By Order of the Prince Read online

  “Did you think about filing a restraining order of some kind?”

  “No. I didn’t want to destroy his life. I didn’t want his wife to know what he’d done. I just wanted him to leave me alone. Finally one day he stopped calling, stopped trying to make contact. That was almost a year ago. He hasn’t been back to the hotel since and I figure he found himself a new hotel and a new girlfriend who he’s probably lying to like he lied to me.”

  “Men like that are predators,” Antoine said with a touch of indignation.

  “Women like me are foolish,” Beth replied wryly. “I should have asked more questions, checked him out before getting involved with him. I was stupid just to take everything he told me about himself at face value.”

  One thing surprised her, talking about Mark didn’t bring the pain she’d expected. She realized that whatever heartbreak he might have caused her had finally healed.

  “Beth, you can’t blame yourself for being a trusting, loving woman. Those are very positive traits for a person to have, they are the very traits that draw me to you.”

  She pulled her hand from his. “Now that’s enough about me. Why don’t you tell me why you haven’t found a woman to make your princess?”

  “I will never marry.” His voice rang with firm commitment.

  She looked at him in surprise. “But why? Antoine, you’re a good man and you deserve someone to share your life with.” Not that she believed in a million years that woman could ever be her.

  His eyes, which had been warm and inviting just moments ago, turned to pale ice. “I’m not a good man, Beth. I’ve done some terrible things in my life, things that I fear might put your life in danger.”

  Chapter Six

  Her beautiful eyes widened at his words. “What are you talking about?”

  He looked toward the Sahron house and frowned. “You say this woman is scheduled to work at the hotel early in the morning?”

  “Yes, she should be in by seven. She’s never been late and never missed a day of work.”

  “Then let’s go to your place. I’m in the mood for some peace and quiet and a cup of your wonderful coffee.”

  She said nothing but started the engine and headed out of the neighborhood. He knew she had questions about what he’d said, but he didn’t intend to share any of his past with her until they were alone at her place.

  He’d already had a difficult day. Thoughts of his friend Amir had plagued him, along with questions about the crash and the shooting he and Beth had experienced.

  All day long he’d played and replayed the events in minute detail in his head. What he couldn’t make sense of was that after he and Beth had crawled out of the wreck, the gunman had shot at her when she’d stood to go back into the car and get their cell phones.

  Why shoot at her? If Antoine had been the primary target, then why not wait for him to stand up and then take him out? The shot at Beth had served as a warning to him. Had it simply been an amateur mistake or something else, something darker and more devious?

  The more he thought about it, the more concerned he’d become that it was possibly somebody from his past who had caught up with him, somebody with a burning need for revenge who had finally found him.

  And that meant he might have put a target on Beth’s head. By spending time with her, perhaps being seen in her company somebody might have gotten the impression that she would make a good vehicle for revenge against him. That was the only thing that explained the gunman shooting at her instead of waiting for a bead on Antoine.

  Darkness was falling fast as they reached Beth’s cabin. Antoine felt the same welcome this evening as he had the other time he’d come here with her. The house seemed to attempt to embrace him in a serene quiet but his mind was filled with too much chaos for that to happen.

  “I’m going to get out of my uniform,” Beth said as she headed down the hallway. “I’ll be out in just a few minutes. Make yourself at home.”

  He didn’t hang around in the living room but instead walked into the kitchen, where Beth’s presence in the house was most vibrant.

  He walked over to the bank of windows and stared out where the deep purple shadows of night were starting to pool beneath the trees and seep across the land.

  In the distance he could see the faint sparkle of the dying sun on a stream. Despite all the troubles in his mind, he momentarily felt a peace he rarely enjoyed.

  This place had a rugged beauty that called to something deep inside him. From its jagged mountains to the sparkling streams, he felt an elemental pull, a sense of being where he belonged.

  Which was crazy. He belonged in Barajas, he reminded himself. That was his home, not this place.

  “Now, coffee.”

  He turned at the sound of her voice. She’d changed into a dark pink sweatshirt and a matching pair of jogging pants. The fleece material hugged her body like a lover and the peace he’d felt earlier dissolved beneath a wash of desire that threatened to weaken his knees.

  He sank down at the table, disturbed by how profoundly Beth affected him, by how much he wanted her. He’d always been able to manage his emotions, his desires with little trouble. He was a master at manipulating others, but had always managed to stay completely in control of himself.

  Until now.

  Until Beth.

  He narrowed his gaze as he watched her start the coffee. She moved with an efficient grace, despite her earlier claim of possessing two left feet.

  “I tortured people.” The words slipped from his lips, as if he knew these thoughts alone would drive any desire for her from his mind, would drive her away from him.

