Chapter Fifteen: Part One
The aroma of freshly ground coffee penetrated her bliss, waking her just in time to see Rick walk in wearing only his jeans. When he saw her eyes open, he smiled. ‘Good morning, my beautiful lady. Coffee and a light breakfast will be ready in ten minutes.’
Kate walked into the bright sunlit kitchen, her hair wrapped in a towel and deliberately wearing only her bra and panties. Seeing Rick leaning on the counter and gazing out of the window, she felt her breath catch.
With as much innuendo as she could, Kate said, ‘I see the view is just as spectacular during the day.’ She was gratified when he immediately caught on to her compliment.
Openly drinking her in with his eyes from her toes up, he said, ‘It’s a view that’s very easy to get used to.’ Kate felt her legs weakening and her body warming in response to the intent behind his gaze. He smiled, and she was sure her knees actually gave a little.
They ate in near silence, enjoying each other’s presence, the view and their breakfast. The coffee was delicious, the fruit flawless, and the fresh croissants rounded their meal out perfectly. When only the crumbs of their breakfast remained, Kate smiled and stretched in her chair. ‘I feel thoroughly spoiled Rick. What a perfect breakfast, Thank you.’ She giggled before adding, ‘Actually, what a perfect everything.’
Rick’s smile became mischievous. ‘You are most welcome, my lady. By the way, you have mail.’ As he passed his phone to her, she could see that he was enjoying her confusion. She looked at his phone, and then at him again, before re-reading the message open on the screen. It was from Dee and Carrie.
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“Hi Kate, we are covered today and tomorrow, but need you Sunday late/Monday early (Mayor). You better be keeping notes because we want every single damn detail girl! Have fun and have fun! Love, 2/3”
~
Kate re-read the message a third time and looked questioningly at Rick.
‘Two-thirds? I assume you are the other third?’ he asked.
With a dramatically overacted flourish, she said, ‘We are… the three amigas,’ ending with a defiant stare into the distance. Smiling she continued. ‘You and your parents are M3, and we are the three amigas. Now, would you please tell me why there’s a message on your phone from the girls, telling me that I am not required for today and tomorrow?’
‘We didn’t want to wake you, so Dee sent it to my phone. Kate, I – my parents and I – hope that you will consent to becoming an engineer again for two days. Those solar distillery plans based on the sham that Ashinkata tried to pull; the ones we looked at on Alegria?’ Kate nodded in recall. ‘The more I look at them, the more I think elements of the design have real merit. Not all of it, but there is a diamond in there somewhere.’
Kate asked, ‘What ever happened to Ashinkata and his lot?’
‘Their side assigned the intellectual property over to us in exchange for not prosecuting them.’
‘You mean they got away with it?’
‘Only for a given value of got-away-with-it. Between our family’s and Dom’s connections, their faces are well known, and their individual reputations are such that if they are incredibly lucky, one day they may be offered a chance to sweep up at an abattoir. They’re not in prison, but they will never have the opportunity to do what they did again. People like that require an eye to be kept on them, and my uncle is in an excellent position to do that.’
Kate looked at Rick. There was something about how he said it.
‘Your uncle?’ Kate’s mind made some intuitive leaps before she said, ‘On Alegria, Natalie teased that Mason was sixteenth in line for a throne…’ She went pale as her eyes widened. ‘That wasn’t a figure of speech, was it?’
‘No, Kate, it wasn’t. Except he is more like nineteenth now. I am thirty-fourth, I think. Mum does the Christmas and birthday cards. She could tell you for sure.’
Seeing the obvious question on Kate’s face, he pointed to a clustered display of photographs on a wall. She rose to have a closer look, still not seeing what he was pointing at. A part of Kate’s mind yelled, Next to photos of his parents. In the centre of the cluster, there was a group photo in front of a castle with flags flying on the ramparts. He had many similar group photos around his apartment. Her mind screamed at her, Look again Katie. See what’s in front of you!
It took a long moment before comprehension hit her. Leaning in closer, she picked Mason, Madison and Rick out from the group in the image. She felt the blood draining from her face as she looked at the flags again, and carefully read the engraved captions. Feeling dizzy, and more than a little overwhelmed, her mouth was silently opening and closing. Then she remembered how to make sounds again.
