"Princess, how are you? We've been concerned since we heard about the incident at the Constantine villa last night."
"I'm perfectly all right. Now, will you please put my father on the line?"
"Yes, of course, Your Highness."
Matt walked over and stood beside her, his gaze connecting with hers. She offered him a weak smile, then sat on the edge of the bed.
"Adele, my dear daughter," King Leopold said. "How are you? How is Theo? What the devil happened? Was it the result of some rival business interests trying to kill Theo? A vendetta against his family? What is this world coming to?"
"I'm fine. Theo was shot and is in hospital but will be all right." Adele paused, garnered her courage and continued, "Father, Theo was not the target. The two intruders who crashed the party came there to abduct me."
"What?" King Leopold yelled. "Who would dare—?"
"The Royalists," Adele replied.
"Damn! It's time I rid Orlantha of these lunatics. I need proof that those men were hired by—"
"By Dedrick and his fellow Royalists."
"I refuse to believe that Dedrick is a Royalist. You're using that lie to try to get out of marrying him, to get out of doing your duty."
"My duty is to Orlantha. To protect my people from terrorism, from being taken over by another nation that will set Orlantha back a hundred years."
"Is Mr. O'Brien there with you?" the king asked.
"Yes. Why?"
"I wish to speak to him."
Adele held the telephone out to Matt, who took it and said, "O'Brien here."
Listening to Matt's end of the conversation, Adele soon realized several things: her father believed Matt's assessment, that the intruders had intended to kidnap her; despite Matt's opinion that Dedrick might well be a Royalist, her father refused to believe it; and he expected Matt to bring her to Erembourg immediately.
"Your Majesty, the princess has asked to be allowed to remain in Golnar with Dia Constantine until her husband is released from the hospital," Matt said.
Adele smiled as she rose to her feet and hugged Matt.
Brilliant idea. Absolutely brilliant. Surely her father wouldn't refuse.
"Thank you, sir. And yes, the minute Mr. Constantine is released from the hospital, I will bring the princess home."
When Matt hung up the receiver, Adele danced around the room. "You just bought us some more time." "A couple of days at most." Adele yawned. "Excuse me."
Matt clutched her shoulder and marched her to the bed, then pulled back the covers. "You're exhausted. Lie down and get some rest. Sleep, if you can."
Adele didn't protest when he assisted her into bed, then lifted the covers to her shoulders. She reached out and grabbed his hand.
"Don't leave me."
"I won't." He glanced across the room. "I'll sit over there and drink some tea."
She tugged on his hand. "Sit down here for just a few minutes, will you?"
"That might not be such a good idea," Matt told her.
"I trust you. After all, you're my protector, aren't you?"
"I'm your bodyguard," he replied. "I'm trained to protect, and if necessary, in the line of duty, to kill for you or die for you."
She squeezed his hand. "You know what I want. . . what I need."
Matt sat on the bed, leaned over and kissed her forehead. "It's hard enough as it is for me to keep my hands off you. If I agree to what you want, what do you think will happen?"
Adele reached up and put her arms around his neck, then pulled him down to her. With their lips only inches apart, she whispered, "Marry me and find out."
Chapter 11
If a man had ever been tempted, Matt O'Brien was. He wasn't sure whether she was kidding around or if she meant what she'd said. But right at the moment it didn't matter, because she was looking at him as if he was everything she'd ever wanted. Common sense tried to warn him, but his male libido overruled caution. He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers. Tentatively. Giving her a chance to pull away, to change her mind. But her lips softened under his and opened on a passionate sigh. Her compliance erased even the slightest doubt about what he was doing or the knowledge that he would probably regret it later.
While he took her mouth hungrily, she clung to him, her breasts pressing against his chest and her lips parting in welcome. For several intense moments, Matt ceased to think and simply enjoyed the reckless abandon. He lifted one hand; then his splayed fingers worked through her damp hair and cupped the back of her head. His other hand moved down her back and gently nudged her closer and closer. And all the while the kiss continued, growing hotter and wilder with each passing moment.
