Revelations of a Secret Princess

by Annie West

  She shivered and hunched her shoulders despite the warm sunlight on her back. To be virtually exiled from her homeland was bad enough. To fear returning because it could only be on the King’s terms was even worse.

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got people working on it.’ Caro raised her eyebrows but before she could question Jake continued. ‘Let’s talk about it later. For now just know you’re safe.’ He gestured to the castle, golden in the sunlight, its machicolated towers charming yet sturdy, its massive walls solid. ‘I’ll make sure no one, not even the King of St Ancilla, can harm you or Ariane here.’

  ‘Thank you. That’s...good of you.’

  It meant everything to have breathing space to decide what to do next. To know her daughter, and she, were safe for now.

  Caro felt stiff facial muscles twinge as she smiled. ‘You’re sure you’re the same man who stalked into the palace last night with vengeance in his eyes?’

  He’d looked like an avenging angel.

  There was no answering humour in Jake’s features. If anything he looked even grimmer.

  Warmth enveloped her hand and she looked down to see he’d captured it in both of his. Heat radiated from his touch and the tension stringing her muscles began to ease.

  ‘I owe you an apology.’ Jake winced. ‘I jumped to conclusions about you that were unfounded and hurtful. Can you forgive me? I cringe when I think of what I said. The way I treated you, in private and in front of others. You didn’t deserve that. I lost control and I’m ashamed.’

  Caro read his remorse. His words, his contempt, had hurt. Badly. With a lancing pain that drove right to her heart. But he hadn’t known the truth.

  ‘I can’t blame you for doubting my word. I came here in disguise, lying to you.’ She paused. ‘I apologise for that. My only excuse is I was desperate, scared I’d lose the chance to see my daughter.’ Caro tried to summon a smile but it felt like a grimace. ‘I was afraid if I told you who I was you’d stop me seeing her when I’d just learned she was alive.’

  ‘Caro, you don’t—’

  ‘I do have to explain. I hated lying. I knew soon enough that you loved her and wanted to protect her, but I knew you’d see me as an enemy, particularly when I told my story. It was so far-fetched. You were right, it does sound like something from an old story.’ The sort that had evil stepmothers and awful curses.

  Caro’s stepmother wasn’t evil. Just wrapped up in her own family with no warmth to share for another woman’s child. As for her father, he was larger than life with his selfish, manipulative ways and towering temper.

  Not for the first time she wondered what life would have been like if her mother had lived. Everyone said she was gentle yet fun-loving. Caro had a horrible feeling life with her royal husband would have been hellish.

  ‘Nevertheless, I should have waited to be sure of the facts.’ Jake’s stern voice sliced her thoughts. ‘Abandoning children is a hot button for me. I saw red and acted before thinking. Believe it or not, that’s not my usual way.’

  He looked down to where his thumb described a half circle again and again on the back of her hand. He seemed so abstracted she guessed he had no idea of the powerful, delicious sensations his caress evoked.

  Here she was, fleeing her country, her father and her King, with her life in chaos. Yet she found it impossible to concentrate on her problems because of Jake Maynard and the feelings he evoked.

  She tugged her hand free, ignoring that twitch of dark eyebrows.

  She cradled her fingers, warm from his touch, in her other hand. ‘Don’t worry. I’m tougher than I look.’ She’d had to be. ‘I’m not about to collapse in tears or have a breakdown.’

  Caro was acutely aware of the fact Jake had seen her at her lowest ebb, unable to stop the grief she’d carried for so long. She’d wept in his arms, finding a solace she’d never known before. But she wouldn’t do that again. The humiliation of having him witness that scene with her father still cramped her insides. Even though it had convinced Jake she told the truth, she hated him thinking she was a helpless victim.

  His smile when it came was crooked but totally disarming. It set light to her last defences like flame to paper. She could almost hear the whoosh of conflagration as her resistance crumbled to ashes.

