She slowly opened the door, swallowing as she took in the sight of him. He was speaking quietly to the security agent, until he caught sight of her. He’d changed as well, into a dark suit and tie, and she was lost in him already.
“Rebecca,” he said softly. “Thank you for meeting me to discuss my surprise for Catharine.”
Rebecca, remembering her place, curtsied quickly and said, “Of course, Your Highness. Please come inside.” She stepped aside to let him in. As soon as she closed the door, he pulled her into his arms and against his hard body. She gasped just before his lips descended upon hers.
His kiss was hard and unyielding, full of the passion that was alluded to but not yet promised for the night ahead. When she pulled away for air, his face dropped to her neck and pressed a soft kiss.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Sorry?”
“Not about the kiss,” he said as he locked eyes with her. “I’m sorry you had to lie about why we’re here together.”
“Oh. That’s not so much. I expected it anyway. My neighbors must have been curious to see you arrive, at any rate.”
Alex’s hands caressed her back as he said, “Your neighbors are out for the evening. They’ve won a free dinner at a restaurant on the other side of town.”
Rebecca smiled. “That’s convenient.”
“Isn’t it though?”
“Someone else on the street may have seen you. I’ve been getting calls from neighbors about the extra security agents anyway.”
Alex frowned. “I certainly didn’t expect that to happen, but I’m glad they’re just outside in case you need them.”
A timer dinged from the kitchen. “Oh!” Rebecca said as she pushed out of his arms and headed for the stove. “I almost forgot about dinner.”
“You cooked?” he asked as he watched her long legs and bare feet hurry away. “I’m impressed.”
“It’s not so much,” she said as she brought out two bowls of soup. “I mean, it’s not very fancy or anything.”
He stopped her on the way back to the kitchen and took her face in his hands. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and said, “It’s wonderful. I can’t believe you cooked for me. No one’s ever cooked for me before, except Coco.”
Irrational jealousy brewed within her. “Coco?”
“The palace chef. She’s about Nonna’s age, but still as spry as she was in my youth.”
Embarrassment replaced jealousy. Rebecca smiled and covered his wrists with her hands. “I hope you enjoy it then.” Feeling brave, she lifted up on her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. His eyes smoldered so she took a step back. She may want him, but she didn’t just spend a few hours cooking to have her effort go to waste.
“Let me get the rest. Please, sit down,” she said as she disappeared into the kitchen again.
“May I help you with anything?”
“No, no,” she said as she came back out with the wine. “Unless you wouldn’t mind opening up the wine?”
“Of course,” he said as he took the bottle and their fingers brushed against each other. She could have sworn she felt a spark when they did.
“Your apartment’s lovely, Rebecca,” he called from the dining room and she felt ridiculously pleased at the compliment.
“You’re not just saying that?”
“Total honesty, remember? I meant what I said. The apartment reflects you, and it’s just lovely.”
“Thank you,” she said as she came back out with the platter of fish and potatoes.
“I must say, darling, that as much I enjoy the way you look in heels, I enjoy you out of them just as much.”
“What?” she asked as she looked down and realized with some horror she had forgotten to put on shoes. Distracted by this revelation, the plate began to slip from her hands. “Oh no,” she said just as Alex came over and grabbed it before it fell. Nary a potato was put out of place.
“I’m so sorry. I’m just so clumsy,” she said and scurried away to her bedroom. Would she never stop making a fool of herself?
As she slipped on a pair of black heels, Alex came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. His broad hands were splayed against her stomach and she an urge to suck in her belly.
“Rebecca, you’re not clumsy. And I told you, I find your bare feet sexy.” He kissed behind her ear. “In fact, I find a great deal about you very sexy.”
He kissed the side of her neck, and after a few moments she tilted her head to give him better access. “I love your body, all curves and endless legs.” One of his hands trailed from her stomach, to her hip, and over her thigh. “I love your skin, so soft and sweet.” He dropped a kiss to her nape. “I love your scent, which is strong and soft at the same time.” He took a deep breath in, as if smelling her. “It drives me fucking crazy sometimes.”
Rebecca swallowed. “It does?”
“God, yes. At night, my dreams are filled with you and your scent. Tonight, it’s not a dream because you’re finally here in my arms.” He kissed her along her spine, between her shoulder blades, and lower under he met the edge of her dress.
She could tell he wanted to unzip her and peel the fabric away, but instead he sighed and held her tighter. She could feel him aroused behind her, and even in her inexperience knew how much he must be fighting for control.
“Later,” he whispered against her ear before turning her in his arms. “Let’s eat,” he said as he took her hand and they walked the short distance back to the table.
