by Elle James
“Forgotten,” he said and moaned. Gavin gripped her hips and thrust into her, again and again, closing his eyes, his face tense, his body stiffening with every movement.
Aurelia’s insides, tightened around him, pulling him deeper, urging him to give his all. Tingling sensations started at her core and rocketed outward, spreading to the very tips of her fingers and toes. She clung to him, riding the force of her climax.
Gavin thrust once more and held her close, buried deep inside, as his cock throbbed and jerked. Then he pulled free, his breath catching, his heart pounding against her fingertips. “Damn!” he said.
Laughter bubbled up her throat and escaped. “Not exactly the reaction I would have expected after that.”
He rested his forehead against hers, his breathing coming in rapid gulps. “I forgot. How stupid of me.”
“Forgot what?” she asked.
He lifted his head and stared into her eyes. “Protection.”
She froze, her heart sliding to a screeching halt. “Damn.”
“I pulled out before I came,” he said. “At least, I think I did soon enough.” He shoved a hand through his wet hair, standing it on end. “Hell, I blew it. I was supposed to wait. I didn’t even bring anything. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Do you regret it?” Aurelia smoothed a hand along his temple and brushed her lips across his. “I don’t.”
“We haven’t even talked or gotten to know each other.”
She smiled. “We got to know something about each other.”
Gavin drew in a deep breath. “And it was amazing.”
“Yes, it was,” she said. “But you’re right. We still need to talk. I need to tell you about me, and what you’re getting into if you decide to marry me.”
“I think I know all I need to know, after that. We’re most definitely sexually compatible.”
She nodded and dropped her legs to the bottom of the pool. “We are. But there’s more to me than just a woman to make love to.”
“I know that you’re an amazing horsewoman. And you’re patient with difficult animals and men.” He smoothed his hand along her shoulder and down to her hand, lifting it up to his lips. “What more do I need to know?”
She opened her palm and pressed it against the side of his face. Then she drew a deep breath. “I haven’t given you the full disclosure. I’m not who you think I am.”
Chapter 12
“Full disclosure?” Gavin’s brow dipped and a lead weight settled in the pit of his belly. “What could be so bad that I wouldn’t want to be with you? The mail-order bride site vets their applicants. You didn’t show up in their criminal screening. You haven’t committed a felony, have you?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No. I’m not a criminal.”
“They also screen to make sure applicants aren’t married and cheating. You’re not married already, are you?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never married. When I have been engaged, my prospective grooms have died tragically.”
His frown deepened. “Grooms? You’ve been engaged more than once?”
She nodded. “Twice.”
His eyebrows twisted. “Did you kill your fiancés?” he asked, but he couldn’t imagine Aurelia having that wicked a bone in her body.
“No,” she said. “Someone else killed them.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because someone doesn’t want me to marry.”
“I repeat…why?” He stood in front of her, treading water, wanting answers.
Her gaze fell away. “We should get dressed, and then I’ll answer all your questions.”
“Damn right, you will.” He started for the shallower water near the bank when a shot rang out.
“What the hell?” Gavin ducked automatically, grabbed Aurelia’s arm and pulled her low in the water, ducking behind the rocky outcropping they’d just made love against. He pushed her behind him, keeping her hidden in the shadows cast by the stone ledge.
More bullets flew past them. One hit the rocks above him, ricocheting into the water near to where they stood. He wanted to fly out of the water and go after whoever was shooting at them, but he couldn’t. Not without his leg. He couldn’t put it on without getting out of the water and leaving Aurelia alone, and whenever Gavin leaned out, away from the rocky outcropping, more shots were fired, getting closer and closer. He stopped leaning out. If someone wanted to push the envelope, they’d have to come to him. He didn’t have his leg, and he couldn’t go chasing anyone on a leg and a stump.
“How?” Aurelia crossed her arms over her breasts and sank low in the water. “How did they find me?”
“What do you mean, how did they find you?’
“I was trying to tell you. Anyone I promised to marry has ended up dead.”
“Why would someone not want you to marry?” A bullet clinked off the rocks above Gavin. He ducked instinctively. “This is insane. We have to get out of here.” He reached his arm over the top of the rock, feeling for his prosthesis.
Several more gunshots echoed off the hills, seeming to be closer.
Gavin couldn’t wait for the gunman to get right up on them. He could think of only one other place they could hide. “How long can your hold your breath under water?”
Aurelia shook her head. “I don’t know. A minute, maybe two? Why?”
“We have to make a break for it. If we stay here, that gunman might come over and finish the job. We’re unarmed, defenseless. Our only option is to hide.”
“Where?” She trembled, gooseflesh rising on her naked skin.
Gavin nodded toward the waterfall. “Behind the curtain of the falls, there’s a shallow cave. If we could swim underwater all the way to the falls, we can hide back there until the gunman leaves.”
Aurelia stared across the open expanse of water, chewing her lip.
More gunfire made her jump.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
Gavin reached again for his prosthesis, found it and his stump sock and pulled them over the ledge. A bullet just barely missed his hand. He shoved the items into a crack in the rocks. When the shooter was gone, he’d have to return for his leg. There was a good chance they’d have to walk back to the ranch.
