Crowned at the Desert King's Command Page 18

  Easing back in his chair, he felt his heart kick against his ribs.

  This time there would be no lapses—momentary or otherwise. No loss of control nor lowering of his guard. No having to live with the knowledge that he had come close to putting his family in jeopardy for a second time.

  This time it was going to be different. He would be pulling her strings, and he was going to enjoy every second of it.

  * * *

  Mimi Miller was running late.

  Literally running.

  Although, thanks to the heels she had unwisely chosen to wear, it was more a stumbling dash than a full-on sprint, and already her lungs were begging for mercy.

  Oh, thank goodness.

  This was the street. Slowing down to an unsteady walk, she caught sight of her reflection in a shop window and breathed out shakily.

  It was her own fault she’d had to rush.

  Not because she’d been dithering over what to wear. Clothes weren’t really her thing and she only owned two dresses—one of which she hated because it was so tied up with love and dreams and heartache. Her other dress, a navy and white polka dot one, had looked sweet when she’d tried it on at home, but then she’d seen the state of her waist-length blonde hair and, panicking, walked straight into the nearest hair salon for a last-minute and eye-wateringly expensive blow-dry.

  But it had been worth it, she thought, her skin tingling with excitement and happiness. Today was the first time she’d seen her best friend in nearly two years and she wanted to celebrate.

  Stepping inside the restaurant, she glanced down at her legs, feeling suddenly self-conscious. Jeans and a T-shirt, preferably several sizes too large, was her usual outfit of choice, but Tenedor was a super-exclusive Argentinian eatery, popular with celebrities for its discreet staff and the tinted windows that made life hard for the paparazzi. It was definitely not the kind of venue you turned up to wearing faded denim.

  Her breathing lurched. Should she even be here? It was a long time since she’d moved in these circles—two horrible, hopeless years since Charlie and Raymond had been sent to prison and her life had changed for ever.

  But she was being stupid. Nobody was going to connect her with that haunted-looking girl outside the courtroom.

  Above the diminishing drumroll of her heart she gave her name to the unsmiling maître d’ and followed him through the restaurant, her excitement at seeing Alicia overriding her panic at being so conspicuous.

  She still couldn’t believe that it was two years since she’d last seen her friend. After Charlie and Raymond’s arrest they had spoken on the phone—a short, unhappy conversation, with her apologising over and over for what had happened and Alicia tearfully repeating that it changed nothing between them.

  Since then they had talked and texted, but after moving to New York Alicia had been busy working for her family’s charitable foundation, and then she had met and fallen in love with Philip Hennessy, heir to a restaurant empire, and that had obviously taken up most of her time.

  Now she and Philip were engaged, and according to the save the date card she’d received the wedding was going to be in May—less than three months away.

  In other words, Alicia was effortlessly hitting all the milestones of adulthood.

  Mimi’s chest tightened. Whereas she was working as a barista in a coffee shop at Borough Market, her youthful ambitions to become a film director having stalled before they got started.

  And as for her love-life...

  It wasn’t even a case of the less said the better—there was literally nothing to say. Her one bungled foray into the world of sexual relationships had left her with her virginity intact and her confidence so battered that she’d decided to put that part of her life on hold indefinitely.

  She sighed. Early spring made being single seem so much harder. London’s parks seemed to be full of pairs of ducks and deer all cosying up together, and it didn’t help that the scent of spring flowers reminded her of Alicia’s birthday party.

  And Alicia’s birthday party reminded her of Bautista.

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  Bautista Caine.

  Her best friend’s older brother—her first crush. The man who had broken her heart and then walked away without so much as a backward glance.

  Bautista...with his curving, lazy smile and steady dark gaze.

  She hadn’t been alone in fantasising about him. Practically every girl in their school, and probably some of their mothers too, had drooled over him whenever he’d turned up to collect his sister, and it only took the briefest of glances at him to understand why.

