by Rosko, Mandy
She tightened her bathrobe around herself. She wasn’t about to let a wardrobe malfunction happen around a bunch of guys she didn’t know. It was bad enough they could see her hairy, half waxed legs, and the part of her face that had the green stuff on it was starting to tingle and burn.
She reached back for a cloth to wipe at her face.
“My lady, don’t smear it,” Leanne said, but it was too late. She was getting it off her face.
“It burns too much,” Fiona said. And she looked ridiculous. “I think I’m allergic to it.”
She went to a mirror as she wiped it off her cheek and forehead, to make sure she got all of it. It was starting to burn even worse now. Maybe she should have done this with a damp cloth.
When she saw herself in the mirror, Fiona was suddenly glad that the alarm did go off, because if what he was seeing was real, then there was no way in hell she wanted this stuff on any part of her skin.
She pulled back, faced Eric, and pointed at herself. “Am I seeing this right?”
Even with the sunglasses on, the way his mouth tightened was obvious. The other men in the room appeared to be trying to not look at her at all, as if they were hoping Fiona wouldn’t ask them such an awkward question. Half of her face was bright red. Bright red and still burning.
“Oh God,” she said. “Do you have anything for this?”
Leanne’s hands were at her mouth. She appeared almost in shock before she finally snapped out of it and pulled something off the tray of potions and waxes. It looked to be a wipe of some sort.
“Here, my lady, come. I will fix this.”
“Ow,” Fiona said when Leanne touched her face. She wasn't rough, and whatever that little cloth was made out of was as smooth and soft as could be. It was almost like a baby wipe that had been dipped in essential oils. The problem was how much the simplest touch was making the burn feel that much worse.
“I don’t know what happened. This was not supposed to happen.” Leanne went on and on with her apologies. Fiona didn’t know what to say to her. She’d always had sensitive skin, but she’d never had a reaction like this before.
“I guess it’s a good thing the alarm went off, ow,” Fiona said, trying to make light of the situation, but still wincing as Leanne tenderly wiped down her face. She eventually switched to a new wipe, and this time, Fiona almost felt something akin to relief, but then the worry settled in.
“Is it nasty?”
What if her face stayed bright red for several days? What if her face started to peel, or swell up? What would Inferno say when he looked at her then? Surely, he wouldn’t think she was so good to look at when she resembled something that could have landed from Mars.
A soft, helpless noise escaped her throat before she could stop it.
Leanne kept babbling. “I will fix it, my lady. I promise you. I am so sorry; the green tea mask wasn’t supposed to do this.”
As if to confirm all of her nightmares, Inferno’s voice could be heard booming down the hall, and the amazing thing was that he didn’t even sound angry.
“Where is she? Is she all right?”
Damn, his voice could carry.
And he was going to walk in here and see her looking like this any second now.
The idea of that made her panic a hundred times more than the way her face looked or the suspicious way all the guards had just swarmed into her room.
“Leanne, he can’t see me right now.”
Leanne nodded. “Of course. Here, keep this on your face.”
Leanne handed her that nice soft cloth she’d been using, and even though the mask had been a disaster, this thing had been touching her skin enough that she was reasonably confident she wasn’t going to get her face burned off from it.
She held it completely over her face while Leanne went to the door just as Inferno walked in.
God, she was still wearing this fluffy bathrobe with wax on her legs. This was a nightmare.
“Fiona?” Inferno called.
She didn’t look at him.
“The lady is fine, my lord,” Leanne said. “A mishap with the facial.”
“Mishap?” he asked, his voice sounding much closer.
He was coming towards her.
Fiona stepped away and walked right into the tray that had been holding all the waxes and cosmetics. She might have knocked it over had a pair of small hands not grabbed her by the shoulders. Likely it was Fleur, or the other maid.
“Fiona, let me see.”
“No, I’m all right.” She didn’t dare take her face out of the cloth. No way. No way in hell was she going to let him see her looking as red as a stop light. It was almost as bad as finding out her boss had taken credit for her recipes. She was not going to let a handsome dragon prince see her looking like this. Worse still when it was a handsome prince she wanted to throw herself at just because he was in the same room.
Fuck, that mating heat thing, whatever it was, was already pulling her to him. She couldn’t take that. Not now.
“Fiona, it’s all right. It can’t be that bad.”
“It’s that bad, and you’re not going to see it.” She hoped the tone of her voice made it clear how serious she was. She also wanted to take some of the attention off her, though she wasn’t sure how successful she was, considering she was still holding a baby wipe to her face with both hands. “What was happening with the alarm? Was it dangerous?”
“No, a couple of reporters and photographers tried sneaking onto the property. They haven’t tried that in a while.”
Did that mean some people knew she was here? Did the public know Fiona was in this castle? Did they know why?
She needed to get online as soon as possible.
“The rest of you can return to your posts,” Inferno said.
Fiona heard the guards silently walk out of the room, and though she was glad they were gone, the tension in her shoulders didn’t lessen with Inferno there, watching her.
