By Royal Demand

by Robyn Donald

  'The dictator ordered everything destroyed ' Gabe said.

  Horrified she stared at him. ‘Why?' His broad shoulders lifted a negligent moment. 'Destruction was all he understood ' he said calmly.

  'What changed his mind'?' 'The villagers waited until he'd left then stripped the castle and smuggled the furniture out to hiding places in the valley. Some of the bigger stuff was hidden in the castle in secret rooms.'

  Sara's eyes widened. ‘oh come on now-secret rooms'?' AII castles have secret chambers ' he told her.

  She said quietly 'The villagers must have loved and respected your grandparents very much.'

  'They have a tradition of loyalty. And one of looking to the castle for protection of course.'

  'Rescuing the furniture sounds much more personal than a tradition ' she said.

  'Tradition can be very personal but yes I'm inclined to agree with you. My grandparents were loved and respected. I'd like to have known them.' He moved from the door in the shadows and surveyed her face his eyes coolly speculative.

  ‘How have you enjoyed your daily rides'?' Very much thank you.' She added on a snap 'Your grooms managed to keep their surveillance reasonably inconspicuous .'

  Gabe hadn't bothered to contact her but he'd certainly kept tabs on what she'd been doings For some reason the knowledge mingled bitterness and an odd feeling of being protected.

  A flash of white teeth in his dark face made her go weak at the knees. ‘1 told them not to be intrusive ' he said blandly. ‘show me your room.'

  ‘of course ' He might hate it and once she'd gone he wouldn't want to be reminded of her presence in any way but decorating the room had been a labour of love.

  She glanced at his impassive face as he surveyed the changes she'd made. ‘1 wanted to make it comfortable and welcoming without losing its aura of history and strength and its sophistication because although it seems plain this furniture was made of the best timber by true craftsmen. It's perfectly suited to its function and the setting.'

  His gaze travelled from the honey-scented chest to the bed with its subtly faded drapes and the carpet-an antique Persian its rich luxury echoing the colours of the drapes. Oddly enough his survey stopped at the pot of flowers on the sill.

  'Webster told me I could take flowers from the picking garden ' she said swiftly.

  ‘of course. You have excellent taste-as I'm sure you know.'

  ‘1 chose pictures that I thought suited the room ' she said. 'You may well have photographs of the different rooms showing the original way they were decorated’

  'That was one thing my cousin made sure of ' he interpolated in a lethally flat voice. ‘He burned everything that was personal to my grandparents but kept the armour and archives because he could claim ancestry with them.'

  ‘l'm so sorry. I know what it's like to have nothing.'

  He gave her a keen glance. ‘lt's only my grandparents' lives I'm missing records of. I have enough photographs of my childhood to sink a small liner. How did you lose yours'?' sour house collapsed in a cyclone. Nothing was saved.'

  'ls that when your parents died'?' ‘My mother.' She turned her head away presenting him with her profile. ‘1 never knew my father.'

  He'd forgotten that. Gabe's eyes narrowed as he studied her straight nose the luscious curves of her mouth the arrogant chin jutting high and the way the sun coaxed fiery little flames in the depths of her hair. A cold still pride radiated from her and he felt his grip on reality suddenly shift as though an inner eye had opened and the truth he'd been so confident of was revealed for a sham.

  It only took a second or two to regain his control to see her again as the schemer and sexual predator she was, but her power to enslave his senses made him icily furious.

  Into a silence suddenly too electric he said ‘How did you survive'?' 'she tied me to a coconut palm. Mine survived the winds and the rising sea' hers was washed away.'

  Was that childhood trauma the reason she'd stolen the Queen's Blood? A desperate grab for the security she'd had so cruelly stolen from her? Perhaps a security she'd never had as she hadn't known her father? Psychobabble Gabe told himself scornfully. And why are you looking for excuses? Do you want her back? His body responded to the contemptuous question with unmistakable energy. Yes he wanted her in every way possible-except as his wife.

  She still hadn't admitted to stealing the necklace-and the fact that he was wondering whether he'd made a monumental mistake was only because he couldn't stop himself from wanting her.

  Lust, he reminded himself ruthlessly, didn't care about morals. kl-low old were you'?' he asked.

  'Fourteen ' And what happened then'?' She shrugged. ‘My grandparents-my mother's parents-took me in. I had to leave Fala'isi to live in England.'

  Not a happy outcome for her Gabe surmised shrewdly noting the shadows in her green-grey eyes.

  He repressed another unwelcome and weakening impulse to sympathy and asked abruptly 'When will you know whether you're pregnant or not'?' Sara looked away colour rising unexpectedly through her glorious skin.

  ‘in a fortnight give or take a few days,' she said reluctantly.

  'Then it's just as well that I brought back a testing kit ' he said each word cold and clinical as though he were discussing the world financial market. Apparently it's accurate within a few days of possible conception. 1'11 bring it along.'

  Her head whipped around. Directing a narrow suspicious stare at him she said AII right.'

  And if you are pregnant we're getting married. No child of mine is going to be born a bastard.'