  He was smart, successful, and so charming that birds didn’t just fly off the trees, they dropped like overripe fruit. Not that he was interested in schoolgirls or their mums. His girlfriends were all long-limbed, pouty-lipped models. Hardly surprising, then, that he’d found it so humiliatingly easy to turn down a night with his sister’s gauche friend.

  Her stomach tightened—only this time not with excitement.

  It had been a long time since she’d allowed herself to think about Bautista and the night they hadn’t spent together. But ever since Alicia had announced her engagement it had been getting harder and harder to hold back the memories and ignore the fact that at some point she was going to have to see him again or forfeit her friend’s wedding. Because Alicia worshipped and adored her brother, and he adored her right back.

  Unfortunately his feelings for Mimi were somewhat cooler—if complete indifference even had a temperature.

  She shivered. It had been one of the few positives about Alicia’s absence: not having to face the man who had kissed her and then an hour later looked straight through her as if she didn’t exist.

  And that had been before he’d found out about Charlie and Raymond’s appalling abuse of trust.

  She felt her stomach contract. Before that night at Fairbourne he’d treated her with measured politeness, but judging by his concerted efforts to keep Alicia on a different continent for the past two years—her friend had let slip that it had been his idea for her to move to New York—he clearly thought she was not to be trusted.

  But maybe by the time they did come face to face she might actually have met someone who would compare to Bautista Caine and not be found wanting. Her heart skipped. Maybe she might be able to tell him truthfully that he wasn’t all that—

  ‘Mimi!’

  It was Alicia, in a beautiful yellow dress, a smile splitting her face, her brown eyes shining with happiness and affection, and suddenly they were hugging and laughing and both talking at once.

  ‘Oh, it’s so good to see you.’ Alicia took a step back and gazed at her with undisguised happiness. ‘I thought you might be too busy to fit me in.’

  ‘Doing what?’

  ‘I don’t know—you might have been hanging out at some indie film festival.’

  Mimi laughed. ‘Well, duh, that’s next month.’

  Giggling, Alicia gave her another crushing hug. ‘I’ve missed you so much. I know we talk on the phone and stuff, but it’s not the same as having you here.’

  Mimi felt her ribs tighten. ‘I’ve missed you too.’

  Alicia smiled. ‘You look amazing.’

  ‘You mean I’m wearing a dress.’

  ‘No, I mean you look amazing,’ Alicia said firmly. ‘Doesn’t she?’ She turned to the tall, fair-haired man standing behind her. ‘Philip, this is my best friend—the very talented, soon-to-be-discovered filmmaker, Mimi Miller. Mimi, this is Philip. The love of my life and a perfect saint.’

  Mimi squeezed her friend’s hand. This was what she loved most about Alicia—the way she spoke from the heart. Anyone else would be hiding their feelings, trying to play it cool, making a joke, but Alicia had always been unashamedly open and honest.

  Philip stepped forward. ‘Hi, Mimi.’ He
kissed her lightly on both cheeks. ‘Alicia talks about you so much I feel like I already know you.’

  ‘And it didn’t put you off coming to lunch?’ She smiled at her friend. ‘You’re right—he is a saint.’

  ‘Hardly!’ Philip laughed, and then he turned towards Alicia, his eyes softening. ‘Alicia’s the saint. She makes the world a better place, and I’m the luckiest man alive.’

  Mimi nodded. ‘Yes, you are,’ she said quietly.

  But her pulse was beating out of time and she felt a familiar ache in her chest. Would any man ever say those words to her?

  It seemed unlikely. She’d only ever really loved one man, and he had made it so dauntingly clear that his interest in her had been nothing more than a moment of indiscretion to be swiftly forgotten that she had decided there and then that she was not ready for love. Maybe she never would be if it involved making herself vulnerable to such unbearable hurt.

  Her jaw tightened as she remembered how for a couple of hours she’d let herself believe that her youthful fantasy of love might become reality, only for Bautista Caine to trample her heart and her pride into dust.

