The Bachelor Prince

by Jane Beckenham

  Her eyes widened at his tactics. “Typical. You always manage to deflect when things get too personal.”

  “And you didn’t answer my question.”

  “And you’re straying from the point. It’s not me who has to marry.”

  “But I do know what I want right now.”

  Cassie’s breath stilled.

  “I want to kiss you, Cassie Masters.”

  Kiss me?

  He drew her to him and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. The fingers of one hand caressed her hairline, inching across her scalp, and the butterflies residing in her stomach flew into a frenzy.

  Then reality prevailed. “You’re my boss.”

  “And you, it seems, are suitably efficient at deflection also. An employee should always do what their boss says, surely?”

  Even a steadying breath failed to override the surge of excitement charging through her. “Says who?”

  “Me.” Then he did exactly what she’d hoped he would. He kissed her. Not on the forehead or one of those I’ll-see-you-later kind of kisses. This one was real. On the mouth, his lips gentle and tasting sweet. And wonderful.

  Tingles skittered across her skin as he deepened the kiss and the tip of his tongue slid along her lips.

  “Beautiful,’ he whispered against her mouth.

  Cassie didn’t deny him access as his tongue slipped between her lips and caressed hers. Her palms crept up between them, resting against his tuxedoed chest.

  Kissing forever would be wonderful.

  But with a deep moan, he finally drew away, and disappointment tangled with mortification in her chest. What had she done?

  “Good night, Ms. Masters.”

  Chapter Three

  As the last echoes of the limousine silenced, Cassie stepped inside and closed the door behind her. Unfortunately, it didn’t shut out the storm of emotions Lucas’s kiss stirred. The moment his lips had touched hers, hell would have frozen over before she would have drawn away. She could never have denied him. Or herself.

  Retreating to her bedroom, she quickly undressed and crawled into bed. She prayed sleep would eradicate the lingering taste of him, but in the darkness her shaking fingers traced a path along her lips, aware of the heat still there.

  Sleep, however, proved elusive, and for hours she eyed the moonlight filtering from behind the edge of the curtain, unable to stem the myriad of questions flying through her brain.

  What was she going to do about work?

  About Lucas?

  About remembering how his lips had tasted on hers?

  She had to go to work tomorrow. Had to face him. And all the while, she’d be thinking about their kiss. Wanting more. Dreaming about it. Dreaming about him.

  The questions continued, every one unanswered, and as dawn lit her bedroom with its soft warmth, she exhaled an exhausted sigh. Time to face the day—and her prince.

  She hauled herself from bed, showered and dressed before gathering the courage to look at herself in the mirror. Buttoned up neck to knee, the dirt brown skirt and jacket screamed efficient and boring.

  Normal.

  Part of her was disappointed at her reflection, the other part relieved. Last night, Lucas had called her beautiful, and she had felt beautiful—wanted to—even if it had been just for a moment in time. But it wasn’t because of the dress, or even because Lucas said so. It was because she had been true to herself for once, and not stifled herself behind the mask of toning down her appearance as she’d done for years.

  The metro journey didn’t take long, and just as she reached her office, her cell phone rang. She dropped her bag on her desk and answered her phone as she sat down. “Gramma,” she said with a heartfelt smile.

  “Sweetie, the rest home is all sorted. We’ve got a date to take residency. It’s earlier than we expected. Did you get my email?”

  “Yes, Gramma. I’m sorry I didn’t respond. I was…working late.”

  Kissing him late!

  “I know you’re busy, darling. Are you sure you’re going to manage when Tina is with you?”

  Cassie heard the worry in her grandmother’s voice. “Of course. I just need to arrange some time off so I can come to New Zealand, finalize the guardianship papers and bring Tina here.”

  “You’re young, not married. You can’t manage a child and a job.”

  “Women worldwide do it. So can I. Just leave it to me. I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for Tina, especially after…” A hiccup escaped her. Even five years after her father’s death, Cassie teared up when she thought of him.

  “You were too young when your father died. Just starting out in the world.”

  “I know, and I appreciate that you looked after Tina. She needed security after Dad died, but you and Granddad deserve some time for yourselves now.”

  “We’ll miss her, but…it’s for the best.”

  “It is, and it’s time for me to do what Dad asked.”

  “Will you manage financially, dear?”

  She would, as long as she kept her job. “It’s fine. Money won’t be a problem.”

  Just behind her, Cassie heard the click of a door and turned abruptly. Lucas stood leaning against the doorjamb, arms folded across his middle. He stared at her, a strange, brooding darkness in his expression she’d not witnessed before.

  “I’ve got to go.” Cassie clicked off her cell phone and slipped it back into her pocket. Lucas’s inspection unnerved her, and her fingers lifted her to lips. “What are you doing here?”

  His mouth twitched a fraction, but his steely reserve remained. “This is my office, I believe.”

  “I’m aware of that. I…I thought you would be in late.”

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  Ditto.

