The Ramprakeshi were a gracious people, and they were a proud people, who didn’t even try to hide the happiness they felt at seeing Ram come home. When Ram had greeted his staff, he showed her into a marble hall of such vast proportions there was room for a fountain complete with three full-sized marble warriors mounted on stallions that spouted streams of water from their yawning mouths.
‘I had no idea,’ Mia gasped.
‘That I live so modestly?’
As Ram shot her a wry smile she could almost believe they’d left the shadows behind and that the idyll could continue for ever. ‘I was thinking more of the extraordinary kindheartedness and the welcome from your people. You must have missed them dreadfully.’
‘Some are exceptional,’ he agreed.
‘And some are not?’
‘A few of the courtiers and the professional hangers-on—’
‘Ram, you don’t need to explain to me.’
‘But now you’re here you should know,’ he insisted, drawing her out of earshot.
‘Are you referring to the old man who greeted you—the one who mentioned a new queen?’
Bullseye. Storm clouds gathered immediately in Ram’s eyes.
‘Not now,’ he said.
‘Perhaps I should know sooner rather than later so I don’t put my foot in it. Can’t you explain what he meant by your queen?’
The light in Ram’s eyes had narrowed to a pinprick, but she was primed with insecurity and didn’t know when to stop. ‘I realise I’m not exactly fairy-princess material—’
‘Stop that!’ Ram snapped, shocking her into silence. ‘This has nothing to do with how you look.’
Even if, right at that moment, she couldn’t have felt more flawed?
‘In fact,’ Ram went on coldly, ‘this has nothing to do with you at all.’
Opening the door, he gestured with a curt nod of his chin that she should go ahead of him. But she couldn’t leave it here. ‘Ram, please…I understand there are things in Ramprakesh I shouldn’t interfere in.’
‘And things you don’t understand,’ he emphasised as he started to walk off. ‘You would be doing me a great favour, Mia, if you kept your opinions to yourself in future.’
‘Ram, where are you going?’ She glanced round, only to meet the concerned stares of the servants. What was she supposed to do now? The hall was the size of two football pitches and Ram had just taken off down one of the broad open-air avenues that bisected his enormous palace. ‘Please come back.’
She only knew one way and that was forward. She ran after him, oblivious to the servants who were trying to direct her another way. ‘Ram,’ she called, angrily now.
He must have heard her, but he didn’t even break stride.
Putting on a sprint, she caught up with him. ‘You’re right,’ she said tensely. ‘I don’t understand. I thought I was a guest in your house, and at least in my house guests are escorted to their bedrooms by their host.’
‘And what do you think the servants are waiting to do?’ Ram demanded, staring somewhere over her head.
‘Well, clearly you’re right and I’m wrong,’ Mia agreed. ‘This is your house and your rules. Just leave me here and I’ll make my own way to my room. Do you have a map I could use?’
‘You’re being ridiculous, Mia,’ Ram told her impatiently. ‘Just go back to the hall and they’ll be waiting for you there.’
‘They?’ she snapped. ‘Do they have names?’
He whirled around at that, all power and fury. ‘It’s you who needs a reality check, Mia. This is not downtown Planet Space-Cadet, but a royal palace in an ancient land, where generations have worked side by side for millennia. Of course I know the names of my staff just as they know mine. What they couldn’t be expected to know is that I’d be bringing someone like you along—’
‘Someone like me?’ she exclaimed.
‘Someone with no respect for protocol at all.’
‘Protocol? Or sheer bloody rudeness. Whatever happened to the courtesy of princes, Ram?’
‘I think you’ve said enough. What exactly do you expect me to do, Mia?’
Explain what I should do—be considerate towards someone feeling really out of place here? ‘You could dredge up some civility, maybe? Considering—’
‘Considering what?’ he cut across her coldly. ‘Considering I slept with you? Is that what you were going to say, Mia?’
