By Order of the Prince Read online

  With surprisingly graceful movements, he took off his slacks, exposing black briefs beneath and long, muscular legs. He was perfection and the sight of him nearly naked only served to increase her desire for him.

  As he joined her on the bed their legs wrapped together with the comfortable ease of longtime lovers. Their bodies fit perfectly, like yin and yang symbols.

  Kisses became caresses and it wasn’t long before both of them were impatient with the underwear that kept them separate. As he removed her bra his mouth eagerly covered one of her nipples.

  She felt the pull of his lips deep in the pit of her stomach as her nipple responded to his touch, pebbling into a hard knot. She tightened her hands on his shoulders, loving the play of his muscles beneath her fingers.

  He teased the tip of her nipple with his tongue, first licking and then nipping until she was gasping with the fiery sensations that coursed through her. Her blood was hot in her veins and she wanted more…more of him.

  Within minutes the last of their clothing was gone and his hot caresses seemed to be everywhere…across the swollen rise of her breasts, down the flat of her stomach and whispering softly on her inner thighs until she wanted to scream with her need of him.

  “I love the little sound you make in the back of your throat when I stroke you here,” he whispered as he once again ran his hot, wicked fingers lightly over the inside of her thigh.

  “And what kind of a sound do you make when I touch you here?” She moved her hand slowly down his stomach and encircled his hardness. A small moan escaped his lips and she smiled. “I like that sound.”

  “You are a wanton woman, Beth, and if you aren’t careful this will be over long before I want it to be.” Gently he shoved her hand from him and instead touched her where she most wanted him.

  Instantly she tensed with pleasure. His fingers were magic and she felt the swell of not only her physical reaction to his touch but also the surge of emotion that accompanied her impending release.

  Tears misted her eyes as the waves built up…up and then finally came crashing all around her and she cried out his name over and over again.

  “Please,” she said when she’d managed to catch half her breath. She knew she was begging but she didn’t care. She wanted him fully, wanted him to possess her completely. “Please, Antoine, take me now.”

  He rolled over toward the nightstand and grabbed his wallet and withdrew a condom. A small relief flooded through her. She hadn’t even thought about protection.

  With the condom in place he moved between her thighs and entered her with an agonizing slowness that spiraled her upward once again.

  When he was deep within her, she clung to his shoulders as she moved her hips to meet his thrusts. She was glad they’d left the light on, so that she could see the hunger in his eyes as he plunged into her faster and faster.

  Suddenly he slowed and nearly stopped moving. She bucked beneath him as her well of want grew bigger. He smiled down at her and then resumed his movements.

  He teased and tormented her, bringing her almost to the brink and then stopping. She could tell by the taut cords in his neck that he was teasing not only her, but himself as well.

  She tightened around him, and saw his control snap with the blaze of his eyes. Wildly he moved against her, groans of pleasure escaping his lips.

  She cried out his name as she shuddered with another climax. He stiffened against her in response as he found his own.

  They clung to each other, breathless for several long moments. He finally got up and went into the bathroom while Beth remained sated and boneless beneath the sheets. When he returned, he turned off the light on the nightstand and then got back into bed and pulled her against him.

  She snuggled into the warmth of his body, feeling safer, more content that she could ever remember feeling. He stroked her hair and pressed his lips against her forehead.

  “That was amazing,” he said in a soft whisper.

  “You were amazing,” she murmured drowsily.

  “We were amazing together,” he replied with a satisfied laugh.

  She burrowed closer against his chest and as sleep reached out to claim her, she tried not to think about the fact that Prince Antoine Cavanaugh of Barajas was definitely going to break her heart.

  Chapter Seven

  They got up and drank a cup of coffee and shared a piece of cake together, giggling like teenagers in the middle of the night.

  Antoine entertained her with stories about his and Sebastian’s childhood antics, loving the sound of her laughter and the way amusement sparkled in her eyes.

  He thought it possible that he could have a lifetime of her laughter and never tire of the sound. “You had a happy childhood?” he asked.

  “I had a wonderful childhood,” she replied. “The woods were my playground and before my mother got ill we spent lots of time exploring. We’d have wonderful picnics when the weather was nice.”

  “And you’d prepare gourmet food for the occasion?” he asked.

  She smiled and shook her head. “I really didn’t start getting interested in cooking until after my mother was ill. Her appetite wasn’t good and so I started trying new recipes to tempt her. That’s what led to my love of cooking.”

  When the cake was gone and her eyelids were drooping with sleepiness, they turned out all the lights in the house and got back into bed.

  She cuddled up beside him and he stroked her hair, more at peace than he could ever remember being. He could hear a faint night breeze through the window that tinkled the wind chime, and a rhythmic clicking from some kind of insect. The sounds only added to the peace that invaded his soul.

  “Antoine, I know you said you’d never marry, but have you never wanted children?” Beth asked softly.

  He hesitated a long moment before replying. “I never thought much about children until I spent time with Samantha Peters.” His heart softened as he thought of the four-year-old little girl who would eventually call him Uncle. “She was quite a little charmer and I must confess for a moment I wondered what it might be like to have a child of my own. But, just like I have no place in my life for a wife, there’s no place in my life for children.”