“It smells delicious,” he said after helping her sit down. “Bouillabaisse is one of my favorite dishes.”
“Really?”
Alex smiled. “Yes. We spent many a summer in Masillia and often had it as children. It brings back good memories.”
“I’m glad,” she said as she stirred her soup. “I wasn’t sure what to make.”
Alex ate a spoonful of soup and immediately said, “This is delicious, Rebecca. I think you’re underestimating your talent.”
She flushed. “Thank you,” she said and ate a spoonful herself.
“It’s as authentic as the ones we ate growing up, using fresh fish caught off the Masillian coast.”
Unused to compliments by men, much less royal men with an interest in her, she just smiled and ate another spoonful.
After a few more minutes of eating, he said, “Tell me something about yourself, Rebecca.”
“What would you like to know?”
“We’ve almost grown up together, yet I feel as though they’re so much about you still to learn.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Then let’s start with something easy. Do you enjoy working for Cat?”
“Yes,” Rebecca said with genuine smile. “It’s challenging and exciting. I never expected to attain such a valuable position. I assumed I’d just work for my father, and one day take over his position. I still don’t know why the Princess was so keen on the idea.”
“Confession time,” Alex said as he put his spoon down in his empty bowl. “I’m afraid that was my doing.”
“Yours?” she asked, as her spoon paused in mid-bite, then lowered to bowl. “How?”
“I encouraged Papa to start the Youth of the Palace Grounds Initiative, to give children of palace workers enhanced education and training, if they wanted it. However, I must add that it was your parents who placed you in the program; I had nothing to do with that.”
“Yes, that’s true. I owe a lot to my parents, I know. They were very encouraging. I often wonder who will take over for my father when he retires.” She gave Alex a long look. “How old were you when you thought of that initiative?”
Alex shrugged. “I wasn’t yet a teenager, I think. But I’d seen how some of the other palace children were struggling, and it didn’t seem right. If Papa hadn’t liked the idea, he wouldn’t have gone forward with it. As ideas go, it wasn’t a bad one.”
“No, not at all. I know a lot of the other kids who benefitted from it, at
least in the early days. You were preparing to be a king even then, weren’t you?” she asked as she removed their empty bowls and began to serve the fish and potatoes. “When did you first realize you would be king?”
“Do you know that no one’s ever asked me that before?”
“I’m sorry,” she said blushing. “I didn’t mean to speak out of turn.”
He took her hand in his and kissed it. “I didn’t say I minded the question, did I? I’m actually pleased you asked it.”
“Oh,” she said as he kissed her hand once more before letting go to pick up his silverware and take a bite.
“I’m not sure how old I was. I was very young, though. I realized we were a different sort of family, and I could tell that just in the differences between us and the other palace children.” He paused to take another bite, then continued. “I never really understood until our nanny one day made a comment when I was acting out. ‘You can’t act like if you’re to be the king one day’, she said.”
“No one had ever mentioned it before?” she asked as she took a bite herself of the flaky fish.
Alex shook his head. “So I went to my Papa that evening and asked him what our nanny had meant. He smiled and talked to me very seriously about who he was and what I would one day be.”
Alex paused to take another forkful and remember. “I could tell he’d wanted to avoid the conversation a little longer; it’s hard to be a child when you find out you’re going to lead a country one day.”
“It sounds as though King Gabriel wanted you to enjoy a happy childhood.”
Alex nodded, with a smile on his face. “I even asked him if that meant Cat was going to be the queen and he laughed. Then he explained to me, as well as he could, how relationships worked. That the woman I married would be queen one day when I was king.”
“Were you ever upset by it all? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wish to,” she added quickly.
“No secrets between us, Rebecca, and I meant it. Ask me anything and I’ll answer honestly or not at all. I will answer you now, because you deserve to know.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“I do,” he said as he took her hand across the table. “If we’re to have a future together, we need to share our pasts.” He gave her hand a squeeze before letting go. “I can’t deny I was upset for a time. It’s difficult to learn that any number of your future choices are no longer choices but demands. Even Cat and I had arguments about it when we were little.” He took a sip of the chilled wine.
“Did you?”
“Yes. I was upset that she was saved from it all by only thirty minutes. I was born thirty minutes before her, did you know that?” Rebecca nodded and Alex continued. “It was always different for Cat. She knew she’d have to work in the palace, at least for a time, but for the most part her life was her own. Well, as much her own as a royal life can be. She certainly wasn’t hounded as much as me, or chased by the press.”
Rebecca leaned across and gave his hand a squeeze this time. “I’m sorry things were difficult for you.”
