Page 30 of Incognito (Royally Reckless #1)

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“ H ow’s my favourite girl?”

Natasha looked up from the ledger she’d been poring over, smiling for the first time in a week.

“Welcome home, Dad.”

She flung herself into his arms as she had as a little girl, needing a comforting hug now more than she ever had back then.

“I take it you missed me?” Roger Telford stepped out of her embrace, and held her at arms’ length. “If that’s the type of welcome home I get, remind your dear old dad to go away more often.”

Natasha chuckled. “You make it sound like I take you for granted when you’re here.”

“Just kidding, princess.” He tapped her on the nose and sank into the nearest chair, while her heart somersaulted.

She’d had an entire week to put the Dante fiasco behind her, seven long days to concentrate on business and throw herself into making the hotel flourish now they owned it outright. One hundred and sixty-eight endless hours to fill with girlie chats with Ella, work and sleep, anything to stop her thinking about Dante and how wrong she’d been about him.

And all it took was her dad to call her by an ancient pet name and it all flooded back, every embarrassing detail of how she’d virtually thrown herself at Dante and how he’d rebuked her.

“Is everything all right?”

Mustering a smile with effort, she nodded. “Fine. And you will be too when I tell you my news.”

She needed to distract her dad and quickly. Since the Clay debacle he’d been extra protective and if he got a whiff there was something wrong—or worse, it had to do with a man—he’d never drop it.

“What news?” His jovial smile vanished, the wrinkles around his eyes deepening as he fixed her with a worried stare.

“It’s good news, Dad, and I didn’t tell you while you were in Perth because I knew you’d probably fly straight back here.”

“This doesn’t sound good. Now sit down before I get a crick in my neck.”

Natasha perched on the chair’s arm, remembering the many times she’d done the same thing growing up. Her parents had always had an open door policy and being an only child, they’d been an incredibly close family.

She’d come to them when Debbie MacCraw had bullied her the first day of school, she’d come to them when Samuel Grace hadn’t asked her to the graduation dance, and she’d come to them when she’d discovered Clay’s horrendous motivation for asking her to marry him.

However, no matter how understanding her dad would be, she’d save the Dante disaster for another day. He’d only just arrived home and she wanted to focus on the good news.

“Relax, Dad. You’re going to love this, I promise.” She patted his shoulder, surprised to feel the bony prominences under the thin cotton shirt.

Her dad had always been larger than life, but when her mum died Natasha noticed a frailty about him and it looked like he hadn’t been eating well while away.

“Telford Towers is ours again. One hundred percent debt free.”

His eyebrows shot upwards. “You paid that scumbag off? How?”

“The Prince of Calida helped. I did some PA work for him while he was here, and he paid me well. It was a win-win situation for everyone.”

Then why did she feel like the biggest loser in the world?

“That is good news. I can’t believe it.” Her dad sat back, his frown disappearing, replaced by a stunned expression. “We’re seriously debt free?”

“Seriously.”

Natasha smiled, squeezed her dad’s shoulder, and stood. Now that she’d delivered the good news, time for her to escape while her dad still absorbed it. Otherwise, he’d turn his eagle eye back on her and she couldn’t stand the scrutiny right now. Who knew what she might blab under duress.

“Guess we owe the prince.”

Her smile faltered but she recovered quickly. “I thanked him. He was very impressed with our hotel. I’m sure he’ll recommend us.”

As if.

He’d been so impressed he’d vacated quicker than she could say, ‘please come again’ and crossed town to the opposition.

“Have I told you lately what an asset you are to the hotel? And how lucky I am to have you as a daughter?”

His eyes misted over and Natasha knew she’d have to make a run for it before she started blubbering.

“You don’t have to tell me, Dad, I know. Now, you relax and I’ll organise supper to be brought up to you.”

Her dad smiled. “I am a bit tired. See you in the morning?”

“You bet.”

Blowing him a kiss, Natasha left the room where she’d spent her happiest years with her family. However, come morning, she wondered if the happy times would be a thing of the past once she dropped the next bombshell on her dad.

Natasha had finished the new concierge’s orientation when Gina walked into the hotel foyer, her searching gaze homing in on her before she could duck behind the front desk.

Great, just what she needed, a blast from the not-so-distant, not-so-pleasant past.

As Gina strode towards her on impossibly high heels, Natasha muttered, “What do you want now?” not in the mood for whatever the princess had to say.

Gina hadn’t heard her blatant rudeness or chose to ignore it, because she smiled. “Just the woman I wanted to see. Do you have a minute?”

Natasha made a big show of checking her watch, when she knew the only pressing engagement she had was with her dad to tell him her decision.

“I can give you one minute.” Natasha indicated the comfy sofas in a secluded corner of the lobby and Gina nodded, typically smug for a woman who oozed confidence.

She looked amazing in a fitted, burgundy coat dress, with matching designer handbag and shoes, her makeup immaculate, her curls in perfect smooth ringlets. Natasha felt bedraggled next to the glamorous princess.

“If you’ve come here to talk about Dante again, forget it.” Natasha didn’t care how rude she sounded. She had to preempt whatever Gina had come here to say, well and truly over the Andretti family.

Gina sighed and shook her head. “Did Dante tell you about our mother?”

