Alejandro himself, all things he'd wanted completed before they left to spend the week before Christmas in Monterra. She'd rushed to finish as much of the list as she could before their appointed departure time.
"Ah, there you are, Graciela." Prince Alejandro glanced up from the newspaper he was reading. He gave her a cursory once over and motioned for her to take the seat across from him. "You were cutting that a bit close, weren't you?"
Graciela shrugged out of her cream wool jacket and handed it to the flight attendant with a grateful smile. She slid into her seat and helped herself to the glass of champagne from the table in front of her. She took a sip before answering. As so often happened when the prince asked her a question, she felt equal parts enamored and exasperated. The Crown Prince of Santa Rosa, His Royal Highness Prince Alejandro Antonio Javier, was the man she'd loved for well over a decade. He was also her boss and her friend. What he wasn't, was a man who saw her as an attractive, desirable woman he could love. She sighed.
"Traffic that bad?" he asked.
"Just barely tolerable," she replied, referring to both the traffic and the state of their relationship. She leaned back and closed her eyes, hoping that her companion would take the hint and resume his perusal of the European Union financial news. She'd been in love with Alejandro for years now, but he was completely unaware of her feelings toward him.
As one of Europe's most eligible bachelors, Prince Alejandro was a man much sought after by scores of women. Whether this created his highly cynical views of love and marriage or merely fed into it, she'd never been able to decide. Either way, the end result was the same. Prince Alejandro's heart was strictly off limits.
And Graciela was getting tired of living in such close proximity to something she could never have.
"Are you going to pretend to sleep the entire flight or can we discuss how we're going to spend our time in Monterra?"
Graciela opened her eyes. "I was not pretending to sleep. I was merely composing my thoughts."
Alejandro shook out his newspaper and folded it. He placed it on the table between them. "Wonderful. Compose them out loud, please."
As if. If Graciela knew one thing about the man across from her, it was that he couldn't handle her thoughts.
"Graciela."
Her head snapped up and she looked into the eyes of the man she loved. "Still composing."
Prince Alejandro frowned. "You're not, by any chance, thinking of my brother, are you?"
"Luis?"
"Don't sound so surprised. The two of you were quite an item several months back."
Graciela rolled her eyes. "That was strictly for the benefit of the press and you know it. Luis and I are friends, and that's all we've ever been. His heart has belonged to Madison from the moment he first saw her."
The prince made a non-committal sound.
Graciela was grateful that the roar of the jet's engines made conversation difficult during take-off. Prince Luis was nothing more to her than a very good friend and a trusted business associate. Their strongest bond was their shared love for Alejandro. Luis, however, was free to show his love and devotion to his brother. Graciela envied him that freedom.
Prince Alejandro's voice broke through her reverie. "I think this whole ridiculous notion of love at first sight is preposterous."
Graciela watched as he took a crab puff from the flight attendant and inspected it carefully from every angle before he took a bite of it. She shook her head. Methodical and cynical barely began to describe this man.
"I take it you agree with me?"
To avoid answering, she took a crab puff and popped the whole thing in her mouth.
"About all this love at first sight nonsense, surely you see how ludicrous it all is?" Alejandro persisted.
"Your brother and sister-in-law have been blissfully married for over a year," she countered. "They're happy. They're genuinely in love." She raised a challenging eyebrow. "Don't tell me that you can't see it."
Prince Alejandro shrugged. "Lightening strike."
Graciela laughed. Like most women, she'd been taken by the prince's good looks the first time she'd met him. But she'd quickly grown to love so many things about him, including his rapier wit. He made her laugh, and the laughter was a gift. Just as his friendship was.
But deep down Graciela knew that friendship was no longer enough.
***
Alejandro watched with interest as Graciela did everything she could to avoid conversation with him for the duration of the flight. She opened and closed more magazines than he could count. If it weren't for the slight turbulence that prompted the pilot to suggest they remain in their seats with their seatbelts fastened, he didn't doubt that she would have spent the flight standing in the galley talking to the flight attendant. Despite his best efforts, she resisted his attempts at conversation and even went so far as to avoid eye contact with him.
Odd behavior from a woman he deemed more reliable than a Swiss made watch. "Graciela, if something's wrong, just spit it out."
Her only response was to gaze at him as if he were speaking Swahili.
"Have I perhaps done something to offend you?" He couldn't imagine that this would be the case, but surely if he peppered her with enough questions, she'd have to say something. Wouldn't she? The ways of women truly mystified him.
Not that Graciela should be lumped into a category with most other women. No, she was a cut above. A rare gem. Beautiful, talented, accomplished, hard-working, loyal, and trustworthy, she also possessed a wonderful sense of humor. No man could ask for more.
"Offend me?" A tiny frown marred her brow. "Do you think you've done something to offend me?"
Well, perhaps a man could ask for more. Namely, a woman who didn't answer his question with one of her own. "I think I know exactly what's on your mind."
Her eyebrows rose. "You do?"
He nodded. "I do. After all, you and I have been in a perfectly harmonious relationship for years now. Our thoughts share a common wavelength."
"They do?"
"Of course. I've come to count on you. On us as a team. I'm sorry if I haven't told you often enough how invaluable you are to me."
She leaned forward, her eyes bright. "Oh, Alejandro. Thank you."
"Think nothing of it. As soon as the holidays are over and we return to Santa Rosa, I will see that you have a substantial raise."
Graciela stared at him as if he'd grown a third head. "A what?"
"A raise in pay. You know, increased earnings." This was hardly the reaction he'd expected. "Isn't that what we were just talking about?"
In lieu of an answer, Graciela grabbed a magazine and held it up so it blocked her face. He reached out and lowered it. He searched her eyes, a shade of light brown with golden flecks that never failed to impress him, but he didn't understand the emotion he was seeing in them.
She cleared her throat. "So much for your wavelength theory. Work is the last thing on my mind."
"So this is something personal that has you riled up?"
"I'm not riled up, thank you very much." She hesitated as if she had to sort through an assortment of words to find just the right ones. "I need more in my life than just work. It's time I make some major changes in my personal life."
This was the last thing he wanted to hear. Major changes to her life meant major changes to his life. And he liked his life very much the way it was, especially the dynamic between the two of them. As far as he was concerned, nothing regarding their relationship needed to change.
Ever.