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Lexie stood between Adam and Rebecca in the royal enclosure, trying to enjoy the anniversary fireworks display. As per their arrangement, she’d stayed at Adam’s side through yet another formal dinner and for the last half hour out here. And still she’d been constantly aware of Rafe.
Rafe, whom she’d slept with.
She watched a series of starbursts of color and noise. As dandelions blossomed in the night sky, she heard the oohs and ahhs of the gathered crowd. But from the corner of her eye she watched Rafe. More riveting than the fireworks.
Among the royal guests were the young teens from Rafe’s polo team, whom he’d promised this treat to if they won their last match. They had. Convincingly. He was great with the kids and they clearly idolized him, the boys and girls alike. They listened avidly to what he said and tried hard to impress him. And he seemed to give them just the right amount of attention and encouragement back. Not too much, not too little. For someone who didn’t want a relationship, he’d make a great dad. And that was not a thought she should be having.
As he crouched to speak with an older man in a wheelchair, her thoughts began to wander.
She hadn’t seen him since she’d left her bed yesterday afternoon to shower.
Sanity had returned after the desperation of their lovemaking. They’d agreed, as they’d lain together, legs entwined, Rafe stroking her hair, touching her face, that it couldn’t be allowed to happen again. That, in fact, they’d pretend that it had never happened in the first place.
It was the only sensible course of action. No matter how hollow the decision had made her feel.
A failed engagement with Adam was bad enough. A relationship with Rafe, the Playboy Prince, even if it never became public, could only be catastrophic, on so many levels.
He’d been gone by the time she came back out from her shower. Today she’d had back-to-back engagements. Mostly with Adam. During all of which she had thought about Rafe.
And missed him.
Rafe, who’d made no attempt to contact her. She knew he wouldn’t, because they’d agreed that was best.
And the fact that she’d wanted him to only made her a fool.
She’d half hoped, as she gave herself to him, that he would be a disappointment. Because there was no future in a relationship with Rafe. They wanted different things.
But he hadn’t been a disappointment. He’d been a revelation. An insanity. Ecstasy and bliss. He’d been overwhelming passion. Infinitely more than her meager imagination had conjured.
“How are things going with Adam?” Rebecca asked.
“Fine,” she said hesitantly. Not wanting to discuss Adam with Rebecca. Not wanting to carry the deception any further than she had to. “Who’s Rafe talking to?”
Rebecca followed her gaze and smiled. “Malcolm. He was our head groundsman for decades. Such a lovely man. It’s so hard to see him like this. He and Rafe had a really special bond. Rafe was so active, always needing to be doing something, and Malcolm had the patience to teach him practical skills as well as a love of the outdoors to share. It all started with the tadpoles and frogs he used to find for Rafe in the lily pond.”
Lexie smiled at the thought. “I used to call Rafe the Frog Prince. Ever since that time I was eight and he threw a frog at me.”
Rebecca laughed. “Rafe went through such a phase with them. And turtles. That particular frog was one of the last generation in a long line of frogs he’d had since he was a little kid. He even had a name for it. Arnold or something.”
“Arthur.”
“That’s it. Dad had told us to think of something nice for you on that visit. That frog was the best Rafe could think of. He wanted to show it to you. Thought that an eight-year-old girl would have been as interested as he’d been when he was eight. Adam and I tried to tell him it wasn’t the thing, but he wasn’t having it. Then Adam knocked him and it fell into your lap.”
“Adam knocked him? I thought Rafe threw it.”
Rebecca was still smiling. “I remember the pandemonium. Us all on our hands and knees searching for it. Dad had a fit. Rafe had to put it out in the pond after that. In fact, he was banned from frogs thereafter.”
Lexie had to rewrite the entire incident in her head. Her Frog Prince. It had been a small thing, but pivotal in her admiration of Adam and her dislike of Rafe. For an eight-year-old, she’d been able to hold a powerful grudge.
And she’d had it all wrong.
He hadn’t been trying to torment her. He should have been the one with the grudge. Because of her, he’d lost his pet. Though she couldn’t help thinking Duke was a vast improvement.
Rebecca looked back in Rafe’s direction. “It’s so nice that Adelaide, Malcolm’s granddaughter, is home for the summer now, to help look after him. She got back just a couple of days ago.”
Lexie looked at the woman behind Malcolm. She was the same woman she’d seen Rafe talking to in a doorway just a few nights ago. Her heart sank. This was the woman she’d more or less implied he was having an illicit relationship with. Adelaide lifted her sunglasses from her eyes and Lexie realized just how young she was, still a teenager. A handsome youth approached and slung his arm around Adelaide’s shoulders and the girl blushed. And Lexie was racked with yet more guilt. She’d all but accused Rafe of having an affair with the young woman, thinking herself worldly as she did so. She was as bad as the tabloids. And Rafe had done almost nothing to defend himself or correct her assumption. He’d said there was nothing going on and she hadn’t believed him.
She’d done him such a disservice, thinking the worst of him, believing his tabloid reputation when she should have known better. There was so much more to him than the picture the press liked to paint of him. He let people believe the worst of him, when clearly he was so much better than that.
And here in public, with camera lenses trained on the whole royal party, she couldn’t go to him and apologize. Nor could she go to him in private. The risk there was entirely different and far graver.
She couldn’t go to him at all. It was her only option.
Lexie looked in horror from the newspapers spread out on her bed, to the card in her hand, to the phone beside her and then back to the papers.
Staying away from Rafe was not an option now. She had to do this. Taking a deep breath, she reached for the phone and slowly dialed the number.
Three rings. It was too early to be calling. But she couldn’t leave it and risk missing him. Four rings. One more and she’d hang up.
“Rafe.” A single rough syllable.
Her throat dried up.
“Who’s there?” he asked, a little more gently, but still with a husky, sleep-filled inflection. “Lex?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I can call again later.” She tried not to recall the image of him sprawled and slumberous in this very bed.
“I’m awake now. What’s wrong?”
“Aside from the fact that we slept together?” She looked again at the pictures in the papers.
Silence.
“Can I see you? It’s the papers.”
“To which you should pay no attention.”
“Please? You should see this. I don’t know what to do about it. I mean, I know I have to tell Adam, but I thought you should see it first. That was all.”
A ray of sunlight slanted through her window, highlighting the very picture she needed to show him. Outside, she heard the notes of the mockingbird whose bachelor’s song had disrupted her sleep throughout the night.
“You