His Royal Pleasure (9 page)

Al broke the silence. “You asked what was my pleasure.”

She bit her lip and counted the remaining scrapes—five. If she worked fast, maybe—

“Shall I tell you what I really want?”

“I can guess.” Her voice was squeaky. Three more to go, she thought desperately.

“It would be my pleasure to take you to bed and spill a glass of wine over your body, then sip up every drop.”

Katherine swallowed. “Alex—”

“The next glass would be your chance to return the favor.”

Katherine's mouth went dry. She was suddenly shamefully thirsty.

“After we'd driven each other completely crazy with our mouths, I'd pull you on top of me and slowly push my way in where you're wet and ready for me.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and branded her with a quick dart of his tongue. “Are you wet and ready now?”

“No!” she lied, jerking her hand from his. “No, dammit, no.” Tears of frustration, sexual and emotional, burned her eyes like fire. She stumbled backward, feeling raw and vulnerable. “Why are you doing this?” she whispered.

He stood, and his face showed some of the torment she felt. That only made it worse.

“Because you need to see,” he said in a low, urgent voice, “that like any other man, I bleed and want. Like any other man, I can need so much it hurts.”

Katherine shook her head. She couldn't deal with the intensity of him. He was so powerful, she worried she might lose herself in him and never find her way out. She shook her head, torn between terror and want. “I can't be what you need. It's too much.” Her voice broke. “I'm not enough. And there'd be nothing left of me. I'm sorry.”

“How can you not be enough when you're more than I've ever had before?”

Her chest tightened painfully.

He stepped forward and cupped her jaw in his hand. The tenderness stalled her movement.

“I've hurt you again,
chérie,
when I only want to make you happy.” He gave an ironic smile. “If I can't have you tonight in my bed, I'll have you in my dreams. Say you'll dream of me.”

Katherine squeezed her eyes and breathed in his scent. The music played again. Her throat hurt. “That's easy,” she said huskily. “I always dream of you.” She kissed his palm. He sucked in a deep breath, and she felt cheated. She wanted the wine and his naked body and the taste of his passion. Katherine opened her eyes and felt his smoldering desire wrap around her like a velvet chain.

She jerked free and walked away, one foot in front of the other until she stood in her room. Her neatly made bed mocked her. Katherine flipped on both lights and turned on her radio. She pulled out her fingernail polish. “I'm gonna have the best damn nails in the Western Hemisphere,” she muttered to herself as she unscrewed the top of Passion-Fruit Plum.

He just wants two weeks. Just two weeks.
The words played in her head over the next two days, nudging her, tormenting her. A superficial truce seemed to have been called between them. Alex didn't touch her. He didn't make any more heated comments about his desire for her. But his eyes did. The restlessness and wanting were always there ready to explode.

The wanting was the worst. It was almost a visible force, with her every minute, a threat and an invitation. She couldn't escape it in her sleep. The last two nights, she'd heard him stop outside her bedroom door. She held her breath, and an eternity passed before he walked on to his room. He hadn't said a word, but she'd felt his call. In the middle of the night she woke, reaching for him, and feeling foolish when she heard herself murmur his name out loud.

She was sitting right on the edge, and the only thing that kept her from going over was the fact that her emotions went far deeper than a two-week romp in bed. She cared about him. She cared about what went on inside him, what he had to hide because of who he was.

The oddest development in all this, Katherine thought, was the way Chad had begun including Alex in his daily activities. Their joint search for Davy must have forged a link between them.

They had spent most of yesterday taking a chain saw to the fallen tree in the woods. After dinner they disappeared with a couple of six-packs of beer. She'd later found them smoking cigars and playing a cutthroat poker game
in her office.

Too stunned to chew them out, she'd told them to clean up before they left. She'd lay odds Chad was teaching Alex everything he knew about cheating. Her brother was corrupting him.

Katherine frowned, looking at her alarm clock. Twelve o'clock. There'd been talk of a coon hunt tonight, murmurs about Chuck's Bar.

She punched her pillow and turned over, refusing to think about it one second longer. At this rate she'd use up all her nail polish in one week. Alex had bodyguards to protect him against any mischief Chad might dream up.

