By Order of the Prince
Carla Cassidy
He was a prince who was used to getting answers–through any means necessaryAn expert at interrogation, Prince Antoine Cavanaugh had questioned some of the deadliest men in the world. But one beautiful businesswoman was challenging his legendary ability to ferret out the truth. Beth Taylor had secrets and Antoine wasn't about to let her off easy. After all, he'd caught her red-handed, uncovering evidence in an ongoing investigation, one that involved him directly. So, why she refused to tell him what he needed to know was something he couldn't–wouldn't–put up with, no matter how she stirred his blood when she looked at him with eyes as big and green as the Wyoming countryside. It was time Antoine utilized all the weapons in his arsenal. Even if that meant spending long, sleepless nights together, getting answers.…
“Beth, I don’t want to scare you, but I thought you should know that I might have brought danger to you.”
A hardness that had been around his heart cracked apart and fell away. “That means I don’t want you staying here alone. That means I don’t even want you out of my sight.”
If somebody was after her because they thought she was his lover, there was no real way to disabuse them of that notion. He’d already made her a target and the best he could hope for was that he could keep her safe until he returned to Barajas.
But for tonight he didn’t intend to go anywhere. And all he could think about was that they had been damned by what they weren’t doing—so why not go ahead and do it? Why not become her lover?
He stood once again and took her by the hand and pulled her up from her chair.
“The coffee is ready,” she murmured as he drew her into his arms.
“Hmm, suddenly I’m not in the mood for coffee.” He leaned down and touched his lips to the warm flesh of her neck, then nibbled at the skin just beneath her ear. He felt the quickened beat of her heart against his and a faint tremor that stole through her. “I think it’s time I made good on that earlier promise.”
She didn’t ask what promise he was talking about; rather she drew a shuddery breath and took him by the hand and led him down the hall toward her bedroom.
By Order of the Prince
Carla Cassidy
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carla Cassidy is an award-winning author who has written more than fifty novels for Harlequin Books. In 1995, she won Best Silhouette Romance from RT Book Reviews for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from RT Book Reviews.
Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Beth Taylor—This hardworking beauty is drawn into danger by a handsome prince.
Prince Antoine Cavanaugh—He’s determined to find out what happened to his friend and is unable to stay away from the pretty housekeeper, Beth.
Sheikh Amir Khalid—A bomb destroyed his car, but his body was never found. Where is the sheikh and who is behind the attack?
Jake Wolf—Sheriff of Wind River. Can the lawman be trusted?
Michael Napolis—Head of Security for Prince Antoine. Is he part of a bigger conspiracy?
Aleksei Verovick—Tied to the Russian mob. Is he behind the attacks on the royals?
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter One
It was creepy—packing away the personal belongings of a guest who nobody knew was dead or alive. Beth Taylor, head of housekeeping at the luxury Wind River Ranch and Resort, unlocked the door to one of the exclusive plush suites and pushed it open.
Just a little over three weeks had passed since Sheik Amir Khalid, one of the royals who had come to the hotel for a meeting, had gotten into a limo that had driven a short distance and then blown up. The driver had been killed, but nobody knew what had happened to Amir. The only witness to the event had seen the sheik crawl out of the wreckage and he’d been picked up by somebody. The problem was nobody knew if it had been friend or foe who had picked up the injured man.
“It’s time to clear the room,” Beth’s boss had said to her minutes earlier. “It’s been three weeks with no word and I can’t hold the room forever. I’d like you to personally take care of it, Beth. We’ll lock up the belongings in storage until somebody comes to claim them.”
And so here she was, in a room where Sheik Amir Khalid had checked in as part of a four-nation coalition who had come here to discuss trade agreements that would benefit their individual countries. She pulled the luggage caddy she’d brought with her into the room and closed the door behind her.
The tasteful opulence of these suites never failed to amaze her. The thick carpeting beneath her feet, the subtle touches of gold trim in the woodwork and the oversized furniture all whispered of a kind of wealth Beth couldn’t even begin to imagine.
Immediately after high school, Beth, who’d had a sickly mother to care for, had gotten a job as maid at the resort. Three years ago, after eight years of working hard, she’d finally been promoted to head of housekeeping, an often difficult but rewarding job.
She fought the impulse to kick off her high heels, peel off her pantyhose and dig her toes into the plush rug. Instead she headed for the bedroom. The king-size bed was truly fit for a king, with a rich navy bedspread and matching draperies that could either be drawn against the sun or opened to display the beautiful view of the Wyoming landscape.
Sheik Amir hadn’t even spent a single night before the explosion had occurred, but his clothing had been neatly hung in the closet.
Her fingers lingered over the rich silks and other expensive fabrics as she carefully folded them and returned them to the suitcase she found on the floor in the closet.
With the closet once again empty she moved to the bathroom and quickly packed the personal grooming items that were scattered on the counter.
What had happened to Amir? It was the question on everyone’s lips. Had he managed to get out of the limo alive only to be picked up by enemies and then killed? The area had been searched but no clues had been found to solve the mystery of the missing sheik.
Returning to the bedroom she beelined for the nightstands. Although she didn’t think the sheik had been in the bedroom long enough to place anything inside the drawers, she wanted to be thorough.
The nightstands were tall and ornate, with marble tops and heavy drawers. She went to the one on the far side of the bed first. As she pulled open the top drawer she found herself thinking about how crazy everything had gotten since the dark-haired handsome sheik had taken the limo ride and never returned.
For the past three weeks the hotel had been turned upside down with the arrival of the royals. Reporters had flooded the area and there had even been local protests about the trade agreements. Since Amir’s disappearance the air had grown even more intense as the various security teams scrambled to make sure the remaining leaders stayed safe.
With a shake of her head she focused on the task at hand. The nightstand drawers held nothing that belonged to Sheik Amir so she moved to the ones on the near side of the bed.
She gasped as she pulled the top drawer out too far and it fell to the floor. “Darn,” she muttered, hoping she hadn’t marred the beautiful wood. As she picked it up to put it back, she felt something odd on the bottom.
Frowning, she flipped the empty drawer over to see what her fingers had encountered. A white envelope was taped to the bottom. She stared at it in confusion as her heart stepped up its rhythm.
