Page 10 of Royally Knocked Up (Princes of Passion #1)

ENZO

“ Y ou know what?” Enzo said. “I’m starting to think I could get used to these sunsets.”

Hailey grinned at him. “They are nice, aren’t they?”

“Nice isn’t the word. You were right before about how it forces you to slow down.” He glanced at her. “I don’t think I’m so good at that.”

“You’re better than you think you are,” Hailey told him, smiling. “Look, just have a sip of your wine and sit quietly for a few moments. You always try to fill silences. Have you noticed that?”

“Does it bother you?”

“I like it, actually,” she confessed. “It’s one of the things that makes you so easy to talk to.”

“I didn’t know that I was easy to talk to.”

Her cheeks went pink. “Yeah, well, you are,” she said. “Why do you think I keep hanging out with you?”

“I thought it was my looks.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed.

And Enzo thought, what the hell am I doing?

Time and again, he had told himself that things had to be controlled between himself and Hailey. But every time they were in each other’s presence, he seemed to forget about all that.

It was just so easy to talk to her. He didn’t feel the way he so often did at home — as if he had to impress everyone around him, as if he was being watched and evaluated.

Even with his friends, he often had the sense that they were waiting for him to do or say something that would make them all laugh.

Everyone had a role they expected him to fill.

Hailey didn’t. Whatever energy he brought to the table at any given moment, she seemed willing to meet it. He couldn’t help enjoying that. He couldn’t help feeling happy and at ease when he was in her company — he’d have defied anyone to feel any differently.

“We haven’t gotten any work done,” he pointed out. “You did say that you were coming over tonight so that we could work on the project for Isla.”

“I know.” She glanced at him. “I hope you’re not upset with me.”

“What? Why would I be upset with you?”

“I stopped you from going to Vista Grande.”

“Are you actually worried about that?”

“Well, I know you wanted to go.”

“You didn’t stop me from doing anything,” Enzo told her. “If I’d really wanted to be there, I would be there.”

She looked at him. Something in her eyes told Enzo that she didn’t quite believe it. It was as if she was putting more blame on herself for his choice than she needed to.

He leaned a little closer, across the armrests that separated the two chairs they had dragged out onto the patio. “If I’d wanted to go, I would have gone,” he told her. “You didn’t make me do anything.”

Bringing the chairs out here had felt — to him, at least — like a safety measure.

It would be harder to kiss if they were sitting down.

Having a chair to sit in established a physical boundary — this was his space, and that was hers.

Crossing that boundary would have to be much more intentional, much more planned, than the kiss they had almost fallen into the last time they had been out here.

Except, here he was, leaning right across the boundary as if it didn’t even exist.

And even now, as he became aware of that fact, he didn’t pull away.

“I’m glad you’re not angry about it,” she said quietly.

“I’m responsible for my own choices,” he told her. “I decided not to go.”

She grinned. “Maybe you and I can go together sometime.”

“I would really like that,” Enzo said, and he meant it. “But also… you were right, some of what you said. Vista Grande isn’t really anything so special. This resort is a beautiful place, and I don’t know about you, but I’m having a good time right here.”

“I am too,” Hailey said quietly.

Enzo laughed.

“What’s funny?”

“Oh, it’s just— I was just remembering that my father sent me here as a punishment.”

Hailey laughed too. “Sent to a luxury resort as a punishment! Yeah, your life is tough.”

“Oh, take it easy.” He grinned. “I know this isn’t a real punishment. That’s what I was laughing at. I wonder how my father would feel if he knew what a good time I’ve been having here, that’s all. I’m willing to bet it would drive him crazy.”

Hailey hesitated for a moment. “Do you ever think maybe you’re being too hard on him?”

“Me being too hard on him? You know he kicked me out of my home city because he thought I was an embarrassment, right?”

“I know.”

“And what gets my goat about that is, I hadn’t even done anything.” He wasn’t laughing anymore. Anger had begun to simmer — anger that he wasn’t quite sure he knew what to do with. He forced himself to take a deep breath — getting mad at his father wasn’t going to do anybody any good.

He focused on Hailey instead. The sight of her was a balm. His rising temper was eased. He let out a sigh.

“All I did was go out for drinks,” he said.

“And that had never been a problem before. I mean, I knew he didn’t think highly of my choice of recreational activities, but he’d never done anything like this.

And suddenly I’m someone he can’t even have around, for fear I’ll ruin his chances of being accepted by the people of Monteverde.

They don’t actually have to accept him as king.

He’s going to assume the throne no matter what they think about it. ”

“You can’t blame him for wanting their approval, though,” Hailey said. Her voice was gentle. “It makes sense to me that he would be trying to control things as much as he can.”

