There was a stranger in the room. He was holding a gun.
A gun pointing straight at Sara’s heart...
Chapter Twelve
“Madam...Your Majesty. I’m so sorry,” the man said in broken English. He was as horrified as Sara. She grabbed a handful of bedclothes to cover herself. He raised his gun. It all happened so fast, the door separating Leo’s suite from the bodyguard’s room was still swinging on its hinges.
Leo spoke to the intruder in his own language, then tried to calm her. “Take no notice, Sara. He’s seen it all before.”
“He’s never seen me like this before!” She was trembling, and trying to cover herself. The bodyguard was even more embarrassed. Stuffing his revolver into its holster, he backed out of the room the way he had come, and slammed the dividing door.
Leo sank back onto the bed. “I’m sorry about that. That’s the trouble with being spontaneous. His lie-in, combined with our little tryst—”
Sara was furious. “How can you laugh at a time like this? How dare you put me through that!”
“It’s all part of my life, I’m afraid.”
The warm mist of Sara’s satisfaction evaporated in the white heat of her anger. “That’s not good enough. I’ve never been so ashamed in my life! Wait, what did he call you—Your Majesty? What was that about?”
“As I said. It comes with the territory. Quite literally.”
Sara paused. “He meant it, then? You really are a king?”
Leo nodded, but admitting it made him uncomfortable. She felt that by the way he moved to envelop her in his arms and pull her back down onto the bed.
She stiffened, making it impossible for him. “What sort of king? Why didn’t you tell me who you were?” Her voice was as shaky as her nerves.
“I am Leotric Gregoryanak, King of Kharova.” His voice was thick and deep. “I assumed you knew, but were too softhearted to spoil my last few weeks of anonymity before I go back home and make everything official.”
“No,” she said. “That place again...and king… So that’s why you spoke about your country.”
“Yes. I’m uncrowned, but I’m still Kharova’s ruler. You had no idea?” He sounded pleased he’d managed to keep his full identity from her for so long.
Sara wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come.
“If that’s the case, my team and I must be doing something right. I loathe media intrusion, so my instructions are always to keep my public profile as low as possible,” he said.
She twisted away. He started to follow her movements, but she tucked the sheet around her body. She was hiding from him like a stranger, while she tried to find her professional veneer again. “I understand that, Leo, believe me. I like to get on with my work without constant scrutiny. In my case it’s by the management of ACS. When you’re hounded by the media, it must be a million times worse. I can see how being followed everywhere would make a private man like you long for anonymity. But don’t you see what you’ve done?”
“The only thing that matters to me is the fact I’ve seduced you.” A smile danced in his eyes. Her expression wouldn’t let it reach his lips.
She wrapped her arms around her body. It dawned on her she’d been dicing with disaster. “I didn’t want to find a surrogate mother for your baby before I knew you were a king. Now I do know, along with all the other things I’ve heard about Kharova, I don’t want anything to do with it. In a place like that it’s probably treason. They’d kill you all.”
“I’ve told you to forget it. I’m running out of inspiration. Matchmaking has kept my country united over the centuries. My suggestion was the safe, logical extension of that. My people are suspicious of foreigners, but I would insist a Kharovan bride and I remained childless. If I marry a foreign aristocrat, that would disappoint my people. A home-grown wife and a separately conceived child was my least-worst solution to all that.”
“You never thought to tell me what you were, and why you were doing it?” Her voice was rough with disbelief.
“I assumed you knew, but were too decent and professional to make a big thing about it. You’re no airhead.”
Sara’s mind ran back and picked up all the hints that had glided past her during their days together. She’d been too obsessed with her thoughts and feelings to read the signs. “No. I didn’t.”
He wasn’t convinced. “The internet makes household names of everyone these days.”
“I haven’t been online since I arrived,” she reminded him. A lot of the things Leo had said to her over the past few days were taking on a whole new meaning. “So the job you didn’t want wasn’t so much head of a family firm as ruler of—where exactly is Kharova? The ACS deal never got far enough for me to find out while I was in England.”
“It’s a small kingdom on the Adriatic. I’m king, and my brother Athan is in charge of the army,” Leo said, with the sort of diffidence he might have used if they were running a local store rather than a country.
“Whenever you talked about your people, I assumed you meant the human resources team of your business. You meant the people of Kharova.” She pieced clues together, warming to a conclusion. “And as for your talk about finding a surrogate mother...the more I think about it the worse it seems.”
“My brother and I didn’t agree about it, either.”
“One of you must be talking sense, then. You can’t go through with such an insane scheme, Leo! Not in a million years.” Sliding out of bed, she gathered up her bikini.
“I don’t see why not.” He put his hands behind his head and watched her getting dressed. “There can’t be much difference between organizing the future of a successful business, and a country.”
Sara stopped, appalled. “I can see I’ll have to say it again—you just don’t get it, do you?”
“What’s the problem? I thought you said it wasn’t any of your business to judge what your clients wanted.”
His words shocked Sara to the core. Was that all Leo supposed he was to her—a client?
