Under the King's Command

by Ingrid Weaver

  Ursula shook her head. "No, I can't see anyone right now. I can't."

  "You don't have a choice, ma'am."

  Was there no end to what she had to endure? She dipped her head, using the cuff of her sleeve to pat her eyes dry. She fluffed her hair, swallowing another sob as some strands caught on her ragged fingernails. She needed a deep conditioning and a trim as well as a manicure, but she was a great actress, she would overcome this adversity. She'd show them. She'd show them all.

  Keys jangled. The door creaked open. Ursula crossed her legs in a pose she knew would show her slim thighs to advantage, even in these shapeless orange prison clothes. She pulled a lock of hair forward to hide her scraped forehead, then angled her head so that her hand could mask her jaw. She could still be beautiful if she tried.

  Four people stood in front of her. She recognized the lawyer and the cop named Sergeant Winters who had tried to question her when she'd arrived yesterday, and she mentally dismissed them as unimportant. Her gaze went to the tall, dark-haired man who leaned against the bars of the door. She recognized him instantly. This was the ranch hand with amnesia who'd turned out to be Jessica's prince. Lucas Sebastiani. He was even more handsome than she remembered. Reflexively she braced one arm on the bunk behind her so she could push out her bust.

  Lucas stared at her with an expression of revulsion.

  It must be because of the scrape on her forehead, she thought, trying to smooth more hair over it. That would repulse anyone. Her gaze moved to the fourth person in the group. It was a tall, red-haired woman in a Navy uniform....

  "You!" Ursula said. "You're the bitch who knocked off my aim and kicked—"

  "Ms. Chambers, please," the lawyer said. "You're not helping your case by outbursts like this. I strongly advise you to cooperate."

  "That's good advice," the redhead said. "After what you've done to the people we care about, none of us here have much patience left."

  "What do you mean, after what I've done?" Ursula exclaimed. "I had no choice. It wasn't my fault. I only wanted what was rightfully mine."

  Lucas continued to regard her as if she were a specimen in a zoo.

  Ursula wished the prison guards had allowed her some makeup. She moistened her lips and moved them into a pouting smile. "Give me a chance to explain. Then you'll see."

  Finally, she was going to get the chance to tell her side. And so she started at the beginning, with her father who had unjustly willed everything to Jessica. She told about how her sister had given a mysterious drifter a job as a ranch hand, only to be heartbroken when the drifter left and she discovered she was pregnant. Ursula saw how Prince Lucas clenched his jaw at this part of her story, but she ignored him. She had center stage now. She wasn't going to give it up.

  It would have been so easy if Jessica had left her beloved ranch and traveled to Montebello the way Ursula had urged her to when they realized the drifter was actually a prince. They would have been set for life once the king had learned Jessica was carrying the royal heir. But no, her softhearted sister refused to use her child to tie her to a man who had never made promises or spoken of love.

  Ursula saw the Navy woman flinch at that part of the story, and she felt a burst of energy, knowing she had everyone's attention. She must be giving the performance of her life. She explained how Desmond had come looking for his half cousin the prince and had ended up joining forces with Ursula. They had planned to bring the prince's baby to Montebello after Jessica's death so the royal heir could assume his rightful place. Gretchen Hanson had already been on her way here with the brat, but it had all gone horribly wrong when Desmond had betrayed Ursula with another woman. He'd made her kill him. Just like Jessica's refusal to profit from her child had brought about her own death. They could see now that none of it was her fault—

  "I can't listen to any more of this," Lucas said, turning away. "Anyone can see that she's insane."

  Ursula clawed more hair across her forehead and smoothed her orange coveralls suggestively over her breasts. "Wait. I'm not finished."

  Her lawyer shook his head and filed out with the policewoman. "I'm sorry, Ms. Chambers. I'll find someone else to take your case."

  Only the red-haired Navy woman remained. She stared at Ursula, her gaze pinning her to the bunk.

  "What are you looking at?" Ursula snarled.

  The woman smiled and held something out to her. "Here. I heard you were asking for this."

