by YoBro
The Prince of Pleasure
By Sandra Marton
Copyright 2012, Sandra Marton
Copyright © 2012 by Sandra Marton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EPILOGUE
Excerpt from Ruth Cardello’s Maid for the Billionaire
Excerpt from Annette Blair’s Undeniable Rogue
A Note From Sandra
CHAPTER ONE
His name was Khan ibn Zain al Hassad.
That was what he called himself though in truth, his name was much longer and more elaborate.
In private, he winced at the sound of it. What man of the 21st century wanted to be known as His Royal Highness, Sheikh Khan ibn Zain al Hassad, Crown Prince of Altara, Defender of its Ancient and Honorable Throne, Protector of His People, Leopard of the Finarian Hills?
All those antiquated titles…
Yes, he was proud of them. The blood of kings and warriors ran within his veins. It was just that the titles often preceded him. People bowed and scraped before they knew if he was worth the bowing or scraping.
Not that any man was worth that.
His father had always frowned and said his attitude came of having had an American mother. Worse, he'd attended an American college, an American university. Two American universities, to be accurate.
In a sense, the old man had been right. Being half North American, Khan understood the need to move forward. Being half Altaran, he understood the importance of tradition.
Both parts of him knew that titles could be intimidating.
They could also make people fawn over him.
People who wanted to sell him things he didn't need or desire, who wanted to borrow money and, worst of all, people who wanted to bask in what they saw as his reflected glory.
Added to that were the all women who thought it was original to gaze at him from under lowered lashes and whisper, And are you a leopard in bed, my lord?
At eighteen, the question had been a challenge he'd been more than eager to prove, but he was thirty now, his father was dead and his life was one of responsibility and discipline. He was a king, even if he still preferred to call himself a prince.
Khan's green eyes narrowed.
And there were fools out there who called him only a fantastically rich playboy.
It infuriated him.
He was the leader of his people.
Maybe rock stars enjoyed being sought after for their celebrity. All right, maybe he'd enjoyed it, too, years back, but he was older and wiser. Still, the gossip blogs and Page Six and People and half a dozen other gushing magazines loved to send photographers after him, to write lies about him, and to call him…
The damned word set his teeth on edge.
They called him 'gorgeous.' Such a lurid word, one you might use to describe a sunset or a mountain vista but to ascribe it to a man…
His looks were meaningless.
In truth, they had nothing to do with him.
Take a father of a certain height, a certain body type, a man descended from conquerors. Combine his DNA with that of a stunning supermodel.
Unless something went very wrong, you'd end up with a man who looked like him.
Six foot two. Leanly muscled body. Broad shoulders, narrow hips, long legs. Thickly-lashed eyes the color of emeralds, square jaw, high cheekbones…
Add in all those anachronistic titles…
Khan's jaw tightened.
The only thing about him that was his, entirely his, was his fortune.
Forbes called him one of the ten richest men in the world. He suspected it was true but the only reason it mattered was because, unlike his looks and his titles, he had earned that fortune on his own.
Well, he thought, smiling a little as he stood on the terrace of the Texas mansion called El Sueño, well, not exactly.
The truth was, his old friend Travis Wilde had earned it for him.
The only credit he could take was for having been smart enough to have handed Travis the relatively modest inheritance his mother had left him, a decade ago.
"Do something with it," he'd said.
Travis had glanced at the check, then at him.
"Something safe?" he'd said, with a grin. "Or something risky?"
Khan had laughed.
"Have I ever done anything that was safe?"
Back then, he had not.
He'd lived for risk. For the adrenaline high that came of sky diving, of kayaking rapids nobody sane would go near, of jumping out of hovering helicopter into virgin snow and schussing down from what was surely the edge of the world..
But that had changed.
Two years ago, his father had become ill. Very ill. Within six months, he was gone. Running the kingdom of Altara had fallen to Khan.
His Council of Ministers had told him not to worry. They would take care of things.
Khan's mouth thinned.
And they had—with near-disastrous results.
His father had ruled as if it were still the 19th century. The ministers, not content with that, had ruled as if it were the 15th century.
Khan was a prince, accustomed to a life of pleasure, but he was not a fool. His country and his people were inexorably part of him.
He'd waited a year. Then, with determination and commitment his ministers had not expected, he had assumed control.
His life had changed, of course, but in his heart, he'd always known this was kismet, his destiny.
Under his guidance, Altara was moving forward, embracing science, technology, and a new infrastructure. Roads. Hospitals. Schools, all funded by the money his father had left, a multi-billion dollar cache the old man had amassed from the kingdom's oil and mineral resources. His father had treated the money as if it were his own, an ancient custom followed by most of the kingdoms in the so-called Black Gold triangle along the Sapphire Sea.
Not anymore.
