‘I once looked it up on the Internet,’ she muttered on. ‘My parents’ romance was all so well documented. She was a famous actress, he was a handsome king...you know, the stuff of fairy tales.’
But not long after their marriage her mother had grown miserable, unable to cope with royal life in Monrova. And then, after the split, when sent away with one of her daughters, she’d been unable to cope with her ‘freedom’ back in the States.
Suddenly, to Jade, a life swamped in duty seemed safer after all.
‘I had no idea how bad it was for Juno with our mother,’ she said. ‘I wish she’d told me.’
‘Could you have done anything if she had?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know...but I didn’t even get the chance. She should have confided in me,’ she said sadly, leaning back in a heap against the end of the bed. ‘She shouldn’t have had to deal with all that on her own.’
‘You dealt with things on your own too.’
‘Not the same, Alvaro.’ She shook her head. ‘So not the same.’
‘You can’t beat yourself up for not knowing what she was dealing with. You were on the other side of the world, you had limited contact and you were barely an adult yourself. You didn’t have much power to help either of them, Jade.’
‘I could have been a support to Juno,’ she whispered. ‘But she didn’t want that.’
He was silent a while. ‘She probably wanted to protect you.’
‘I don’t need protection.’ She hated the thought of people thinking she couldn’t cope or that she wasn’t wise enough to make her own decisions. Or didn’t have something to give other people besides a smile and a polite wave. ‘She didn’t need to do that for me.’
‘You want to protect her too,’ he pointed out with a wry smile. ‘That works both ways, Jade. She feels that you have burdens of your own that she’d wished she could ease for you...the Crown, for one thing.’
She shook her head again. ‘I had it easy compared to her.’
‘Did you?’ He sat next to her on the floor, his leg running the length of hers. ‘You were left with an unloving father who didn’t bother to get you anything for Christmas. Let alone anything more meaningful. You were probably terrified that if you messed something up, he’d boot you out too.’
She stared at the floor, her eyes stinging with tears. Because it had been exactly that. She’d been terrified of stuffing up. Of him yelling at her the way she’d heard him yell at Juno. Of being banished the way her mother had.
She’d worked so hard in every way to do and be all that he wanted. And he still hadn’t noticed, hadn’t softened...hadn’t cared.
‘Jade?’ Alvaro cupped her face with his hand in that careful, tender way and turned her to look at him.
She couldn’t speak, couldn’t push past that lump in her throat as she gazed into the warmth of his eyes.
‘Is that how it was?’ he asked.
She was so stiff with agony, she could barely nod.
‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered.
‘I...’ She breathed in a hard breath. ‘I just wish she’d talked to me.’
‘It can be the hardest thing to say something painful...’ he said softly. ‘Even to someone...’
She nodded again. She knew.
That was how it was for him, wasn’t it? Impossible to say something personal, even to a friend.
The silence between them grew as she gazed into his beautiful, beautiful eyes and wished for other things to be different too.
‘Jade...’ His voice was strained. ‘We really need to get out of this room.’ He lifted his hand and ran his fingers through his hair.
She glanced up at him and attempted a feeble joke. ‘You want to go to the gym?’
His face lit up at the thought she truly hadn’t meant for real. ‘Now that is an excellent idea.’
‘I wasn’t serious.’ She really, really wasn’t serious.
But he was already on his feet. ‘There’s one on level three.’
‘You know that? Oh, my...of course you know that.’
‘Come on.’ He extended his hand to her and, heaven help her, she took it.
‘I thought you wanted food,’ she groaned.
‘We can get something after. There’s a Christmas carnival down the street. They have flashing lights, I promise.’ He opened the door and went out into the corridor. ‘I don’t know about you, but I need to burn some energy.’
Five minutes later Jade found herself facing Alvaro, who’d already whipped off his sweater to reveal a tee that hugged that masculine vee of his body. Too well did she remember the heated wall of muscle that was his chest.
He danced in front of the boxing bag and winked at her. ‘Spar with me.’
‘You cannot be serious.’ She lifted her hands in surrender instead. ‘You’re way bigger than I am.’
‘I’ll keep one hand behind my back.’
‘And hop on one foot?’ She shook her head and walked over to the equipment rack, leaving him to it. ‘Not going to happen.’
But he was trying to make her laugh and it was working.
‘There are things I could do with that skipping rope, Jade, if you don’t want to use it in the usual way.’
She shot him a look and his laugh was low and sexy and then he turned and took a couple of playful swipes at the bag. She stared at his pure graceful strength and athleticism.
‘You’re not being fair,’ she softly complained.
All the emotions he’d made her feel in the last twenty minutes?
‘And you are?’ he countered quietly. ‘Look at you...just...’
‘Just what?’
‘Standing there.’
Warmth flooded her. He made her feel so wanted—at least in this one way.
‘We both agreed the rules,’ she breathed. ‘We both understood them.’
‘But you’ve broken other rules already this week, Jade. If you’ve done it once you can do it again.’
‘Or perhaps I’ve learned my lesson.’ She stepped back. ‘And all I’ve eaten today are some pastries. Let’s go get something more substantial, shall we?’
‘Oh, fine,’ he growled.
Two hours later they walked back to the hotel. Jade hadn’t laughed as much in years. Alvaro had unleashed his ultra-competitive side and she’d been unable to resist the challenge. With his apparently bottomless supply of quarters, they’d thrown darts at balloons for far too long before eating unidentifiable meat on a stick and piping-hot fries. She’d refused the neon cotton candy because she didn’t need the sugar high to make her heart pound faster.