The Reluctant Princess

by Christine Rimmer

  She turned in the opposite direction and started walking. He came along behind her, but several yards back, as if he wanted to give her as much space, as much leeway, as he could and still follow the orders he’d been given by his king.

  She stopped. Looked at her watch. Ten o’clock.

  Hauk came up beside her. She sent him a sad smile. “I know. It’s not your fault. None of this. You can’t be who you are and behave any differently.”

  He said nothing. He stared out over the smooth-moving water.

  “Come on,” she said. “We’ll go back now.”

  When they got to her apartment, the princess wanted a bath. She asked nicely for an hour to herself in the bathroom.

  Hauk wanted to shout No. He wanted to order her to come with him. Now. Out of here, to the airport, to the jet that awaited her.

  But he’d demanded that they leave so many times already. She always refused. And then there was nothing more he could do. He had no rights here. He was to wait and to watch. And then tomorrow, if she continued to balk, he was to use force to see that she went where she’d agreed to go.

  In answer to her request for time alone in the bath, he gave her a grunt and a shrug. He wasn’t talking to her, hadn’t for hours now. Talking to her only led to trouble.

  She was too good with that mouth of hers. Whenever he let himself engage in discourse with her, she always got him thinking things he knew he shouldn’t let himself think. She would lure him close to doubting the wisdom of his own king, to questioning the way things were and had always been.

  And beyond the dangerous questions she had him asking himself, there was that other problem, the one that kept getting worse: the way she roused him, as a man. Whenever she spoke, he would watch her full lips moving and wonder what else she could do with that soft mouth and that clever tongue.

  She went into her bathroom and he turned for the guest bath. He emptied his bladder, washed his hands and cleaned his teeth. He returned to her bedroom and rolled out his bedding. And then he stood, waiting, all too aware of the scented moistness of the air, constantly turning his mind from the light beneath the bathroom door, from images of her, naked. Wet. That wheat-colored hair curling and damp from the steam that rose upward off the warm water…

  By Odin’s one eye, he was doing it again.

  He ordered his mind off the thought of her, naked.

  He pondered the morning, when her time for stalling, for lingering here, would run out. Would she force him to bind her and gag her again, to toss her over his shoulder and carry her out of here as he’d started to do two days and a lifetime ago?

  And the larger question: Would he do it if she did?

  That he even asked himself that question spoke volumes about what was happening to him. Something had shifted—inside him. Something had changed. Something in his very self, in who he was.

  He’d earned, over time, an inner contentment. Born from high stock, but a bastard, he’d been cast down. Both his mother and his father had past kings in their lineage. Had his mother agreed to marry his father, as a child of two old and powerful families, he would have been high jarl. Had his parents been married, he could now look at Princess Elli eye-to-eye. Even should her father have plans to marry her to another, Hauk would still be her equal, he could still court her. He would have a chance at her hand.

  But though his mother succumbed to her passion for his father, she would not marry. She was kvina soldar: a woman warrior. If she married, she would have been forced to give up her warrior status. For a wife to be a warrior was not done. And, as a result, she condemned her son to start from less than nothing.

  A warrior’s training was brutal. But Hauk had been born with his father’s size and his mother’s natural physical skill. He’d fought his way forward to the front of the pack. In recent years, he’d thought that he could see his future and that it was good. He’d believed he brought honor to his bastard name.

  He had eight more years in the king’s service, and then, when his commission was up, there would be money enough. He’d ask a good woman, one only slightly above him—legitimate and jarl, but low jarl, from an unimportant family, a family only a generation or two up from freeman—to marry him.

  And his sons and daughters would have a better start, a better chance than he’d had. Thus, the error of one generation found correction in the next. It had all seemed fitting. Right. Good.

  Until now.

  Until he’d been sent to kidnap the king’s daughter.

