7. CHRIS
7
CHRIS
W hen I opened my eyes, it was barely light. I groaned, rolling over in my bed.
It was too early to be up, but my stomach twisted with stress and sleep wouldn’t come again.
Damn it.
I wasn’t always this worked up during yacht shows—hell, I was usually the king of this playpen.
This time, there was just too much going on. The show was great, and I knew we’d come off it with a profit the way we usually did, but Eli Moretti lurked in the shadows and I didn’t trust that the son of a bitch wasn’t going to do something drastic to claw his way back to the top.
His fall from grace had been a very ugly knock to his ego and he wasn’t going to just let it slide.
And with everything else happening…
I pushed myself up and got out of bed. Fuck sleep. This just wasn’t going to happen for me. I had to get out into the fresh air, to breathe.
Not just the fresh air—I had to get away from the yacht show in its entirety just for a moment or two before diving back in and handling cutthroat deals.
I got dressed quickly, throwing on a pair of khaki chinos, a white button-down short-sleeve shirt, and leather loafers. Comfortable for walking. I grabbed my sunglasses and strapped my Patek Phillipe onto my arm.
When I headed toward the deck, I hesitated and changed direction. My feet had a mind of their own.
Bella’s cabin was the last of the row of staff cabins, and I knocked on the door.
No answer.
I knocked another time, and Bella opened the door, wearing a robe. Her hair was wet like she’d just gotten out of the shower. She blinked when she saw me.
“Chris? I mean… Mr. Blackwood.” She cleared her throat. “What can I do for you?” She glanced at the watch on her wrist. She already wore makeup—she was up and ready to start the day. The rest of the staff would start coming out of the cabins soon, too. I didn’t want to be here when they did.
“It’s just Chris today, Bell,” I said in a low voice and let my eyes trail down her neck and toward her robe. She lifted her hand and tugged her robe tighter around her, her cheeks pink with a blush.
“What are you doing here, Chris?” Her voice was softer now. Eyes guarded. I loved her eyes, nevertheless. Deep pools of brown that showed so much, and so little, at the same time.
“I need to get out of here, take a break.”
“How long will you be away?”
“Just a few hours before my meetings start after lunch. But I want you to come with me.”
She blinked at me. “I have work to do.”
“Let the staff handle it. You’re the boss, aren’t you?”
She swallowed hard. “Are you ordering me to come with you as your head of staff?”
I took a breath and let it out slowly.
“No, Bell. I’m just asking you to come with me. As you. I want to show you something.”
She hesitated.
Was I playing with fire, asking her to join me?
Absofuckinglutely.
But there was no turning back now.
Bella hesitated, trying to decide if she should take me up on my offer. She knew just how dangerous this was, as well as I did. She could turn me down, and we would go back to being professional, keep it strictly to a working relationship.
But today, I just wanted to be us . Even if we weren’t together. I ached for something more than the shallow, surface-level conversations I made all the time, the masks everyone wore, the games everyone played.
“Okay,” she finally said, and my heart leaped.
Keep it together, man.
“Give me five minutes.”
I nodded, and she shut her door again. My mind reeled—what was I doing? Not only had I asked her to come with me, she’d said yes. This was all a very bad idea.
And I was going to do it, anyway.
Bella took five minutes on the dot. She had to be the woman who held the record for the shortest time getting ready in the world, and she looked flawless.
She wore a pale blue flowy blouse with white ankle-length pants, leather sandals, and small gold hoop earrings. She had a crossbody bag that matched her shoes, and she looked like a vision. I stared at her when she stood in front of me until she swallowed and frowned.
“Should I wear something else?”
I’d rather you didn’t wear anything at all.
“No,” I said. “That’s perfect.” I wanted to say she was perfect, but I had to put the brakes on my mood today.
We climbed back up to the deck, and when we stepped out, I took a deep breath. The sun hadn’t risen yet, and the predawn sky was painted in pale blue and lavender. The world was still asleep and the water in the harbor lay still, an unbroken mirror reflecting the sleeping giants of the sea. There was only a faint ripple now and then, thanks to a light breeze.
“It’s beautiful when it’s this quiet,” Bella said softly.
“This quiet beauty is what drew me to the sea in the first place,” I said. Before meetings and rivalries, before yachts became trophies instead of dreams.
“Come,” I said and led Bella off the yacht.
“Where are we going?”
“Away from here.”
We started walking.
The quiet marina stretched out in front of us, the symbol of Monaco’s modern wealth.
“This place is all about money,” I said. “Casinos, luxury… the yachts, the power-play during these shows, and then the buyers showing off what they got as a symbol of their own power and wealth. But Monaco isn’t like that. That’s not the real Monaco.”
“No?” Bella asked, walking next to me. “It’s all I see every time I work here.”