  "What?"

  "You wanted to know what I was looking at. I think it's a fitting punishment to let you see for yourself."

  Ursula focused on the object. It was a mirror.

  The prison door clanged shut to the echoes of Ursula's scream.

  Chapter 16

  Kate turned the jeep toward the base and pressed down on the accelerator. The wind was brisk, yet she welcomed the cool rush on her face. She needed to smell fresh air. She needed to see sunshine. After the dank evil she had encountered in the jail cells under the police station, she had a pressing need to cleanse the taint from her lungs.

  Ursula Chambers would spend the rest of her life behind bars. The only question that remained was where. Both the Montebellan police and the FBI wanted a piece of her.

  Similarly, Gretchen Hanson wouldn't be breathing freely anytime soon, either. She admitted she'd lied about who had killed Jessica, but now she claimed her simpleminded brother who helped around Jessica's ranch had committed the deed.

  The final prisoner Kate had interviewed had been Edwardo Scarpa, a palace guard. She understood why he had seemed familiar—she must have seen him when she'd visited the palace. He was falling all over himself to cooperate with the police, hoping for leniency, but it was unlikely he'd get it. He'd betrayed the trust placed in him by the king. Montebellans dealt swiftly with treason.

  Kate tilted her face to the wind, feeling her spirit revive with each turn of the road. If she could have flown, she would have. She couldn't get back to the base fast enough. After what she'd seen and heard today, she wanted only to be with the man she loved.

  Sam had been asleep when she'd left the hospital this morning. The doctors had said that rest was what he needed most. It would be days before he'd be able to get out of bed. He'd lost a substantial amount of blood, and he'd received a serious concussion when he'd fallen to the deck, but astonishingly, the wound in his side was already showing signs of healing.

  But that was her Sam, wasn't it? One in a million. If he'd heard the doctor's cautious prognosis, he'd probably laugh and say something about SEALs being tough.

  Kate smiled, remembering how Sam had defied another one of the doctor's predictions and had managed to steal a few moments of lucidity the night before. The crazy, wonderful, stubborn man had just undergone emergency surgery, but he'd only been worried about her.

  Oh, how she loved him. If he wanted to be crazy and stubborn, that was fine with her. She loved him for who he was. She didn't want him any other way.

  Kate chaffed with impatience as she had to pause for the checkpoint at the gate. As soon as she was on the base, she drove straight to the hospital. She screeched to a stop in the parking area and headed for the entrance.

  Sam wasn't in the room where she'd left him. Kate wasn't concerned at first—she assumed he'd been moved. But when she inquired at the nurses' station, she was informed he'd left almost an hour ago.

  "Left?" Kate repeated, incredulous. "How could he have been discharged already?"

  "Lieutenant Coburn discharged himself," the nurse said.

  "But he's just had surgery."

  "I'm aware of that, ma'am. You don't need to shout."

  Kate glanced around. "Do you know where he went?"

  "Sorry." The phone on the desk rang. "Excuse me."

  It shouldn't surprise her that Sam would have wanted to leave. He wasn't a man who liked to wait around. He'd come to Montebello in the first place because he was supposed to be recuperating from a gunshot wound, but instead he'd taken on a new mission.

/>   Was that what had happened? She thought back to what she'd told him the night before. She'd said the mission was over. That had seemed important to him. He'd seemed to want to tell her something before he'd slipped back into sleep. Was that what he'd wanted to say?

  She hurried across the base to the command center she and Sam had set up twelve days ago, but Sam wasn't there, either. The room was oddly silent. Much of the equipment they had requisitioned had already been removed. Most of the personnel had resumed their regular duties. Is that what Sam had done? Had he joined Reilly and the other men on his SEAL team?

  She tried his quarters next. She pounded on his door until a bleary-eyed bald man opened the door of the room across the hall to find out what she wanted. Yawning, he told her he'd run into Sam in the corridor twenty minutes ago. Sam had been carrying a bag. He hadn't said where he was going.

  Kate slumped against the wall. After everything she and Sam had been through, had he really left without a word?