  And ended up trailing after her wherever she went, looking into those deep-blue eyes, listening to that warm, musical voice. Sitting beside her in a darkened theater, across from her at her own table—and in that restaurant tonight…

  There had been a candle on the table tonight. In the warm light, her skin had glowed, soft as the petal of some rare pink rose. He had sat and stared and admired up close what such as he should never see except from a careful, formal distance.

  It was all a mistake. A huge one, an error in judgment on the part of his king. His king had trusted him.

  And no matter that Hauk had yet to touch the woman intimately—would never touch the woman intimately—he had betrayed that trust in his heart and his mind.

  Betrayed his king. And thus, betrayed the man he had always believed himself to be.

  The door to the bathroom opened. The princess emerged wearing the big pink shirt she liked to sleep in. A cloud of sweet steam came out with her. Her face had a clean, scrubbed shine to it. Her hair was slightly damp at the temples, little tendrils of it curling along her soft, moist cheeks.

  Desire was a lance, turning in his flesh, twisting ever deeper.

  If only she had never dared to speak of it—to talk of it so calmly, in her easy American way. Her words had seared themselves into his brain.

  It’s an…attraction, that’s all. It happens between men and women. It’s natural. We don’t have to act on it. And if we did—which we won’t—it would be nobody’s business but yours and mine….

  She had him thinking, oh yes, she did. Thinking that to have her would be worth everything—his commission, his pride. Possibly even his freedom and his life. Just one night, to touch her everywhere, to put his mouth on all her most secret places, to hear her call out his name.

  What was his life, anyway? Who was he? Less than nothing. Fitz. Bastard. With his small hopes of an insignificant future.

  The wife he hadn’t found yet was ruined for him now. In the distant, empty time to come, he would look down into her face when they mated and think of the woman standing in the doorway now.

  Her Highness said, “You can get comfortable. I’m going to bed.”

  Hauk pulled off his boots and his stockings and went down to his blankets to wait out the endless night.

  Chapter Nine

  Somehow, though she never expected she would, Elli did go to sleep. If she dreamed, she didn’t recall those dreams when she woke. Her eyes popped open at a few minutes after seven on Thursday morning and her first thought, as she stared at her silent bedside clock, was that she’d forgotten to turn on her alarm.

  Her second thought was of Hauk.

  Hauk. A warmth spread through her. A longing.

  She ordered that longing to get lost. Today, they were leaving. By tonight, she’d be in Gullandria. He’d made it clear that once he delivered her to her father, they might never see each other again. And if they did, it would only be in passing. A quick glimpse, from a distance, in some echoing palace room. That, at most. Nothing more.

  She sat up. And found him sitting in the straight chair opposite the end of her bed. He had his boots on and his face was just-shaved smooth.

  Elli raked her tangled hair back off her forehead. “Imagine running into you here.”

  “It is Thursday morning.”

  Irritation sizzled through her at his preemptive tone. “No kidding.”

  “Rise. Dress and gather your things. The time to go has come.”

  She fol
ded her hands on top of the blankets and looked down at them. She was thinking that she ought to just do as he said.

  Too bad when she raised her head what came out was, “Think again.”

  As usual, he sat absolutely still. “Why do you insist on playing these endless mind games?” His eyes were like a pair of lasers, slicing through her, cutting deep.

  “This is no game. It’s only seven. It will be Thursday morning for five more hours.”

  His expression showed very little. Yet somehow he seemed to seethe where he sat. There was a long, heated moment during which they glared at each other.

  Then he stood. “Five hours then. At noon, you will be ready. At 12:00 p.m., exactly, we will walk out your door.”

  She yanked her shoulders back and shot him her most defiant scowl. “And if I’m not ready?”

  “Then I’ll bind you hand and foot, stuff a kerchief in your mouth to still your cries and carry you out.” He turned on his heel and left.

  Elli gripped the blankets and told herself she would not, under any circumstances, jump from the bed and chase him down the hall screaming obscenities at the top of her lungs.

