to explore the country of his ancestors. When he’d first done the deal he’d anticipated his father becoming King not himself.
Plus truth be told, he’d been so focused on work because he was avoiding his family and the coterie of diplomats who seemed to be lurking whenever he stepped out of his suite. He didn’t want to talk about his coronation or about the business of running the government. Yet.
But sitting around and hiding out went against the grain, so he’d been working nonstop. He hadn’t shaved in the three days, and Mozart had replaced Jay-Z and Kanye on the stereo because no one would ever be tempted to stop working and rap to Mozart. He hadn’t even contacted Emily, though he’d thought of her night and day.
She was an obsession. He knew that. He had the feeling that if he were in Miami maybe it wouldn’t be as fierce, but he was far away from her and thinking of her was nice and comforting in the midst of this storm that was brewing around him.
He banged his head on the desk.
“I can see I’m interrupting,” Gabe said as he entered without knocking.
“I’m working.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Gabe said, nodding toward the empty cans of Red Bull that littered the desk and the floor. He walked to the window and pulled back the drapes.
Rafe blinked against the glare of the sunlight. “What time is it?”
“Four in the afternoon. You’re expected for dinner tonight and if you don’t show up Juan Carlos is going to have a stroke. I know he’s been a pain lately with all this royal protocol, but we don’t want our cousin to have a stroke, do we?”
Rafe shook his head. “No.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. His eyes felt gritty and the stubble on his jaw felt rough. He was a mess. Truly. “This sucks.”
Gabe laughed that wicked, low laugh that Rafe had heard women found irresistible. He just found it annoying.
“Yeah, it does. Not so cool being the older brother now, is it?”
Not at all. “I should walk away...that would leave you holding the bag.”
A fleeting glimpse of panic ran across his brother’s face. “Dad would disown you. I’m pretty sure the board would fire you from Montoro Enterprises. Then what would you do?”
Run away to Key West.
Seemed simple enough, but to be fair he wasn’t sure what type of reception he’d receive if he just showed up on Emily’s doorstep.
“I think I’m too American to want to be a royal, you know? Maybe Dad still wants it, but it feels weird to me. I don’t want to be called ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘Your Highness.’”
Rafe watched his younger brother. If there were the slightest sign that Gabe was interested in being king, Rafe would just walk away and let his brother have it. But Gabe rubbed the back of his neck as he paced over to the window. “Me neither.”
“Then I guess I’d better stop acting like a jerk and get out there,” Rafe said. “What’s the plan?”
“Dinner with some supporters. And a family who’d love for you to meet their daughter,” Gabe said with a wry smile.
Rafe shook his head. He’d do his duty to his family, but he was already involved with a redhead who wouldn’t take kindly to him catting around. He was getting to know her, starting a relationship with the woman who was going to be the mother of his child. What if she didn’t feel possessive toward him the way he did toward her? And he did feel possessive. Emily was his. “I’m not interested.”
“Are you interested in someone else?”
“It’s complicated, Gabe.”
“I never thought I’d see the day when you said that. Is she special?”
“She could be,” Rafe said. Or at least that was what his gut was saying. The rest of him wasn’t too sure.
Once his brother left and Rafe had wrapped up what he was working on for the day, he started getting ready for the state dinner. When he got out of the shower, he saw that he had a text message from Emily.
It’s official. Just got word back from the doctor’s office. I’m due in January.
Would he be able to get back to the States in January?
Being with Emily would mean giving up the monarchy... and possibly his job, depending on how much it pissed off his family. Montoro Enterprises and Alma were now all linked together. Could he walk away from one without walking away from them all?
But what kind of man walked away from his own child?
Not one that Rafe wanted to be. He knew that but as he’d said to Gabe earlier, it was complicated.
He braced his hands on the bathroom counter and looked into his own hazel eyes searching for answers or a solution. But there was nothing there.
And that really pissed him off. He needed to take control of his personal life the way he did the boardroom. No more doing what everyone else wanted unless it fit with his own inner moral compass.
Except that he’d been a playboy for so long he wasn’t too sure he had one. Everyone had one, right? Then shouldn’t the answer be clearer than this?
When he was finished shaving, he took the towel off his hips and tossed it at his image in the mirror before he walked into the bedroom to dress.
He hit the remote for his sound system and switched from Mozart to “The Man” by Aloe Blacc . He stopped in his tracks. Right now it seemed as if everyone had a piece of him and the man Rafe had always wanted to be had been lost.
He knew what he had to do. No use pretending he was going to do anything else. It wasn’t that he thought the path would be easy, but then when had he ever taken the easy path? It was simply that spending time with his siblings made him realize that family was important to him.
His mind made up, he grabbed his phone and began typing, hitting Send before he could have second thoughts.
I’ll be there. When is your next appointment? I’d like to go with you if I can.
He owed it to himself and to his child to at least see if he could be a real partner to Emily. And be a real part of the baby’s life.
Really? Okay. If you do this then I don’t want you making promises you can’t keep.
That right there showed him how little she knew of him. Hell, what did he know about her? He knew how she looked in his arms. He knew that she had wanted to be a mermaid when she was little. He smiled at that one. He knew she was having his baby.
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