by Tina Leonard
She threw him a wry glance. “Do you think me incapable of using my mouth to tell my father that this is my choice? To bathe horses rather than sit in the house like a useless piece of furniture?”
“Maybe I should take you into town,” Cade said helplessly, caught between wanting to romance her and wanting her to stop working. “I’m sure you didn’t do this kind of thing in Balahar.”
She smiled at him. “I would not have been allowed.”
“Then you shouldn’t be allowed here! Let me take you into town. We can eat lunch out—”
“My husband,” she interrupted with determination. “Please be quiet. Your worrying is giving me a headache.”
“Wow! Is that the princess?” someone’s triumphant voice suddenly exclaimed. “She looks just like her picture!” Lights flashed inside the dim barn. A horse reared, startled by the commotion of six strange men crowding around Cade and Serena. One shook Cade’s hand, holding out a press card. “We’re from—”
But Cade didn’t hear the rest. All he could see was Serena, wet and bedraggled, shrinking up against the big horse in an attempt to shield herself from the photographers’ assault.
“Out!” he shouted. “Every last one of you—get out!”
THE PICTURES ON the evening news that night were no consolation to Cade. Serena looked frightened out of her wits, like a waif who had been caught in a barn.
He burned, knowing that the pictures would make their way to Balahar, and to the king’s eye.
“I can’t understand how they found out Serena was here,” Rose said. “Now that they know, your chance at privacy is gone, Cade.”
So much for them getting to know each other without a thousand eyeballs prying into their business. Cade groaned. “I just hate to think what her father is going to believe when he sees those pictures.”
“He is not going to be happy,” Rose confirmed. “You should be prepared for anything to happen.”
“What are you saying?” Mac asked. “That they may send a plane for Serena and drag her back home?”
“More likely a delegation will be sent at once to check on her. I can’t believe that King Zak will simply take Serena’s word on the phone that she is happy here. But perhaps he will. They seem close to each other.”
“It was probably only a matter of time before the press learned about Serena,” Vi said, who had come, with her husband, to discuss the disaster that had befallen the ranch.
“I hate to bring this up,” Randy said, “but it isn’t going to be easy on the hands to work with strangers trooping around all the time. They won’t mean to, but they’ll drop trash and tear up the dirt paths where they park their cars and trucks.”
“So it’s just going to get worse.” Cade tried to imagine the scope of what was about to happen to The Desert Rose.
“Well, it’s one thing for them to believe that the princess is just here visiting,” Vi said. “But they might start digging, and if it gets out that you two are married under unusual circumstances, I don’t think you’ll ever see an end to the photographers camped outside.”
“Which brings us to the problem of the princes’ and princess’s lives being jeopardized. We can’t possibly provide security with people coming and going all the time. Posting No Trespassing signs will help, but the more intrepid photographers will ignore them. And let’s not forget about zoom lens cameras,” Randy reminded them. “This will be very difficult on our fifteen boarders, not to mention the horses.”
The phone rang, making them all groan.
“That will be the king,” Cade said. His gaze met Serena’s.
“I will talk to my father and explain,” she said quietly. “After all, this is my fault.”
“King Zak, on the phone for Serena,” Jessica called cheerfully.
Cade watched as Serena got to her feet and crossed into the study, closing the door behind her. “Can we ask for some police protection? I really don’t like to think about Serena being followed by strangers all the time. She needs a bodyguard.”
“You make a very good point, Cade. She needs you,” Rose said, rising. “You guard her for the rest of her stay in Bridle. Don’t let her out of your sight. I want you to stick to her like wet jeans. If she decides to stay here and marry you under your real name, properly, we’ll deal with that at that time. For now, she is your greatest responsibility.”
Cade’s jaw dropped, his protest immediate and yet left unspoken by the purposeful glint in his mother’s eyes as she passed him. After a moment, Vi and Randy followed her into the kitchen. Then Jessica left as well.
Deserters, every last one of them, to dump the princess on him. He couldn’t spend every minute of every day with her. He couldn’t be around her that much! She’d tease him, torture him, tempt him—
He caught his brother’s smirk, wide and annoying, as if Mac knew exactly what Cade was thinking.
“You take good care of the princess,” Mac said, laughing as he left the room.
Cade pressed his lips together. Once upon a time, he’d felt powerful, invincible. He’d known who he was, and felt in control of his world. Totally confident and in command. He was a man who hopped into his jet and flew to foreign countries to make deals; he was impressive and respected. No one would have dared to toy with him.
All that had changed with the arrival of a certain lady in his life—and now he had to figure out how to get it all back together again. Soon. Because sticking to Serena like wet jeans was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done. He was pretty certain he wasn’t capable of being her bodyguard. Protecting her from others was one thing.
Protecting her from himself had already proved painfully challenging.
Chapter Twelve
“Mom,” Jessica said as they grouped together in the kitchen. “I had a friend call me tonight, and I was wondering if you would mind an extra person staying at the ranch. I know it’s probably not such a great idea right now, but I was hoping she could help me with ranch paperwork and a few other jobs.”
