by Heidi Rice
But he couldn’t resist the opportunity to admire the sweep of her spine and the soft swell of her backside, barely covered by the towel.
She opened the door, and glanced over her shoulder, catching him watching her.
Her blush ignited, while his own skin heated.
‘I really am sorry,’ she said. ‘This wasn’t ever supposed to get so complicated. I just wanted to give my sister a chance to live like a normal person, for a little while.’
It was a ludicrous thing to say. What did she even mean by live as a ‘normal’ person? How could Jade ever be normal, or Juno for that matter, when they were of royal blood?
But he stifled the urge to berate her further; there would be more than enough time to do that tomorrow. Right now his feelings were too damn volatile. He needed her gone.
‘Get out,’ he said.
He listened for a moment to her moving about in the adjoining bedroom.
Images of her dropping the towel tortured him and the heat in his pants became painful. He stripped off his clothing and stepped into the shower.
Taking himself in hand, he worked the strident erection in fast, efficient strokes under the punishing spray. After finding his release, he rested his forehead against the wet tiles.
When he turned the water off, the sound of her movements had gone. But as he began drying himself, while considering how best to deal with the fallout from tonight’s events, he had the disturbing, but persistent thought that he was already anticipating seeing Juno Monroyale again in the morning.
CHAPTER NINE
‘YOU’RE NOT SERIOUS?’ Juno stared at Leo, her heart beating so fast it was threatening to leap right out of her chest.
‘Do I look as if I’m joking?’ Leo replied, the words bitten out in short staccato punches as if he were talking to a disobedient child who needed to be disciplined.
Nope, he definitely did not look any more amused than he had last night. If anything his uber frown had got a whole lot worse since she’d been summoned to his study this morning. She’d been up most of the night panicking about what he was going to do this morning, how he might choose to punish her... And Jade...
And on the rare occasions she had managed to fall asleep she’d woken again hot and sweaty, tortured by dreams in which Leo was the star player...
But of all the worst-case scenarios she’d envisioned during the night, what he’d just suggested hadn’t even been in the top hundred.
‘But... Why...?’ she murmured. ‘Why would you want to spend seven days alone in a secluded cabin with me? I thought you never wanted to see me again?’
‘Because it’s the only way to solve both our problems,’ he said, not denying that he didn’t want to see her again.
The foolish little bubble that had formed under her breastbone when he’d made the suggestion popped.
‘I want you to stay out of the public eye until your sister returns, at which point you can swap back.’
Leo raked his fingers through his hair and she noticed the smudges under his eyes—and the shadow of stubble on his chin. So he’d had a sleepless night too.
Unfortunately, in a pair of dark jeans and a black sweater that clung to his impressive chest, he looked as hot as ever—which made the wave of sympathy tangle with the wave of sensation that had tormented her most of the night.
‘I can hide in Monrova until Jade returns,’ she offered. She couldn’t spend seven nights alone with him in a cabin—because the yearning, the need and, worse, the feeling of connection were all still there. ‘Jade didn’t have any public engagements planned in Monrova over Christmas—which was why it seemed like a good time to do the swap.’
His eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘If you’re trying to imply I put you at risk of discovery because I persuaded you to come to Severene for a state visit, you can think again.’
‘Persuaded?’ she said. ‘You ganged up on me with one of my father’s advisors and practically kidnapped me.’
His brow lowered ominously. ‘At the time I thought I was kidnapping a queen. Not her identical twin. If you had deigned to tell me the truth, I would not have had the slightest interest in kidnapping you in the first place.’
The cutting put-down sliced neatly through her indignation.
‘Well, anyway...’ she said, scrambling to shore up what was left of her self-esteem. ‘The point is if I return to Monrova now, I should be able to keep well out of the public eye, until Jade returns.’
Winning the blame game with Leo wasn’t going to happen, so it was probably better to stop playing it, because all it was doing was grinding what was left of her ego to dust.
‘So you don’t need to worry about my identity being discovered or causing a scandal.’
‘Except that’s not our only problem,’ he said, the sarcasm in his tone as cutting as the earlier put-down. ‘I didn’t use a condom last night.’
His gaze skimmed down to her midriff, and the sensation that would not die chose that moment to swell between her thighs.
She wrapped her arms round her waist, assailed by the memory of his hard, heavy weight inside her.
Terrific. As if she needed any more reasons to feel lower than dirt.
‘According to the internet research I did last night,’ he continued, his hot gaze doing diabolical things to her already shaky equilibrium, ‘we must wait seven days to take a pregnancy test to ensure we don’t risk a false negative.’
‘Okay,’ she said. She wasn’t going to be pregnant, she was sure of it. Even she couldn’t be that unlucky. But even so... ‘I could take a test in Monrova in a week’s time and let you know the result.’
‘That’s not going to work for me,’ he said, the flat tone tearing at what was left of her self-respect. ‘Assuming you can even source a test there without the Queen’s doctors finding out you’re not the Queen, do you really expect me to trust you to get it done without screwing it up?’
‘Yes?’ she asked, hating the plea in her voice. And the slicing pain in her heart at his contempt.