What was it? Had another guest at one time or another taped it there? Or had Sheik Amir wanted to hide something before he’d left the room for the night? There was only one way to tell.
She wasn’t sure why but her fingers trembled slightly as she pulled the envelope from the drawer. It wasn’t sealed. She pulled out the papers folded inside and opened them.
Her heart banged against her chest and a gasp escaped her as she saw the words printed on the first page.
DEATH WILL COME BEFORE YOU SEE SUCCESS WITH THE COIN COALITION.
She quickly scanned the next note.
BETRAYERS ALL OF YOU AND THE PRICE OF BETRAYAL IS DEATH.
There were a total of five and they were all threats to the visiting royals.
There was no question that the envelope had been placed there by Sheik Amir Khalid. COIN was the name of the partnership of the four Mediterranean nations led by the men who had arrived to make their trade agreements with the United States.
Had the person who had written the notes managed to achieve the goal of killing the sheik? And it was obvious from the notes that he hadn’t been the only target. All members of COIN had been threatened.
She needed to take the notes to Jake Wolf, the sheriff of Wind River County. He’d know what to do with them and maybe could glean some clues from the content that would point to the person behind the threats.
Her fingers still shook as she carefully put the notes back into the envelope and then shoved it into her skirt pocket. She bent down to put the drawer back into place and then stood with a deep sigh.
“Excuse me.”
She squealed in surprise and whirled around at the sound of the deep male voice coming from behind her. Her heart tap-danced in her chest at the sight of Prince Antoine Cavanaugh.
She wasn’t sure if her heart beat even faster because the envelope suddenly burned like fire in her pocket or if it was because the prince was the hottest-looking man she’d ever seen in her entire life.
“I was passing Amir’s room and thought I heard somebody inside. I decided to come in and investigate.” His pale blue eyes gazed around the room and then narrowed slightly as he looked back at her.
She felt a flush working up from the pit of her stomach to warm her face. From the moment she’d seen him, with his neatly cut light brown hair and those light blue eyes against his delicious dark olive skin, she’d felt a ridiculous teenage flutter in the pit of her stomach.
His white long-sleeved dress shirt fit perfectly across his broad shoulders and the black slacks he wore emphasized his slim hips. Even from this distance she could smell him, a wonderful blend of exotic spicy cologne that could dizzy her brain if she allowed it.
She suddenly realized she was staring at him and had yet to find her tongue to respond.
“Prince Antoine, I’m Beth Taylor, head of housekeeping,” she began.
He nodded. “Yes, I know who you are, Ms. Taylor. I see you’re packing up Amir’s things. Has there been word about him that I haven’t heard?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Then I don’t suppose you found anything that might provide a clue as to what happened to him?”
The envelope in her skirt seemed to burn hotter. “No,” she said quickly. “No, I didn’t find anything like that. I’m just packing his things so we can move them to storage, but I didn’t find anything. Unfortunately we can’t hold this room forever. We have other guests to think about.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “When you finish in here would you mind coming to my room? I have something I’d like to discuss with you.” Those blue eyes of his seemed to pierce right through her and her first instinct was to tell him she had other things to do. But she valued her job and the last person she wanted to upset was one of the visiting royals. She could just imagine having to tell her boss that she blew off Prince Antoine because he made her more than a little bit weak in the knees.
“Of course,” she replied briskly. “It should only take me a few more minutes to finish up in here.”
“Then I’ll expect you in a few minutes.” He gave her a curt nod and then turned on his heels and left the room.
Beth drew a deep breath, realizing that while he’d been standing there she’d scarcely breathed. The man wasn’t just a royal prince, he was royal sin walking.
She hadn’t missed the way other women in the hotel followed his movements with hungry gazes whenever he and his security team made an appearance. Antoine and his twin brother, Sebastian, had definitely been a special form of eye candy for the other guests.
Sebastian had left a week ago to return to the country of Barajas where he and Antoine were co-rulers, but Antoine had remained here.
As she continued checking the room for anything else that belonged to Amir, she tried to calm her frazzled nerves. Prince Antoine probably wanted to talk to her about some housekeeping service that he thought wasn’t up to par, or maybe he needed something that wasn’t normally provided.
There was absolutely no reason to believe that he wanted to talk to her about what she’d found. He couldn’t have known that she’d found anything and there was no way she was turning those notes over to anyone but Jake Wolf.
Still, as she walked through the suite one last time, she couldn’t help the nervous tension that coiled in her stomach as she thought about facing Prince Antoine again.
“YOUR HIGHNESS, YOU WORRIED ME.” Michael Napolis, the head of Antoine’s security team, met him at the door as Antoine returned to his suite. Michael’s bulldog features displayed more than a touch of reproach. “One minute you were here and the next minute you were gone.”
“Relax, Michael. I just stepped across the hall to speak to a member of hotel housekeeping. You can go to your own room now. I’m in for the rest of the night and will call you if I need you for anything.”
“As you wish,” Michael replied with a small nod of his big head, but it was obvious he wasn’t happy. Antoine suspected that if Michael had his way he’d sleep on the floor next to Antoine’s bed to keep him safe. Michael had been a nervous wreck since Amir’s disappearance, at least giving the appearance that he was worried sick about Antoine.
Once Michael had left the suite Antoine sank into the large leather chair in front of the fireplace and stared unseeing at the neatly stacked unburned logs.
She’d lied.
Antoine had spent years in his country’s military as one of the top interrogators. He’d been trained to find lies and break liars to get at the truth. The national security of Barajas had often depended on the information Antoine got from a particular prisoner.
There was no question in his mind that Beth Taylor had lied to him when he’d asked her if she’d found anything in Amir’s room. He hadn’t missed the subtle shift of her body weight away from him as she’d answered him, or the fact that she had expressed no real surprise at his question and instead had been far too verbose in her answer.
Bottom line—she’d lied, and Antoine was determined to find out what, exactly, she had found in his missing friend’s room.
He looked toward the window where the sun had begun to make its descent. Another night would soon be upon them without answers about Amir. Where are you, my friend? What has happened to you?