Randy kissed his wife briefly on the forehead. “I’ll go warn Jan and Mickey and the gang about the onslaught we’re bracing for. You folks excuse me.” He left the kitchen, and Vi’s eyes followed him for a moment before she returned her attention to Jessica.
“I don’t mind,” she said. “Although you might warn her about the extra excitement we may be having.”
“Abbie is looking for a change,” Jessica said with a smile. “I’ll tell her that the photographers are here taking pictures of the horses before an upcoming show. That way the royalty thing won’t come up, Aunt Rose.”
“I worry that it won’t stay hidden much longer.” Vi got up to look out the window.
Jessica’s gaze followed hers, where Randy stood talking to Savannah, a boarder at The Desert Rose. Warning her about the possible invasion, Jessica thought, and wondered why her mother suddenly looked so sad.
Ella brought in the mail, thumping it down on the table with less than her customary cheer. “I’m not going to be able to take a breath without worrying that one of those photographers is going to ask me something,” she complained. “They even looked over my shoulder to see what I pulled out of the mailbox!”
Rose shook her head. “I cannot imagine how they got wind of the princess being here.” She reached out, her fingers instantly grasping the envelope with the king’s royal seal on it. “I think King Zak has made good on his promise and sent the wedding pictures,” she said eagerly, tearing open the envelope.
Jessica, Ella and Vi all peered over her shoulder. “Pretty fancy for a quick wedding,” Jessica observed. “Doesn’t Cade look handsome? Like a real Arabian prince! I mean, he is real,” she said hastily. “It’s just hard to think of him that way when he’s around The Desert Rose.”
But it wasn’t her son, Prince Kadar, who had Rose’s attention. She stared at the four people in the photograph: the king, Serena, Kadar beside her, and then Prince Sharif beside him.
All the world seemed to
drop away from Rose as she gazed at the prince she’d never seen.
“Hey, kinda funny how Cade and that Sharif guy look just like each other,” Jessica said.
“Like peas in a pod,” Ella commented, going off to put some mail upstairs in Cade’s office.
“They could pass for brothers rather than brothers-in-law,” Vi stated.
Rose’s blood ran cold. She’d thought the same thing.
Prince Sharif and Serena were related by adoption. King Zak had adopted Serena when his best friend, her father, had died. But Sharif had come to him at birth, unlike Serena. Rose counted back the years to her final pregnancy. The baby had been taken from her at birth, a reality that had broken her heart and further assured her descent into depression. She’d even been told there had never been a pregnancy, never been a child. Yet despite the times she began to doubt herself, she knew deep in her heart that she had given birth to her beloved Ibrahim’s fourth child.
She glanced back at the picture again. Sharif and Kadar stared into the camera—dark skinned, confident, astonishingly handsome. Pure prince. Both with Ibrahim’s features spread between them, unless her wistful mind was playing tricks on her.
Surely Layla’s treachery hadn’t run that far?
SERENA STRODE OUT of the office after her phone conversation with her father. He had been upset, and that she could understand. He had very nearly commanded her to come home at once.
That she was not willing to do. She soothed his king’s pride and explained that she had been tending the horses because she had wanted to—not because her husband had allowed it.
She assured him that she was safe at The Desert Rose. And then she decided that, since she currently was the press’s only target, she would tell them everything they thought they wanted to know.
It wasn’t all that newsworthy. Or, at least, the story she intended to tell them wouldn’t be. Tucking her wedding rings into her jeans pocket, she marched down to the side of the road where the six reporters were parked. With a winning smile, she perched on top of the fence, hooking her boots around the lower rail as she’d seen Jan and Mickey and the other ranch hands do.
The reporters snapped to attention, their cameras clicking rapidly.
“So,” Serena said, “what do you want to know?”
“What are you doing in a little town in Texas?” one called.
“I’m on vacation. Haven’t you heard of dude ranches? Princesses need to get away, too,” she said smartly.
“That’s it?” someone called. “What made you pick The Desert Rose?”
She shrugged. “I heard there was peace and quiet here.”
They laughed, a bit embarrassed.
“What do you like to eat, Princess?”
“Oh, come on, now. You can do better than that,” she teased. “What do you eat? Everybody in Texas eats a lot of meat and potatoes, and as much Mexican food as they possibly can, right?”
The reporters stared at her, their questions stilled.
“What? That’s all?” she coaxed.
“We just thought there’d be more,” one explained.
She shook her head. “It’s not all that exciting to be a princess.”
“You got your eye on a prince?” a female reporter asked.
Serena blinked. “Hmm. My father will arrange a marriage for me,” she said primly. It was the truth. He had. The arrangement had gone awry since she’d married the incorrect brother, but that wasn’t a detail she was interested in sharing.
“Will you mind having an arranged marriage?” the female reporter pressed.
I won’t if you go away so we can get on with our marriage, Serena thought, but she smiled good-naturedly. “It is our custom.” After a moment, she slid off the fence. “I’d like to get back to washing my horse. He spooks easy, so it’s best if you folks don’t pop in on him like that anymore. He might jump and injure himself or me.”
