by Heidi Rice
He turned as his security chief finally re-entered the room fifteen minutes later.
‘We’ve been running all palace footage through facial recognition software,’ he started.
‘And?’ Giorgos prompted him curtly.
‘It seems Mr Gale was a guest at last month’s hospital ball.’
‘The hospital ball?’
Giorgos was so surprised he dumbly repeated the man’s statement. But then he looked at the open laptop the man had carried in. There, frozen on the screen, was proof that this Damon Gale had breached the gates of Giorgos’s own damn palace.
A series of four images had been captured from the security footage. The ball—a masquerade—was an annual fundraiser for the hospital, and yet Damon Gale hadn’t bothered with a mask even then. He’d walked in with one woman, but had then been caught on camera promenading in the ballroom with another. A tall, slender woman in blue—and even with the mask and the wig she wore Giorgos knew it was his sister.
So the arrogant jerk had seduced Eleni in her own home, under Giorgos’s very nose. He’d had the gall to ditch his date while he went princess-hunting.
Giorgos looked back at the first image and could hardly focus for the fury rising through him at the sight of Damon’s date. She too wore no mask, and she was stunning. There was pretty and then there was beautiful, and Giorgos had met plenty of both—models, actresses, heiresses—enough to be jaded...spoilt, even. But this was a woman in another league altogether.
Both serene and haughty, while subtly flaunting her sexy curves, her brunette hair was long and thick and hung in a seductive swathe to the narrow waist that was the cinch between her bountiful breasts and curvaceous hips. But even though she had the ultimate hourglass figure, it was her face that was utterly arresting—the pure symmetrical beauty of her wide eyes, upturned nose and pillowy pouting lips.
She was indisputably, classically perfect. Every inch of her spoke of femininity and sensuality. Her undeniably exquisite features meant she’d be a woman who understood her power and her worth. The dress she’d chosen emphasised that fact—it covered, yet clung, and he knew she’d deliberately chosen it to emphasise every killer curve.
A hot rage brewed deep in Giorgos’s belly—he was familiar with beautiful women who toyed with men. Who betrayed them. But why had Damon Gale left her side to target Eleni?
‘Get me a print-out of this picture,’ he snapped.
‘Of Mr Gale?’
‘Of them both. Who is she?’
Why had this man gone to seduce Giorgos’s innocent younger sister when he’d walked in with this woman? What part did this...this vixen...have to play in it?
‘Her name is Kassiani Marron. She’s known as Kassie and she works at the hospital.’
‘My hospital?’ Giorgos tensed as his fury burned hotter. ‘So she brought him to the palace?’
‘Actually, Mr Gale held the invitation. She accompanied him.’
Giorgos drew in a sharp breath. She was Damon Gale’s date—he’d asked her to attend with him yet set his sights on Eleni? Giorgos was stunned. This woman held such sexual allure...
‘Ms Marron is Mr Gale’s half-sister,’ the officer added. ‘She is the illegitimate daughter of John Gale, Damon’s father, an American diplomat.’
So she was Damon’s half-sister—family. Of course. It made sense. She was the feminine feline equivalent of her predatory brother. Scalding hot satisfaction rushed through Giorgos’s system, flooding his rage and turning into another emotion altogether. An emotion he had no inclination—and no time—to define.
He narrowed his gaze on her image and tried to process the revelation rationally. The vixen would have information. The vixen would have answers. The vixen would pay. Adrenalin charged his system like a lightning bolt of electricity, empowering his drive and focus.
He whipped his head up to glare at the security chief. ‘Where is she now?’
‘At the hospital. Would you like me to bring her to you?’
‘No.’ Giorgos turned away from the screen with speed. ‘I will go to the hospital.’
‘Sir?’ The officer looked startled.
Giorgos shook his head. As if he could trust any of his security team to deal with this situation, given they’d lost Eleni and not even told him for the better part of the day? No.
No.
This needed urgency, delicacy and above all control—the one thing Giorgos had in abundance. He needed to do the interrogation himself. And he’d extract every ounce of information he could from her. By whatever method was necessary.
‘Bring my car,’ he ordered. ‘Immediately.’
* * *
‘You shouldn’t be working late on a Friday night.’ The junior doctor leaned over Kassie—too close—with a winning smile. ‘You should be coming to dinner with me.’
Kassie took a breath, then answered with well-practised firm but dismissive politeness and eased back from his breach of her personal space. ‘I still have half an hour on my shift.’
And she’d be on the ward for at least another hour afterwards. She had too much paperwork to catch up on. Never mind that it was Friday night.
‘I have a booking at a very nice restaurant.’
‘And of course you don’t want that booking going to waste.’ Kassie maintained her slight smile, despite the disappointment edging into her.
The guy was probably nice enough, but already her temperature had dropped at the thought. And he was only suggesting dinner—totally tame—anything more intimate would have had her freezing in a nanosecond. Sadly, it was going to be another no from her.
‘Fortunately there are plenty of others about to end their shift,’ she said.
‘But I don’t want to go out with any of them. Only you.’
And there was a line she’d heard before. ‘You don’t even know me,’ she pointed out gently.