  Even now, nearly two years later, she could still picture his face as he had stared straight through her, despite having kissed her just an hour earlier with an intensity that had left her blinded, breathless and dazed.

  She could feel herself being sucked towards the familiar vortex of unanswered questions.

  Why had he kissed her?

  No, why had he kissed her like that?

  With such fierce, consuming hunger.

  And why hadn’t he come back?

  Had she been too eager? Too clumsy?

  Her heart balled like a fist.

  It had hurt so much. It still did, if she let herself think about it, and what made the pain a thousand times worse was him being her best friend’s older brother, for that meant she had no one to confide in.

  Her stomach tightened.

  She’d have liked to pretend that she hadn’t said anything to Alicia purely out of love, and a desire not to put her friend in the middle, but part of her had been afraid. She knew what it was to be cast out into the darkness, and she hadn’t been willing to risk losing Alicia as she had lost everything else.

  And anyway, there had been too much other stuff going on—important stuff. Charlie and Raymond had been arrested and their two families had been torn apart, so she’d hardly been in a position to just call up her friend and discuss not sleeping with her brother.

  But now was not the time to be dredging up that particularly dismal part of the past, she told herself firmly. Her best friend was here in London, and she wasn’t going to let anything ruin that.

  Sitting down, she glanced admiringly around the restaurant. ‘This is such an amazing place.’

  ‘Never mind that. I want you to tell me everything you’ve been doing,’ Alicia said, laying down her menu. ‘Starting with your film.’

  Stalling for time, Mimi picked up her water glass. There was depressingly little to say. Like everything else she touched, it had fallen apart—all her effort and hopes turning to dust just as they always did.

  It was true that she had made a film—a short, largely improvised black and white movie about a group of girls on a night out in London—and, incredibly, she had managed to find a distributor for it. Only that had been nine months ago, and she was still struggling to get it released. And, frankly, the chances of that ever happening seemed to be getting less and less likely.

  She felt a twinge of tension in her shoulders.

  When filming had begun, both her lead actresses had been desperate to grab some arthouse credentials, but since then they had signed on to a high school movie franchise, and now their lawyers were blocking her film’s release on the grounds that their clients had only made the movie as a ‘favour’ to her.

  It wasn’t true. The real reason those actresses didn’t want to see the film released was that some of their ‘improvised’ comments were not very PG, and they didn’t want to damage their new, fresh-faced images.

  It was all such a mess—and far too long and boring a story for a celebratory lunch.

  She shook her head. ‘Later.’ Reaching over, she picked up Alicia’s hand and turned it over so that the diamond engagement ring glinted beneath the lights. ‘Right now I want to hear all about how you two got together.’

  Watching her friend talk, Mimi found herself relaxing. There was something so innocent and hopeful about Alicia. Philip was right. She did make the world a better place, and she wanted to make the world better for everyone too.

  ‘So, how many people are coming to the wedding?’ she asked as the waiters cleared the table.

  Philip frowned. ‘We’ve tried to keep the numbers down to about two hundred.’

  Mimi almost laughed. But of course—their wedding wasn’t just a private exchange of vows. It was a huge event in the social calendar.

  She cleared her throat. ‘I’m guessing you’re going to have it at Fairbourne?’

  Before her life had been turned upside down she’d been a regular guest at Fairbourne, the Caines’ fabled ivy-clad Georgian manor. She could still remember her first visit—how dazzled she’d been by the grandeur and beauty of the house and the almost ludicrous perfection of everything in it.

  Although not nearly so dazzled as she’d been when the beautiful, dark-eyed heir to the estate had kissed her all the way to his bedroom, closing the door and pulling off his clothes first, then hers.

  Her stomach clenched.

  She felt her fingers twitch against the smooth white tablecloth. Bautista looked sexy as hell clothed. He had the kind of lean, muscular physique and sculpted body that allowed him to wear anything and make it look better than anyone else could. But naked—

  Her mouth was suddenly dry. Naked, he was just beautiful, gorgeous...all endless, smooth golden skin and curving muscles.

