Prince and Single Mom (12 page)

Michael seemed to consider his glass before speaking. “You want advice from me on how to handle a woman? One word: carefully.”

“Smart ass.” Philip said dryly, then smiled when his brother’s eyes widened.

“A new expression. I think I like that one.”

“So do I. She’s afraid, my Kate, afraid to be serious. In her mind, we’re about to have a fling. Jamie’s father hurt her badly, and I think if we hadn’t met, she might have continued on pretending creatures called men didn’t exist. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I did think she’d softened toward me, that she felt something more than the physical. Then tonight she says yes, in such a way that it seemed as if I’d just made a business deal instead of an assignation.”

“I would remind you that I knew within moments of meeting Helene that she would be mine, so the time factor is nothing. Except if Kate has been as badly hurt as you say, it may take time for her to trust fully. Remember how formal Helene was even after we got married? The result of her regimented upbringing. It’s taken her a while to become at ease with the family.”

Philip smiled. “I remember.” Philip toyed with the cap of his water bottle before meeting his brother's eyes. “I thought I would give Papa a call. Speak to him about her. What do you think?”

He tried to read the expression on his brother’s face, but Michael had become better at hiding his emotions in the last few years. Philip blamed that rascal Peter, their chief of Royal Security and poker player extraordinaire.

“If your feelings for your Kate are serious, if you’re thinking marriage, then by all means, give him a call. He’s always there for all of us, he would be quick to remind us, whether he’s on vacation or not.”

Sound advice, Philip decided, even though his brother hadn’t bothered to tell him how to proceed with Kate. Nor, he acknowledged to himself in the next heartbeat, should he have.

“All right. Thanks, Michael. For listening.”

“I’m always happy to listen,
Mon frere
.”

Philip got up and headed toward the door. He wanted a nice hot shower and a good long sleep. He looked over his shoulder to wish his brother good night, and noticed he was staring over at the folder on their father’s desk.

“Is something wrong?”

Michael’s expression looked startled, as if he’d already forgotten Philip. “No. Nothing is wrong. Just a bit puzzling, is all. Nothing serious.”

Philip remained unconvinced, but he knew his brother. The man liked to hold things close to his vest.

“Don’t work too late.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Philip had to be content with that.

* * * *

For a long moment after the door closed, Michael stayed where he sat, glass of brandy in his hand. He sipped it slowly, appreciating the flavor and the subtle bite of the liquor.

If he had ever doubted the capriciousness of fate as it related to his family, he doubted no more. Slowly, he got up from his chair and wandered back to his father’s. Opening the folder front and center on the desk, he looked at the photograph of two women, a mother and a daughter, both smiling at a young boy. The picture had been taken that morning. The good thing—the
only
good thing he could think of at the moment—both women checked out, security-wise. Words on a page, the facts of a couple of lives etched on a few sheets of standard white paper, couldn’t give a feel for the subjects. But the fact that these women had captured the attention of two men he not only loved, but respected, told him they must be remarkable.

Michael’s pledge to his father had prevented him from mentioning the rather bizarre fact that Philip had become enamored of the daughter of the very woman their father was seeing. The fact that his brother had said nothing of the coincidence told him their father had still not revealed his identity to either of the Ms. Joneses.

“Can this situation become any more convoluted?” he asked out loud.

The phone rang and Michael chuckled, certain he would momentarily find out the answer to that question would be “yes.”

“Hello.”

He listened for a few moments, and then nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate your quick response. No, there’s no problem. Thank you again.”

Getting up from the desk, Michael wandered across the room, to the big bay window and the view of the city and the harbor that sprawled beneath the hill the palace had been built on. Knowing the geography as he did, his eyes tracked directly to the Villa. The situation, he thought, had just gone from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Heaving a sigh, he turned back to the desk and picked up the phone to place a long-distance call, and interrupt his best friend’s vacation.

* * * *

The next day, Catharine left the resort well ahead of schedule. She could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she had left her son with her mother—or anyone—while she’d gone out for an evening. And of those few times, two had taken place in the last three days.

For convenience sake, as much as anything, she and Philip had decided to meet once again at the farm. Considering his identity, renting a hotel room would not be a good idea. Making out in a parked car somewhere didn’t even rate consideration. If she was going to do this thing, she would do it in a bed. A shiver that had nothing to do with the temperature rippled over her skin. Abruptly pulling the car onto the shoulder, she turned off the engine and got out.

The last time, she’d been a child in too much of a hurry to grow up, too needy for love to understand she’d been used. Until it was too late. They had a name for thirty-five-year-old men who seduced fifteen-year-old girls, and it wasn’t a nice one.

William had seemed so elegant, so powerful, but also so nice. She’d met him, of all places, at the library. He paid attention to her, bought her small presents, and made her feel important and wanted. She wasn’t completely without blame, or without knowledge. She knew the kisses and touches would lead to something more. She’d been a virgin, but she knew about sex. Or she thought she did. To her fifteen-year-old way of thinking, sex had been something grown-ups did in the dark of night behind closed doors. Something some of her friends at school had whispered and giggled about in the girls’ washroom between classes. And then sex became the price she decided to pay for the feeling of being cared about, and cared for, by an older man.

Now, she could look back and understand that just a few years after the death of her father, she’d been hurting and needy and vulnerable. Then, she thought the trade she’d made a good one.

In terms of what she had now—a loving and lovable son who was the light of her life—it
had
been a good deal. But in terms of what she’d lost, it had been devastating.

Rubbing her arms to ward of the chill that had descended upon her, she leaned against the hood of the car and stared at nothing.