  “That’s sad,” she said softly. “You would make a wonderful father, Antoine.”

  He tried not to allow her words to ache in his heart. What kind of father would he make always looking over his shoulder, always worried that somehow, someway his enemies would find him? “What about you? You want children?”

  “Definitely. At least two and I want them to know the kind of love my mother showed me.” She snuggled closer against him and within minutes he knew she’d fallen asleep.

  Antoine remained awake long after Beth had fallen asleep, watching her in the faint spill of moonlight that fell into the window.

  He loved the feel of her in his arms. He hadn’t expected making love to her to fill him with such a depth of emotion. He’d thought she’d be like all the other women he’d had in his life, easy to make love to and just as easy to walk away from and forget.

  Was this how his father had felt about his mother?

  Had his father known the danger of loving her but been unable to stop himself? Had he fought what he felt with all his might, only to realize that love was stronger than fear?

  Surely what Antoine felt wasn’t love. It was simply the pleasure of their lovemaking that had him feeling such craziness. He’d spent his entire life telling himself that his heart was not meant to love.

  Perhaps his feelings for Beth were tied up with the fact that he had nobody else he could trust, that she provided a safe haven of sorts from the madness that had become his life here in the United States.

  Perhaps it was time for him to consider returning to Barajas. He wasn’t really accomplishing anything in his mission to find Amir. The COIN summit had been canceled and he certainly wouldn’t be making any trade deals while he was here. That would happen at another place, at another time.

  W
as it time to go home? A tiny bit of rebellion burned in his belly at the thought. There had been times over the last three weeks that he’d considered not going back to Barajas. Sebastian was perfectly capable of carrying the leadership of the nation alone and Antoine had never truly been comfortable beneath the mantle of responsibility.

  He loved this wild and beautiful state he’d found himself in, loved the idea of being a cowboy and settling into a different kind of lifestyle. But, he also wondered if this wasn’t just a need to escape the intrigue that had surrounded him for the past couple of weeks.

  Closing his eyes he breathed in the sweet scent of Beth and told himself that no matter what happened he couldn’t love her. He was the master of his emotions, in total control of his feelings and he absolutely, positively refused to allow himself to love her.

  He drifted off to sleep and the dream came almost immediately. Big, muscular men clad all in black surrounded the bed where he and Beth lay, their dark eyes filled with intense hatred, with the bloodthirsty need for revenge.

  Antoine could smell their rage in the room, an acrid scent that let him know they were dangerous, that he and Beth were in terrible trouble.

  “You took my father’s pride and he died a broken man,” one of them said. “He was a farmer and had nothing to do with politics.”

  “You stole my brother’s honor and now you’re going to pay,” another exclaimed.

  All the men began to shout and Antoine found himself powerless to respond, unable to move a single muscle. Beth remained sleeping next to him, unaware of the danger that surrounded them.

  Panic seared up the back of his throat as he struggled to respond. But, his efforts were to no avail, he remained mute and motionless, unable to defend himself or Beth against the attack.

  “You took from us and now we’ll take from you.” One of the men gazed at Beth as he pulled a long, wicked knife from his belt.

  Agony screamed through Antoine’s head as he realized they intended to hurt her. Kill me, he silently screamed. I’m the one who broke your father. I’m the one who hurt your brother. Take me and leave her alone!

  He awakened with a start and bolted up, gasping for air as he gazed around the moonlit room. Alone. He and Beth were alone in the room. There were no men hovering next to the bed, nobody in the shadows. It had all just been a terrible nightmare.

  He raked a hand down his face and drew several deep breaths. A cold sweat chilled him as the last of the horror of the dream faded away.

  With a sigh he lay back down and looked at Beth, who was curled up on her side and still sleeping soundly. His heart crunched painfully in his chest.

  He felt as if by involving her in his little investigation he’d damned her. By merely being in his presence he’d made somebody believe that she was important enough to him to be used as a weapon against him.

  He didn’t believe in the prophecy of dreams, but there was no question that the nightmare he’d just suffered had the aura of a warning. The problem was he felt as if it was too late to change anything where Beth was concerned. The dream and his knowledge of what had happened to his father only made him more certain that he would never have a woman, not even Beth, as a permanent part of his life.

  Closing his eyes he tried to find sleep again, praying that it would be a slumber without visions, that if there were dreams they would be happy ones.

  He had to believe that Amir would be found alive, that the rest of the coalition would be okay and that Beth would be all right when he eventually returned to Barajas.

  He’d just about fallen back to sleep when he thought he heard the faint tinkle of breaking glass.

  He froze. Was it part of a new dream? Or a trick of his imagination? Had the wind picked up and what he’d heard was the wind chime outside the window? There was no repeat of the noise that would make him believe it was simply the wind.

  He tried to relax but after a moment sat up once again, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep until he went to investigate what had made the noise.

