by Maya Blake
Di rolled her eyes. ‘Duh! Every female with a pulse over the age of fourteen knows who he is. His brother Zak is equally hot. I wonder what the Crown Prince is doing here, though. I would’ve thought Bond Street was more his speed if he’s shopping. Hey, don’t royals have minions to do that sort of—? Oh, my God, he’s coming in here!’
Maddie turned away, praying Di was wrong. He wasn’t here for her. He couldn’t be. In the dark of a nightclub, in the midst of minor celebrities and royalty, it was easy to explain away a crown prince’s fleeting interest in her—even to herself.
Here, among the cheap plastic furniture and even cheaper food of a street corner café, it was difficult to rationalise why the hottest man alive would seek her out.
But what were the chances that he was here on some other mission?
Di continued to chatter away. Maddie kept her back to the door, despite the mocking voice that said she was burying her head in the sand.
Moments later she heard the hush in the café, heard the firm, confident footfalls of a man who believed he owned the very ground he walked on—right before she felt the mildly earth-shaking vibrations of his presence behind her.
‘Miss Myers.’
Dear God, she hadn’t imagined the impact of that voice. Nor had she imagined its pulse-destroying effect on her.
She tried fruitlessly to fight the shivers coursing through her as she turned around. And promptly lost her grip on the forks in her hand.
The clatter was astounding.
Face flaming, Maddie dropped to her knees, furiously scrambling for the forks. Before her, a pair of polished hand-stitched shoes remained planted. Unmoving. She refused to look up, refused to acknowledge the existence of the man clad in an expensive, dark navy pinstriped suit that probably cost more than her year’s salary. She crawled around him, snatching up the utensils as her face grew hotter. When she had them all she sat back on her heels, prepared to rise.
‘Miss Myers?’
Maddie bit her lip, knowing she couldn’t avoid looking at him. She tilted her head, her breath strangling all over again when her eyes clashed with his silver-grey ones. They were ferociously intense, even as one eyebrow slowly lifted mockingly and he examined her flushed face.
‘Um...yes?’ She was sure embarrassment was what had rendered her voice a husky mess, not the charged volts shooting through her pelvis and the stinging awareness that she was at eye level with his crotch.
She blinked, her brain emptying of everything but one single, breath-stealing erotic image.
‘You missed one.’
A throat cleared. Hastily she glanced down, saw one cheap scratched fork held between his long, neatly tapered fingers.
She snatched it from him. ‘Thank you.’
Still on her knees, she placed the forks on the nearest table, then froze when Prince Remirez extended one elegant hand towards her.
Her heart leapt into her throat as she considered the many ways she could refuse his assistance without causing offence.
There were none.
So she placed her hand in his, felt his fingers glide across her palm on their way to gripping hers. She’d once read a novel in which the heroine described feeling pure electricity when she touched the man of her dreams. Maddie had rolled her eyes then.
Now she sent a silent apology to the maligned character.
Crown Prince Remirez would never be the man of her dreams, and she wasn’t going to waste her time counting the many ways why, but the reality that singed and branded and claimed that small portion of her body promised that she would never shake another hand without remembering this captivating moment.
Her insides liquefied as he tightened his grip and tugged her to her feet. The slight tautening of his face and the flare in his eyes told her he wasn’t completely unaffected by what was happening. Nor did he miss her wince as her arm twinged in pain.
The moment she felt steady on her feet she tried to snatch her hand from his. He kept hold of her for a moment longer before he released her.
When she could breathe again Maddie threw a furtive glance around her. As suspected, every single gaze in the café was fixed on her, including her boss’s—although his curiosity was beginning to dissolve into annoyance.
‘Would...would you like a table, um... Your Highness?’ Was that the correct form of address? Or was it Your Grace? ‘You can pick any one you like. I’ll be with you as soon as I finish putting—’
‘I’m not here to dine, Miss Myers.’ He cut across her, not bothering to keep his voice down. Or the disdain out of it.
She reminded herself that she needed this job and therefore couldn’t afford to be rude to patrons or non-patrons. ‘In that case I can’t really help you, since I’m working. Maybe we can—’
‘It’s in your interest to make time. Now.’
About to refuse, because her heart rate didn’t seem interested in slowing down, and because he really was a little too potent to her senses, she paused. Something in his voice warned her against it.
Belatedly she remembered that he’d summoned Jules to breakfast this morning. Had Jules divulged their connection? Was that why he was here?
She searched his face and came away with nothing but further evidence of his heart-stopping gorgeousness.
A quick glance at the clock showed it was a quarter past eleven. The lunchtime rush hour wouldn’t start for another half hour. ‘Jim, can I take my break now? I’ll make it up later.’
The head chef, who also happened to be the café’s owner, glanced from her to Prince Remirez and then, barely hiding his irritation, nodded. ‘I s’pose so.’
She flashed him a grateful smile, then dived into the small cubicle that doubled up as a changing and break room to get her bag. Slinging it crossways over her shoulder, she hurried through the café and out onto the pavement.
Where a small crowd had gathered, their camera phones ready to capture the image of the most captivating man on earth.