I glanced at her. “Do you work here often?”
She nodded. “A few years in a row, now. Carla always manages to find me something good.”
Why hadn’t I run into her before?
“What’s Monaco really like, then?” Bella asked, and I tried not to focus on what could have been if I’d run into her before.
“The real Monaco is quieter,” I said. “It’s in the corners no one notices. It’s the fishermen who’ve been here for generations, working the waters long before the yachts docked here. It’s the markets, where locals barter for fresh vegetables and bread, where they live their lives without caring about the glamour all around them.”
“You sound like you’ve spent a lot of time looking at that side of Monaco,” Bella said softly.
I smiled. “I used to come here early, like this.” I glanced up. The sun would rise soon, it was a golden shimmer on the horizon, still just a promise. “It’s different before everyone else is up. Simpler. When there’s no one around, it’s just me and the city waking up, and I like it. It reminds me that not everything in life has to be so high stakes .”
“It’s good to just wind down and not be so tied up in business all the time,” Bella said. “And seeing the beauty behind the scenes… not everyone can do that.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, something like that. I can relate to Monaco.”
“Relating to a town is an interesting concept,” Bella said with a chuckle.
“When I’m here for business, I’m focused, always pushing for more and it’s about money, power, making sure that you stay on top. But when it’s quite like this, I don’t have to be that guy and it’s just nice , you know?”
I was saying more than I should have told her, but this was Bella. If I could talk to anyone, it was to her. It had always been like that, and old habits die hard.
Hell, they never died, if I had to be honest.
“You sound like you miss the simplicity.”
I shrugged and pushed my hands into my pockets. “Sometimes, yeah. When we were younger it didn’t matter how much we had or didn’t have.” That wasn’t exactly true, since as a Blackwood we always had everything. But that wasn’t how I meant it. “We just lived , you know? There’s a part of this place that still holds onto that, and I think that’s what I love about it so much. There’s a part that isn’t dressed up in glitter and gold.”
We made it to La Condamine Market, an open-air market, usually bustling in the day but right now, it was peaceful. The colorful stalls were still covered.
“This market has been around since the 1800s,” I said. “It’s one of the few places in Monaco where locals gather, exchange gossip, buy produce for their everyday lives. It’s not nearly as glamorous as the shops and casino, but the real people go about their day here.”
“It’s beautiful,” Bella breathed, looking at the tents. “I’ve never considered people living here who aren’t in the lap of luxury.”
I nodded, and we walked in. After the market, we started our ascent via Rampe Major . It was a pedestrian pathway that led up to Monaco-Ville. The road was wide, with stone steps and inclines and it had stunning views of Port Hercules while we climbed.
“This place is incredible,” Bella said, breathing a little harder now with the exercise. Her cheeks were flushed and she was so fucking beautiful it made my heart ache.
As we climbed, the sun started to rise and rays of gold spilled over the city. The air was still cool, and I tasted the salt of the Mediterranean on my tongue.
“Oh, wow,” Bella said, stopping to look at the way the sun painted the rooftops and the ancient stone walls of Monaco-Ville above us. The shadows started to fade and we were caught in the magic of the rare, fleeting moment between night and day.
And then, the sun stretched higher and the morning arrived, bursting in colors of orange and yellow. Soon, the world would wake up.
For now, it was still ours, quiet and intimate and perfect.
We continued the climb, stopping at vantage points to look over the seam. The higher we climbed, the more expansive the view became, with the yachts shrinking below.
Saint Nicholas Cathedral came into view when we neared the top. The striking white stone facade stood tall against the sky and the surrounding square was quiet.
“Princess Grace Kelly is buried inside the cathedral,” I said. “You know her story, right?”
“Giving up her Hollywood career for love?”
I nodded.
“Yeah… but even her fairy-tale life had complications. I guess they all do. She gave up a lot, though.”
“I think about that a lot,” I said.
Bella glanced at me, a smile tugging at her lips. “About Grace Kelly?”
I laughed. “No, I mean about sacrifices for relationships.”
Bella’s eyes met mine. I knew what she was thinking—I hadn’t made any sacrifices for our relationship back in the day. Fuck, I’d sacrificed our relationship for other things, if I had to be fair.
“I guess we all have to sacrifice one thing to have another,” Bella said softly.
“Yeah,” I said. I wanted to know what she was thinking, but I didn’t ask. A part of me was too scared to find out because I was pretty sure she thought I was an asshole.
And she wouldn’t be wrong.
“We kept walking, making our way through the winding streets of Monaco-Ville. The streets were flanked by quaint buildings painted in shades of cream, yellow, and coral, with vibrant flowers blooming in window boxes. The roads were pedestrian-only, making it feel timeless.
