Fool, she mocked herself. One kiss and she was thinking herself half in love with the man already? The sooner she got away from him and back to her mundane, safe world the better.
But as the car pulled up to her small apartment she hesitated and turned to him. ‘I won’t say anything,’ she promised in a low voice. ‘You may not believe me, but I do want the best for Princess Eleni. And I understand that you do too.’
‘I don’t require your approval, Ms Marron. I will find Eleni and I will bring her home safely.’
He didn’t like knowing she’d seen his vulnerability. She understood that too.
She licked her dry lips. ‘I’m certain you will.’
He got out of the car at the same time she did. She veered away from him as she walked to her door, quickly trying to find her keys and unlock it, but her fingers had become buttery and useless.
‘Thank you for bringing me home,’ she said with mechanical politeness. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance.’
His lips curved and that gleam lit in his eye again. ‘Never apologise when you are not actually sorry.’
‘I’m sorry that you’re worrying,’ she pointed out coolly. ‘I wish there was something more I could do.’
He looked at her but didn’t answer. For a moment that thing swirled between them again. The memory of his body pressed against hers flashed into her mind. The foreign sensation of delight sizzled deep in her blood cells, beating heat into her cheeks again. Her throat clogged. She couldn’t speak again if she tried. Nor could she move.
He took one step nearer. Night shadowed his eyes and she couldn’t read his expression. But she could feel it—the sharp edge of desire. Only in her inexperience, her naivety, she couldn’t truly be certain that it was shared, or if it was only her crazy, out-of-control body.
He took the key from her useless fingers and stretched past her to unlock the door. She’d never felt as frozen as she did in that moment. But it wasn’t ice immobilising her muscles. It was heat and want and an appalling sense of anticipation.
He regarded her closely. ‘You’d better get inside, Ms Marron. Now. Before...’
He trailed off and she stared up at him.
‘Before what?’ she breathed.
He gazed down at her in silence for a long, long moment. But this time he didn’t act on the impulse that had shocked them both. He gave a clipped nod and then he turned and strode into the darkness.
Kassie slowly entered the safety of her tiny apartment. As she locked the door she leaned back against it, accepting the reality that she would never see King Giorgos again.
And wasn’t that good? He was arrogant and stubborn and saw only the worst in her. There was nothing in common between them.
But she pressed a hand against her ribs, willing away the ache. His departure from her life shouldn’t bring any sense of loss. Yet it did. Which meant she was more broken than even she’d believed.
CHAPTER FOUR
I DON’T LIKE to be touched.
Her words haunted him. Not a challenge—no, Giorgos had no desire to overpower her. But he did have a duty to warn her, because she wouldn’t like being hunted either. And she was about to be.
Keeping Eleni and Damon clear of the paparazzi’s long-range lenses was easy enough, but Ms Marron had none of the palace’s defences at her disposal. He was not having anyone else suffering because of the burden of the crowns that he and Eleni wore.
Half an hour before the announcement was due to be made he went to her apartment. It was less than two days since he’d met her. But he’d spent too many minutes thinking about her and he knew she wasn’t going to welcome his reappearance.
There was no reply to his forceful knock on her door. It took his security man only a moment to pick the feeble lock.
‘Wait for me out here,’ he ordered as he stepped inside.
‘Sir...?’
He glanced back to silence the man with a look.
Her apartment was small but cosy—there were books stacked on an old table, a pot plant on the windowsill was flowering, and the room had a sense of comfort. But one of the window fastenings was loose and in her bedroom the curtains were too thin. The sight of her neatly made narrow bed tightened his skin.
She wouldn’t be safe here and it was his responsibility to ensure her safety. He was the one responsible for the mess they were now in. He clamped down on the searing satisfaction he felt at the thought of having her with him again. This was for her benefit, not his. Her protection. And he’d prove to himself that his full control was restored.
‘Pack her a bag for a few days,’ he said to the waiting guard as he strode out of the small unit.
He swallowed his guilt about invading her personal space—hell, he was used to living with guilt. She’d be furious, but too bad. She was too vulnerable to remain there for the foreseeable future.
He quickly slid into the unmarked car idling at the kerb. ‘The hospital,’ he instructed his driver. ‘As fast as you can without drawing attention.’
* * *
Kassie’s pulse kept skipping beats in a maddeningly unpredictable rhythm. She’d barely slept these last two nights. When she was alone in her little apartment the memories teased and that sweltering heat returned. The recollections were too intense, too intimate. She’d curl up in a ball and squeeze her eyes tight shut to block them, but it didn’t work. Cold showers hadn’t worked either.
Why did fate have to be so fickle? Why was it that the one man who’d ever turned her on was the one she could never have? The one she’d never actually want?
The only way to stop those thoughts was by distracting herself with her patients and paperwork. She’d worked on her files all afternoon, stopping briefly to snack on a sandwich from the vending machine on the second floor.
Now, as she was on her way back through the ward to her office, she saw one of her patients in distress.
‘It’s sore?’