Once he had the leg and sock secured, he glanced at Aurelia, naked and shivering. “Are you ready?”
She nodded, her teeth chattering. “I’m r-ready.”
“Stay as close to the bottom as you can and don’t release any air. Bubbles will give us away.” Gavin glanced at the sun, now angling across the trees, casting shadows over the pool. “Follow me.” He sank low in the water, drew in a deep breath and went under at the same time as Aurelia. Together, they pushed off the rocks to get a good start through the open water. Then they were swimming as fast as they could go, staying as close to the bottom as they could. With every stroke, their bodies tried to rise to the surface.
As they neared the falls, Gavin took the lead, guiding Aurelia through the maze of boulders littering the base of the falls.
Finally, Gavin burst through the bubbling rush of water tumbling into the pool from the falls above. He rose to the surface, just enough to be sure he couldn’t be seen through the veil of water. Then he snagged Aurelia’s arm and dragged her up beside him.
She surfaced, gasping for air. For a full minute, she dragged in deep, lungs full of air. When she could finally breathe normally, she stared at the sheet of water. “Are you sure he can’t see us?” she asked.
“If we can’t see out, he can’t see in. And we have the added bonus of being in the shadows of the cave.”
Aurelia wrapped her arms around herself. “How long do you think he’ll be out there?”
“I don’t know. We might have to stay hidden until dark.”
A violent shiver wracked her body.
“We need to get you out of the water and dried off.” Gavin grabbed onto a tree root and pulled himself out of the water onto the bank leading up into the shallow cave. He reached
out and pulled Aurelia up beside him. “Can you get yourself up into the dry part of the cave?”
She nodded and started to rise. As she straightened—naked beautiful and chilled—she took his arm, looped it over her shoulder and helped him to his feet. Not a word was spoken between them as they worked their way up the slope.
Once they reached dry dirt, Gavin eased himself to the ground and held out his hand. “This isn’t exactly how I pictured our day ending,” he muttered.
She let him draw her down to sit beside him. He pulled her into his arms and held her close. “The only way to get warm when you’re naked is to share body heat with someone else. I promise, my plan today wasn’t to get you naked.” He held her close and prayed his body’s natural reaction to hers would remain at bay until they had a chance to make love again in a bed, not a pool or on the dirt. He wanted to show her how beautiful it could be to make love like normal people.
Hell, there was nothing normal about what had happened this day.
“Talk to me, Aurelia,” Gavin said. “Tell me what’s going on.”
She stiffened in his arms. “Please, don’t hate me.”
His hold tightened along with the knot in his gut. “I won’t hate you.”
“You will be angry.” Aurelia sighed. “And I won’t blame you. I should have been completely upfront with you from the beginning.”
“I’m not a very patient man,” he said, his voice more abrupt than he intended.
“Okay. Here goes.” She took a deep breath. “I’m not just Aurelia George. I’m Olivia Aurelia St. George.” She gave a mirthless laugh. “Princess of Lastovia.” She laughed again, the sound ending on a sob. “As I’m sitting here in the dirt, naked and exposed, it seems impossible, but there you have it. I’m a princess, the last in the direct line for the throne of Lastovia, a very small country in Europe. You probably hadn’t heard of it before the news report last night.”
Gavin closed his eyes and shook his head. “You’re the missing princess.” His arm tightened around her. “So far, I’m not mad. Shocked. But not mad.”
“I hadn’t gotten to that part yet,” she whispered.
“Go on.” His arm loosened around her.
“My parents and my older brother died in a car crash two years ago. My brother was supposed to be the next in line for the throne. Not me. I was never intended to be the queen.”
“Until both your parents and your brother died in the crash. I’m sorry for your loss. That had to be hard.” He pulled her close and stroked a hand down her back.
She nodded. “It was horrible. We were close. I have no one else that close.”
“No cousins, aunts, uncles?”
“Some second and third cousins, twice removed. But no other family I’m really close to. But I’m not asking for pity.”
“So, now you’re in line for the throne?” he said softly, encouraging her to continue.
She nodded. “But, as with many monarchies with parliaments in place to make and carry out laws, they have rules for the ruling class. For me to take the crown, I must marry and bear a child before my thirtieth birthday.” When she stopped talking, the sound of the water falling seemed to be amplified to a roar.
That anger she’d spoken of started low in Gavin’s gut and radiated outward like a slow burn. “Let me get this straight. You said you were engaged twice before.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“And both men died.”
“One died in a crash, much like my parents. The other was knocked out into the street and run over by a bus.”
“Did you love either one of them?” Gavin asked.
Aurelia’s back straightened. “It is not always necessary to love in order to fulfill one’s obligation.”
Gavin’s jaw clenched. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“No,” she said. “But I did not wish ill on either one of them. They were good men.”
“And now you’re in another country, willing to marry a stranger to fulfill your obligation,” he said, keeping his voice even.
She stiffened. “I had to leave Lastovia and hide away long enough to marry.”
