CHAPTER SIX
Since moving in with Gram fifteen years ago, the city lights from my little corner of the island always made my heart swim with joy. Corny, I know. I took a deep breath of the higher city air and appreciated the view. The Chrysler Building was back-lit with golden light that set the gargoyles ablaze, and the ferries still traversing the Hudson glowed in the twilight.
“This is beautiful.” Tony tucked his coat closer against the chill. It had been years since I’d done the tourist thing and climbed the Empire State Building, but the two things that stuck out most was the cold air even in the heat of the summer, and the observation deck closing at dusk.
I didn’t see money pass between Tony and the doorman, nor was there a long explanation of his status to the security guard who led us to the first bank of elevators, or the man we met halfway up, who slid his key into a second set of elevators that opened to the glass doors of the deck. He simply spoke with them each alone for a few seconds before we were ushered up the building stairways.
“Very beautiful,” I answered after a long pause. Tony leaned on the railing and pressed his shoulder into mine. Warmth spread like fire down my arm and I leaned in closer.
“Do you have your phone?” One corner of his mouth rose in a half grin I almost feared.
I pulled my cell from my skirt pocket. “Sure. Why?”
Tony took it from my hands and scooted in close until our cheeks pushed together. “I’ve always wanted to do this.” He held the phone up and snapped a selfie. He laughed while admiring it, but I couldn’t even stomach a peek. Cameras hated me on a good day, but throw in the ponytail and lack of makeup for a workday, and I probably resembled Casper standing next to him.
“How did you do it?” I asked, tucking my phone back in my pocket.
“Do what?” His attention had already turned back to the city lights below.
I spun and pressed my back into the railing and leaned out to look up into the few stars that shone bright enough to be seen despite the city lights. “Interesting how they just let us in.”
Tony turned and glanced up, but I felt his gaze wander to me and I fought my lips from curving. “It is a tourist stop. They want you to visit.”
“Not after hours,” I shot back and laughed. Not able to stand avoiding his gaze any longer, I turned my head and found his stare so captivating my heart thudded and my breath caught. “You planned this beforehand, didn’t you?”
His quick glance at the ground almost undid me. The cold air caught in my lungs and I couldn’t breathe. But then a thought wormed into my brain, and the ground I thought my feet floated over came crashing back into view. He very well could have planned an evening looking at the lights, but he’d never expected me to be a part of it. My chest tightened and I wrapped my arms around me.
Tony shimmied out of his coat and dropped it on my shoulders. His warmth smelled of mint and spice and him. I pulled it closer and slipped my arms into the sleeves.
“I haven’t visited a tourist trap during regular hours since I was a kid.”
“It must be nice to have personal access.”
“Not nice.” He dropped his hands to my shoulders and turned me to face him. “Necessary. In a crowd, I’m more an object than a human.” His gaze narrowed on mine and the soft light of sadness filled his eyes. “And so is anyone with me.”
“Which is why you asked to meet your next match in Jackson Heights. I understand.”
He took my hand, but instead of kissing it, he held it. With her other hand, he ran his thumb over my cheek, sending a wave of tingles over my skin. “It wasn’t a match I hoped to meet in Jackson Heights, bella.”
“Oh.” My eyes widened as the realization hit. “You told Gram you needed to find a match before returning home.”
“So it would appear I met her naturally on my own while on a business trip.” His fingers cupped my cheek and I leaned into his hand. “I never expected to have the time or the luck to find someone on my own. From the second you spilled coffee on me in the street, I knew.”
I blinked hard and dropped my gaze to my shoe. “No, you didn’t.” I felt myself becoming unraveled with the idea he’d meant me. “Alifonso wouldn’t allow it.”
“Where do you think Alifonso was when I came in the shop?”
I thought back to that night. Everything had been rushed, but I did recall the two shadows snooping through the store without Alifonso as the third wheel.
“I sent him out to find you. He nearly growled when he returned empty-handed and I told him you’d been in the shop the whole time.”
I ventured a glance up and my cheeks heated as soon as my eyes met his. “I’m sure he didn’t like that.”
Tony stepped so close, I had to move back against the brick wall to keep a bit of space between us. “Who do you think arranged tonight?”
“Alifonso?”
“Almost.” Tony’s leaned forward until our foreheads touched and the warmth of him spread across me. “He made the arrangements for tomorrow night, after I’d taken you to dinner under his watchful eye.” His smile deepened until I feared I’d find myself lost in it forever. “I convinced the night staff they had the days mixed up.”
