Annick had joined his two lives together.
A problem.
But he was not in the business of dispatching small women.
It was only ever those who deserved it. Only ever those who had committed great and terrible atrocities. He did not consider himself to be a good man, but he was a man looking for a way to balance the scales in the world.
To try and fix what he had not managed to fix all those many years ago.
And nothing would bring Stella back.
He remained, she was gone and it did not fix itself, no matter how many deserving people he took out of the world. But he considered it his payment.
A way to try and at least put some sort of balance out into the universe.
Annick looked at him and lifted a shoulder. “I require a small thing. I need you to return to my country with me. To act as my guard.”
* * *
She had successfully silenced the brute.
She had done a decent amount of research into Maximus King before stealing away to San Diego to confront him. He was a fascinating character. She found she was not frightened of him, though she perhaps should be. But she was not easily frightened.
For her entire family had been lost to her as a child, and she had been trotted in and out of the dungeon ever since. Educated, made to appear somewhat civilized.
They thought she had been made loyal.
But she had been lying, for all her life, out of a sense of self-preservation. And now she finally had a chance to make up for it all. Now she had a chance to finally make a difference. To make the years of farce worthwhile.
She just had to convince this playboy, who she was given to believe was a secret assassin, to become her protector.
She needed a man by her side. This was the problem.
Annick was a realist. You could not live ten years as a prisoner without being a realist. The world was harsh. And nobody cared if you were a child. Nobody cared when there was power to be had.
Annick had been forced to play the part of silent figurehead to a country that she loved, to stand beside men who made her burn with hatred and smile. So that for all the world to see, Aillette was a functioning government.
It was not.
Her people were badly treated.
Reform. Revolution.
Those had been the rallying cries of the men who had stormed the palace and destroyed her family.
It had been none of those things.
And now that she was back in power she would see that her people were never harmed again. She needed his protection. For her people, not so much for her.
Dangerous men did not scare her.
She had made a bargain with herself when dealing with such men for many years now. Making a bargain with a man such as this bothered her not at all.
“You wish me to return to Aillette with you?”
“I more than wish it. I command it.”
“Or?”
“I will think nothing of exposing your identity.”
“You see, in order for that to concern me,” he said, his voice hard, “I would have to care a great deal more for my life than I do.”
He was bluffing. At least, she was counting on this being a bluff. If it was not, then she might have a little trouble.
But he was. Surely.
This was the part she’d known she must steel herself for. Threats made her stomach shake. She did not wish to issue them. But she would do what she must.
“Your sister Violet? Who is a Princess, I believe, in Monte Blanco. What would become of her and her country, of her husband, if the world found out that her brother was an assassin?”
His eyes went sharp. Good. “You are playing a dangerous game, Annick.”
“Life is a dangerous game, is it not? And what of Minerva. Your sweet sister and her lovely children. Her husband. Your mother and father. What of them? If your identity was known, then their safety would be at risk.”
“You dare threaten my family?”
“They are not threats.” She shook her head. “I am merely presenting you with a piece of reality. It is not a threat—it is just true.”
“The end result of your truth is that innocent people, innocent children, may die.”
“Innocent people, innocent children, have died in my country already,” she said. “And if I cannot successfully wrest control here, do I not risk another revolution? An invasion from my neighbors? Yes, I think I do. I know I do. I am not open to such risk-taking.”
“And yet you have taken a risk coming here.” He reached into his pocket and took a device out, and with a flick of his wrist, the lights came on.
She blinked against the invasive brightness. She had seen pictures of him, but they did not do him justice. He was a very large man, broad, with dark brown hair.
His face was handsome. Uncommonly so. She had never seen a man with quite such a competent scaffolding. A strange thing, human beauty. For it was just an arrangement of features and skin placed over bone in a particular fashion.
Yet his was quite striking.
And it made a sensation stir low in her belly. One that was foreign to her. It reminded her a great deal of fear, but it was not that. She was not afraid. Then she noticed that in one of his hands he still held the gun. The light revealed the weapon she had known was there all along.
Though she had the sense just then that the true weapon was the man himself.
“Please do not shoot me.”
“I’ve no desire to shoot you. Therefore, to please us both—you and your desire to not be dead, me and my desire to not shoot a woman—I suggest you leave, and forget this conversation ever occurred.”
“I cannot. I cannot, because it is what must be done for my people. I have been over many solutions. Many. Are you a man who desires power? As my guard, as my...my right-hand man, you would be very powerful.”
“No. If I desired power, don’t you think I would have filled one of the vacant positions I left behind already?”
“And that is a strange thing,” she said. “Because most men do desire power, do they not?”
“I suppose, to an extent. But then, I often wonder if such men have ever been up close to it.”
“Yes, a good observation, I think. For power does not entice me, personally. It is only that I must take it, as is my responsibility. My birthright. All my family are dead.”
“I’m sorry. But you have presented a scenario wherein my family might all be dead.”
“It is not what I want, Maximus King. I hope you understand. What I want is for the safety of my country to be secured. What I want is for you to help steady the situation that you have created.”
“Again, the situation was not mine.”
“Whose?”
“Your neighbors to the east, in Lackland. I believe they thought it better to depose the despot in power for their own reasons.”