Matt eased her down onto the bed, following her descent and placing his body over hers. Bracing himself above her, he spread kisses from her forehead to her neck, then nuzzled the exposed cleft between her breasts.
Adele sighed. "Matt. . ."
He caressed her hips, then slipped his hands beneath her and cupped her buttocks. He brought her lower body up and against his arousal, his mouth covering her breast through the thin barrier of silk. He suckled her greedily. Adele whimpered and writhed beneath him. Every masculine instinct within him urged him on. But when he eased up her pajama top and licked a trail from one tight nipple to the other, Adele lifted her hand and grasped his shoulder.
"Please, Matt, stop."
"What?" Hell, had she just asked him to stop? She had to be kidding. He was hot and hard and about as ready as a man could get.
"I'm sorry. I. . .I shouldn't have let things go this far."
Matt's mouth sucked on one nipple, then laved it lovingly with his tongue.
Adele moaned. "Oh, please, please stop."
With his body still intimately covering hers, Matt lifted his head and glowered at her. She stared at him, all the longing he felt reflected in her big brown eyes.
"You don't want to stop any more than I do. You want it bad, honey. You want me." He rubbed himself against her, his sex hard against her soft mound.
"I. . .I want you to marry me," she said.
Matt lifted himself up and off her, then stood by the side of the bed and glared down at her. "Is that what this is all about? You don't want to give away any free milk because you're afraid I won't buy the cow?"
"What?" Adele jerked her pajama top down to cover herself, then sat up in bed and tilted her head. Looking directly at him, she asked, "Is that another American-ism? I don't see what free milk and buying a cow has to do with our situation."
Matt harrumphed. "It means you aren't going to put out unless I marry you."
"What a vulgar thing to say." Adele huffed, but she kept her gaze fixed on Matt. "Sex has nothing to do with our getting married. You know precisely why I want you to marry me."
"Yeah, I know. But you're crazy if you think sex has nothing to do with you and me." Narrowing his gaze, Matt's eyelids half closed as he scanned Adele from head to toe, lingering over her breasts. "Our marriage would be temporary. I understand that. I'd be doing you a favor, wouldn't I?"
"Yes, you would. Does this mean that—"
"It means that a real marriage between two people as different as you and me would be impossible, but a red-hot affair wouldn't be."
Heat suffused her body, warming every inch of her inside and out. She had never had an affair, not even a lukewarm one. It wasn't that she was completely innocent, but her sexual experience was limited to two brief encounters when she'd been at Cambridge. Constantly afraid that she would follow the path of so many European princes and princesses and allow her love life to become fodder for the paparazzi, her father had kept a close watch on her— even when she'd lived out of the country.
"I'm not sure now would be the appropriate time for me to have a red-hot affair," Adele told him. "I can't let my personal feelings get in the way of my duties. I mustn't think of myself or what I might want. Not until I've rid Orlantha of Dedrick and his fellow Royalists."
"O
ne is not exclusive of the other," Matt said, then shrugged. "But if you can handle a platonic relationship, so can I." He walked across the room and sat in one of the tufted chairs on either side of the tea table. "Lie down and close your eyes, Princess. I'll stick around until you go to sleep."
Was it that easy for him to change modes? To go from passionate, demanding lover to professional bodyguard? Damn! What had she expected—that he'd ravish her, refuse to take no for an answer? Hadn't she been the one who'd called a halt to things and transformed from a passionate woman into a single-minded princess with only one goal?
"Matt?"
"Huh?"
"Will you marry me?"
He crossed his arms over his chest and relaxed into the chair so his head rested against the back. Then he closed his eyes. "I'll probably regret it, but. . .yeah, I'll marry you."
Adele's heart skipped a beat. A temporary marriage in name only, she reminded herself. Matt O'Brien was little more than a stranger to her and totally unsuited to the job of being her prince consort. But he was the perfect choice to be her temporary husband.
"Thank you," she said, her voice a mere whisper. "I'll be in your debt forever."