It took a few rotations around my head to believe it, but Tony had planned to take me here. My face burned and I looked back out over the city and hoped the cold air would cool my face.
“Tonight—” My voice cracked and I cleared my throat. “This has been fun.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
I nodded, but inside, my stomach somersaulted. “I’m glad you suggested it. Now I know more about you and can pair down my list of suitable candidates by several.”
From the corner of my vision I saw him turn to the skyline and sink an elbow to the railing.
“We really do need to pinpoint what you’re looking for so I can narrow down your list. With only a couple weeks left, I’m afraid you’ll run out of date nights before I run out of options.”
Tony turned and leaned his back on the railing again, his gaze turned up to the stars and a sigh escaped him. “Well, to start with, whatever her name was from the other night is the complete opposite of what I’m hoping for.”
“Mary Margaret? Really?” I didn’t think he’d meant it as a stab at my matchmaking skills, but I couldn’t help but take it as one. Maybe I was being too sensitive. I needed to separate my personal feelings for him from the job at hand. “Less rich or less polished? Which would you prefer?”
“Actually, it’s not less I want. It’s more.”
I locked my jaw to keep my mouth from hanging open. “I’m not sure Gram has what you’re looking for on her list.”
Tony grunted. “I don’t mean more money or more polish.” He turned to me. “I mean more...like you.”
I swallowed hard again. “How’s that?”
One of his fingers brushed at the hair blowing across my cheek. “Driven. Creative.”
“You want an artist?” I tried to ignore his finger and focus on him, but then my gaze landed on his mouth.
“I want a real person.”
I turned so my body faced his and I glared up into his greenish-brown eyes, searching, waiting for him to blink or look away. Honest men didn’t stare as hard as he did. Honest men blinked. “Tell me why you’re doing this?”
He kept staring, not even a hint of wanting to look away. It unnerved me. “I told you, to find true love.”
“But why now? Why in such a hurry? Even love at first sight doesn’t translate to marriage in a day. Or a week,” I added, remembering his conversation with Gram about needing to find a match before he left New York.
“There is a reason.” He finally glanced back to the city lights and I took a breath. “But it’s personal.”
“Everything in love is personal.” I almost reached out for his chin to turn it back to me. If our genders had been switched, I would have. “If I’m going to help, I need to know the details.” Not really, but with his avoidance reaction, I had to know what was so personal.
Tony shrugged and finally faced me again. The usual gleam in his eyes sparkled more than normal. Something inside me hummed. Something connected to both my heart and my lady-bits, but I couldn’t name it.
“I guess you do need to know this. I have a timeline for finding love.”
My hand clapped over my mouth to hide the laugh before the humor of his comment registered. “You can’t put a timeline on love.”
“I know. But that doesn’t stop me from needing to.” He groaned deep in this throat and dropped an elbow to the railing again. “My younger sister, Pre found the man of her dreams last year and they want to marry next summer.”
I moved my hand to his. “That’s fantastic.”
“For her, yes. For me, not so much.”
I rolled my eyes to the stars. “Family giving you a hard time about not finding the one?” If I could count the times I’d heard that scenario.
“More like Pre can’t marry until I do.”
A cold gust hit my face and I gasped from the chill in my lungs.
“A royal wedding takes at least a year to plan and I couldn’t find, date, propose, and marry someone from Monterra fast enough without stirring the gossip columns. So here I am, tagging along with my cousin to find, date, and propose marriage within the next month so my wedding can be planned before Pre’s.”
I tried not to stare, but when I told my eyes to not look at his face, they stuck there anyway. The heir of authority that normally hung around him like an aura vanished with the next cool breeze and he shivered.
“That is pretty personal.” What else could I say?
“Don’t get me wrong,” he began as he paced between me and the edge, “I want love. I want someone to share my life with, someone who’s as comfortable in the palace as they are in our home on the grounds. But, realistically, I’m not going to find that within the next week, so I picked the lesser of the two and am looking for someone who will fit in with the family. The rest can come later.”
“No, it can’t.” The voice leaving my lips sounded like mine, but the words were all Gram’s. I snapped my lips shut, but the words kept coming. “What you’re planning isn’t fair to your future wife, and it’s not fair to you. You can’t marry someone in hopes that one day you’ll love each other.”
“My ancestors did it.”