She felt for this youth who’d sustained a crush injury; they were trying to prevent an amputation. The boy was tearful, but she kept talking to him quietly as she carefully massaged the area above the damage, taking care not to inflame it.
‘Thanks.’
She smiled at him gently. ‘It’s going to take time. Don’t try to do too much too soon. It’s easy to make that mistake.’
She stepped out from behind the curtain to go back to her office and her stressed heart stopped beating altogether. King Giorgos was standing right on the other side of the curtain, immaculate as always in another impeccable suit.
‘You’re eavesdropping?’ she whispered furiously. ‘Have you no respect for anyone’s privacy?’ She hurried to get out of earshot of the other patients. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘What are you doing here?’ King Giorgos countered lazily, walking with her. ‘You’re not rostered on this weekend.’
She gaped at him. How did he know that? ‘I needed to complete the paperwork I didn’t finish the other night.’
‘That wasn’t paperwork.’
‘He was in pain—you expect me to ignore him?’ She shook her head and snapped at him tartly. ‘I’m sorry—I’m not like you.’
His mouth flattened. ‘You must come with me now.’
‘I can’t leave. I have to work.’
‘It’s cancelled for the week.’
The week? The ground shifted beneath her feet. ‘Why?’
‘Because your life is about to get crazy.’ He glanced into her office. ‘Get your bag. You’re coming with me now.’
‘This again?’ She folded her arms and glared at him. ‘Is your life incomplete without a captive? Must you always have a female in chains in the palace?’
A sharply amused gleam softened his stern expression. ‘You really do have a fixation with me putting you in chains, don’t you?’
A trickle of something delicious and dangerous seeped into her. Engaging with him like this gave her a thrill she’d never have believed she’d actively seek.
‘I’m doing this for your protection, Ms Marron. Not for your pleasure. Or mine,’ he said pointedly. ‘A helicopter is waiting on the roof.’
She stopped walking. ‘You can’t be serious.’
‘And you can’t be this naive. They’re already on their way.’
‘They?’
‘Journalists, cameramen, paparazzi, vultures. Whatever you want to call them.’
‘Why would they want to bother me?’
‘They are going to touch you,’ he warned her grimly. ‘They are going to pry.’
‘I don’t care what they write about me.’ She held herself stiffly. It couldn’t be anything worse than she’d heard over the years.
He looked pityingly at her. ‘It’s not what they write—it is the way they follow you...stalk you, harass you, call out to you. They’ll speak to anyone you’ve ever spoken to in your life... You need to get away—at least until the initial furore dies down.’
He walked to the door leading to the stairwell, expecting her to follow him.
The desire to flout his demand flared. ‘You can’t be—’
‘Move,’ he ordered curtly. ‘Or I’ll carry you up there myself.’
His threat merely sharpened her urge for insubordination.
‘You just can’t cope with someone who doesn’t instantly submit to your demands, can you?’ She defied him with an all-out assault. ‘You expect everyone to bow and scrape and scuttle to do your bidding. Especially women. Do you kit out all your lovers with a set of knee-pads?’
He froze, but his eyes lit with such danger she thought she might have gone too far. Where had her aggression come from? The instinct to push back had been irresistible, but she’d never been shrewish before.
‘What?’ she asked, faking bravado. ‘Did I strike too close to home?’
He tugged her into the stairwell and slammed the door behind them. ‘You are so determined to provoke a reaction in me,’ he whispered, hemming her in against the cool wall with his hands. ‘So keen to make me lash out in a specific way.’
He leaned closer still.
‘You want me to do what I did the other night so you can cast me as your villain. But the truth is you liked it. You’re attracted to me. You want me. You just don’t want to admit it.’ His lips curved with arrogant satisfaction.
‘I don’t want you.’
Her heart thundered. She was shocked at his verbal attack. Shocked more by the unfurling betrayal of her body. He was right. She did want him.
His gaze swept down, lingering on her tightened breasts.
She gasped. ‘You’re the most arrogant creature who walked the planet.’
‘Well, that’s a step up from being a monster.’ He laughed. ‘And at least I’m honest.’
‘You want honesty?’
‘It’d be a good start.’
‘You’re the last man I’d be attracted to.’
He snorted. ‘I think I’m the only man you have been attracted to.’
He was right—which was all the more annoying. Why did it have to be him, of all people?
‘Everything comes too easily to you,’ she grumbled. ‘You think you can have any woman you want. Everything in your life is disposable.’
‘Nothing in my life is disposable.’ His smile gained a bitter edge. ‘Everything I do has more consequences than for most people. Nothing is forgotten.’ He stepped back but took her clenched fist in his hand. ‘Did some powerful, wealthy man hurt you, Kassiani?’
Of course. Starting with her louse of a father.
‘What makes you think there was only one?’
‘Poor little thing... But the pity card isn’t going to work on me,’ he muttered, unmoved. ‘Your past isn’t my problem. I’m concerned only with now. And right now you need to come with me.’
‘And if I refuse?’