With each day that passed, Antoine found himself growing more and more paranoid. He was unsure who to trust. Certainly not the local authorities, who had already proven to be untrustworthy. As much as he hated to admit it, he wasn’t even sure he could trust his own security. It had only been a little over a week ago that Sheik Efraim Aziz, a fellow member of the coalition, had discovered that his own head of security had tried to kill him.
There were many people who had been unhappy with the COIN coalition’s goals in working with the United States, many people who would love it if the COIN members simply disappeared.
Until a week ago he’d had his twin brother, the only person in the world he truly trusted, beside him, but Sebastian had gone back home where he belonged. He’d always been the stronger of the two when it came to the leadership of their small country. Barajas needed Sebastian and both the country and his brother would be fine without Antoine.
He glanced toward the door, surprised at the wing of anticipation that swept through him as he thought of Beth Taylor.
He’d noticed her the first day of his arrival. She’d been one of the hotel staff who had greeted him when they’d checked in. In that first moment he’d been struck by the soft curls of her shoulder-length blond hair, the bright green of her eyes and the lush fullness of her lips.
In the last three weeks of his stay here he’d seen her often, her long shapely legs moving her gracefully across the hotel lobby or down a hallway. But, other than enjoying the sight of her, he’d had no other interaction with her.
Now he wondered how easy she’d be to break. He’d definitely faced more daunting adversaries and yet had always managed to get what he wanted out of them.
As a soft knock sounded at the door, he rose from his chair, the sense of anticipation growing stronger. He checked through the security peephole and then opened the door.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. She gave a curt nod but made no move to step over the threshold and into the room. “Please, come in.” There was no way he intended to have this conversation standing in the doorway.
She walked past him and he caught the scent of her, a soft floral that reminded him of a field of wildflowers. It was viscerally appealing and he was vaguely surprised by his immediate response. He pointed her to the sofa. “Sit,” he said.
He hadn’t realized it sounded like a command until she jumped and quickly sank down on the very edge of the rich burgundy sofa. “Would you like something refreshing to drink?”
“No, thank you. I still have a lot of work to finish up before I can go home for the day.”
He sat on the opposite end of the sofa and noticed that not only did she tense slightly, but her gaze surreptitiously swept over him before focusing quickly on her hands folded in her lap.
Interesting, he thought as he read her nonverbal clues. It was possible she was attracted to him. Good, he could use that bit of information in trying to get the truth from her.
“Do you have family waiting for you to get home?” he asked.
She shook her head, her blond curls looking achingly soft and touchable in the waning golden light that danced in through the window. “No, there’s nobody waiting for me, but I like to get home before night falls.” She gave an uncomfortable laugh. “Although that rarely happens.”
“Especially now,” he replied smoothly. He hadn’t missed the slight wistfulness in her voice when she’d told him there was nobody waiting for her at home. “I’m sure our presence here has only increased the workload for the housekeeping staff, for you.”
“Not really,” she countered. “Our high standard of service goes out to each and every guest, whether they are a prince or an accountant.”
There was a ring of pride in her voice. He liked that. His grandfather had always told him that it didn’t matter what you did, as long as you did it well.
Assessing what he knew so far, he recognized that she was a beautiful woman who was probably lonely and had embraced her work to fill the voids in her life. It was information he would use to determine the best way to get her to confide in him.
“It’s been a difficult couple of weeks,” he said and saw the flash of sympathy that crossed her pretty features. “Amir was a good friend of mine. With what happened, I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
“We’re all sick about how things have gone,” she replied. She shifted positions, turning her knees in his direction. “I hope you’re being very careful.”
“It’s difficult to be careful when you don’t know in what form danger might come. I find myself feeling very isolated.” He flashed her the smile that had charmed more than one woman in his lifetime. “I’m sorry to take up your time, I was just feeling a bit lonely and then I saw you and needed a moment of company.”
Her cheeks blossomed with color and one of her hands shifted from her lap to touch the pocket in her skirt. His heart stepped up its beating. Whatever she’d found in Amir’s room was now in her pocket. He was sure of it. Now all he had to do was get her to share it with him.
“I’m sure you know my brother returned to our country,” he continued.
“Yes, it must have been difficult for you to remain behind.”
He nodded. “But I don’t intend to return until I know what happened to Amir. He was like a brother to me. Do you have brothers or sisters, Ms. Taylor?”
“No, I’m an only child.” Now it was not only her knees that faced him, but her entire upper body, letting him know she was open to him, perhaps just a little bit vulnerable.
With cool calculation, he leaned toward her, nearly closing the distance between them. He lightly touched her shoulder. “I can’t rest. I can’t sleep until we find out something about Amir. The local officials have been little help with their issues of corruption. I’m desperate to find something, anything that might give me a clue as to what happened and who is to blame.”
Once again her hand touched her pocket and he saw an uncertainty in the depths of her beautiful eyes. His heart seemed to stop beating as he waited for her reply.
“I did find something in Amir’s room,” she finally said. For a moment she remained perfectly still and Antoine was struck by a quicksilver desire to stroke a hand across the smooth skin of her sculpted cheek, taste the full lower lip she was now nibbling in obvious indecision. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope, but didn’t immediately offer it to Antoine.
“I found it taped on the bottom of a drawer in the bedroom. I was going to turn it over to Sheriff Wolf,” she said. “But I guess it won’t hurt if you look at it first.” Her slender hand trembled slightly as she held out the envelope.
He took it, his heart once again rapping an unsteady beat as he opened it and withdrew the pieces of paper. He read the notes, electrified by the contents. “You read these?” he asked.
She nodded, her eyes wider than they had been minutes before. “They’re terrible.”
There was now no question in his mind that the limo explosion had been meant to kill all of them, that it had been mere circumstance, a matter of sheer fate, that had placed Amir in that limo alone at the time of the bomb blast.
He placed the notes back in the envelope, but didn’t return it to Beth. “Ms. Taylor, I have a favor to ask you. Please let me keep these and see what I can learn from them before you take them to Sheriff Wolf. I meant it when I told you I don’t know who to trust.”
She frowned thoughtfully. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“A little investigating on my own, see if I can find out who is dirty and who isn’t before I give these notes to anyone else.”