Natasha wondered if she’d entered the twilight zone. Every time Gina showed up and opened her mouth, her confusion meter went up a notch.

“A bit.”

“Mother is pushy, opinionated, and always right.”

“Hmm…” Natasha mumbled, stifling a grin as she recalled Dante saying something similar about Gina.

“Dante’s life has been mapped out since birth, whereas I had the fortune to be born a girl and second so I could escape. My brother hasn’t had the privilege.”

“I’m not sure why you’re telling me this.”

With a swift change in mood that left Natasha reeling, Gina’s dark eyes pinned hers with an accusatory glare. “Dante didn’t say goodbye to me, he simply vanished and headed back home. He isn’t taking my calls either. Normally I wouldn’t interfere more than I already have, but this is getting out of control. Apparently, he’s behaving like a lovestruck fool in Calida, my mother is at her wits end, and she’s pestering me every day to find out what happened when Dante was in Melbourne. So I had to see you and find out how your last visit went with Dante before my mother drives me mad.” Gina shuddered. “Or worse, visits me.”

Gina paused to take a breath while Natasha tried to ignore the reality of Dante being in love with some lucky woman.

‘A lovestruck fool…’ The thought made her head ache and froze her heart in a veneer of icy misery.

It shouldn’t hurt this much.

She should be over him.

She’d tried everything, from distracting visualisation techniques—somehow, a calm beach scene morphed into her and Dante frolicking in the waves together—to rainforest playlists—the soothing bird chirps reminded her of animals, which reminded her of Dante and their visit to the animal farm.

On and on it went: the memories of the loaded stares and that scintillating kiss, fake or not. She couldn’t get him out of her head and now Gina had to show up to rub her nose in it? What the hell was wrong with this family?

Natasha stood and towered over Gina, trying to make a point with her intimidating stance. “Look, I’m happy for Dante, but I have no idea why your mother is hounding you or why in turn you’re hounding me. You don’t even know me.”

Gina’s perfectly shaped eyebrows arched. “You’re happy he’s pining over you? Aren’t you going to do something about it?”

Natasha sat as quickly as she’d stood up. “You can’t possibly mean—”

“Come on, you don’t need to play games with me. We both know he’s in love with you, but for some reason you’re here while he’s there. I’d hoped that maybe you’d sorted out something? Come to some kind of arrangement? Maybe you’re going to join him shortly?”

Natasha wanted to strangle the woman. However, if she did that, she’d never get to the bottom of this whole mix-up. For some bizarre, twisted reason, Gina thought Dante was in love with her.

She wished.

Knowing it would take the blunt truth to get rid of Gina, Natasha said, “Dante and I didn’t part on the best of terms after you prompted me to go see him. And I can categorically say I’m the last person he’d be in love with. So there’s been a mistake, and I’m sorry, but you’ll have to sort it out yourselves.”

Gina shook her head, her slick curls tumbling around her heart-shaped face. “No mistake. Dante loves you.”

Natasha slouched in an undignified slump, despising herself for the surge of hope Gina’s words fuelled.

Dante loved her? No way.

They’d definitely had a spark, but he’d even denied that when she’d confronted him, when she’d put her heart on the line and he’d trampled it without a thought.

She’d harboured a faint hope he might’ve cared more than he let on when he’d been jealous about seeing her with Clay, but that hope had faded into oblivion around the time he’d let her walk out of his life without giving her a chance to explain or putting up a fight.

He couldn’t love her.

He didn’t love her.

But what if he did?

Gina snapped her fingers like a conjurer creating magic. “You should go visit him in Calida. Sort everything out. Stay there. Get married. Whatever. Just be gentle, Dante’s a good man and he deserves to be happy.”

Natasha stared at Gina as if she’d lost her mind. “I can’t. I put myself on the line with your brother once, he didn’t want me. End of story.”

“That’s what you think,” Gina said, leaping up from the chair as if she’d sat on an anthill. “I was wrong about you. You weren’t a last fling for my brother, you’re the only woman he wants.”

Natasha shook her head, formulating another argument to convince Gina that she’d lost her mind. However, she never had a chance, as Gina bent to give her a quick hug, muttered “I’ll be in touch” and stormed away before she could say another word.

This can’t be happening , Natasha thought, while a glimmer of an idea flickered in the far recesses of her brain.

The news she had to tell her dad involved a break. A much needed break from the hotel, a little R and R, a chance to regroup her thoughts, heal her heart.

She planned on taking a vacation. Somewhere warm, remote, secluded, with little interference from the outside world, a small island perhaps?

An island like Calida?

No. Gina had messed with her head. She had no intention of visiting Calida now or ever.

If her self esteem had taken a battering with Clay, it had fractured forever with Dante. She didn’t need him reinforcing how he didn’t find her appealing, how much she’d misinterpreted their situation. She may be many things, a masochist wasn’t one of them.

Her plan was simple. Now that her dad had returned, she could take a well-earned break and figure out where her life was heading. She’d invested most of her life in the hotel and recently, the dazzle had worn off.

Whether the lure of the unobtainable fairytale or meeting an incredible guy like Dante had tainted her view, she knew it was time to take stock.

And banish thoughts of a blue-eyed sexy prince from her mind forever.