Сандра Мартон – The Royal House Of Karedes: Two Kingdoms (страница 21)
“Alex? My initial concern about this woman, on reading her proposal, was that she was too young and inexperienced. Now that you’ve spent a bit of time with her, what do you think? How does she strike you?”
Spectacularly beautiful. And spectacularly immoral. And,
“I told you,” Alex said calmly. “She’s very interesting.”
Then he got the hell out of there before his father or, worse, his brothers could ask him any more questions.
The drive home seemed to last an eternity, even though he was at the wheel of his Ferrari and took both the highway and then the winding road to the house at breakneck speed.
Would she be waiting for him? He’d told her to be ready by six; he was an hour early. She might be in the bath. Or undressing, baring her flesh to the waning afternoon light.
Such schoolboy fantasies, and completely demolished when Athenia told him Keeria Santos was in the guesthouse. In the workshop.
The workshop, he thought as he strode down the path to it. Of course. The only allegiance, the only honesty she had was to her work.
It filled him with a rage he knew had no basis in reality.
She should have been in the house. In his bedroom. Dressing for dinner, as he’d told her to. Or waiting for him. For his touch. For the act that would avenge what she had done to him weeks ago.
“Maria,” he barked as he flung open the guesthouse door. “Maria, I told you …”
And he saw her. At the workbench. Her head on her arms. Asleep.
His anger drained away. He felt something new take its place, something he could not name and he swallowed hard, closed the door quietly and stood watching her. Then, slowly, he walked to her.
Her head was turned to the side. Her lashes formed dark crescents against the high arc of her cheekbones; there were purple smudges of exhaustion under her eyes.
He could remember their taste.
Not from that last kiss he’d given her hours ago, a kiss given in rage. He remembered her taste from that night in Ellos. How her mouth had trembled beneath his. How her sigh of surrender had mingled with his breath. How he had groaned at the sweetness of her.
He didn’t think. Didn’t question. Instead, he bent down, brushed a soft, silken curl from her cheek. Put his lips to her temple. The pink shell of her ear. The curve of her jaw.
“Maria.” Her name was a whisper. “Maria,” he said again, and when she sighed, he squatted beside her and pressed his lips gently to hers.
Her lashes fluttered.
He kissed her again. Her taste was honeyed.
“Alexandros?” she whispered, and he was lost.
Groaning, he scooped her into his arms. Brought her down on the soft Kilim carpet. Swept his hands into her hair, lifted her lovely face to his, and took possession of her mouth.
“Alexandros,” she sighed.
His name. Not any other man’s. His. Only his, and now her arms were around his neck, her mouth was moving on his as he lay her back and came down beside her.
His hands cupped her face. Her beauty stole his breath; the smile that trembled on her lips pierced his heart.
“Yes,” he said huskily. “That’s right,
She did, again and again until he silenced her with a deep, hungry kiss. A cry rose in her throat. Her arms tightened around him. Her back arched; she rose against him and he groaned again and slipped his hand inside her black tights.
Her flesh was warm. Soft. Fragrant with the glorious scent of arousal.
He could feel the race of his blood.
He put his lips to her throat.
She sobbed his name. Cupped the back of his head. Urged his mouth down, down, to the uptilted thrust of her breast. To the pebbled nipple that pressed against the softness of her sweater. He caught the bud lightly between his teeth. Her cry pierced the thick silence.
“Yes,” she said, “yes, yes …”
He pushed up the sweater. Sucked a nipple into his mouth. She was lifting herself to him, burying her fingers in his hair, urging him closer, closer…
A knock, as strident as Olympian thunder, sounded at the door. Alex barely heard it but Maria stiffened in his arms.
“Alex,” she hissed.
“Shh,
The knock came again. “Your Highness?” Athenia’s voice was thin and apologetic. “Your mother is on the phone. She asks if you and Keeria Santos would come by a few minutes early.”
Alex pressed his forehead to Maria’s. “Yes,” he called, “all right. Tell the queen we’ll be there as soon as we can.” He waited until he was sure the housekeeper was gone. Until he could move without disgracing himself. Then he sat up. “We’ll finish this later,” he started to say, but Maria had already rolled away from him and risen to her feet. Her face was white except for two spots of crimson high on her cheeks.
“Is that how you get your women, Your Highness? By taking advantage of them when they’re asleep?”
Her voice shook with indignation. Hell, he was shaking, too, but with thwarted desire.
“You know that isn’t how it was.”
“What I know,” she said, the words laced with accusation, “is that I woke up and found you all over me!”
He stood and faced her, caught between equal parts of anger and frustration.
“Liar,” he said in a low voice.
She turned her back. He grasped her shoulder and swung her toward him.
“What’s the matter,
“All right,” she snapped. “You made your point. You—you got me to—to give in to you. Are you satisfied now?”
He gave a sharp, ugly laugh. “We have a long way to go until I’m satisfied, sweetheart.”
The crimson drained from her face. “How can you do this?”
It was, he thought, an excellent question.
Despite everything, he was not a man who would ever take an unwilling woman to bed. That was part of the problem, when he came down to it. Maria said she didn’t want him but each time he took her in his arms, she turned that into a lie. Or did she?
Was she still playing him? Was she using him now, even as he was determined to use her? And how could he tell himself that was what he was doing when the truth was he had never wanted a woman as he wanted her and—
He turned away from her. Ran his hand through his thick, dark hair.
He was a man who had always prided himself on logic. On self-discipline. And right now, hell, who was he kidding? Ever since the night he’d first met this woman, logic and self-discipline had gone by the wayside.
Maybe it was enough to admit that he wanted her still, and that at the end of a month she would be out of his system. Damned right, she would, he thought grimly, and he turned and faced her again.
“I suggest you return to the house,” he said brusquely. “One of the maids has unpacked your suitcase. You have—” He glanced at his watch. “You have twenty minutes to get ready and then we leave for the palace.”
Her chin came up. “Where has your devoted slave put my things?”
“Your clothes are where they belong,” he snapped. “In my room. We have an agreement, Ms. Santos, that says you are to fulfill your required duties in their entirety, or have you conveniently forgotten that?”
She gave him a withering look. “How could I forget what is sure to be the worst agreement of my life?”
It was, Maria thought, a fine line.
But the Prince of Arrogance only laughed, and that was the sound that followed her all the way to the house.
WHAT did you wear to dine with royalty?