Luis (Royal Caleva #2)

CHAPTER 9

“What is this bad news you have for me?” Luis asked.

The sun was barely peeking over the flat line of the horizon as he sat in front of a computer monitor on the desk in the rental house. He was discussing developments in Caleva with Raul, Bruno Sanz, and his top political advisor, Francisco Vargas, via video call.

“The group of consejeros who wants to renegotiate the Americans’ lease is threatening to stage a protest right outside the military base if they don’t get a meeting with you soon. The new one, Camacho, seems to be riling up the others.” Raul’s jaw was tight with frustration. “I am sorry that I failed to pacify them, Pater.”

“Joder! You have nothing to apologize for, Raul. Those gilipollas just want my attention.” Luis scowled at the computer monitor. “Why are these idiots trying to antagonize the Americans? The world is an unsettled place. We need their military presence now more than ever.”

“I think they are making trouble like the Lily Cabal did with trying to take over the lily sap production,” Raul said. “They got elected to the consejos by appealing to the voters’ greed, so they have to make it look like they are trying to squeeze money out of the rich Americans. They’ll claim they can use it to cut taxes.”

“You would think the Lily Subsidy would be enough,” Luis muttered at the screen.

“Se?or, you know how sensitive the Americans are about their image in the international media,” Francisco said. “They don’t like friction with the local people. I think you need to meet with the consejeros before they organize the protest.”

A strange reluctance to leave Iowa clogged Luis’s throat. He wanted to be “just Luis” to Grace and Eve for a little longer. Once they came to Caleva and saw him amid the trappings of his position, he feared that he would never be “just Luis” again.

“I will be home by tomorrow morning.” He would sleep on the overnight flight home. “Try to work with Camacho, win him over to our side. Since he’s fresh to the consejo, he won’t have entrenched loyalties yet. Did you read his report about the conflicts he claims have occurred between the Americans and the locals?”

“Yes, and I spoke with the jefe de policia in Camacho’s district,” Raul said. “He says the number of incidents has not increased in the past six years, as Camacho claims. Nor have they escalated in violence.”

“Which person do the facts support?” Luis asked.

“Both, in a way,” Raul said. “Camacho’s report includes clashes—mostly in bars—where no one pressed charges on either side. Some of those have been confirmed by witnesses.”

“What is your gut feeling on this?” Luis asked his son.

“Camacho feels strongly on the subject,” Raul said. “I don’t think it’s a major issue, though.”

Luis nodded. “Good work.”

The tense set of Raul’s shoulders eased, and they moved on to other matters, most of which did not require Luis’s immediate attention. While he listened to the discussion, he wondered again what Grace thought of him. He glanced at the time in the corner of the computer screen. Much too early to call Eve to see if she would meet him for lunch. He could not interrupt Grace’s rotation today, but he could develop his relationship with Eve. He also wanted to get her perspective on his daughter’s reaction to her newfound father.

“That’s all we have right now,” Raul said, pulling Luis’s full focus back to faces on the computer screen.

“Excelente!” Luis said. “Raul, would you give me a few more minutes of your time?” He had told Raul about the DNA test results the day before, sharing his excitement with his son while also making sure Raul knew this would change nothing in their own relationship.

“Por supuesto.” Raul waited until Bruno and Francisco had left the video call. “How did it go with Grace? Will I like my half sister?” He smiled, but Luis saw the wariness in his eyes.

“That is a question only you can answer, but I find her intelligent, engaged, passionate, and articulate. In short, she shares many of your finest qualities.” Luis smiled at his son with all the pride he felt in both his children.

Raul laughed, relief in the sound. “Then she’s not the country bumpkin Odette described.”

“Not at all. Her adoptive mother has done a superb job of raising an impressive young woman.”

“What’s her mother like?” Raul asked.

“Down-to-earth, hardworking, and devoted to Grace.” Luis kept his thoughts about Eve’s other attractions to himself. “She is torn between wanting Grace to have her rightful position and wishing to protect her daughter from the…drawbacks of being a royal.”

Eve probably worried about how her own life would change as well.

“They know Gabriel’s story, of course. That was all over the international media,” Raul said. “What about Odette’s?”

“I’ve told Eve some of it. I gave Grace the barest outline. Not surprisingly, she was quite distressed by her birth mother’s actions.”

“I understand.” Raul looked down with a grimace. “At least my mother tried to kill only herself, not others.”

