The Bachelor Prince

by Jane Beckenham

  “Most people would think it adventurous.”

  “Not when your mother is more worried about finding…” Cassie went silent and pressed her lips together.

  Her mother again. “Finding what?”

  She reached for her water glass and took another sip. His fiancée was decidedly nervous talking about her mother. He wondered why.

  “My mother was…is…always searching for the next husband.” Cassie shot him a firm stare. It said…don’t tangle with me.

  “She’s an inveterate serial bride and can’t stand being alone, so when one husband is discarded, she has another waiting in the wings, and if not a husband, a lover.”

  An uneasy quiet settled across his earlier excitement. He had met women like Cassie’s mother. Socialites chasing a dream—preferably a rich dream. And yet, his Cassie seemed so different…but then the fragment of her phone conversation over money not being a problem that he’d inadvertently overheard replayed in his brain and his disquiet intensified.

  Not his Cassie. She wasn’t like the others.

  His internal musings were interrupted by the waiter, and he pushed aside any misgivings, concentrating instead on the menu and ordering for them both, only to find himself in trouble with his new fiancée the moment the waiter withdrew.

  “Do you do that for all your women friends?”

  Lucas eased back in his chair, eyeing the beautiful woman opposite him. “What exactly are you referring to?”

  “Ordering my meal.”

  “Have I ordered something you don’t like?”

  “No.”

  “Good. I’d hate you not to like it. The restaurant has been awarded the highest Michelin ranking.”

  “That is not the point.”

  “And I presume you’re going to tell me exactly what the point is?”

  “Boss your girlfriends, Lucas, but not me. I’m quite capable of ordering my own meal.”

  A rumble of laughter echoed from deep in his chest. “Cassie Masters, PA extraordinaire, is definitely putting me in my place.” He couldn’t help but smile. He liked this about Cassie. She took no prisoners. “Touché, Ms. Masters. Point taken.”

  “Good. Make sure it is.”

  “You’ve always kept me on my toes, and tonight I shouldn’t have expected any different.”

  Cassie tilted her head a tad higher. “No, you shouldn’t have.”

  Once their meal arrived, they talked about the various countries they’d visited, and about her holidays in her father’s homeland of New Zealand. Lucas retold stories of his childhood too, relieved as she laughed with him. He regaled her of the night he climbed the clock tower in the town square.

  “You must have given your mother gray hair.”

  At mention of his mother, a faint sadness washed across his happiness.

  Cassie recognized it instantly. “I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about her?” She reached across the table, fingers grazing his. He wanted to clasp them. Hold on tight. Hold her.

  He didn’t.

  “That is a part of my life I don’t talk about. Ever.” His tone was ice sharp, but he couldn’t temper it. Those days were eternally etched into his psyche. Days and words and moments in time he wished he could take back.

  At his brush-off, Cassie withdrew her touch, and guilt rode through him. He wanted to stay her retreat. Say don’t go. Instead, he mentally shook his head, annoyed at this sudden bout of fanciful musings. What the hell was wrong with him? Instead, he said nothing. She wrapped both hands around her coffee cup and took a sip and stared out at the moon hanging in the blackened sky while the silence grew between them, stretched and unending. Finally, Lucas pushed his chair back, waving away the hovering waiter’s assistance. “I think the staff need to go home.” A few waiters remained, but all the other diners had left. He stood and circled the table to guide her chair back.

  Outside, the warmth of the day had dissolved, replaced by a breeze tinged with the freshness of mountain air. As she reached the bottom step, she turned to him. Her eyes, the color of the clearest sapphires were fathomless. How he wished he knew what she was thinking.

  “Thank you for a lovely dinner.”

  “It doesn’t have to end.” He didn’t want it to, and the way the quick-fire desire flared through his body, both shocking and exciting at the same time, was a testament to the strength of that need.

  Cassie chuckled. “And you said you were trying.”

  “If you were truly my fiancée, you’d stay the night.”