Why had she let his approval mean so much to her, when it had always been conditional on her being the Queen?
‘That wasn’t a question, Princess.’ The muscle in his jaw jumped, his lips pursing into a tight line of dissatisfaction. ‘Just to be clear, I’m not letting you out of my sight until the test is done to my satisfaction.’
The rigid, uncompromising tone made her stomach hurt. The hollow ache was one she recognised.
‘But what would we do? For seven days alone in a mountain cabin? When you can barely stand to talk to me?’ she asked, her desperation getting the better of her.
She couldn’t spend a week with him treating her the way her father always had, like a reckless, unruly child who needed to be brought to heel. Not only would her ego never survive it, but she was very much afraid her heart wouldn’t be able to survive it either.
He studied her, but then to her astonishment the tight line of his lips lifted into a sensual smile. And the disapproval in his gaze turned into something a great deal more disturbing.
‘I can think of several ways to amuse ourselves that would not involve unnecessary conversation.’
‘What?’ Heat flooded up Juno’s torso and hit her cheeks. ‘You’re not... You’re not serious? You still want to sleep with me? Even though you detest me.’
And why was the hot spot between her thighs erupting like Vesuvius at the thought?
‘I don’t detest you. Unfortunately.’
‘Gee, thanks,’ she said, trying to channel her indignation and getting breathless instead.
Why was that foolish bubble of hope rising back up her torso? Because that was even more delusional than the volcano in her panties.
His gaze raked over her, the heat as caustic as the disdain. Then he shrugged. ‘Obviously it would be your choice, but I see no reason not to
explore the chemistry between us while we’re there. There’ll be little else to do, and that much at least was real.’
She stared back at him. She should tell him where he could stick his insulting offer. She should demand to know where he got off treating her like a disobedient child on the one hand, then suggesting a seven-day booty call on the other.
But the outrage and the anger got stuck in her throat, trapped behind that foolish bubble of hope. And something else entirely came out of her mouth. Something that had tormented her ever since last night.
‘Why didn’t you use a condom?’
The muscle in his jaw flexed, but his eyes widened.
‘Was it deliberate?’ she asked. ‘Were you trying to get me pregnant so you could force me to marry you, when you thought I was Jade?’ The accusation was so atrocious, she wasn’t sure she even believed it herself, but something about his failure to use contraception didn’t make any sense.
He was a cautious man. How could he have made that mistake?
Guilt flashed across his features, but it was accompanied by a wary tension that only confused her more.
‘No,’ he said. ‘By the time I got my hands on you I wasn’t thinking about anything at all. I would never do something so...’ He stopped abruptly, his eyes narrowing. And then swore softly under his breath. ‘Point taken,’ he said.
‘What point?’ she asked. She hadn’t intended to make a point.
‘I guess you weren’t the only one who got carried away last night,’ he said grudgingly.
The bubble of hope under her breastbone pressed against her chest.
Perhaps he didn’t totally hate her after all. Relief flooded through her. It felt like progress of a sort.
She tried to swallow down the bubble of hope but it wasn’t going anywhere.
Hope was not her friend.
Things had got hot and heavy with Leo over the last week because he had believed she was a queen, and with majesty came great responsibility in Leo’s world. But now he knew she wasn’t, the pressure was off. Did that mean...?
‘Okay, I’ll go with you,’ she said, the heat spreading into her cheeks as his intense gaze darkened.
‘Excuse me?’ he said, with the supreme arrogance that had always been a major turn-on.
‘I can hack seven days alone in a cabin if you can.’
She could see she’d surprised him again when his brows launched up his forehead. But then he laughed. The sound husky enough to scrape over her nerve endings.
His lips twisted in a sensual smile that had the heat pulsating into her panties.
It was probably nuts to agree to go with him—she wasn’t entirely convinced he didn’t still detest her—but she didn’t want things to end like this. She wanted a chance to show him the real her. And that the real her wasn’t really that different from the fake her. That was all. Perhaps it was super self-serving, wanting to make up for the mistakes she’d made, wanting him to like her, at least a little, but so be it.
‘You make it sound as if I was giving you a choice, Princess,’ he said.
She’d begun to realise Leo always liked to have the last word.
He had given her a choice, though. The choice to jump him or not to jump him. And more importantly the choice to have this mean something, or not mean something.
This time she intended to make the right choice, on both counts, by sticking to one simple rule.
Hot was allowed, heavy never.
CHAPTER TEN
LEO CIRCLED THE Puma over the hunting lodge’s heliport. The lights blazed from the luxury cabin’s porch, illuminating the hot tub built on a platform under the trees, which had been fired up, as per his instructions.
Anticipation powered through his system as he brought the big bird down and switched off the ignition. Juno sat beside him. Her beautiful body, the one he’d had in his arms only last night, was cocooned in a ton of clothing topped by a heavy quilted jacket.
They hadn’t spoken much since they had agreed to the trip this morning. But as he waited for the blades to power down, and his libido continued to rev up, he questioned his decision to bring her here, again.