“Are you certain you don’t want me to see? Whatever it is cannot be that bad.”
Typical guy. He didn’t get it.
Thank God Leanne was there to talk some sense into the man.
She kept her voice low, though Fiona could still hear everything she said. “My lord, women can be sensitive about these things. Please, leave this matter to me, and I will see to it that she is well cared for.”
“Will she be well enough for dinner tonight?”
Dinner? Right, with his family. But there was also something else they were supposed to be doing tonight, something that just thinking about made her stomach clench and her blood warm.
“I might need to stay in here tonight. Alone.”
The sudden silence in the large bedroom was incredibly noticeable.
“Let me see your face.”
“Nope.” She walked another couple of feet, out of the hands of the woman who had been holding her steady. Of course, she banged her knees into something else that was hard and painful. Probably the leg of a table or a chair. Fiona hissed when she felt part of her skin that still wax on and no strip touch the object, and then pull stickily away.
She was making a mess of everything.
“It cannot be that bad, and you will still have dinner tonight with the rest of the family.”
“Can we cancel it?” There was no way the red on her face was going to go down enough for her to have dinner with royalty.
“No.”
Fiona didn’t expect the hard edge to his voice. She didn’t like it either. She pulled the cloth away from the part of her face that wasn’t hot and burning while keeping it pressed to the side that was. She had to look at him if she was going to glare at him.
He glared back at her, his arms crossed.
“I can’t go to dinner tonight.”
“You will be fine. It’s just with family. No photos will be taken of you, and there will be no press or nobles there to judge you.”
“Will your ex-fiancée be there?” Fiona didn’t think she c
ould handle having dinner and pretending everything was all right around the woman whose man she stole. Was it still stealing if it turned out Fiona was his true mate? Well, she didn’t know, and she didn’t want to take the risk of rubbing it in. It would just be worse if Fiona looked like a cherry tomato.
“She will have to be there. She is my cousin and part of the family.”
“Then I can’t do it.”
“She will understand. You will have to meet her eventually. Stop acting petulant.”
Fiona snapped. She couldn’t hold it in. “Well stop treating me like this is supposed to be normal!” In her anger, she threw the cloth covering her face to the floor.
Inferno’s eyes widened, and he finally, finally looked like he wasn’t in complete command of everything.
“Someone tried to kill me last night! They broke into my apartment and tried to strangle me, and you kidnapped me and brought me into another country without my permission. Now you think I’m going to mate with you and be with you and have dinner with your family without any thought of what my needs might be right now?”
Even now she was struggling with the heat that was intensifying in her body. It was as if someone turned up the thermostat by several degrees, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do about that because this was crazy.
It was crazy that every time she looked at Inferno, she saw him naked. It was crazier still that she thought about all the stuff she wanted to do to him when she did get his clothes off.
Inferno clenched his hands into fists, growling through his teeth, “I am keeping you here for your protection.”
“Yeah? And how well is that going when reporters can sneak onto your property whenever they want?”
Leanne suddenly spoke up. “Fleur, Anne, out, right now.”
“Leanne, don’t go.” Fiona didn’t want to risk what would happen if she was alone with Inferno. Her body trembled from all the yelling, but not only that, she was terrified that she was going to jump into his arms and have make up sex with him.
“What’s wrong with you? Tell me right now.”
She nearly flew off the handle. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Your face,” he clarified. “You look as if you’re in pain.”
She was in pain. The swelling was setting in. She could feel it beneath the cloth. Her other eye wasn’t quite swelling shut, but it was almost there. “I’m having an allergic reaction to one of the facials,” she admitted miserably. This was not any fun, and she didn’t want him to see her like this.
Inferno stepped forward again. Fiona backed off, but he was faster, reaching out and snatching her by the wrist before she could get away. “You will not run and hide from me.”
The breath was swept out of Fiona’s lungs as she stared up into his determined gaze. He loomed over her, so big and strong. The skin-to-skin touch of his hand on her wrist was enough to make her pulse skip. At that moment, the only thing Fiona could focus on was Inferno’s bottom lip. She saw its color, its shape. She also saw herself biting down on it.
It was just the two of them in the room. In the world. There was no one else but them.
And Leanne. “I should go.”
“Stay,” Inferno said, and when he lifted his hand to turn her chin and examine her face, she was helpless to stop him. She was too transfixed, like an animal being hypnotized by its prey.
Inferno frowned softly, letting his hand come up, his fingertips gently touching her swollen cheek. Even though he barely grazed her, Fiona hissed. “An allergic reaction did this?”
“Yes, my lord,” Leanne said.
Inferno’s jaw tightened. “Show me.”
He broke eye contact with her, and just like that, the spell was broken, and Fiona could breathe again. Holy God, that was intense. What the hell was that? Her wrist was tingling where Inferno was still holding onto her, but it was nothing at all like the burning on her face.
Fiona barely noticed as Leanne showed Inferno the pot of facial cream that was supposed to set on her face.
