He groaned but didn’t protest when she undid her own belt and unzipped her jeans. She paused a moment before pushing them down. While he stared so intently at her, she was worried about disappointing him. She had stretch marks and her hips had spread after having Samantha. She definitely couldn’t compete with princesses or heiresses. But for him, she wanted to.
So she eased the jeans over her hips and kicked them off until she stood before him in just her underwear and boots. Then she removed those, too, and stood before him naked. But she’d been naked before him already, when she’d told him about her past.
And he’d been naked before her when he’d told her about his. They’d already been intimate when they’d shared those painful memories.
He released a ragged breath. “You are so beautiful….”
And the way he stared at her made her feel beautiful. Then he dropped his jeans. And she realized what true beauty was. Lean hips and long legs and…
She licked her lips. Then he did the same, dipping his head and running his tongue across her lips. He made love to her mouth, sliding his tongue in and out of her lips, tasting her and leaving his own rich flavor on her tongue.
Heat pooled between her legs. Then his hand was there, stroking through the curls. And his other hand slid over her shoulder and collarbone to the slope of her breast. His mouth followed his hand, spreading kisses like caresses until his lips closed around her taut nipple.
She cried out at the exquisite sensation. Then he slid a finger into her, winding up a pressure inside her so intense that she almost cried out again—in pain. But the pressure eased as little ripples of pleasure came over her.
It wasn’t enough, though. She wanted him—all of him—no matter how big and intimidating he looked. She closed her hand around him, stroking her palm up and down the length of the engorged flesh.
He grunted and groaned. And his control snapped. He lifted her to the bed and followed her down, his body covering hers. He was so big, so strong, but she knew he would not be brutal. Instead of thrusting inside her, he moved over her body. Kissing her lips, her neck and lavishing attention on her breasts. She writhed against the sheets as the pressure built in intensity. She needed more.
And he gave it with his mouth, sliding his tongue where his finger had gone, stroking her to insanity. When she climaxed, she cried out his name, and he answered her plea, thrusting inside her, bringing her up again. Each thrust brought her closer to an ecstasy she’d never thought possible until it crashed over her and shattered her world.
He tensed and groaned and panted as if unable to catch his breath. Sweat beaded on his forehead and upper lip and then he thrust one last time. Deep. And filled her.
With a love she hadn’t thought possible. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close for however long they had. Because forever wasn’t possible—not with a prince.
“Y
OU’RE SURE
B
RENNER
and those other men are out there?” Sebastian asked, the untraceable cell phone pressed to his ear. He divided his attention between the window, which was dark now as night had fallen, and the bed in which Jessica lay sleeping.
“I’ve been checking in with them almost as much as you and Jessica have been checking on me and Samantha.”
“Is everything all right with her?”
“Great. I think I’ll give up coruling and become a nanny.” Beneath the sarcasm, there was affection. Just as quickly as Sebastian had, Antoine had fallen for the little girl. But Sebastian hadn’t fallen just for Samantha; he’d fallen for Samantha’s mother, too.
“I’m sorry this is taking so long,” he apologized to his impatient brother. “I thought Evgeny would come after her right away.”
“You think he’s changed his mind?”
“No.” Sebastian understood the man’s obsession with her now. “He’ll never let her go.”
“Then why’s he waiting?”
“He’s playing with her,” Sebastian said, “like a cat plays with a mouse, stalking and waiting.” Messing with her head, building her fear of him. The man was more than a narcissist; he was a sadist, too.
“The guards have not seen anyone at all around the ranch. They haven’t even noticed you.”
Because he’d known that Evgeny was probably out there, watching, too, Sebastian had been careful to stay out of sight.
“Then he will come,” he assured his twin. “He won’t be able to resist.”
Just as Sebastian hadn’t been able to resist falling for Jessica—so hard and so deep that he couldn’t bear the thought of her getting hurt. “I need to get a deputy out here to stand in for Jessica.”
He could not bear the thought of her in danger, or worse yet, in the clutches of her ruthless husband.
“Jessica insisted on going with you,” Antoine reminded him. “She said it wouldn’t work otherwise.”
“You’re right that this was a crazy plan,” Sebastian conceded. “I can’t risk her life.”
“The guards are out there,” Antoine assured him. “Brenner can be trusted. He has your back.”
