‘Are we done here?’
She jumped to attention as Olivia spoke.
‘I have a rendezvous later,’ the Princess revealed.
‘A rendezvous?’ Cesar demanded icily. ‘With whom, exactly?’
‘A friend.’ That was as much as Olivia was prepared to divulge. This seemed to amuse Sofia’s brothers, though for the sake of Cesar they confined their feelings to sideways glances. What were they hiding now? she wondered.
She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Xander was as heated as Cesar when it came to issuing instructions. ‘Make sure you’re never on your own. Don’t do anything that might put you at risk.’
‘Isn’t that rather the point of a rendezvous?’ Olivia drawled with amusement, sliding a conspiratorial glance Sofia’s way.
This was one situation she didn’t want any part of. Breaking the stand-off, she moved to the door. ‘I should get back to my room to log all these dates in my calendar.’
‘We can walk back together,’ Olivia agreed, seeming as keen as Sofia to escape the mounting tension.
When five autocratic individuals thought they could manipulate the lives of two young women, they had another think coming. Both Sofia and Olivia had endured brotherly smothering as children, and neither of them was prepared to roll over and accept a command simply because one of the titans had uttered it.
‘Not so fast.’
She stared at Cesar’s hand on her arm.
‘We haven’t finished talking,’ he informed her.
She moved away from the doorway to allow everyone else to leave. ‘What do you want to talk about?’
‘I think you know,’ he insisted. ‘You speak and I listen.’
‘And then you judge me?’ She was trembling inwardly, but that was something he didn’t need to know. Could anyone be more attractive, while appearing so hard and autocratic, than Cesar Romano? Cesar was as huggable as an iceberg, and as distant as a faraway sun. ‘In my world conversation flows back and forth.’
His stern expression didn’t change by as much as a flicker. ‘I will evaluate your excuses when I’ve heard them.’
‘So I’m already guilty in your eyes?’
‘I have the evidence in print.’ He said this with an easy shrug. ‘If you can have something that might reverse my conclusion that you are a cold-blooded, money-grabbing traitor to your kind, then please let me know.’
‘My kind?’ she repeated tensely. ‘Do you think I imagine myself as lofty as you?’
‘I have no idea what you think, but I do know I find it hard, if not impossible, to contemplate working with you on the team unless I have some understanding of what drove you to be so condemning in print. In case you’re in any doubt, the only reason you’re on the team is because of your prowess as a rider, and the attention your notoriety will bring to the match.’
She had no excuses to offer. Desperate to raise money for her retreat, she’d been tasked with providing details of life behind the glamorous polo scene, little realising she was going to be manipulated by a newspaper mogul called Howard Blake. There was no point now in wishing she hadn’t taken that call. She’d been naïve, thinking the polo scene, with its royal connections and appeal to various celebrities, would be something people wanted to read about. She hadn’t realised that in writing a harmless article she had inadvertently provided Blake with enough detail to flesh out, making his lies seem perfectly believable.
Now she wondered if Cesar had been his target all along. Prince Cesar certainly had the most to lose when it came to reputational damage. Her brothers could shrug it off. Though that wasn’t what they’d told Sofia, of course. In truth, any attempt to tarnish their reputation only enhanced it, for with the exception of Dante, who was now a happily married man, her brothers prided themselves in being the bad boys of polo.
‘What?’ Cesar pressed, jolting her out of her reveries. ‘Not a word of explanation?’
None that she could tell Cesar. First she must find a way to curb Howard Blake’s bullying ways. His next victim might be more vulnerable than she was. Blake had already threatened to bring down her brothers if she went public with the fact that he’d changed her words and, goodness knew, there was enough rumour and scandal to damn them. With Sofia’s relationship with her brothers already stretched to the limit, she couldn’t risk it taking another blow.
‘I have no excuse,’ she said flatly. ‘The invitation to write the article came at a time when I needed money badly, so I wrote a story I knew would sell.’
‘You needed money?’ Cesar demanded with incredulity, no doubt thinking about her brothers’ massive combined wealth.
‘I have no part in my brothers’ tech empire. I launched the retreat with my own money. It grew to a point where I needed a much wider-ranging roster of staff, and that requires proper funding.’
‘You couldn’t ask your brothers for money?’ Cesar exclaimed with disbelief.