  She didn't want to believe it. Yet that's what they'd both insisted on the last time. Did he still think she wanted an easy goodbye?

  She should have told him she loved him sooner. She should have realized she loved him sooner.

  But would it have made any difference? His thirst for adventure and his need for freedom were part of him. She loved him as he was, she reminded herself. They hadn't spoken of a future. Was that because there hadn't been time—or because they didn't have one?

  She pushed away from the wall and raked her fingers through her hair. What could she do? Wait until the next time they ran into each other on duty or got together on leave?

  No. She wanted to see him now. This minute, this second. She didn't want to end up haunted by regrets, like Lucas. He'd lost his chance with Jessica. She wouldn't lose her chance with Sam.

  She lifted her chin and headed for the stairs. She would call Lucas from her quarters. The prince of Montebello said he was in her debt. He could repay her by having his father pull some strings with Admiral Howe and have the base commander delay whatever plane Sam was intending to leave on. One way or another, she wasn't going to make anything easy about this goodbye.

  She threw open the door to her quarters... and stopped.

  The sitting room drapes were closed, but the room glowed with light. Dozens of candles flickered from every surface, filling the air with the heady aroma of gardenias.

  Kate swung the door closed behind her, her pulse pounding from more than her run up the stairs. She couldn't catch her breath. "Sam?"

  He stood in the doorway of her bedroom. He held his body stiffly, his arm trembling as he leaned his weight on a cane.

  She swayed forward. "Sam."

  He extended his free hand.

  The room was small. She crossed it in a heartbeat.

  She wanted to barrel into his arms and bury her face in his chest and hold him until her ribs ached, but then she looked at the bulge under his shirt where the dressing would be and she stopped a breath away. "Sam..."

  He grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her head to his shoulder. His lips tickled her ear. "Hello, Kate."

  She turned her face to his neck, filling her lungs with the scent of him. "I looked for you. I thought you had gone."

  "Where would I have gone?"

  "Anywhere. Everywhere." She kissed his throat, his chin, the side of his jaw. "I thought you'd rejoined your team."

  "You're my team, Kate. We're still partners, remember?"

  "But the mission's over. Ursula Chambers is in custody and she's going to pay for every evil thing she's done." Her breath hitched. "Sam, you shouldn't be on your feet. You should have stayed in the hospital."

  "I had to see you."

  "And I had to see you. I had to touch you, but—" She put her hand lightly on his chest. "It must hurt."

  "Minor detail."

  "I thought you'd left, but you've been here all along. Why the candles?"

  "I like the smell."

  "And how—"

  "Shh. We'll talk later," he said, tipping her face to his. In the candlelight his golden-brown eyes gleamed as brightly as a promise. "First, we kiss."

  "Sam, I—"

  He didn't kiss like a man who could have died the day before. Then again, maybe he did. He kissed her as if he wanted to pour a lifetime of passion into a moment. His cane clattered to the floor as he cupped her face in his hands, holding her steady even as his knees began to buckle. He leaned his shoulder against the door frame and kept kissing her until the world faded, leaving only the two of them and their need for each other.

  Somehow they managed to make it to the bed. She helped Sam peel off his clothes along the way, moving carefully—oh, so carefully—yet with an eagerness that made them both smile. Sam eased down on his back, his glorious body naked except for the thick gauze pad that was taped under his ribs. In the flickering candlelight he looked like a warrior, a wounded warrior who had finally come home.

  Kate stripped and then stretched out beside him. He lifted his arm, pulling her to his side with a strength that no longer surprised her. He was amazing, this man she loved. He caressed her tenderly, keeping his body still even as he made her writhe.

  It was as if the time that had sped past the day before now slowed. Kate made love to him gently, always mindful of his injury. She tried to tell herself he needed closeness more than he needed sex. But each time her gaze strayed to his bandage, she thought of how she could have lost him, and the urge for completion became overwhelming.

  She felt no awkwardness as she climbed over him. Nothing was awkward when it came to love. He shuddered. She sighed.