Her frown deepened, the gesture doing nothing to detract from her beauty. “How are you going to be able to do that? You don’t know any of the locals.” She didn’t wait for his response but instead continued, “You’re going to need my help. I was born and raised here. I know the people who live here, and I also know the people who don’t belong. The only way I’ll give you the time you’ve asked for before going to Jake Wolf is if you let me help you.”
She’d surprised him. The last thing he’d expected was her offer to partner up with him. His initial response was a resounding no, but there was no question that she could be useful.
“Okay, I accept your offer to help, but only on one condition—that if things get dangerous for you, then you step back.”
“Agreed,” she replied.
Antoine stuck out his hand and as they solemnly shook, he was aware of the softness of her skin against his, the delicate bones of her hands. A new flicker of something evocative and exciting swept through him. It had nothing to do with the fact that she might possibly be helpful to him in finding out who was behind the threats. Rather it was a flame of physical attraction.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” she said as she quickly pulled her hand from his and stood.
“How much longer will you be?” he asked as they walked to the door.
She paused and looked at her watch. “Maybe another hour or so, why?”
“I’d like to make copies of these notes and then take them to somebody discreet and see if prints besides ours can be pulled from them, but I’m not sure where to go to get this done.”
“Jane Cameron,” she replied without hesitation.
He knew Jane Cameron was the forensic scientist who had been involved in processing the scene of the limo bombing. He also knew that she and Stefan Lutece, Prince of Kyros, had become involved in a romantic relationship. “And you trust Jane?”
“Absolutely,” she replied. “Why don’t I take the notes and make the copies in my office, then come back here when I’m finished for the day and we can go see Jane.”
“Perfect,” he replied. He gave her the envelope and then reached out to take her other hand in his. “I can’t thank you enough for giving me some time to investigate this.”
She squeezed his hand slightly and then pulled it away from him. “I just hope this isn’t a mistake. I’ll see you in about an hour.” She flew through the door as if the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels.
Antoine closed the door behind her and tried to ignore the scent of her that lingered in the air. He was attracted to her like he hadn’t been to a woman in a very long time.
There was something soft, something inviting about her that called to him. But, it was an attraction he had no desire to explore.
Antoine never allowed himself to get close to a woman. He could enjoy their company and have sex with them, but his heart never got involved.
He would do anything to find out who was behind the threats made on himself and the others. He would do anything to find out who had been behind the attack on Amir. If that meant using the pretty housekeeper, it wouldn’t be the worst thing he’d ever done in his life.
Chapter Two
She had to be crazy.
Somehow between the time she’d left Amir’s suite and the time she’d left Antoine’s, she’d lost her ever-loving mind. The minute Beth reached her private office she sank down at her desk and shook her head, wondering what on earth she’d been thinking when she’d given Antoine that envelope, when she’d offered to help him.
She should have kept her mouth shut and taken the notes to Jake like she’d intended. The problem was she hadn’t been thinking. Instead, she’d been falling into the blue depths of Antoine’s eyes, touched by the loneliness and the feeling of isolation he hadn’t tried to hide.
She’d offered her help because she’d thought he needed it, which was a ridiculous thing for her to think. He was a prince, for God’s sake. He had people to take care of his every wish, his every need. The last thing he needed was a simple woman who didn’t know a thing about foreign politics and had only a high school education helping him investigate threats against members of royal families.
She checked her email and the voice mail on her phone to make sure there weren’t any fires to put out with the housekeeping staff, then moved to the multitask printer to copy the threatening notes in the envelope. With both the originals and the copies back in her pocket she left her office to do a walk-through of the hotel before heading back to Antoine’s suite.
The bulk of her work occurred in the mornings when she coordinated the staff to make sure all the rooms were cleaned and the guests’ needs were met. She was not only responsible for the cleaning staff, but also for inventory of housekeeping items needed for the cleaning and maintaining of the guests rooms.
It was her routine in the evenings to walk through the hotel and be accommodating to any guest who might have a problem or simply to be a friendly face to both returning regular guests and new people who had come to enjoy the luxury resort.
She knew how important it was to offer a personal touch to the people who vacationed or came here for work purposes. She liked to think that her work here was at least part of the reason people chose to come back again and again.
When it was finally time to return to Antoine’s suite a new tension began to well up in her stomach. The man definitely made her just a little breathless and she didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all.
The last man who had left her breathless had not just broken her heart, but had shattered it into a million pieces. She’d never allow herself to be that vulnerable again. And she’d be a complete fool to entertain any feelings for a visiting prince who would soon return to his own life in his own country.
He’d obviously been waiting for her as he answered the door almost before her knock sounded. She stepped into the room and he closed the door behind her. “I made two copies of the notes,” she said. “One for you and one for me.” She handed him both the original and his copy.
“Why would you want a copy?” he asked curiously.
“In case something happens to yours,” she replied and tried to ignore how her heart stuttered at his nearness. At five feet nine inches, Beth was unaccustomed to men towering over her, but Antoine was a good four or five inches taller. He made her feel small and feminine.
“If you’ll get your driver, I’ll give him directions to the forensic lab where we can find Jane,” she said.
“You’re going to be my driver,” he replied smoothly. “I don’t want anyone to know what we’re doing, what we’ve found and that includes my entire security team. We must figure out a way to get me out of the hotel and to your car with nobody seeing me.”
Beth stared at him, not only nervous at the idea of being alone with him but also by the fact that she would be responsible for him while he was with her. “But what if something happens? What if you get hurt?”
His sensual lips curved up in a smile that warmed the ice-blue of his eyes. “Unless you’re planning on beating or maiming me, I should be just fine.”
“But surely you should take somebody from your security team with you,” she protested. She’d feel so much better if there was somebody big and burly and fully loaded with an arsenal of weapons.
The blue of his eyes paled to an icy silver and his lips thinned. “No. We go alone.” His voice was laced with command and for the first time he looked and sounded like a prince accustomed to getting his way.
She frowned thoughtfully. “Okay, if you go down this hall to the end, there’s another corridor, turn right and follow it and you’ll see an exit door. If you give me five minutes I can pull up outside the door.”
“Perfect, then I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
As Beth left the suite and headed back to the lobby nervous anxiety pressed tight against her chest. God forbid she had a wreck while driving the Prince of Barajas. Once again she found herself wondering when exactly she’d lost her mind and when she could hope for its return.
