“Very well. Summon the vassal.”
“Summon the vassal!” Michael repeated in a bellow.
Cheers went up when at the far end of the field a white horse appeared carrying a rider wearing armor that gleamed brilliantly in the midday sun. Holding a lance at hip rest, he urged the horse into a showy trot. Everything else faded away for Catharine as she focused on the man riding ever closer to the balcony.
Philip
.
The crowd fell silent as the rider reined his horse to a stop in front of the king. He tipped his head in a bow and lifted his visor.
“My liege.”
“Vassal, what is the nature of your petition?”
“Sire, I would win the hand of the Lady Catharine. To that end, I shall battle any foe, pay any price, and defeat any demon.”
Catharine wondered indignantly if they would barter for her now as if she was an object to be owned. Alex rose to his feet and decreed, “I would suggest, then, vassal, that you put your case to the lady.”
Philip bowed again, backed the horse up a few feet, so that he could bring it back to stand immediately before her.
“Kate…Catharine. I know how hard it is for you to trust. I have great respect for you, for the person you are, and the hard choices you’ve made. I am in awe that with all that happened in the past, you opened your heart to me. I can find no fault with your hesitation, your reluctance to trust once more. So, before King and Country, before members of your family and my own, I make this pledge, as a Vassal’s Pledge, which under laws that somehow escaped the scrutiny of modern times, remain in force today. Should I fail to uphold my pledge, the king would be within his rights to have me thrown into the dungeon.”
“And don’t think I won’t.”
Confused by Alex’s fervent vow, Catharine looked at him. His next words floored her.
“I would consider this family blessed to call you and your son our own.”
Hardly daring to believe, she turned back to
Philip. He stared up at her with so much love in his eyes, she wondered the sun wasn’t outclassed. The fear that had kept her heart frozen for six years began to melt away. Slowly, she got to her feet. Daring to try to speak when her throat became tight with tears, she asked, “What is your pledge?”
“To love you, always. To leave you, never. To be the husband you need, and the father Jamie deserves. To cherish you, and respect you. To help you slay whatever dragons come your way, and to remember to ask you to do the same for me. This is my pledge to you, my Kate. Will you accept it? Will you accept my pledge?”
She could barely see him for the tears streaming down her face. Here was what she’d wanted all her life, but had been afraid could never be hers. Someone to love and be loved by, to hold, and be held by. This was a moment to be cherished.
“Come on, Mom, say yes. Dad’s waiting!”
Catherine joined in the warm laughter of their two families, and held her hand out to her son. When he came to her and gripped her hand, she turned to Philip.
“Yes, Sir Knight. Yes. I will accept your pledge.”
“Do you believe in knights in shining armor, and happy-ever-after?”
“Yes,” her smile began to overtake her tears, and she knew the tears had turned into drops of joy. “Yes, I believe in knights in shining armor and happy ever-after.”
“Do you believe in fairy godmothers?”
Catharine laughed out loud, because even Philip looked puzzled that he’d actually asked that. But she didn’t care, right now she believed in everything.
“Yes, I believe in fairy godmothers!”
His face took on such a sweet expression, Catharine felt her heart overflow.
“I love you, Catharine Marie Jones. With all that is in me.”
“I love you too, Philip de la Croix. Oh, I love you so much!”
“Then, my Kate, one last question. Will you marry me?”
A fine moment, Catharine thought, with her son by her side, and the sea in the air. A fine moment she would remember and treasure for the rest of her life.
“Yes, Philip, yes. We’ll marry you.”
He was beyond a doubt the most outrageous man she had ever met.
“Now that we know that I am Philip and you are Kate, we can move on to more important matters. You have done a marvelous job of raising your son.”
“Ah…thank you.”
The rat
. That was hitting below the belt. She tried to marshal her scrambling thoughts, but couldn’t come up with any of her usual brush-off lines, especially since the man held her hand and stroked her knuckles with his thumb in that seductive way and looked at her so sweetly.
Her eyes widened, and she yanked her hand away from him.
“I liked holding your hand, Kate. It felt good.”