When we reached the Ramparts, we could see everything stretched out below. The ancient stone walls that surrounded the old town were a testament to time and how long the village had been here.
“These walls were originally built to protect the town from invaders,” I said. “It was a different time then, when people physically took what they wanted. Times have changed since then. It’s a lot more like a game of chess now, rather than…”
“A fistfight,” Bella finished for me.
I chuckled. “Yeah. Sometimes I wonder if a fist-fight wouldn’t have been simpler. You know what you’re capable of, you know who wins in the end. Done and dusted, without all the politics and admin.”
Bella laughed. “But a lot more bloodshed.”
“There’s something poetic about shedding blood for what you care about.”
“Until it’s your blood that’s shed,” Bella pointed out.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll give you that. But still…”
Bella turned to me, leaning against the wall and she tilted her head. “You seem to think a lot about the simpler times.”
I shrugged. “I guess it’s always important to know the history of something to really appreciate how far it’s come. I mean, if we don’t know how we’ve evolved we can’t truly know the kind of success we’ve made.”
“That’s one way of looking at it.”
“What other way is there?” I asked.
“It seems like you keep yearning for a life that’s not the life you’re living now.”
Fuck, she had me there. It wasn’t that I didn’t want the life I lived now. I loved my job, I was good at it, and there wasn’t much in life as satisfying as closing a deal and knowing that I’d been the driving force behind the success. But at the same time, I did want things to be simple.
The problem was that sometimes, the simple life came with nightmares that I couldn’t escape. After all, I’d started off in a very simple life, with an alcoholic for a father and a mother who’d abandoned me because it was just easier to leave it all behind. And that kind of life I didn’t yearn for at all. It was tough to know exactly what it was I missed and what it was that I didn’t want.
“I guess I just have regrets,” I said and my eyes locked onto Bella’s.
I regretted that everything had gone wrong with her. Now that she was back in my life again—especially now, with our time away from the yacht and us just being us again—I ached for the relationship we’d had. It had been just like this; easy to talk about everything, comfortable, with no need for pretenses, masks, no reason to put up any acts.
Bella pursed her lip, and her eyes became guarded. “Yeah, well, sometimes we have to live with the choices we make, don’t we?”
I groaned inwardly.
“I want to show you one more thing,” I said, changing the topic away from my colossal failure. “Then we can have breakfast.”
I took her hand out of habit. She froze when I did, and I dropped it again.
Shit.
“Sorry,” I said.
I let her follow me to the Palace of Monaco. It stood proudly on Le Rocher , the Rock of Monaco, and overlooked Port Hercules and the Mediterranean Sea. It was a blend of medieval fortification and Renaissance elegance, the golden stone walls glowing in the morning light. It had thick, imposing walls and watchtowers, with a set of arched gates for an entrance that was guarded by the members of the Prince’s Guard. They wore white uniforms and stood at attention under the palace’s baroque balconies.
White shutters around symmetrical windows softened the stoic building and the open-air galleries gave the palace a feeling of grandeur that stood the test of time.
“This is where it all began,” I said to Bella. “The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco for over seven hundred years, ever since Francois Grimaldi captured this fortress by disguising himself as a monk.”
“He dressed up as a monk to seize the palace?” Bella asked.
I nodded. “Monaco was controlled by the Genoese, and in 1297, Francois Grimaldi and a small group of his men dressed as Franciscan monks, carrying concealed weapons under their clothes. They told the guards they were looking for shelter for the night, and monks were often granted entry into fortified places without suspicion. When they got in, Grimaldi and his men attacked the guards and got control of the fortress, and since then the Grimaldi family has been on the throne.”
“Wow, that’s bold,” Bella said, looking up at the vast building.
I nodded. “It’s commemorated in the coat of arms of Monaco, too. It features two monks holding swords, a nod to Francois Grimaldi and how all of this came to be.” I grinned. I loved this story.
“It reminds me that sometimes, the best moves aren’t the obvious ones, and I think that applies to business, too. I try to remember that when I meet with investors or compete with other yacht designers.”
Bella nodded.
“Monaco wasn’t always this playground for the rich,” I added. “It was just a fishing village once, and this palace was built to protect it.”
“It’s strange, you know?” Bella said. “I’ve always thought of Monaco as this glamorous, perfect place. But the history is… gritty. It’s not what I expected at all.”
“Most people don’t see it. They get caught up in the yachts, the casinos, the wealth, but underneath all that, Monaco’s really about survival.”
“Kind of like you,” Bella said.
Her words punched me in the gut, and I didn’t know how to respond. Her eyes were bright, deep, knowing. It made me feel raw and vulnerable, like she could see right to my soul and I wasn’t sure she would like what she found if I let her in for too long.
“How about breakfast?” I asked, changing the topic.
“Sounds good,” she said with a smile, letting me run from the conversation.