When she got into her car she quickly scanned the interior, noting the tear in the passenger seat, the faint layer of dust that covered the dashboard. Not exactly fit for royalty, but the ten-year-old car was paid off and still ran perfectly well. He’d just have to deal with the less-than-royal transportation.
She told herself that one of the reasons she wanted to help him was because this whole ordeal had hammered the hotel with negative publicity. But she suspected the truth of the matter was that she was desperate for something, anything that might fill the vast loneliness in her life, even if it was just for a single night.
She pulled up against the curb by the door she’d told Antoine to exit and watched as he strode toward her. Once again she was struck by his handsomeness and as he flashed a quick smile to her a crazy burst of heat momentarily usurped her nervous anxiety.
“Mission accomplished,” he said as he slid into the passenger seat. “Nobody saw my escape.”
“Won’t somebody worry if you aren’t in your room?” she asked as she pulled away from the curb.
“I have my cell phone with me and told my staff that I was retiring for the night and didn’t want to be disturbed for any reason. Nobody will even know that I’m missing from my suite,” he assured her.
Beth gripped the steering wheel tightly and headed toward the small town of Dumont. The scenery was spectacular with the last gasp of the sun sparking off the distant mountains and painting the landscape in lush shades of deep gold.
Antoine looked out the window and even though he was silent she felt a pulsing energy radiating from him. He turned to look at her, as if he’d felt her surreptitious gaze. “Do you think Jane will help us?”
“If anyone can pull a print from those papers, she can,” Beth replied. “But, she’s a by-the-book kind of woman. She might insist that the notes be handed over immediately to Sheriff Wolf.”
“Then I’ll just have to convince her that that’s not in our best interest,” he replied with an easy confidence.
“She’s pretty tough,” Beth warned.
“Yes, but I’m pretty charming,” he countered.
Beth gave a rueful laugh. “You charmed that envelope right out of my pocket.”
He sobered and she felt his gaze, intense and piercing on her. “I had a feeling you’d found something important and it was equally important that I convince you to tell me.”
“Do you always get what you want?” she asked lightly.
“It’s certainly rare that anyone tells me no.”
“I would imagine that being surrounded by yes-men could get a little boring at times.”
“Perhaps,” he replied and then cast his gaze out the side window once again.
The town of Dumont, Wyoming, was a small, charming place with historic buildings that dated back to the early 1800s. It had been a town filled with good, hard-working people before the royals had arrived. Now the streets were clogged with news vans and strangers.
Beth drove down the main drag and parked in front of the brick courthouse. “Jane’s lab and offices are on the second floor,” she said as she turned off the engine.
Antoine glanced at his wristwatch. “Won’t the offices be closed by now?”
“Security will let her know we’re here and it’s rare that Jane isn’t at work this late in the evening,” Beth explained.
Together they got out of the car and she noticed that Antoine did a quick sweep of the area with his narrowed gaze. Apparently he saw nothing to cause him alarm and they walked to the front door of the courthouse where Beth gestured to the security guard inside.
Within minutes they were in the elevator taking them to the second floor and Jane. She met them at the doorway of her office, her hazel eyes widening as she saw Antoine. “Prince Antoine, Beth…what’s going on?”
Antoine glanced up and down the hallway and then gestured to her office. “Ms. Cameron, perhaps we could speak to you in private.”
“Of course.” Jane ushered them into the small office and closed the door behind them.
“I was instructed today to pack up Sheik Amir Khalid’s items in his suite to be stored until we know what happened to him or somebody from his family came to claim them. While checking the nightstand drawers I found an envelope taped to the bottom of one,” Beth said.
Jane’s eyes filled with interest as Antoine held up the envelope but didn’t offer to hand it to her. “We’d like to see if you can pull some fingerprints from either the envelope or the notes inside, but before I give this to you I would like you to promise to keep this strictly confidential between the three of us.”
Jane frowned and raked a hand through her curly light brown hair. “I can’t make that promise without seeing what you have.” There was a hint of steel in her voice.
Antoine held her gaze for a long moment and then offered her the envelope. “What I’m hoping is that you can lift some prints and then give us a little time to do some investigating on our own before letting anyone else know about it.”
Jane didn’t take the envelope from him, but instead opened her office door and gestured them outside. “Bring it into the lab. I don’t want to touch it without gloves. As it is I’ll need to print both you and Beth so we can discount your prints on everything.”
They entered a small lab where Jane grabbed a kit from one of the metal shelves against the wall and then stepped up to a work table and pulled on latex gloves. Only then did she take the envelope from Antoine.
As she read the notes her eyes widened once again and when she finished she stared at first Antoine, then at Beth.
“These need to go to Jake,” she said.
“Eventually I’ll hand them over to him,” Antoine replied. “But let’s be serious here. The local law officials haven’t exactly proven themselves to be good, upstanding people. Even your own boss was proven to be untrustworthy.”
Jane’s face flushed and she looked down at the notes she’d spread out on the table. Amos Andrews, Jane’s boss, had not only tried to screw up her investigation into the bombing of the limo, he’d also tried to kill Jane. When he’d been arrested he’d made it clear that he was just a bit player in a larger conspiracy against the visiting royals, hired by somebody he refused to name.
“So, what exactly is it you want from me?” she asked with a weary sigh.
“Just a little time,” Antoine replied.
“How much time?” she asked.
“Seventy-two hours,” he replied after a moment of hesitation.
Jane said nothing. She opened the kit and withdrew several brushes and powder compounds in small bottles. As she began her work, Beth couldn’t help but gaze at Antoine again and again.
He stood rigid and once again she felt the energy wafting from him. And why wouldn’t he be tense? The stakes couldn’t be higher. Somebody wanted him and the other participants in the COIN coalition dead.
They didn’t know at this time if the people who were behind the conspiracy had already achieved the goal of killing one of them—Amir.
Antoine slid a glance at her and offered her a small smile that shot a hint of warmth in his cool blue eyes. Beth had always believed the term bedroom eyes meant dark and smoky and slightly mysterious, but she now recognized that bedroom eyes could be the cool blue of a mountain lake.
“I hope you find a useable fingerprint,” he said, his focus back on Jane. “When I know the identity of the person who wrote those notes, I will make certain he’s never a threat to anyone again.”
