“Do I look okay?” she asked, smoothing down the linen skirt, wishing she’d worn the summer wool dress instead.
Tamar looked down at her pretty blue dress, reassurance shining through his eyes. “You look lovely,” he said, taking her hand in his to give her support.
“Do you think he’ll recognize me?”
That was the big question, he thought. “I don’t know what you looked like as a child. Were you different then?”
They were standing in front of the building now, her hands shaking with fear, anticipation, hope and anxiety. “What if he doesn’t want anything to do with me?” she asked.
Tamar gave her name to the receptionist, telling her he had an appointment with Royston Carmichael. With a gentle smile, he cupped her cheek with his hand. “Then I will destroy him,” he said, simply and without remorse. He didn’t see the shocked expression on the receptionist’s face as she heard those words, his whole focus on this one woman and her nervousness at meeting her brother for the first time in years.
The simple statement did the trick. She laughed, assuming he was joking with her. But Tamar wasn’t joking. If this Carmichael man hurt his wife in any way, Tamar would ensure that the man’s empire, though very impressive, was taken apart, piece by piece. If the man knew what was best, he would at least feign interest in his long, lost sister.
The receptionist gave them directions to the top floor, explaining how to get up there and who would be at the other end.
They arrived on the executive floor easily, but as soon as they stepped off of the elevator, Wyndi started to have second thoughts. “Maybe he’s fine without me,” she said, looking around for an escape route. “He’s done so well for himself! He doesn’t need me anymore.”
Tamar wouldn’t let her back out of it now. It had taken them over a month to find this man. If he didn’t want to deal with his sister, so be it. But she had to find out. She had to at least talk to him, hear his side of things. But there was also a burning fury in his gut that a man with this many resources hadn’t tried to find his sister. It would have taken so little time, so little effort, but none of the man’s substantial wealth had been expended in searching for the girl he’d lost so many years ago.
“Mr. Yarin?” a dignified woman asked politely.
Normally, Tamar would have corrected the woman on his title, but looking down at his wife’s nerves, he didn’t really care what this assistant called him as long as he could get Wyndi through this quickly.
“This way, please,” she said. “Mr. Carmichael has been expecting you.”
They walked down a long, elegantly decorated hallway. When the woman was standing in front of a set of double doors, she knocked quickly, then pushed her way inside. “Mr. Yarin is here for your twelve-thirty appointment, sir.” And with that, she backed out of the office, allowing Tamar and Wyndi to move inside.
Wyndi looked around and spotted the tall, very handsome man with the dark blond hair stand up and come around his massive desk. “Prince Yarin,” her brother started to say. But as she watched, her brother stopped in midstride, looking directly at her and his whole body changed. “Wyndi!” he breathed. conflict
For more on Wyndi & Royston’s reunion, read “The Tycoon’s Make Believe Fiancée”, a free novella coming in January 2014.
Ana stood at the end of a line of people approximately ten deep, surveying the others in the shop and impressed that she had gained the courage to make it this far. She was thrilled with her adventure and excited about the prospect of a cup of coffee all by herself. When she reached the front of the line, she smiled happily at the clerk. “May I please have a cappuccino?” she said, eager to accomplish her first, lone purchase. Her credit card was clenched in her hand and she had to concentrate on not dancing in her eagerness.
“Talle or grande?” the woman behind the counter asked, not returning Ana’s smile.
“Excuse me?”
The cashier grouchily pointed to the two cups indicating the sizes of the coffee, almost rolling her eyes in frustration and a need to get back to leaning lazily against the counter top now that the morning coffee rush was over.
Ana looked at both cups and her eyes widened. Both paper cups were much larger than her usual cup of coffee in a bone china demitasse cup. “Oh, my. That’s quite a lot of coffee, I suppose. The small one will be fine,” she said.
“Skim, full or cream?” the woman said, her body leaning onto one leg impatiently.
“Excuse me?” Ana asked again, completely unsure what was being asked of her.
The clerk sighed impatiently. “Do you want skim, full or cream milk in your coffee?” she asked, rolling her eyes at the idiocy of the question.
“Ah! Well, I guess full would be very decadent, wouldn’t it?”
The clerk didn’t respond but she yelled back to the person behind her. “Tall cappuccino, full!”
“May I also have a newspaper?” she asked. Ana handed her a credit card and waited anxiously, hoping it wouldn’t be rejected from lack of use. When the woman simply handed her back the credit card and a piece of paper, Ana was thrilled beyond words with her simple task. “Thank you,” she said and moved on down the line.
“You need to sign, ma’am,” the clerk called back to her.
“Oh, yes,” Ana said. “Quite right.” With a flourish, she signed her name and handed the pen back to her.
A teenage boy handed Ana a very large cup and Ana picked up a newspaper. With delicious freedom, she found a relatively comfortable spot near the window and sat down in a hard, plastic chair to sip her coffee and read her newspaper, just like everyone else in the store was doing.