She'd barely drifted off when a loud noise woke her. She sat up, clutching the front of her gown. Someone was singing. She cocked her head to the side, listening. Her eyes widened in surprise. Make that two male someones.

“…dead skunk in the middle of the road,” they loudly chorused together, a mile off-key.

“Great,” she muttered, snatching her robe and thrusting her arms through the sleeves. “This is just great.” She pushed her hair out of her face and stomped into the hallway.

Leaning on Chad, Alex started bellowing out lines from “Your Cheatin' Heart.”

“Stop it! Stop it!” Katherine glared at her brother and Alex. “You'll wake the guests, and I'll have to explain why I have two lunatics in my house.”

“Aw, Katie,” Chad began, stumbling forward.

Katherine stepped back. “Don't you ‘Aw, Katie' me. You're drunk, and look what you've done to Al. He can barely stand.”

“I'm in full control of my faculties, Katherine. I'm never drunk.” He swayed.

Katherine rolled her eyes. “I'm not sure I want to know, but where have you been?”

“Chuck's,” Alex said. His lips twitched. “The whiskey was better this time.”

Chad started laughing. “That's 'cause you weren't wearing it.” He slapped Alex on the back.

When they started up the chorus of another song, Katherine groaned.

“Go to bed,” she said over the noise. She pushed Chad toward his bedroom. “You'll be worthless in the morning.”

“But, Katie—”

“Go,” she said firmly, wondering how Chad would feel about being responsible for causing an international incident. He reluctantly meandered away, alternately humming and laughing.

Turning to Alex, Katherine took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of whiskey and overpowering perfume. She gritted her teeth. God help her, the man was sexy even when he was drunk. His hair was attractively mussed. His shirt was unbuttoned nearly to his waist.

She wondered how many female hands had caressed his chest tonight. A swift surge of jealousy took the bottom out of her stomach.

“You look angry,” he said.

“How can you tell? You're drunk.”

“Not really.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Princes don't get drunk.”

Katherine sighed. “I can't believe you did this. What if someone from the press had seen you?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. She bit back a moan. Even his shrug was sexy.

“I'd tell them a woman had driven me to it. A siren redhead plucked my heart and ‘stomped that sucker flat,'” he quoted in round, cultured tones.

She smothered a laugh. “Go to bed.”

“Come with me.”

Her breath caught. “No.”

“Then let me sleep with you.”

Katherine swallowed, shaking her head. “You need to get some rest, Alex. You'll feel better in the morning.” What a crock, she thought. He was going to feel terrible in the morning.

He leaned closer. “I don't want to sleep without you tonight.”

Katherine caught sight of something on his ear and lost the thread of the conversation. It glinted in the light. She blinked, then gasped. “You've got an earring!”

“It's a stud,” he corrected her. “It has some sort of sexual connotation in your country. Lucy said—”

“Lucy,” she repeated in a deadly voice. “Just what is your relationship with Lucy?”

For a moment Alex actually looked flustered. Katherine was torn between amazement and feminine pique.

“It's not what you think. She pierced my ear and offered—”

“Pierced!” she shrieked. “You mean this isn't temporary?” She was furious. This woman had violated Alex. She'd stuck a needle in his ear. Katherine narrowed her eyes. “I'll just bet she offered you plenty.”

“You're not listening. She offered me some advice on how to win you over.”

Katherine didn't believe it. Not for one minute. “And did she demonstrate?” she asked sweetly.

“No,” he said in a blunt voice. “A few others tried. You want me to name them?”

She saw the menace on his face and ignored it. The idea of another woman's hands on him made her crazy. “I'm sure it would take all night,” she hissed back at him.

“You may be right.” He took her by the shoulders, and she felt the strength of his grip, heard the frustrated power in his voice. Too late, she realized he was past reason.

“I want
you
right now.” His voice was rough. “Do you understand? No preliminaries. No romantic words. I want to put you against that wall, lift your gown. And to hell with who I am, I just want inside where you're hot and slippery for me.”

It should have sounded crude, but the same wanting pulsed inside her with every beat of her heart. He wanted her, desperately. And she wanted, desperately, to know him as intimately as possible.

