Her heart won out…for now.
She only had a few weeks left. Surely she could manage that?
But the game had changed and the woman she had been—the woman who desired invisibility and never wanted to imitate her mother—had seemingly dissolved a little bit more each day. She at last had cast aside her mask, but at what cost?
In a daze of confusion, she followed Lucas into the building, ensuring she kept some distance between them as they traveled in an elevator to his suite. The doors opened, but she remained where she was.
Drawing in a deep breath, she then exhaled in a long, slow whistle as she fought to control her rising anger. Stupid. So stupid. She’d gotten herself into this disaster; now she had to somehow extricate herself.
In a silent demonstration that he wasn’t about to change his mind, Lucas stood back and waited for her to exit the elevator. And what did she do? She did exactly as he wanted her to do and walked right into his quarters.
“So,” she said, turning full circle, ignoring the grandeur of her environs. “Where’s my room?”
“With me.”
Her eyes widened, and instinctively she backed up a few steps. “You?” No. No. No. She couldn’t do that. Oh, she wanted to, but no way would it work. It would destroy her—eventually.
“Why not carry on where we left off?”
She didn’t believe this. “Of all the nerve. You want me back in your bed. Are you inviting the media there too?”
His mouth curved at the corners, hitched slightly more on one side than the other. Then it got worse. And better. Lucas took her mouth in a commanding kiss, linking his arms around her waist and drawing her to him.
How she loved his kisses. The way he held her.
Resist, Cassie.
Four weeks and she would walk away.
Four weeks of kisses.
Lucas’s kisses continued. Her mouth. Her eyelids. Along the curve of her jaw.
Her palms flattened on his chest, and she felt the surge of his heartbeat, aware too of the out-of-control roller coaster ride of her emotions.
She heard the echo of her jacket zipper as if it were rolling thunder in her ears, and her heartbeat charged with adrenaline. “See, I told you so. You want me.”
She swallowed back her denial. “Yes, Your Highness,” she murmured against his ear, “just like you want me.”
Slumberous eyes tinted the color of liquid desire stared down at her, the intensity searing right into her soul. “Very definitely.”
He kissed her again, and Cassie lost herself to a world of taste. Of him. Of just this moment. Then his breathing changed and rasped across her skin, and shock slammed her as she glanced down at herself. She was virtually naked. When did that happen? How? Heat spiraled to her cheeks, her nipples pebbled to hard nubs. “Lucas?”
“Not here, Cassie. Not like before.”
Before? In front of the fire. Rampant. Urgent. So glorious.
“I want you, but I want you where I can make love to you slowly.”
A shiver rippled across her skin. Slow love.
“Then fast and hot.”
Fast love.
She was totally lost.
Lucas reached for her hand and drew her across the grand salon. She ignored the view. Ignored the crashing doubt crowding in her brain. She wouldn’t let it ruin this moment. He was right. She wanted this…more than he knew, even though she knew it was just for now.
Lucas’s bedroom was huge with towering ceilings and detailed plasterwork, and, like the salon, afforded a view that spread across the city below. Cassie gave it limited attention, because all that mattered was the feel of Lucas’s hand in hers, and the excitement building.
Coming to a halt in the middle of the room, he wrapped his arms around her and held her so close she could feel his arousal. He cupped her bottom and walked her back till the bed pressed at her knees. The silky coverlet grazed across her skin, though unable to cool her desire.
She reached up to him. “You said slow, Your Highness,” she said with a teasing smile. “Not too slow I hope.”
He growled.
“Don’t think I could wait that long. I also said fast.”
He didn’t rush her, though. He removed the remainder of her clothing almost with reverence, teasing her flesh with caress after caress until her body shook with the need to have him inside her.
While slow proved exquisite, Cassie needed him to hurry. “Seems to me you’re far too slow removing your own clothes,” she quipped, hoping to inspire him.
“Easily remedied.” He straightened and began to unbutton his shirt, but Cassie stalled him and pushed up from the bed to stand beside him.
“I think, Lucas, darling, it’s my turn.” And with unhurried intent, mimicking his actions, she undressed her lover. Her boss. Her prince.
Chapter Ten
Despite recurring inner condemnation at giving in so easily, the desperate part of Cassie would have traversed the highest mountain for one more night with Lucas. And she’d gotten it. One night of bliss.
Stretching out and relishing the euphoria cocooning her body, she turned over. Her fingers crawled across the sheets—the cold, empty sheets—and her rapture plummeted. She squeezed her eyes closed.
Lucas hadn’t stayed.
Had she expected declarations of love and morning-afters?
Don’t be silly. Get over him. This was lust, that was all—a deal with an added bonus.
Cassie’s eyes shot open and focused immediately on the French carriage clock on the bedside cabinet. Lordy! She needed to get to work. She spun away from the timepiece and jumped out of bed. Her knees buckled beneath her as pain shot from her foot right up her leg, and she slumped back down.
She waited a few seconds for the pain to subside and then put her foot tentatively back down on the thick carpet. It hurt, but if she took it slowly, maybe she could manage. She stood and took a tiny step.
