Her Royal Masquerade (Her Royal Romance) (8 page)

“We are very proud of you, Mia. You will be representing Stagatland and this school internationally. It is a great honor.”

“Come,” Rico said.

Just because someone was royalty didn’t mean they could have someone else kidnapped in broad daylight. Did it? She glared at Rico. “I don’t want to go to Mezzano,” she whispered loudly, although she was afraid it was a lie.

He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. He lowered his voice. “Don’t make this difficult, Miss Holmberg. The plane is waiting.” He shifted just slightly, and she caught a glimpse of the grip of a gun beneath his well-tailored suit jacket and long black coat.

He nodded at the other women. “Thank you, ladies.” Betty opened the door for them and he drew Mia out into the hallway. Two additional tall, broad men in matching suits and long black coats fell in behind them at the end of the hall.

Mia laughed, a short bark. “He had to send three armed goons to kidnap one lowly schoolteacher?”

Rico’s laugh sounded more good-natured. “Goons? You like that, boys? She called us goons.” The men all joined in the laughter. He led them toward a rear entrance. “This way.”

“Wait. I need my things.” She knew there would be no way she could fight these guys, but they had to give her a chance to get her phone. Then she could contact her parents and Anni and let them know what was going on. “I have to get my purse. In my desk. I have to go back.” Rico didn’t break stride. “No.”

Panic set in and she yanked on her arm but he didn’t budge. His grip was strong but not bruising on her upper arm. “I don’t have a change of clothes.” They’d reached the door. Her heart raced. Through the window she could see the snow blowing. “I don’t even have my coat.”

One of the men behind her took off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. “No,” she cried out. “You’ll freeze.”

The three men ignored her. They surrounded her, pushed open the door and shoved her into a limousine that was only a couple steps away from the building. The car took off almost before the door shut behind them.

Mia leaned against the seat with a huff. She turned to Rico. “So why does he really want me in Mezzano?”

He shrugged. “He didn’t tell me anything. Just to bring you to him.”

“And you do whatever he tells you to do? Even kidnapping?” Rico glanced away. “Of course you do.”

It didn’t take long for them to reach the airport. She was hustled onto the private plane and all three goons ignored her for the entire flight. She was left alone to remember the fairy tale night she spent with Vittorio. And the look of anger on his face the last time she saw him.

Mia had never expected to find herself back in Mezzano. She stepped off the plane into the sunshine and was overwhelmed by the heat. Rico and his two guards surrounded her again as they rushed her into another car to bring her to the palace.

When they reached the royal residence, Mia was ushered to the suite of rooms she’d been in with Vittorio less than a week before. Left alone, Mia prowled around the enormous suite which was already beginning to close in on her. She had walked through here the other night, but they hadn’t lingered on the way to the bedroom. She couldn’t relax in the lushly furnished sitting room today, not when she didn’t know what was going on.

As she wandered around, trying to burn off some of her nervous energy, she discovered the door at one end of the sitting room opened onto a well-appointed office. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves covered the back wall. She checked the desk but could find no telephone or computer.

She wandered back out into the sitting room. The upholstered furniture was covered in gold brocade. The wooden tables and cabinets were decorated with ornate carvings. This space was so different from her simple home in Stagatland.

The large windows in the sitting room overlooked the grounds at the rear of the palace. What looked like a neglected garden in the corner caught her eye. It was surrounded by a tall, ornamental fence. Her green thumbs itched to get in there among the flower beds and coax life back into the ignored ground. Mia wondered why it was no longer tended when the rest of the grounds around the palace were flourishing.

She stepped away from the window. She didn’t need to know. She also didn’t need to wait around here for an overbearing, arrogant man. A prince who thought he could manipulate her.

Mia stomped across the floor, but when she flung open the door, she wasn’t completely surprised to see one of the men who had come with Rico to Stagatland standing in the hallway, facing the door. One of the tall, broad shouldered, unsmiling guards. But this was the one who had given her his coat.