  An image of Bautista stretching out over her flickered before her eyes and she blinked it away as she saw Alicia shake her head, her soft brown eyes suddenly bright with tears.

  ‘Oh, Lissy, what is it?’

  Philip took Alicia’s hand. ‘Bob had a viral infection at Christmas and he’s been a bit low since. That’s why we’ve brought the date forward to May.’

  Mimi nodded, trying to calm her beating heart. She’d met Alicia’s father, financier and philanthropist Robert Caine, many times, and he’d always been a generous, gentle and welcoming host. She felt her stomach knot with guilt. Of course that had been before his already frail health had deteriorated following her stepfather and her uncle’s betrayal.

  ‘And it’s why we decided to have the wedding in Argentina,’ Philip added. ‘It’ll be autumn there, so warm but not humid.’

  Alicia gave him a shaky smile, her face softening. ‘And Basa has very sweetly offered to let us use his estancia in Patagonia for the actual ceremony, and let guests stop over at his house in Buenos Aires en route.’

  Mimi’s mouth curved upwards automatically, responding to the joy in her friend’s voice, but for a moment she couldn’t breathe or speak. Alicia’s words were jangling inside her head like the notes on an out-of-tune piano, but she heard herself say quite normally, ‘Oh, Lissy, that sounds wonderful.’

  The waiters arrived with dessert and, glancing down at her hibiscus jelly and rum baba, Mimi suddenly felt sick. She’d known all along when she’d accepted Alicia’s invitation to lunch that it was only a matter of time before Bautista’s name came up in the conversation, but even so she was shocked by how much it hurt to hear it spoken out loud.

  Was that how he felt when he heard her name?

  Did he wince inside?

  And if so was it with shame at how he’d treated her?

  Or, given Charlie and Raymond’s actions, was he just relieved that he’d called time before they’d actually
slept together?

  She doubted that having sex with the stepdaughter of one of the men who had almost ruined his family would be high up on his list of personal goals.

  ‘It’s the most beautiful place, Mimi. There’s this huge expanse of sky, and the mountains in the distance, and soft golden grass in every direction.’ Alicia smiled shyly. ‘Basa says it’s the first step to heaven.’

  Her heart stilled in her chest.

  No, that had been the touch of his lips on hers, she thought, heat sweeping over her skin at the sudden sharp memory of what it felt like to be kissed by Bautista.

  Her hand shaking slightly, she picked up her glass and drank some wine in a hard swallow. ‘I’m so looking forward to it, Lissy,’ she said, with a conviction she didn’t feel. ‘It’s going to be the most beautiful day. But is there anything I can do? I mean, I’m sure you’ve got heaps of people helping...’

  ‘Actually, there is one thing we were going to ask you...’

  There was a beat of silence as Philip and Alicia glanced at one another.

  ‘Really?’ Mimi leaned forward. ‘So ask me?’

  ‘We’re going to have a photographer.’ Philip grimaced. ‘It’s not really our kind of thing, all those formal staged shots, but Bob and my parents are a little old-fashioned that way.’ He hesitated. ‘But what we’d really like is for you to make a film for us.’

  ‘Something personal,’ Alicia said quickly. ‘You know—like you did at school, with us just talking and being ourselves.’ Her mouth trembled. ‘You have such a gift, Mimi. You capture a moment and hold it for ever, and I thought you might be able to do that for us.’

  Mimi blinked. Her hands were shaking and her throat felt thick. ‘You’d trust me to do that?’ she said slowly.

  They both nodded.

  Meeting her gaze, Alicia gave her a lopsided smile. ‘I’ve trusted you with my life—or have you forgotten playing lacrosse against St Margaret’s?’

  Mimi grinned. ‘It’s seared into my brain.’

  Glancing over at her friend, she suddenly felt dizzy. More than anything, she wanted to say yes. She loved Alicia, and what better way to prove that than by making her shy, modest friend the star of her own film?