  Oh, dear heaven. Don’t go there, Cassie. “That, Your Highness, is not going to happen.”

  Lucas upped the Palmera charm with a megawatt smile. “I know, but I thought I’d throw it into the mix. Can’t blame a prince for trying.”

  “Lucas Palmera, you are not taking this seriously.”

  “Oh, believe me, I am. My father isn’t easy to ignore. He and my mother were a perfect example of a love match and have made it a hard act to follow.” Impossible, in fact.

  “So, you do intend to marry?”

  His smile faded. “Love isn’t something that can be forced, even for the sake of another’s happiness.”

  “And tricking him into believing you’re settled…and in love?”

  “It’s easier this way, Cassie. Believe me.”

  The parking valet brought his car to the front entrance and grinned when Lucas handed him a large tip. Lucas held back, waiting for Cassie to get in.

  She didn’t. “I’ll get a cab tonight.”

  “I think we’ve had this discussion before.”

  “I know. But this,” she said, waving a hand around, “has been a bit of a whirlwind. I need time.”

  “You’re not going to bow out on me, are you?”

  She shook her head. “I gave you my word, but let me do this, please. Just tonight. Call me a cab, please.”

  Disappointed, he dropped his shoulders. Nevertheless, he did as she asked, and as the taxi came up alongside them, he opened the door. “There’s just one more thing.” He gave a brief nod toward several paparazzi hovering meters away, kept at bay by his ever-present bodyguards.

  “Isn’t there always?”

  The moment his mouth touched hers, Lucas wrapped her in his arms. There was something about holding Cassie. Something different. It felt so natural. Perfect.

  He wanted more.

  She curved an arm around his neck and threaded her fingers through his hair while her other hand rested on his chest. “Lucas?” She breathed his name against his mouth, firing heat to steal a path through his veins, his arousal instant.

  Lucas opened his eyes to reality. “Time, I think, for you to go.”

  “Go?” For two heartbeats, Cassie didn’t move from his arms, then, with a shuddered sigh, she scrambled into the waiting cab, and Lucas slammed the door closed behind her, just as he had to close the way his thoughts were heading.

  Okay, so he should be more worried about his father, hoping he’d allayed his fears about handing over the leadership and, more important, about what happened when this charade ended.

  But right now, other images overrode everything else. Bed. With Cassie. And definitely naked.

  Chapter Four

  The moment Cassie closed the door of her tiny apartment behind her, she heard her phone ring. Instinctively, she knew who it would be. She lifted the handset and didn’t have a chance to utter a word before her intuition proved correct.

  “Cassie, darling. This is absolutely wonderful. Why didn’t you tell me? Dieter is proving such a bore. I’m sure with your help I’ll find someone just perfect.”

  Cassie inhaled a choppy breath, trying to steady her fears. It proved futile.

  Blanche didn’t come up for air. “Never mind,” she enthused. “When are you going out with your prince again?”

  “He’s not
mine, Mother.” But she wished he was. Dreamed it. Could it happen? Hope sprang in her chest, an external flame that wouldn’t go out.

  But…

  “Oh, shush. Of course he is. Now you must let me know all the details, and I’ll make sure I’m there so you can introduce me.”

  Raw panic rioted through Cassie. “You can’t do that. It’s not what it seems.”

  “Oh, you can’t fool me. I saw your photo in the paper kissing him. Young love.” She sighed.

  Cassie squeezed her eyes closed. “Please don’t do this.” Not now.

  “Do what? I’m your mother. Of course I want to meet your prince.”

  Blanche wanted to meet Lucas because he was royalty, and in Blanche’s world, that was something to grab on to.

  “I always knew you had it in you, darling. Just think, you’ll have the finest money can buy. Oh, the jewels. The couture. Now, Cassie,” Blanche said, lowering her voice, “listen to your mother. If you would only make a bit more effort, you’d be almost beautiful.”

  Couldn’t her mother see Cassie didn’t want to be beautiful just to snag a rich husband as her mother had done repeatedly? “Mother, I’m tired.”