Mia sighed and folded her arms. “Tony, is it?” she asked.

“Yes, miss.” She thought he almost smiled. His dark hair was cut close to his head. His loose fitting suit jacket probably concealed one of those guns she’d had a peek of earlier in the day.

“Are you guarding me, Tony?”

“I’m here for your protection, Miss Holmberg.”

She stepped into the doorway and Tony shifted on his feet. “So I can leave this room if I want to? Wander the palace? Walk out the front door?”

“The prince wishes you to remain in his chambers until he arrives,” he replied. He was being polite, but she knew he would not allow her to leave the room.

“Of course, he does,” she replied wryly. For an insane instant, she wanted to test the theory, wanted to dash past him and run down the long hall, wanted to rant and scream and kick and thrash. If nothing else, it would burn off more of her anger and frustration. “How long do I have to wait here?”

“The prince will join you as soon as he is free.” He appeared apologetic, but he didn’t move from his spot in the hallway.

“Well, I’m thirsty. And hungry. You guys kidnapped me before I was able to eat any lunch.”

Tony actually looked a little guilty. “I can have some refreshments brought up to you.” She let out a deep sigh. Tony was just doing his job. She’d have to wait until she saw Vittorio to vent all the anger building up inside her. “Thank you.”

Mia stepped back into the room and closed the door behind her. She probably should have at least tried to get past the guard. She should be stronger. Braver. But she was afraid she knew the real reason she didn’t try to escape, why she hadn’t given more than a token resistance when Rico appeared that morning.

She wanted to see Vittorio again.

Perhaps that made her weak, but she knew she wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity to see him again. Even if it was just to give him a piece of her mind. Maybe once she saw him again, she’d realize he wasn’t as handsome as she remembered. Maybe this time when he spoke she wouldn’t remember the seductive whispers that made her body come alive. Maybe this time she wouldn’t feel that soul-deep pull when she looked into his eyes.

She could only hope that by seeing him again she would no longer want him so badly it hurt.

After she finished a delicious sandwich and a cup of tea, Mia could no longer resist the closed door at the other end of the sitting room. She knew it led to Vittorio’s bedroom. His scent lingered in the air around her, overwhelming her with erotic memories. Her skin tingled as she remembered the things she and the prince had done in that room. The words he’d whispered to her. The way he had filled her.

Her hand was on the door knob almost before she realized it. She slowly pushed the door open and stepped into the large bedroom. There was the chair where she’d draped her gown after he’d slowly lowered the zipper and let the dress fall to the floor. She could still feel his lips tracing the skin of her neck above the diamonds she had yet to return to her cousin.

Mia crossed to the bed full of passionate memories. The way they’d fit together as if they’d been made to make love with each other. The sound of sexy chuckles and erotic moans.

The smile on his face, so unlike the last time she saw him in Stagatland.

Her back was to the open bedroom door as her hand caressed the smooth wooden footboard. Her head was full of the memories of the sounds of lovemaking, so she wasn’t aware that Vittorio had arrived until he strode into the room and spoke.

“You’re here.”

She whirled around, ready to snap at him, ready to give him a piece of her mind for having her snatched from her classroom and hauled from her homeland, but one look at him and the words melted on her tongue.

The prince wore a tailored business suit, but it had long ago lost its crispness. His silver tie was askew, his dark hair mussed as if he’d run his fingers often through the thickness. There were dark shadows beneath his eyes. She was about to ask if he’d had a rough day, but fortunately his next words reminded her that she was not sympathetic.

“I see you want to get right down to business.” He sauntered over to the bed and pressed down on the mattress, as if testing the firmness.

“I have no business with you,” she snapped even as her body trembled.

“But you do.” His grin was evil through and through, yet her body tingled. His gaze pinned her where she stood. “Mia.” The sound of her name on his lips should have sounded seductive, instead it almost sounded like a threat.

She shivered. “You have no right dragging me from my home and bringing me here against my will.”