“Are you scared? If you're not, then you should be,” he bit out, holding her gaze. “Because I'm three seconds away from following through on my words.”

When she didn't move, his eyelids lowered. “One.”

Katherine swallowed.

“Two,” he said harshly.

She closed her eyes. Where was her sense? She should be running—alone—back to her room.

“Three.”

She could almost hear the click of a locked door. No going back. She'd made her choice. She licked her lips.

He took a deep breath. Katherine opened her eyes to find him staring at her, unvarnished need on his face. His hand slid to her hips, and he lifted her gown.

Katherine's heart thumped wildly in her chest. She flexed her fingers on his shoulders, remembering that Chad was just down the hall. She suddenly felt self-conscious. “Could we do this behind closed doors this time?” she whispered. “I'd really like it to be just you and me.”

Alex didn't say anything, just swung her up in his arms and walked into his bedroom. He shut the bedroom door with his foot. Before her feet touched the floor, he was lifting the gown over her head and pushing her panties down her trembling legs. He muttered something dark in French, then kissed her, his tongue thrusting into her mouth. His hands were everywhere, heating her skin, thumbing her nipples, tracing the curve of her waist.

Just as he promised, there were no preliminaries. But Katherine could feel his wild heartbeat against her. She could see the need on his face, and the desperation behind his every movement was the biggest turn-on she'd ever had.

He squeezed her hips, then tested the dampness between her legs with fingers that probed and stroked. “Unbutton my shirt,” he said in a low, husky voice, continuing the sweet assault on her. “God, I can't keep my hands off you.”

The intimate caress made her weak. With shaking fingers she rid him of the shirt. She savored the rough texture of his chest with her hands. Bowing her head against the solid muscular wall, she rubbed her cheek against it, absorbing his heat. Then touching and breathing weren't enough, and she darted her tongue out to taste him.

He jerked. She felt his breath stop, and something deep inside her bloomed, making her bold. Katherine eased her hands down his belly to his bulging erection and cupped him through his jeans. “I want all of you this time, Alex,” she whispered in a voice she nearly didn't recognize as her own. “Everything you've got to give me.”

His eyes flared with black fire, and within a heartbeat she was on her back with the cool comforter beneath her. She watched his face, taut with urgency, as he slid down his zipper. The grating sound tickled her nerve endings like a velvet whip. And that earring taunted her with its wickedness.

He shoved his pants down, revealing his erection, thick and full. Her breath grew shallow. The air was filled with the scent of musk and need. She stared at him, and a primitive thrill shot through her.

In turn, his gaze fell over her as if he were a starving man given his first meal. Katherine did nothing to hide her intense desire. She wanted him to see. She wanted him to feel. Her nipples tightened. Her belly rippled. She rubbed her thighs together to soothe the restlessness inside her.

Alex saw it all and grew thick with need. “I want everything at once,” he whispered harshly. “How do you do this to me?”

Katherine took a quick breath. The tiniest sliver of age-old feminine fear edged in, oddly increasing her excitement to fever pitch.

“Wider,” he murmured, pushing her thighs apart. The secrets of her femininity lay bare in front of him; the sweet scent of her arousal filled his head. He rubbed one finger down the center of her, circling the exposed bead, then plunging into her glistening moistness.

She arched against him, reaching for him. “I want to touch you.” He moved slightly to grant her access, and her hands slipped around him, adoring him with her touch.

Her caresses spent his control. It was suddenly too much. After slipping on protection, he positioned himself at her moist entrance. Then, in one smooth, fluid movement, he thrust all the way into her.

Her breath caught and shattered.

His own breath coming hard and fast, he hesitated, watching her. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head, spilling her silky hair from side to side. “No.” Her face was open and wanton. “But I need you closer,” she said in a voice that hitched with emotion. “Please hold me?”

Alex's heart took a free fall. He lowered himself to her, feeling the delicious stab of her nipples against his chest, then he wrapped his hands beneath her, resting his weight on his elbows so that he wouldn't crush her. “Is this what you want?”

“For starters.” She kissed his neck and slid her fingers through his hair.

