The Earl Takes A Bride (Elbia Series Book 2)

by Kathryn Jensen

  Never had he lost control as he had with her in the stables. Never had he gone against his own solemnly arrived-at intentions. But all she’d had to do was look up at him with those amazing hazel eyes of hers, and he’d thrown away the game plans.

  By confronting him she had forced him to react to her when he’d intended to handle her tour of the castle and its grounds with utmost decor and civility. His only recourse had been to try to frighten her away. If he came at her like a bull, stopped treating her like the king’s sister-in-law, she’d soon realize he wasn’t what she wanted or needed. But it hadn’t worked. Somewhere along the way, he’d stopped trying to protect her and selfishly pleased himself.

  Now the thought of how brutally he’d manhandled her drove him mad. No, he hadn’t seduced her, but he might as well have. The will had been there. He’d ached to throw her down on the stable floor and plunge into her. Seeing her surrender herself totally to him had been a powerful aphrodisiac. He shared her climaxes, challenged himself to take her ever higher.

  How could he have done such a terrible thing?

  Thomas took a very long walk to try to settle himself down.

  When he at last returned by way of the garden gates, high-pitched squeals and laughter greeted him. He looked up from the stony path to see Allison with the little prince and princess. He couldn’t face her now, not after what he’d just done.

  Making a smart about-face, Thomas took the long way back to the castle.

  By dinnertime that night, he still hadn’t figured out how to deal with the issue of Diane. He knew he’d hurt her feelings by refusing to become her summer lover. But the circumstances were impossible, he told himself for the hundredth time. She was far better off suffering brief rejection, then returning to the States to find a man who would be a proper husband. He had no doubt that a woman with as much to offer as Diane would find eager suitors once it became clear she was available.

  But that was, he suddenly realized, yet another problem, for he found he didn’t much like the idea of another man touching her as he had…or making love to her completely, as he hadn’t.

  The family met for dinner in the private dining parlor to one side of the smallest of the three kitchens. The formal dining room was enormous and used only for state occasions, while the parlor had a cozier feeling and accommodated only eight. He arrived later than the rest of the family. Allison and Diane were chatting animatedly about Diane’s shopping trip in Elbia that afternoon. He hoped no one would ask why she’d had to go alone.

  He tried to keep Jacob busy with conversation about the king’s upcoming trip to Canada in hopes of shutting out the sweetly mesmerizing sound of Diane’s voice. But sometime during dessert, Thomas overheard Allison react to something her sister had said.

  “I really don’t think it’s a good idea,” she said softly. “Elbia’s night life is pretty tame when compared to Paris, London or Rome…but a place with the reputation of Zandoor’s isn’t appropriate for a woman on her own.”

  “Zandoor’s?” Thomas repeated before he could stop himself.

  Diane grinned at him. “A tourist guide told me the night club was very exciting—live music, lots of interesting people and good food.”

  “It’s a pickup joint,” Thomas said crisply.

  “You see?” Allison said, looking relieved to have some support. “If you’re intent on sampling the night life, you should go with a group.”

  “Or take Thomas,” Jacob said with a casual wave of his fork. “He’s equal to any three men. I can personally vouch for that.”

  Diane slanted a meaningful look at Thomas and mouthed the words Me, too.

  He shifted in his chair and turned quickly back to Jacob. “I promised you the agenda for Friday’s meeting by tomorrow morning. I still need to do some work on it.”

  “The afternoon will be good enough.”

  Thomas nodded and lost what was left of his appetite. He pushed away his half-eaten slice of Linzertorte—the hazelnut, raspberry and spices he so loved, forgotten.

  “I really don’t need a chaperon,” Diane insisted.

  Thomas prayed Jacob would let that pass as a refusal of his company. But His Royal Highness had never taken no for an answer.

  “If you still want to go,” Jacob stated, “Thomas will drive you and be there, just in case you need him.”