  ‘It seems those stories about your breakdown years ago were exaggerated.’ His smile died and Caro read concern in his smoky gaze. ‘You don’t have to convince me you’re strong, Caro. To get through what you did, to keep going, and deal with him...’ He shook his head. ‘That takes guts.’

  Caro’s heart swelled. It was the first time she’d received such a compliment. ‘I’ve never held my own against him before. I let him—’

  ‘Don’t!’ Jake raised a palm to stop her. ‘Don’t blame yourself. He was your father and your King and he held all the power.’

  Jake’s stare pinioned hers. Instead of her feeling cornered, her confidence rose, a warm glow that felt like happiness.

  They stood, gazes locked. Caro didn’t want to move. The quality of Jake’s regard, how he made her feel about herself, were new and precious.

  ‘I’ve got one question.’ His voice made her blink.

  ‘Yes?’ Absurdly, now the worst was over, she was breathless.

  ‘Do I have to call you Carolina now?’

  She smiled and took a half step back, suddenly aware she’d canted towards him. ‘I’ve come to loathe my full name. My father insists on it but as he’s usually in a bad mood he makes it sound ugly. My friends call me Caro.’

  Jake bent forward in a formal bow as if he were a master of court etiquette. ‘May I call you Caro?’

  Did that mean he saw her as his friend?

  Caro wasn’t sure whether to be pleased. She should be. It meant he trusted her. Yet given her deep-seated, confusing feelings for him, ‘friend’ was such a lukewarm word.

  ‘Of course.’ Looking into his eyes, she felt a zap of energy that warned she was vulnerable to this man. Hurriedly she gathered her wits. ‘And now? What happens next?’

  Caro would call her friends in St Ancilla and her lawyer, to warn them the King would be on a rampage when he discovered she’d left. She didn’t think he’d take out his wrath on them but he could be unstable when crossed.

  ‘Next?’ Jake’s smile was easy. ‘We’ll work it out one step at a time. There’s no rush. For now concentrate on the fact you and Ariane are safe.’

  Caro swallowed. He didn’t want her thanks yet he gave her so much, refuge when she needed it most. They still had to work out Ariane’s future. Ostensibly they were on opposing sides, yet Jake treated her as someone to be protected.

  The knowledge stirred the most poignant feelings. Here was a man she could respect as well as...

  ‘And us? Is there an us?’ Instinctively she lifted her chin, ready to pretend it didn’t matter if he said last night’s passion had been a mistake.

  Jake’s face turned unreadable.

  She’d give anything to know what he thought. Did he regret having sex? Was it gauche and embarrassing to mention it now they’d moved on from those moments of heightened emotion?

  She wished she knew one-night-stand etiquette.

  ‘Do you want there to be?’

  Caro had imagined this morning that confronting her hectoring father would take all her courage. Yet, looking into that piercing gaze that gave nothing away, her heart thudding against her ribs, she discovered her courage could still be tested.

  She craved more of what she’d experienced with Jake, that soul-searing passion that went beyond anything she’d known. Yet with everything so uncertain—

  ‘It’s okay. You don’t need to answer now, Caro. Shall we take that one step at a time too?’

  She slicked her dry lips, searching for the right words when a shout made her turn.

  Rounding the corner of the castle were Jake
’s secretary Neil and Ariane, hopping beside him.

  Abruptly it hit her, the fact that she was here, safe for now from her father’s machinations and with her daughter. Her incredible, lovely daughter. Caro’s breath shuddered through her as relief and joy filled her.

  ‘Come on, Caro.’ She felt Jake’s hand warm at the small of her back. ‘It’s time to see your little girl.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  JAKE SURVEYED THE pair sitting across from him and fought to hide his response to the picture they made.

  Ariane had begun the trip down the mountain’s steep cog railway on the seat beside Caro. But as Caro pointed through the carriage window, his niece had climbed onto her lap. Now Caro’s arm rested around Ariane’s middle as they chattered about the view and the quaint Alpine farmhouses.

  His ribs tightened at their glow of happiness. His niece and her mother. Not that Ariane knew Caro was her mother. They’d agreed to keep that quiet till Ariane was better able to understand.

