Until that moment,Aleki Esera would swear he had never felt joy. There had been good times, certainly. The thrill of skydiving, the satisfaction of negotiating trade deals, the delight of a woman in his bed. But not until he stood on Avali soil, watching his people greet him and clasping the hand of the woman who would bear both his child and his name had he experienced such a surfeit of pure joy. Elated, he turned to the woman by his side.
“You will not regret this,” he swore, clutching their clasped hands to his chest. His heartbeat swelled beneath his breastbone, pounding against his ribcage as he stared deep into her eyes, trying to imprint his solemnity on her soul.
Stella offered him a shy smile, and his shoulders softened as warmth crept over him that had nothing to do with the tropical island temperature. She was stubborn and independent, his Stella, and she had chosen him, Aleki Esera, to be her husband when she did not need or particularly want one.
I will not let her down.
“Your Highness?”
“Lani!” His emotions made him more effusive than usual, and his assistant frowned at his uncharacteristic animation.
“It’s lovely to see you again, Lani.” Stella stepped forward smoothly, greeting the other woman with a kiss on the cheek. “I adore your outfit. That colour is fantastic on you.”
They stood together, the two most important women in his life, one in swirls of orange and one in a modest white shirtdress that looked no worse the wear for a four-hour flight. The sheer rightness of having two such formidable allies standing beside him settled in his gut.
You can do this. You can be the leader your people need. All you have to do is show him.
As if reading his thoughts, Lani turned to him.
“His Majesty has requested your presence. Loto’a.”
Even without Lani’s raised eyebrow, the significance was not lost on him.
“I see.”
“What do you see?” Stella looked between them, her green eyes wide.
“Loto’ameans ‘inside the fence’,” Aleki explained. “It is the local reference for the palace. Out of respect for the royal family, the people of Avali rarely say the word ‘palace’ itself. King Tama has several residences on the island, but he is summoning us to the seat of his power. It means he is not happy with me.”
“What could you have possibly done wrong?” Stella raised her eyebrows comically and her grin sent a shower of sparks through him. He reached his hand out and seized her wrist, pulling her warm body against his and dropping a light kiss on her lips. Ignoring the gasps from the dancers who were milling around, he smiled down at his woman.
“Nothing, little star. I have done absolutely nothing wrong.”
“Be that as it may, the king is waiting.” Aleki tore his eyes off Stella and turned reluctantly to Lani, whose side-eye could win championships.
“Indeed.” He brushed invisible lint off his grey dress shirt. “Let us not waste any more of His Majesty’s time.”
The car purred along the highway as Aleki turned the new developments over in his head. In the background he could hear Stella chatting with Lani and asking Andreas about his family, sparkling with the spirit that had first attracted him to her - that had always attracted him to her. And that was what was causing the queasiness in his stomach, the throb of blood at his temples. Now that he had Stella, he could see - it was always her he had been waiting for. He had run from it at university, but here they were years later, in the very place he had known they would end up if he stayed.
“We’re here.”
Lani’s pronouncement cut through his turmoil.
“Oh,” Stella breathed beside him, clutching at his arm. “It’s beautiful.”
Her eyes were wide as the car passed through the ornate gates and she gazed out at the manicured lawns leading down to the sea.
“The building was erected in 1857,” Lani intoned. “It is crafted from the wood of local trees. Bedrooms are on the second floor, with the receiving rooms and diplomatic chambers below. Our National Archives are housed in the east wing and are open to the public during the week. The white walls and red roof reflect the colours of the Avali flag.”
“It looks almost European,” Stella observed, leaning forward to peer out the window. Several strands of hair fell across her face and Aleki reached out to tuck them back behind her ear, relishing the cool silk of the chestnut waves between his fingers.
Lani shrugged. “Colonisers have always tried to impart their ways on the islands. Some things we take and use, others we dismiss. This style of architecture is popular across much of the Pacific. If you pay attention, you will notice the native symbols engraved in the balustrades on both levels. However, the majority of the common areas are open, supported by pillars. This is how the fale, or homes, of our people are designed. Our official buildings are merely a representation of our heritage.”
“Is this where you grew up?”
Stella’s inquiry shook something loose in Aleki. He snorted indelicately. “No, little star. My brother and I did spend many hours running around the verandah here, but we moved between the other residences for most of my childhood. This is where important things happen, and important matters are of no concern to children. When I became a man at twenty I was gifted one of the parcels of land under the royal holdings, and built my own house there.”
“Yours is a very different style, “ Stella observed, and Aleki bit back a smile.
“That is not by accident.” After years of being stuck in dark wooden rooms brimming with tradition, he had purposefully designed his home to reflect light and space. ‘Neo-Moorish Minimalism’, the architect had called it.
“I like yours better.” Heat trickled through him as Stella’s lips curved upwards in a cheeky smile. If anything could distract him from his father’s ire, it was those lips. Full and lush, painted a pretty pink. As he watched, her tongue flicked out and wet them, leaving a glistening sheen behind that he longed to sample. Desire buzzed in his ears, filling his head, pulsing low in his groin. Craving the sensation of his mouth on hers, he leaned forward, eyes locked on his target.
