LITMIR.BIZ

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his gaze to the harbor and watched an inbound sailboat. “As I explained to you earlier, I’m done.”

      “How can you walk away from your team and all the hard work they’ve put in on the project?”

      Why didn’t she understand? Even if it wasn’t his duty to return to Sherdana, Nic couldn’t let go of the fact that his faulty design had destroyed the rocket and resulted in a man’s death. Besides, Glen was the heart of the project. He would carry on in Nic’s absence.

      “Glen will find a new engineer,” Nic said. “Work will continue.”

      The rocket’s destruction had hastened the inevitable. Nic had known he couldn’t stay in California forever. It was only a matter of time before responsibility to his country would have forced him to return home.

      “But you were the brains behind the new fuel delivery system.”

      And his life’s work had resulted in a complete disaster. “They have my notes.”

      “But—”

      “Leave it alone.” He kept his voice low, but the sharp snap of the words silenced her. An uneasy tension descended between them. “Are you hungry? If you like eggplant, the moussaka is very good.”

      She pressed her lips together, but Nic could see she wanted to argue with him further. Instead, she asked, “So, what are you going to do?”

      “My family is going through a hard time right now. I’m going home.”

      “For how long?”

      “For good.”

      “Wow.”

      The shaky breath she released was a punch to his gut. A week ago he’d left California as soon as the initial investigation of the accident concluded. He hadn’t spoken to her before getting on a plane. His emotions were too raw. And he’d had no idea how to say goodbye.

      “I wish I could make you understand, but I can’t.”

      “You’re afraid.”

      Nic eyed Brooke. Her perceptiveness where he was concerned had always made him wary of letting her get too close. Maybe telling her the truth would be a mistake. Giving her access to his life would increase his connection to her, and keeping his distance would become that much harder.

      “Of hurting more people, yes.”

      She would assume he meant another scientist like Walter Parry, the man who’d died. But Nic was thinking about his family and her brother. And most of all her. When Gabriel’s engagement had been announced, Nic had felt a loosening of the ties that bound him to Sherdana. Gabriel and Olivia would get married and go on to produce the future monarchs of Sherdana, raising them with Gabriel’s twin two-year-old daughters, Bethany and Karina, who’d come to live with Gabriel after their fashion model mother had died a month earlier. They were illegitimate and the only children Gabriel would ever have.

      Lady Olivia’s infertility—and Gabriel’s decision to make her his wife—meant Nic and Christian were no longer free to marry whomever they wished. Or, in Christian’s case, to continue enjoying his playboy lifestyle and never marry at all.

      Nic cursed the circumstances that had turned his life upside down and sucked him back into a world that couldn’t include Brooke. If he’d been a simple scientist, he wouldn’t have to resist the invitation in her eyes. Nic shoved away the traitorous thought. It was pointless to dwell on what could never be.

      “I can’t believe you’re really going to give it all up,” she said. “You and my brother were excited about the future. The pair of you would get so caught up in a new discovery you wouldn’t have noticed if a tornado swept the lab away. You love being a scientist.”

      “I do, but…” In the three weeks since the rocket had blown up, he’d lost confidence in his abilities. Yet his passion continued to burn. The opposing forces were slowly tearing him apart.

      “What are you going to do when you go home?”

      “My brothers are interested in luring technology-based companies into the country. They want me to be their technical consultant.”

      He tried to inject some enthusiasm into his voice and failed. While he agreed with Gabriel that Sherdana’s economy would benefit from an influx of such businesses, he wasn’t excited about his role in the process. His whole life he’d been actively engaged in creating technologies that would shape the future. The idea of promoting someone else’s vision depressed him.

      “Sooo,” she dragged the word out, “you’re never coming back to California?”

      “No.”

      “If this is about the rocket…”

      “It’s not.”

      “I don’t understand what’s going on with you.” She looked more than puzzled. She looked worried. “It’s not like you to give up.”

      Nic knew she deserved a full explanation, but once she found out he’d been keeping a huge secret from her all these years she was going to be furious. “There’s a little something about me you don’t know.”

      “Oh, I think there’s more than a little something.”

      He ignored her sarcasm. “It’s complicated.”

      “It’s okay. As you pointed out earlier, I have two doctorates. I can understand complicated.”

      “Very well. I’m not an ordinary scientist.” He lowered his voice, wishing he’d had this conversation with her at the villa. “I’m Prince Nicolas Alessandro, second in line to the throne of Sherdana.”

      “A prince? Like a real prince?” Her misty-green eyes blurred and she shook her head as if to rid her brain of his admission. “I don’t get it. You sound as American as I do.”

      “I went to college in Boston. In order to fit in, I eliminated my accent.” Nic leaned forward, glad that there was a table between them. He longed to pull her into his arms and kiss away her unhappiness. That was something he could never again do. “My country is Sherdana. It’s a small kingdom tucked between France and Italy.”

      “How small?”

      “A little less than two thousand square kilometers with a population of just over four hundred thousand. We’re mostly known for our—”

      “Wines.” She slapped her palm on the table. His beer rattled against the hard surface. “Now I remember why the name is so familiar. Glen had bottles of Sherdanian wine at one of his recent parties.”

      Nic remembered that evening without pleasure. “It was his way of sending me a message. He wanted me to tell you the truth.”

      She stared at Nic with dawning horror. “You jerk. I’ve known you for five years. And you’ve kept this huge thing from me the whole time? What did you think I was going to do with the information? Sell you out to the press? Torment you with Disney references? Well, that I would have done, but you’re a prince—you could have handled that.”

      Nic waited for her rant to wind down, but she was on a roll and wasn’t going to be stopped until she had her say.

      “I thought we were friends.” Below the irritation in her voice, she sounded as if her heart was breaking. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

      “I’ve concealed my identity for a lot of years. It’s a hard habit to break.”

      “Concealed it from strangers, coworkers, acquaintances.” The breath she needed to take wasn’t available. “How long has my brother known? Probably since you met. You two are as close as brothers.” She shut her eyes. “Imagine how I feel, Nic. You’ve been lying to me as long as I’ve known you.”

      “Glen said—”

      “Glen?” She pinned him with a look of such fury that a lesser

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