felt a curious hollow sensation deep in his chest. He strode to the computer.
‘Show me.’
Silently she found the booking then turned the screen towards him. A flight to Sydney, no stopovers. No return.
The void in Raul’s chest expanded and the breath seared from his lungs.
‘Was there a call from Australia?’ It might be sickness in the family. Luisa was close to her aunt and uncle.
But she hadn’t mentioned it to him.
‘Not that I know of, Your Highness.’
She bit her lip and Raul realised he was looming over her, glowering. He took a step back and forced a smile.
‘That’s fine. I’ll talk to her about it myself.’ He turned on his heel. A sixth sense chilled his flesh.
A one-way ticket to Sydney. Alone.
He forced down the instant thought that she’d had enough. That Luisa couldn’t stand it here, had never forgiven him for bringing her to Maritz and planned to leave for good. Leave him.
His skin prickled and he lengthened his stride.
There would be an explanation. Yet his belly was a hard twist of tension as he headed for the royal apartments.
Raul tapped on the door of her suite and waited.
Strange. According to the secretary, Luisa had come here an hour ago to rest.
He knocked again and turned the handle. Perhaps she’d fallen asleep on the bed. Despite his concern, Raul’s mouth kicked up at the idea of Luisa, tousled and soft from sleep.
He stepped in and slammed to a stop.
Time splintered.
He stood frozen, bile rising as his numb mind absorbed details. Déjà vu smote him and he reeled.
Yet this was worse. Far worse. This was Luisa …
Luisa and Lukas.
This clearly was no business meeting but something far more intimate.
Luisa wore a tight tank top and flirty skirt, her hands curled round Lukas’ shoulders. Lukas, the man he would have trusted with his life! The man he’d trusted with Luisa.
Lukas held her close in his embrace, arms wrapped possessively round her slim form. Their blond heads were just a kiss apart.
Raul recalled his wife’s recent coolness, the way she left his bed and tried to distance herself. Had Raul been a coward, ignoring signs he didn’t want to see? Could Luisa have betrayed him as Ana had?
It felt as if someone had reached in and ripped his heart out.
Lukas had removed his jacket and tie. His collar was undone. Had Luisa done that? Had she used her nimble fingers to begin undressing him?
Roaring pain blasted Raul. It battered like a mountain avalanche till he could barely stand upright. It clamped his chest in a vice so tight he couldn’t draw breath.
An explosion of shattering glass at his feet roused him from sick shock. The couple before him whipped their heads round and noticed him.
Fiery colour washed Luisa’s face and her hands dropped. Lukas straightened and released her, adjusting his collar.
Raul’s brain filled with an image he couldn’t thrust away. Of Ana and his father, emerging from a state bedroom after his old man had taken Raul’s visitor on a personal tour. Ana had coloured and looked away. His father had stood straighter, fiddling with his cuffs.
The beginning of their betrayal.
Raul breathed deep. With an effort he cleared his whirling thoughts.
This was Luisa and Lukas. Not Ana and his father.
His heart thundered and adrenalin pumped in his blood, but sanity prevailed. He forced his stiff legs to move. Ignoring the churning in his belly, he prowled into the room.
Raul watched Luisa’s bright flush fade and her skin pale to bone-white.
‘Luisa.’ His voice sounded unfamiliar.
‘Your Highness.’ Lukas hurried into speech. ‘I know this must look—’
Raul slashed one silencing hand through the air. It was Luisa he needed to talk with.
‘But Your Highness … Raul …’
Raul swung round, focusing on his secretary. Through all the years they’d worked together Lukas had been a stickler for formality, refusing Raul’s suggestion more than once that in private Lukas call him by name.
Fear churned in Raul’s belly that Lukas should choose this moment to bridge that gap. To put them on equal footing.
Why? Because he and Luisa …?
No! Raul refused to let himself think it.
Yet, like a spectre, the possibility hovered in the recesses of his brain, waiting to swamp him in a moment of weakness.
‘Leave us, Lukas.’
His voice was harsh with shock and a fear greater than anything he’d known.
Still Lukas didn’t move, but looked to Luisa who stood, fingers threading nervously before her.
‘Go, Lukas,’ she whispered. ‘It will be all right.’
Finally, with lagging steps he left. Raul heard the door click quietly behind him. Yet still Luisa didn’t meet his eyes.
Anxiety stretched each nerve to breaking point. He clenched his hands, forcing himself to wait till she was ready to talk.
‘It’s not what you think.’
‘You don’t know what I’m thinking.’ At this moment rational thought was almost beyond him. He was a mass of churning emotions. Only the voice that told him over and over that Luisa was different, was his, kept him sane.
She lifted her head and met his gaze and the familiar sizzle in his veins eased a fraction of the desperate tension in his body.
This was his Luisa. He refused to believe the worst.
‘Aren’t you going to ask about Lukas?’
‘I know you’ll tell me.’ He just prayed he was man enough to hear the truth.
She paced away, her steps short, her eyes averted as if she couldn’t bear to look at him. Fear knotted his brain.
‘He was helping me.’
‘Go on.’
‘He