“How long was it on for?”
“Just a moment, my lord. We didn’t have the chance to put the rest on because our alarms went off.”
So that was why they’d been looking at their watches.
Inferno released her wrist. Fiona felt cold without him holding onto her, but he picked up the pot of green face cream and examined it. What was he looking for?
“My lord?” Leanne asked.
“What is it?” Fiona wanted to know, too.
The lips that Fiona had been thinking about biting and kissing hardened before he looked back to Leanne. “You’ve used products that are too harsh on her. We’ll need to replace all of this.”
He was serious, too. Inferno took the beauty cart by the handle and wheeled it towards the door.
That only made Fiona even more alarmed. “Where are you going?”
“I’ll see you at dinner tonight,” he said, still glowering as he left the bedroom.
11
Inferno was careful as he held onto the pot of green goo.
He loved women. He adored them. He was never going to understand all the things they did to themselves, however — lotions and creams for their entire bodies, not just their faces. Tinder had set aside two days out of the week to go and sit in a room for an hour at a time with what she’d called an oatmeal mask on her face while getting her nails done and cuticles cut.
Inferno swore he would never have known what cuticles were had it not been for polite society and the women he had to socialize with. Then there were the cases and cases of colors they carried around with their nail polishes and eye shadows. Body scrubs that had actual sparkles in them. It all seemed like such an effort to do something that didn’t produce many results. Inferno never noticed a difference in any of the women he’d dated before committing to the marriage between himself and his cousin.
Inferno brought the mask to Ember’s apartments. He needed his brother for this.
He nodded to the guards in black standing outside the door to the office. None of the private chambers in the palace would ever be without protection.
The door was opened for him, and he let himself in. Ember wasn’t there.
“Call my brother for me,” Inferno commanded, setting the pot onto the table in the middle of the room. It was still warm from being heated, and now there was a strange odor to it.
“Yes, my lord.”
The guard shut the door behind him, and Inferno waited for his brother to come to him. Ember was good with these sorts of situations. Even now, Inferno struggled with himself to hold back his temper. He wanted to find out who was responsible for this and put them in a world of pain.
That was a simple reaction based on nothing but anger and rage—not exactly a regal reaction. Sometimes, a king needed to work silently, swiftly, and intelligently if he was going to get the results he wanted.
He was sure there was something off about what was inside this pot, but how was he to know for sure until the proper tests could be done? Even with his influence, it could take days, possibly weeks, before the results came back.
Inferno glanced up at the vase of fresh flowers in the middle of the table. Neither he nor any of his brothers were much into greenery, but the staff put them out because they looked elegant and added a fresh scent to the rooms.
Also, it was tradition.
Inferno reached out and took one of the roses by the stem. It was a fat bud; it had yet to open and bloom. He turned it upside down and placed it into the concoction on the table.
Leanne and Fiona had said the mix had only been on her face for a minute, possibly less than that. He watched the bud in the mixture, and although it didn’t hiss, bubble, or smoke, his instincts told him that this experiment would be telling.
The door behind Inferno opened, heavy footsteps walking up behind him. “You summoned me, brother?” Ember’s tone was hardly serious, but Inferno hadn’t exactly told the guard what he was calling Ember for.
“Make of what?” Ember came to stand beside Inferno. “What are you doing?”
Inferno pulled the rose out of the green mixture. He looked at his brother, then reached out and pulled the embroidered handkerchief out of his pocket, using it to wipe off the goo as gently as possible.
“Is there something important about this?”
“This was the cream, face mask, whatever it was, that was being put onto Fiona’s face. I had it in there for about two minutes before you showed up.”
He also couldn’t wipe away the green stuff without ripping apart the petals beneath. It was hard to tell because of the mixture, but the red rose had browned and shriveled, burning under the influence of the mask.
Ember noticed it as well. “That was going to be put on the face of your woman?”
Inferno slammed his fist onto the table. “It was put on her face,” he growled through his teeth. He shoved the pot of goo at his brother. “You have connections and know who to ask. Take this and get it tested. Someone in the palace is trying to harm Fiona.”
And another horrifying thought occurred to him.
What if the same person in the palace was the person who had sent those men after her in her apartment last night? Inferno could have brought her directly into danger instead of away from it.
* * *
It was clear Fiona wasn’t going to have her spa treatment finished today since Inferno had handed off the beauty cart to one of the guards, who had whisked it away. Leanne finished waxing her legs, but Fiona had to wash off all the excess bits of wax left behind on her own.
“Isn’t he being a little overprotective?”
“Just precautions, my lady,” Eric said with a smile that couldn’t have been faker if he’d tried. “This is something of an annoyance for the lords and ladies of the household, but if there is ever an episode like the one you just had, an allergy, or a small accident, then it’s policy to take all the materials and have them examined.”
“Oh.” She still wasn’t sure she believed him, not with the way Inferno had walked out. Fleur still looked kind of irritated that her routine was being interrupted.