  But she was still his niece and always would be.

  His lawyers said there were legal arguments on both sides, for him as Ariane’s permanent guardian, and for Caro as birth mother. Though they thought, despite the wrong done years ago, they could successfully argue that the continuity of living with him would be best for Ariane.

  Jake felt no triumph at the news.

  He didn’t want a legal wrangle with Caro.

  He watched their faces, alight with pleasure as Caro spotted hikers with a frolicking dog. Two shades of red hair, one coppery and the other a deep, ruby auburn, touched as they craned to look. Two sets of violet eyes and two smiles, each capable of twisting his heart.

  He wanted Ariane with him. And he wanted Caro.

  The twist of heat moved from his chest to his groin. He had Caro. She’d been his lover ever since St Ancilla.

  That first night back he’d been surprised by the rap on his door. When he’d found Caro there, huddled in a robe with her hair in waves around her shoulders, he’d pulled her inside, expecting to hear her appalling father had managed, despite Jake’s precautions, to contact her with threats.

  It had taken all Jake’s once considerable restraint to hold back from her, invite her to sit, turn his brain to tactics to stymie the King’s machinations.

  But instead of talking about her father or Ariane, Caro had surprised him. Gone was the wan woman who’d left St Ancilla beside him. Instead he’d been visited by the ardent siren who’d given herself so generously the night before.

  Had he held back? Worried about taking advantage when he knew she’d been rocked by recent experiences?

  Jake counted himself a decent guy, if hard-nosed in business. But he wasn’t into self-abnegation. He’d hauled Caro into his bed. For the last ten days he’d made sure she was satisfied, more than satisfied, there.

  He truly was selfish. He had Caro each night and still he wanted more. He had no name for this craving. To possess her physically. But more too. To bask in her smiles. Enjoy her in ways that had little to do with sex.

  ‘Uncle Jake...?’

  He found two pairs of eyes on him.

  ‘Sorry?’ He yanked his thoughts to the present. Their trip up the mountain. His sense of victory when he’d finally persuaded Caro it was safe to take Ariane out. That her father’s henchmen couldn’t grab them. Even then she hadn’t relaxed till his own security staff boarded the next carriage, keeping a discreet distance.

  Jake hated the need for such a precaution but the deeper the experts dug, the less he trusted the King to behave reasonably. He’d do whatever it took to keep Ariane and Caro from the monarch’s reach.

  ‘What are you thinking, Uncle Jake? You look funny.’

  ‘Do I?’ He met Ariane’s bright eyes, so like her mother’s, and felt his fluency desert him. His brain went completely blank. Because he’d been thinking about sex with Caro and how his need for her kept growing, not diminishing with familiarity.

  ‘This sort of funny?’ he asked as he crossed his eyes.

  Ariane giggled and the tight sensation in his chest eased. He loved hearing her happy.

  ‘Or this?’ He stuck his tongue in his cheek and scrunched his eyebrows down.

  His gaze caught Caro’s. She was smiling, the shadows he sometimes saw in her eyes banished.

  Elation hit. By rights it should be because he was finally on the verge of closing the deal he’d come to Switzerland to accomplish. Or because he might have found a way to protect Caro and Ariane from the King long term. Instead this burst of happiness came from the sight of Caro’s eyes, dancing with approval as he made a fool of himself in front of a bunch of tourists.

  The realisation shook him. Her smile and her approval had such power.

  What did that mean?

  And what did he intend to do about it?

  * * *

  Caro lay on her back, heart pounding, legs weak as overcooked pasta and a smile of well-being curving her lips. How often had she felt like this in Jake’s bed, basking in the afterglow of his loving?

  The man had a knack for diverting her worries about the future and her conniving father. And the sight of Ariane growing more confident and loving proved that good things could happen.

  They hadn’t discussed Ariane’s future. It had been enough to know she was safe from the King. Despite furious messages from her father Jake had somehow managed to convince him to keep his distance. But they’d have to face their problems. Caro wasn’t naïve enough to believe this state of glorious limbo could continue.

