Along Came A Prince (26 page)

“No way, sir. That
was never my intention. I only did what I had to do to keep my sister safe.”

“Not going to tell
me, huh?” The chief grunted, stood up and adjusted the suspenders on his pants.
“It doesn’t matter anyhow. The stalker was a dead man before you got into the
act. Marcellini did us a favor. He gave us Melbourne’s killer as well as saving
the State money for his execution. Now, get your ugly puss out of here and give
Stacia the good news. It’s safe for her to come home.”

“Are you sure, Father,
you were explicit enough when you contacted Marcellini about Stacia’s stalker?”
Clay asked his father after Ryan had called about Al Jordan being killed. “I
remember telling you
no rough stuff
.”

“And I remember
telling
you
they will do as they want,” his father said. “Stacia’s safe
now, isn’t she? Isn’t that what you wanted? And the world is rid of one less
killer. I’d say that’s a win-win situation.”

“How did you get mixed
up with the mafia anyway? Your business partners seem to cover both ends of the
spectrum. You have Sam Prescott on one end – loyal, honest and a good friend. Then
Sonny Marcellini on the other – the opposite of everything Sam is. Wasn’t Sam’s
money enough for your cause?”

“You don’t
understand power, Clay. Each man has a different type. Sam’s power is in the
financial world, while Sonny’s is in the underworld, down in the dirt where the
rebels dwell. I need both of them for different reasons.” His father took a sip
from the coffee cup sitting on his desk. “Sonny’s money also gives me power.”

“And he could
shoot you in the back if you didn’t do what he wanted.”

“Only if he
thought I’d double-crossed him, and I have no intention of doing that.”

“So, Mother’s
remark when I was young that we’d live in a
den of inequity
wasn’t far
off, was it?” Clay stood up and walked over to one of the palace windows and
gazed outside.

“I have one goal
in my life and that is to regain my country, to strip those rebels of the power
they stole from me and to make them pay for it. How I do it matters not to me,
nor should it to you.”

Clay glanced at
his father. The years of anger and bitterness inside him was spread across his
face like an open wound.
Same argument. Different day
.

“When you reign as
king, my son, you will thank me then.”

 “You don’t get
it, do you?” Clay sat back down on his chair and leaned forward to try to get
his message across. “I don’t want to be king of anything. I have too many other
things I want to do with my life. Getting mixed up with Sonny Marcellini is not
one of those options.”

“If you don’t want
to be king for my sake, then you should be for your mother’s. She deserves to
be called
queen
again officially, and I intend for her to be.”

“I think Mother’s
happy right here at SwissDen, the same as I am.”

His father pounded
the desk with his fist. His coffee cup and the other loose items rattled
noisily from the vibration. “There’s a principle here. I’ve told you that
before. I have a duty to my subjects. I don’t have any choice but to strengthen
my position in any way I can in order to rule my country once more.”

“Suppose you tell
me how close you are to achieving this goal?”

“I don’t want you
to be involved. The less you know, the safer you are.”

“Safer?” 

His father snorted.
“Why are you surprised? You don’t regain control of your country by playing it
safe. That’s why I have Sonny at my helm.”

“Isn’t it time to
slow down and enjoy what you have?” Clay asked, his anger erupting inside him. “You’re
too old to march into war. Have you stopped to think what Mother would do if
something happened to you?”

“I don’t expect
you to understand what is not a burning passion inside you. The best I can do
is build you a safe haven, which I have done here at SwissDen. The only other
thing I can do is not involve you, and I never have. I’ve allowed your mother’s
influences to shape you into the man you’ve become, and I’m proud of everything
you are. But don’t try to change
me
. It’s too late for that.” His father
held his arm up in the air, as if he were making a vow, and Clay knew he was. “I
will rule my country again...and soon.”

“At all costs?”

“At all costs,”
his father confirmed.

♥♥

Stacia didn’t know
the entire story of what happened to her stalker. When Ryan had called her,
he’d been very vague about the details. He’d said the stalker’s name was Al
Jordan, the son of the man who’d been involved with two others in Audra’s
kidnapping, rape and murder.