“It isn’t...but there’s a big difference between securing a business empire and producing a royal family, a baby to order!”
“Is there?”
“Leo...” she gasped. “You aren’t joking, are you?” Horror radiated from her.
“No.”
“It’s one thing to live with the threat of hostile financial takeovers. When you’re talking about creating a life that’ll need to be protected every second by security guards who burst into rooms armed to the teeth, that’s something else entirely! I can’t have a hand in bringing a baby into this world who’s going to face that sort of threat every day of their life!”
“Fine. So I’ll find someone else who can. Now come back to bed.”
“You’re not serious?” She stared at him, aghast. “You are, aren’t you? How the hell can you lie there and say something outrageous like that?” The answer struck her before he had a chance to reply. Leo had inherited arrogance along with his royal pedigree. The descendant of powerful generations, he would never—could never—understand how anyone else felt about this. He would keep pushing at any problem until he got the result he wanted. To argue with him would be like trying to face down a hurricane.
Snapping the straps of her bikini into place, she stormed out of his suite.
After that, Sara stood on her balcony for a long time, full of regret. The fragrance of citrus and myrtle blossom rising from the gardens reminded her of those wonderful moments beside the pool, where Leo seduced her. He knew how to pleasure any woman, while she only wanted to please one man—him. It was such a fundamental difference between them it was heartbreaking. She couldn’t go on staying at the Paradise Hotel after this. To risk bumping into him all the time, to know he was so close and yet out of reach would be impossible.
She smiled, thinking how he had been so attuned to her fear of getting behind the wheel of a car again. Then she remembered the mother and child they’d met in Athens. How they’d laughed at their mista
kes, how generous he’d been and how natural it felt to hold baby Calista in her arms. Sara wondered how it would have felt to hold Leo’s baby. That was at the heart of her dilemma. She’d spent the whole of her life needing to be part of a family. Now she had met the one man in the universe who could make all her dreams come true, but she had to abandon all thoughts of staying with him. For Leo to consider marrying without love showed how much he took his own family life for granted.
I have to turn my back on him now. Walk out, and never see him again.
That would be unendurable. She would keep her principles and her independence, but at a huge cost. It would mean spending the rest of her life worrying about how Leo had taken the news, how he would manage without her, and wondering what might have been. He’d never once said he loved her, but that didn’t matter to her. At least he hadn’t lied. Leo concealed the truth about things that hurt him, like the reason he abandoned his career. That was the extent of his deceit. He’d told her their fling could never be anything more than temporary. He hadn’t made any empty promises.
Sara had to match that honesty. She couldn’t abandon him without saying good-bye. Screwing up all her courage, she dressed and packed her things.
Then she tucked plenty of tissues into her purse, and went to say good-bye to Leo forever.
The security man who had burst in on them let her into Leo’s suite without a murmur. In the silence, Sara relived that awful moment in embarrassment.
She crept in, expecting Leo to be asleep. His bed was empty, its single satin sheet crumpled on the floor.
With a jolt, she saw the outline of his tall figure through the gossamer draped over the French doors leading to his balcony. He had pulled on some jeans, and was staring out over the view the same way she had done. Sara wondered what was going through his mind. She knew he must be thinking. Loving him had opened her eyes to all his endearing little habits, like jingling coins in his pockets when he was concentrating.
And yet he’d hidden the truth from her. Concentrating on that fact spurred her on. Words exploded from her, pain and accusation mixed up in one heartfelt cry. “I can’t take all this, Leo!”
He whirled round, shocked.
“I thought I could, but I can’t!” She clenched her fists and pressed them to her breasts. “I convinced myself a single night with you was all I wanted. I was wrong. With any normal man it could have turned into something more, but not with you. You’re a king. I’m never going to be able to call you mine.”
“Is that all?”
His matter-of-fact words knocked all the air out of her. Anguish turned to rage. “All? All? Isn’t that enough?” Her fury was at fever pitch. “I’ve ruined everything by giving in to you. I’ve made a fool of myself again. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
He stopped looking bemused, and swung into action. Striding forward, he grabbed her by the shoulders. “Sara, stop it. You mean the world to me. It doesn’t have to be like this. Pretend you never found out who I am. Let it go.”
Agony bubbled in her lungs. She gasped for air, dragging it into her body with the same urgency she still felt for his touch. “I can’t do that. I’m no good at pretending. I’ve messed up, Leo. I’ve fallen in love with you, and that wasn’t part of my plan. You were supposed to be nothing more than some fun in the sun, to make my time at the Paradise go faster.”
“Sara?” His voice was no louder than a whisper, but there was a power about it that silenced her. “Sara? What did you say? I couldn’t make sense of anything after you said—” He stopped.
“I said you were supposed to be some fun in the sun, that’s all.”
“No. Before that. What did you say before that?”
In her anguish, Sara twisted the tissue in her hands into a damp rope. She knew what he meant, but couldn’t answer the question. The last time she said those dangerous words out loud to a man, it started a downward spiral into a horror of pain.