“Hijo mío…” Pain ripped through Luis’s chest all over again. He had tried to shield his son from the knowledge of his mother’s fragile psyche as much as possible, but as Raul had grown up, he’d heard the whispers about Sofia’s attempted suicide after his birth. When a teenage Raul had finally confronted Luis about it, he had told him only as much of the truth as he’d thought was necessary, but had withheld his suspicions about the fatal auto accident.

“I am not like my mother.” Raul’s gaze returned to Luis. “I will try to help Grace understand the same is true about her and Odette.”

Love overlaid the pain. “Your personal experience and insight will mean more to her than anything I can say.”

“Pater, it may be hard for her to adjust to what her new…heritage will mean to her life,” Raul said. “I will try to help with that as well.”

Luis nodded. He understood all that his son had left unspoken. Luis had once been el Principe de los Lirios, the Crown Prince of Caleva, with all the honors and responsibilities it carried. Grace might now be second in line for the crown, which was not as heavy a position as Raul’s, but it still brought its own burdens.

He had no doubt that Grace was capable of handling the position. The question that clawed at him was whether she would want it.

“When will I get to meet her?” Raul asked.

“Bruno is working on that. I hope it will be soon.” Luis let his gaze rest on his son’s beloved face on the monitor. “I cannot wait to see the two of you together. It will be one of the happiest days of my life.”

“I look forward to it too, Pater,” Raul said. “Having a sister… That will be a new experience.”

Raul was undoubtedly feeling the absence of Gabriel. The duke had moved out of the palace once his relationship with his fiancée, Quinn, became public. In his role as cultural ambassador for Caleva, Gabriel traveled a great deal as well. “I think Quinn will enjoy having a fellow American in the family,” Luis said.

“And Quinn will help her adjust to being royalty.” Raul grinned. “Although I’m not sure whether Quinn has adjusted herself.”

Luis smiled too. “She’s making progress. I must go, hijo mío. Te quiero mucho.”

“Y yo también,” Raul said. “It will be good to have you home.”

After Raul’s face disappeared from the screen, Luis dropped his head into his hands, wishing yet again that he had grasped the seriousness of his wife’s emotional state all those years ago. He had been overwhelmed by inheriting the throne so suddenly, but he should have seen the severity of Sofia’s pain and stopped her from destroying herself.

Still, he couldn’t regret his affair with Odette, for all the horror she had caused his family. He would not have Grace now if he hadn’t temporarily lost his sanity all those years ago.

He lifted his head and glanced at his watch. Too early to call, but he could text Eve about lunch. Picking up the secure cell phone from his desk, he thought a moment before typing.

I would very much like to meet you for lunch to discuss how Grace is feeling. Would you be able to join me at whatever time is convenient for you? Will send a car for you, and we will eat near your workplace.

He sent the text and set the phone on the desk, feeling a spark of anticipation at the thought of seeing Eve again.

He quashed it by plunging into the unending list of governmental matters requiring his attention.

Eve was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping her coffee, and watching the early morning sunbeams slide through the windows, when a text dinged on her new super-secure cell phone. It still boggled her mind that she and her daughter had a king on speed dial.

“Someone’s up early,” she muttered, swiping to the new message with a strange mixture of trepidation and excitement. “Oh, shit!” Her coffee mug hit the table with a thunk.

Lunch with the king!

Why did he want to see her? Alone? She pushed down the shock and considered the invitation rationally. He probably just wanted to know how Grace had reacted to meeting her father, as he’d said in the text.

Eve felt like she couldn’t say no to him, but she barely got an hour to eat lunch and usually not even that. Leaving her coffee behind, she tiptoed upstairs to the bedroom-turned-office and flipped open her laptop to check the day’s schedule.

It looked manageable. Both the vets and the other techs on duty for the day were competent. With a little help from her colleagues, she might swing an hour and ten minutes with Luis. Less than that might seem insulting to royalty.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she typed, Thank you for the invitation. I will be outside the clinic entrance at noon.

She stared at the barebones message before adding, I look forward to lunch.

Uninspired but polite.

His response was immediate.

Thank you for meeting me. I understand that I am disrupting your day, so I am grateful for your willingness to accommodate me.

That was ironic since he must have a much busier schedule than she did. How the heck did she respond to that?

I am happy to do so, she typed before she headed back toward the stairs. She didn’t have time to trade inane messages, even with a king.

“Hey, Mom.” Grace emerged from her room, yawning, her loose braid partially unraveled from sleep.

“Morning, sweetheart.” Eve gave her daughter a hug. “Sleep well?”

“Not really. I kept thinking about Luis and Caleva and…everything.” She yawned again.

“I had the same problem,” Eve confessed. “It’s a lot to wrap your mind around.”

