Page 9 of Royally Knocked Up (Princes of Passion #1)

ENZO

“ Y ou two have developed quite a rapport,” Isla said, passing by the table where Enzo and Hailey were eating lunch a few days later.

Hailey looked up at her and grinned. “We have more in common than I would have guessed,” she said.

“Well, that’s good,” Isla said with a smile. “I’m thinking of pairing you two up to work on a project together, if you’re willing.”

“Sure,” Enzo said, realizing only afterward how quickly the word had left his mouth. He glanced at Hailey, wondering whether she had noticed too.

“I want to put together a calendar of events to try to draw more high-profile guests and large groups of people to the resort,” Isla said.

“We had such success with the football team the other day that I think there is a niche to be filled, and I’d like to see what we can do about it.

I want you two to work together on brainstorming a list of ideas this weekend, and bring them to me at the beginning of the day on Monday. ”

“Sounds good,” Hailey said.

Isla smiled and walked off to speak to some of the other members of the team.

“Looks like we’re going to be spending the weekend together,” Hailey said.

“I was thinking of stepping out to Vista Grande for the weekend,” Enzo said.

He had gone back and forth on whether that was something he wanted to open up to Hailey about.

But the texts from Luca were truly starting to cause him sleepless nights.

Much as he didn’t want to admit it, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to relax until he got away from La Fantasia for a while.

At this point, it was about proving something to himself — that he wasn’t going to just roll over and do whatever his father expected of him.

He wouldn’t allow his life to be constrained by the expectations of being a part of the royal family.

Enzo Mancini was someone who liked to have fun, and he needed to find a way to go on doing that, even now.

“Vista Grande?” Hailey repeated.

“It’s the larger resort town a few miles away from here.”

“No, I know what it is,” Hailey said. “I passed through it on my way here from Luria. It seems a little…”

“A little what?”

“I don’t know. Chaotic. Loud.” She laughed. “It reminded me of Las Vegas.”

“Never been.”

“But you like American movies, so I’m sure you’ve seen it before.”

He had. “Vista Grande isn’t anywhere near as wild as Las Vegas looks in the movies,” he told her.

“Maybe not, but I heard it was famous for its nightlife. Legendary clubs, right?”

“So I take it you’re not going to come along with me?”

“Am I invited?”

He actually hadn’t thought about that until just now. “If you wanted to come along, you could,” he said. “I could show you around.”

His perception of the weekend suddenly shifted.

Instead of getting drunk with Luca and trying to avoid having to explain why he hadn’t answered any texts lately, he could go to Vista Grande with a beautiful woman on his arm.

Even though there was nothing between the two of them, there was something magical about being out on the town with a woman.

He would enjoy it more with her than he would with Luca — although Luca would be deeply offended to know that.

“Maybe sometime,” Hailey said noncommittally.

“It really isn’t like Vegas. And we wouldn’t have to go to any nightclubs, if that isn’t your scene.

We could go to a restaurant.” Was he asking her out?

Was that what this was? He didn’t usually ask women to dinner.

His liaisons with women were usually confined to meeting for drinks — or, more often, meeting over drinks — and then taking things back to her place.

How was Hailey going to interpret a dinner invitation?

For that matter, what had he meant by it? If Enzo was honest with himself, he wasn’t entirely sure. He couldn’t reconcile in his mind why it suddenly felt so important for her to accompany him to Vista Grande — it would be nice sure, but did it really matter that much?

How could it be that he suddenly didn’t want to go unless she was coming along?

Hailey was watching him carefully. “I think we should stay here this weekend,” she said. “I think we should focus on the assignment Isla gave us. I want to do a good job — don’t you?”

“Well, sure. But I don’t see why we couldn’t do it over dinner.”

“It would be hard for me to focus.”

He narrowed his eyebrows. She hadn’t struck him as someone who had trouble focusing on things — in fact, she seemed much more focused, generally, than he felt he was himself. “I think you’d be all right.”

“Not this weekend,” she said firmly. “Maybe another time.”

And that was the end of that. He knew she wasn’t going to compromise.

He thought of Luca’s unanswered texts. He should send a reply, at the very least.

He pulled his phone out and fired off a quick Not this weekend before sliding it back into his pocket.

Hailey was watching him. “What was that all about?”

“Just returning a text from a buddy of mine,” he said casually.

“Someone who wanted to meet up with you in Vista Grande?”

He grinned. “You got me.”

“I hope I’m not keeping you from anything,” she said.

“No, you’re not. You’re right. We should work on the assignment.” He took a sip of his soda. “So what do you think about Isla’s suggestion? Do you think we’re going to be able to come up with ideas that will get more people to want to come to the resort?”

“Oh, I’m sure we can,” she said. “Just think about what would get you to want to spend time here.”

He laughed. “That doesn’t necessarily apply here, you know. It would be hard to convince me that spending time at this resort was any kind of novelty.”