  Zoe had rung today, warning again that winning custody of Ariane wouldn’t be simple. She favoured a negotiated arrangement with Jake. Which suited Caro. She couldn’t imagine them on opposing sides in court. Yet nor could she envisage Ariane living part time with her and part with Jake, possibly on the other side of the world.

  She should be relieved Jake hadn’t forced the issue. Yet they couldn’t go on like this despite his insistence that for now Ariane needed calm and stability. But Caro had never found the right time to shatter this peaceful interlude.

  Caro rolled onto her side and watched the early light gild the mountains. She’d found peace here, such happiness, she didn’t want it to end. Not only for Ariane but for her.

  The bathroom door opened and there Jake was, naked but for a towel around his hips, his hair damp and the muscles in that glorious torso shifting as he moved. Despite her satiation Caro felt the tug of attraction deep inside.

  Longing for him filled her yet she knew their peaceful bubble must shatter. Was today the day?

  ‘You’re awake?’ He approached, smiling, and she smiled back, almost accustomed to the fillip of joy gathering behind her breastbone. No one, ever, had made her feel the way Jake did. The thought lodged and Caro stilled as its implications penetrated.

  ‘Something wrong?’ He watched her as she struggled to stifle a sudden, disquieting idea.

  ‘No, nothing.’ She made a production of turning to plump up pillows behind her and sit up, drawing the sheet under her arms. By the time she faced him again she had her calm face on, the one she’d learned in the palace, forged under the lash of her father’s contempt and her stepmother’s disapproval.

  Yet her heart pounded wildly and perspiration prickled her hairline. Her powers of concealment weren’t as good as she’d hoped for Jake sat beside her, frowning. He took her hand and she experienced that familiar jolt of delight.

  ‘Are you worried about a possible pregnancy? Because of that first night?’

  Heat blossomed in her cheeks. ‘It’s unlikely, given the timing.’ That was what she’d told herself again and again. ‘Time enough to worry about that if it happens.’

  ‘You wouldn’t be alone, Caro.’ His thumb stroked the back of her hand. ‘I’d look after you. I don’t abandon my responsibilities.’

  And that, Caro realised
as her heart landed somewhere near the floor, was part of the problem. She didn’t want to be a responsibility to Jake. Nor did she want to be a rival for Ariane. She wanted to be someone he—

  ‘I was going to wait till later but now’s as good a time as any. We need to talk, Caro.’

  His gentle tone, the way he watched her, assessing her reaction, made her heart skip. Tension crawled along her shoulders to the back of her neck. Was he going to say he’d decided he couldn’t give Ariane up?

  It was stupid to jump to conclusions but a lifetime of disappointment, of things going against her, had conditioned Caro to expect the worst. She tugged her hand free and folded her arms over her chest.

  ‘I agree. We can’t continue this way indefinitely.’

  Keen eyes surveyed her. What did he see? She had the unnerving notion he saw far more than she’d like.

  ‘My time in Switzerland is almost over. The project I’ve been working on is complete.’

  Caro’s eyes widened. Despite telling herself this wasn’t permanent, she hadn’t thought about Jake leaving. Distress coated her tongue.

  ‘It’s not long term?’

  He had investments globally. From the snippets she’d heard between him and Neil she’d imagined his current work continuing.

  He shrugged. ‘It is, but now everything’s in place I don’t need to be here. My role was to cajole the other investors into participating.’

  Caro frowned. ‘Is that normal? Moving from place to place with each new investment?’

  Jake shrugged. ‘This wasn’t business in the usual sense. It’s a pet project. I had to chivvy reluctant investors.’

  ‘Surely if you can prove they’ll make a good return they’d agree.’

  ‘You’re assuming the investors would reap the financial rewards.’

  Now Caro really was intrigued, despite the low-grade frisson of nerves, reminding her they had more personal things to discuss. Was that why she was eager to talk business? To put off the evil moment?