All the arguments he’d given her this morning were real. Or real enough. But if this trip had really been about limiting the risk of scandal and making sure she took a pregnancy test, why the hell had he suggested they jump each other while they were here?
That hadn’t been smart or sensible. It had been an impulse. And he was not an impulsive man. Well, not until he’d met Juno Monroyale.
Maintaining his anger with her would have been a whole lot safer... But as soon as he’d seen the dazed awareness in her eyes at his suggestion... The dangerous decision to indulge their baser instincts had come out of his mouth regardless.
The dusk lingered on the horizon, the stars already winking above the forest canopy. He should be exhausted, after all he’d had a virtually sleepless night, but even so, as she sat quietly beside him—for once silent—and he contemplated seven long days and nights alone with her, he’d never felt more alive, more alert.
She dragged off the headset.
‘This place looks incredible.’ The smile that tipped up her lips was both tentative and tantalising—a sign that she was as unsure about this as he was. But then one thing he had learned about Juno in the last seven days, she was a great deal more reckless than he was.
Which meant it was up to him to take charge.
‘The landscape around here is so beautiful,’ she murmured, the flushed pleasure on her face unguarded. ‘I don’t think I ever realised how much I missed my homeland until I came back.’
‘How long ago is it since you were in Monrova?’ he asked.
Her surprise at his question made him realise he’d never asked her anything about herself—even before discovering her true identity.
‘Not since my father kicked me out of the palace at sixteen for molesting a king,’ she said, the wry amusement in her tone sad somehow. So he’d been the cause, inadvertently.
‘How did your father find out about that?’ he asked.
‘You didn’t tell him?’ she said.
‘Absolutely not,’ he said. ‘Do I look like a tattletale?’
She sent him the quick grin. ‘Actually, no, you don’t, Your Majesty.’
He laughed, the chuckle strained as it rumbled up his chest. And it occurred to him he’d probably laughed more since he’d met her than he had in his whole life up to now.
Not helpful, Leo.
‘We should get inside before we freeze,’ he said, pulling off his own headset, more keen than he should be to see her out of that shapeless clothing.
Climbing down from the cockpit, he grabbed their bags then helped her down.
He followed her along the path that had been cleared in the deep snow. With the helicopter blades finally silent, he could hear the crunch of their footsteps, and Juno’s shallow breathing, the silence of the forest as night fell annoyingly romantic as the lights strung across the porch reflected in the fresh snowfall.
As they entered the lodge, he stopped on the threshold. His breath froze in his lungs as he took in the cabin’s décor. It looked as if Santa had vomited over the luxurious furnishings.
Who had done this? He would have them fired.
‘Oh, wow.’ Juno’s gasp of excitement broke through the chill seeping into his bones.
She spun round to take in the fire burning in the open hearth, the pine bows arranged on the mantel, and the six-foot tree in the corner festooned in fairy lights and red and gold ribbons and bows.
The musical lilt of her laughter echoed around the room, warming the chill in his chest.
‘Leo, it’s fabulous,’ she said, before she spun to a stop. ‘I didn’t know you were a Christmas junkie.’
‘I’m not,’ he said, dumping the bags on the fl
oor, the strange glow starting to disturb him. ‘This wasn’t my idea.’
‘Oh,’ she said, the smile dying—and he felt mean for ruining her moment of joy. Then annoyed with himself for caring.
‘Are you hungry?’ she asked, her eager expression only increasing the pressure in his chest. ‘I could cook us some supper? I had a job as a short-order cook in a diner not so long ago. I’m pretty good.’
He frowned. Why would she have needed a job?
‘You go ahead, the fridge should be fully stocked. I’ve already eaten,’ he said, stifling his curiosity. He needed to get a handle on the feeling crushing his ribs.
‘Is something wrong, Leo?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he said, and watched the light in her eyes die. He refused to feel guilty about it. They were here to get through the next seven days, do the damn pregnancy test, hope to hell it was negative, then leave and never see each other again. Satisfying the chemistry between them was one thing, encouraging an emotional connection something else entirely.
Keeping things cool tonight made sense. They needed to establish firm boundaries before they enjoyed any fringe benefits. Juno Monroyale was a force of nature—wild and undisciplined. She’d captivated him without even trying when he’d thought she was a queen. He wasn’t about to let her do the same now he knew she wasn’t.
‘I’ve got work to do,’ he said, picking up his own bag. ‘I’ll take the bedroom at the back. You can have the master. Do you want me to take your luggage in there for you?’
‘No, that’s fine,’ she said, extending the handle on her case.
He could see the confusion clouding her eyes.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow, then,’ he said.
He was going to get through tonight without touching her, just to prove he could. Whatever happened in the next seven days, he was going to be calling the shots from now on. Not her.
But as he lay on his bed twenty minutes later, staring at the wooden rafters on the lodge’s ceiling, and heard her moving around in the cabin’s state-of-the-art kitchen, the delicious scent of herbs and grilled lamb making his stomach growl, the memory of her bright smile and her little gasp of joy when she’d seen the Christmas decorations was still doing strange things to his chest.