‘We’ll have more privacy in the car,’ Prince Remirez pronounced smoothly, a second before his hand arrived at her waist and nudged her firmly in the direction of the open back door of a limo.
Maddie entered, immediately noting the different configuration of the seats from last night’s car. There was no bench seat on the far side behind the driver. Which left her no choice but shuffle along the seat as Prince Remirez slid in after her.
The door shut behind him and instantly the atmosphere closed in around them. The push of air wrapped his scent around her, triggering that insane urge to bury her face in his neck and drown herself in his scent.
Whether it came from a bottle or it was a specially branded scent, it was lethal enough to be seriously addictive to women.
Addictive.
The word brought her up short, flinging her foolish ruminations into harsh reality. ‘Okay, Your Highness. You have fifteen minutes.’
He adjusted his cuffs, rested his elegant hands on his thighs before fixing his ferocious eyes on her. ‘Your business with Jules is over,’ he stated bluntly.
Maddie tried not to panic, but fear raced up her spine and threatened to paralyse her all the same.
After forcing herself to take a few slow, rib-bruising breaths, she pulled her phone from her pocket. ‘With all due respect, I want to hear it from him.’
Prince Remirez glanced at her phone. ‘He’s already on a plane to Montegova. You won’t see him or talk to him again. Your number has been blocked from his phone permanently so save yourself the trouble.’
A cold shiver ploughed through her. ‘Why are you doing this?’
He reached into his breast pocket and extracted a dark burgundy card with sleek gold numbers embossed on the front and back. ‘I came here to tell you that if you wish to salvage anything from this I am prepared to hear you out.’ He nodded at the card. ‘My address and priv
ate number are on the back. You have twenty-four hours to use it. Then I too will be out of your reach.’
CHAPTER THREE
LAST NIGHT, SEEING her in real life for the first time, Remi had thought her beauty exceptional.
Right now, watching the muted light from the sun-roof bathe her in a soft glow, she was even more exquisite.
Maddie Myers’s beauty was like nothing he’d ever seen. For starters, he couldn’t put his finger on why she would look so magnificent in a cheap, drab waitress’s uniform when last night she’d been dressed in finer, albeit more risqué, attire.
The other puzzling thing was that Remi had dated women who were equally beautiful. And yet something about this woman, whose beauty oozed from her very pores, triggered a stark, cloying hunger within him that he hadn’t quite been able to get a handle on.
That hunger had roared to life the moment he’d walked into that dismal café, and intensified when she’d dropped to her knees before him. Even now base images reeled through his mind. Images he had no business accommodating in public.
Years spent perfecting the art of schooling his expression had saved him from blatantly telegraphing his reaction. But those images were etched clearly in his brain, gaining lurid purchase as her plump lips part in shock.
‘Jules is really gone?’ she demanded huskily.
Remi gritted his teeth, finding the chore of discussing his half-brother with this woman intensely unsatisfactory. ‘Yes.’
Brows two shades darker than her honey-gold hair bunched together in confusion. ‘But... I don’t understand.’
‘What’s there to understand? He’s finally decided to grow up and make a meaningful contribution to the kingdom.’
‘Just like that?’ she asked sceptically.
‘Of course not. It’s taken a considerable amount of time to make him accept his responsibilities.’
‘And you came here to get him to do that?’
Remi shrugged. ‘It was past time someone did.’ He watched her carefully for signs that whatever had been going on between her and Jules was more than a light dalliance.
Her eyelashes swept down, shielding her expression from him. He fisted his hand on his thigh to curb the urge to cup her chin and expose her gaze to him.
After a moment, she swiped the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip. ‘Did he...did he say anything about me?’ she enquired gruffly.
His irritation grew. ‘Should he have?’
Her long lashes flew up, jade-green eyes flashing at him before she turned to stare blindly out of the window.
Remi continued to study her. Although her fingers twisted the handle of her bag in agitation, her expression didn’t reflect the forlorn anguish of a discarded lover. No, Maddie Myers’s demeanour betrayed a different sort of torment. One of panicked frustration.
Jules had been an important cog in the wheel of her plans. A thwarted plan she was now furiously reassessing.
Still, he needed to be sure. ‘You didn’t kiss him back.’
Her head whipped towards him, her eyes widening. ‘What?’
‘Last night your supposed lover kissed you goodnight. You didn’t kiss him back. In fact you seemed disturbingly apathetic.’
Remi was certain that had been one of the reasons he hadn’t acted on his visceral need to separate them. The other had been because he hadn’t wanted to attract even more attention than his presence in that seedy nightclub had already garnered.
Maddie Myers schooled her features in a way that would have made his childhood deportment instructors proud. ‘Didn’t I? You must be mistaken.’
‘I was not. Why were you with Jules?’ The question was beginning to grate, like a tiny stone in his shoe.
‘According to you, he’s several thousand miles away. Therefore why we were together no longer matters, does it?’
Her gaze dropped to her phone, and there was a contemplative look in her eyes.
‘It matters if you’re planning to contact him the moment you’re out of my sight. If you are, I seriously advise against it.’