‘You didn’t do much sleeping, as I remember—’
‘I don’t want to hear this—’
‘I bet you don’t. What’s happened to you, Ram?’ She clung onto his arm to stop him leaving. ‘What happened on the dock to spoil everything? What did that man say that upset you so much? How can you change towards me so quickly? And how can all this leave you flat?’ she demanded finally in exasperation. ‘First the people on the dock and now the servants here who plainly adore you?’
‘They’re all being manipulated.’
‘All of them? All those thousands of people who lined the route are being manipulated?’
‘Yes, and by someone who doesn’t want anything to change—someone who believes that showing off is more important than dealing with the real issues. I’m talking about a man who lines his own pockets at the expense of the people, Mia—a man who lays on a bash like this to herald my arrival purely to seduce me into his way of thinking. Now do you understand?’
‘I had no idea—’
‘No, that’s right, you don’t,’ Ram agreed, and this time she didn’t try to stop him when he turned on his heel and walked away.
Mia wandered the ballroom-sized rooms of her suite, feeling out of place amidst such grandeur. She couldn’t stop thinking about what Ram had said. She was lucky to be staying in what had to be one of the most beautiful palaces in the world, but all she really wanted was a cosy sitting room and a heart to heart with him. Ram’s people had clearly enjoyed the parade, and on big occasions surely there was no harm in a festival cavalcade so long as the funds came from Ram’s purse, rather than the public one. She hoped he wouldn’t throw Ramprakash into deep austerity just because one evil man had used such occasions for his own nefarious reasons.
But Ram was right about turning this palace into a historical showpiece for everyone to enjoy, Mia mused as she traced the decoration on a wall with her fingertips. Richly enamelled in jewel-colours picked out in gold, the exquisite workmanship was a monument to the country’s skilled craftsmen and this palace should be opened to the public so that people could see the riches they had inherited.
Thinking about Ram made her long for him, but she had no idea when she would see him again. Ram didn’t have to explain himself to her, and his manner had been so volatile since arriving back in Ramprakesh she couldn’t predict when he would turn up. She was only now discovering that physical intimacy didn’t open the deepest portals in a person’s mind, it simply drew a veil of pleasure over them. But there was no way she was going to wander about aimlessly for the rest of the day. Even if Ram was too busy to see her she still had work to do. She had done enough coasting since the accident and now she had a chance to put her life back in gear. She was itching to get started. She wasn’t a tourist and she wasn’t really a guest, and if Ram was serious about her submitting ideas for both his yacht and his new home, then the first thing she had to do was visit the site—which in turn meant having the right equipment.
She was smiling by the time she put down the phone. A requisition form would be delivered to her rooms immediately. Ramprakesh was nothing if not quaint.
Having completed the form, Mia folded it neatly and placed it on the golden platter that had been left in the room for that very purpose.
‘You could have rung your order through—’
‘Ram!’ Mia’s heart exploded in a frenzy of activity. ‘What are you doing here?’ She sounded angry—and yet she was so happy to see him it hurt.
Ram appeared as cool and sexy as always—as if they had never exchanged a cross word. Leaning back
against the door with his arms folded, he said, ‘I did knock, but you were too busy pacing to notice.’
‘I thought you were too busy to see me,’ she countered.
‘I thought I’d better check you like your accommodation.’
‘Finally,’ she said.
‘I had things to do when we arrived—people to speak to—’
‘And a guest to settle in.’
‘So you do like your accommodation,’ he said, refusing to be thrown.
‘You are joking? No one lives like this, Ram.’
‘At least one person you know does,’ he said dryly.
‘But not for long.’ Mia smiled.
‘Yes, as you know, I have other plans. So, what’s it to be, Mia?’ Easing up, he came towards her, steadily, relentlessly, reminding her—and not for the first time—of some sleek, dark jungle cat. ‘Am I in for storm-force tantrums or a fit of the doldrums?’
‘Neither,’ she said. ‘But you do need a good shake.’
Unfortunately, that would mean getting closer than was strictly advisable right now.
‘So what do you think of the palace?’ he said.