“But still, I have to let him get close to her.”
“Do you?” Antoine asked.
“Yes, close enough to threaten her.” Or they wouldn’t have grounds for the man’s arrest.
“But isn’t your real plan to shoot him before he gets close?” Antoine asked.
“What do you mean? The plan is to get him to come after and threaten her, so she can press charges.”
“I know that’s what you said, but I know you,” Antoine said. “I know you don’t plan to let that jerk get close to her ever again.”
“I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I plan on killing him.”
“You’re going to have to,” Antoine said. “I’ve checked this guy out. Killing him is the only way to stop him from killing you and her.”
Chapter Fourteen
Sunlight, so bright that her lids glowed even before she opened them, warmed her face. She squinted against the glare and turned on her side. Then she blinked again in disbelief.
He was too handsome to be real. And even naked, he was regal—all arrogant planes of hard muscle rippling under silky-smooth skin. She would have thought last night was a dream if he wasn’t lying beside her. But even as close as he was, he was out of her reach.
And as soon as he found his friend and who was behind the attack on the royals, he’d go back to his country. He had greater obligations than keeping her safe. A sense of foreboding had the skin prickling on her nape and her stomach muscles tightening; she didn’t feel safe anymore. But the danger came more from the man lying beside her than the one from her past.
He would hurt her, too. Not physically. But he would hurt her emotionally because he could never return her feelings. Even though his grandfather was dead, it was obvious he wanted the approval the king had denied him. So he wouldn’t make the mistake he’d felt his mother had made; he wouldn’t marry a commoner.
Only royalty.
She would never be a princess.
Being careful to not disturb him, she eased out of bed and quickly dressed. But when she turned back, his eyes were open, and he watched her with that intent stare of his. “Where are you going?”
“I have to feed the animals,” she reminded him.
“I hate your going out to the barn by yourself.”
“Those guards would have warned you if anyone had tried coming onto the ranch.” A man named Brenner kept calling and checking in, assuring him that no one had tried breaching the perimeter.
“True,” he said, tossing back the blankets. Fortunately he’d pulled his boxers on sometime during the night, but the black silk rode low on his lean hips, tempting her to reach out and push them down.
Desire heated her blood and her skin, and she wanted nothing more than to run her hands and lips over him as she had again and again in the night. But the day had come and with it reality. Last night had only been a dream, a fairy tale that would never come true.
She turned away from him and the temptation he presented, and headed toward the door. But he caught her wrist and tugged her back.
“So because the guards haven’t forewarned us of anyone trying to get onto the ranch, it’s safe for me to take care of the animals. I’ll just stick to the shadows, so no one notices me heading toward the barn.”
“What shadows?” She glanced toward the window, but the light was almost all gone now, dark clouds having blocked out the sun. “Still, it’s not part of the plan…”
“I need to get out of the house for a minute,” he admitted. “Get some air.”
She wasn’t the only one having regrets about their night of make-believe. No one knew better than he did that they had no future. “But you don’t know what to feed the animals,” she pointed out.
“You wrote out the directions when we were waiting at the hospital with Helen in case someone else had to feed the animals while she recovered.”
Because she hadn’t planned to come back here. She’d intended instead to take her daughter and run. She should have done that.
But Sebastian had gotten to her with his words about her not letting go of Evgeny. She had been carrying the man inside her head even as she’d run from him. So she’d known that no matter how far she ran, she would never get away from him…unless she could stop him from following her. For good.
But unless she killed him, she would never get rid of Evgeny for good. Prison hadn’t held him the first time; she doubted it could hold him a second.
“You took the directions?” she asked.
“I remember what you wrote down,” he replied. “I’ll call and check in with the security team before I leave you alone in the house. Then I’ll sneak out to the barn.”
Maybe she wasn’t the only one who wanted to run away. She nodded in agreement, no matter which one of them went out to the barn, she would have some badly needed time alone. And when Sebastian came back inside, she’d be packed and ready to leave.
She was running. And not just from Evgeny…
S
EBASTIAN KEPT TO THE SHADOWS
as he moved from the house to the barn. He’d just checked in with Brenner for an update on the perimeter. No one had tried to breach it yet. Perhaps Evgeny wasn’t waiting to get Jessica alone; perhaps he was waiting for her to leave. Then he would grab her on some deserted stretch of road.