Her sweet affection undid him. Her body squeezed his like a tight, hot glove. The pleasure was so intense, it was almost painful. He ground his teeth together. Lost in the clench of her sweet inner walls, he was overwhelmed by the need for release. But he fought it because he wanted it all for both of them.

Katherine rocked beneath him, sensing his reticence. Even in the midst of his need, she felt the tenderness in his restraint, and it brought tears to her eyes. But the sensation of his fullness rubbing inside was like a hot wire against her nerve endings. He would give her what she needed. She was sure of it. The certainty gave her the freedom to take.

She reached her hands down between them and pulled back enough to rub the length of him before he entered her again and again.

“Oh, my God,” he muttered hoarsely.

She kissed him, an openmouthed invitation that he took. Every movement was pulling at her, dragging her closer. Every shift gave a breathtaking hint of mindless ecstasy that seemed to grow with each second. She shuddered and clutched his shoulders for strength, losing herself with each thrust of his tongue and each pumping caress from his manhood.

He mastered her mouth and her body until she was weeping with it. He murmured brokenly in French, and her arousal gushed through her like a tidal wave, a solid wall of incredible pleasure that took her past the point of return. Ripples of ecstasy flooded through her, changing her, making her indelibly his.

Distantly, Alex heard her cries, and they touched him as nothing ever had. He felt the first rush and jerked. His blood roared through his veins like wildfire, burning and stinging. He buried his face in her shoulder and muffled his shout. Then, surrendering to the longest, hottest release of his life, he joined Katherine in a world where he'd never been.

It took a while for him to find himself again. Moments passed; Alex finally caught his breath and looked at her, shaking his head.

Katherine saw the look of wonder on his face and understood. She felt as if she'd just been through a hurricane. The experience was unlike anything she'd ever experienced. She couldn't possibly explain it.

“Why do I feel like I've wanted you forever?” he asked in a low voice.

She swallowed over the lump in her throat. “I don't know.” Foolhardy or not, she made a decision, knowing in the end she'd miss him when he left. The idea, however, of missing Alex without having known him was far more painful. “We've got thirteen days. Let's not waste them.”

 

Katherine was determined to make it memorable. That way, she thought, maybe he would remember her too. Tonight the stars shone in the sky, the flames burned orange and the crowd around the campfire was halfway through the chorus of “Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”

She shook her head in amazement at Alex, who was eating his third hot dog. “I can't believe how much you like hot dogs. I would have thought you'd prefer caviar.”

He shrugged. “Too much of a good thing. I only had a hot dog one other time. I think it was ten years ago.”

“Tell your chef to fix them for dinner sometime.”

Alex grinned. “He'd sooner die.”

“That's understandable, considering what's in them.”

He took another bite, then looked at the wiener. “What's in them?”

“Same thing that's in bologna.”

“And what's in bologna?”

“It would spoil your appetite. Ask Chad tomorrow when it's not mealtime. Marshmallows are next.” She opened a plastic bag and pulled out a puffy white one.

Al gave his food one more suspicious glance and tossed it into the nearest trash can. “What's in marshmallows?”

Katherine smiled. “Pure sugar.”

He sat closer to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Like Katherine. Pure sweetness.”

She skewered a few marshmallows with a coat hanger, held them over the fire and slit her eyes at him. “I seem to recall you didn't think I was all sweetness when you first arrived.”

“You're like that marshmallow,” he murmured, nuzzling her hair.

“What? Burned?”

He chuckled, and the sound tickled her ear. “No. Crusty on the outside, soft and creamy on the inside.”

Katherine whipped her head around, staring at him. “Does everything have a sexual connotation with you?” she whispered.

“Not everything, I don't have a single solitary sexual thought about anyone else tonight.” He tugged her hair. “Lighten up, Katherine. I was talking about your personality, not your sexuality.” His eyes darkened, and he leaned closer, looking pointedly at her mouth. “If you want to talk about your sexuality, though—”

Her heart hammered against her rib cage. She covered his mouth with her hand. “You're crazy.”

He shot her a devilish look, then licked her finger.

Katherine gasped, jerking her hand away. “We're not alone. What in the world has gotten into you?”

