Rachel turned to give her personal assistant a smile. ‘Yes, I am.’
‘The discussion was productive?’
‘Very much so, I believe. Do I have anything scheduled for the rest of the day, Monica?’
‘I don’t believe there is anything on your schedule until a dinner tomorrow night.’
‘Right.’ Rachel paused as she took off the heels she still hadn’t got used to wearing. ‘And do you happen to know where the King is?’ she asked casually.
Monica’s face was carefully blank. ‘I believe he is out.’
‘Thank you.’ She dismissed her assistant with a smile and a small wave.
Alone in her suite Rachel drifted around, grateful for an unscheduled afternoon and yet still feeling a bit lost. She’d seen very little of Mateo in the last month, besides formal events and nights—nights which were seared on her mind and made her body tingle. Still, she missed spending time with him, missed the easy friendship they’d once had, when it hadn’t been complicated by the demands of royalty—and marriage. Even if he would never love her, she wished he’d spend time with her.
She had just changed into comfortable clothes and settled on a sofa by the window with her laptop, hoping to catch up on some emails to friends, when a light knock sounded on her door.
‘Yes?’
‘Hello.’ Mateo popped his head around the door, giving her a wry smile. ‘Are you busy?’
‘Busy? No.’ Rachel closed her laptop, trying to temper the feeling of delight that was spreading through her like warm, golden honey. Perhaps he just had a quick question to ask, and then he’d be on his way...
‘I thought we could spend the afternoon together,’ Mateo said, an unusual note of hesitation in his voice. ‘If you wanted to.’
If? The smile that bloomed across Rachel’s face was impossible to suppress, not that she even wanted to. ‘I’d love that.’
‘Good.’
‘What did you have in mind?’
‘I thought we could go sailing, just the two of us.’
‘On our own?’ After being shadowed by security and staff for the last month, the prospect was wonderfully liberating.
‘We’ll leave the security on the shore. They can’t live in my pocket all the time.’
Rachel frowned. ‘Are you sure it will be safe?’
‘No one’s knows where we’re going.’ Mateo shrugged. ‘It would be good to get away.’
Yes, it would. And the fact that Mateo wanted to spend time alone with her was intoxicating. ‘All right,’ Rachel said. ‘When do you want to go?’
‘How long until you’re ready?’
She laughed. ‘Five minutes.’
And it was only five minutes later t
hat they were driving in a dark green convertible, a palace car Rachel hadn’t seen before, but much preferred to the heavy SUVS with their blacked-out windows.
With the sky bright blue above them and the sea sparkling below, the day felt full of promise.
‘Where are we going, exactly?’ Rachel asked.
‘A private marina where there’s a sailboat.’
‘I didn’t even know you could sail,’ she said with a laugh. Mateo threw her a glinting smile.