‘As a home for you? Overblown like the yacht—but it is a fabulous showpiece for the country.’
Ram had picked up the requisition sheet. ‘You should have called me if you needed anything, Mia.’
‘Why would I do that,’ she said, still feeling needled, ‘when you couldn’t even spare the time to show me my room?’
‘Please accept my apologies.’
But Ram was smiling—and he didn’t sound one bit repentant. And now she was staring at his lips.
‘Anything you want, Mia,’ he murmured, coming to stand in front of her. ‘You only have to ask.’
‘Can I have my old friend back?’
Ram laughed, but she’d had enough of his erratic mood swings and was in no mood to stroke his ego. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Can’t you guess?’
Excitement and shock coursed through her. Did he think she was really that available?
The answer to that was clearly yes, Mia realised, backing away from Ram as he steadily closed the distance between them. ‘You can’t—’
‘I can’t do what, Mia?’
‘Whatever it is you have in mind.’ Feeling a table behind her legs, she began to edge round it.
‘I won’t do anything you don’t want me to,’ Ram assured her as she put a sofa between them.
‘Can’t this wait until tomorrow, Ram?’ Giving her time to firm up her resolve.
‘Would you rather it did?’ And now his wicked lips were tugging with amusement.
‘Ram, you can’t just—’
‘Kiss you? Hold you?’
How did she come to be in his arms?
‘You can always walk away,’ Ram pointed out. ‘No? You don’t want to?’
‘You know I don’t,’ she managed huskily.
‘Careful what you say, Mia,’ Ram warned, staring down into her eyes. ‘Palaces have ears.’
And lips to whisper secrets, she thought, feeling her pulse rise in response to him while her distracted gaze sought out the exotic paintings on the walls. Erotic love appeared to be the overriding theme in Ramprakesh—as if she needed any encouragement.
‘I think you’ve cast a spell on me,’ Ram murmured as he pulled her deeper into his arms.
‘I wish,’ she said carelessly.
‘What do you wish for, Mia?’
That Ram would take her now—here on one of the fabulous rugs beneath a ceiling composed of mirrors. But it would only be another sensory overload to help her forget that for ever with Ram was out of reach. ‘No,’ she murmured as he brushed her lips with his.
‘No?’ His gaze was both amused and compelling. ‘Are you telling me you don’t want this?’
Oh, so much…
Ram could be so tender. He made love to her as if they had all the time in the world. And she responded as she always did, like a glutton who could never get enough of him. He chose a conveniently placed bank of silken cushions rather than the rug on the floor, and now she was beneath him with her wrists held in a loose grip above her head as Ram slowly undressed her with his free hand.
Ram’s hands were skilful and his kisses had completed the seduction. Her limbs felt as if they had flooded with molten honey and all she had to do now was wait to receive the pleasure that was coming. Ram knew everything there was to know about pleasure. He needed no prompting from the artwork on the walls, though it was an added fascination to see his reflection in the mirrors over their heads and to see her legs spread wide in invitation. Her breasts seemed fuller than usual as he teased her tight pink nipples with his tongue and with his teeth, and gradually her sensual movements on the silk supporting her became more urgent—the reflections in the mirror more blurred, and her fingers more demanding as she clutched and unclutched them, begging him to set her free.
‘I rode an elephant for you,’ he growled against her mouth, ‘and now you have to pay.’
‘I can’t wait,’ she assured him, arcing her body in the hunt for some desperately needed contact. ‘Aren’t you too warm like that?’
Ram laughed. He was only wearing a simple tunic in cream linen and some rather revealing linen pants.
‘Let me undress you,’ she begged him.
‘And allow you to escape?’
‘I’m not going anywhere.’
Ram’s sexy mouth tugged in a grin. ‘Somehow, I believe you…’
He was naked in moments, but then he turned her beneath him. ‘Where were we?’ he said.