His tone was light and easy, but with a chilling undertone. Yes, he might make a delicious lover, but she had a feeling he’d make an even more formidable enemy.
IT WAS ALMOST NINE when they finally left the lab after being printed by Jane. She’d managed to pull another print that didn’t belong to either him or Beth and hoped that whoever had left it behind was in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System. If they were lucky she would have a name for them sometime the next day.
“I’m too wound up to go back to the suite and sleep.” He turned to look at the woman driving the car. He’d been acutely aware of Beth even as he’d tried to focus on what Jane had been doing.
He knew that to be successful in her position she had to be a strong taskmaster. The resort was known for impeccable guest services and housekeeping. And yet he sensed a softness in Beth that drew the darkness that resided inside him.
And there was darkness.
She cast him a quick glance and then returned her gaze to the road. “I’m a little wired myself,” she admitted.
“Perhaps we could go back to your place, have a cup of coffee and talk about things.”
He could tell he’d shocked her. “Prince Antoine, my home is small and simple. It’s not exactly fit for a prince,” she replied.
“A comfortable chair, some hot coffee and a little company is all I’d like. And please, call me Antoine.”
“Then you can call me Beth. Coffee sounds good and then I’ll be glad to take you back to the resort. My place is only ten minutes from there.”
“Then it’s settled, coffee at your house.” He leaned back against the seat and stared out the side window into the darkness. You’re a cliché, he thought ruefully. He was a prince who was afraid to trust anyone, with an aching depth of loneliness inside him and the mantle of power weighing heavily, definitely a cliché.
For the past three weeks Antoine had done nothing but worry and wonder about the attack, about what danger might come from what unexpected source.
He’d had long dialogues with the other men in the COIN coalition. Prince Stefan Lutece, Sheik Efraim Aziz, Sheik Amir Khalid and Antoine and his brother had all come here in the hopes of trade agreements with the United States that would benefit their small countries and instead had found nothing but treachery, danger and betrayal.
At the moment Antoine was sick of it all. The resort had become a place of intense stress, of people yammering at him and palpable tension that filled the air the moment he stepped out of his rooms. He was looking forward to a little more time away from the luxurious surroundings.
Beth turned off the road they had been traveling and onto a narrower road with deep embankments and thick trees on either side. “You drive this every night after dark?” he asked.
“It’s the only way for me to get home. It’s not too bad as long as you make sure you stay on the road.”
A small laugh escaped him. “That would be an understatement. I’m sure it gets quite dangerous in the winter.”
“I call this car my little engine that could.” She tapped the steering wheel with a long slender finger. “Although I have to admit more than once in the winters somebody from the hotel has had to come to get me because I don’t have four-wheel drive.”
He could tell she was beginning to relax with each minute they spent together. He wanted that. For just a little while he wanted to be treated like an ordinary man and not like a prince.
“This feels very isolated,” he said as the trees on either side of the road seemed to crawl closer.
“It is. It’s a pretty big spread but most of it hasn’t been cleared or anything. My grandfather bought the land years ago, long before there was a resort. My father and mother chose to make it their home after my grandparents died and I’ve always lived here. I like the isolation, the beautiful nature that surrounds me when I step outside my front or back door. Is your country beautiful?”
“White beaches, blue seas, lush flowers…yes, Barajas is very beautiful, but I find Wyoming to be as beautiful, just different.”
She turned off the road and onto a driveway that led to a small cottage. A light shone from the front porch, a welcome beacon in the darkness that had fallen. Colorful flowers spilled from boxes under the windows. It looked like something from a fairy tale, an enchanted cottage in the middle of the wilderness.
“It’s not much,” she said with a touch of defensiveness. “But it’s all mine and I love it here.” This time her words held an obvious sense of pride.
The sense of welcome that the porch light had emitted continued on into the house. As Antoine stepped inside the living room the earthy burnt orange and browns of the décor instantly put him at rest.
“Please, have a seat.” She gestured him toward the overstuffed sofa. “I’m just going to get out of my uniform. I’ll be right back to start the coffee.”
She disappeared down the hallway and Antoine sank into the comfortable couch cushion and gazed around the room. Like subtle facial features that could give away internal emotions and weaknesses, he knew a room could speak volumes about the person who lived in it.
A bookcase stood against one wall, one of the shelves filled with framed photos of Beth with an older woman who appeared to be her mother. The television was small, as if watching it wasn’t a top priority. A paperback lay on the end of the coffee table, the couple’s clinch on the cover letting him know it was a romance novel. A wind chime tinkled a lovely melody from someplace outside the windows.
A lonely romantic who loved nature, he thought. There was no sign of a man’s presence anywhere in the room. An old record player sat next to a stack of ancient LPs and it was easy for him to imagine her curled on the sofa with a book in hand while old, romantic music filled the house.
He looked up as she returned to the room, clad in a pair of jeans that looked slightly worn and hugged her long slender legs to perfection. Her mint-green T-shirt fit a little big but not so much that he didn’t notice the press of her full breasts against the material.
He suddenly wished he was in a pair of jeans, on the back of a horse with her, her arms wrapped tightly around him as they rode carefree across a pasture. It was a vision that brought the first burst of pleasure he’d felt since arriving in Wyoming.
“Let’s go into the kitchen and I’ll make the coffee,” she said.
He followed after her, unable to avoid noticing the way her jeans cupped her shapely buttocks. Why was there no man in her life? A woman like her should have a man to thrill her with his lovemaking and then hold her tight through the darkness of the night.
The kitchen was a surprise. Large and airy, with a breakfast nook that was surrounded on three sides by floor-to-ceiling windows, it was obviously the heart of the house. Gourmet copper-bottomed pans hung from a rack above the stove and a variety of cooking-aid machines lined the counters.
“You like to cook.” He stated the obvious.
She flashed him a bright smile that warmed him in places he hadn’t realized were cold. “I love to cook. It’s my secret passion.” She pointed him to the round oak table in the nook. “Have a seat. The coffee will be ready in just a minute and I have some leftover red velvet cake to go with it.”