And Jessica would never be seen again. Perhaps the man wouldn’t take her life but he would take her spirit, and that would kill her just as effectively. Sebastian could not let that happen.
He pulled open the door to the barn. Heat radiated from the dark interior, along with the odor of hay and other less aromatic scents. They had barns at the palace in Barajas. And ever since they’d gone to live there, if Sebastian needed to find Antoine, the barns were usually where he searched first. He would find him with the horses or the other livestock: cows and goats and sheep. When they had taken over as corulers, Antoine kept building more barns and fencing more pastures.
He would have loved this ranch. Sebastian just wanted to get the animals fed, so he could return to Jessica. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her close. But she hadn’t wanted that this morning. She’d wanted space. Hell, after last night, so had he.
He had never felt as deep a connection to any other human being—not even his twin—as he had to her. They hadn’t just made love; they’d become one. One heart. One soul.
Feelings had overwhelmed him. And perhaps he had overwhelmed Jessica. As she had complained, he was too arrogant, too autocratic. King Omar had trained him and Antoine to be the rulers she’d accused him of being. Ruthless. After his years in the military, ruthlessness came too easily to him.
Tenderness and gentleness did not. He was not the man she needed. After all she’d been through, she deserved someone as sweet and sensitive as she was.
The animals shifted restlessly in their stalls, drawing his attention back to his task. He’d watched Jessica write out the directions, but that had been a couple of days ago. He didn’t remember exact measurements of the feed, so he just filled the bowls. The animals remained restless though, the horses skittish while the cats hid in the loft.
His stomach muscles clenched, his gut sending him a warning. Too late. Because it wasn’t cats he’d heard in the loft. Nor was it a cat that jumped from the loft onto his back, knocking him to the ground.
It was a burly man whose heavily muscled arm encircled Sebastian’s neck, cutting off his breath while straining the bones. He hadn’t used hand-to-hand combat in the military, but he’d learned it. He knew how to break someone’s neck, and apparently so did this man.
That military training had been long ago, but he called on it now—not to save himself but to save Jessica. Once he was no longer a threat, they would go after her. He slammed his elbow into the guy’s side, then bucked him off. Before the guy could roll to his feet, Sebastian was on top of him, throwing punches. The man’s face was already deeply gouged, but now blood spurted from his nose and lip. Still, he managed to get his hands around Sebastian’s throat.
The guy’s grip tightened, threatening to squeeze off Sebastian’s airway. His lungs burning for air, Sebastian pulled the guy’s hands from his neck and lurched back. But before he could get to his feet, something struck the back of his head and shoulders, knocking him to the ground again.
Dirt and straw burned his eyes while pain radiated throughout him. A foot kicked his side, the pointed toe of the boot striking his ribs. Ignoring the excruciating pain of a cracking bone, he grabbed the guy’s leg and pulled him off his feet.
The guy grunted when his head struck the ground. The gun he had used to hit Sebastian over the back of the head flew across the barn floor, picking up dirt and straw as it skittered away. Sebastian dived for it, but the other guy, still bleeding, swore and launched himself at it, too.
Sebastian caught him with his elbow again against the guy’s jaw. But the man did not let go, pummeling Sebastian’s sides with his fists. He stretched, trying to reach for the weapon. But it was too far.
So he used other weapons. His fists, elbows and knees until the guy rolled off him and onto the floor, groaning in pain. Groaning himself, he lurched to his feet and reached for the weapon, but another gun cocked.
He looked to the guy who’d struck him with the gun, but he still lay on the floorboards. So he turned toward the barn door and the blond-haired man who stepped from the shadows. His eyes glinted as coldly as the Glock he held, the barrel pointed directly at Sebastian.
“How did you get onto the ranch?” he asked. “What did you do to my men?”
“Nothing,” Evgeny replied with that smirk that made Sebastian want to smash his fist into his face. “They were eager to betray you.”
Sebastian shook his head. Antoine had vetted the men; they would not have turned easily. Not without a lot of incentive. “No.”
“Don’t feel too badly,” Evgeny said. “I was wrong about my men, too.” The men in question lurched to their feet, the one who’d lost his weapon quickly retrieving it. “They are much weaker than I thought—for a pampered prince to have been able to overpower them.”
