Chapter 12
Stazzi gave a slow shake of her head. “Where did it come from?”
“Would you like to answer that, Gerard?” Ash taunted. “Or shall I?”
The Androccan looked down his nose at the other man. Not an easy feat considering he was several inches shorter than Asher. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“No?” Ash mused. “Strange, considering I found this bottle hidden amongst the things in your bedroom at the Meyers Hotel.”
The older man’s nostrils flared angrily. “If you did, then she must have planted it there after attempting to kill Alexandre—”
“No, Alexandre!” Asher stepped forward, blocking Alexandre as he would have lunged at his cousin. “He isn’t worth it, man.” He placed a hand against Alexandre’s rapidly rising and falling chest.
Alexandre bared his teeth. “But I’d feel so much better.”
Ash shrugged. “I can’t deny I’d like to put in a few punches myself, but I believe between the two of us, we can come up with a much more…fitting punishment.”
“How dare you go through my things?” Gerard St Sebastien obviously didn’t know when to shut up. “Who gave you permission—”
“I did.” Alexandre’s eyes glittered furiously. “Once I’d realized the only person who stood to gain anything if I died was you. Strange how so many other things fell into place, once I’d accepted that as being an option for what’s been happening to me during this past year. My recurring illness, no doubt building up to the grand finale of my death last night. The doctor you personally engaged and brought to Androcco. His inability to find the reason for my illness. The medicine he prescribed for an ulcer, which you’ve ensured I take on a regular basis. That would be the medicine I took at one o’clock this morning because I’d forgotten to take it after dinner earlier in the evening. The same medicine you had put in a strong enough dose of the seafood flavoring to kill me.”
“Oh dear God…” Stazzi gasped.
Alexandre’s expression softened as he glanced at her. “I never for a moment believed you were involved in any of this.” His face hardened as he turned back to Gerard. “Was it just that I was born to the eldest son and so was always the heir apparent, or is your hatred of me more personal than that?”
Gerard seemed to be fighting an inner battle with himself as his eyes glittered with that hatred, only his fear holding him back from expressing it. He had to know that Alexandre and Ash were both dangerous men in their own right, but there was also an armed Androccan bodyguard in the room, sworn to protect Alexandre to the death.
“I have always hated you.” His cousin finally lost the battle and came down on the side of his true feelings. “The beloved prince,” he sneered. “The spoiled and pampered heir to Androcco who grew up to be an equally spoiled and willful man, always bringing the name St Sebastien into disrepute with your scandalous exploits,” he continued, seemingly unconcerned that the bodyguard had now removed his gun from his shoulder holster and was aiming it at him. “You are not fit to be the ruler of Androcco.”
“But I’m guessing you think you are?” Ash taunted.
Hazel eyes flashed with dislike as Gerard glanced at the other man. “I know I am. I have always been more worthy, more deserving of ruling Androcco, than Alexandre ever has or could be.”
“Modest much?” Ash scorned.
“You think you’re so clever, don’t you.” Gerard spat his vitriol at him now. “You and your three equally overbearing brothers.”
Ash shrugged. “Probably more so than you, at least. None of us has ever tried to overthrow a ruling prince by poisoning him, for one thing,” he added harshly. “I don’t believe you’ll find any of us feel that same reluctance when it comes to the cousin of that ruling prince, though.”
Alexandre knew what Ash had been doing these past few minutes, and he would be forever grateful for it. Ash taunting Gerard had allowed Alexandre the time needed for his temper to cool. “Why now?”
Gerard eyed him scornfully. “Because you said you were going to consult with another doctor here in England.”
“No, I meant why have you waited until this past year to try to kill me?” It made Alexandre feel ill to think how much trust he had placed in Gerard, a man who had obviously always hated and been jealous of him.
“Because your ministers and the people are urging you to marry. To produce an heir.”
“One more person in the way of you becoming ruler of Androcco.”
“Exactly.” Gerard snorted. “I hadn’t expected Uncle Claude to die so unexpectedly in a car crash. But once he had…”
“There was only me standing in your way.”
“Yes!”
Alexandre sighed heavily, more sickened now than angry. “The jet will fly you back to Androcco tonight, under armed guard. You will be placed under house arrest until I’ve had a chance to talk to my Minister of State and governing council. You will be informed when we have decided what your fate should be. Now get him out of my sight, Christophe.”
“I’m so sorry,” Stazzi murmured.
Alexandre looked up from pouring single-malt whisky into two glasses. “You have nothing to feel sorry about.”
Alexandre had insisted that Stazzi accompany him back to the Meyers Hotel once Gerard had been taken away by two of the bodyguards. Ash went with them to ensure Gerard St Sebastien’s safe exit from England.