She’d taken her lumps, and licked her wounds. She’d taken the jeers and the insults of her peers, and the adults who looked at her and had seen a whore. She weathered her pregnancy, determined to do the best job she could taking care of the life growing within her, determined to keep the baby and be not just a mother, but the best mother she could be.

Her own mother had stood behind her, and for that she would be forever grateful. She’d labored and given birth with only her mother in attendance, and knew that although her baby would never have the love of the man who’d fathered him, he would have family.

Now here she stood, on the verge of taking her second lover. And it was going to be all right, she realized. There was no reason to deny herself the chance to have sex with a man who turned her on and turned her inside out. She hadn’t known him long, didn’t know him well, and would get on an airplane and leave him behind in eleven days. But what she intended to share with Philip wasn’t casual sex. There had been nothing casual about any of this.

Bolder, and bolstered, she got back in the car and set off to get laid.

There she stood, waiting for him.

Philip took a moment to simply look at her. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

But he craved her above all others.

He knew she hadn’t heard him drive in, for he’d come the back way. But she sensed his presence now. Slowly, she turned to face him.

He’d been wrong. She
was
the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Saying nothing, he went to her. His gaze locked with hers, and he took her hands and brought them to his lips. “I am so very glad you’re here.”

“I want to be here. With you. But…”

“Shhh. You don’t have to tell me you’re nervous. I can feel you trembling. If you’ve changed your mind, tell me now. I’ll understand. I may go and bang my head against a tree, but I will understand.”

Her laughter wasn’t as full as it might have been, but she did laugh. “I haven’t changed my mind. I’d decided that this time, I would be the seducer. Only, I’ve just realized I don’t know how.”

“Poor Kate,” he said softly, placing her hands on his shoulders, freeing his own hands to wander to her hips. He squeezed, gently, and urged her closer. He wondered if she knew how much she’d just revealed to him? Yes, she had given birth, but in many ways she remained virginal. And therefore deserving of every bit of care and tenderness he could give her.

“I’ve never known this urgency before. I looked up, only a few short days ago, and saw you for the first time. Something almost magical happened at that moment. Oh yes, I know you don’t believe in magic. But I do.”

“Philip, I don’t need flowery words.”

She lacked belief in far more than magic and knights in shining armor. She didn’t believe in her own appeal, and she didn’t trust his words. He couldn't blame her. She'd believed once and paid for it.

He changed his mind. If the bastard who hurt her so badly ever
did
show up in Boisdemer, beheading wasn’t out of the question after all.

He put away the sparking rage that burned in him on her behalf. It had no place here. She faced him with such a troubled expression, he bent to place a gentle kiss on her furrowed brow.

“
Mon
cherie
, I know. Perhaps I need the flowery words.” He knew the thoughts in her head. She wanted to keep things simple. She thought this would be an uncomplicated vacation fling. He didn’t doubt that her heart held far more for him than she wanted to admit. He didn’t need to hear her tell him right now. He was a patient man. At least when it came to getting her to see the sweet light of reason.

But he’d run out of patience waiting to have her.

Moving quickly, he scooped her into his arms, laughing when she screamed and threw her arms around his neck as if to save herself from being dropped.

She wasn’t heavy, and it wasn’t very far to his bedroom.

The sound of the door slamming still reverberated in the room when he stopped before the bed and slowly lowered her feet to the floor. There was light enough left in the day that he didn’t bother with the bedside lamp. Instead, he ran his hands through her hair, cupped her head, and drew her into his kiss.

He had already become addicted to the taste of her, the hot sultry flavor he knew his body could never live without again. Slowly, ever so slowly, he explored her mouth. Her hands grabbed his wrists and held on even as her tongue met and danced with his. Sensuous, erotic, the wet glide ignited tiny sparks in his blood. Her arms moved up to twine around his neck, and he complied with her unspoken request for more. His hands smoothed down her back to her bottom and pulled her closer.

He knew the strength left her knees as he continued tasting her. Not sure of his own strength, he weaned his lips from hers to sit on the edge of the bed then gently pulled her to stand between his legs.

Without speaking, he tugged her T-shirt out of her shorts. The flesh of her belly was warm and soft and smooth. Loving the touch of her under his hands, he caressed her. Then stripped the shirt from her completely.

She gasped, and he couldn’t help but smile. “I’m trying so damn hard to be gentle,
cherie
. But I want you so bloody badly.”

“You don’t have to be gentle. It’s not like this is my first time.”

He knew differently. He took a moment to admire the plain cotton bra that supported and concealed her pretty breasts. He found the simple garment more alluring than the finest lace. But it had to go. Reaching behind her, he released the catch in one smooth move.

Her naked breasts captivated him, prettily plump with delectable pink nipples. Unable to resist, he opened his mouth and drew one in. It pebbled and elongated, inviting him to have more. He was lost.

“Philip!”

Her fingers combed through his hair, holding him close. Her moans told him how much she liked his actions. His hands shaped her bottom then, in one fluid move, stripped the shorts and panties down her legs. Not willing to give her a moment to think, he slipped to his knees and set his mouth on her.

* * * *

“Oh God.” Catharine sucked in a deep breath as his lips nuzzled her pussy. She wasn’t prepared for the storm of sensations that raged through her. Her knees buckled for a second time, and she trusted him to keep her from falling. The vibration of his laugh made her belly clench and her nipples tighten to hard buds.

Then he lifted her, only to place her on her back on the bed. Gasping, Catharine tried to find something to hang on to, but there was only his mouth, open, rubbing back and forth across her mound, and his tongue, darting out, tasting, driving her higher, driving her wild. Sobbing, fighting to control the arousal that drenched her inside and out, she realized there could be no control. Still, she fought, her head tossing back and forth on the bedspread, her breaths coming in short shallow chops and filled with tiny high-pitched cries of pleasure.