“Uh huh.” She needed to stop being so eloquent. Her mind searched for something to say that would stop this Lothario in his tracks.
“You’ve a very nice blush. It tells me you liked holding my hand, too.”
She had, but no way in
hell
would she admit that. “Maybe it’s not a blush. Maybe it’s the red heat of indignation.”
His grin could have melted the polar ice cap.
“No, you blushed. Now, if I had said, ‘I liked holding your hand but I’m going to enjoy peeling each piece of clothing from your body and tasting every inch of your flesh even more,’ well then the ‘indignation’ explanation would have some merit.”
“You...that...is that any way for a p
rince
to talk?” She knew her response lacked grit when he chuckled.
“Some would argue that a prince is spoiled and pampered and can behave any way he chooses. I would have thought you’d agree with that,” he said.
He’d just presented her with the perfect solution. She only had to agree with him, turn her back, and walk away. End of dilemma. Only problem—she couldn’t. His voice had gone gentle, and he’d been so good to that little girl and her own Jamie. She cursed her innate honesty. Why couldn’t she just be a bitch with a capital B? Well, she could, she mentally acknowledged in the next moment. When warranted. But it wasn’t here. Neither, though, did she think it necessary to say he wasn’t spoiled and pampered and end up complimenting him. So she went with honesty and asked him something she’d been wondering. “How is it that you’re a pediatrician when you’re also a prince?”
“When my father ascended the throne of Boisdemer he discovered that his father and grandfather had nearly bankrupted the country. Their idea of ‘
noblesse oblige
’ meant they believed they could oblige themselves of every privilege of royalty known to man. It took Father many years of canny planning and hard work to bring the country back to prosperity. He decided we would not be wastrels, as his ancestors had been. He told us it didn’t matter what we did for a living, as long as we did
somethin
g. We had been incredibly blessed, he said, and needed to give back. My older brother is Crown Prince, and that’s a job in itself, but he’s also involved with the banking industry. My older sister, Sophie, is the administrator for the orphanage. And Rachel is still considering her options.”
When he spoke Rachel’s name she saw a softening, a look on his face and a sound in his voice that spoke of concern and affection.
“That’s amazing. Your father sounds like a very wise man.” She realized she enjoyed his smiles far too much. The prince of Boisdemer was getting to her. She knew the time had come to go, for the resort’s councilors began to round up the children.
“Well. I guess I better—”
He lithely vaulted over the fence separating them, shocking her into silence.
“That is better. Stay another moment, Kate. The bus won’t leave without you.”
“It might.”
“No, it won’t.”
She smiled in response to his laugh, and she realized he spoke the truth. Especially when he lifted a finger and the bus driver bowed slightly in response.
“While you’re a visitor in my country, I would enjoy showing it to you.”
“Oh…that’s very kind of you to offer.” But of course he couldn’t be serious. He is a prince, and she’s just a nobody. The invitation had been issued simply as a courtesy.
“You think I’m not serious. But I am. I have been this whole time. I really did enjoy holding your hand. And I really would much rather have you naked and tasting you right now.”
Catharine felt her cheeks reddening again, although she was glad he’d said that. Not because she wanted to say yes, she mentally asserted, but because it gave her something to seize onto. She wouldn’t be a prince’s plaything, no matter how appealing his smiles. “I don’t date. And just because I’m an unmarried mother
doesn’t
mean that I romp around naked with anyone who offers me a few kind words. Nice speaking to you. But now I have to go.”
“You have to tell me his name.”
Catharine had turned away, geared up for the perfect exit. But Philip’s words stopped her, and she couldn’t resist turning back.
“Whose name?”
“The man who refused to be a man, for you and for that beautiful child of yours.”
She knew she looked confused, because that’s how she felt. “Why in hell would you want to know his name?”
“Should he ever set foot on the soil of Boisdemer, I could have him thrown into the dungeon at the Palace. I’d offer to have him beheaded for you, but we don’t do that sort of thing around here anymore. Bad for tourism.”
Though she could have taken his words as a joke, Philip seemed absolutely serious. Catherine felt her heart soften just a little more.