  Hauk stood in the hall, composing himself. He wanted to march back in there, wrap his fingers around her smooth neck and squeeze the defiance right out of her. But if he touched her, he knew it wouldn’t be strangling she’d get at his hands.

  The most important thing, the goal above all, was to last until noon without laying a finger on her. Then, one way or another, he’d take her to the airport. The Gulfstream could make it nonstop to Gullandria. Within hours, he’d be turning her over to her father, the king. Once he got free of her—once she wasn’t there every moment, her very presence like a taunt, a constant reminder of what he’d never have—he could begin to purge himself of this impossible hunger for her.

  Through the most recent long and sleepless night, he’d pondered deeply. And by dawn he’d almost convinced himself that, over time, he would again find the man he had been before Monday—before two brief days and three cruel nights of following his king’s beautiful daughter everywhere she went. He’d almost made himself believe that the day would come when the prospect of the life that lay before him would be enough to satisfy him again.

  Already there was a bright spot to focus on. Never again would he be forced to spend a night lying so near to her, forbidden to touch.

  Elli got dressed, washed her face, combed her hair and brushed on a little blusher and mascara. Hauk was waiting for her in the hallway when she emerged from the bedroom.

  She couldn’t seem to stop herself from sneering at him. “There you are again. How can I miss you if you won’t go away?”

  He fell in step behind her. “You will soon have your wish.”

  She stopped, turned. And all her anger just melted away. There was nothing left but longing.

  “Oh, Hauk. I didn’t say it was my wish.”

  They stared at each other. Always a mistake, for them to stare at each other…

  Elli sucked in a trembling breath. “Breakfast,” she said. “We need breakfast.”

  “Yes,” he said. “Breakfast.”

  Neither of them moved.

  “Go on,” he said.

  Somehow, she did it. She turned from those eyes of his and went on down the hall.

  The dishwasher was full of clean dishes. Hauk emptied it and set the table. Elli made the coffee, fried the last of the bacon and whipped up some batter for pancakes.

  They ate in silence.

  And not an angry silence, either. Just a cautious one—cautious and a little bit sad. Elli let her gaze stray out the window to the patch of blue sky between the buildings.

  She looked back at Hauk, who was so carefully not looking at her.

  Oh, really, he was very dear. He was true and good and…straight-ahead. Not to mention absolutely thrilling to look at. She remembered the little redhead in the restaurant last night. Is that yours? Oh, my, my…

  Elli agreed with the redhead. What woman wouldn’t want to make love with Hauk? All that beautiful bronze skin and those big, hard muscles. And those eyes…

  Once she’d thought his eyes cold and hard. But she’d learned better in the last two days. His eyes were clear. Unflinching. They spoke of the honesty and strength within.

  And it wasn’t only that just looking at him made her want to throw herself into those huge arms of his. There was also an odd and lovely… comfortableness, between them. Or at least, there was whenever she let down her guard and stopped manufacturing anger to keep her feelings for him at bay.

  Really, other than held tight in his arms, there was no place she’d rather be than right here, at the breakfast table, with Hauk sitting across from her.

  How could that have happened, in little more than two days? How had he gone from a terrifying stranger, her kidnapper—to this? The man most likely to turn her knees to jelly, the man she wanted so much to kiss. The man who could clear her table and empty her dishwasher any time, no questions asked.

  She set down her fork. “Hauk?”

  He allowed himself to look at her.

  “Why are we doing this?”

  “Because you refuse to give up your stalling and pack your—”

  “No.”

  He looked at her sideways, suspicious.

  “Hauk, I don’t mean that. I don’t mean my going or not going. I mean…you and me. I mean, well, that I care for you. A lot.” He stared—and he blinked. She waved a hand. “Oh, I know. It sounds crazy, to say that, considering why you came here in the first place, considering that it’s only been a couple of days since we met. But so what if it’s crazy? It’s also true. I do care for you. And I think you care for me.” He was gaping at her. He looked utterly stunned. She continued. “I don’t see why we can’t just—”

  “Enough.” Hauk dropped his own fork. It clattered to his plate.