Khan held a view some of his ministers saw as quaint, even radical.
He believed that Altara's wealth belonged to Altara.
A New Beginning for an Ancient Kingdom, the New York Times had trumpeted. It was the first time he'd smiled at a headline that involved him.
But there were still those who preferred to see him as a stereotype, a libertine prince with too much money and too few morals.
He came across them all the time.
Tonight, for instance.
Dammit!
He was back to that. The woman. The brunette in the house behind him.
A vein in his temple throbbed.
Ridiculous, that he should permit such an incident to anger him, especially this evening, when he had important business to conduct in Dallas as well as here, at the Wilde ranch.
A sea of oil lay under the endless sands of Altara but much of the drilling equipment was old and outdated. His engineers had tried to convince Khan's father to invest in new techniques but the older man had been deaf t
o their pleas.
Khan had listened.
He understood the benefits of looking beyond the Black Gold triangle for new environmental and ecological drilling techniques, and he knew that there were men in Texas who understood such things.
Men like the Wilde brothers.
They were his oldest friends, and for years, they had been among his most trusted advisors.
Jacob was the one to consult about the horses Khan bred on ranches in Brazil and in Altara. Caleb handled all his stateside legal affairs. Travis was the reason he had become almost embarrassingly rich even before he'd ascended the throne.
The four of them had met as undergrads at Columbia University. They'd been acquaintances.
Then, one memorable night, they'd become friends. The memory eased him, and made him smile.
Somehow, they'd ended up going out together after they'd all survived tough finals. The night had been a long journey through pleasure.
They'd ended it in a tough bar off Amsterdam Avenue.
A bunch of punks had decided the three guys with the funny Southern drawls and the guy with the definitely un-American accent would be easy to take.
Wrong.
A couple of bloody noses later, the punks stumbled out into the night. Khan and the Wildes had grinned at each other, and then ordered a round of Buds for the crowd of admirers who'd stood back and watched the brawl.
As the night wore on, they'd talked about the future. Jake wanted to fly combat helicopters. Travis, already a pilot, wanted to fly jets and do in the bad guys. Caleb was talking with a recruiter for a hush-hush government agency.
"I'd tell you all about it," he'd said solemnly, "but then I'd have to kill you."
Everybody laughed. Then Caleb looked at Khan.
"So," he'd said, "what's it like to be a prince?"
By then, the heady combination of wine, women and a bar fight had loosened Khan's tongue.
"Actually," he'd said, "it sucks."
The Wildes had looked at each other.
"Such princely talk," Caleb had said.
"You wanted the truth. Well, that's the truth." The downside of too much of any indulgence was reality, and Khan had plummeted into a lake of it. "Men should not be judged by such arcane nonsense as titles."
Silence. Then Jake had raised his eyebrows.
"Arcane," he'd said, solemnly.
"Arcane," Travis had echoed.
Caleb had nodded.
"Easy for you to say," he'd muttered, "even if nobody's sure what the hell it really means—unless you're complaining about that title pulling in more babes than any one man can handle."
It was the truth, but nobody had ever dared be that blunt about it. Nobody was ever blunt, when they dealt with a prince.
In a heartbeat, his mood had soared from zero to ten.
"Oh, I can handle them," Khan he'd said, modestly, "but if you guys play your cards right, I might just direct the overflow in your direction."
The Wildes, good-looking and rich and known for the ease with which they attracted women, had burst out laughing. Khan had, too, and after that, there were no barriers between them. In fact, once they knew how he felt about his string of titles, they only used them when things got slow and they wanted to piss him off.
The only times he used them was when a little show of power was needed, and that wasn't very often.
Over the years, Khan had developed the ability to control virtually all situations with a look, a word, a natural air of quiet command. He never lost control, not in business, not in politics, not in bed.
For a man with his responsibilities, control, self-control, was everything.
And that was precisely why he was so annoyed right now.
For a man who never lost control, he hadn't done very well tonight.
The Wildes had thrown a small, very civilized party for him tonight. He should have been inside the house, enjoying it.
The woman had eliminated that possibility.
A two minute incident, the kind of thing he'd normally have simply ignored…
Khan drew a long breath, then expelled it.
Okay. Maybe his reaction had been understandable. He was tired. . Exhausted, after flying through endless time zones, then spending the day in meetings.
What he needed was a night's sleep…
Or perhaps a woman. Sex. The relief of tension that came of spending himself within a warm, willing body…
An image flashed through his mind. Dark, soft curls. Enormous blue eyes. A full, rose-pink mouth.
Dammit!
Why was he thinking about her? He probably wouldn't even have noticed her if Travis hadn't pointed her out.
They'd been walking him through the huge living room, Travis introducing him to the select group of guests. He'd made small talk with a couple of congressmen, the CEOs of two oil companies, the COO of a third
Then, Travis had put his hand lightly on his arm.
