Undercover Princess

by Suzanne Brockmann

  It wasn’t the same as if he’d told her he loved her, but it would do. Yes, after this past week, thinking he didn’t want her at all, it would do very well indeed.

  His eyes were impossibly blue as he looked at her. “Say no to everything,” he said so intensely, so clearly tortured about all of this. “Anything. If it has something to do with me, for your own sake, say no.”

  She stopped in front of him, close enough to reach out and touch him. But she kept her hands at her sides as she met his gaze. “What if I’d rather say yes? And what if I can’t make any promises, either? You know, there’s so much you don’t know about me.”

  Trey touched her cheek with just one finger. His hands were warm, his knuckle slightly rough against her face. It felt so good, she felt herself sway.

  “Run away,” he breathed. “Please?”

  The heat in his eyes contradicted his words. It promised a connection magically profound, a pleasure unlike anything she’d ever known. And Katherine knew the intensity of her attraction truly was mutual. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.

  And yet he’d tried to push her away, worried that she’d be hurt. It was heart-stoppingly sweet. “I’ve never met a man so determined to talk a woman out of making love to him as you are tonight,” she whispered.

  She found the courage to touch him then, lightly brushing his arm with her hand, just above the soft cotton sleeve of his T-shirt.

  “It doesn’t have to be tonight,” he told her, his fingers now in her hair, barely touching her as well.

  She slid her hand down and the sensation of his bare arm beneath her palm was incredible. He was so warm, so solid.

  He laughed, but it was more a burst of emotion than real laughter. “I’m thinking, please God, let this happen tonight. But I’m also thinking that this is where I should tell you I honestly expected you’d want to take some time. Step back and think this through and—”

  Katherine laughed, too, as she touched his other arm with her other hand, glad he was wearing a T-shirt, glad she was touching his skin, glad she was holding on to him with both hands. “Are you serious? No, thank you very much. I’m not letting go of you. The last time I did, you changed your mind.”

  “No.” With a groan, he gave up and put his arms around her waist, pulling her close. “I never changed my mind. I never stopped wanting you. I was just trying to do the right thing.”

  He was so solid, so strong, so…aroused. Katherine looked up at him and he smiled at her crookedly, obviously aware that there was absolutely no way she could have missed the unavoidable physical evidence of his desire—not the way he was holding her. Oh, yes, he really did want her desperately and now she knew it, too. And that knowledge took her breath away. He wanted her. Trey Sutherland wanted her.

  “This is the right thing,” she whispered. “I believe that absolutely.”

  Time hung suspended for a moment as Trey’s gaze dropped to her mouth, then lifted back to her eyes.

  Need and want lingered in his own eyes, and for one brief moment, Katherine felt a flash of regret. This was going to be amazing, but she couldn’t help but wonder how much better it might be if only he loved her, too.

  But then he kissed her, and need and want were quite enough.

  He didn’t try to be gentle, and she in turn didn’t try to pretend she was anything but starving for the taste of his mouth, for the sweet sensation of his lips against hers.

  He made a sound deep in his throat—a sound of complete surrender, of intense need.

  And she was just as lost.

  She could feel his hands in her hair, on her back, slipped between the edge of her shirt and the waistband of her pants, hot against her skin. She could feel his heart beating, pounding, hear his ragged breathing as he kissed her again and again, harder, deeper, longer kisses that melted the absolute last of her doubts.

  This was right.

  The man was living, blazing passion. He lit a flame in her that burned hotter than anything she’d ever felt in her life. She opened herself to him, wrapping her leg around his, and he picked her up, pressing her against him, neither of them pretending they didn’t know exactly where this was going.

  And they were going there. To someplace a whole lot like heaven. Tonight. At long last.

  Katherine kissed him, burning to feel him inside her, dying to be rid of the jeans and clothing that kept him from her. He kissed her back, moving against her, driving her nearly mad with the sensation.

  She reached for his hand, aching for him, pulling him so that his palm covered her breast. Yes.

