Dating the Rebel

by Lisa Childs

  Her pulse quickened with excitement and anticipation as, without ever seeing his face, she recognized the prince.

  * * *

  Even Grant couldn’t believe he’d pulled this scam together so fast. Fortunately the man who owned the island owed him a favor and a whole lot of money from a poker game a few weeks ago. Grant had been the one who’d come up with the royal flush instead of the prince.

  Seeing her here, looking all sexy in a wrinkled blouse tucked into a pencil skirt made him feel like he’d won again.

  She might not feel as lucky to find out that he’d lured her here under false pretense though. Of course if she finally relented, he would join her dating service; the problem was that she was the only woman he wanted to date, though.

  She was all he wanted—which scared him more than that last mission had. But she was worth the fear—to be with her again. If for only one more night...

  Was she going to give him that night, though? Or was she going to turn around and walk out once she realized he’d tricked her into coming here?

  Instead of walking toward the exterior doors, though, she turned and walked toward him. “Are you hiding from me?” she asked.

  “Should I?” he asked, wondering how pissed she was. He couldn’t tell from her carefully guarded expression.

  Wasn’t she happy to see him again? Sure, it had only been a few days since he’d seen her last, but he’d missed her so damn much.

  Too much...

  How was it that she affected him like no one else ever had? It must have been the sex, which was better than any he’d ever had. He hoped that was all it was. But what if it was more?

  What if he was developing feelings for her other than sexual attraction?

  Hell, maybe he shouldn’t have come back so soon from that last mission. He’d been safer in a war zone than he was here—alone with her.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  HE WASN’T A PRINCE, but she suspected Grant Snyder was more than the playboy gambler he pretended to be. He was hiding his real identity from her just as he was hiding in the shadows of the doorway behind him.

  “Why did you go to all this trouble of getting me here if you’re not going to talk to me?” she asked.

  “Didn’t your sister tell you?” he asked as he finally stepped out of the shadows.

  Tabitha. Damn her. “She was in on it with you!”

  “I’m not sure she even knew it was me,” he said. “I told her that I’m a potential client.”

  “No, you’re not,” she said. “Just like you’re not a prince either.” But what was he really?

  “I have a throne,” he said. He tugged her inside the dark room with him. After flipping on a switch, a lone light illuminated a throne-like chair carved of highly polished wood with jeweled accents and a purple velvet cushion.

  “Did you win it in a poker game?” she asked. Was that where he’d been the last few days that even his sister hadn’t known where he’d gone?

  He chuckled. “Not for keeps, just for a bit.”

  “So you’ve been playing poker the past few days?” she asked.

  His lips curved into a slight grin as he stared down at her. “You missed me?”

  She had missed him. Too damn much. But she didn’t want him to know that, didn’t want him to know he was getting to her. She shook her head. “No, it was a welcome reprieve.”

  “Really?” he asked. “You’re the one who sought me out last, coming to that poker game.”

  She had, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “Blair and Teo talked me into it. I just did it for them.”

  He snorted. “Like Blair has ever talked you into anything. It’s always been the other way around.” His grin slipped away then as his forehead creased with concern.

  “Blair is not a child,” she said. “She is a strong-willed woman with a mind of her own. I haven’t ever talked her into anything she didn’t really want to do.”

  He sighed. “She is strong or she wouldn’t have made it through our childhood let alone her career as a fighter pilot.”

  “Exactly.” She knew how hard it had been for Blair growing up with her disinterested parents. But she hadn’t realized then that it might have been hard for Grant, too. He’d always seemed so unaffected by it all. So unaffected by everything...

  But her.

  She had affected him. He’d always lost his cool with her, warning her away from his sister. He was so protective of Blair.

  “So why have you always given me such a hard time about her?” she wondered.

  He drew in a shaky breath before grinning again. But it seemed forced, like it didn’t quite reach his dark blue eyes. They didn’t crinkle at the corners like they did when he was really happy. “I just like giving you a hard time...”

  Her pulse quickened at the double entendre. She had missed him. So much...

  And she’d worked so hard today, listening to so many complaints that she just wanted to forget about the business and lose herself in pleasure only. Lose herself in Grant...

  Fear licked through her for a moment. She didn’t want to lose herself—ever—in any man. She didn’t want to become her mother.

  “Are you okay?” Grant asked, his voice deep with concern.

  She nodded. “Of course...” She was more self-aware than her mother. And she was more aware of Grant as well. She couldn’t lose herself in a man who wasn’t going to stick around anyway. “Let’s not talk about Blair,” she said. “Hell, let’s not talk at all.” She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him.

  His breath shuddered out against her lips, but then he kissed her back—just as passionately as she was kissing him. Their lips nibbled. Tongues tangled.

  She could have kissed him for hours. But he pulled back and trailed his lips down her throat, and the tension wound inside her as her body demanded more. Demanded the release that he could give her.