Ryan also told her
Jordan had been killed recently in a shootout with the mafia. When she’d tried
to press her brother for more information, he clammed up and would only say, “
It’s
over, Stace. You’re safe now, and that’s what counts. So, let’s get on with our
lives.”

She could go home
now and back to work. But why didn’t she want to? The easy answer to that
question was
Clay
. But it was more than him. It was SwissDen too. Outside
of SwissDen, she knew the media blared the story of the stalking and murder,
and the world consumed the gory details. Yet inside this safe cocoon in her
pink and lavender-ruffled suite, she felt sheltered and protected from the
ugliness of life.

And Clay? What
about him? They’d just spent a week together, and he’d been a perfect gentleman.
And she’d been the perfect
friend.
Is that all the relationship she
wanted with him? To be friends? Did she want some other woman loving him,
caring for him, marrying him,
sleeping with him
and having his children?
No...absolutely not. She didn’t even want some other woman kissing him.

She wanted all of
him...all to herself. She remembered Josie saying Ryan was her twin flame, the
ultimate gift according to Josie, that destiny reserved for only the most
privileged soulmates to renew and reuse each lifetime and through eternity. Why
did she feel like Clay was her twin flame too?

But even if they
were soulmates, what could she do about it? And how could she kick the notion
out of her mind that she shouldn’t marry?

There was only one
solution. To get home as fast as she could and finish working out all her
problems with Josie’s help. Maybe if she dug deep enough inside her psyche,
she’d find out her feeling was wrong. Then she’d be free to marry, and she’d
make sure Clay got his second chance to see her in her packed-away green outfit.
We’ll see how much self-control he has then.

A knock at her
door sent her hurrying to answer it. She knew Clay was on the other side
waiting for her. They had such a small amount of time left to be together, and
she wanted each precious moment to be indelibly sketched in their minds.

“Hi,” she said, a
smile lighting her face. “I’m ready for whatever it is we’re going to do.”

He matched her
smile before putting his arms around her and holding her close. “I remember an
offer I received not long ago that sounded very much like that too,” he
whispered in her ear before he kissed her.

The remembered ecstasy
of his previous kisses hit her full force once again. But as quickly as the
kiss started, it ended. He let go of her and took a step backward.

“I don’t want you
to get the wrong idea,” he said. “That was a friendly victory kiss for the
battle you just won. The war is over, and the enemy has been defeated. Your
world is safe once more.”

“
Friendly?
We
must not be using the same dictionary. I wouldn’t define that kiss as
friendly
.”

He held his arms
out to her, and she walked into them. As he closed his arms around her, he
kissed her once more.

“I love you, you
know. I can’t help myself. I try to stay within your boundaries, but it doesn’t
work all the time.” He kissed the tip of her nose, her cheek, her closed eyes, then
her forehead and kept going down the other side until he reached her mouth. His
lips rested there. He pulled back a little. “What are we going to do about us?
Are you ready to move on to the next step?”

“What is the next
step?” She looked at him, knowing the magical romantic moment they had just
shared had ended.

He let go of her, shrugged
his shoulders and stuck his hands in his pocket. “I don’t know, but it might
involve more than sporadic kisses.”

“I agree with you,
but I also know I can’t change the final outcome of any love we might feel for
each other.”

“What are you
talking about? What final outcome?”

“That isn’t so
easy to explain. It gets into gray areas I’m not especially comfortable sharing
with you.”

“You’re doing it
again, Stacia. Adding more bricks to your wall. I can’t tear them down as fast
as you build them.”

“Okay, you might
as well know that besides having dreams I don’t understand, I also have this
feeling inside me that destiny will never let me marry, or allow me to be
happily married if I did. Something will happen to one of us. I don’t know
where it comes from. I only know it’s there, and I’m stuck with it, unless
Josie can help me get rid of it.”

“You run away from
love because of a feeling?”

“A feeling should
nudge you, not possess your heart and soul with demands like this one does. I
can’t forget it. All I can do is believe it. Anyway, it’s stronger than a
feeling. If you know something, you just know it,” Stacia concluded, resigned
as always to her fate. She went over to the sofa and sank down in its plush cushions.