  He laughed aloud as he broke free from their kisses, gazing down into her eyes as he touched her, first gently, then harder as she pressed herself more completely into his hand.

  “I want to kiss you here,” he murmured. “I want to take off your clothes and taste you.”

  Katherine could see her blurred reflection in the glass of one of the framed watercolors behind him, her hair messed, her face almost unrecognizable from the heat of her desire, her eyes half-closed. “I would love that,” she whispered.

  He lowered his head, kissing her mouth, her chin, her throat, her breasts. He kissed her through the cotton of her shirt, drawing her into his mouth. The sensation made her cry out, but it wasn’t enough. She pulled up her shirt, he pushed back her bra and then he was really kissing her, his mouth hot and wet against her, his tongue rough against her taut nipple.

  She reached between them for the waistband of his jeans, desperate to touch him. She fumbled with the button, searched for the zipper, her fingers grazing him, and this time he took her hand, and pressed it completely against his hardness.

  Oh, my.

  He lifted his head from her breast. “Come upstairs with me,” he whispered and then kissed her again.

  She wanted that zipper down, wanted to hold him in her hands. “No,” she gasped. “I don’t want to wait that long. Does this door have a lock? Please say yes.”

  “Yes.” His laughter turned to a deep inhale as she finally got that zipper down, as her fingers closed around him. “I locked it when we came in.”

  It was all she needed to hear. The blinds were down, the door was locked. She released him only long enough to pull her shirt up and over her head.

  He reached for her jeans and she helped him push them off her legs, helped him rid himself of his own T-shirt and jeans.

  His skin was beautiful—tanned satin over the hard steel of his muscles. His shoulders were wide, his chest broad and sprinkled with just enough dark hair to be impossibly sexy. His stomach was a six-pack, tapering down to narrow hips, a perfect rear end, and long, gorgeous, powerful legs.

  Katherine touched him everywhere, kissed him, skimmed her palms across him, even as he did the same to her.

  He wore dark-green briefs, and she realized with a jolt that she was standing there in front of him in her underwear as well, very plain, very white, very boring.

  But she might as well have been wearing the fanciest, sexiest lace, the way he was looking at her. The heat in his eyes couldn’t have blazed any hotter.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, and she was. In his eyes, for this moment in time, she was the most beautiful woman in the world, underwear be damned.

  She unfastened the front clasp of her bra, and the way his breath caught made her feel as if she’d unveiled a priceless work of art. She felt impossibly sexy and completely powerful, and it didn’t matter at all that she was truly neither of those things. And it didn’t matter, either, that their affair wasn’t going to last, that he didn’t love her. The magnitude of his desire was more than enough for this moment.

  She pushed his briefs down his legs, freeing him, letting herself look and touch and kiss him, laughing up at him as he cried out his pleasure.

  He hauled her to her feet and she kissed him again, on the mouth this time, as he lifted her up, against him. And this time, the only thing keeping him from her was the thin cotton of her panties.

 
The anticipation was wonderful as he kissed her and touched her everywhere, as she locked her legs around him and moved against him. And then it wasn’t quite anticipation anymore as he slipped his fingers beneath the elastic edge of her panties and touched her. Lightly. Then harder, deeper.

  She was ready for him. She’d been ready for this incredible man for years.

  She moved against him, pushing him more deeply inside of her. “Oh,” she breathed. “Please tell me you have a condom.”

  “In my wallet.” He kissed her throat, her breasts as he kept touching her.

  “Please,” she gasped.

  “I don’t want to stop—this feels too good.”

  It did. It felt very, very good. But she wanted more. She wanted all of him. And she wanted him now.

  Now.

  Katherine pulled aside her panties, pushed aside his hand, and shifted herself up on top of him. With one smooth, deep thrust, she surrounded him, filling herself with him. All of him.

  “Kathy!”