Prince Erik lurched as the limousine swooped to one side, a loud hissing sound followed. “What the…” he said, impatiently holding his hot coffee cup away from his suit as the brown liquid danced over the edge of the cup and onto the floorboards of the car.
The driver immediately pulled over to the side of the road and turned around. “I’m sorry, Your Highness. There are so many potholes in the roads after the winter. I’ll get out and check what happened to the car. It won’t be but a moment.”
“Fine,” Erik said, not really caring about the pothole but irritated with the state of his shoe which now had coffee on it.
A moment later, Erik’s body guard, Tim, opened the back door. “I’m sorry, Your Highness but the driver has explained that there is a flat tire. It will only take a few minutes to fix.”
“Great,” Erik said furiously and looked out the window. “I’ll be in the coffee shop getting some fresh coffee. Signal me when the bloody tire is fixed.” He got out of the limousine and shook his shoe, ignoring the crisp breeze that told the world that winter could still come back with a vengeance even through the promise of a relatively warm spring breeze.
Erik walked quickly across the street and entered the shop, only vaguely aware of Tim, following behind him. The man knew to stay discreetly out of his way and was very good at his job, not that he really needed a body guard. Erik felt he would be able to defend himself easily against just about any attack, had in fact been trained to do so. But the king demanded that Tim guard him anyway.
Erik walked up to the now empty line and ordered a double espresso then surveyed the occupants of the store while he waited for his coffee to be made. His eyes initially glanced over the tiny woman with the scarf over her head, but then a strand of red hair peeked out from the back when she leaned forward. Redhead! And a beautiful one at that. He hadn’t been with a redhead in a long time and he admired the silky threads that were visible underneath the scarf. He knew he’d be in luck if she had green eyes. His body stirred slightly at the thought. Ah, the combination of red hair and green eyes was just too striking in his mind to ignore. He loved it, was his favorite combination. He knew it was cliché, just like blonds and blue eyes, but he thought it was a rare woman who had the combination and he just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to at least chat with the lovely lady.
From what he could see she had a slim figure and beautiful skin. From this distance her high cheekbones were just too perfect to be real. He saw her profile as she skimmed the newspaper and was struck by her beauty, his eyes not leaving her face for a moment now that he’d seen her.
Taking his coffee, he walked toward the front of the store. “May I join you?” he asked, bowing slightly as he watched her face move from the newspaper she was reading to his own.
Blue eyes, but still startling in their gorgeous color! The distance from the counter hadn’t been simply an illusion. The woman had perfect, glowing, flawless skin. What a beauty, he thought to himself.
“Excuse me?” she said, pulling the newspaper closer to her body in a protective measure.
Eric saw the wariness in her eyes and bowed politely again, trying to allay her fears from him being a stranger. “I was hoping I could share the table with you, since the rest seemed to be taken already.
Ana looked around and, sure enough, all the other chairs were occupied. She supposed this was normal activity for Americans, but it definitely threw her for a shock. “Well, yes. I suppose,” she said and scooted her chair father away from the table. There was only so far she could go though since her table was in the corner with the store window to her left and the wall to her back. Another table with an occupant’s back blocked her in to the right.
“Thank you,” he said and took the chair opposite her.
Ana looked back down at her newspaper, terrified of the tall, handsome stranger. She wanted to peek back up at him and view his features. He really was a gorgeous man, she thought as she glanced back up at him. He caught her look and winked at her from his own newspaper. Ana quickly glanced back down, feeling silly for staring at him.
“What’s so interesting in the newspaper?” he asked after several silent moments.
Ana looked up and felt her insides turn to jelly. Goodness, his face was incredibly handsome. His square jaw framed firm lips that weren’t sensuous in anyway but she wondered what they would feel like kissing hers. His nose was very patrician looking but his eyes! Oh those eyes were simply sinful, she thought. They promised forbidden pleasures deep in their dark blue depths. Flustered, she tried to come up with a witty response but her tongue was tied as he looked at her with those lovely, sexy eyes. “Um…nothing really,” she replied.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” he asked. “I don’t recognize your accent.”
Ana flushed and wondered how she was going to answer his question. “Oh, I’m from Europe,” she said evasively.
“What country?” he asked.
“Um…nowhere you’ve probably heard of,” she said, nervous now about the possibility of kidnapping. “Are you doing business in the city or are you just visiting?” she asked, quickly changing the subject away from herself.
“Business mostly, I suppose,” he thought, remembering the dinner he had tonight to meet his future wife. His day was also packed with back to back meetings. He wasn’t sure if he classified his engagement party as business along with the other meetings or if she should be in the pleasure category. He supposed he’d find out tonight.