‘Somewhere around here,’ Mia suggested, positioning herself on the cushions so she was sure she could see everything Ram would be doing to her in the mirrors overhead. Putting her arms over her head, she allowed him to capture her wrists again and then, drawing her knees back as far as she could, she slipped her legs over his shoulders. She was so confident of pleasure—so confident with him. And the sight of Ram’s reflection—strong and powerful as he knelt between her legs—only added to her arousal. She had never seen him so engorged, so big, so firm, so hard, and when he allowed her just the tip, only to withdraw, she thought she would go mad for him.
‘Enough?’ he said, tracing a teasing pattern that never quite gave her what she wanted.
She couldn’t speak—she could hardly breathe—
And then Ram sank deep inside her and began to move.
She climaxed immediately. She couldn’t stop herself. The first she knew of it was when she heard herself moaning, shrieking, crying—and then she was clinging to him so fiercely she even missed the moment in the mirrors.
‘Enough?’ Ram suggested a second time, as she gradually subsided and sank back on the silken cushions.
‘You don’t play fair,’ she murmured as he dropped kisses on her neck.
‘Would you have me any other way?’ Ram demanded, wholly unrepentant.
‘Let me think about that.’ She was already reaching for him again.
‘How long do you need?’
‘As long as you’ve got.’
Chapter Fourteen
MAKING love to Mia felt like coming home. His only regret was that Mia couldn’t be part of his future in Ramprakesh. But he couldn’t let her go, either—the details were sketchy…
The details hardly mattered as he sank deep into her welcoming warmth.
‘Why are you so distracted?’ she murmured, lacing her fingers through his hair as he kissed her.
You’re everything to me, rang in his head. For now, were two words he would not contemplate, particularly when Mia’s sighs of pleasure were drawing him back into their erotic world.
He made love to her as if it were the last time and she met him at every thrust, fixing her gaze on his, as if at some deep level she understood. She was beautiful and she wanted him, and when she lost control in a frenzy of gasps and screams he told her she meant everything to him, and he held her as if he would never let her go—as if s
ome outside force were trying to wrench her from him and he was fighting it—but then he realised that the only demons he had to fight were within himself.
She had to learn the truth from a maid. That was what really hurt, Mia realised, sitting at her dressing table with her head in her hands. It was the following morning, and, in fairness to Ram, she hadn’t given him much time to talk during the night.
But that was no consolation when she learned that Ram had left England to marry an arranged bride—a princess of equivalent standing—but his bride had died while Mia had been in the hospital, which was why she had remained completely out of the loop. Now she knew why Ram had been so angry at the dockside. The mention of a new queen made the tragic loss of life seem nothing more than an inconvenience. But why couldn’t he have told her the truth? Why didn’t he want to talk about it? Was Ram still in love with his lost bride? When the old man in the receiving line had suggested that Mia was the new queen, Ram’s reaction had been one of anger…
She felt so hurt—so shut out. She had never presumed to see herself at Ram’s side, but it was this silence on his part that hurt her. Intimacy was a confusing thing—it came with the expectations, at least where Mia was concerned, that it would bring you closer to each other. Yet now it seemed that she and Ram were further apart than they had ever been. The thought that Ram’s tragic bride must have meant far more to him than she ever had really hurt. She might not see herself at Ram’s side, but had never imagined it would be so difficult to think of anyone else taking up that place.
She was so confused. The only thing she could be sure about was that she couldn’t bear to stare at her stunned-stupid self in the mirror any longer. It was time to get real. Ram had appetites—they both had—and that was all this was: an affair.
But he had made her feel so safe and special. He made her believe they were as close as two people could be. And suddenly she didn’t feel so special. At least, not as special as Ram’s lost bride must have been. He must have really loved her. And Mia could only ever come a poor second. She was someone Ram had used to blank his mind from all the pain he had endured—at best a bed-buddy to distract him. And it had taken a complete stranger to point this out to her—not in so many words, of course, but now she understood Ram’s past and why there was always part of him she couldn’t reach. She had always wanted to believe the fantasy when the truth was Ram would always mean more to her than she meant to him.
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