  Zandoor’s was throbbing with world-beat music. One minute tribal in rhythm, the next Irish, gypsy, Australian aboriginal or hopped-up American swing. It never stopped.

  The club was crammed with lively dancing, talking, laughing people of all ages. Diane was excited. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone clubbing and wished Allison could have come with her. But she understood her sister’s responsibilities to her children and her royal image. Luckily, she wasn’t royalty and could do as she pleased.

  Thomas followed closely behind as Diane pushed herself through the crush of bodies in the main room, even though she’d asked him to stay in the car. He glowered at the gyrating couples on the dance floor as if any one of them might be a paid assassin in disguise.

  “Have you been here before?” she shouted above the gut-thudding reverberations.

  “Not my kind of place,” he muttered.

  “Not mine, either, but it looks like fun!” A man standing at the bar caught her eye, and she smiled back. She’d forgotten how much fun it was to flirt. “Get lost for a while, will you, Thomas? I don’t want you frightening off prospects.” She was only half teasing. She’d noticed more than a few intimidated expressions as she and her bodyguard passed by.

  An hour later Diane finished her first martini and started on a second sent to her by a striking young man at a nearby table. She raised her glass to him in thanks. Before he could move to the seat beside her at the bar, another man asked her to dance. She felt the tiniest bit wild and gave herself to the loud music and heady beverages until the room began to spin gently. She danced some more, but prudently turned down a third martini from yet another stranger.

  Meanwhile, Thomas lurked in a dark corner, observing her with a disapproving glare. She was glad he was angry. She’d laid her soul bare to him, and he’d turned her down! Although now she at least knew he wanted her, too. Diane gazed about the crowded, dark room, searching for someone she’d feel safe leaving with, just to put Thomas in his place. She would never sleep with a stranger, but Thomas didn’t know that. Pretending she merely had to choose a partner for the night gave her a jolt of wicked satisfaction.

  It was nearly midnight when Thomas finally broke. She was dancing with a man with sexy blue eyes and blond hair, who told her he was a skiing instructor. At least she thought that was what he’d said, since he spoke no English and her college German was rusty. They were dancing to one of the few slow songs the band had played that night and, as he brought her closer and she rested her head on his shoulder, she felt his hand wandering lower on her back, and her body tensed. His palm spread across her bottom and he gave her a too-friendly squeeze.

  Before Diane could protest, she felt a violent jerk and her partner was gone. She looked around, mystified, and spotted a tall figure plowing through the crowd of dancers with a fragile-looking man struggling like a marionette from his huge fist.

  “Thomas!” she cried. Oh, God, she thought, he’s going to kill him.

  What had she done?

  Scrambling between bodies, she went after them. She caught up with Thomas and her former dance partner at the club’s front door.

  “Wait!” she gasped. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

  “You wanted him to touch you like that?” Thomas roared.

  “No, but I could have handled it myself.”

  The man was staring at Thomas in horror, then at her. “Ist er ihres Mann?”

  “No, I’m not her husband!” Thomas barked, releasing him.

  The man didn’t wait for further explanations. He was through the door and into the street before Diane could apologize. The music in the room behi
nd them grew louder and the beat intensified. She could hardly think. “Come outside!” she shouted up at Thomas, then took his hand and led him into the cool night air. Even in the dark she could see the white-tipped mountains surrounding Elbia. Moonlight splashed the shop-lined streets with a silvery glow.

  She sat down on a bench and patted the spot beside her for Thomas. They remained silent for what seemed a very long time. The music from the club provided a distant backdrop of steady bass beats that echoed against the quaint, old buildings.

  At last she sighed. “I can’t stay in Elbia unless we come to some kind of agreement.”

  “I know,” he returned gruffly.

  “I can leave.”

  He shook his head. “You were right before when you said we should be able to be friends and acknowledge our attraction for each other. I wasn’t being completely honest when I told you my only reasons for not wanting to start an affair with you were Jacob and you.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’m forty years old. It must have occurred to you that there is a reason I haven’t married.”