  ‘Why?' she asked adding bluntly, ‘1 won't ask for financial support, if that's what's worrying you.'

  His expression darkened. ‘lt's not.'

  Something in his tone alerted her. Picking her way carefully she said 'ls this about your cousin the dictator who lied about being a bastard'?'

  ‘No,' he returned curtly. ‘lt's about accepting responsibility.'

  A feverish mix of despair and panic robbed her of coherent thought. She looked into Gabe's implacable face

  and said hoarsely, 'Don't be silly. You can't marry me-you despise me. You think I'm a thief.'

  The ugly word echoed in the bedroom.

  Gabe shrugged. ‘No doubt if we do marry you'll suddenly remember where you stashed the Queen's Blood.'

  His mouth twisted into a sardonic smile that came too close to derision. ‘1'11 enjoy seducing it from you.'

  ‘pregnant or not I won't be your legalized whore.' Indignation choked her' she had to stop herself from hitting him. Of all the insulted This was beyond anything he'd done before and loving him wasn't enough to make her forgive him.

  Passionately she ploughed on. ‘How do you plan to deal with my supposed tendencies? By locking me up? Or supplying me with a keeper wherever I go in case I feel overwhelmed by a desire to make off with someone else's jewelle'?'

  Pride rang in her voice scornful and defiant. 6No thank you-! won't spend the rest of my life being despised and watched and mistrusted. You can't force me to marry you.'

  ‘lf you're pregnant you'll do as I say ' he said his indifferent tone harrowing nerves already stretched to breaking point. 'Even if it's just a quick marriage to legitimize the child and then an even quicker divorce.'

  She breathed deeply fire kindling green flames in her eyes. ‘Do you really think 1'11 tamely let you take over my life? Who the hell do you think you are'?' she queried savagely barely able to spit the words out.

  He gave another grin mirthless this time. ‘l'm Gabriel Considine Grand Duke of Illyria and the Northern Marches-or so my cousin tells me ' he said cold irony buttressing each word. 'More to the point if you're pregnant, I'm the father of your child. And that child will know its place in the world.'

  ‘lf it's a son it might well be the next Grand Duke ' she hurled back. ‘Have you thought of that? The child of a thief-' He cut in ruthlessly. 'son or daughter it will have every right to the name Considine and a position on the family tree. T
his is not negotiable Sara.'

  Sara gulped in a ragged breath and closed her eyes struggling to control the mixture of feelings that rioted through her-anguish because he didn't love her fury at his high-handedness and a kind of fierce relief that he

  intended to accept responsibility for his child. But then Gabe was big on responsibility.

  'ls that all you think of?' she demanded. 'Your damned family? If there is a child I can look after it and take care of it. We won't need you. Better a father who's not there than one who's willfully blind and prejudiced and-' 'Better a

  mother who's not there than one who sleeps her way into a man's confidence and then betrays it ' he snarled.

  The unspoken threat scored her like a whip cutting into her fragile restraint and shattering it. Take her child from her? Never Propelled by fear and despair she struck him right across his beautiful mouth.

  Silence tightened around them. Horrified she stared at the darkening mark her hand had made on his skin then into eyes of molten steel.

  ‘oh God ' she whispered sickly into the strained silence. ‘Cabe I'm sorry-so sorry. . . .'

  She touched his lips her fingers trembling in a featherlight caress. He made a muffled sound and too late she saw the moment rage was transformed into something else.

  When he reached for her she didn't resist' she lifted her face in mute invitation and said again ‘l'm so sorry.'

  ‘lt's all right ' he said and his mouth took hers and she surrendered as she would always she realized with a jolt because she loved him so much.

  He kissed the soul from her body and then lifted her and came down with her onto the bed his ravenous mouth finding with unerring accuracy the exact place where her neck joined her shoulder.

  Ecstasy shot through her like arrows' she shuddered and tore at his shirt her hands clumsy but determined.

  Laughing deep in his throat he bit with exquisite restraint before lying back and giving her free access to him.

  AII finesse abandoned she yanked his buttons free and spread out his shirt staring with intense acute pleasure at the sm00th bronze skin sleek and supple and hot over the framework of long coiled muscles.

  'You smell divine ' she said huskily against his chest her lashes making little butterfly movements on his shoulder.

  ‘soap ' he said thickly one hand pulling her closer so that she could feel his urgent response the tense hunger that had hardened every muscle in his powerful body.

  ‘No it's more complex than that.' Sometimes she'd woken in her lonely bed with that scent in her nostrils and she'd cried until dawn aching with the misery of having lost him.

  Her voice deepened into a sexy hoarseness. ‘lt's you just you.'

  His laughter lifted his chest against her reverberated through her and set her body leaping with pleasure. ‘I didn't know I had my own personal aroma.'

  ‘Mmm. And your own personal taste too-musky a little salty. Delicious.' She lowered her face and licked letting her lips and tongue glide delicately across his skin.

  When he shuddered an outrageous delight filled her' no matter what happened how they fought what he thought of her this was honest and true. Lust yes but he could no more deny it than she could.