He shrugged out of the suit coat and placed it on the mattress. Then he turned back to her and folded his arms across his broad chest. “Rico assured me you came willingly.”

“Of course he did. When three massive men with weapons strapped to their hips surround me and tell me they have orders to bring me to you, what was I supposed to do?”

“Exactly what you did, of course.” His voice was flat, cold even. So unlike the warm, charming Vittorio she remembered. “There was nothing else you could have done.” He took a step toward her. “No way you could have refused.”

Her heart stuttered and she took a step away. She missed the Vittorio she remembered.

“So are you going to tell me why you brought me here?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he unknotted his tie, stripped it from his collar and tossed it on the bed. Her pulse raced as she watched him unbutton his white shirt and pull the tails from the waistband of his trousers. When the shirt parted to reveal his muscular chest and impressive abs, Mia refused to show him how much the sight affected her. She swallowed and waited silently for him to answer her question.

“I invited Birgitte to my father’s birthday ball because I wanted to meet her, of course,” Vittorio said smoothly. “But I also had other plans, important plans that you interfered with when you played your little game.”

“I know you’re angry with me but I’ve said I was sorry. I thought I was there to represent our country, not as part of any plan of which my cousin obviously had no knowledge.”

“I intended to propose marriage to her.”

Mia swallowed her gasp as she rapidly processed the new information. Then she narrowed her eyes. “Since you had never met Birgitte before, I assume that any woman with royal blood would do for your plans?

His face remained carefully blank. “She must be of child bearing age as well, of course. I have my responsibility to sire heirs to the throne, after all. Birgitte’s beauty was an added benefit, I admit.” He took a step toward Mia and he was suddenly so close she could feel the heat of his body and catch the musky scent of his skin. She trembled but held her ground.

“It is just as well you ran from my bed after our night of passion,” he went on. “I would not have been happy to discover I’d proposed marriage to the wrong woman.”

“Vittorio…”

“Unfortunately, your cousin appears to be unavailable at the moment,” he went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “That is why I brought you here.”

“I don’t understand.”

He reached out and slowly wound a strand of her hair around his finger. “You are here to do what you do best.”

The dark tone of his voice made her shiver. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Vittorio tugged on her hair and she felt it to her core. “It is simple. You are here to take Birgitte’s place. That’s what you do, is it not? Stand in for the princess when she is not able to perform her duties?”

A chill started at the top of her head and spread through her entire body. “What are you saying?”

“I should be standing here with my bride-to-be right now. I should have met
her
at the ball. Instead I was met with an imposter. You lied to me, Mia. Over and over again.” He grasped her shoulders and pulled her even closer. Her hands flew up to rest on his chest. “You owe me for that deception.”

She stared into his stormy eyes. Did she owe him anything?

He cupped her jaw with one large hand, but instead of being gentle, the gesture was rough, possessive. His dark eyes locked on hers. “You will be my mistress until the princess becomes available.”

“What?” Mia stumbled away from him and he let her go. “That’s ridiculous.”

He frowned, crossed his arms again over that impressive chest. “It is suitable compensation.”

“I am not going to be your mistress.”

“Of course, you are.” His gaze seared her as he swept his eyes along her body. “It’s not as if we haven’t already had sex. You have to admit that it was satisfactory.”

The sex had been more than satisfactory and he knew it. “That doesn’t mean I want to be your mistress.”
Mistress.
She knew that with Vittorio she could never be more than that, even if they cared for each other. Even if they had fallen in love. But a mistress. She could never agree to that. She shook her head and backed away from him.

He followed her across the room, stalking her like a wild cat. She didn’t understand the thrill of exhilaration that hummed below the anger.

Mia felt the wall at her back. “Are you going to force me, Your Highness?”

He froze, glowered at her. “I would never force a woman,” he declared. “I have never needed force to bring a woman to my bed.”

“Oh, because you have such an amazing personality?” she snapped. “Or is it because of the title? Because you’re a prince, I suppose you can snap your fingers and any woman would be happy to fall into bed with you.”