  It was as good as she’d imagined and the sensation made her cry out. It was fire and giddy free fall and exploding colors. It was an explosion of music and laughter and wild song. It echoed with promises and unlimitless possibilities, rapture and ecstasy and hope.

  Maybe this would last. Maybe…

  She kissed him, moving in his embrace, filling herself with him again and again, impossibly close to her release.

  “Oh, man,” he breathed, moving with her. “We need to stop. I need to get that condom.”

  With herculean effort, he pulled away from her, setting her down on the edge of his desk while he scrambled for his wallet.

  Katherine could barely breathe, could barely hold herself upright. She leaned back against his desk, supporting herself with her elbows, just waiting for him, watching him cover himself. He was gorgeous. And tonight he was all hers.

  “Let’s go to the sofa.” His voice was husky, his eyes hot.

  “Are you kidding?” she said. “And miss this opportunity to make passionate love atop your desk?”

  He laughed. He was even more gorgeous when he was laughing. “That probably won’t be very comfortable.”

  “Come here,” she said. “I’ll make it comfortable.”

  She was serious. Quiet, polite Kathy Wind was completely uninhibited when it came to sex. She was leaning back on the cleared-off surface of his desk, looking like something out of one of Trey’s wildest fantasies. She wore only the smallest white panties, nearly virginal in style. It was a delicious contradiction to the way she seemed almost unaware that her breasts were bare. She looked almost heathen, leaning back the way she was, her full breasts tightly peaked with desire.

  As Trey watched, she leaned forward, slipping her panties down her long, gorgeous legs. Completely naked now, she leaned back again and, with a smile that was molten, she opened her legs to him in an invitation that was unmistakable.

  Two short steps and he was making love to the sexiest woman in the world, on top of his desk.

  And she was dead right. It was not uncomfortable.

  She was fire beneath him, lightning in his arms as she moved with him, urging him on—faster, harder, deeper.

  Trey felt his entire world, his entire universe spiraling down to this one small spot, this one brief moment in time. Nothing else mattered, nothing else even existed. There was only Kathy, her arms around him, her cries of pleasure, her body rising to meet him, her beautiful, beautiful eyes.

  She clung to him fiercely, her hands hot and urgent against his back, her touch possessive, demanding.

  It was beyond exciting, the way she moved beneath him, her hunger for him as desperate as his need for her.

  And Trey completely lost control. And it didn’t matter. He didn’t need control, didn’t need to hold back—not when she so desperately wanted more of him. He lost himself completely in the wildness of her pleasure, and when he felt the powerful storm of her release, his body followed instantly, as if he’d been waiting all his life for this one mind-blowing moment of sheer perfection.

  Pleasure ripped through him, roaring in his ears, rocketing through him, blasting him higher, farther, than he’d ever been. And she was with him all the way.

  Trey closed his eyes, afraid of the barrage of emotions that had struck him, focusing on the aftershocks of his physical release.

  He became aware of the outside world slowly.

  Kathy’s breath warm against his ear. Her arms still around him. His desktop hard against his knees—a whole hell of a lot less comfortable now than it had been just a few minutes ago.

  He was crushing her. He started to lift himself up, but she clung to him. “No,” she whispered. “Stay. Please? Just a little bit longer.”

  Trey kissed her, his chest tight. A little bit longer didn’t work for him. A little wouldn’t be long enough. He wanted far more than a little bit of time to do this again and again and again.

  But he couldn’t quantify what he wanted, couldn’t estimate just how much time would be enough.

  There was only one thing he was absolutely sure of right now.

  And that was that he would never, ever, for the entire rest of his life, be able to sit behind this desk and get anything done.

  Chapter 15

  “When I was Dougie’s age…?” Trey mused. “I think I wanted to be a teacher, but only because I had a raging crush on my first-grade teacher and I wanted to be able to get into the staff room to hang out with her at lunch time.” He sat up. “See, even back then I had a thing for the Mary Poppins type.”

  Katherine laughed as she turned from the dawn that was breaking outside his bedroom windows. “Mary Poppins type?”