  “I suppose you’ve been out with him.”

  There was no use denying it. “Yes.”

  “Don’t spoil your chances, darling. Play your cards right, and you’ll snag your prince.”

  “I don’t want him. It’s not like that.” Oh, Cassie, you are such a liar.

  “Don’t be silly. If you become his princess, well, that means I’ll…”

  Cassie recognized her mother’s wistfulness. Blanche dreamed again. Schemed. “Good night, Mother.”

  “Remember, darling, make sure I get invitations to all the season’s social events. That way I’ll be able to help you. Golly, I might even snag my own prince. Now there’s…” Blanche’s voice trailed off and a war of emotions scoured Cassie’s insides.

  She couldn’t do this anymore. Couldn’t compete. Wouldn’t. “Mother! Stop! No more. All my life, I’ve watched you scramble to latch on to a man who will give you money, jewels. Lucas is my employer. That’s all. Do not try to inveigle your way into something that does not concern you.”

  “Oh, Cassie, you’re my daughter. Of course I want to meet your beau.”

  “I’ve told you, it’s not like that.”

  Her mother’s laughter echoed down the phone line. “It happens all the time, secretaries marrying their boss.”

  Not this time.

  The next morning, Cassie cursed herself for sleeping in, surprised too, because rather than lie awake wondering and worrying about this off-the-wall charade she’d agreed to, she had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. A last glance in the mirror, however, confirmed nothing was like it was before.

  Her hair was sleek and pulled back as usual, and she wore the same suit with its pin-tucked jacket and pencil skirt, but her reaction to it wasn’t the same. Something inside her warred at the plainness—and that definitely wasn’t normal. She’d changed. Had accepted who she was on the inside, and outside. She wanted the old Cassie back. With no time to change, however, she grabbed her bag and raced out the front door, accosted by the cacophony of photographers the second she stepped out onto the pavement.

  “Here she comes.”

  “Cassie! Cassie!”

  She froze. Cameras flashed repeatedly. Shouts of…

  “Look this way!”

  “Smile for us.”

  “When’s the wedding?”

  “Your mother says…”

  Mother! Oh dear God, it had started.

  Head down, she wove her way through the throng, grateful when they were refused admittance into the Metro.

  Work, unfortunately, proved no easier. There was no smiling Lucas and no idle chatter. Everything was strictly business—just as it should be.

  Better that way. Easier.

  Midmorning came, and he buzzed her via the intercom. “Cassie, can you come in, please?”

  As she stepped inside Lucas’s inner sanctum, an unexpected bout of nerves took flight in her stomach. She wiped her palms down the sides of her skirt and then linked her fingers in front of her.

  “We’ve got a few events we must attend, and you need to look…” His gaze slid the length of her in an uncomfortable inspection.

  Just then, a burst of laughter reached them from the outer office precinct. “Lucas, darling brother, where are you?” Princess Marina and Princess Layla walked right into his office. “Oh, there you are, you two. All very secretive, aren’t we?” Layla winked at Marina.

  Cassie turned scarlet. “I’ll leave you to it,” she said, offering a quick glance at Lucas.

  “You’d abandon me to these two harridans?”

  “I’m sure you can manage them, Your Highness.”

  “Oh, Cassie,” Marina chided. “Don’t be so stuffy with him. He’s your fiancé. Lucas, why didn’t you tell us?”

  Lucas stood and drew her to him, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “We wanted time,” he said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

  Cassie eased herself from his embrace.

  “Oh, phooey.” Princess Layla sat on the edge of Lucas’s desk. Her perfectly manicured nails, glossed a shell pink, skimmed down her Chanel suit. “We want to borrow Cassie.”

  “Me? What for?”

  Lucas’s sisters offered her a conspiratorial smile. “Shopping, of course,” they said in unison.

  Marina drew Cassie’s hands into hers in an affectionate gesture. “Now, I know just the place that will have the most perfect dresses for you.”