He sat and enjoyed the view of her bustling to get the coffee brewing. It had been far too long since he’d enjoyed the pleasure of a woman. For weeks before the trip to the resort there had been meeting after meeting to decide what to offer and what they needed from the trade agreements they intended to make. There had been almost no time for any kind of a social life.
“Hopefully Jane will have something for you tomorrow,” she said as she placed a creamer and sugar bowl on the table. Then went back to the counter and returned with a platter holding a cake that looked as if it had just come out of a bakery.
“Hopefully,” he replied. “But I don’t want to talk about any of that tonight. Tonight I want to talk about ordinary things, things that don’t set off a burn of anger in my belly. I noticed that you have a lot of pictures of you and your mother in the living room.”
“Yes. My dad died when I was six and when I was thirteen my mom developed a severe heart condition. Unfortunately she passed away three years ago.”
“My parents died when I was young.” A long-remembered grief touched Antoine’s heart. He thought about the horrific night of his parents’ deaths often, recognized and never forgot the lesson he’d learned that night.
“I’m so sorry.” She poured the coffee and carried the cups to the table, then sank down in the chair opposite his. “Was it some kind of an accident?”
“Actually, they were murdered.” She gasped and he continued, “My father was initially my mother’s bodyguard. He was an American, an ex-mercenary and they fell in love and married. Unfortunately my father had made many enemies in his past and that night those enemies found him and my mother.”
“So, who raised you and your brother?”
“My mother’s father, King Omar Zubira.” A whisper of a smile curved his lips as he thought of the stern but loving man who had raised them. “He didn’t approve of my mother’s marriage and never really accepted my father, but he was a loving man to me and Sebastian, although I must admit we sometimes gave him a hard time.”
“The twin thing?”
He grinned. “But, of course. Being an identical twin can be quite amusing and Sebastian and I definitely used it to our advantage whenever possible. After grandfather died I was grateful to have Sebastian by my side to share the responsibility of ruling Barajas.”
“It must be a huge responsibility, to run a nation,” she said as she sliced the cake and shoved a generous piece toward him.
“Probably no bigger than running the housekeeping staff at a luxury resort,” he replied. “To be truthful Sebastian carries much of the weight. He’s a good man with a knack for politics and he’d do fine without me. But enough about me. What I really want to know is why you don’t have a man in your life. Surely you meet men during the course of your work.”
He picked up his fork and took a bite of the cake and noticed that her features tightened slightly and a whisper of hurt filled her eyes. It was there only a moment and then gone, but it let him know that at some time in the not so distant past a man had hurt her…hurt her badly.
“I don’t date hotel guests and besides, I stay busy with my work and I’m not particularly interested in a relationship right now.”
It was a lie, he could see the deception in her features. “That’s a shame, because you have lips meant for kissing.”
Her cheeks flushed with a becoming color. “And you’re rather impertinent for a prince.”
He grinned, enchanted by her. “The last woman who called me impertinent was my mother. I was seven at the time. Now, tell me about your mother.”
As Beth related moments from her past with her mother, Antoine recognized that Beth was not only beautiful, but loyal to those she loved.
She told him about having to forgo college to help support herself and her mother, but there was no complaint in her voice, merely a stating of facts.
He liked that about her. He had no patience for whiners. He and Sebastian hadn’t been allowed to whine after the murder of his parents.
“So, what did you do before you became one of the rulers of Barajas?” she asked.
“I was a military man.” He raised his coffee cup to take a drink, hoping a sip of coffee would wash away the sour taste that always sprang to his mouth when he thought of the things he’d done for the sake of his country.
“And you? When you were young did you dream of being a ballerina? Or perhaps a princess?” he asked.
She laughed. It was a pleasant sound that wrapped around his heart and momentarily held him captive. “Not at all. I have two left feet and I always wanted to raise horses so I dreamed of wearing chaps and a vest rather than a princess’s tiara.”
He had a sudden vision of her naked except for her long legs encased in a pair of leather chaps and her full breasts spilling out of a tiny vest. Hot blood welled in the pit of his stomach, spreading warmth directly to his groin.
He shifted uncomfortably against the wooden chair and reminded himself that he was here with her because he wanted to use her knowledge of the locals to further his investigation, not because he wanted to take her to bed and teach her everything he knew about sexual pleasure.
“You know horses?” he asked.
“I started riding at the resort stables when I was little and worked the stables until I got the job in housekeeping,” she explained.
“You have enough land to raise horses. Why haven’t you already done it?”
“It took me until six months ago to pay off the last of the medical bills that my mother had accrued. I’m hoping to realize my horse dream in about five years. It’s almost midnight,” she said with a glance at the clock on the wall. “I should get you back to the resort. I have to be back at work around six-thirty in the morning.”
He leaned back in the chair and smiled. “I’ve already made up my mind. I’ll stay here with you for the night.”
Chapter Three
Beth stared at him in horror. The idea of this man, this prince, sleeping beneath her roof horrified her. As it was, the whole afternoon and evening had taken on the surreal aspect of some kind of weird dream.
“I don’t want you traveling back and forth from the resort this late at night alone,” he said. “The road that leads here is too narrow, too dangerous to drive in the darkness.”
A nerve throbbed in the side of her neck, a nerve that always acted up when she felt anxious. “But the spare bedroom doesn’t even have a bed in it. I’ve been using it as a home office.”
“The sofa looked nice and comfortable. All I need is a pillow and blanket and I’ll be fine. I’ll call Sheik Efraim and let him know I’m with you in case a problem arises.” He pushed back his chair and stood as if the matter had been decided.
It was a half an hour later when Beth closed the door to her bedroom and sat on the edge of her bed. What a night. She still couldn’t believe that a prince was now on her sofa sleeping beneath one of the patchwork quilts her mother had made years ago.
She changed into her nightshirt and went into the adjoining bathroom to wash her face before going to bed. Initially when the royals had first arrived at the hotel all she’d been focused on was the extra work their presence might make for her staff. She hadn’t really thought about them as being men, just ordinary men with the weight of power on their shoulders.
And now she couldn’t stop thinking about Antoine being a man—a very hot, take-your-breath-away kind of man. But even though he looked at her with a bit of hunger in his eyes, she wasn’t about to fall prey to ridiculous fantasies about life with Antoine or any other man.