  The candle beside the bed burned itself out as she watched him fall asleep in her arms.

  Night had fallen by the time Sam awoke. He knew instantly where he was. He didn't have even a split second of disorientation. He could tell by the scent and by the bone-deep satisfaction he felt.

  But the afterglow of good, healthy sex wasn't all he felt. A persistent throbbing in his side reminded him of the doctor's advice. Bed rest. Well, he was in a bed, wasn't he?

  Sam turned his head. Kate was lying beside him, her cheek propped on her hand. She had put on a silk robe, but he could tell by the cleavage he glimpsed at her neckline that she hadn't put on anything else.

  Incredibly, despite the haze of exhaustion that dulled his senses, he felt himself stir. He couldn't get enough of her. He smiled and ran his fingertip along the edge of her robe. "Hey."

  She smiled back. "Hey, yourself. How are you feeling?"

  "Better by the second. Want me to show you?"

  She leaned over and kissed him. But before he could do anything more, she pulled back. "Sam, before I came home and found you here, I thought you'd left."

  "Yeah, you mentioned that a few times."

  "And while I was looking for you, I realized something."

  "What?"

  "I'm not as good a person as I thought I was."

  He slipped his hand into her robe and rubbed his thumb over the curve of her breast. "Kate, if you were any better you'd kill me."

  "Sam, I'm serious."

  "So am I."

  She pulled his hand out of her robe and sat up. "Please, Sam. We already know we get this part right. I'm trying to figure out the rest."

  He tucked his hand under his head and watched her. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you are right after we make love?"

  She pushed her hair off her forehead shakily. "You're pretty appealing yourself."

  "Your cheeks are flushed, and your eyes have this dreamy glow. Your whole body is soft and relaxed and—"

  "Sam, please. I'm trying to tell you something."

  "Okay. What?"

  "I have to break our promise."

  "Our promise? What do you mean?"

  "No more easy goodbyes. It will mean compromises and probably a few changes in our careers. I know it's not going to be easy, and we'll have a lot to work on, so maybe loving you has made me selfish, but—"
/>
  "Wait a second. Did you just say that you love me?"

  She knelt on the mattress at his side and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Love was the last thing that I thought I wanted. It doesn't fit into the plans we made for our lives, but it happened anyway, and these past two weeks have shown me that it's too precious a gift to squander." She moved her hands to his cheeks, cradling his face as she leaned over to kiss him, then she sat back on her heels and smiled. "I love you, Sam. You make me complete. When I'm with you, I'm home."

  If it hadn't been for the pain in his side, he might have thought that he was dreaming. He hadn't believed it would be this easy. He'd been fully prepared for a long, difficult campaign. That's why he'd dragged himself out of the hospital when any sane man would have stayed put, and that's why he'd broken into these quarters to set the scene with candles. Yet while he'd been busy laying plans to breach the barricades around Kate's heart, she'd opened the gates and invited him in.

  But what else could he expect from this stubborn, independent, passionate, maddening woman?

  He covered her hands with his and turned his head to press a kiss to each of her palms. "Me, too."

  "Sam?"

  He tugged her downward until she stretched out beside him. "I love you, Kate Mulvaney."

  Her smile widened. "Say it again."

  "I love you. I love everything about you."

  "And I love you, Sam Coburn. And I'll try to understand when you go off on your adventures but—"

  "Kate, loving you is all the adventure I need. Next time I travel, I want to do it with you. How would you feel about a honeymoon in Fiji?"

  "A... honeymoon?"

  "After you marry me, of course."

  "After what?"

  This wasn't how he'd planned to propose. He'd rehearsed the words so carefully over the past two days, but he couldn't remember any of the arguments he'd memorized. Instead, he gathered her hands in his and pressed them to his heart. "You mentioned compromise, and this is a big one. I know how you feel about marriage, Kate, but not all of them turn out like your parents'. We'll be building from a solid base. Love." He tightened his grip on her hands. "I used to believe that love made a person vulnerable, but I was wrong. It's the other way around. Love gives you strength."