Ana liked him immediately for some reason which was odd since she was usually painfully shy around most strangers. Her sister was the one who was more vivacious and outgoing. This man had a very nice, deep voice. Sexy, she thought. Definitely sexy! Clearing her throat and concentrating on the conversation, she struggled to remember what he’d said. “Mostly? I guess you’ll have some fun while you’re here?” she asked, trying to think of something to say other than “Oh” in response. It wasn’t just his voice that was sexy, she considered. Now that she was able to openly look at him, he truly was an overwhelming man with incredibly broad shoulders and handsome features. Every cell in him seemed to emanate authority and confidence. Not that she liked that kind of man, she thought. She hoped her future husband would be more on the slender side, she told herself. But this man was definitely put together in a nice way. She just didn’t like large, domineering men with strong personalities. Her brother and her father were like that and they tended to be too autocratic for her taste.
“Yes,” he said, instantly deciding that he would be spending time with this woman during his week-long visit. “What’s your name?”
Ana hesitated for a moment, not wanting to reveal her real name. “Annie,” she said, thinking of the hated nickname her sister called her.
“Nice to meet you, Annie,” he replied, leaning forward so his arms were leaning on the table. “I’m Marcus,” Erik replied, using his middle name as he usually did when entertaining a woman. “Tell me about yourself. What do you like to do?”
They talked about lots of things. He was generally pro-business but had a wonderful sense of the environment and social issues. Ana argued the social side whenever he brought up the business side of life. He made her laugh at some of his outrageous opinions and challenged him on several others. She suspected that he was just choosing the opposite side for controversy but she even liked that about him. He wasn’t so overwhelming, she started to think. He was still very large, though. But now that she’d gotten to know him a little more, she didn’t hold that against him. In fact, there was little about the man she didn’t like. Especially his smile, she thought, her insides melting when she said something funny and he threw back his head and laughed, the humor lingering in his eyes even after the laughter had died.
Yes, she really liked his smile. And his shoulders. When he leaned forward to make a point about government responsibilities, she decided that she really liked broad, muscular shoulders after all.
Ana was so engaged and having such a wonderful time, she didn’t realize how much time had passed until she accidentally glanced at his watch. “Oh, no! Is it really one o’clock?” she gasped, grabbing his hand to still his wrist so she could get a better look at the time.
“Yes. Why? I’m guessing you have an urgent appointment somewhere?”
Ana picked up her scarf which had fallen to the floor during their conversation as well as her empty coffee cup and newspaper. “Yes, I do,” she said and stood up.
“Wait. Have dinner with me tonight,” he said, stopping her with a simple touch to her arm.
Ana shivered with his small touch, wondering how a stranger could generate such heat. She ignored the feelings, knowing the relationship could not go any further than this one, exhilarating conversation. She was meeting her future husband tonight and after all, she’d never been able to flirt, or even date another man, knowing that she was betrothed to the odious Prince Erik. Dating anyone had been out of the question. “No, I can’t. Really, I have to go,” she said and started to slip by him, now that she’d remembered her engagement party, she knew that this mild flirtation would have to stop immediately.
His hand to her arm stopped her and she again shivered with awareness when his hand caught both of hers in his large ones. “Annie, I won’t let you go without knowing I’ll see you again. You can’t just leave me with nothing. Meet me tomorrow, here,” he said. “Have coffee with me again. It is Sunday so you can’t have any appointments tomorrow.”
She glanced down at the strong hand gently touching her arm and wanted to agree to meet him. But she also knew it was too dangerous to agree. Her mind was already working on how she was going to get through the evening with her future husband tonight. “Yes, unfortunately I do have appointments tomorrow that I can’t get out of,” she said but the disappointment was in her voice. She started to walk away again, knowing that she needed to get away as fast as possible before she embarrassed herself in front of him.
“Annie,” his deep voice said softly.
His words stilled her and she looked up at him. The rest of the coffee shop disappeared, the other patrons’ noise dimmed and there was only the two of them, the rest of the world blocked out. His eyes transfixed hers and she stared, her heart beating wildly as she watched his head descend slowly toward hers, inch by inch and her head turned up automatically, eager to receive his kiss.
When his lips finally touched hers, Ana gasped at the feeling. He lifted his mouth up only a fraction of an inch to stare into her startled eyes, then kissed her again, this time with slightly more pressure, his lips rubbing sensually against hers.
Ana sighed and closed her eyes, the feeling of electricity tingling through her body at his touch. His lips were wonderful, transporting her away from all the tension of her current predicament and into a world where only Marcus existed. She’d never really been kissed before except for awkward, stolen kisses on a dance floor. But this man definitely knew how to kiss and applied that skill with a gentle pressure against her own lips.
“Annie,” he groaned softly. But her name sparked her out of the trance and she stepped back.
Stepping back, she looked around, worried that someone had seen them, which of course they had since they were standing in the middle of a coffee shop with a few other patrons. But no one seemed to be paying them any attention. She quickly pulled her scarf up over her head with shaking fingers and covered her shining hair, wishing she could just forget her responsibilities and run away with him, let him kiss her senseless. But Ana had never been one to ignore her duties. “I’m sorry, I really must go,” she said and ducked around him to rush out of the coffee shop.