  Dresses, as in plural. “Oh no, no. I don’t think so.” A distinct miasma swirled inside her brain. It had started. They’d try and make her just like her mother. A perfect Barbie. She wasn’t good enough.

  Marina wagged a finger at her. “Don’t say no.”

  “Of course you’ll love them,” Layla added.

  Cassie tried again. “But I don’t need anything.”

  Marina’s green eyes widened, horrified at Cassie’s admission, then her gaze gently traversed down the length of Cassie’s well-worn suit. “Don’t be so silly, of course you do. You’ll need lots of clothes. For dances, galas, dinners you’ll be attending with Lucas.”

  Cassie shot Lucas a pleading glance.

  His mouth hitched in one corner. “Who am I to argue with the females of my family? Besides, if you go with them, I at least get some peace and quiet.”

  “Exactly. Sensible boy,” Marina agreed.

  Cassie sucked in a breath. “Thanks a bunch.”

  He shrugged but still didn’t come to her aid. This was exactly what she had feared—being paraded like some store-dressed mannequin, a token on Lucas’s arm. Like Blanche. But she couldn’t go back to the old Cassie. Trouble was, the new Cassie was already wearing clothes and jewels bought by Lucas. Her independence had slowly been whittled away. She tried again. “I’m needed here; I’ve got the last of the preparations to finalize.”

  “Oh, I’m sure Lucas doesn’t need you for a little while, do you, dear brother?”

  “Give up, Cassie. It’s a lost cause where my sisters are concerned, believe me. Besides, they are right. You need the right clothes for the job.”

  Layla offered her an exquisite smile. “See, even Lucas agrees.”

  “I wouldn’t dare disagree,” he said.

  “And that, dear brother,” she said, dotting a kiss on each of his cheeks, “is exactly how it should be.”

  The young women stood at the doorway, waiting for her.

  Cassie hesitated. “Could you give me a moment? I’ve just got to finish something with His Highness.”

  Marina offered an indulging smile. “Don’t be long. We’ve a lot to accomplish.”

  Appalled at what a lot actually
meant, Cassie ushered them out the door into the waiting room and went back to Lucas’s office. “Well, thank you very much for dropping me in it. You could have at least tried to extricate me from this…this expedition. I don’t want or need to go shopping with your sisters.”

  He shrugged his broad, Armani-clad shoulders. “They want to take you. They enjoy shopping.”

  “This is not going to last, so why bother?”

  Lucas stepped away from her, and his gaze slipped down her suit. “I don’t think a gray suit is suitable, do you?”

  Cassie slid her palms down the sides of her skirt. “You’ve never complained before.”

  “And you’ve never been my fiancée before.”

  Lucas rested his autocratic stare directly on her, but Cassie refused to flinch, battling down the emotions raging inside her. She knew she overreacted, but…it played too much to her youth, when her mother wanted her to dress a certain way. She hadn’t been good enough as she was. Cassie had reacted and distanced herself from that false world. She wanted respect for who she was. Not for what she wore.

  Lucas lifted his hand to her cheek, then drew away. His mouth shifted into a soft curve, eyes twinkling with mischief. “Oops. I nearly touched you.” He dropped his hand to his side. “I remembered just in time.”

  Cassie’s brain clouded, overridden by want. And need. “What?”

  “No touching in private, remember? We must be professional to the core. Time to go, Cassie. My sisters are waiting for you.”

  “I really don’t need all those things. Those clothes.”

  “Then you’re very different from most women I’ve known.”

  “Another compliment.” A sudden idea took hold. Maybe if she pushed him into doing something he didn’t want to do, she’d be able to wiggle out of the shopping expedition. “I’ve got another deal for you.”

  Suspicion morphed Lucas’s eyes to steely onyx. “Really?”

  “Scared?” He said nothing for several heartbeats, and she continued. “You said that this was all about business, so I’ll make a deal with you.”

  His dark brows shot up. “You’re learning.”

  That’s for sure. “I’ve had an expert teacher.”