“You’re ancestors also believed in beheading as a form of divorce.” His gaze narrowed. I’d overshot my meaning. “There’s a reason we’ve progressed on the holy matrimony front. It takes time to find the right fit, and even then we sometimes get it wrong.”
“That’s why I came to a matchmaker. You’re never wrong in your matches.”
Oh crap. Playing a matchmaker for my grandmother’s sanity was one thing. Sure, it annoyed the hell out of me, but most people came to us for amusement. Gram took the whole ability to find the perfect match very seriously, but other than it’s ability to keep her off my back, I only did it for fun.
“There’s no one better suited to finding your perfect match than you. Have you ever thought of trying it on your own?”
“Spoken like someone who has enough time to search a person out, without the eyes of a nation watching.”
He had a point. I tried to think of something witty to say in return, but nothing came.
“And it’s not like I could act on it even if I did find someone interesting to me. Before I had time to get to know her, either the press from the US or the royal family from Monterra would pressure me with dates and wedding news. Having someone else search is my only option.” His gaze lowered to mine. “Even if I did meet someone, I’d like to have enough time to get to know her.”
As hard as I tried to force myself to believe that last comment had nothing to do with me, I couldn’t will myself to look away, or to keep from stepping closer.
His mouth moved so close to mine. I wanted him to kiss me at the same time I feared it. “If that’s the case”—I angled my chin down to gain some distance between us—“I’m sure Alifonso will be on to us soon.”
Tony pressed his finger under my chin and lifted until our mouths almost touched. “He already knows. He texted me while I talked to the staff earlier. He’s giving me an hour to enjoy the freedom, then I bring you back to the office through the back door and act like none of this ever happened.”
“Oh.”
“An hour I intend to make the best of.”
The city lights made his eyes bright and I watched between my lashes as he moved closer, only closing my eyes as our lips touched. Soft and warm, his mouth moved with mine. His arms pulled me close, and his chest pushed into me. The almost invisible stubble on Tony’s chin tickled my own chin, and I let go of everything but him and me as I breathed him in, tasted him, and committed him to memory one sensory at a time, until I had a perfect picture of Tony in my mind. My Tony.
When he finally moved away again, his heat stayed and I mentally wallowed in it. In all of it.
“I’m not sure I’d fit on Gram’s list of matches.” Nerves made me say it, but when he tossed his head back slightly and laughed, I leaned forward and rested my cheek on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me again. Strong. Solid. Home. I never wanted to leave them, or the complete feeling of standing in my favorite city with him, taking it all in through his eyes.
“But she’s sick in bed, and you’ve taken over as matchmaker. It’s your list now.”
My name still wouldn’t belong there, but I couldn’t ruin that perfect moment.
Something buzzed in his coat pocket and I reached inside for his phone. The Caller ID read “Palace.”
“I’d almost forgotten.” What I had meant to keep as a thought inside my head came straight out my mouth.
Tony took the phone and scrolled over the screen. “Then I did my job well.”
He stepped off to the side and talked so low into the phone, I couldn’t even make out his voice. It didn’t really matter what he said, or who he said it to, the phone call had saved us. He needed a bride in a week, and I still had a lifetime of goals to achieve before I even thought of settling for one person, much less marriage and an instant, humongous family. Besides, I’d probably fill all the slots on an application for palace maid before I’d come close to being what he needed for a wife.
My phone buzzed a second later and I tugged it out from my skirt pocket again. Aja’s name flashed across the screen. She’d sent a picture of herself standing with Alifonso in the background, as if she’d snapped it without his knowledge.
Without thinking, I scrolled over to my pictures and pressed the one I’d taken with Tony and sent it on. She sent back an emoji smiley face with hearts fluttering overhead.
“My cousin needs me to meet him to talk over a proposal.” Tony shoved his cell in his coat, which I was still wearing, and his face dropped. “I texted Alifonso our location. He and the car will be here any minute.”
Great. The babysitter on his way to pick up the bad runaways. This was going to get interesting. “Was he mad?”
“A little.” One side of his mouth curved up. “But I told him it was all your idea so I’m in the clear.” He took my elbow and led me to the elevators. “I know you don’t agree with the reason why, but it’s important that I come home attached to someone. Even if it’s in name alone.”
“Even if it doesn’t work out later?” The doors dinged when they opened and the security guard held the button on the inside.
“Even if it doesn’t work out later. But,” he paused and his eyes softened as he put his palm in the center of my back and ushered me forward, “It’d be best for everyone involved if it did.”