He hesitated only a second, then answered seriously, “I'm having fun.”

A warm and crazy kind of happiness spread through her. Her smile was slow, starting from somewhere deep inside. It seemed to match what she saw on his face. “Good.” From the corner of her eye she saw the flicker of tiny little lights, and an idea struck her. “Wait here,” she said, standing.

He grabbed her ankle. “Where are you going?”

Katherine's smile grew. “Just wait a minute, and I promise to give you a new and unique experience.”

Reluctantly he released her. “Can I watch?”

“No.”

He made a sound of exasperation. “Then what do I do?”

She shrugged. “Sing.”

Alex snorted, watching her walk away. He tried to cheat, but she ducked behind some trees. He wondered what she was cooking up now. Three nights ago, everything had changed between them. Katherine wasn't fighting him anymore. Her surrender had left him feeling exhilarated, yet humbled. And if he were honest with himself, he'd have to confess that humility was a rare emotion for him.

She made him feel many things, he thought, many things he didn't understand. He stared into the fire for a few moments while the crowd swung into another song. He picked up a twig and snapped it, restless now that she was out of sight. Then he stood, looking around for her.

“You're supposed to be singing,” she said from behind him.

He turned around. “You know I'm not accustomed to taking orders.”

“Think of it as a new and unique experience,” she teased impertinently.

His lips twitched. “You'd be in constant trouble for breaching protocol if we were in Moreno.”

“Good thing I don't live in Moreno.”

The faintest chill passed over him. He couldn't wholeheartedly agree with her statement. It wasn't something he wanted to examine too closely. Some things couldn't be changed. And Alex was no fool. He'd take all Katherine's magic and save it up to remember during his next terminally boring advisory council meeting.

He watched her standing there in her torn jeans and T-shirt, her hair a mass of curly copper and her eyes shining like the stars. His chest tightened. He'd never seen a more pleasing sight. He cleared his throat, nodding toward her hands. They were cupped together. “What have you got?”

“It's a gift. Hold out your hands.”

“Another new and unique experience.”

“Something like that,” she said softly. “C'mon, open your hands.”

Alex extended his palms.

She gave him an insect. “Katherine,” he began, thinking it was some kind of joke. Then, when the little thing lit up, he stopped.

“It's a firefly, a lightning bug. Oops!” She cupped his hands together. “He almost got away. Do you have these in Moreno?”

He shook his head. “What do I do with it?”

“Well, if you were five, you'd catch them and put them in a jar,” she instructed. “If you were a ten-year-old boy,” she said in a disgusted voice, “you'd tear their lights off and put them on the sidewalk. And if you were a teenager, you'd catch them when nobody was looking. It's not cool to be fascinated with lightning bugs after you reach a certain age,” she explained.

Alex peeked through his fingers, seeing a flash of green light. “And what,” he asked in his driest tone, “does a thirty-year-old man do with a lightning bug?”

She shrugged. “You hold it for a while and look at it.” Her face turned wistful, and he sensed she was talking about more than fireflies. She looked up to meet his gaze.

“Then you let it go.”

 

For the most part reality was suspended during the following days and nights. It was as if Alex and Katherine were locked in a time capsule where it was forever summer.

Every once in a while when Katherine was alone, she gave herself a tough talk. She needed it. Having Alex's undivided passion and attention focused on her made it nearly impossible for her to keep her feet on the ground. The day he left, the bubble would burst, and she'd have to go on. She'd have to smile and be happy. She'd have to move on with her life and remember this time fondly with no regrets.

It would be extremely bad form to dress herself in black robes and check into a convent, she told herself, even if she wanted to. She started doing her nails again four days before he was scheduled to leave. The countdown had begun.

On Friday night she decided to fix a meal. Alex wanted to help. He'd somehow managed to get rid of Chad for the night.

Katherine filled a pot with water and set it on the stove. “You never told me how you got rid of Chad.”

He flipped through the recipe book. “Gentlemen's agreement.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Are we talking about my brother?”

“Chad's going to surprise you someday. You still see him as the little brother who's always getting into trouble, but he's growing up.”