“Put down the guns,” Sebastian challenged, “and I’ll show you how pampered I am. Just you and me. Man to man.” He hated Jessica’s ex enough to kill him with his bare hands.
Evgeny chuckled. “I am tempted. It would not take me long to show you how a real man fights. But I have already kept my sweet Teresa waiting too long for me. I would rather show her a real man.”
Heedless of the guns, Sebastian jumped forward but the first man kicked his legs out, knocking him to the ground. Then, as if to prove to his boss that he was not weak, he struck Sebastian repeatedly with his fists. Blood trickled into his mouth, but that was not what he tasted. He tasted fear—not for his life but for Jessica’s. He never should have allowed her back onto the ranch. This was all his fault.
Rage filled him. Like his father, he would not go down without a fight. He swung out, dropping Evgeny’s man with one fist to the jaw. Then he vaulted to his feet and launched himself at the boss.
But before he could get close to Evgeny, a shot rang out. He dropped to the ground, more from instinct than because he’d been hit. Hell, he was in so much pain from the beatings that he wasn’t certain if he had been hit.
A
GASP SLIPPED THROUGH
Jessica’s lips. She didn’t believe she had hit anyone, but then she’d never fired a gun like the one Sebastian had brought to the ranch. She’d fired into the loft, but maybe Evgeny had fired, too.
And hit Sebastian. He lay on the ground, unmoving, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth over his stubborn chin. Fear and pain clutched her heart. She needed to go to him, needed to help him.
But she wouldn’t be helping him if she moved. The only movement she could make was shoving the barrel of the gun between Evgeny’s shoulders blades. “The next shot will go right through you,” she warned him, “taking out your heart, if you actually had one.”
“You know I have one,” he said, his body tense. But his eyes, his evil eyes, must have directed his men because they moved toward Sebastian, dragging him to his feet.
Blood spattered his chambray shirt and jeans but didn’t saturate the cloth. He had no gunshot wound, just swelling and bruising. But no matter how hurt he was, his concern was all for her. Because while Evgeny’s men held him, they had weapons pointed at her.
“You know I love you,” Evgeny continued. “I have always loved you.”
“Prove it,” she challenged him. “Let me go.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Then let him go,” she urged.
“I can’t do that, either,” Evgeny said, feigning regret as he had so many other emotions since she’d known him. “He tried to take you from me. I can’t let him live.”
She forced a chuckle. “He doesn’t want anything to do with me but to protect me. Just like Sam, he has that overdeveloped sense of responsibility.”
“That overdeveloped sense of responsibility got your brother killed,” Evgeny replied.
Skin prickled on her nape. Was there more to her brother’s murder than Evgeny had told her? “What about Sam?”
He tensed even more but shook his head. “We’re talking about the prince now. Cavanaugh here doesn’t just want to protect you,” Evgeny continued. “And you know it.”
She forced another laugh. “You think he wants me? A married woman with a child? He only wants the information I can give him about his missing friend.”
“Then he’s talking to the wrong person,” Evgeny said. “I can tell him more than you can.”
“You know where Amir is?” Sebastian asked.
“Better yet, I know who’s after you.” He laughed. “I know who’s after all of you.”
Sebastian snorted, probably calling the Russian’s bluff. “No, you don’t.”
“Of course I do. I rule a much larger world than you do. I have connections you will never have. That is truly how I found Teresa. A former associate of mine, here on business, recognized her from the picture I have hanging in my office.”
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Our wedding picture. He said you’d changed your appearance, though, so he wasn’t entirely sure it was you. That was why I sent Dmitri and Nic ahead to seek you out.”
He nodded at Sebastian. “And when you held that little press conference of yours, you made that easy for them, just like you and your friends are making it easy for your enemy to kill you.”
“What enemy?” Sebastian asked.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Evgeny said, “because you’ve made a far more dangerous enemy in me.”
Jessica nudged the barrel deeper into Evgeny’s back. “Tell him who is trying to kill him and the others.”
He glanced over his shoulder again. His eyes cold and hard, her husband warned her, “You know that I do not like being told what to do.”
“If you don’t do what I tell you, I will shoot you,” she threatened.
“And then my men will shoot your white knight.”