"There's someone you need to meet," he'd murmured, jerking his head toward a brunette who'd just come through the door.
Khan's first reaction was that the woman was striking but not the type he found attractive. Not that it mattered. This was a business event, not a social one. Still, he was male, she was female, and automatic assessments were, he supposed, inevitable.
She was tall and slender. He liked his women petite and curvy. She wore a severely-tailored suit and—what were shoes like that called? Pumps. That was it. The other women were all wearing silk dresses and delicate sandals. The only outstanding things about her were that the suit was expensive and the shoes had skinny heels high enough to make her already long legs look even longer.
"Who is she?" he'd asked, as Travis led him toward her.
"Her name is Laurel Cruz. She's an associate at Maxwell and Mayberry. Big law firm—the 'Maxwell' is Senator Joseph Maxwell. He's been out of D.C. for a few years but he's still got the right contacts, and Laurel's his right-hand man."
By then, they'd reached her.
"Right-hand woman," she'd said, with not even a trace of humor.
Travis had grinned, leaned down, and kissed her on the cheek.
"Uh oh," he'd said lightly. "Rough day in the legal trenches?"
"Most of them are rough," Laurel Cruz had replied, shifting her gaze to Khan, appraising him with cool blue eyes.
"Laurel, I'd like to introduce you to our guest of honor—"
"Khan al Hassad. Yes. I know who he is."
That was how it had all started. The way she'd spoken, not to him but about him, as if he weren't even there. The disdain in her voice. Her deliberate avoidance of his title—and why in hell that she had bothered him, given his own feelings about titles…
He'd felt his belly knot.
The woman disliked him.
He had no idea why and, frankly, he didn't much care. He had only to remain polite. He was here as his country's representative, and he was well-schooled in diplomacy.
Smiling, showing nothing of his feelings, he'd extended his hand.
"Miss Cruz. It's a pleasure to—"
"It's Ms. Cruz, and if you want to meet with the senator, I suggest you phone our office for an appointment."
Khan had held the smile, but with some effort.
"Pardon me?"
"You're here on oil business."
"I am, yes."
"Surely you want help from our satellites, perhaps access to our seismic technology, and the senator has friends in high places."
Khan's smile had vanished. "I'm afraid you've jumped to conclusions, Ms. Cruz. I am not interested in help from the senator or his friends. I've come to discuss Altara's oil development plans with those best suited to advise me."
"I must admit, I'm surprised by your willingness to admit you need advice from anyone."
"Laurel," Travis had said in a low voice, "the prince is my guest."
"Of course." Her smile had been saccharine-sweet. "But aren't we all supposed to address him as 'king'?"
&n
bsp; "Try speaking directly to me," Khan had said coldly. "You'll get better answers."
"I doubt that."
Travis had groaned. "I'm sorry, man. I don't know what—"
"Don't apologize on Ms. Cruz's behalf, Travis." Khan's eyes had narrowed to icy slits. "And don't try to silence her. I'm fascinated. She is obviously a woman with strong opinions."
"And you're not accustomed to women with opinions," "Laurel Cruz had said, her eyes as cold as his, "or, at least, to hearing those opinions expressed.
Another time, he might have laughed.
His newly-appointed Minister of Education was a woman. His personal assistant, who was privy to all the secrets of running the kingdom, was a woman. He was about to appoint a woman to head up the newly-instituted Ministry of Health.
"How nice," he said, with a twist of his lips that bore little resemblance to a smile, "that you are so well-informed."
Travis had cleared his throat.
"Listen," he'd said briskly, "I hate to break this up but—"
""Women like me are well-informed. And that's going to be the eventual end of you and men like you."
"Jesus, Laurel," Travis had hissed, "what's the matter with you?"
"Nothing's the matter with me," Laurel Cruz had snapped. "I'm simply making the most of an opportunity to ask questions."
"I have not heard a question yet," Khan had growled.
"Well, here's one. Do you ever think about the people who grovel before you, Mr. al Hassad? Probably not—but if you do, have you ever wondered if they do it out of choice—or because it is what you and your kind expect?"
Khan had felt a vein in his temple start to throb.
"And what, exactly, is 'my kind,' Ms. Cruz?"
"You expect subservience," she'd said, answering her own question instead of his, her chin lifted, her eyes shot with cold fire. "Blind obedience. Being treated as if you own the world, especially by women. Men like you, Mr. al Hassad, are barbarians!"
By then, she'd been breathing hard. Khan had barely been breathing at all. What he'd been was half-crazed with rage.
He'd taken a step forward. She'd taken a step back. As far as he was concerned, that was the first good thing that had happened since Travis had made the mistake of introducing them.