“Well, that makes you the perfect test subject for any ideas we might have. If we can come up with something that would entice you , we can safely rely on the fact that it’ll work on guests.”

Enzo chuckled. “You have a point there.”

“Of course I do. I’m a genius at this stuff.”

“Is that right? What ideas do you have?”

“We could contract with a highly regarded chef to come in and do a few meals,” Hailey said.

Enzo cocked his head at her. “Our staff chef is one of the best in Europe.”

“I know. The food here is amazing. But I’m talking about rotating in some different people, for variety. If you’d always wanted to try some German chef’s cooking and then you found out he was going to be in your own country for a week, you’d jump on the opportunity.”

“Sure,” Enzo said. “That might work. Me, I’d probably just go to Germany.”

“Yeah, well, for some people it’s easier to book a resort stay than it is to fly to another country. I’m guessing you probably have the use of a private jet for things like that.”

“It does come in handy sometimes.”

“What else? Do you have any ideas off the bat?”

“Well…”

“Go on, spit it out.”

“I’ve been thinking about movies,” Enzo said.

“You do a lot of thinking about movies, don’t you?”

“I guess I do. But I’ve been thinking specifically about the award shows that are coming up in a few weeks. That’s right, isn’t it? The big American ones?”

“Yes, I think it’s the season for that.”

“What if we screened the films and got the actors to attend?”

Hailey let out a low whistle. “Don’t ever let me suggest that you don’t dream big.”

“And why shouldn’t I dream big? You asked me what would make me want to come to this resort — well, that would do it.

If there was a screening of a really good film, one that was up for some awards, and if some of the cast or maybe the director was here to talk about it and answer questions, I would want to come.

I’d go out of my way to be here for that, even though I’ve been to this resort dozens of times. ”

Hailey frowned, thinking it over. “It’s not a bad idea,” she said. “I mean, presuming we could make it happen. But this is the pie-in-the-sky stage, I suppose.”

“It’s the what?”

“You’ve never heard that expression? It means the part of a plan when you just name all your dizziest daydreams, no matter how impractical they seem, because you don’t know what’s possible if you’re too afraid to admit you want it.”

“I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t make this happen,” Enzo said.

“Get actual movie stars to come to the resort and help put on events?”

“We’d make it a good time for them too. Besides, this place does have some clout. People have heard of it. We have royalty stay here all the time.”

“I suppose if we needed help making our point to people, we could get your dad to make a call, right?” Hailey mused.

Enzo felt something tighten within him. “No.”

“No?”

“I’m not asking for my father’s help,” he said. “I would rather fail at what I’m doing here than try to get him to help me.”

“That’s a little extreme, isn’t it?” Hailey asked mildly.

“You don’t understand. He already thinks I’m the black sheep of the family.

He already doesn’t want me inside the city limits in case I create some sort of scandal for him before his coronation.

How’s it going to be if he sends me all the way out here and I’m still reaching out to him, asking for his help?

He’d say that was confirmation of all the worst things he thought about me.

He would say it proved that I couldn’t handle anything by myself, and that was why he would never be able to let me. ”

“Well, that isn’t fair,” Hailey said. “Of course the king would have the most sway when it came to something like this. What does he expect you to do — not use all the resources at your disposal?”

She sounded so indignant on his behalf. Enzo had to admit that he enjoyed her reaction a little bit. “Fair doesn’t matter very much when it comes to my father,” he said. “Or rather, it does when he’s managing foreign relations — he’s a good diplomat — but not when it comes to his own family.”

“Well,” Hailey said, “we are just going to have to kick ass on this event planning, then, so he won’t be able to deny your value!”

Enzo forced himself not to laugh. He didn’t think her enthusiasm was funny — in fact, he was moved by it — but he also didn’t think his father was going to give a damn what was accomplished here.

The best Enzo could hope for on that score was not to lose any esteem in his father’s eyes.

And the truth was, he’d stopped hoping for his father’s opinion of him to be anything resembling good a long time ago. To be ignored — that would be ideal.

But spending the weekend with Hailey was something else.

“Do you want to come back to my room after we get off work tonight?” he asked her. “We could work on this some more. Really get down to business and dig in on it.”

It occurred to him that that offer probably sounded even more romantic than the original suggestion of having dinner together had.

It also occurred to him that he didn’t much care. Enzo Mancini was a man who was used to going for the things he wanted in life, and he wanted to spend his time with Hailey Jones. Never mind what it looked like.

She beamed at him. “That sounds great to me,” she said. “Maybe we can check out that sunset again.”

Enzo felt something strange in his gut at the reminder of the day they had watched the sunset together — the day he had been sure they were about to kiss.

What was she suggesting?

But no, she couldn’t be suggesting what he’d thought. That was his imagination.

And even if she was, I can’t go there.

We can’t go there.