Both they and Prince Cesar did so much good in the world, and yet some sleazy scribe had altered Sofia’s words to make it seem that they and Cesar showed one face to the public, while living scandalous lives. If she didn’t keep her mouth shut, there would be more articles, she had been promised, and these would be worse than the first. To protect her brothers she couldn’t say anything, not even to Xander, though the article had done irreparable harm to their relationship.
Finding pony nuts in his pocket, Xander gave his stallion some treats before handing him over to a waiting groom. Turning around, he dipped his head to confront Sofia. ‘Who wants to read everything in the garden of the super-rich is rosy? Was that your thinking? I don’t understand you Sofia. Why didn’t you come to me for money, instead of selling your cross-eyed opinions to that scurrilous rag?’
Because the damage had been done. The article she had written in good faith had already been changed.
‘If you need money so badly I’ll make you a loan right now—’
‘No. Please!’ Xander was always ready to save the day, but she had to do this to prove the article was a lie. The threat of a second article appearing under her by-line, mentioning trumped-up charges involving financial shenanigans between Cesar and her brothers, was enough to secure Sofia’s silence.
‘There’s something you aren’t telling me,’ Xander stated with certainty.
This was the moment she should tell him the truth, but from the moment they had been orphaned, Xander had taken all the responsibility on his shoulders. She had to sort this out. ‘I’m not a child any longer. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, as we all do, but you must let me stand on my own two feet.’
‘Your stubbornness will be the end of you,’ Xander snapped as they left the barn. ‘I can’t understand why you picked out Cesar for special mention. He’s done more good than you know, and yet you appear to have gone out of your way to undermine him. You put a country at risk with a few thoughtless words, making out that Cesar is a playboy prince when nothing could be further from the truth. I expected better of you, Sofia.’
She expected better of herself and, knowing she deserved every stinging word, she remained mute.
‘Cesar would never discuss the good he does,’ Xander continued, frowning, ‘and I’ve no doubt some of the readers will believe your piece of smut. The way you dwelled on him, anyone would think you were half in love with him and jealous of the life he leads.’
‘Which only shows how little you know me.’ She sounded defiant, but she was broken inside. Xander thinking so little of her hurt like hell. The article had paid well, and every penny of the money had gone to her retreat. The demand for places had expanded so rapidly she’d desperately needed additional funds. Naively believing that what she wrote would be printed word for word, the chance to write an article for a national newspaper had seemed too good to be true. And guess what?
As for falling in love with Cesar... The little she’d seen of that magnificent monster had convinced her that she could never fall in love with such a hard-bitten individual. She’d tried love and had found it a pallid substitute for the romantic novels that had informed her teenage years. That had been when she had been unable to secure a date. Having four high-octane brothers, overlooking her every move, had hardly been an incentive for likely suitors. Rubbing paint-covered hands down her paint-covered, overall, she took Xander to task on the subject of Cesar. ‘Every single time I’ve met the man he’s seemed insufferably superior.’
‘I think you’re harking back to one time when I had to remind you to curtsey when Prince Cesar visited our family home to trial some ponies. You were sixteen years old. Cesar was twenty-four. You may have noticed that over the years that he’s changed. You’ve both changed. He’s a hard man because he’s had to be.’
Cesar had almost had the throne snatched from under his nose, she remembered. According to the press, a self-seeking man who cared nothing for the Queen, her family or the country had somehow weaselled his way into court, where, with a great deal of flattery and false promises, he had set about making himself indispensable to the Queen—a polite way of reporting he had been her lover. Having uncovered the truth and banished the conman from the kingdom, Cesar had stayed on at court to support and comfort his mother. Sofia heaved a sigh. So he wasn’t all bad, just autocratic, aloof and way beyond her reach.
‘You will accept the Prince’s invitation,’ Xander stated firmly. ‘His banquet will be your first step towards rehabilitation before you appear in the match.’ She had to drag her mind back to the present as Xander continued, ‘It’s the least you can do. If the public sees you playing polo with the Prince, it will reassure them that things are back to normal.’
Whether it did or not, the thought of seeing Cesar again both chilled and excited her. As compelling as a human cyclone sweeping along on a wave of testosterone, Prince Cesar of Ardente was perfect hero material for susceptible females, but Sofia was neither susceptible nor was she in the mood for trembling in awe at a royal prince’s feet. There was nothing more tiresome, in Sofia’s opinion, than a six-foot-plus titan lording it over her, as she, with four self-opinionated brothers, was well placed to judge.
‘We will attend Cesar’s banquet as a family.’ Xander stated in a tone that brooked no argument. ‘He has requested a meeting with all of us, including his sister Olivia, after the banquet to discuss the upcoming charity polo matches, in which, I presume, you’ll be playing.’
‘Of course.’ Sofia’s retreat was one of the charities that would benefit. She could hardly refuse. Neither would she refuse the invitation to Cesar’s banquet, though it meant confronting the man she had supposedly slammed in print. That was the best reason for attending she could think of. She’d see her brothers again, and if Cesar really thought so little of her, she had no further to fall.
CHAPTER TWO
HIS STAFF HAD outdone themselves. Never could he remember such a glittering scene. The dining table at his palazzo in Rome seated more than a hundred and each high-backed seat, sumptuously covered in night-blue velvet, was occupied tonight. Chandeliers sparkled like diamonds overhead, bouncing light off the jewels of those bound by wealth, power, pedigree, as well as an abiding passion for horses and polo. He was the only mongrel in the room.
His father’s son by his mother’s handmaid, Cesar had the Queen to thank for raising him as her own. She had plucked him from an uncertain future when Cesar’s birth mother had abandoned him in favour of her latest lover. Romano born, he would now be Romano bred, the Queen had decreed. Though as soon as he was old enough to understand the implications of becoming heir to the throne, the Queen had insisted that Cesar must curb his wild streak. She was still working on that.
‘Is everything to your liking, sir?’ his equerry asked.
‘I can’t thank you enough, Dom. Please convey my appreciation to the staff.’
Staring through the forest of crystal and silver ablaze like fire on a ground of white damask, his attention fixed on one woman. Sofia Acosta seemed confident and happy and was certainly animated as she chatted easily to his sister Olivia and to his mother, the Queen. His plan to spike Sofia’s journalistic guns by seating her with the two women in the room who were strongest and most loyal to him appeared to be foundering. They were clearly enjoying each other’s company.
He couldn’t have seated Sofia Acosta far enough away, he reluctantly accepted. Even in another room, she would claim his interest. Cesar wasn’t the only man present to have noticed the most fascinating woman in the room. What made Sofia so intriguing was the way she chatted so easily with his mother, and achieved what he would have believed impossible at a formal banquet, which was to make his mother laugh.
‘You seem distracted.’
Sofia’s brother Xander was seated next to him.
‘My sister has not done something else to upset you tonight, I hope?’ Xander suggested with concern.
‘I’ve moved past that article, and we avoid each other whenever possible.’ He hadn’t spoken more than a curt hello to Sofia since she’d arrived at the palazzo.
‘How will this distance between you work when you’re playing in the same mixed polo team?’
