Page 91 of A Royal Mistake
“The right time?” she sneered, her words dripping with incredulity. “How long were you going to let this go on?”
He raked a hand through his hair. How could he possibly explain the tangled web of lies and half-truths that had brought them to this point?
Just start at the beginning. And for fuck’s sake, be honest.
“I never meant to lie to you, Pippa. I came to Valeria to discuss a partnership with the RFV. That’s the truth. I’d been trying for months to get a meeting with your brother because I discovered that one of my employees was embezzling funds. Funds that were earmarked for expansion programs. Without an influx of cash, VDRI would have had to cancel the expansion, leaving thousands without the aid I’d promised.” He met her eyes, willing her to understand. “I couldn’t let that happen. People were counting on me. They trusted me.”
“I trusted you!” she shouted. “I can’t believe I was so bleeding naïve.”
Christ. He was the worst kind of bastard. How had he ever thought this would work out?
“Pippa—”
“Don’t.” She cut him off, slicing her hand through the air. “I still don’t see what any of this has to do with me.”
Emotion clogged his throat, but he pushed past it. “When you offered to help me secure the partnership with the RFV—with Liam—I never imagined there would be anything but business between us.” She scoffed, but he continued. “I never imagined you would want an untitled philanthropist when you had an entire palace full of royal suitors.”
She stood, shoulders rigid, completely unyielding as she waited for him to continue.
“When we started working together—” He paused, searching for the wright words. “Things changed. I’m not sure when, but I think it started that first night we rode up to the overlook. You weren’t at all what I’d expected and even though I told myself it was just business—that I was only honoring the deal we’d made to help one another out—I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Thinking up excuses for us to meet, to spend time together.”
“Thinking up ways to deceive me about your past,” she countered, not missing a beat. “To make me look like a bloody muppet in front of the entire world.”
“I never meant to hurt you. If I could go back and do it all over, I would do things differently,” he said, not caring if he sounded desperate. He’d get on his knees and beg if it would put even a chink in the armor she’d wrapped so tightly around herself, shutting him out. “The truth of my identity is a secret I’ve carried since childhood. It’s not something I would ever share lightly. I’ve never told anyone about my family.”
She arched a brow, doubt etched in the lines of her face. “No one?”
Was it his imagination or had her tone softened a bit?
“If the truth got out, everything would change. My entire life would be upended. I’d be scrutinized by the press, hounded by paparazzi, possibly targeted by those wishing to harm the Princely Family of Liechtenstein.”
“Bollocks.” She shook her head, the light in her eyes dimming. “I trusted you with my heart—with my body—and you didn’t trust me with your name.”
“I tried to tell you. In the garden. To see how you’d react.”
“I thought you were kidding.”
“You threatened to ban me from the palace. I couldn’t risk it.”
“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?”
Christ, she sounded so broken. He’d done that to her with his lies and his Kuhscheiße excuses. The knowledge gutted him.
“Tell me how to make this right, love. I’ll do anything.”
“There’s nothing you can do to fix this, Henry. You made your choices and now I’ve made mine.” A wrinkle formed between her brows as if she were reaching an important realization. “We’ll both just have to live with the consequences.”
Verdammt. He didn’t accept that. There was always a way. He wasn’t a quitter. He’d fought like hell when the doctors said he wouldn’t make it and he’d built VDRI from the ground up through sheer force of will. He could fix this, too.
“I love you, Pippa.”
“You keep saying that, but if you loved me, you wouldn’t have lied to me. You would have treated me like an equal and trusted me with the truth.” She shook her head and for the first time, he saw defeat in her eyes.Defeat. As if there was nothing left worth fighting for. As if they weren’t worth fighting for. “Instead, you made me look like an idiot in front of the entire world. You humiliated me. How can I possibly expect people to trust me with their donations if I can’t even be trusted to know who the hell I’m dating?”
The pan behind him popped and crackled.
He sucked in a breath, chest rising and falling heavily as he fought for control. “I was going to tell you over breakfast.” He gestured to the half-prepared meal. “If we could just sit down and talk about this— If you’ll give me a chance, I can explain.”
If he could just tell her about his childhood, about the accident, surely she’d understand where he was coming from, why he’d had to protect his identity from the world.