  “I thought your loyalty to Jacob…”

  “He would never deny me a family,” Thomas said quietly. “I choose not to marry for reasons of my own inadequacy.”

  Now she was really confused. “I don’t understand.”

  “When I was not quite five years old, my mother left me, my two younger brothers and our father. She walked out of our lives, and to my knowledge she’s never looked back. At least, I haven’t seen her since.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Diane breathed. She couldn’t imagine any woman doing such a thing. She thought of her own children and felt faintly nauseous. How often had she worried about losing them to an accident or sickness? But to voluntarily leave them…

  “My father,” Thomas continued, “true to the nature of most British males, was not a warm, nurturing man. He saw to our physical needs, and we had a nanny, but as soon as each of us turned six, we were shipped off to boarding school. I only returned home on holidays.”

  Diane nodded. “I see.”

  “Even if I were to find a woman I loved,” he said slowly, “I wouldn’t marry. I’ve been on my own all of my life. In schools, in the army, then living a bachelor’s life. It would be too much of an adjustment. That aside—” he added quickly, seeing that she was about to say something “—I think I’d always fear she’d leave me eventually.”

  It made more sense than his blind loyalty to Jacob.

  “Not all women leave.”

  “Fears aren’t always logical,” he mused.

  “I know.” There seemed little more to say. She stood up. “Let’s walk. Maybe we’ll come up with a way to stop driving each other crazy.”

  They left the car behind and strolled through the streets of the ancient lower town of Elbia. Thomas told her of its beginnings, back in the eleventh century as part of the Holy Roman Empire. He pointed out crumbling foundations, the place where a grand Herrenhouse once had stood, and a fountain built to honor Jacob’s great-grandfather Wilhelm. The city had a glorious past, and she loved feeling part of it. It had the elegance she’d seen in postcards of Vienna, the charm of Paris and a history to compete with the grandest cities of the world but on a smaller scale.

  At last she stopped, and when Thomas faced her she took his large hands in her smaller ones and looked up at him. “Enough of the past, time for the present.”

  “I was afraid of that.” He smiled weakly and rolled his eyes.

  “I don’t want to leave Elbia just yet,” she said. “I love it here, and I think you were right— I do need a break…and time to figure out what I want to do with my life.”

  “Then stay.”

  “I’ve never met a man like you, Thomas,” she said truthfully. “I can’t pretend I don’t feel things when we’re together that I never felt with other men. And I’m very, very happy you are tempted to sleep with me. That makes me feel special.”

  “I’m glad.” He gazed down at her warily.

  “But I respect your reasons for not wanting to become seriously involved. And although I told you Jacob’s opinion and your concerns for my future shouldn’t matter, I think that’s wrong. They do matter a lot. I shouldn’t ask you to be disloyal to Jacob. And I shouldn’t embark on an affair when getting emotionally involved with a man should be the last thing on my mind right now.”

  “I agree,” he said cautiously. Two words seemed to be his limit. She thought very hard about her own next words. “Perhaps we should also agree to keep our relationship uncomplicated. I value your friendship. Can we keep it at that?”

  “I’ve tried,” he pointed out.

  “But I wasn’t helping, was I?”

  He shook his head, his eyes darkening at remembered moments.

  “This time I will help,” she promised. “I won’t tease you or try to tempt you into compromising your honor. And if you should feel yourself weakening, tell me, and I’ll make myself scarce for a few days…take a trip to Austria or Switzerland or somewhere. That’s not exactly a hardship.”

  He smiled. “No, it isn’t.” Lifting her fingertips to his lips he kissed them lightly. “You can trust me to abide by our pledge.”

  “Friends,” she whispered, her eyes tickling with tears she refused to shed.

  “Friends,” he repeated, as he released her hand and drew a long, deep breath.

