met Eloisa during her study-abroad program last year. I found her impossible to forget and here I am.”
Every word of that was true.
Eloisa’s sigh of relief shuddered against him.
Audrey loosened her death grip on her fiancé's arm long enough to sidle beside her sister for the next round of pictures.”Aren’t you full of surprises?”
“Not by choice.” Eloisa smiled tightly.”Besides, this is your night. I wouldn’t want to do anything to detract from that.”
Her stepsister winked, eying Jonah up and down.”Hey, if he were my date, I’d be lapping up all the media attention.”
What the hell kind of family was this?
Jonah pulled Eloisa closer to his side, sending a clear”back-off” signal to Audrey. She simply smiled in return, tossing her hair over her shoulders playfully. Her fiancé seemed oblivious, poor bastard.
Eloisa buried her face against Jonah’s shoulder and he started to reassure her—until he realized she wasn’t upset or even seeking him out. She was just hiding from the clicking camera.
The photographer snap, snap, snapped away, the flashes damn near blinding in the dark night.
Audrey reached for her sister.”Come on. Just smile for the camera. You’ve been hiding out here all night and I could use some fun and interesting pictures to add to my wedding album.”
Eloisa thumbed off the band from her ponytail. Her hair slid free in a silken sheet that flowed over her shoulders and down her back. She’d never seemed vain to him, but then most women he knew primped for the camera. Even his three sisters-in-law were known to slick on lipstick before a news conference.
Except as he watched her more closely he realized she used the hair as a curtain. The guy might be getting his photos—to deny them would have caused a scene with Audrey—but there wasn’t going to be a clear image of Eloisa’s face.
Realization trickled through of a larger problem between them than even he had anticipated. He knew she wanted to keep her royal heritage a secret. That was obvious enough and he respected her right to live as she pleased. But until this moment he hadn’t understood just how far she would go to protect her anonymity. A damned inconvenient problem.
Because as a Landis, he could always count on being stuck in the spotlight. Just by being with her, he’d cast her into the media’s unrelenting glare.
He’d wanted revenge, but didn’t need to unveil her secret to repay her for her betrayal. He had other, far more enticing ways of excising her from his mind.
Three
Eloisa wished that photographer would tone down the flash on his camera. Much more of his nonstop shutter bugging and she would have a headache. As if this evening wasn’t already migraine material enough.
Thank God the party had finally all but ended, only a few stragglers hanging on and sidling into the photo ops. Jonah—the cause of her impending headache—stood off to the side with her stepfather. Determined to keep her cool, Eloisa stacked tiny crystal cake plates left haphazardly on the dessert table. Her sister watched from her perch, lounging against the end of the table.
Audrey balanced a plate with a wedge of the raspberry chocolate cake on one hand, swiping her finger through the frosting and licking it clean.”You should let the catering staff take care of that. It’s what they’re paid to do.”
”I don’t mind, really. Besides, the cleaning staff charges by the hour.” She also needed a way to burn off her nervous energy from Jonah’s staged kiss.
“That doesn’t mean you need to work yourself to the bone. Go home.”
She wasn’t ready to be alone with Jonah. Not yet. Not with her feelings still so close to the surface. But judging from the stubborn set of his jaw as he stood under a string of white lights, he wasn’t leaving her life anywhere anytime soon.
“I’m staying here with you.” Eloisa sidestepped a band member carrying two guitar cases.”No arguments.”
“At least have some cake. It’s so amazing I almost don’t care that I’ll have to get my wedding gown resized.” Audrey swiped up another gob of frosting, her blue eyes trekking over to Jonah, then sliding back.”You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you, sister dear?”
“So you said earlier.” Eloisa placed the forks in a glass so all the plates stacked evenly and handed over the lot to a passing catering employee.
How rare that someone accused her of being full of surprises. She’d always been the steady one, tasked to smooth things over when her more-sensitive baby sister burst into tears.
“But it’s true. What’s the scoop with this Landis boyfriend?” Audrey gestured with her plate toward Jonah who looked at ease in his suit jacket, even in Florida’s full-out May heat.
Eloisa had found his constant unconcern fascinating before. Now it was more than a little irritating, especially when she couldn’t stop thinking about the feel of plunging her fingers into his thick hair when they’d kissed.
She forced her hands to stay steady as she clasped them in front of her, leaning against the table beside Audrey, her half sister topping her by five inches. Her willowy sister looked more like her blond father.
But they both had their mother’s long fingers. What would it have been like to turn to her mother right now? And how much it must hurt Audrey not having their mother around to help plan the biggest day of her life.
Certainly their mother’s shocking death from an allergic reaction to medication had stunned them all. Eloisa had been numb throughout the entire funeral, staying in the fugue state all the way back to Spain, to her study program.
And into Jonah’s bed.
Waking up the morning after with that ring on her finger. She’d felt the first crack in the dam walling up her grief. She’d barely made it out of Jonah’s rented manor home before the tears flowed.
Which brought her back to the dilemma of Jonah.
What was the scoop? Why had he shown up now when he could have sent a lawyer? It wasn’t like he wanted to see her or he could have contacted her anytime in the past year.”His arrival tonight came as a total shocker to me.”
Audrey set aside her plate, plucked a pink stargazer lily from the beach-themed centerpiece and skimmed it under her nose.”You never mentioned meeting him before.”
She hadn’t mentioned even the working relationship because she’d been afraid they would hear in her voice what she could barely admit to herself then, much less now.”Like I said earlier, this is your time, your wedding. I wouldn’t want to do anything to distract from that.”
Audrey bumped her waif-thin shoulder against Eloisa’s.”Could you please drop the altruistic gig for just a few minutes while we squeal over this like real sisters? He’s a Landis, for crying out loud. You’re rubbing elbows with American royalty.”
“Who wouldn’t squeal over that?” She couldn’t resist the tongue-in-cheek retort.
“You,