  She reached for the buttons on his shirt, tugging them free, so that she could push the navy silk from his shoulders. But as she did, she noticed wounds on his muscular body—bruises and scrapes. “What the hell...” she murmured. “What happened to you?”

  “I thought we weren’t talking,” he reminded her. Then he lifted her from her feet, swinging her up in his arms. But a grimace crossed his face as he carried her, and she knew he was hurt.

  “Put me down,” she said.

  And he did, but not until he’d carried her through the throne room to another room where he dropped her onto the silk sheets of an enormous bed. He joined her on the bed and leaned over her. But she reached up for his shoulders, holding him back. “Grant, what happened to you?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

  “These bruises and scrapes...you didn’t have them the last time we were together...” She would have noticed anything marring the perfection of his muscular body.

  “Well, you did get kind of aggressive with me,” he teased.

  And she knew he wasn’t going to answer her. Why? Because he couldn’t, like Blair suspected, admit what he really did? Or because he just didn’t want to share anything of himself with her but his body?

  “Grant...”

  “That’s your royal highness to you,” he persisted in teasing her.

  “Did you fight the real prince for this place?” she asked. “Is that how you got these bruises?”

  He chuckled. “The real prince is nearly eighty years old so...”

  “You beat up an old man?” she asked, teasing him back, because she knew that was all they were going to do. They weren’t going to be honest with each other about themselves. She couldn’t even be honest with herself about what she was beginning to feel for him.

  Too much...

  Too much concern and passion and interest...

  He’d gotten to her more than sh
e’d ever believed he would. And she didn’t really even know him...

  “He is a pretty tough guy,” Grant said.

  “Maybe we should introduce him to my mother,” she said. “She’s always wanted to marry royalty.”

  “I thought she didn’t care who she married,” Grant remarked.

  She must have flinched because he quickly apologized.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t say anything about your mother.”

  She sighed. “Why not? She probably hit on you in the past like she has every other man she’s met.”

  He slid his finger under her chin and tipped it up, so their eyes met and held. “She didn’t,” he assured her. “And let’s not talk about Blair or your mother...”

  “Or your bruises?” she surmised.

  He grinned. “Especially not those...” He leaned down and kissed her then, lightly brushing his lips across hers before trailing them down her throat.

  Her pulse leaped beneath his mouth as he suckled at it. She wanted him, wanted this...too much to deny either of them. So she shimmied quickly out of her clothes while he shrugged off his shirt and shucked off his pants.

  Then they were naked, nothing between them but those scrapes and bruises. She couldn’t entirely ignore them—like he obviously wanted her to—so she kissed them gently, as if her touch would somehow heal them.

  He sucked in a breath and murmured her name. And she knew that he was as affected as she was by the attraction that burned between them. He wanted her just as badly as she wanted him.

  He pushed her back against the mattress and closed his lips around a nipple then flicked his tongue over it.

  She arched up from the mattress, needing his touch, needing him so badly.

  As if he’d read his mind, he cupped her mound in his hand and slid his fingers inside her. He stroked her while he continued to tease her nipple with his tongue.

  Desire throbbed inside her. And she shifted and arched against him, needing release. It came—she came—just a little, just enough that a soft cry slipped out of her lips.

  He started moving lower, but she grabbed his shoulders. “I need you...inside me,” she told him.

  His throat moved as he swallowed hard. “I need to be inside you,” he said.

  He felt around under one of the many pillows on the bed until he found a condom packet. She took it from him, tore it open with her teeth and rolled it over his erection. Then she parted her legs wide for him.

  He drove deep into her core—over and over again—building the pressure. She arched up, hooking her legs over his shoulders. Her thighs rubbed against her already taut nipples, adding to her pleasure.

  And he drove even deeper before pulling slightly out again. Over and over he thrust. Faster and faster.

  The pressure built inside her even more, making her feel as if she was going to explode. Then she came—over and over again. She couldn’t stop coming...

  The orgasm was never-ending as he continued to move. Then he tensed and yelled her name, his big body shuddering with the force of his release.

  How was it like this between them every time? So damn incredible...

  * * *

  Grant felt exposed to Miranda in a way he’d never felt with anyone else. She’d seen more than his scrapes and bruises. And that knowledge had creased her forehead with concern.

  He didn’t want her to worry about him. Or them...

  So he made sure to relieve all her concern and tension as he gave her orgasm after orgasm. He lay back against the pillows, panting for breath and said, “Now this has to be the perfect date.”

  “For you, maybe,” she said as she leaned over him, her naked breasts rubbing against his chest. “But what do I get out of this?”

  “At last count, I think about ten orga—”

  She pressed her fingers over his mouth. “I’m not a madam, you know. I don’t let people join the service just because they’re good at sex.”