  Uncertain why she felt guilty and annoyed at the same time, she grabbed the reports file she’d worked on yesterday. “I have those reports for you.” She held them out to him, but instead of taking them, he reached for his briefcase at his feet. “I’ve got a meeting and won’t be back till late.” He extended a hand for the documents, and for a fleeting moment, there was something exciting in his eyes that caused her heart to skip a beat. Then it evaporated, and without a smile, he walked right past her.

  Cassie didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until she heard the elevator doors close behind him, and though busy for the rest of the day, she found herself on edge waiting for his return.

  By quitting time, her nerves were doing a good imitation of a tightrope. Lucas hadn’t returned, and she closed up the office and left, grateful to escape without having to face him again.

  Entering the elevator, she leaned against the back wall, closing her eyes as it descended. How she wished this day hadn’t happened. And yesterday…and especially last night. Kissing Lucas had revived her fantasy and made it all too hard.

  She shook her head at her stupidity. For goodness’ sakes, she should be concentrating on how the heck she was going to bring Tina to live with her, not Lucas and his kisses.

  The elevator reached the foyer and the doors opened. For a split second, she didn’t want to leave, preferring the cloistered confines of the conveyance. Finally, with a heavy sigh, she exited, her heels clacking across the marbled foyer as she headed to the exit, only to walk right into a gaggle of paparazzi all shouting for her attention.

  Shocked, she blinked…then blinked again, stumbling backward as they advanced.

  “How long you have you been dating the prince, Cassie?”

  “When are you getting married now the engagement has been announced?”

  Announced? When?

  Unable to think, she tried hiding behind her bag, holding it up in front of her.

  “Smile for us, Cassie.”

  Her lips pursed. God help her. They knew her name and where she worked. They had her corne
red.

  The option of retreating back indoors obliterated by the activation of the security lock on the doors, she glanced right…left, all while the cameras continued clicking, flashbulbs transforming the darkening evening into daylight.

  “Back off, boys, she’s with me.”

  “Lucas!” Cassie’s head spun round as he drew her into his body.

  “Head down, and keep it down.” Lucas delighted in the feel of Cassie against him. She fit perfectly, hip to hip. He linked an arm around her waist, her warmth infusing his body and her fragrance teasing his senses.

  Seeing Cassie surrounded by the media vultures, he felt the urge to protect her kick in, and yet the ever-increasing need to touch her, kiss her, had quickly become paramount. Taking control, he guided her through the baying media. They parted like the Red Sea before Moses and allowed them to reach his car on the other side of the road. “Get us out of here, Charlie,” he instructed one of his ever-present bodyguards.

  The moment the door closed behind them, Charlie obeyed, and with a squeal of tires, the car sped off to the accompaniment of more popping flashbulbs.

  “Why the hell didn’t you wait till I got back to the office?”

  Cassie shook herself from his hold, defiance flashing in the depths of her eyes. “Because I wanted to go home. Because I’d done a day’s work, and because…”

  “Because you’ve got a date? Is that lover from last night waiting for you?” Something in Lucas’s gut soured. Why did he suddenly not like the sound of those words on his tongue?

  “That is none of your business.” She glanced again out the back window. “Why were they following us?”

  “I told you there’d be headlines. I’m fodder for the press.”

  “But we simply went to a gala.”

  “And you ran out on me.”

  “They said an engagement was announced.”

  “A formality, that’s all. I’m sorry, I should have told you, but I’ve been in meetings all day. Besides, it’s never that simple. I took you home. We kissed.” His full mouth curled as he remembered the taste of her mouth beneath his, a sensation that had had kept him awake.

  “But no one saw us.”

  “I’m afraid you’re wrong.

  Cassie’s cheeks paled. “They can’t have.”

  Lucas drew his briefcase from the opposite seat, and with a twirl of the security lock, the case clicked open. He withdrew the San Torrevna Daily newspaper, the country’s foremost news source. He tapped the front page as he flattened it out. “Take a look.”

  In glaring bold black print was a headline. PRINCE AND HIS FUTURE PRINCESS?

  The photo accompanying the headline was large and in color. No murkiness. No half faces. Hers. And his. Kissing. And there on her left hand was the huge solitaire sparkling under the moonlight.

  Cassie choked back a gasp. “Oh hell.”

  Lucas’s brows arched, his mouth grim. But in reality, he was rather pleased, because it added impetus to the idea that he’d proposed. A perfect plan.

  “Why would they do this? I’m nobody.”

  “A good story. Prince marries…”

  “Peasant,” she said, finishing for him. “I never saw them. Did you?”

  Lucas dropped the paper back in his case and closed the lid. “No, but then I stopped looking years ago.”

  “So why did you kiss me?”

  Because I couldn’t resist. And because your mouth had been tempting me all evening.

  “This is just what I didn’t want. If my mother sees this, it will ruin everything… Oh God.” Cassie buried her face in her hands, shaking her head.

  Lucas frowned. In the two years she’d worked for him, she’d never once mentioned her mother. “Cassie. It’s not that bad, surely?”

  “You don’t know her.”

  Lucas captured her shaking hands in his. His heartbeat upped its pace. There it was again. That same feeling. He dropped his gaze to stare at her small white hands wrapped in his. She had perfect fingers, and he again wondered what they’d feel like against his skin. Caressing him.