The clock chimed the hour. She needed to dress and get to work. She also needed to forget about Lucas, love and happy endings.
Yanking open the first door she came to revealed a bathroom.
Clothes. She needed clothes.
Shifting over to the next door, she opened it. Row upon row of Lucas’s clothes, all ordered and systematically color-coordinated, greeted her.
When she opened the third door, a chandelier light automatically switched on and illuminated a wall of hangers loaded with more garments. Women’s clothes. New clothes. Her new items bought and paid for by Lucas.
Disappointment squeezed at her heart. It had started. The tiny shift where, bit by bit, Lucas’s life took over hers. What she wore. Where she lived.
She kept telling herself it was only temporary, but something inside her warned her to remember her mother.
You need to fix this, Cassie.
But how? All she had were the new clothes, leaving her no choice but to wear them—for now.
Smothering the warring voices, she reached for an aqua suit with the edges of the jacket trimmed in a soft pink. Her fingers brushed across the luxuriously woven fabric. It reminded her of Lucas’s touch—soft, enticing and tempting.
She held the garment in front of her and stared at her reflection in the mirror. It was perfect—the right size and the perfect color.
Refusing to hesitate any longer, she stripped off and headed into the shower, then stood under the cascade of steamy hot water. She wished it would wash away the guilt over how easy it had been to give in.
Was this what it had been like for her mother in the beginning? Giving in little by little until she couldn’t do without the jewels and the clothes and everything that went with the lifestyle she’d become accustomed to?
The reminder came before she left the house when her phone rang. “Gramma.”
“So when were you going to
tell us, young lady?”
“About what?” Oh, she knew what.
“Oh, Cassie, we might be on the other side of the world, but we do read the newspapers. Your prince, of course, and your engagement.”
“But it’s not true.”
“It’s in the newspaper—your picture together.”
“I know but…” How could she tell her grandmother it was all a lie?
“So what does that mean for Tina? We’ve signed the contract for the rest home unit. We move in six weeks’ time.”
“Don’t worry, Gramma. I’ve got a few weeks to sort things out here, then I’ll come. The legal paperwork is all complete for Tina to be under my guardianship.”
Cassie hung up the phone, turned one hundred eighty degrees and caught her reflection in the mirrored wardrobe doors. Her image appeared fractured and broken. Not physically, but there was something different. She seemed sad and shattered.
The clock chimed across the other side of the room. She spun from her reflection. Too bad if she were late for work. She had one thing to do before she left. She scooped up an armful of the clothes that were part of her “act”. It was time to realign the power in this game.
Lucas’s terse voice reached Cassie as she stepped into her office. “I don’t care what the hell it costs, just get it done.”
She reached his open doorway the moment he spun back from the bank of windows to face her, an indecipherable anger coloring his skin.
“You’re late.”
She refused to shy away from his abrasive attack. “I had things to do,” she said simply, keeping her voice level.
“And you’re needed here.”
“Then you should have woken me.” She refused to apologize. Besides, how did she say he’d loved her so long that she’d slept like a lamb?
True to his regal bearing, Lucas merely stared down his damned autocratic nose at her, but she wouldn’t back down, despite the fact that she was far too aware of what she wore. Everything bought with Lucas’s money. She’d been made love to by Lucas…and bought by him. It hit hard. She felt…dirty. Cheap. And for the second time that morning, tears crystallized on her lashes. It was definitely time to retreat, to forget about last night, and the night before. “I’ll start work right away.”
“How’s the ankle?” His sudden shift of mood stopped her at the doorway.
She closed her eyes, detecting the softened inflection in his voice, not wanting to hear such a caring tone. It only confused her. “It’s…okay.” She pulled Lucas’s office door closed behind her.
Instead of going to her desk she walked to the ladies’ washroom as fast as her throbbing ankle allowed. She tugged off her Christian Louboutin shoes, grateful for the coolness of the marble beneath her feet and taking relief in the silence as she pulled herself together, using nearly all the tissues to fix her makeup while she cursed her red-rimmed eyes.
Finally, she stepped back into her office. For the first time since she began working for Lucas, she was uncertain what to expect. It certainly wasn’t what she got.
Lucas stood, propped against her desk. “I’m sorry.”
She swallowed back the lump in her throat. “So you should be. You can’t get everything your own way.”
He lifted an impervious brow and folded his arms across his chest in a relaxed challenge. “And what are you proposing to do about it?”
“Well, Your Highness, you said we were a team, so I think it’s time this team was on an equal playing field.”
Suspicion darkened his eyes to pitch, and Cassie’s mouth hitched as she struggled to repress sudden laughter. “Why, Lucas, I think you’re nervous. I put a rule in.”
“Which you broke.”
“Only because, well…” Okay, she had, because he tempted her too darn much. But now there was too much at stake—her values, her self-esteem. She would not be one of the weak, backboneless females who simpered around him. She would stand tall and proud. She held up one finger. “Rule number one. No kissing, no touching, and no holding hands at the office. Zip. Nada. At work, we’re professional, and we act as though nothing is going on.”