  “Good?” he growled against her fingers. “Just good?”

  She shrugged her naked shoulders. “Like I said, the perfect date isn’t all about sex. You lured me here with the promise of royalty joining Liaisons International.”

  She was concerned about her business. Concerned enough to lure a particular billionaire back into dating? Grant wondered.

  “The prince still owes me,” he said. “I’ll make him sign up for the service. His wife might not approve though.”

  “Is that where you got your bruises?” she asked. “Jealous husband?” There was something in her voice as she posed the question, something that almost sounded like jealousy.

  “I don’t mess with married women,” he said.

  “Just me?”

  “Are you married?”

  She shuddered in obvious revulsion. “God, no! My mother got married enough times for her, me and my sisters.”

  The tension was back in her body, the crease back in her forehead. He didn’t want her worried right now—about anything.

  “So what is your idea of the perfect date?” he asked, to take her mind of her mother and her other troubles.

  “Someone being completely honest and vulnerable with me,” she said with a pointed stare.

  And he knew his efforts had been futile all this time. He could never give her what she wanted; he could never be her perfect date. But for as long as she would stay with him in the villa, he could—at least—be her perfect lover.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  THE IMAGE OF Grant with those bruises and scrapes marring his perfect body haunted Miranda. She couldn’t stop thinking about them, about him, even during this business meeting with her sisters that was taking place in the reception area of the office suite after regular business hours. When she should be listening to them, she kept thinking about Grant. He’d not wanted her concern though, so he’d kept distracting her with sex and with silly jokes and fun games...

  Thinking of his silliness, she had to swallow down the chuckle that tickled the back of her throat. But she couldn’t keep the smile from tugging up her lips.

  “You think this is funny?” Regina asked. “I quit my IT job to go into business with you, and there’s no way we’re going to earn enough to support the two of us, let alone all three of us. We need to do something.”

  Miranda sighed. “I am trying,” she said.

  “She really is,” Tabitha said, surprisingly coming to her defense. “She stopped some of the members from leaving, and she met with a potential new one. A prince.”

  So Grant was right; Tabitha hadn’t realized who he was. How good of an actor was he that he’d fooled the actress so easily? Not that Tabitha was that great an actress or she wouldn’t have kept getting fired.

  Regina arched a dark brow. “Really? Did you sign him up?”

  Miranda shook her head.

  “Why not?”

  She sighed. “Because it wasn’t really a prince. It was Grant Snyder pretending to be one.”

  Tabitha gasped and then giggled. “He’s good. He really had me going.”

  And he’d had Miranda coming and coming and coming...

  She was surprised she wasn’t severely dehydrated after all the sex she’d had with him. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since she’d come home, but it had only been a couple of days so far. She wasn’t giving up on him yet—because she didn’t think he was giving up.

  On her?

  Or on joining the dating service?

  “And you didn’t sign him up?” Regina asked.

  “He lied and lured me out to a remote island,” Miranda said.

  Tabitha emitted a soft, wistful sigh. “Sounds romantic to me.”

  It had been, but Miranda wasn’t going to admit it aloud. She’d tried to not even admit it to herself, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it, about him...


  She cleared the desire from her throat and asked, “How does that fit in with our promise of complete honesty from all our members?”

  “At least he’d be a member. Blair wasn’t even one when you set her up with our most eligible one,” Regina said. “That wasn’t honest, either, Miranda. You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Blair is my best friend,” she reminded them—needlessly. They both rolled their eyes when she said it.

  “And if Blair was really the great friend you think she is,” Regina said, “she would give him up to save our business.”

  “Blair is my best friend,” she repeated. So that was why she would never let her friend sacrifice her happiness for business, especially not when that friend was happier than she’d ever seen her.

  “So she’ll do it,” Tabitha said.

  Miranda shook her head.

  “You two have always vowed how you’ll never get married,” Regina reminded her. “Ever. So what’s the big deal if Matteo goes out on some dates with other women?”

  Tabitha wiggled her red brows. “A woman like me?”

  “That would break the rules—”

  “Says the ultimate rule breaker,” Tabitha interjected.

  “I’m not breaking any rules—”

  “Grant Snyder—”

  “Is not a member.”

  “He should be,” Tabitha argued. “He’s sexy as hell and he must be rich, since Blair didn’t have enough money to start that private charter business on her own.”

  “She’s an equal partner,” Miranda defended her friend.

  Tabitha snorted as if she wasn’t buying it. But they had never bothered to get to know Blair like she knew Blair.

  Just as Miranda and Blair had vowed to never marry, they had also vowed to never let anyone have financial control over them. That was why they’d wanted their own businesses—to be in control and self-sufficient. Blair had taken out a loan to finance half of the business so that she would be an equal partner. But she’d admitted that Grant had offered to put up all the money. And he hadn’t even needed a loan. Did he really make that much from gambling?