Just a taste.
“Your Highness!” The bite in Lani’s tone warned him this might not be the first time she’d spoken.
“My liege?” The spell broken, he leaned back against the smooth leather of the seat, dragging his eyes from the temptation of heaven that sat not a foot from him.
Lani flushed at the hated nickname. “The car has stopped.”
“So it has.” He looked back at Stella, his stomach knotting at the wariness he saw as she studied him.
The door opened and a shaft of light cut across Stella’s face as the sun filtered into the dark interior. It picked out the gold in her hair and the emerald fire in the eye it touched. Responsibility settled itself heavily on Aleki’s shoulders as he considered for the first time how much she was giving up to help him live his life the way he wanted. Reaching out, he enfolded her hand in his, stroking his thumb lightly across the veins inside her wrist.
“Everything will be okay,” he assured her. “I’ll look after you.”
“I’ll look after myself, thank you very much,” Stella replied lightly. “But you can help, if you like.”
Aleki felt his face break into a grin.
“As you wish,” he replied gently. “Now, let’s go see a king about a wedding.”
Alighting from the car, he turned to help Stella out, and almost missed the intake of breath from the staff lined up to greet them.
Not a great start.
Part of it was the unfamiliar presence of a woman beside him, he knew that. But some of it was how that woman looked. Bringing a palagi woman inside the gates was not without significance, and only time would tell whether or not it would be received well. If nothing else, she looked the part of a visiting princess. Her dress had maintained its crispness on the drive, and her black belt and matching flats were stylish but sensible.
Fighting his nerves, he offered his arm and was gratified when she accepted it. Lani and Andreas fell in behind them as he led the group across the paved driveway and up the wide wooden steps, nodding at the staff who bowed their heads in deference at his passing. Once inside, his entourage peeled off, leaving the two of them to proceed ahead to the Great Hall, where he knew instinctively his father would be waiting. King Tama was a fan of the power move.
Sure enough, the spacious room was empty, save for the wide tapa mat on the floor in front of the raised platform where his father lolled on the carved wooden throne that symbolised Aleki’s future.
“Come, my son.”
Aleki fought a smirk at the dramatics. He’d seen his father three days ago, yet here he was acting as though he was returning from war. Were it not for the importance of the woman beside him and all she represented, he would have let his amusement bloom on his face. But that would not help him now.
Approaching the dais, Stella’s hand still firmly grasped in his, Aleki bowed his head.
“May I present Miss Stella Warren, my guest from New Zealand. Miss Warren, His Majesty King Tama of Avali, my father.”
Wrestling her hand from his, Stella curtseyed. Impressively, for someone unfamiliar with the custom. “It is an honour, Your Majesty.”
“The pleasure is mine, Miss Warren,” the king lied smoothly. “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
Aleki settled himself cross-legged on the tapa cloth and was joined by Stella after a moment’s hesitation. The coolness of the hardwood floors seeped through the mat. Comfortable, it was not, but that was the nature of these games they played.
“Might I ask that we speak in English, Father? Stella has not yet mastered our language.”
“Leai.” King Tama’s response was swift.
“What is it you wish to achieve?” the king continued in his native tongue. “You commandeer my plane to bring home a tryst? Are you trying to prove to your people that you are nothing more than a boy, ruled by his hormones?”
Cold seeped through Aleki, icy fingers reaching through his stomach and twining up his torso. Fear of letting down his people gripped at his heart, squeezing until his chest felt like it might explode.
“It is not like that, Father. I would never disrespect the subjects of Avali by bringing a woman I was not serious about to our shores.”
King Tama snorted, curling the lips under his neatly trimmed mustache in a sneer. “You cannot be serious about this woman, son. Bringing her here will do nothing but cause rumours and unease amongst our people. Send her home, and I will find you a nice Avali girl if you wish to settle down.”
Aleki steeled himself. “I wish to settle down with Stella, Your Majesty. She has agreed to be my wife.”
The king pierced Aleki with his glare as the air around him stilled. Every thread on his graphite suit seemed to hover as the air around him vibrated with barely suppressed rage.
“You have not proposed marriage to this woman.”
Aleki averted his eyes, focusing on the tips of his shoes and the aged tapa beneath them.
“I have.”
“You foolish boy,” the king exploded, his voice soaring to the rafters of the cavernous hall. “How dare you bring this woman here, making her promises you can not hope to keep! Do you care nothing for your people? You can not trifle with them in this way. You have a responsibility to the crown of Avali. If you wish to marry, you will marry the daughter of a chief and ensure our bloodline is strong. This woman has no place here, in our family, in our culture. She knows nothing of what it means to be an Esera! And you, my son, where is your judgement? All of your life, I have raised you to put the needs of your people first. I have overlooked your indiscretions overseas because they have not interfered with your role here. But this is unacceptable. The people of Avali will not accept a white woman on their throne. To say nothing of what might happen if she were to produce an heir.”
Aleki winced, and the air shifted.
“You stupid boy.” Realisation and disappointment weighted each of his father’s quiet words, sending them sinking heavily to the pit of Aleki’s stomach like stones. “Take your whore and get out.”