"Yeah, yeah." Matt opened his eyelids just a fraction and peered at Adele. "Six months after our annulment, you'll barely remember my name."
"That's not true. I'll always—" She stopped herself abruptly. She'd said enough. If she told him that she would always remember him, that years from now when she was wed to a man more suited to being a prince, she would think of him with fondness. With more than fondness.
"Maybe we'll get lucky," Matt said. "Maybe your friend Pippin or Theo's friend Khalid will come up with some evidence against Dedrick before we have to follow through with a phony marriage."
"Yes, maybe. . .but if not. . . We should marry as soon as possible."
"Sure. Whenever you say."
Adele sighed, then closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax. She was doing the right thing, wasn't she? Of course she was. With Matt as her temporary husband, she had all the cards stacked in her favor. Someone to guard her twenty-four seven and time to continue the search for evidence against Dedrick. Of course there was one slight problem—the sexual attraction between Matt and her.
Across the room Matt kept watch over Adele. He did his best not to be obvious about it, but he simply couldn't take his eyes off her. And the more he tried to push aside thoughts about her, the more vivid those thoughts became. He could taste her lips, feel her body, hear her soft whimpers. His sex grew hard again. She had played him like a fiddle. Oh, yeah, she'd lured him in with all her sweet charms and then—snap—hooked him so fast he hadn't known what happened until it was too late.
She kept telling him no, over and over again, but the look in her eyes said something else. That look said maybe. It said / want you, even though I know we're all wrong for each other.
But hadn't she said aloud, Marry me and see what happens?
Oh, he had every intention of marrying her, and he already knew what would happen. But he didn't think the princess knew.
* * *
Adele spent most of the day with Phila and Ms. Sheridan. Matt admired the way she'd handled explaining to Phila what had happened to her father. She'd covered the vital details, but had given them to the little girl in terms a seven-year-old could understand, if anyone of any age could ever truly understand violence.
Late in the day, after Dia had telephoned and spoken with Phila and Adele, Ms. Sheridan escorted the child to the kitchen for her evening meal. During her conversation with Dia, Adele had informed her that she and Matt wished to marry as soon as possible, and Dia had promised that she would arrange everything. While staying at the hospital with Theo, she could make telephone calls to expedite matters.
Alone for the first time since early morning, Adele and Matt smiled awkwardly at each other.
"I should call Pippin and tell him our plans," Adele said.
"I can't believe that Dia can put together a wedding, even a quickie wedding, by day after tomorrow."
"Mrs. Theo Constantine can accomplish anything she chooses to, especially in Golnar."
"Yeah, so it would seem. She might not have the title, but in her own way, Dia is queen of Golnar, isn't she?"
"I suppose you could look at it that way."
"How do you think your Pippin will take our big news?" Matt asked.
"He's not my Pippin. He's my friend. Nothing more. And he'll understand my motives and agree that I'm doing the right thing."
Ten minutes later Matt stood in Theo's library cum office and smiled to himself when he heard Adele defending her decision to marry her bodyguard.
"But Pippin. . .please calm down. Don't raise your voice to me." Adele glanced at Matt, a frown creating lines in her forehead. "It's a marriage in name only. A temporary affair. No, I don't mean affair. I mean situation. We'll have the marriage annulled as soon as we've dealt with Dedrick and the Royalists and then put the whole affair—the entire situation behind us."
"Ask him if either Lucie or Dom is there with him," Matt said.
"Pippin, Matt, er, Mr. O'Brien wants to know if either of the Dundee agents is there with you." Pause. "Hmm." She looked at Matt. "No, neither of them are there. They're both out following up leads. Did you want them to telephone you?"
Matt shook his head. "They'll call if they find something important." Walking over, he held out his hand. "Let me speak to Pippin."
Adele glared at him quizzically.
Matt motioned for her to give him the phone.
"Pippin, Mr. O'Brien would like to speak to you." She handed over the receiver."