The reporters shifted uncomfortably.
“Sure, Princess,” someone said.
And that was the end of her first press conference. Or so she thought, until she felt Cade take hold of her arm.
The cameras began whirring all over again.
CADE WASN’T CERTAIN he’d be able to play the role of bodyguard. He was considering the sexual angle of the matter. Proximity to his wife meant wanting her, and that was all there was to that. He was hanging on heroically by a thread not to ravish a woman who either went braless, wore clicking bras that enticed or merry widows that made his breath stop in his chest.
He was not a very merry husband. She was determined to seduce him, and he was determined that she see exactly what she was getting into with him. Right now, she could still change her mind; she could return home and procure an annulment. He owed her that, at least.
But then, as he stood pondering these thoughts, trying to corral his last vestiges of good sense into his moral obligation to be her bodyguard, he saw his little wife sashaying down the road to the reporters’ command post.
He’d followed quickly, cursing under his breath. Bodyguarding her was going to be as easy as holding on to a rainbow.
He didn’t get there in time to hear what she’d said to the press, but he took hold of her arm to lead her off. He would tell her in the future she should not leave the house without consulting him. They did not know these reporters, and they did not owe them any information.
Serena snapped her arm out of his grasp.
“Princess—” he said, but she cut him off.
“I am fine on my own, please,” she stated.
“Hey,” one of the reporters called, “how ’bout him, Princess? He might suit you.”
Someone else said, the voice teasing, “Hey, how about me, Princess?”
Cade’s temper flew clean out of his head as he turned. “The princess is spoken for. There will be no further press conferences. She has said all she will be saying. We would appreciate it if you remove yourselves from the premises at once.”
Angered by Cade’s words, though they’d been soothed by Serena’s time with them, someone said, “Hey, the princess was just being nice to us, which is more than I can say for you.”
Cade began to speak, but Serena jerked forward, dragging him with her since he had her by the arm.
“Just be quiet,” she said under her breath. “You’re making everything worse!”
Cade was so startled by his normally submissive wife’s sharp words to him that he could only allow her to pull him off into the barn. Once inside, they faced each other, hands on hips.
“I had it under control,” she said.
“I am your protector,” he stated unequivocally.
“I did not need your protection then, and I will not be needing it at all.”
“My mother has decided that, for the duration of your visit, I am to be your bodyguard.”
“The duration…” Serena’s face went paler than normal. “What does that mean?”
Cade halted, realizing that in his anger his words had come out quite different from how he’d intended them. “I mean that I am to take care of you while you are here, which I’ve been trying to do all along, as a matter of fact, except you won’t stay put!” He had a thing or two to tell her, and it was past time he said it. Seeing her little bottom encased in tight jeans strolling off toward a den of men had displeased him mightily—he was damn sure he was within his princely rights to be extremely upset with his wife. “You would not have approached any men, known or otherwise, in your country in the manner in which you did a moment ago, am I correct?”
Serena lowered her eyes. “I would not.”
“What would have happened if you had?”
“It is not done in my country,” she admitted. “I do not know. I suppose I would have been punished.”
“Married or otherwise, you would not go off with a band of strange men?”
“No. I would not,” she admitted.
“Then I certainly expect the same while you are here!”
&nbs
p; That brought her head up. “I do not like the way you make it sound as if I won’t be here long! I did what I thought was best! I am sorry if you are offended, but it was important to me that your family not be bothered because of me. If that angers you, then I am sorry.”
Cade crossed his arms, trying to remain angry, but he could not. He put his arms down and pulled her against his chest instead. “You frightened me,” he said gruffly. “I was already feeling out of my league because being your protector is going to be difficult.”
“A big strong man like you should be able to keep up with little tiny me with one hand tied behind his back,” Serena mumbled against his chest.
He drew her auburn hair through his fingers. Her slender body melted up against his made him think about things he figured he shouldn’t be thinking just yet, since he didn’t want to rush the princess. “Yes, but we just established that you were protecting me. And my family.”
“I do not want to be an inconvenience for you,” she murmured. “You are always talking about how much I will have to adjust to life in Texas. It seems to me that you are the one having to do all the adjusting with a princess on your ranch. By spinning my tale for the reporters, I merely thought to ease the situation.”
He tipped her head back so that he could stare down into her light emerald eyes. “You used to finish a sentence like that with ‘my prince,’ or some other respectful title.”
She blinked. “I am not addressing you in such a manner anymore, in case you mistake the terms of respect for my subservience.”
“Subservience!” Cade exclaimed. “You may be the least subservient woman I have ever known, besides Jessica. No man’s going to marry her, because she’s too bossy. Too stubborn. Don’t you dare be like her.”
Serena smiled as Cade tugged on her hair for emphasis as she continued looking up at him. “Prince Makin seems to think it would be best if I treated you with less deference. He wondered if perhaps it had all gone to your head.”
Cade groaned. “Excuse me, but Prince Makin is not exactly an expert in the love-life department. He has none, so I wouldn’t go on his advice.”