Clay sat next to
her and leaned over, resting his arms on his legs. “Why do you think you have
the power to see into the future?”

“I don’t need any
power. It’s an indisputable fact to me.”

“What does Josie
say about it?”

“She understands. She’s
trying to help me. If she can’t, then her mother is a hypnotherapist, and
she’ll regress me to see if we can figure out if a past life has anything to do
with it.” She sat up, put her hand on his arm and turned him toward her, so she
could see directly into his eyes. “Now you know everything. You’ve torn all the
bricks down.”

He smiled at her,
then turned serious. “You’ve taken a big step forward by telling me what’s
going on inside your mind. It’s a good start. How long do you think it’ll take
to work through this? Maybe you need to see a psychiatrist.”

“Josie’s mother is
a psychiatrist, along with using hypnosis in her therapy. Believe me, no one
wants to get rid of this feeling more than I do. If I need her mother, I’ll
gladly see her.”

“In the
meantime...”

“I plan on going
home tomorrow or as soon as it’s convenient for you.”

Clay picked up her
hands and tenderly kissed her fingertips. “I don’t want you to go home at all.”

“Seconds before
you knocked on my door, I admitted to myself that I didn’t want to go home
either.” She looked around the room. “I feel so comfortable here and safe.”

“Then why don’t
you stay?”

“Because I have a
lot of steps to climb. I have to get back to the studio. I have a contract, and
I’ve held up production long enough. I also need to work hard with Josie to see
if I can get destiny to change its mind...or my mind...about my future.”

“I’ll be waiting
for you at the top of those stairs, you know, with my heart in my hand.”

Stacia grinned at
him. “Then I’d better hurry home and get climbing.”

“I can fly you
home tomorrow in the G650 non-stop. That way you can avoid the media as long as
possible, since you happen to be their favorite news item right now.”

“Since I met you,
that conclusion does seem to apply.” 

“There’s one bigger
event I’d like to share with them.”

“And what’s that?”
Stacia asked.

“I’ll tell you
when the time is right.” Clay gathered her into his arms and kissed her in a
way he could never again describe as
friendly
.

♥♥

Once home, Stacia
found the following month to be one of the most hectic she’d ever experienced. Days
were spent filming, which helped her readjust to life outside her home once
more. Nights were reserved for long-distance calls between Clay and her, connecting
them together in the only way possible at the present time.

When Clay had
asked if he could come to California to be with her, she suggested he wait
until
London Affair
was finished. She wouldn’t be able to concentrate on
her role if he was with her, distracting her every moment with his sexiness and
creating havoc with her self-control and desire for him.

The demands of
having to be on the set for every scene sucked her energy level almost dry. But
whenever she’d return to her dressing room, she would close the door and shut
out the world and the stalking with her meditation.

And it did help
her to relax and relieve her stress. She was also calmer and more focused. Each
Sunday afternoon, Josie would teach her more about exploring her inner self.

“I think you’re
ready to try a little past life regression, Stacia,” Josie had said yesterday
at the start of their session.

“I’ve been waiting
to hear you say that,” Stacia had replied.

“We’ll start off
meditating like always, and then we’ll go a different direction. Relax now.”
Josie led the meditation as she had before until Stacia was at her special
place. “Now, I want you to stand up and walk away from your safe place. Don’t
be afraid. You’ll still be protected because you have white light surrounding
you as a shield. You’re now walking down a path in a forest.”

That was easy for
Stacia because her waterfall was in the middle of the woods at SwissDen. She started
down a path through the trees.

“Look around and
admire the beauty the Universe is offering you. Keep walking until you see a
cave hidden in a hill. Enter the cave feeling as if it holds a key to what you
want to discover. As you’re walking through the cave, you see some stairs
leading down to the bottom. Begin to descend them, and as you do, count
backwards. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. You’re at a landing now. Be certain
you want to continue down the steps, knowing that in an exploration such as
this, not everything you see will necessarily be good.”