He kissed her hand again and left it on his. He’d never known how a simple touch could comfort him so much. “It was a phase, and I grew out of it. My father was always honest with me. He told me that a lot of the time I would be faced with boring and tedious tasks, but that I would hold the future of the country in my hands, and that doing so was a great responsibility. It was his strength and confidence in me that helped me to see the good in being king. It helped when I saw firsthand how Papa changed the lives of our fellow countrymen and women.”
“It can still be difficult, though, can’t it, like with what was going on today? I understand if you can’t tell me.”
“There is something,” he said then took another drink. “I don’t want to frighten you but I won’t keep it from you, either. Shall we head to the couch?”
“Of course, if you like,” she said as she gathered their empty plates and headed for the kitchen.
“I asked what you’d like,” he said as he leaned against the doorjamb, watching her.
“Well, I have a small dessert, just strawberry cake that we could have with espresso or some Vallerian liquor, if you like.”
“I’d like to have you for dessert,” he said with a gleam in his eye and she blushed. “However, I’d love to share a plate of strawberry cake with you.”
“I’ll bring it out in a minute.”
“I’d love some espresso with it. It’ll help us stay up a bit longer, won’t it?” he said with a wink and walked away.
Oh, my, she thought as she put a hand to her chest and took a deep breath.
A few minutes later she walked out with a tray of drinks, plates, silverware, and the strawberry cake topped with fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and powdered sugar. Alex, who had been relaxing against her couch, deftly stood up and took the tray from her hands.
“You should have asked for my help, Rebecca. This tray was quite heavy.”
“It wasn’t so bad. Thank you,” she said as they settled on the couch and she began to slice up the confection in front of her. Not everyone ate dessert after bouillabaisse, but she’d wanted to be prepared just in case.
“Did you bake the cake?”
Rebecca shook her head as she licked off a drop of whipped cream from her thumb and handed the plate to Alex with the other hand. His eyes had grown stormy again. “I, uh, I didn’t have time, so I just picked it up from the bakery around the corner.”
“I’m sure it tastes wonderful,” he said, his gaze still holding hers. She broke the link a moment later to serve herself.
“Why don’t we share a slice?” he asked as she picked up the knife again. “I don’t know about you, but that dinner was as filling as it was delicious.”
“Of course. I probably couldn’t eat a whole slice anyway.” She didn’t add that she’d been known to eat the entire cake on her own, though not after a filling dinner.
In typical male fashion, he loaded a forkful of food rather than a more demure portion. So, she was left opening her mouth wider than she’d have liked. Her lips closed over the fork and Alex slid it out slowly. Sensing some whipped cream on her lips, her tongue darted out to lick it away and she saw his eyes cloud over again.
When she’d finished chewing, he said, “You missed a spot.”
Her hand lifted to her face, but Alex stayed its movement. Instead, he leaned forward and licked the corner of her mouth. When she gasped, he took the opportunity to taste her again. The plate landed on the coffee table with a rattle and a clunk, and she was pulled into his arms.
His hands welded her against his body, one holding tight in her hair, the other cupping the curvy globes of her ass. Her hands were flat against his chest, feeling every delicious muscle through his shirt. His kisses were hard and insistent. She was almost sure her lips would be bruised the next day, but right now she could not care. Who would care when they were being kissed so thoroughly and possessively by the man they’d never thought they could have?
She felt her head spinning and a moment later she was lying flat on the couch, with Alex pressing her into the soft cushions. How did their bodies fit so well together? They shouldn’t have, but they did.
With a groan, Alex pulled back and rested his forehead against her neck. Rebecca’s hands roamed idly through his hair. After a moment, when their breathing returned to normal, Alex spoke.
“I never answered your earlier question,” he said softly.
“Which one?”
“About the security.” He shifted their bodies so they lay side by side, with Rebecca pressed into the back of the couch; it was the same position he’d maneuvered her into last night at the office.
He looked so serious, so concerned that she caressed his face. “What’s wrong?”
His arms wrapped around her and his forehead dropped to hers. “There’s been a death threat.”
She stiffened in his arms and he held on tighter until she relaxed a few mome
nts later. “That’s nothing new, though, is it? I know there have been some against the royal family in the past.”
“This one was specifically against me, and it’s a credible one.”
“Oh, Alex,” she said as fear gripped her. “Do you know who it is? Are you safe?” Another part of being royal: being in fear for your life. Could she live a life worrying about Alex every day, worrying about herself or their children? She just didn’t know. “Why is this one credible?”
“We don’t know who’s behind it yet; Marcello’s working on that angle. It’s credible because they managed to infiltrate the palace.”
Alexander & Rebecca (Royals of Valleria #1) Page 11