Defiant eyes met his. ‘I fail to see how you’re going to stop me, since the minute I step out of this vehicle I intend never to see you again.’
‘You delude yourself if you think you’ll be free of me that easily.’
‘And you delude yourself with...with whatever you think this interrogation is. I owe you nothing. Getting into this car with you was a courtesy. One you’ve outworn. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to work now before I annoy my boss.’
She reached for the handle to the door that would open onto the street.
He darted forward and seized her wrist, quiet fury laced with something that felt alarmingly close to dread fizzing through his bloodstream. ‘Are you always this careless with your safety?’ he demanded, aware his voice was harsh and gruff.
He told himself it had nothing to do with the guilt fused into his being. Or the breathtaking smoothness of the skin stretched over her racing pulse.
For some reason she found his question amusing, although her thousand-watt smile barely made an appearance before it was extinguished again. ‘Did you not ask your brother how we met?’
All he’d wanted from Jules this morning was his agreement to board the royal plane back to Montegova, and a promise that he would cease contact with Maddie Myers immediately. Discussions of duty and responsibility had been shelved when he’d realised his brother was severely hungover.
‘The subject didn’t come up.’
‘Well, he nearly ran me over with his supercar. And, no, I wasn’t being reckless. The signal to cross was still green when he hit me.’
Remi’s blood went deathly cold. Over the last two years he’d lived with an unending torrent of might-have-beens. All the things he might have done to alter events. The image of Maddie Myers lying lifeless on a filthy pavement awoke demons he’d fought hard and failed to conquer.
‘Jules hit you with his car?’ He was aware his voice was a thin, icy blade. But it was only when she flinched that his gaze dropped to the hold he had on her.
He loosened his grip as other things began to fall into place. The wincing she tried to hide. The flash of pain across her face last night in the car and when he’d touched her in the café.
Rage rose to mingle with the guilt. ‘How badly were you hurt?’ The gravel-rough demand seared his throat.
Her head dipped and her gaze fell to her lap. ‘Besides my pride and a few bruises and scratches, I’d say the groceries that met their end on Camberwell New Road came off worse.’
Ice-cold fingers gripped his nape. ‘Don’t be flippant about it.’
His harsh rebuttal made her flinch. When her eyes darted to his fists, Remi realised he’d clenched them so hard the knuckles were bloodless.
‘I... It wasn’t a big deal,’ she whispered.
He slowly unfurled his hands. Sucked in one long breath. ‘Was that when you struck this secret bargain between the two of you?’
A flash of alarm crossed her face, then evaporated to leave faint pink spots on her cheeks. Without answering she turned resolutely to the door. ‘This conversation is over. Goodbye, Your Highness.’
Remi had no intention of letting her get away. Not until he’d delved into these new revelations. Revelations that had him secretly reeling.
‘I’ve changed my mind. You no longer have twenty-four hours.’
He picked up the card she’d dropped on the seat between them and slid it back into his pocket.
He nodded abruptly. And a moment later his car had left the kerb and the café behind.
Her shocked gaze swung to the window, then back to him. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
‘We’re going to talk. In one hour you’ll either have decided you don’t work at that café any more or your boss will be adequately compensated
for your absence and you can return to work tomorrow morning. Either way, neither of you will lose. Put your seatbelt on.’
‘No! I don’t know how things work in your country, but here what you’re doing is called kidnapping!’
Remi caught her arm just beneath the short sleeve of her cheap shirt, again noting the satin-smoothness of her skin and the sizzle of miniature fireworks that transmitted from her skin to his.
Back in the café, when he’d first touched her, he mocked himself for over-exaggerating the sensation. Now he knew for sure as the blood heated in his veins.
Her breath hitched and her alluring eyes dropped to where he held her before she jerked away from him. ‘Please don’t touch me.’
Reluctantly, he released her. She gave a tiny shake of her head, as if she found the sizzling, unwanted chemistry as confounding as he did. That knowledge only intensified the urgency rampaging through him.
‘You will tell me why you’re anxious to get in touch with Jules. After you tell me in detail about your first meeting.’ He frowned as his memory came up blank on that part of Maddie Myers’s recent history. ‘Why isn’t there a record of the accident or a hospital visit?’
Sparks flared in her eyes. ‘Because there wasn’t one. And in case I didn’t get around to mentioning it last night, it’s loathsome of you to pry into my life the way you blithely believe you have a right to.’
‘Why wasn’t there one?’ he demanded.
‘Because your brother didn’t take me to hospital, that’s why.’
This time he couldn’t contain his curse, the fury that tripled his heartbeat or the churning alarm that underpinned all his emotions. ‘He nearly ran you over and you didn’t demand to be taken to a hospital?’
Her expression closed and she avoided his gaze. ‘I told you—’
‘You’re trying to hide the fact that you’re favouring your right arm and yet you flinch and grow pale with every contact. Either you’re truly intent on deluding yourself that your injury is no big deal...’ he paused as a deeper bolt of emotion, a protectiveness he didn’t welcome, kicked him in the gut ‘...or there’s another reason you’re burying your head in the sand.’