  Yes, it was a perfect plan.

  But a moment later, as his limo cruised to a stop outside Cassie’s home, she yanked her hands from his and scrambled across the seat.

  “Cassie?”

  “No, no. Don’t get out.”

  Her rushed words and sudden desperation to escape intrigued him. “I usually escort a lady to her door, remember.”

  “Not tonight. I…I’m tired.”

  “Tired?” He smiled, wanting to kiss her again, but instead asked softly, “Or are you scared?”

  “I’m not scared.” She swiped her hands down her sides and lifted her chin up a fraction. “And I’m quite capable of opening my own door. Good night, Your Highness.”

  Before he had a chance to move, she opened the limo door and almost fell from the vehicle. Anyone would think the devil was snapping at her heels. As he watched her scoot up the steps, stab at the lock and all but fall across the threshold before she slammed the door behind her, he exhaled a frustrated sigh.

  He tapped on the connecting glass panel between him and his driver. “Time to go home, Charlie.”

  A smile played along Lucas’s lips. Definitely intriguing. Cassie had thought he was going to kiss her again, an idea he admitted had not been far from his mind all day…and during his sleepless night. Images of the way her hair fell across her eyes constantly urged his fingers to reach out and brush it away—and steal a caress in the process.

  He’d been taken aback when he’d picked her up yesterday evening. Haloed by the hall light, she’d appeared ethereal, and he’d had to remind himself that Cassie was his assistant. Efficient, sharp and to the point. Yet last night, she had been by far the most beautiful woman at the gala and had kindled a sense of pride in him. Then, when she’d done her impersonation of Cinderella and run away, nothing else mattered to him. Not the charity auction nor the dignitaries. Cassie had been upset, something he’d never witnessed before. That alone mattered.

  Then he’d kissed her.

  It hadn’t been planned. A momentary aberration, but one Lucas was glad had happened, fueling the dream of kissing her again…and again, only to have that dream nixed tonight by her frantic escape.

  As the limo drew closer to his royal apartments, his conscience pricked. Business and pleasure did not mix in his world. He should listen to his own rules. Obey them. But he was a Palmera and born to break rules, and instinct told him Cassie Masters liked his kisses, which to his mind would prove extremely beneficial.

  Morning dawned with Cassie’s emotions imitating a Disneyland roller coaster, one she didn’t know how to stop. How she wished Felicia had gone to the gala with Lucas; then he wouldn’t have kissed her, and Cassie’s life would be exactly the same. Normal. Day-to-day boring. Manageable. She knew she couldn’t carry on working for Lucas. Nor performing her part as his fiancée.

  He had to sort out his own problems.

  She had to leave her job. Leave San Torrevna.

  To do so would break her heart. But the trouble was she needed a job if she was going to support Tina. She had some savings, but not enough.

  The conundrum had kept her awake all night—until she had come up with the only answer. Instead of bringing Tina to San Torrevna, she would go to New Zealand. A new job and a new life on the other side of the world was the answer. All she had to do was get her CV in order today and send it off to some New Zealand employment agencies.

  Decision made, she left her apartment, refusing to look at the baying paparazzi, and reached her office early without incident. She switched on her computer and sat down to write the hardest letter she’d had to write in her entire life.

  Dear Lucas, It is with deep regret…

  With a heavy sigh, she hit the print button as Lucas walked through the doo
r.

  “Morning, Cassie. Come into my office, I’ve something to discuss.” He didn’t stop. Didn’t smile—thank goodness. It was as if nothing had happened.

  But it had.

  Holding her emotions in check, she followed him into his office, determined to keep everything professional. She held out her letter of resignation to him, her gaze sliding to his hands as he took it. She remembered the feel of them on her shoulders, holding her to him, and a telling heat skimmed across her cheeks, pooling down where it had no right to be.

  Oh Lord, she was a fool. Just as well she was leaving.

  Suspicion darkened his expression as he scanned the letter, then he switched his icy gaze to her. “What’s this?”

  “Exactly what it says it is.”

  The letter dropped from his fingers as if it were flotsam. “It’s unacceptable.”

  She tilted her chin up a fraction and fisted her hands at her sides. She would not weaken. She wouldn’t. “And I won’t change my mind.”

  “I’ve got six projects on the go, and you’re the only one in this office who’s up to speed with them. Is this because we kissed?”

  Yes. Absolutely. “I’ve already set up a list of potential replacements for you to interview.”

  His grip on the chair arms tightened. “I do not want to interview them. I want you. Besides, the world thinks we’re engaged.”

  “We’re not. That was your doing. I’m not an object to possess. I work for you—I did, but I quit, effective immediately.”

  Lucas’s jaw hardened, an expression crossing his face that Cassie had witnessed many times as he headed into the boardroom and knew would break even the most accomplished businessman. Without saying a word, she spun away.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Back to work. I have a lot to finish before I leave today.”

  “We’ll discuss that further,” he said, determined as usual to have the last word.

  “There’s nothing to discuss, it’s final.”

  Lucas went to speak, only to be forestalled when his direct-dial line rang. He scooped it up, snarling, “What?”