But he’d heard about her—she knew that.
‘You know Kassie doesn’t date anyone in the hospital,’ Zoe, one of the nurses, piped up with a smile, quickly shooting Kassie a glance of pure sisterhood solidarity. ‘Why don’t you ask Terese? She’s super-fun and a great dancer.’
Super-fun and a great dancer. Two things Kassie wasn’t.
The doctor looked at Kassie, but she avoided his gaze by studying the chart she was carrying, happy to let Zoe rescue her.
He finally turned. ‘What about you?’ he asked Zoe. ‘What are your plans tonight?’
Zoe shrugged and her smile turned coquettish. ‘You tell me.’
He smiled back. ‘Half an hour at the main entrance. I’ll be waiting.’ He sent Kassie a smug glance and strode down the corridor.
The nurse giggled before he was entirely out of earshot and turned to Kassie. ‘Are you sure you didn’t want to go out with him, Kassie?’ she asked. ‘He’s totally hot.’
‘Dr Hot is all yours.’ Kassie sighed deeply. ‘And thank you.’
‘Oh, no—thank you! I’m delighted to take him off your hands.’ Reassured, Zoe giggled again. ‘I just don’t understand why you don’t date any of them. If I were you I’d—’
‘Be getting back to my work—which is what I’m going to do,’ Kassie interrupted swiftly with a firm smile.
But she appreciated Zoe’s assistance. It wasn’t worth the embarrassment of trying to date any more. She just didn’t feel things the way normal people did. But that was fine. She’d long since accepted it and chosen to focus on building her career.
Zoe had turned away and Kassie became conscious of the nurse’s sudden silence. In fact the entire ward was abnormally silent. The gentle bubbling hum of soft conversation had ceased. A prickle rasped down her spine and she turned around to see what the issue was.
‘Good evening.’
A man stood right in front of her. As she stared up into his face her lips parted but s
he remained wordless—silenced by the hard glow of his striking green eyes and the furiously cold glare he was directing her way. Dazedly she recognised that this tall, imposing figure wasn’t just anyone. She was used to the King’s sister, Princess Eleni, visiting the hospital, but not King Giorgos himself.
How long had he been standing there? Had he heard all that conversation? To be caught out talking dating by anyone was mortifying—but by the King? Why was he here at all? Why hadn’t they been notified? Why hadn’t there been the usual security sweep before anyone royal arrived?
A billion thoughts flooded her feeble brain, but the one that her mind locked on to was the most banal and the most unbelievable—so handsome. King Giorgos was so incredibly handsome.
She’d lived here all her life but never seen the King up close before—and had certainly never imagined he’d be as good-looking in reality as he was in print. Impossibly, he was more so. As he towered over her she was conscious of his physicality—of the broad shoulders and muscled body that his perfectly tailored suit hinted at. It struck her that the immaculate stitching and fabric was nothing more than a fragile veneer, masking his raw masculinity. His dangerousness.
And where had that idiot thought come from?
She mentally slapped herself. So he was tall, dark and handsome? She knew that. Everyone knew that. So what? More importantly, where was everyone? Where was her ward manager? She tore her gaze from his to see Zoe a short distance away, walking with a uniformed soldier who must have accompanied the King.
‘Don’t you know who I am?’ he asked.
Her attention snapped back to the column of masculinity blocking her path. Of course she knew who he was.
‘Yes, I do,’ she muttered breathlessly, instantly mortified by the brevity of her answer. ‘Sir,’ she added. ‘I mean, Your Highness.’
Oh, hell, was she flustered? Kassie was never flustered.
He was still staring at her. His piercing green gaze narrowed, deepening his frown to appear even more disapproving than before. Another prickle rippled down her spine—and it was not only awareness, it was edged with something else. A foreign kind of anger kindled. What was he waiting for? Was he expecting her to curtsey? Bend her knees and scrape the floor? Roll over before him?
But then a sudden image sprang to her mind—of herself on her back and him arching over her—sensual, inappropriate and so unexpected and shocking she gasped softly.
His gaze sharpened. ‘Will you show me around the ward?’ he asked with stinging sarcasm, as if he shouldn’t have had to.
The last thing she wanted to do was spend another second in his company when her dormant sensuality had decided to spark up—and malfunction.
She cleared her throat, panicking. ‘Is there anything in particular you would like to see?’
Why on earth would he want a tour, last thing on a Friday? And, crucially, how quickly could she get this over with so she could step outside and examine the fact that she’d just had a flash of an X-rated fantasy for the first time in her life—ever? A totally alien heat flooded her body.
‘I’d like to understand what my sister likes to see when she visits.’
Kassie tried to pull on a sympathetic smile and get her mind back on track. ‘We missed the Princess today.’
‘You usually see her.’ He was coldly confirming a fact more than asking a question.
‘Every week.’ Kassie nodded, happy for the distraction. ‘Is she well?’
The icy expression in his eyes instantly slid into steely hostility. She stared back at him, stunned by the animosity so apparent in him. Had the question been rude? Should she not have asked? Why not show concern for the poor woman?