“And have a child?”
She nodded. “As I stated in my response to your ad, my biological clock is ticking, and it is. Along with my government’s deadline. I must marry and produce an heir before I turn thirty in ten months or the throne goes to my cousin Rupert.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“You would only have to meet Rupert to know how bad it would be. He doesn’t care about our people, only about himself. He would not represent our country well with the world. The man is so greedy, he would bankrupt our country within a year of becoming king. I can’t let that happen to my people.”
“So, you chose me to be your chump husband, a man desperate enough to resort to a mail-order bride.” He snorted. “I should have known a beautiful woman like you would have an ulterior motive for resorting to becoming a mail-order bride.”
She nodded. “You met all the criteria. You needed a bride, you lived in a faraway place. I could hide in Montana until we were married and well on our way to having our first child.” Her voice faded off. “And you had a very handsome face with eyes that…well…spoke to me.”
“I met your criteria. I was a desperate man, willing to go to a website to get a wife,” Gavin clarified. Once again, the sound of the waterfall seemed to roar in Gavin’s ears.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you the whole truth from the beginning.” Aurelia touched his arm with her cold fingers. “But if I had, would you have given me a chance? Would you have wanted to get to know me better?”
“You didn’t give me the benefit of a doubt,” he said. His chest felt so tight, he could barely breathe. “All this time, you just wanted any man who could give you a child.”
“At first, that was true. But then I met you.” She leaned into him. “Sounds trite, but I thought I might have it all. Save my birth right, have the children I want and a man I had come to care for.” She laughed again, the sound ending on a sob. “I guess it was too much to ask for. I’m sorry I used you. You deserve better.”
Gavin didn’t respond. The anger was still there, but with her naked body pressed against his, he couldn’t think straight enough. He needed a chance to get away from her, to clear his mind and figure out what he wanted and how Aurelia fit into it.
Then a thought occurred to him. “Where does Collin fit into this picture. He didn’t just show up to take the ranch hand position, did he?”
She shook her head. “He’s my bodyguard.”
“Why didn’t you just marry him?”
“I couldn’t. I know him too well. He’s not in love with me, nor am I in love with him.”
“It was easier to choose someone you didn’t know?” Gavin laughed. “Princess, you have a crazy way of thinking.”
“I know. This whole situation wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to be footloose, traveling the world doing philanthropy work for my people, building good will around the world, spreading the word that our country exists.” Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she brushed them away. “I don’t mind giving up my dream of traveling. I’d give it up in a heartbeat to have my family back.”
His heart wrenched at the sadness in her voice. But he wasn’t ready to forgive her, yet. He didn’t like that she’d planned to use him. “What about our child? Were you just going to take him away to your country? Would I have had no say in the matter?”
“I’d hoped by the time we got to know and trust each other that we could come to an agreement. Our child wouldn’t have to be raised in Lastovia. She could live her life in Montana.”
“But one day, he’d rule your country? Wouldn’t his people want to know him? Wouldn’t it be right for him to know them?”
Her lips twitched as she nodded. “Whether the baby is a he or a she, yes. Again. I hadn’t even gotten that far. I was working toward my birthday.” Aurelia sighed. “What does it matter, now
? Rupert will take the throne. Perhaps I’m wrong, and he’ll be a good king. I can only hope.”
Though he was mad at the entire situation, Gavin held onto Aurelia, keeping her as warm as he could while they waited out the gunman. She dozed off a couple of times, jerking away when her dreams turned to nightmares. He liked holding her in his arms, but he wasn’t sure he could buy into her plight or the fact she’d withheld vital information. He needed time to process.
Darkness settled in the mountains earlier than on the plains. Soon, the little sunlight that had warmed the area around the pool had disappeared.
Gavin gently shook Aurelia awake. “I’m going to check and see if the gunman is gone.”
Her pulse leaped and she held onto his arm. “I’m going with you.”
“It would be safer for you, if you stayed here,” he said.
“The same goes for you,” she shot back. “It’s because of me that anyone is shooting at you.” She pushed to her feet and looped his arm over her shoulder. Naked and cold, she refused to remain behind while this man who’d protected her put his life on the line again. “Come on, big guy. Let’s go for a swim.”
She helped him down to the water.
With the warmth of the sun gone, the water was cool and stole Aurelia’s breath away. But she didn’t hesitate as she slipped in up to her neck. With darkness shrouding the pool, they didn’t have to swim underwater. Instead, they emerged from the waterfall and breaststroked slowly across the pool to the rocky ledge where they’d left their clothing to dry.
“I’m going to crawl out onto the shore and look around. Please, stay here,” Gavin whispered. “I’m a trained warrior. You aren’t. I’d rather go it alone rather than lose focus worrying about you.”
Aurelia didn’t like the idea of him going out there on his own, but he made a good point. With her going along with him, she’d make him vulnerable. “Okay, I’ll give you one minute then I’m coming out.”
“Two.”
She hesitated. “Two.”
“When I signal, hand me my leg, will ya?”
“I will,” she responded.