  “But I want you to—”

  His chair screeched across the floor tiles as he surged to his feet. “I have told you. I know you have heard. There can be nothing between us. Ever.”

  She looked up at him unblinking. “That is so ridiculous.”

  “To you, perhaps.”

  “No. Not only to me. To any…thinking individual.”

  “Now you insult my intelligence.”

  “No, I’m not. You know I’m not. And we both know what you’re doing now. You’re trying to drum up some fake reason to be angry with me—and I don’t blame you for doing that. I mean, it’s not as if I haven’t been doing it, too. But we both know it’s all just an act, just a hopeless attempt on both our parts to keep from admitting how we really feel about each other.”

  He fell back a step—as if he needed all the distance from her he could get, as if he feared she might actually reach out and touch him.

  She did no such thing—she didn’t even move. “You think of me as a princess, as someone far above you, someone out of your reach. But that’s…all in your mind. I’m no princess. Not really. You’re always telling me that I think like an American. Well, that’s because, as I keep telling you, I am an American. I might have been born in Gullandria, but I’ve lived all but the first ten months of my life right here, in Sacramento. The laws and customs of Gullandria don’t apply to me. At heart, where it matters, I’m just Elli Thorson. And I think, honestly, that we might have something here, you and me. Something really powerful. Something so good…”

  Apparently, he didn’t agree with her. He stood to attention now. He was just waiting for her to be done with him. Waiting so that he could go.

  “Oh, Hauk,” she said in a low voice.

  “Are you finished?”

  She bit her lip, gave a small, hopeless shrug.

  To get away from her, out of the kitchen, he had to go past her. It was his undoing.

  She caught his wrist as he tried to get by. “Oh, Hauk. Please…”

  He froze. The air seemed to shimmer around them. Heat radiated from the point where her flesh touch
ed his. That heat was spreading out, all through her body. Arrows of longing zinged straight through her heart.

  She had a split second—even less than that—and he would shake her off. She didn’t give him time to do it. She swept upward, out of her chair, throwing her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his big, hard chest.

  It was too much for him. His resistance broke. With a low moan he gathered her close.

  Stunned that she’d gotten exactly what she’d yearned for, Elli stared upward, into his wonderful, square-jawed, determined face.

  Oh, my. This was a lovely, lovely place to be, held so close against his heart, those huge, strong arms wrapped around her.

  He whispered, “You should not have touched me.”

  “Oh, right. Ask me not to breathe, while you’re at it.”

  “You should not—”

  “Shh.” She slid one hand up between their bodies, put two fingers against his mouth. “Stop that,” she chided, oh so tenderly.

  His mouth moved. She felt his breath flow down her hand. His lips parted slightly and his lower teeth scraped her finger pads.

  Elli shivered—with delight, with excitement. “Oh, see? See, this is how it ought to be….”

  His big hand was in her hair. He cupped the back of her head. “A mistake. This is all a dangerous mistake.”

  “Stop that. You stop that right now. This is no mistake. I just told you what this is. This is how it ought to be.” She was pressed very close to him, close enough to feel his arousal—and to revel in it. In her own most intimate place, she felt…hollowed out, moist and needful and longing to be filled with him. She gasped. “Oh, Hauk. Kiss me. Kiss me, please.”

  Her eyes drifted closed.

  Hauk looked down at that beautiful mouth, the mouth she offered, the mouth she wanted him to have.

  Damned, he thought. I am damned to the bitter cold and unending night of Hel, to do this.

  But right at that moment, he didn’t care. He thought, Just the taste of her. Why shouldn’t I have that? She wants me to have that. Only a taste….

  Her head tipped back, her mouth tipped up. She loosed the sweetest, tiniest sigh.