“A very interesting way of looking at it,” he said, his tone different now.
“Is that how you see things?”
He shook his head. “I do not have much time for art. Or for books. Or for sitting and listening to the rain.”
Her heart sank. “Oh. I thought... By the way you were talking...”
“I’ve lost the ability to appreciate beauty in the way you seem to. But it doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate your perspective.”
“I suppose you are too jaded.”
“Yes,” he said, his tone taking on a rather black quality. “I suppose I am a bit too jaded. But then, living the sort of life I have, opulence all around me, my every whim, my every desire, so easily serviced, I don’t know how I could be anything but.”
“I’ve had a similar experience, don’t forget.”
“Yes, you seem to have practiced the art of self-denial a bit more successfully than I have.”
“I don’t consider it denial.”
“Another of your virtues, I’m certain.”
She frowned, walking slowly past him, pacing the length of the room, the marble floor clicking beneath her low-heeled shoes. She studied the paintings on the walls, depictions of the scenery around them. During another time. During other seasons. “My parents have indulged in everything imaginable, and yet, they still live life with a fair amount of excitement and passion. I want nothing to do with it. It looks exhausting. Dangerous. Selfish. But...for all their sins they aren’t jaded. I feel they enjoy their excess, or they wouldn’t continue in it. For you... You seem very bored. And I wonder why that might be.”
“I think perhaps the problem with my life, Princess, is that I have seen where the road ends. There is desperate poverty in this world. Tragedies. And I know that there are those who believe that if they simply had one more thing, a little bit more money, they would find happiness. But my parents had everything. They had wealth. They had family. They had beauty. Sex, drugs and alcohol in every combination. They had everything. And they were never satisfied. They never stopped searching. They were hungry, always. When they should have been full. It was that continued searching that took everything beautiful they had in their lives and twisted it beyond reason. They had marriage. They had children. And yet, they went out and had affairs. My father made a child with another woman. A child that he never acknowledged. A child whose existence only hurt everyone involved. When you have so much, and yet you have no satisfaction. When you have so much and yet you must continue going until you destroy it all, I can only conclude that there was no happiness to be found in any of it. Not really. And so, I suppose having seen the end my parents came to I have trouble putting much hope in any of the things around me.”
“You think it’s pointless.”
“I don’t think it’s pointless or I would have thrown myself off a building by now. I think there are aspects of life to enjoy. There is music I like. I enjoy my work. I certainly enjoy my money. I quite enjoy sex. But I’m not certain the satisfaction is to be found. I’m not certain that happiness is a thing that truly exists.”
“That all sounds quite...hopeless.”
“Maybe it is. Or maybe that’s why I choose to take things in life with a healthy dose of cynicism. There are worse things, I should think.”
“I think that there’s happiness. I don’t think that life is quite so meaningless as all that.”
He lifted a broad shoulder and she was drawn to the way he moved. He was like a big cat, a predator. Lying in wait for his prey to make the wrong move. The one that would trigger the attack.
She had to wonder if she was the prey in this scenario.
“We all have our coping mechanisms,” he said. “You have chosen to try and find satisfaction in the opposite things. While I have decided that I won’t find whatever magic cure my parents were looking for within life’s various debaucheries.”
She paused in her pacing, turned to face him. “Do you think you’ll find it anywhere?”
“I have my doubts.”
“Do you believe in anything? Do you believe in love?”
He only looked at her, his dark eyes a bottomless well. “No.”
“But you’re here for your grandfather. Surely—?”
“I believe in fairness. I believe in faithfulness. I believe in keeping my word. As I told you before, I am a man who believes in business.”
“Follow your head and not your heart, in other words.”
“My head is the only thing I trust.”
She let out a heavy sigh, looking back toward her bedroom. It was going to be strange, sharing such a close space with him. Last night in the hotel suite had been strange enough, but there had been a living area between their two bedrooms. This felt...rather more intimate. She should think nothing of it. It should be...nothing. That he was a man and she was a woman shouldn’t matter because they wouldn’t be engaging in any...man/woman things.
But it still felt strange.
“Then maybe you could use that very large head of yours to figure out how we’ll find the painting in this enormous palace?” Her uncertainty, the fluttering in her stomach, made her feel cross.
“I could, I suppose.” He tapped his chin as though he were thinking very hard. “The easiest thing to do would be to take a tour. It’s likely the hiding place would be revealed to us during it.”
“Sure. If only we could arrange that.”
“Well, there will be tours. The biggest thing is that we can’t turn the pockets of the place out, then leave with a valuable work of art. We have to appear to have come for reasons of business and pleasure. We have to stay. Anyway, I sincerely intend to work up some sort of trade agreement, so we will stay until the last evening party.”
“There are parties?”
“Every night. He emailed me a PDF of the itinerary. Very helpful,” he said, his tone dry. “But I think we should make sure to stay until the last party. Four days. Then we go. Easy.”
Nothing about it sounded easy to her, not at all. To exist in this fishbowl playing a part she didn’t know the lines for.
“Are you tired?” he asked. She had to wonder if he’d seen her sag beneath the weight of everything just as she felt it.
“Yes,” she said, suddenly feeling exhausted down to her bones. That surge of strength, of certainty that she had felt when she first walked in, was gone now. Now she just felt wrung out. It was strange that coming to this place was so emotional. But it was. Enduring it all with this man who was so...intense, so very present—it only added to it.
“Perhaps you should get some rest. There is going to be a gathering tonight with the guests at the party. Appetizers and the like.”
She frowned. “What am I supposed