"Matt O'Brien here. I just wanted to assure you that Adele. . .Princess Adele is in good hands. I'm keeping watch over her day and night."
Adele gasped. Matt grinned. She frowned at him.
"You should know that I do not approve of the princess taking such drastic steps," Pippin Ritter said. "She's taking a terrible risk by marrying you and assuming that King Leopold will not disown her."
"It's her choice to make," Matt replied. "She's willing to go to any lengths to protect her country from the Royalists. She told me that you love Orlantha as much as she does. Was she wrong?"
"Are you questioning my devotion to Orlantha?"
"Nope. Just wondering."
"Then wonder no longer, Mr. O'Brien. My only concern in this matter is Princess Adele's welfare. I warn you that if you are anything less than a gentleman with her, I shall. . ." Pippin cleared his throat. "She has placed her trust in you. Do not disappoint her."
"Believe me, I aim to please."
"Damn you, man, if you—"
"I promise that I will be everything the princess needs in a husband. She can count on me to fulfill my duties to her."
"I'm warning you, Mr. O'Brien. . ."
"Well, thank you, Pippin, I'll convey your congratulations to my bride." Matt hung up the phone and turned to Adele, who stood a few feet away, tapping her foot nervously.
"Why do I get the distinct feeling that you were doing a lot of double talk?" Adele marched over to Matt. "Pippin didn't actually congratulate us, did he?"
"What do you think?"
She eyed Matt suspiciously.
"The guy's got a thing for you," Matt said.
"He does not."
"Oh, honey, he does. My guess is that your Pippin would love to be in my shoes right about now."
"That's utter nonsense. There has never been anything the least bit romantic between Pippin and me. We are friends. Dear friends."
"A dear friend might act protective, but not proprietorial. All his huffing and puffing is because he's afraid I'll get in your pants."
Adele cringed. "Must you always be so crude!"
"Excuse me, Your Highness. Let me rephrase. Mr. Ritter's greatest concern is that you and I will consummate our marriage." Matt grinned. "Was that better?"
"Pippin actually said something abou
t us. . .about you and me. . . He told you not to—"
"He warned me to be a gentleman at all times. I think he was getting around to telling me that if I didn't, he'd have me castrated."
Adele closed her eyes momentarily and sighed loudly. "Oh, God."
"Did you ever think that Pippin might be lying to you about Dedrick? That Pippin doesn't want you to marry old mule face because he wants you for himself?"
Adele's eyelids sprang open instantly, and her gaze shot daggers at Matt. "Pippin would never lie to me about Dedrick."
She spoke with such certainty, without even a hint of doubt, that Matt believed her. And despite the vice chancellor's macho blustering, Matt's gut instincts told him that Pippin Ritter was as trustworthy as Adele thought he was. But his instincts also told him that the guy was most definitely in love with Adele.
"Okay," Matt said. "I believe you."
"Thank you."
"So, moving on to the next topic—our marriage. Do I need to buy a new suit? Get a haircut? Pick out a ring?''
"Pick out a ring?'' Adele asked.
"Yeah, you know—a wedding ring."
"Oh, that. Well, yes, I suppose we will need rings. I'll phone Dia's jeweler in Dareh and have him bring some rings to the villa, and we can choose what we like. Also, an engagement ring would add a romantic touch, don't you think? Something sweet and not too large since you aren't a wealthy man. Perhaps only two or three carats."
"You want a two-or three-carat diamond engagement ring?"
Adele looked directly at him. "Too big? Too small?"
"Too much," Matt said. "I thought this was supposed to be a temporary marriage. Why go to all the trouble of choosing an engagement ring? And as for the wedding rings, just tell the jeweler our sizes and tell him to send a couple of plain gold bands."
Adele tensed instantly. She sucked in her cheeks and glared at Matt. "Temporary marriage or not, I am a princess. It will be expected for me to have an engagement ring. If you were as madly in love with me as we want people to believe, you would be willing to spend every penny you have to buy me a proper ring."
The Princess's Bodyguard Page 14