Stazzi had no idea why Alexandre had brought her here. The two of them hadn’t spoken on the drive to the hotel, Stazzi because she had no idea what to say, Alexandre lost in thought, his expression not encouraging conversation.
His silence hadn’t ended until after they had reached the hotel and fought their way through the reporters thronging outside. Once inside the building, Alexandre had instructed his men to take Stazzi up to the penthouse floor, while he stayed on the ground floor to talk with Daniel Meyers.
He looked slightly less grim when he joined Stazzi in the sitting room of the penthouse suite, but she still felt she had to say something about the things that been revealed at her apartment earlier.
She was utterly incredulous that Gerard St Sebastien had attempted to kill his own cousin so that he might become ruler of Androcco.
“No,” she acknowledged. “But I can’t imagine how it must feel to know that your cousin…betrayed you, in that way.”
“He tried to kill me,” Alexandre corrected her as he crossed the room to hand her one of the two glasses before taking a large swallow of the amber liquid from his own glass. “Worse than that, he tried to implicate you for his crime,” he added in disgust. “So don’t let’s either one of us feel in the least sorry for Gerard, hm?”
“Oh, I don’t feel sorry for him,” Stazzi assured him with feeling. “Believe me, I would quite happily have waited in line behind you and Ash for a chance to hit him. I’m just sorry that he hurt you.”
Alexandre nodded. “Daniel Meyers is now aware of at least some of the situation. He assured me just now your job here is secure.”
She blinked. “I… Thank you.” Being reinstated in her job was a double-edged sword, as far as Stazzi was concerned.
On the one hand, she not only needed this job, she also enjoyed it.
On the other hand, she wasn’t sure she was going to enjoy it quite as much when she had to come to work day after day and be reminded of the brief time she had spent here with Alexandre. That could prove to be a very painful experience.
“It was the least I could do in the circumstances.” Alexandre sat beside her on the sofa before leaning back and stretching out his long legs. He turned his head sideways on the cushion to look at her beneath lowered lids. “Why did your ex-boyfriend call you earlier?”
She pulled a face. “To warn me not to mention his name if I spoke to the press; otherwise, he would sue both of us.”
“Bastard.” Alexandre scowled.
“Oh yes.” Stazzi took a sip of her whisky, allowing the alcohol to warm her before speaking again. “So what happens now, Alexandre? No doubt you’ll want to return to Androcco soon?” She hoped she’d managed to make her voice sound upbeat, even though it wasn’t in the least how she felt about never seeing Alexandre again.
He turned on the seat to look at her. “What do you want, Anastazia?” His voice was gruff.
“Me?” She gave him a startled glance. “I… Well—I already have my job back.”
“And is that all you want?” Alexandre reached out to capture a thick strand of her hair, allowing it to drape silkily over his fingers before looking up to hold her gaze with his. “The reason I didn’t return to Androcco this evening with the others is because I don’t want to leave you.”
She swallowed. “I don’t want you to leave me either.”
He drew in a sharp breath. “Is it too soon—” He broke off, shaking his head. “Of course it’s too soon for that,” he answered himself impatiently. “You must have some holiday time due to you. Will you come back to Androcco with me?”
Stazzi’s heart jerked in her chest, her eyes wide. “You want me to accompany you to Androcco for a holiday…?”
“I want you to stay on Androcco,” he assured fiercely. “But I will settle for your agreeing to a holiday there to begin with. I can show you my island. Introduce you to my friends. My people. My governing council. I want them all to get to know you, to love you as—” He broke off again, lips firming. “I want you to love my island as much as I do.”
Stazzi’s heart was now threatening to beat itself out of her chest. “Why…?”
His frown was pained. “Do you believe in love at first sight, Anastazia?”
Her heart spluttered and faltered before beating faster than ever. “I believe it does happen, yes.”
“It does,” Alexandre confirmed with certainty, his fingertips light against the heat of her cheek. “I wanted you sexually the moment I saw your photograph.”
“That’s…good.” Her cheeks warmed.
He nodded. “I was amused by the email you sent to me by mistake.”
Stazzi winced. “That’s not so good.”
“But it is.” He chuckled softly. “Too much of my life has become…controlled. Repetitious and mundane. From the first, you’ve refused to be intimidated by my title or wealth, always saying and doing exactly what you feel. You’re like a breath of fresh air in a world that’s become stifling.”
“Ah. Well. There is a reason I’m not intimidated by the title or wealth.” Who her father was, the fact that she attended several state occasions every year, and was friends with several of the British royal family, didn’t allow for intimidation. “Although you are a little overwhelming.” A little? Alexandre had stepped out of the lift that first day and knocked her off her emotional feet. Her response to him had been visceral, so deep-rooted it was impossible to deny. So much so she hadn’t been able to resist him. Time after time.
