Which was thoroughly ironic, the more he considered it. He’d chosen the lie when he realized he wanted her for his wife. He’d seen it as the only sure way to his goal. So he supposed that meant his idea of himself as an honest man was only another lie.
And damned if he wasn’t giving himself a headache, going around and around about this in his mind, when he was set on his course and there was no going back now.
He heard a faint buzzing sound: the cell phone in his trouser pocket, flung across that nearby chair.
Slowly, carefully, so as not to wake her, he eased back the covers and brought his feet to the floor. By then, the phone had stopped buzzing. He collected it from the trousers and tiptoed to the room’s bath, where he checked to see who had called.
His father.
The voice mail signal beeped. He called to pick up the message.
His father’s voice said “Rule. Call me on this line as soon as you get this. We need to touch base on the subject of Liliana.”
Lili. What now?
With the nine-hour time difference, it would be around noon in Montedoro, which made it as good a time to call as any.
But not from the bathroom, where Sydney might wake up and walk in on him.
So he returned to the dark bedroom, where his bride was still sleeping the untroubled slumber of the blameless. He found his briefs and his trousers and put them back on. He tiptoed to the door and pulled it slowly open. The hinges played along and didn’t squeak. He slipped through and closed it soundlessly behind him.
The suite had a balcony. He went out there, into the warm desert night, and closed the slider behind him.
His father answered on the first ring. “I understand congratulations are in order?”
The balcony had a café table and a couple of chairs. He dropped into one of them. “Thank you. I’m a very happy man.”
“How is the boy?”
“Trevor is … a revelation to me. More than I ever might have wished for. Wait till you see him.”
“I’m looking forward to that. When will you bring them home to us?”
“Sydney needs a month, she says. I’ll come home ahead for a week or so and take care of my commitments there, and then return to help her through the transition.”
“I heard that you had a little run-in with the press.”
Rule didn’t ask how his father knew. Joseph could have turned in a report—or the information could have come from any number of other sources. “Yes. They got away with pictures. And they put it together—Sydney’s white dress, her engagement diamond and wedding band.”
“So I understand. It won’t take the story long to end up in the tabloids.”
“I know.” Rule felt infinitely weary thinking of that.
“Liliana is still here, still our guest at the palace. She has no idea that you’ve already married someone else.”
“I know,” Rule said again. He got up, stood at the iron railing, stared down at the resort pool, at the eerie glow the pool lights made, shining up through the water, at the rows of empty lounge chairs.
“Your mother is waiting to hear from you. She’s always thought of you as the most considerate and dependable of her children.”
“I’ve disappointed her.”
“She’ll get over it.” His father’s voice was gentler now.
“I’m trusting you to keep my secret,” he reminded his father.
“I haven’t told anyone, not even your mother.” His father sighed.
“I should have spoken to Lili first, I know, for the sake of our long friendship—and in consideration of Montedoro’s sometimes strained relationship with Leo.” King Leo was Lili’s hot-tempered, doting father. “But it was awkward, since I had made no proposal to her. How exactly was I to go about telling her that I wouldn’t be proposing? Also there was the timing of it. As soon as I finally met Sydney and made my decision, I felt it was imperative to move forward, to attain my goal before leaving the States.”