“I wish I could take the day off, but”—Grace shrugged—“at least I get to see my father at dinner.”

Grace had called Luis her father.

Eve made a snap decision not to tell Grace she was meeting him for lunch until after the fact. She didn’t want Grace worrying about what was being said while she was trying to focus on her rotation.

Her daughter shuffled toward the bathroom. “See you downstairs, Mom.”

Eve had taken three steps down the staircase when she realized she was wearing scrubs. They happened to be her favorite purple ones, but she couldn’t eat lunch with a king in scrubs, especially not ones that might be stained with blood and who knew what else once lunchtime rolled around.

She bolted back to her bedroom to shove her black heels and a lint roller into a small duffel bag. On top of those, she placed navy trousers and a carefully rolled ivory silk blouse. Swapping out her gold pawprint earrings for classic pearls, she decided that was the best she could manage. Luis knew what she did for a living.

At ten minutes before noon, Eve was in the clinic’s restroom, ripping off the bloodstained scrubs as she toed off her sneakers. She yanked on the navy trousers and shoved her feet into the pumps. After buttoning the blouse, she unclipped her hair, ran a brush through it, and decided she looked respectable enough.

“Enjoy your date!” Her friend Pam Baker called out with a smile as Eve jogged past the break room where the veterinarian was eating.

Eve had decided it was easiest to explain her extended lunch hour by saying it was a date. When she came back, she would tell Pam it hadn’t gone well and that she was swearing off men again. She hoped that would be the end of it. Since Eve hadn’t been on a date in years, Pam still might see this an opening to try to fix her up with someone else.

She burst through the exit to find a long black limousine parked under the canopy. Ivan stood waiting and opened the rear door for her. As Eve bent to scoot inside, she hoped like heck no one from the clinic saw her get into the ostentatious vehicle, or there would be far too many questions to evade.

As she settled on the seat, she gasped. Luis sat in the limo facing her, his long legs in navy trousers stretched out diagonally so his polished black loafers almost touched the bench seat where she was perched.

“I’m sorry to startle you,” he said with a contrite smile. “My rental house is so far from your clinic that it would take most of your lunch hour to get there and back. Instead, I thought we would have a light lunch in the car.” He gestured to two green coolers sitting on the floor.

“That’s fine with me.” She could hardly confess that being alone with him in this small space was already sending an unsettling slide of heat deep inside her.

“I would prefer to sit outside on this beautiful day.” Luis gave a shrug of apology. “Mikel did not feel comfortable with that, though, so we are going to park in some hidden corner nearby.”

He leaned down to flip one cooler open, his head so close she could easily reach out to stroke his gleaming silver-gray hair.

Oh no! No touching this man!

“Would you like some sangria?” he asked, pulling out an insulated beverage flask with a built-in straw. “I know you have to return to work, so I wasn’t sure you would drink at lunchtime.”

She would love to gulp down some sangria to ease the tension in her shoulders, but she needed to stay sober for the job…and to keep her brain out of the gutter it kept jumping into. Meeting his eyes, she felt the sizzle of his blue gaze. “I have to keep my reflexes sharp so I don’t get bitten. But please feel free to have some yourself.”

“I don’t have to avoid teeth, except of the metaphorical kind, but I, too, have to return to work after our meal.” His rueful look invited her to consider them as equals in their obligations.

Damn, the man is charming on top of being sexy as hell.

“So, a dry lunch for us both.” She somehow felt like she should be serving him and not vice versa. “Can I help you with the food?”

“As soon as we stop.” He reached into the cooler again to bring out another insulated cup, this one clear. “In the meantime, water?”

There was no way not to brush against his long fingers when she took the cup, so she braced herself for the little thrill that shimmered through her. Flipping up the straw, she sucked in a long, cold gulp to counteract her reaction.

The limo glided to a stop.

“We seem to have arrived.” Luis glanced out a window. “Not terribly scenic.”

Eve peered out to find nothing but brick walls on either side of them. Mikel had found a very secure hiding place for them, probably between a couple of the university buildings.

“Let us eat,” Luis said, leaning sideways to press a button. A tabletop unfolded from the limo’s side console.

“Fancy,” Eve said. “The limo must be imported from Des Moines.”

“That is a joke, yes?” Luis asked in a quizzical tone before he pulled another bottle of water out of the cooler and set it on the tabletop.

“Only partly,” Eve said. “I assume you didn’t bring the car with you from Caleva.”

He simply lifted an eyebrow at her.