  With her forefinger she traced the whorl of silken hair across the broad powerful expanse of his torso finally ending at the sharp little nubbin of his nipple. Her mouth closed around it and she explored him with a wondering curiosity and an odd deep-rooted sensation of coming home.

  She expected no gentle lovemaking no sweet delight in slow seduction but she gasped when Gabe used his immense strength to turn her onto her back. In one rapid confident movement he pulled the T-shirt over her head his dark face intent and dangerously absorbed a stain of colour across those magnificent cheekbones.

  Skilfully he dispensed with her bra tossing it away so that she lay stretched before his possessive gaze like a captive bride her slender body flushed and acutely sensitized to his touch and the roaming inventory of his eyes baulked only by the narrow strip of lace across her hips.

  ‘so do you ' he said kissing the gentle swell of her upper breast.

  Drugged by desire she murmured 'What'?' 'You have your own scent-soft and fresh and lingering.' He moved adjusting himself and her so that he could reach the pleading centre of her breast.

  Deeply he said ‘And you taste like honey and cream and strawberries and champagne. Addictive as hell and impossible to forget.'

  His mouth closed around the peaked nipple and she gasped again and arched into him transfixed by heat and fire and sizzling desperation. Without volition her hands tightened on his shoulders her body eager and molten beneath him as he coaxed her into violent arousal.

  Her pulse drummed in her ears and she ached for the magic moment of union. But he refused to give her the swift hard ferocity she longed for. Instead he toyed with her using his hands and his mouth and his voice his vast experience of women and lovemaking to send her spinning dizzily into a world of rapturous frustration.

  Eventually when her body was straining desperately against him her whole being lost to the hunger he summoned from some hidden place deep inside her she croaked ‘Cabe for pity's sake-please. . . ' Only then did he move over her but even then he didn't finally consummate their desire. She looked up into a face drawn with blazing sexual drive into eyes narrowed and glittering and her body arced into a bow against him seeking the release only he could give her.

  But he didn't take that final step into joining them.

  Was he doing this deliberately? Was this his revenge-to take her to the edge and deny her the ultimate fulfilment? Sick at heart she closed her eyes and tried to blank everything out.

  'Look at me ' he commanded his voice low and rasping.

  Pride drove her lashes up.

  ‘sara ' he said and drove into her all his splendid power and compelling magnetism focused only on one thing-his complete conquest.

  And she couldn't deny him couldn't deny the reckless anticipation he'd aroused so skilfully overpowering caution seducing her along the path to defeat and humiliation again.

  His hands beneath her hips lifted her held her clamped against him and he began to move inside her the

  tendons in his neck tightening as he fought for control.

  ‘No ' she said harshly and unleashed her feminine power winding her legs around his hips and milking him with secret inner muscles.

  Anticipation grew and grew sending out the first ripples of extreme pleasure and then waves-waves that caught her and tossed her upwards and onwards into a rarefied stratosphere where all that mattered was the man who'd claimed her entire being and the erotic submission he wrung from her.

  And then her body convulsed-lost in ecstasy lost in Gabe-and almost immediately he followed her into that place that was theirs only spending himself in her without thought or care or hindrance.

  C H A PTE R TE N

  SARA lay locked in Gabe's arms his strength wrapping her in a blanket of complete security. How could everything feel so right-when it was all so wrong? She struggled to stay in the dazed sensuous lassitude that had kept her silent since that final cataclysmic release. She didn't want to think didn't want to break this magical spell but thoughts buzzed like menacing flies through her brain.

  At least he'd used protection this time. And the fact that he'd had that necessary little packet on his person-did that mean he'd decided to use her whenever he felt like it? Not even the heat of his big body around her could warm the humiliation that chilled her. For a year she'd fooled herself that she could forget him that their affair and engagement and bitter parting had been a melodramatic wholly incongruous episode in her serene ordinary life.

  Now she had to accept that she was linked to him by something much more dangerous than passion. For some reason he was her man-the only man for her. No one else would do she thought despairingly.

  She blocked the thought concentrating on the feel of his skin dry now, and the sleekly powerful body that lay half b
eneath her. Strange that in spite of everything that pushed them apart, only in his arms did she feel this intense security.

  'What's the matter'?' he asked his voice rumbling from his chest.

  Startled she blinked. How did he know? She hadn't stirred or moved hadn't altered her breathing, yet somehow he'd sensed the change in her.

  That awareness was another thing that made him such a good businessman. He'd once told her that he never trusted anyone except on instinct' he'd laughed and called it a primitive response that warned him when someone wanted to take advantage of him.

  Well he probably no longer relied so heavily on that she thought wearily. He was sure it had let him down badly when it came to her.

  ‘sara'?' 'Nothing.' The word came out huskily like a caress and she cleared her throat and lied more strongly 'Nothing at aII.' Sometimes the truth was just too dangerous.

  He slid one hand up her throat tilting her head so that he could see her face. Panic-stricken by his probing gaze, she clamped her eyes shut. But that was too much of a giveaway' she forced them open and fixed him with a defiant stare.