The Princess and the Playboy

Twenty Four

Andro and Lexi spent the next few days together in the magnificent villa until they received an unexpected visitor in Liana Vargas.

The couple were kissing in the middle of the pool when a petite young woman stepped onto the terrace barefoot in a pink sundress and large shades with a large brimmed straw hat. She folded her arms across her chest with a sneaky smile,

"Well this is new; I never knew PDA was your thing Andro."

Andro's head whipped around to the edge of the pool, taking his lips away from Lexi's as he held her in the water.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well I was supposed to be at a wedding but apparently that isn't happening anymore. What's going on Andro and who's your friend?"

Andro turned to Lexi who was looking at him in confusion,

Fuck!

"Erm...Lexi this is my annoying little sister Liana who is supposed to be in school. Li, this is Lexi...a close friend of mine."

"Very close from the looks of it," she said with a cheeky smirk as she brushed her long dark hair behind her ears.

Of all the Vargas children, Liana looked the most like their mother but had inherited the blue eyes of their British grandfather. She was twenty-two years old studying Business and Economics at Harvard University and so had an unusual accent from her time spent abroad as well as the multitude of languages she spoke. Liana was the baby of the family and as such was very much a daddy's girl. There was nothing Leonardo wouldn't do for her and nothing she wouldn't do to make her father happy.

"Shut up Liana, I'll talk to you in a moment."

Liana shrugged as though she couldn't care less and marched back into the house, seemingly to the kitchen from the direction she disappeared in.

"What wedding?" Lexi asked immediately,

"Erm, a family thing...it got called off last minute. Let's get out of here, I need to talk to my sister."

"I'll wait for you here," Lexi said leaning forward to kiss him lightly. "I feel like stretching my limbs a bit."

"Okay, I'll be back in a moment." He kissed her quickly and swam to the edge of the pool to get out. He put on a thick white robe and went on the hunt for his sister.

He found Liana in the kitchen talking in rapid Portuguese to Ava while stuffing her face with chocolate brioche.

"Do you ever stop eating?" he said slapping it out of her hand.

"Hey!" Andro laughed and took a seat on one of the stools as Ava handed him a glass of orange juice.

"Thank you Ava," he said before taking a long gulp of the fresh juice then turning to his sister.

"Have you spoken to Mama and Papa?"

"No, I haven't spoken to anyone since you text me from Thailand!"

"What about Luisa?" Liana rolled her eyes,

"You know she has nothing better to do than work, I haven't even bothered to try and speak to her. What's going on Andro, I thought you were getting married; who's that girl out there?"

Andro sighed,

"Here's the thing..."

Liana looked at him like he had grown a second head,

"That is Princess Alessandra?"

"Yes,"

"And she's forgotten you already know who the other one is since you've come from Thailand?"

"Yes," Liana let out a whistle.

"Woah, you are in deep shit. Do Mama and Papa know all this?"

"Kind of...it's complicated. I just need you to swear that you won't let on that we all know she's meant to marry me...at least not yet."

"I can do that...if it helps her get better."

"I'm hoping it will," Andro turned his attention to the pool where Lexi was still swimming. "I need to get some work done, will you be able to spend some time with Lexi?"

"Sure but, what if I say something wrong?"

"You wont, just don't mention anything about her being a princess or a wedding of any kind. You'll be fine!" Liana nodded and with a last sip of her own glass of orange juice, she made her way back out to the pool terrace while Andro went to his office.

He sat in the large room that doubled up as his father's office considering they were very rarely in the villa at the same time and logged onto his laptop.

He had neglected his work a lot since meeting Lexi and while it was nothing that could be handled or fixed, it went a long way to showing how much he was willing to give up for her. Even though it was always there in the back of his mind, working had become a second thought after making sure that Lexi was happy. When he had been drawing her a few days ago, he couldn't remember a time ever having been so content.

He was going to marry Lexi, that much was certain but the nature of their relationship wasn't. sure, he knew he loved her and knew she felt strongly about him but was it love? He just had to wait until she got her memory back and then they could speak properly, then he could find out how she really felt about him.

***

Andro had been gone a while and once she'd done a few laps in the pool, Lexi got out and made her way back up to Andro's room. She didn't want to think of it as their room but it was the room they had shared the past few nights and she left everything about how that felt. Waking up next to him and making love to him were the best feelings in the world and she didn't want that to go away...not ever.

Wrapping herself in a thick towel from the bathroom, Lexi sat on the bed and picked up the phone from the bedside table. Quickly, she dialled a number and in a few rings, it picked up.

"Althea?"

"Yes your highness, it is me."

"Is everything okay in Aldovia?"

"Everything is fine your highness. Your father is rather out of sorts since you left but he seems to have other things to contend with."

"I see...and the other thing?"

"All still in hand, Miranda was very forth coming since your time in the hospital and I have since taken over the information from Mr St.Patrick. He said he will have more in a couple of days." Lexi sighed,

"That's good...I don't want to come back there until I have all the facts about my father."

"What about the wedding your highness?"

Lexi looked to the closed bedroom where Andro was somewhere on the other side,

"That all depends on what Alan finds out Althea. If I can save Andro and myself from a loveless marriage then I will."

Althea and Lexi finished their conversation and just as Lexi put down the receiver, the door to the bedroom opened and Andro walked in, still in his robe from the terrace.

"There you are," he said with relief. "Liana said she came out to find you in the pool and you were gone."

"Ah yeah, I was getting tired," she said. "Headache, I thought I'd come and lie down."

"Good, I don't want you over working yourself. Lets get you washed and changed before you get into bed."

Andro came over to her side of the bed and lifted her up into his arms, kissing her. He was so attentive when he thought she was ill, so loving and she was ashamed of what she was doing in order to keep him treating her this way.

Guilt rose up in her chest ready to choke the life out of her. Guilt that she was lying to Andro and not telling him that she after they had made love for the first time four days ago, she had remembered everything.