She pulled the other cooler closer, noticing a coat of arms featuring a fierce-looking Calevan dragon imprinted in gold on the lid. Even the darn coolers were royal. Two plate-sized containers with lids labeled ensalada mixta sat on top, so she slid them onto the table. Luis neatly placed a set of silverware rolled into a teal linen napkin beside each plate.

It was such a prosaic action for someone so…regal that it disarmed her. And that was very dangerous.

She unlatched the cover and lifted it off her plate to find an artful arrangement of multihued greens, colorful vegetables, thinly sliced hard-boiled eggs, slices of cheese, and bite-size cubes of barely seared tuna. “It’s so beautiful I hate to mess it up,” she said.

“My chef would be disappointed if all you did was look at it,” Luis said, unrolling his napkin.

As soon as she had swallowed one perfect morsel of fish, Luis said, “Since our time is limited, I will go straight to my main concern. How is Grace feeling about her meeting with me?”

“That’s a big question.” At least she was expecting it. “She’s excited, and she paid you the great compliment of saying she forgot you were a king.”

His face lit up. His care for his daughter’s opinion warmed her heart and fanned the flare of attraction she was fighting.

“She looks forward to visiting Caleva and wishes she could go sooner.” Eve defaulted to formality to cover her unwanted response to him.

“I am working on that,” he said.

“What do you mean? She can’t change her rotation schedule at this point. It’s pretty much engraved in stone.” It required death or a natural disaster to budge the school on that.

“There are ways to influence such things,” he said cryptically.

She gave him a hard stare as her protective mother bear emerged. “I thought we agreed to keep her new identity quiet for now.”

“Her new identity will not be revealed until she is ready.” He locked his gaze with hers. “I promise you.”

She searched his face—the jut of his jaw, the blaze of his ice-blue eyes, the arch of his dark brows—and decided she accepted his promise. “I’ll trust you on this, but you shouldn’t push Grace too hard. You’re not the easiest father to get used to.”

“You are fierce on her behalf.” But he seemed impressed rather than annoyed by her warning. “Please believe me when I say that I wish only the best for her.”

“The problem is figuring out what the best is,” Eve pointed out.

Luis nodded and turned the conversation to simple questions about Grace’s life growing up, giving Eve a chance to relax and enjoy her salad that tasted as though it had just been plucked from the garden.

Then Luis hit her with a new angle.

“I know that you have been divorced since Grace was nearly one year old,” he said. “How involved has your ex-husband been in Grace’s life? I wish to tread carefully so I do not threaten that relationship.”

The thought of Ben stopped her lascivious thoughts cold.

“There is no relationship with my ex,” she said. “He started a new family and made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with us.”

The bastard. She had no intention of telling Ben about Grace’s biological father. He could find out whenever the rest of the world did.

“Why would he adopt a child and leave her a year later?” Luis asked, his voice holding a thread of anger.

Eve stabbed viciously at a slice of egg. “We got married too young. We wanted children, but we both had issues that kept us from conceiving.” The remembered despair at hearing the doctor’s diagnosis could still hollow her out. “Ben was not as enthusiastic about adopting as I was, but he agreed to it. When we got the notification about Grace, I was so thrilled that I didn’t notice that he was less excited.” She shrugged. “I was self-centered, too, I suppose.”

“He should not have gone forward if he had second thoughts about something so important,” Luis said.

“Well, I was the moving force in our marriage. Ben kind of went along.” She savaged a piece of cheese next. “At first, he seemed delighted with Grace. He changed diapers and took turns with me doing the night feedings.”

Why was she sharing all these personal details with him? Maybe because he listened with such focused intensity. And because Luis saw Ben’s actions in the same light she did—an abandonment of the daughter he had made a commitment to parent.

She should shut up now, but he had opened up to her about his wife’s problems.

“After about six months, he stopped participating in her care. I had to ask him to do things for her. And for me.” She had been hurt and bewildered by Ben’s distance from both her and his baby daughter. “Grace was so adorable. I didn’t understand why he would withdraw from her like that.”

She looked down at the shredded food on her plate. “He had found another woman and gotten her pregnant.”

“Cabrón!” Luis snapped.

She could take a guess at the meaning of that. His strong reaction on her behalf was weirdly satisfying.

“He was thrilled about it in a way he hadn’t been about Grace.” When Ben had smugly announced his girlfriend’s pregnancy, she’d felt like he had punched her, since his implication had been that Eve was defective. “There was no point in trying to make him stay with me and Grace. He could only love a baby he had fathered himself.”

“He must be a very stunted person.” Luis’s voice held an edge.