Alexandre tilted his head as he studied her. “I don’t ever want any part of me, who and what I am, to be overwhelming to you. I never want that.”
“Never…?” Stazzi repeated breathlessly.
“Never,” he confirmed gruffly. “Anastazia, I… This is going to sound crazy,” he muttered.
She drew in a deep breath before coming to a decision. That decision made, she reached out and took Alexandre’s glass from his unresisting fingers and placed it on the coffee table with her own, before moving closer to him on the sofa. “Let’s both be crazy and jump off the cliff together, shall we?” She kissed him softly on the lips. “I think you should know I—I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Alexandre’s breath caught in his throat before he gathered Anastazia tightly in his arms. “I love you too. Dear God, how I love you!” he repeated shakily, face buried in the perfume of her hair.
“Alexandre…!”
Once Alexandre began kissing her, he didn’t want to stop. Except there was still so much for them to say to each other.
He continued to hold her tightly in his arms, never intending to let her go. “We’ve known each other such a short time, but you’ve become everything to me. Not just because you’re so beautiful. So outrageously outspoken I can’t help but laugh at some of your comments to me. You’re also totally loyal, even when that loyalty is misplaced, as it was with your ex-boyfriend.”
“Never mention him to me again.” Anastazia gave a shudder.
Alexandre had no problem with that request. “You’re also a generous and exciting lover, and the only woman I’ve ever loved. Will ever love. All I could ever, or will ever, want,” he assured her as his eyes looked unwaveringly into hers. “Will you marry me, Anastazia, if not immediately, then very soon? Rule Androcco at my side? Become my princess? Mother of our children?”
Stazzi was sure that her heart had stopped beating altogether now. The heart she knew belonged completely and utterly to Alexandre, the ruling prince of Androcco. This man who returned her love and wished to make her his princess. “How do you think your governing council and the people of Androcco would feel about your marrying me?”
“They will either accept it or not. It’s ultimately of no relevance to my love for you or my wish to marry you.” He was every inch the arrogant prince in that moment. “Your coming back to Androcco with me now will give them a chance to know you, to love you as I love you, before we’re married,” he finished the sentence he hadn’t earlier. “But ultimately, it will make no difference to the outcome. You are my choice. The only wife I want. If you’ll have me?” He looked less certain now.
Stazzi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, though either of them would be with joy at being loved by a man as wonderful as Alexandre. “You’ll have to speak to my father first. Ask his permission.”
“I would expect no less.”
“My family has absolutely no money. You realize that?”
“I have more than enough for all of us,” he dismissed.
She nodded, having expected that to be his answer. Anyone less like the mercenary and opportunistic Will than Alexandre, she couldn’t imagine. “I have a huge family, and they would all want to attend our wedding,” she warned.
“Of course.”
“Including all of the British royal family.”
“I don’t understand…”
Stazzi did laugh and cry with joy now. “Alexandre, my father is the Duke of Warminster. I’m Lady Anastazia Carmichael. I believe—although it could have changed if any more babies have been born in the past few weeks, which in our family is a distinct possibility—I’m one hundred sixty-seventh in line to the British throne.”
Alexandre stared at her unblinkingly.
Stazzi slowly sobered the longer he continued to just stare at her. “Say something,” she finally pleaded.
“I don’t— This is— Lady Anastazia Carmichael?”
“Mmm.” She confirmed with a wince. “Although that isn’t something I’ve bothered to share too much since coming to work in London. It tends to put employers off. But my father really doesn’t have any money, just the illustrious title and our connection to the royal family. I don’t want to be the cause of any disharmony on Androcco. Do you think my father being a duke will be enough for your government and people to accept me?”
Alexandre still felt a little dazed by who Anastazia was, even more so by her comment “just” her connection to the British royal family. He intended marrying her anyway, had been determined to do so if she would have him. He wanted to spend the rest of his life loving Anastazia and being loved by her in return, laughing with her, having children together who would be surrounded by and included in that love and laughter.
But he couldn’t deny her father being a duke would make that transition a little easier with the people of Androcco, including his government ministers. He wouldn’t be in the least surprised if Anastazia’s name was on that list he’d been given of possible future brides, after all…
He heard Anastazia gasp as he moved down onto one knee in front of her, taking her hand into his as he looked up at her. “Lady Anastazia Carmichael, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
“Yes,” she answered without hesitation, her eyes glowing a deep, clear blue as she launched herself at him.
Alexandre laughed as he caught her in his arms, and they both tumbled full-length onto the carpet, after which there was only the sound of their words of love and their soft gasps of pleasure.