  Diane followed his gaze to the castle rising majestically above them. She felt warm and good and right inside. She’d never known a man she liked as much as Thomas, and after their conversation she respected him, too. Someday, if she was very lucky, she would find someone at least half as fine as he, and if that man had room in his heart for one decent woman with three children…she would be his forever.

  Five

  Thomas had given his promise, and he did his best to keep it. But no matter how hard he tried to think of Diane as no more than a friend and member of the royal family during the following weeks, he always returned to the memory of her eyes softly glazing over as he leaned down to trap her urgent gasps of pleasure within their impassioned kisses. Neither could he forget the way she’d urgently seized his wrist and pressed his hand harder against her, so desperately eager for the release she hadn’t experienced in months, years, or perhaps ever.

  He had come perilously close to losing himself in sympathy with her rapture.

  The power she held over him was amazing, even frightening. He’d fed off her pleasure, been content to give her all she wanted and needed that day in the stable. That was something else that had never happened with other women. He had made sure they were satisfied, yes, but for selfish reasons—to make certain if he wanted a return engagement they would be eager. With Diane, he thought only of her and what would make her happy.

  Later he’d had to deal with the painful consequence of his own urgent need. He’d wished her delicate fingers had been holding him. Instead he had to settle for a very cold shower.

  Now, standing before the long, crowded shelves of the palace library, Thomas thrust aside these unwanted visions before his body reacted again. Just in time, because he suddenly became aware of footsteps entering the room. When he looked up from the heavy legal tome Jacob had sent him to find, he saw a smiling Diane, glowing in a yellow sundress.

  He was lost.

  “You’ve been avoiding me,” she accused him lightly.

  “I’ve been busy. I do work here, you remember.”

  “I know. Just teasing. I don’t expect you to entertain me.”

  “New dress?” he commented. The bodice was cut straight across the front with wide gingham straps over her shoulders. Modest swells of her breasts were visible above the smooth cotton band and sent a quick electric charge through him.

  “Yes, it is new.” She looked pleased that he’d noticed and spun girlishly to model it for him. “Allison took me shopping yesterday. She says the color complements my dark hair.”

  “It does,” he agreed, then settled int
o silence because he didn’t dare remark on all the other ways she looked beautiful that morning.

  “I was thinking,” she said slowly. “It would be a lovely day for a picnic in the valley. Do you know of a nice spot?”

  “Yes, several,” he said cautiously. “Who is going?”

  “Allison and the children and I. Jacob, if he can get away…and you’re invited.”

  He heaved an inward sigh of relief. As long as he wasn’t alone with her, it would make for an enjoyable day. “That sounds very pleasant indeed.”

  She smiled. “Good. You decide where we should go. I’ll go see what Cook can pack for our feast.”

  She left him in such a muddle of emotions it was hopeless. His heart raced then felt light within his chest, like a fledgling bird taking wing for the first time. It would be wonderful to lounge in the sunshine with the five people who had become most important to his world. Moreover, it would be safe, and he was grateful for that.

  But another part of him yearned to throw off caution and find a way to have Diane to himself for just a few hours. He wouldn’t touch her, he vowed. He’d just listen to her laughter, soak up the music of her voice, store away the sparkle in her eyes. They would talk as they had in the village, about their pasts, their hopes for the future…the simple, everyday things all friends talk about. He had some ideas he wanted to share with her about how she might use her college degree to support herself and the children more comfortably than by baby-sitting. He knew a CEO of a large New York-based company who owed him a favor.

  He sensed she would never again suggest they become lovers. She was a strong woman. She had made up her mind to file him in a category that didn’t allow physical intimacy, because he had said that was the only way they could be friends. But he could still see Diane’s sweet expression, her eyes fluttering closed as he pleasured her.

  Life was so unfair.

  Assuming Jacob would want him to act as chauffeur for their trip down into the lush valley below the castle, Thomas fueled the limo, then took his time polishing its sleek, black finish before pulling round from the garages to the kitchen entrance. He only had to wait twenty more minutes before Diane appeared with a large wicker basket slung over her arm.