  He was stretched out among the rumpled sheets of his enormous four-poster bed looking like the official spokesperson for hedonism. He was unshaven, his hair tousled, and he was completely, beautifully, splendidly naked. It was a shame that he ever had to wear clothes at all. His muscles were far more suited to the wardrobe of a lifeguard. Or an exotic dancer. Yes, she could definitely picture him smoldering away, wearing the smallest of G-strings as he danced on a dimly lit stage.

  He patted the mattress enticingly. “Come here.”

  She hid her smile, trying to sound stern. “If you think calling me a ‘Mary Poppins type,’ is going to make me rush into your arms—I don’t look anything like Mary Poppins, anyway.”

  “It’s an attitude thing.” He had that look in his eyes that promised ecstasy. He’d promised—and delivered—more times than she could count. Yet still, all he had to do was look at her that way, and she was filled with breathless anticipation. “It really works for me. Polite as hell and a little bit bossy on the outside—sex goddess when the door’s locked.”

  Katherine couldn’t hold back her smile. “Sex goddess. I like that.”

  “Yeah,” Trey said, “I like it, too.”

  The shirt she’d stolen from his closet was mostly unbuttoned and as he looked at her that way, it felt transparent as well.

  “Come here,” he said again, dead serious now.

  She loved the way he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. But she couldn’t resist teasing him. “The sunrise is going to be lovely. Don’t you want to watch?”

  “If the sun’s rising, you’ve got to go back to your own room soon. If you don’t come over here now, we’re going to have to wait to make love again until tomorrow night.”

  Tomorrow night. They’d been talking and making love all night long, but this was the first time Trey had mentioned the future. Of course, tomorrow night wasn’t tremendously far into that future, considering tomorrow’s sun was pushing its way over the hills to the east. But it was certainly a start.

  Something must have shown on her face. She must have let a little of her uncertainty slip, because Trey instantly backpedaled.

  “Tomorrow night,” he said. “There I go, Mr. Assumption, just assuming we’re both automatically on the same page. I’m sorry, I need to rephrase that as a question.”
He moistened his lips as if they were suddenly dry, took a deep breath and gave her one of those crooked smiles that could melt her completely. “Kathy, will you—”

  “What time shall I come to your room?” They were on the same page. Absolutely. Already, before she’d even left him, Katherine couldn’t wait for the coming night.

  Fire sparked in his eyes. “What are the chances of Dougie going to sleep a half hour after dinner?”

  “Eleven-thirty,” Katherine decided. “I’ll be here at eleven-thirty, after Stacy goes to bed. And at 11: 31…”

  Several long strides brought Trey to her side. He swept her up into his arms and carried her back to his bed.

  The sunrise was lovely—even though neither of them watched.

  Doug and Stacy looked up as Trey came into the kitchen.

  “I thought you were at work,” Doug said.

  “Yeah,” Stacy agreed. “I thought you left, like, hours ago.”

  “No,” Trey said. Every cell in his body was aware of Kathy, standing with her back to him as she made sandwiches at the counter. “I, uh, slept in a little bit this morning.”

  “That’s funny,” Doug said. “Kathy did, too.”

  Kathy turned to face him, and something shifted inside him at the sight of her smile. It was odd. She looked exactly the same as she had all those other mornings he’d run into her in the kitchen. Her hair back in a ponytail. Jeans and a sweatshirt. Except now he didn’t have to work to imagine her naked. Now he just had to remember back a few hours and…

  Oh, dear, as Kathy always said.

  “Good afternoon. Would you like me to make you a sandwich?” she asked, her cheeks heating with a delicate blush as if she could read his wandering mind. It was so contradictory. She hadn’t blushed once last night, at least not after they’d started taking off their clothes.

  But those were not the right thoughts for him to be having—not with Doug and Stacy staring at him. Doug was completely clueless to the undercurrents in the room, but Stacy was looking from him to Kathy and back a little too perceptively.