The temperature plummeted as the silence stretched, tearing at her equanimity and customary conciliatory manner.
‘The Princess likes to spend time with the younger patients,’ she said crisply, deciding to end this as quickly and as politely as possible. Fortunately she was experienced at building barriers to distance herself and end conversations early. ‘Most of them are having their dinner and will then be prepared for sleep.’
‘Are you saying this is an inconvenient time?’ His query would have been perfectly polite if it hadn’t been for that slight edge in his voice.
‘It’s outside of customary visiting hours,’ she replied, with as much diplomacy as she could summon.
‘Then let’s not disturb them.’
Relief bloomed in Kassie’s chest and she managed an actual small smile as she waited for His Arrogance to depart. But he too waited, watching her far too closely. His lashes lowered and he lazily looked her up and down. She stiffened. Was he really looking at her body? The King?
Men had been looking at her body since she was a young teenager and had first developed the curves that so many guys seemed instantly to equate with sexual appetite. They looked, they made assumptions, they made passes. And then they made slurs, because she didn’t respond the way they wanted. So, as always, she froze at this visual inspection—but stared hard back at him, glaring to convey her anger at his audacity.
He ended his trailing inspection of her and met her gaze directly, his green eyes imprisoning her attention. She couldn’t have torn it away if she’d tried. And, deep within her, an unexpected kernel of energy popped—a spark that set her nerves to smoulder. And then another. Suddenly every muscle tightened, coiling with kinetic energy. Her body simmered.
Ordinarily Kassie had no flight-or-fight mode—she simply froze. But now? Now she felt primed to act.
He wasn’t anything like his serene sister—a sweet woman who liked to laugh and draw pictures for the patients. There was no laughter in him—only leashed energy. She could almost feel waves of emotion rolling off him—impatience barely concealed. It didn’t seem right for such a big man to stand so still. He was like a predator about to attack. His fiery gaze trained on hers.
She was clearly going crazy. She didn’t get flustered in the presence of royals or other supposedly important people. She didn’t get overwhelmed. She didn’t get struck speechless. And she certainly didn’t start thinking about sex. Always she remained cool. More than cool. Outright frosty.
She knew very well that in the doctors’ ranks she was famed for her frigidity. That was the only reason why that guy had come to try his luck with her just before. And she’d rejected him—just as she’d rejected every one of the others who’d heard about her and who’d come to ask her on a date. It was no longer about her as a person, but her as a challenge. Rejection from her was a rite of passage for new recruits.
‘How else may I help you?’ she asked, her throat dry.
‘I require your assistance,’ he said curtly.
‘You need a physiotherapist?’
Insanely, the thought of touching him was...not what she’d expected. No, the thought of touching him made the skin beneath her uniform sizzle rather than chill.
Startled by her own stunning inconsistency, Kassie quickly denied him. ‘I’m sure there’s someone with more experience who can assist—’
‘It’s you I want,’ he snapped.
She flinched. Want? What did he mean by ‘want’?
She stared up at him, transfixed by the total derailment of her thoughts. By what she thought she could read in the banked heat of his green eyes. Was this some kind of weird pick-up? Because if it was this was worse than any of the attempts she’d been subjected to in the past.
Mortified, she felt as if acid was burning a hole right through her pride.
‘Want for what?’ She couldn’t even speak properly—her voice was reduced to a whisper—but her words were rude.
Because it wasn’t quite her pride that was burning—it was something deeper than that. Something more complicated. Had he heard the rumours about her? Was he here to try his luck?
Impossibly, he looked even more remote. ‘It is a delic
ate matter.’
Somehow her brain conflated ‘delicate’ with intimate. Another whisper of a vision—of being close to him—scattered her remaining rationality to the four winds.
Was she blushing? She never blushed. Never responded to any suggestion of closeness with anything other than revulsion.
‘In what...?’ She paused and cleared her throat to force herself to continue, repeating her question. ‘In what way do you want me?’
He had not lifted his unyielding stare from her face and she knew he was watching the heated colour mottling her skin. Too late she realised that he knew. He saw right thought her and knew the appalling direction her thoughts had taken. And too late she realised the innuendo so blatantly obvious in the question she’d so innocently asked.
‘I’m not about to act inappropriately with you,’ he said, very slowly and softly. ‘I do have a modicum of self-control.’
He had self-control? Did that mean he wanted to act inappropriately with her? She was so shocked she simply couldn’t speak.
He took a step closer, his voice lowering further still. ‘You need to come to the palace. My assistant will bring you there immediately.’
No. Every instinct warned her against being alone with him. Because even being with him here in public like this was causing a reaction within her that wasn’t normal. Not for her.
Emotion surged—fury coalesced with fear and summoned rebellion. She didn’t care who he was. She wasn’t going to blindly do as she was told.
‘I don’t get into cars with strangers,’ she said as calmly as she could. ‘I don’t go anywhere without knowing why.’
He regarded her steadily, that arrogant tilt curling his lips. ‘Are you defying the express orders of your King?’
She sucked in a breath and replied before thinking clearly. ‘Are you abusing your position of power to control me?’