  She gasped and turned to face him. He saw the nerve ticking violently in the side of her long, slender neck, letting him know she was anxious.

  “What are you talking about?” Her voice was a soft whisper as she walked across the hardwood floor and sank down in the chair next to him.

  He saw no fear in her eyes, only confusion and questions. The coffeemaker gurgled and began to drip its fragrant brew, but a cup of coffee was the last thing on his mind.

  “It’s what I did in the military,” he said. “I was one of the top interrogators for my country. I broke people, sometimes mentally, sometimes physically.”

  The darkness that was never far from the surface rose up inside him, filling him with the bitter tang of regret and a weight of sorrow he felt as if he’d never climb out from under. He was a thirty-five-year-old man who suffered nightmares because of his past. “I did terrible things, things that haunt me now.”

  “Antoine, you were in the military.” She leaned toward him, her green eyes lit with the flame of conviction and holding a faint sense of redemption for him if he were willing to take it. “You were in charge of the security of your nation. You did what you had to do for your country,” she said softly.

  Unable to stand the easy acceptance in her eyes, he stood and returned to the window, his back to where she remained seated.

  “I hate what I did.” He spit the words out as his emotions careened out of control. “I hate who I had to become to get the job done. I found weaknesses and exploited them, I smiled with friendliness as I sought ways to destroy people, to break them to the point that I could get what I wanted from them.”

  He hadn’t heard her rise from her chair, but suddenly her hand was on the small of his back. “The fact that you hate what you did shows me what kind of a man you are in your heart.” Her soft voice soothed some of the rough edges in his soul.

  He turned to face her. “It’s what I dream about sometimes. It’s the stuff of nightmares.”

  She tilted her head slightly and he realized the pulse in her neck had stopped its frantic beat. “Is that what you were dreaming about the night that I woke you up?”

  He gave her a curt nod. “That and my parents’ murder. Most of my nightmares are either of their murder or about the things I did in the name of national security.”

  “Antoine, you can’t change what happened to
your parents and you can’t beat yourself up for doing your job for your country. You have to find a way to forgive yourself, to understand that you did what you had to do.”

  He wanted to fall into the softness of her green eyes, wanted desperately to believe he was the kind of man she thought him to be. She was so naïve, so accepting of not just his positive traits, but also of the dark side he’d tried to keep hidden from the world, from himself.

  “What you don’t understand is that I’ve made plenty of enemies. There are people out there who would like nothing better than to make me pay for what I did to them, or to their family members.”

  She frowned. “And you think that’s who attacked us and not somebody out to destroy the coalition?” Her green eyes darkened slightly.

  “I think it’s possible and I also think it’s possible they believe the way to hurt me is to hurt you.”

  “But why? I’m not your family.” Her cheeks bloomed a dusty rose. “I’m just head of housekeeping at the hotel where you happen to be staying. I’ve just helped you out with some personal things.”

  “You know you’re more than that to me,” he said gruffly.

  “But how would anyone else know what kind of a relationship you and I have?”

  He led her back to the table and they both sat once again. “Somebody obviously saw us leave the hotel together, or as we drove to Jane’s lab. Perhaps they drew certain conclusions about us being together in a more intimate way.”

  A frown once again sliced across her forehead. “But what makes you think it’s somebody from your past?”

  “There was no way the attack on us was done by professionals. It was clumsy and wrought with potential for errors. We could have seen the face of the driver, he might have wrecked his own vehicle in the process of trying to wreck ours. There were too many variables that could have made things go wrong. If he was trying to kill me after we got out of the crash, he shot too soon.”

  “He shot at me instead of you.” Her voice was flat, as if she was just now starting to believe what he was trying to tell her.

  “If it had been a professional wanting to stop my participation in the COIN coalition, he would have waited until I stood to fire his first shot. That way I would have been clueless about his presence…and very dead.”

  The nerve in her neck reappeared and began to beat more distinctly and he reached out and tenderly placed a finger against the pulse. “Beth, I don’t want to scare you, but I thought you should know that I might have brought danger to you.”

  Her eyes were amazingly soft as she gazed at him. “Then we’ll just have to deal with it,” she said.

  A hardness that had been around his heart cracked apart and fell away. “That means I don’t want you staying here alone.” He moved his hand from the throbbing muscle in her throat and reached up and stroked a strand of her silky blond hair. “That means I don’t even want you out of my sight.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” she replied, her voice a little breathless.

  As he continued to look at her, his brain whirled with suppositions. 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. He felt confident that once he was out of the country the threat would follow him.

  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. He was immediately surrounded by the delicious scent of her that was as much a welcome as the aura of her home.

  “The coffee is ready,” she murmured as he drew her into his arms. Her body warmth radiated through the soft, fleece material.

  “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.