She certainly wasn’t about to become an American dalliance for him. She could just see the headlines—The Prince and the Chambermaid. She couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped her at the very idea.
Her feet were firmly planted in reality, had been since she’d been young. With her mother’s illness there had been little time for fantasies.
There had only been one time when she’d allowed herself to fall into a romantic fantasy and the result had been an ugly mess.
There was no way she intended to fall into Antoine’s bedroom eyes. He was here only until he solved the mystery of his friend Amir’s disappearance from the bomb site. Once he’d accomplished his goals here he’d be gone.
She got into bed and as always fought against a well of loneliness that had been with her for the past year. She was twenty-nine years old, longed for love and a family, but the next time around she intended to be smart, to be wary. She’d make sure the man she gave her heart to deserved the gift.
She’d expected to have trouble falling asleep, but the moment her head touched the pillow sleep claimed her. She was instantly plunged into an erotic dream.
She was naked and clinging to Antoine’s broad dark shoulders as his mouth made love to hers. His kiss held a mastery she’d never experienced, a silent command that she respond with every fiber of her being. And she did. It was impossible not to.
His strong hands stroked up the length of her bare back and then around to cup her breasts. Sweet sensations cascaded through her at his touch. She was on fire with her need for him. It didn’t matter that he would be gone before she knew it, she only knew that she wanted what he offered, longed to stay in his arms.
A moan filled her head, not her own but rather his and not from her dream and not one of pleasure.
A louder, more tortured moan pulled her from her dream. Her eyes snapped open and for a moment she couldn’t discern dream from reality.
Her heart pounded with a quickened rhythm as she sat up and shoved strands of hair away from her face. A glance at the illuminated clock next to her bed told her it was just after two.
The noise came again, this time louder, deeper and definitely not from her dream, but rather coming from someplace outside her bedroom door.
The prince!
Was he in trouble? Had somebody found out he was here and was now trying to strangle him or hurt him in some way? Oh, God, she knew having him here had all been a mistake!
She jumped out of bed and grabbed a flower vase from the top of the dresser, the only thing she could think of that might be used as a weapon, and then ran into the living room.
In the spill of the moonlight through the windows she instantly saw that there was no danger, that Antoine was not being strangled or beaten by an intruder. Rather he was obviously in the throes of a terrible nightmare.
She set the vase down at her feet and then crept closer to the sofa, trying not to notice how his powerful bare chest gleamed in the moonlight as he tossed and turned and emitted deep, mournful groans.
“Antoine,” she whispered softly.
He groaned again, the intensity of it filling Beth with immense empathy. What sort of dreams could evoke the sounds of such pain, such an emotional outburst while sleeping?
She called his name again, this time louder, but it wasn’t enough to pull him from his tortured sleep.
She stepped even closer to the sofa and lightly touched his shoulder—and found herself shoved against the wall, Antoine’s hands wrapped around her neck as his eyes blazed with an unfocused fire.
He’d moved off the sofa in the blink of an eye. She would have screamed, but she couldn’t. It had all happened so fast. Shock and the pressure of his hands against her throat kept her mute. For just an instant she wondered if he was going to kill her before he came fully awake.
Reaching up, she managed to touch his cheek and in that instant saw the flames in his eyes douse as a searing focus took their place.
He released a ragged gasp and dropped his hands to his sides. “Beth. Beth, I’m so sorry.” He pulled her off the wall and wrapped her in his arms. His bare skin was warm and she burrowed into him as the shock of the moment slowly faded away.
“I might have killed you,” he breathed into her hair as he tightened his arms around her.
She closed her eyes, delighting in the moment of being in his embrace. This wasn’t a man who had gone soft with good living. He was all hard, lean muscle against her. “You should come with a warning label—dangerous when awakened,” she murmured against his chest.
His hands smoothed down her back. “Why did you awaken me?”
She raised her head to look up at him. “You were moaning as if you were in terrible pain. It was obvious you were having a bad dream. I…I just wanted to get you out of your nightmare.”
“It was a very bad dream.” He reached up his hands and cupped her face. “Thank you for waking me and I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
Before she could guess his next move, he’d made it, taking her mouth with his in a kiss that ripped her breath right out of her chest.
His lips plied hers with heat and even though in the back of her head she knew she should step away, stop the madness, she didn’t. Instead she opened her mouth to him, allowing him to deepen the kiss by delving his tongue to battle with hers.
The fevered heat of his soft lips and the feathery touch of his tongue shot a well of want through Beth. His hands tangled in her hair as he pressed so close to her she could feel that he was aroused.
Instantly she knew this was a bad place to be—the middle of the night, a handsome prince holding her tight and a heart she didn’t want broken again.
She stopped the kiss and moved out of his arms. “That probably wasn’t a good idea.” She was surprised by how breathless she sounded. “Hopefully you’ll sleep okay now for the rest of the night,” she said, her gaze not meeting his. “And now I’ll just say good-night again.”
She nearly ran back to the bedroom, grateful that he didn’t try to halt her escape. Sinking down on the edge of her bed she tried to forget the taste of him, the feel of his warm body against her own.
He was sweet temptation, but she couldn’t allow herself to get caught up in any kind of an intimate relationship with him. That was heartache just waiting to happen and she’d already been there, done that.
As she got back into bed she allowed her thoughts to go back in time, back to when she’d believed Mark Ferrer was the man who was going to be her happily-ever-after, when she’d believed that she was loved as deeply as she’d thought she had loved.
She’d learned a very important lesson from Mark—that men could take you into their arms, look you right in the eyes and lie to get what they wanted.
Beth didn’t know how to have sex without meaning. She simply wasn’t built that way. She wasn’t capable of physical release without emotional connection.
Antoine’s kiss had tasted of fevered passion, but she knew that’s all he had to offer and that would never be enough for her. She finally fell asleep with the firm commitment to keep her distance from Antoine.
The next morning when she left her bedroom dressed in her uniform of the pencil-thin black skirt and the white blouse with a gold WRR on the breast pocket, Antoine was already up and dressed as well.
“Good morning,” she said, hoping he didn’t mention the kiss, praying for no awkward moments.
“Good morning to you,” he replied. “I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of using the shampoo in the bathroom when I showered.”
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