No one had offered to throw that letch William Corey into a dungeon for her before. That Philip would do so on such short acquaintance was so sweet. She spoke without meaning to. “I don’t know what to do with you.”
“Have dinner with me, Kate.”
* * * *
A dozen comments sprinted from Hannah’s brain to her lips, anxious to be spoken. But when Alex shut the door to his suite, she had no time to say anything. He simply backed her against that door and kissed her.
There had to be another word for kiss, she thought dimly as her body flooded with sensation. Those four letters seemed too paltry to describe the havoc Alex’s mouth was wreaking on her.
His hands touched her everywhere, her breasts, her hips, even pausing to stroke back and forth between her legs. That gossamer touch buckled her knees and wrenched a cry of need from deep within her soul. Fully dressed, she felt naked. She wrapped her arms around him, her mouth fusing with his, her tongue as tart and demanding as his.
“It’s been so long for me, Hannah. I don’t want to disappoint you.”
How remarkable that this intoxicating man should feel uncertain! Alex’s husky words leached the stress from her body, leaving only arousal and joyous anticipation in its wake.
“Me, too,” she admitted, breathless. “I’ve never been very good at this. I’ve spent my life believing I could never get this aroused. You’ve already given me more physical pleasure than I’ve ever had before.”
He traced her lips with a single fingertip. Such heat shone in his eyes that Hannah’s arousal climbed even higher. No man had ever looked at her the way Alex looked at her, as if she was a dessert to be gobbled down. “Lady, you’ve turned me inside out as no other has ever done. Come, Hannah. Come lie with me.”
She followed when he led her to his bedroom. The drapes had been mostly drawn against the midday sun, leaving the room bathed in shadows. Her belly shivered as she felt his hands take hold of the hem of her t-shirt. She lifted her arms, an act of surrender, but she surrendered nothing. As soon as he took the pastel-colored cotton off her, she set to work opening the buttons of Alex’s shirt. Though her hands trembled, she managed to get most of them opened.
Then he released her bra and set his mouth on her breast.
A flood of moisture slicked her pussy, and she groaned even as she pressed her breast closer to his marvelous mouth. Her skin beaded with excitement, and she barely recognized the sounds that tumbled from her throat as being her own. Her hands swept his shoulders, his back, glorying in the heat and the strength of him. When he lifted his mouth from her left breast intent on tasting her right, she made her move. Sweeping his shirt from his shoulders, she brushed her naked nipples against the salt-and-pepper hair on his chest.
Alex groaned. “Lord, woman, I’m really not going to last long this first time.” When he handed her the purse she had dropped she didn’t understand, at first. Then she remembered the condoms. Quickly, she pulled the box out, not at all minding that he fairly tore it from her fingers.
“Only three.” He whispered, shaking his head. “That will never do. We’re going to have to get more for next time.”
In the midst of fumbling with the zipper of her shorts, she started to giggle. Laughter made her fingers clumsy. She felt his hands on her shoulders. He smiled and gave her a gentle shove. Falling to the bed she saw that not only was he already naked—gorgeously and gloriously naked—he’d also donned the sheath.
He swept her shorts and panties from her, and spread her legs. The expression on his face no longer held any humor. His eyes had taken on a fierce sparkle, and his nostrils flared. In that instant she felt more desired than she had ever been in her life.
“Please, Alex.
Now
!” It seemed like slow motion as he came to her. And then in one sure solid thrust, he buried his cock deep in her pussy. She felt every inch of him sliding into every inch of her. Delicious and wonderful, the sensations vibrated through her. Without warning, she exploded into orgasm.
* * * *
Alex relished the exquisite rippling along the length of his cock. He had no time for rational thought, as the urge to come tore away the veneer of civilization. He pulled almost all the way out of her and then slammed into her again, hard. Even as a part of him was shocked at the force of his thrusts, he heard Hannah’s cries of pleasure, felt her wrap herself around him even tighter, and did it again, and then again. The fourth solid plunge triggered his own eruption, and Alex held himself deep within her. Hannah’s pussy clamped down tight on his cock, and he had the sensation of being milked. Burying his head in the corner of her shoulder, he let the awesome sensations surge through him.