  IT WAS LIKE A DREAM and she didn’t ever want to wake up. Antoine’s hand was warm and firm around hers as she led him into her bedroom.

  This time it wasn’t fear that caused her heart to crash wildly in her chest. It was a heady anticipation. She felt as if despite her internal protests to the contrary, they had been headed to this place when she’d first entered his suite after finding the notes in Amir’s room.

  They had danced around each other with sensual intent every moment they had spent in each other’s company and finally it was time for them to reward themselves with a payoff.

  She dropped his hand and walked over to the nightstand and turned on the light. A soft spill of illumination filled the room and in the glow she saw the ravenous hunger that lit his pale eyes as he gazed at her.

  Waves of heat swept over her as her mouth went dry. The look in his eyes was like an exquisite form of foreplay. He didn’t even have to touch her for her to feel him on her skin, deep inside her.

  “Are you sure?” His voice was deeper than usual as he stood at military attention at the foot of the bed.

  It was the first time since she’d known him that he appeared the least bit uncertain and that only made her more sure of what she wanted from him.

  She walked to where he stood and laced her arms around his neck. “I want you to hold me, Antoine. I want you to kiss me until neither of us can think of anything but each other. I want you to make love with me and then hold me tight until morning comes.”

  Blue flames shot from his eyes. “I can do that starting right now.” His mouth feathered over hers in a surprisingly light kiss that teased her senses and made her yearn for more…so very much more.

  He wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her close and she didn’t know if the rapidly beating heart she felt was his or her own.

  His mouth blazed a trail down her jaw and to her neck, where his lips lightly nipped at the sensitive skin just below her ear.

  She’d expected command and he gave her a gentleness that stole her breath away. “Sweet Beth,” he whispered softly. “You are absolutely amazing.”

  He made her feel amazing, like she was the brightest, the sexiest woman in the world. Nobody had ever made her feel the way Antoine did and she had a feeling that nobody would again. This moment was magic. This man was magic and she wanted to savor it forever.

  When his lips took hers again in a fiery kiss she was ready to rip her clothes off and get beneath the covers with him. But he seemed to be in no hurry. Languidly his hands stroked up and down her back as his mouth continued to ply hers with heat.

  She didn’t want to think about what would happen when they left the bed in the morning. He was a hotel guest and had a country to return to and she knew in the very depths of her heart he would leave without her.

  She would go back to being the highly efficient head of housekeeping with nothing but memories to keep her warm. But even knowing that she wanted him.

  Perhaps someday in the distant future she could tell her grandchildren about the time she had shared with a handsome prince whose life had been in danger. Of course, she wouldn’t tell them about this night of desire, but she’d tell them how she’d helped him in his quest to save his life and the lives of his friends.

  All thoughts of grandchildren fled out of her mind. There was only Antoine and his fiery lips and the smooth slide of his hands down her back.

  He finally released his hold on her and stepped back. As she stood frozen in place he leaned down and removed the gun that had been strapped to his ankle. He placed it on the nightstand, along with his wallet, and then began to unbut
ton his shirt.

  With each button that was unfastened more of his dark, muscled chest was revealed. Beth felt her knees weaken as he finally shrugged the shirt off and it fell to the floor behind him. Taut chest muscles and six-pack abs attested to the fact that he was a man who worked out regularly.

  It was only then that he approached her again. “You look adorable in that pink sweatshirt, but I have a need now to take it off you.” The fact that he’d spoken his intent out loud only made her hotter.

  Her heart hitched in her chest as he took the bottom of the shirt and effortlessly pulled it over her head and then threw it into one of the darkened corners of the room. She desperately wished she was wearing a sexy black or red lacy bra instead of the white cotton.

  “Beautiful,” he whispered.

  She splayed her hands across his hard chest and smiled up at him. “Beautiful,” she agreed as the heat of him warmed her palms.

  “Do you have any idea how crazy you make me?” His fingers trailed a path across her bare collarbone.

  “It can’t be any more crazy than you make me,” she replied breathlessly. “Antoine, nobody has ever made me feel the way you do.”

  He moved his fingers from her collarbone to her cheek. “I like that…and now I think we’ve talked enough.”

  She released a delighted gasp as he swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. He lay her down and then sat next to her and removed the slippers she’d put on when she’d changed out of her uniform.

  When her slippers were gone he took the waistband of her jogging pants and pulled and she raised her hips to help him remove them.

  Her heart now thundered as he once again stood and kicked off his shoes and then moved his hands to the waistband of his slacks. He hesitated. “Are you still sure about this? I need you to be sure, Beth. I don’t want regrets from you, now or ever.”

  “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life,” she replied fervently. It was true. Right or wrong, she was going to make love to him tonight.