  Silently he slid out of the bed and pulled on his briefs and his slacks, then grabbed his gun from the nightstand, his heart beating unsteadily as he made his way out of the bedroom.

  He paused in the darkened hallway and listened, and heard a faint sound he couldn’t identify. He took several more steps and ahead he could see a faint flickering light coming from the kitchen area.

  What the hell? He frowned and gripped the gun tighter in his hand as he entered the living room. He’d gotten halfway through the room when the acrid air reached his nose and he saw the dark swirl of smoke that waved ghostly fingers in front of the windows.

  Fire!

  The word exploded in his head in alarm. Shielding his nose and mouth with the back of his hand, he entered the kitchen. One of the breakfast nook windows was broken and fire danced up the curtains and ate at the wooden wall.

  He smelled the distinct scent of gasoline and guessed that a Molotov cocktail had been thrown through the window and had exploded.

  Dammit! Somebody must have followed them here. He’d assumed with the new vehicle they wouldn’t be noticed for at least a couple of days.

  He coughed as the viscous black smoke thickened, not only obscuring his visibility but also invading his lungs. They had to get out of the house. With the wooden structure to feed it, the fire would be completely out of control within minutes.

  He raced back to the bedroom and flipped on the overhead light. “Beth, get up.” He ran to the side of the bed and pulled at her arm.

  She gazed at him in sleepy confusion. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “Quickly, put some clothes on. The house is on fire. We have to get out of here,” he exclaimed.

  The sleepiness instantly left her eyes. She jumped out of bed but instead of grabbing for her clothes, she reached for the phone on the nightstand and called 911 to report the fire. Only then did she grab the sweatshirt and sweatpants and pull them on.

  By this time the smoke had snaked down the hallway and had begun to drift into the bedroom. He shoved his gun into his waistband and stepped into his shoes while she pulled on her sneakers. He was aware that every second they wasted meant the fire was getting bigger, hungrier and the danger to them grew more intense.

  “We should be able to get out the front door,” he said as he took her by the hand and pulled her out of the bedroom. He got them halfway to the front door when he halted, his brain working to process the entire situation.

  “Wait!” He stopped her from opening the front door as his brain snapped and fired. It was a perfect ruse. Set a fire in the rear of the house and then wait for the occupants to run out the front door. It would be easy to pick them off as they came out of the door.

  “We can’t go out that way,” he exclaimed.

  Thankfully she didn’t take time to question his words. “The back door,” she replied and started to tug him toward the kitchen.

  He remained grounded and shook his head and then realized she probably couldn’t see the action through the thick smoke that surrounded them. “It’s too dangerous. The fire is near the back door.” Besides, he had no idea if more than one person might be waiting outside for them.

  Her hand clutched his in a death grip. “How do we get out?” she cried and then was taken over by a violent spasm of coughing.

  “Come on.” He pulled her back down the hallway and into the main bathroom where he closed the door behind them. “Don’t turn on the light,” he cautioned her. He didn’t want to alert anyone outside as to exactly where they were in the house.

  “Somebody is out there, aren’t they?” she whispered. He felt her frightened gaze on him as he opened the bathroom window. When he turned to face her, she was barely visible in the faint moonlight that spilled into the window.

  He placed his palms on either side of her face, his heart racing with a rush of adrenaline. His only desire at that moment was to keep her safe. “Somebody is out there,” he replied with a sense o
f urgency. “I think they set the fire and now they’re just waiting for us to leave the house. We can’t stay inside, the smoke is getting thicker and it’s too dangerous.”

  She opened her mouth as if to say something, but he slid his finger over her lips to still her. “They will be expecting us to go out either the front or the back door. I’m hoping we can get out this window without being detected.”

  She nodded and he pulled his finger away from her mouth. “I’m going to go out first and you follow me. Once you hit the ground don’t wait for me and don’t look back. Just run like your life depends on it, because I’m afraid that it does.”

  Without waiting for a response, he slid his head out the window and looked around. Nobody. He saw nobody lurking in the darkness. He raised himself up and over the window ledge and dropped silently to the ground.

  Gun firmly in hand, he once again scanned the area and then motioned Beth to climb out. Just as he’d instructed, she hit the ground and headed for the trees, not looking back as she ran.

  He tightened his grip on his gun and went into a crouch position as he began to move along the side of the house and gave one last look toward the trees, praying this wasn’t the very last time he’d see Beth.

  SHE RAN THROUGH THE TREES like a rabid animal, darting first one way and then another as terror kept any rational thought out of her head.

  Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children all gone.

  The nursery rhyme repeated itself over and over again in her head and she felt a burst of hysterical laughter rise to her lips.

  But she swallowed it, unsure who might be hiding behind a bush, who might be in the shadows of the night waiting to discern her location.

  Who had seen them? Had somebody been hiding in the woods, watching her cabin and hoping to catch them here? On the drive she’d checked her rearview often, but had seen nobody following behind them. How had this happened? What would happen next?

  She finally collapsed at the base of a tree and held her breath, listening for the sound of Antoine, for the sound of anyone who might be near. A stitch in her side burned painfully, but she ignored it.