“But the world knows we’re engaged.”
“That’s outside the office. Not here. At work, it’s business, and not funny business. Get it?”
He offered an imperceptible nod.
She added a second finger to the first. “Rule number two. No more clothes, gifts or jewelry.”
“Really?” His expression said he didn’t believe her. “And sex?”
“You can forget that too. That, Your Highness, is rule number three.” There, she’d said what she’d been practicing all the way into work. Now she had to make sure he did what he was told, and, more importantly, that she followed her own rules.
“It won’t stop me from wanting to kiss you, or you wanting to kiss me back.”
Her hands fisted until the knuckles were bleached of color.
“Do you want to know why?”
No. No. No.
He offered a half grin. “Because I can’t stop, and because you can’t either.”
She held up a hand to silence him. “No, don’t say any more. I agreed to help you out. I didn’t realize it meant I’d be bought and paid for, or that I’d sleep in your bed.”
“I didn’t hear you decline.”
“How typical of you. Arrogant to the end.”
For three long days and even longer nights, Lucas suffered. No holding Cassie. No kissing Cassie. No sex. And to top it off, when he’d returned to his apartment, he’d found she’d had moved into one of the other bedrooms, and each night she locked her door with a resounding click that she made sure he heard.
It wasn’t just her no-sex rule, but the change in her. She was circumspect, quiet, and never held his gaze. There were no laughs or smiles. His chest tightened. He missed that. Missed her. His Cassie.
When she’d put her rules in place, her eyes had darkened from the lightest shade of cornflowers to the most precious sapphires. Perhaps he could find jewels that mirrored that exact shade.
Hey, remember the rule. She said she doesn’t want jewels.
Lucas didn’t understand that. Every woman he knew wanted jewels. He imagined making love to Cassie wearing nothing but sapphires adorning her neck, dipping between her breasts. His libido swelled.
Sweet, sweet mercy.
To counter the battle of emotions and lust raging inside him, he locked himself in his office and away from Cassie. The trouble was, nothing shut her out and certainly not the memory of her body. That was embedded into every part of him.
By mid-afternoon of the fourth day of her rules, the battle between his brain and his body proved uncontrollable. He needed to escape. At least that was his excuse.
Not giving himself a moment to reconsider, he pushed away from his desk and strode from his office, only to come to a halt. Cassie wasn’t at her desk.
“Lucas?”
He spun round to face the door that led to the executive washroom down the hall. She stood in the doorway, eyes slightly wide and a flush to her cheeks. His groin throbbed at the mere sight of her. He wanted to kiss her. Preferably naked. “Cancel the last appointments for the day, we’re going out.”
“But I’ve got work to do.”
“And I’m your boss. So what I say goes.”
“Lucas, do not order me around. I won’t put up with it.”
He stood there a moment, shamed as he realized how he’d spoken to her. “I’m sorry. I…” What was he? Stupid. A fool. Addicted. All of those. “I think it’s time we play. Come on, let’s get out of here.” He held his hand out to her. “Please, Cassie.” He didn’t smile. Didn’t try to charm her.
She hesitated for a moment, eyes wary. He understood that. He’d been a Neanderthal.
“I need to cancel your appointments.” She pi
cked up the phone. Lucas reached for his mobile from his trouser pocket. He flicked through the catalogued numbers and hit speed dial to the guy he’d already instructed to search out the perfect gift. “Did you get them?” he asked without preamble the moment his buyer answered.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Excellent. Have them sent over.” Jewels had always worked before. He knew she’d stipulated no jewelry, but at least this way he’d finally find the real Cassie. He disconnected the call and turned back to her as she hung up the phone.
“The appointments are cancelled,” she said.
“Good.” He tugged her hand. “Come on.”
The stiffness in her manner returned, and she drew back. “No holding hands,” she reminded him.
“Your rules also said no kissing, but I thought that was just at work.” He reached for her hand again, noting her tempered hesitation. Cassie’s expression surprised him. Women who wanted him didn’t care who knew he was their lover or if he held their hand. They wanted to be seen with him; that was paramount as they broadcast their prize—him—to the world. Cassie’s reluctance made him wonder if this was part of her game plan to make him try harder, give more.
Somehow he had to figure it out.
Outside, the sun blossomed with the full onset of summer. Cassie lifted her face to its warmth. “Delicious.”
“Absolutely.” Lucas leaned into her, inhaling her scent. She shivered, and he delighted in her reaction and the knowledge that he was right. He liked being right. She wanted him. That definitely gave him the edge. “Let’s go.” He drew her toward the sleekly powerful car parked at the curb, but she held back.
“I have a better idea,” she said. “Let’s walk.”
“Walk?”
“Yeah, you know, you put one foot in front of the other.” She smiled up at him.
“But your ankle, can you manage?”
Her sapphire eyes sparkled. He’d been right. They were the color of beautiful jewels.
“Let’s give it a go, Lucas. It’s such a beautiful day out. Besides, if it plays up, I can always call on my knight in shining armor.”
The Bachelor Prince Page 12