Enzo regarded her for a moment, toying with the question that was on his mind. Did he dare ask it? He felt acutely how much it could hurt him if she gave an answer that he didn’t like.

But the question was needling at him, demanding to be asked, and finally he spit it out. “Do you think he was right?”

“Do I think he was right?”

“I just mean, do you think it was the best thing for his reputation to get me out of the way like he did?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Hailey said.

But that was wrong. Somewhere along the way, it had begun to matter what she thought. Enzo knew that it shouldn’t, and he didn’t quite understand why it did, but he wanted her opinion and he couldn’t deny it.

“Tell me,” he pressed. “If you were in his shoes, would you have done the same thing?”

She looked away. For a moment, it seemed to Enzo as if she couldn’t bring herself to face him, and his heart sank. She was going to stay that his father’s choice made sense to her.

Well, and so what if she did? This was crazy.

He didn’t need her approval. He sat a little straighter in his chair.

He shouldn’t be allowing himself to get so worked up over the opinion of a woman who didn’t even come from Monteverde.

She didn’t know anything about what the people of this country wanted in a ruler, and she certainly didn’t know anything about Enzo’s family.

Then she looked at him again, and her eyes were shockingly warm.

“I wouldn’t have,” she admitted softly. “I wouldn’t have sent my own child away. Not for anything.”

A tremor passed through Enzo.

He hadn’t realized how badly he’d been wanting to hear those words. How badly he had wanted someone to tell him that his father was overreacting, and that he hadn’t deserved his punishment.

“But,” Hailey added.

“But?”

She bit her lip. “If I was you ,” she said, “I also would have handled things differently.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You know your father is in the middle of the biggest transition of his life,” she said. “Would it kill you to stay out of the bars and the nightclubs for a few weeks? I mean, why didn’t you just tell him that if it was that big a deal to him, you’d keep a low profile for a while?”

“He didn’t ask me to do that.”

“But you must have known it was what he wanted, right?”

Enzo couldn’t lie to her. “All right,” he conceded. “I guess you have a point.”

“So then, why not just give him what he wanted?”

“I guess I thought it was unreasonable.” He shrugged. “And if I give in now, where does it stop? Am I going to spend the rest of my life listening to demands about what my behavior should be like?”

“That’s probably a little overdramatic,” Hailey said, offering a gentle smile.

Enzo’s irritation vanished. He just couldn’t seem to hold on to any negative feelings when she was smiling at him. That was probably going to be a problem one of these days.

For the first time, it occurred to him that when this was all over and he returned to Monteverde, he would be leaving her behind.

The thought made him feel a deep, painful sense of dread. Being here with Hailey had been such an unexpected gift.

It was such a shock to realize that he didn’t want his father’s punishment to end.

He didn’t like the fact that his father had chosen to deal with him by sending him away. But in the end, when all was said and done, it had turned out to be for the best.

He got to his feet. “We’re not getting any work done tonight,” he said to Hailey. “I think we should go out.”

“Out?” she repeated. “What did you have in mind?”

“Just out for a walk around the grounds,” he said. “I’m not trying to get you to go to Vista Grande again, I promise.”

She laughed. “I really will go someday,” she told him. “I’d like to see as much of this country as I can, as long as I’m here.”

“There’s a lot I could show you,” he said. “Maybe we can even go back to Luria together sometime, once I’m allowed to do that. I’d love to show you my hometown.”

She smiled. “I would love to see it,” she said. “I’m sure there’s more than what I saw on my way here from the airport. I just hope I’ll be around long enough that we’re able to do that.”

“You still don’t know when you’re planning to go back to the States?” There was another ticking clock on their time together. Everything felt so ephemeral, and suddenly he wished he had kissed her the other day instead of letting her pull away from him.

He wondered if he would get another chance.

“If you were in Luria with me,” he said, shocked at his own candor, “I don’t think I would feel the need to go out to bars and clubs all the time. I think I would be happy just to hang around at home.”

“You find me that entertaining?” Her face lit up with something between humor and pleasure.

“I find you delightful,” he told her, winking so it wouldn’t come across as anything overly serious. The truth was that he meant it from the bottom of his heart.

She received it quietly, smiling softly to herself in a way that tugged at his heartstrings. He wanted to reach out and take her hand.

He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had made him feel an impulse like that. Had it ever happened?

But Hailey wasn’t like any woman he had ever known.

When he was with her, he could forget the fact that his father was about to be a king.

He could forget that he was the prince. He could just be Enzo — just a man.

He truly believed that that was what she saw when she looked at him, and it was the most powerful and precious thing he had ever experienced in his life.

He didn’t know how he was ever going to give this up.