“Yes, for reasons likely of taking over. Which I do not want either. So, you can see the situation I find myself in. I need money. Would you not like to have this power?”
“As I said, I am not overly enamored of power.”
“Then why do you do it? Why do you do this...this insipid job you pretend to do? What is it, repairing the reputations of Hollywood stars? And you kill people for money.”
“I carry out missions assigned to me. And often that results in the deaths of men who would kill countless others. Countless innocents.”
“You and the government then decide who is good and who is bad? What is that, if not an exercise in power? Playing God. Playing God with public opinion, playing God with life. Do not tell me you don’t wish for power. I am not stupid, me.”
She wondered, for a moment, if she had gone too far. He did not frighten her, not really. But she was very aware of the fact that if she pushed him t
oo far, she would not get what she wanted, and that did frighten her. For she had no other plan. No other idea for how she might bail her country out of the disaster it found itself in.
“What other enticements have you to offer?”
She fortified herself with a breath. For she had been prepared for this moment. “Me. My body.”
He looked her up and down. “Please do not take this the wrong way, but I have no need.”
She narrowed her eyes, feeling insulted. “What does that mean?”
“I do not need to take a woman in trade for anything. If I want a woman, I simply have her.”
“Not me.”
“And that is supposed to be of particular enticement to me?”
She lifted a shoulder. “No man has had me. A shock, I would think, given that I have been kept prisoner for so long. But I think it was quite a game, right? To keep me untouched. For future leverage. Virginity is valuable.”
His gaze flickered dispassionately over her again. “Is it? Here it is quite disposable. Something to throw away at the earliest of conveniences.”
“Well, not for me. For every indignity I have suffered, for all that has been taken, not that. But I will give it to you.”
“I don’t have a need of your virginity, Princess. I didn’t even need my own. It’s been gone for twenty years and I haven’t missed it.”
“Money, then. What I have is a land rich with minerals. Gold and oil. Untapped. The dictators, they were not so smart, I think. But I learned a great many things, because I had nothing but time. So, I read. And what I discovered is that there is much unexplored in my country. But I need the investment to see it done. And I need to live. I need to keep living, or none of it matters. And for that I need you.”
“You think you can buy me?”
“You are bought. Repeatedly. Do not pretend to be a man of great principle now. If you are a man of great principle, then you would perform your task for free, but you do not.”
“No one works for free.”
“Yes, see? That is what I’m saying. No one works for free, and I do not expect you to. You protect me, and I will reward you in the end. Consider it a new mission, but this time you fix what it is you broke.”
“You believe you need a guard? That you are in danger? And for how long do you foresee needing this?”
“I am to be crowned Queen soon, and I think...some time. It has been held off by the council, my coronation, to see if I am fit after my time as prisoner. And I worry the neighboring countries...lie in wait. It will take time.”
“How much time?” he asked, impatient now.
“My neighbors in Lackland are a threat to me,” she said. “I have intelligence that says they will overthrow me.”
“From where?”
“Your government,” she said, waving a hand. “Such a help they were, ridding us of dictator extraordinaire Pierre Doucet, and such aid was given! For all of three months and now I am threatened and on my own. So you see, I get insurance of my own. Protection of my own. And it is fair I confiscate one of their resources to do it.”
“The resource being me?”
“Oui.”
“You’re trying to play the victim here, Annick, and yet you lead with a threat to my family?”
“You lead with a gun. So, seems fair.”
She steeled herself, for she knew what was coming. She knew what she had to do. She had planned for this. She had prepared for it.
“We will be quite close in the palace, while you protect me. I am ready to give you a preview of what we might share.”
“Really?”
He stared at her stone-faced, and she took a step toward him. She had practiced this. Her hips swaying with each movement, eye contact with him never wavering. Of course, eye contact with herself in a mirror was a damn sight different than contact with the man himself. His eyes were blue. It was shocking on one with such dark hair. They were piercing, as if they could see into her soul. But he did not move.
His face was like rock. And his undoing would be that he underestimated her. His undoing would be that he did not think her an enemy.
She sighed, reached into her pocket and leaned in as if to kiss him.
Then she pulled the handkerchief out of her pocket and clapped it over his face. He removed her hand immediately, but it was too late. She had anticipated that. That he would be stronger. That his reflexes would be faster. That she would have to overdose him.
He growled and lunged toward her, knocking her back, and he came down on top of her, his hard body a heavy weight she could scarcely wiggle free of, until...
Until his muscles relaxed. Until it was clear that the chloroform had done its job.
“It is good that I planned for this.”
But a one-woman kidnapping job of a very large man was not easy. Again, she had anticipated that and had brought with her a hospital gurney. In addition to a van she could load him in.
By the time she had driven to the airfield and unloaded him onto the private plane, she was feeling nearly cheerful. Had she known kidnapping her personal assassin would be quite so simple, she would have done it many years ago.
Now all that was left to do was...wait.
Copyright © 2021 by Millie Adams
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ISBN-13: 9780369707079
Beauty in the Billionaire’s Bed
Copyright © 2021 by Louise Fuller
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Beauty in the Billionaire's Bed Page 19