She mouthed the words, unable to give them body.
“I can’t hear you,” he said.
“This is all so new to me..”
“And me.” His voice was barely louder than hers.
Sara had to blink hard. She was holding back tears, but felt her lips curve upward. Leo always had that effect on her. “What would you do if I said...” She faltered and stopped. The shreds of tissue dropped to the floor like melting snow. “D’you know, I don’t think I can say it again.” She gave a watery laugh.
“Then let me say it first.” He took her hands in his. “I love you, Sara Astley.”
His honesty reverberated through her whole body and Sara found blinking wasn’t enough any more. Her tears fell at the same moment she threw herself into his arms. “But I’ve made such a mess of my life!”
“Don’t knock it. Every moment has brought us closer to this one.” His voice was rough with emotion as he buried his face in her hair and held her so close she could hardly breathe.
“Yes...but it can’t last.” She had to speak, and fought to free her mouth from his kisses. “You need a queen, not a businesswoman!”
“I don’t need either of those things. I want you.”
His words twisted her heart. “Why couldn’t you have told me you were the king? I would never have come within a million miles of you! I love you more than I ever thought possible, and now I have to let you go. Why can’t you make it up somehow with Mihail? Let him have Kharova. He can put up with that horrible country’s ridiculous rules, instead of you.”
She pushed her face into the curve of his neck, trying to stifle her sobs. As he held her, she felt his chest expand as he drew in a huge breath.
“That’s a wonderful idea, but I can’t. Mihail has a lot of vocal support, but there’s not much actual power behind him. If I hand the crown over to him, it will cause more problems than it solves. But I want you to know you’re the first woman I’ve ever come close to obeying, Sara.”
Resting her hands on his shoulders, she leaned back in his arms. She had never seen him look so irresistible. “Then can I ask you to do something for me, Leo?”
“I’m yours to command. You’ll always be queen in my heart,” he murmured.
“Make love to me. Make love to me like it was the first time, not the last time, and we were going to be together forever.”
“That would give me the greatest pleasure of my life, my love,” he whispered.
His lips were cool and firm as always, but this time there was none of his usual rapid insistence. Instead, he cradled her to his body and kissed her until she forgot everything but his gentle caresses. Lifting her into his arms, he smiled with pride. “Do you remember the first time I did this?”
“I’ll never forget. I was so hot for your body, but so angry at the way you’d dived into my life and started ordering me around.”
“And now, as I say, I’m yours to command.” He sighed the words between kisses and carried her to the bed. Sara’s body turned to liquid honey beneath his hands, soft and golden.
Leo had made love many times, but until now he had never loved. There had been too many other women, if he was honest. And he intended to be honest with Sara from now on, however long or short their time together might be.
Chapter Thirteen
Their lovemaking was seductive and slow as they took pleasure in exploring and pleasuring for the last time. Sara had never felt loved before she met Leo. Now she felt adored. He was an incredible lover, gentle and appreciative of her body in so many ways. His body slid over hers in a dance that swept them both to the heights of passion.
Afterward, they lay together in a peace disturbed by the sands of time trickling away from them.
“I must go,” she said, but made no move to lift her head from his chest.
“Stay.”
They both knew he meant forever. She shook her head. “I have to let you go, Leo. My bags are packed and down in the reception area. The taxi will be here soon.”
“I could forbid you to leave. I am a
king, after all.”
His smile was sad and sweet. She rose, running her hands over his chest and down his arms, reluctant to lose the feel of his skin beneath her fingers until the last moment. “You could, but you won’t.” She kissed his brow, then pressed her forehead against his.
“There will be a place of honor reserved for you at my coronation, Sara.”
“Don’t expect me to leap up and object during the ceremony, as if it was a wedding.” She tried to smile. “I know you’ll make a brilliant king.”
“I’d make a better lover for you, than I would make a king.”
“You can’t afford to think like that. Make some penniless principality rich beyond its wildest dreams by marrying its blue-blooded princess, and producing dozens of healthy sons and daughters.”
He grabbed her again. “Don’t joke about it. While I am king and Mihail is a threat to my country, the situation is too grave for humour.”
Sara remembered something, and drew herself from his arms. “Why not persuade your brother to marry and produce a legitimate child? He sounds like he could whip the locals into shape with one hand, while beating back your cousin Mihail with the other.”
Leo made a gesture of exasperation. “Athan? Marry? I wish. That’ll never happen. He’s having too much fun playing around.”
“Like us.”
Sara would remember all the good times with Leo for the rest of her life. His touch would haunt her forever, but she forced herself to pull away from him.
Leo had no intention of letting her go so easily. He followed her into the shower, ignoring her halfhearted attempts to send him away. “I want to spend every last second with you.”
He made sure she could never doubt it. Dry, she was irresistible. Svelte and slippery with shower gel, she was his for the taking. He ravished her beneath the warm rain of the shower until she cried his name with such longing he buried his face in her hair as his emotions overwhelmed him.
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