‘You just want me to toss you over my shoulder.’ He laughed again at her expression. ‘Do you think I wouldn’t dare?’
She stared up at him. He would. But she couldn’t give in this easily—especially considering he was the one man she found sexually attractive.
‘I am trying to save you from a horror-fest,’ he growled.
‘I can take care of myself.’
He released her fist with a theatrical sigh and dug into his pocket.
‘Take a look at the damn screen.’ He flicked his phone around, almost shoving the screen in her face. ‘This is the mob outside your apartment right now.’
There was a bunch of men standing around outside her apartment. Guys in jeans and tees on scooters, with cameras and lights and phones. One was repeatedly banging on her door.
‘How can you see my apartment?’ She frowned. ‘Have you put cameras on me?’
‘This is a live feed from my security team. I have someone stationed in the building across the street to keep an eye on the place and the other is...’ He swiped the screen again, fury flickering across his face as he checked the screen before showing her again. ‘You can’t go home. Not until I have this under control.’
Kassie stared at the grainy image on the screen. There were two guys right in her back yard. ‘They’re going through my rubbish?’ Appalled, she leaned back against the cool wall for support. ‘That’s sick.’
‘Now do you understand? You don’t want to be running that gauntlet. You don’t want to hear their questions and have their cameras in your face. You need to leave with me. Now. They’ll already be here at the hospital, trying to get through Security.’
‘Why are they even here?’ She was shocked—she didn’t understand it at all.
‘Because your half-brother has just married my sister.’
She gaped at him for a full five seconds.
‘What?’ she muttered breathlessly. ‘He’s what?’
‘They returned. They married. This afternoon.’
She registered the grim tension in his eyes. ‘Are they okay? Is Eleni okay?’
‘I think so.’ Uncertainty flickered across his face, but then he straightened. ‘More okay than you’re about to be if you don’t come with me now.’
And was Giorgos okay? Because, to be honest, he didn’t really look it. He looked pale and, frankly, right on the edge.
Wordlessly, she turned and walked up the stairs with him, so full of questions that she didn’t know where to begin.
Less than two minutes later she was strapped in to take the first helicopter ride of her life. Giorgos handed her a headset and she put it on with fumbling fingers as the machine lifted into the sky.
‘We have a secure channel.’ His voice sounded too close, too intimate, even though he sat a foot apart from her in his own surprisingly spacious seat. ‘Not even the pilot can hear us.’
Yeah? Well she wasn’t about to have headset sex with him. She was too busy clutching on to the armrest and remembering to breathe, trying to get her head around the developments of the last ten minutes.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked, a reluctant smile breaking his frown.
‘I’m fine. You?’
‘I will be.’ He shot her a look. ‘I’m sorry.’
So was she. Because there was scandal here. Her mother had been a mistress—the ‘other woman’. And she was a child born of lust. The exact sort of juicy scandal that royals ought never to be tainted with...
‘How do you cope with it?’ She gestured to the phone he still held. ‘How do you live with that level of intrusion?’
‘I don’t have to. They don’t scrutinise me the way they would you or any woman.’ He frowned. ‘I know it’s not right. That’s why...’
‘You never have a girlfriend? You’d never subject any woman to this.�
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‘I can’t protect anyone from it.’ He sighed. ‘Someone born into the craziness understands it, and at least has built the defences to cope with it. But the women get it far worse than the men.’
‘This is why you’re so protective of Eleni?’ It made sense to her now.
‘I’ve seen what it does to other women in public positions. I’ve seen their skeletal figures and the strain on their made-up faces at the stress of having their dress choices stupidly picked apart.’ He shoved his phone back into his pocket. ‘I didn’t want that for her. Ever. I wanted her out of the spotlight as much as possible. To go from the safety of one palace to another.’
‘But you can’t hide her away from life.’
‘Obviously not,’ he said grimly. ‘She was too vulnerable and naive.’
‘Because she hadn’t been out there—living life like a normal young woman, making mistakes—’
‘That was impossible,’ he argued strongly. But then he sighed. ‘And now she’s made the oldest mistake in the world...’
‘So you’ve made Damon marry her?’
‘I don’t think I could make him do anything he didn’t want to—he’s your half-brother after all.’ He shot her a look. ‘He all but abducted Eleni to prevent her marrying Prince Xander. He’s the one who pushed for this. Eleni thought she could go it alone.’
‘And you don’t think she could?’ Kassie felt her fighting spirit stir. ‘My mother went it alone.’
‘And was it easy?’
‘Of course not, but—’
‘Then you know exactly why I didn’t want that for Eleni,’ he interjected. ‘But it was Damon, not me, who convinced Eleni that marriage was the best answer. I wasn’t the bully this time—it had already happened.’
His gaze narrowed on her thoughtfully.
‘And how was it for you?’ he asked quietly.
‘How was what?’
‘Your mother’s decision to go it alone?’
‘She didn’t really have a choice, given my father was already married,’ she muttered through gritted teeth. ‘She avoided other men.’
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