‘Rick?… Oh my God!… Holy shit Rick!… Rick?…’
‘Are you okay, Kate?’
Half laughing at her own reactions, Kate cried out, ‘Really? That’s your question… am I okay?’ She wordlessly flapped her arms at the photo, looking back at him, and then to the photo again. He silently nodded, trusting her intellect and smiling patiently as he let the shock of his revelation take its course.
She finally took a deep breath. ‘Yes… but no, but… holy shit Rick!’ She paused, shaking her head. In obvious parody, she talked to her empty chair at the table beside him. ‘You know, “Oh yeah, by the way, I’m a prince, no, I really am a prince, the uncle’s a king, big castle and all that,” and then he asks me, “Are you okay, Kate?” Bloody hell, Rick! Is there anything else I should know?’ Kate paused, breathing and thinking hard instead of reacting. Rick was confident in her and remained quiet, letting her mind process his disclosure.
In only a few moments, Kate looked at him with a wicked smile on her lips. ‘Oh crap! I just got the whole idea of how much Ashinkata and the rest of them didn’t get away with it.’ Seeing Rick nodding, she added, ‘Ouch for them.’ Kate’s laugh was slightly brittle, but they both laughed, releasing the tension that had built up.
When he felt she was ready, he walked over and wrapped his arms around her. ‘Kate, the family stuff rarely ever comes up. Once, or maybe twice a year, there is something to do, but otherwise, it never comes up. Dad is the earl, and I don’t want to inherit that title for a very, very long time. I am no prince – I’m just Rick.’
‘You will never be just Rick to me.’
After they broke from their kiss, Kate grabbed his face and looked hard into his eyes. ‘Ricardo Myers, is there anything else I should know about you or your family?’
‘Well, dad snores if he’s had too much red wine…’ Seeing the look on her face, he laughed. ‘No, as far as major revelations go, that one was it… More or less.’
She searched his grinning face for a moment. ‘More or less?’
Clearly baiting her, he shrugged non-committedly before breaking into a chuckle. ‘More or less,’ he said again, grabbing her arms as she went to pound on his chest, and drawing her into a playful nibbling kiss on her neck that had her squealing and giggling.
Sitting back at the table and sipping on a fresh mug of coffee, Kate looked blankly into the distance for a minute before turning to him. ‘Do you really think there is more to get out of the design?’
‘I do. In essence, the cracker-splitter concept isn’t efficient enough to work as is. It’s niggling at me though, there's something there. There’s a workable idea in it, and the numbers work to a point. I’ve had the team back on it since Alegria, when you suggested the modifications on the heat exchanger. Those got our energy budget a lot closer, but it isn’t there yet. There’s more to be gained, I just know it. I – we – would love to have some fresh eyes – your eyes – on the whole thing. Please?’
For Kate, there was no decision to make. ‘Of course, yes, Rick. I would love to.’
Because he was so confident in every other part of his life, the relief she saw on his face surprised her. He isn’t confident of you yet, Katie. So just how confident of Katie is Katie? Time to ante up.
Her face softened with her new insight. ‘Rick, nothing has changed for me since meeting you on Alegria, unless you count blowing my mind and sexually ruining me for anyone else.’ She giggled. ‘I find myself totally preoccupied with every aspect of you. I am not going to say more than that because I don’t want to scare you, or myself, any more than I am right now.’ Pausing, Kate saw him listening with quiet intensity. ‘You know I love engineering, and those ideas have genuine merit. Yes, yes, yes. Let’s go be engineers, Ricky.’
When they stopped kissing, Kate felt hot and flustered again. A console lit up and played a short tone on a nearby counter top, its message clearly visible:
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“45 minutes to pick-up?”
~
He looked at Kate, and she smiled, nodding in response. Smiling back at her, he touched a green icon on the display and it blacked out.
‘To be continued?’ she said, gulping the last of her coffee.
‘Bugger that!’ he declared, scooping her up and carrying her into the huge shower space of the en suite.
Harold waited patiently below the building for fifteen minutes before the couple walked out, hand in hand. He smiled discreetly to himself, understanding why Rick was running uncharacteristically behind schedule.