“You know, that’s a good description of Ben.” Except for cheating on her, her ex had led a life bound by narrow convention.

“He is also an idiot to let go of two women as extraordinary as you and Grace.” His gaze was warm with admiration.

“You’re very kind.” Even though his compliment was really about Grace, a shiver of pleasure still skimmed over Eve. Maybe he noticed her as a woman after all.

“I am many things—some admirable, some not—but kind is not among them.” His lips slanted into a sardonic smile.

Eve inclined her head stiffly, while she fought the desire to know in what ways he found her extraordinary.

“Although I am sorry for the pain it caused you and Grace, I am relieved that I will not be displacing her adoptive father,” Luis said.

“It makes things less complicated on that front,” Eve agreed. Which was a relief since every other part of this situation was extremely complicated…and getting more so.

“Thank you for your candor,” Luis said. “You have helped me understand Grace’s situation more fully.”

Luis must have dossiers on all of them. Having watched Mikel Silva in action, she suspected those dossiers were quite thorough, and she couldn’t help wondering what was in them. However, while their factual reporting might be accurate, the emotional nuances would be harder to uncover.

“Please, you must eat. I don’t want you fainting from hunger on the job.” Luis gestured to her half-eaten salad. “We have the dessert still to come.”

Eve jabbed her fork into a cube of tuna. “You should have mentioned dessert sooner.” She forced herself to eat more of the salad before she put down her fork. A tangle of emotions roiled in her gut, making it hard to swallow.

Luis gave her one of his penetrating looks before he also laid down his fork and latched the cover over his salad. She gratefully followed his lead and stacked their plates on the floor.

“If you check in that cooler, you should find the dessert churros,” he said.

Sure enough, two smaller covered plates were nestled at the bottom of the cooler. She put them on the table to find that Luis had produced two mugs of fragrant coffee from his cooler. She uncovered the plates to find each held half a dozen little sugar-dusted, heart-shaped churros with a chocolate dipping sauce.

She dunked one in the sauce, bit into it, and hummed with delight at the combination of light-as-air dough and warm chocolate.

“You like the dessert,” Luis said as he brushed sugar from his long, elegant fingers. And now she was imagining them stroking over her skin.

She nearly groaned at the sensations smoldering through her body.

“It would be hard not to.” She polished off the churro and decided it was time to distract herself and warn Luis. “There’s another issue that you should be aware of.”

Luis waited, his posture one of concentration.

“Grace wants to meet her birth mother.”

He sat back with a jerk and muttered something in Spanish that she suspected he would not translate for her.

“My daughter is an intensely curious person,” Eve said. It was part of what would make her daughter a great vet. “Once she found out who her birth mother is, I knew she would wish to meet her face-to-face. The desire may be even stronger because she knows how…damaged Odette Fontaine is. Grace needs to make sure that she is not like her biological mother.”

Anger flashed and died in Luis’s eyes, leaving them dull with pain. “I would like to persuade her not to see Odette. Nothing good will come of it.”

“It’s better that she has a chance to look this particular monster in the eye,” Eve said, even though she wished for the same thing. “It will allow her to ask all the questions she has bottled up inside.”

“I don’t know that Odette will answer them except to serve herself or to strike at me through Grace,” Luis said. “She is a manipulative bruja—witch—even in prison.”

“Sometimes asking has to be enough.” Eve ripped a churro in half. “I want to be there when Grace meets Odette. Not at the meeting, but in Caleva. Grace will need someone she loves and trusts to talk about it with.”

“You will come to Caleva when Grace comes.” Luis took a bite of churro as if that settled it.

“You know I have a job. It’s not as important as yours, but people count on me to be there.” Eve was irritated by his blithe dismissal of her obligations.

He lifted his eyebrows at her. “If I can arrange for Grace’s rotation schedule to be changed, do you not think I can arrange for a substitute for you at the clinic?”

“I…I suppose you could.” She just hadn’t expected that he would think of it.

“There are some advantages to being a king.” There was an undercurrent of humor in his voice.

She and Grace had done some research on King Luis IV of Caleva, but it was still hard to connect this living, breathing man with the larger-than-life figure in the photos and news stories. The man in this car worried about what his daughter thought of him, scarfed down ham balls, and rummaged around in coolers.

He glanced at his watch. “Unfortunately, we must end our fascinating conversation if you wish to be back at work on time.” He looked at her with the dazzling smile that lit his eyes and eased the sharp angles of his face. The smile that made her traitorous body go liquid with longing.

“That was my promise to you,” he said. “And I always keep my promises.”