Kathie DeNosky - Royal Seducer / Bossman Billionaire

He grinned. “Yeah. You look exhausted. ”

“She’s very sweet, isn’t she?” Melissa asked. “Louisa, I mean.”

“Yes.” His brow tucked into a frown. “Far too sweet for her own good.”

“I get the impression she’s a bit…naive.”

“More than a bit.” He closed the basket, then rose to his feet and shook out the blanket. “I fear someday someone will take advantage of that. And I think we’ve only perpetuated the problem by sheltering her.”

“She may be tougher than you think.”

“I hope so.” He folded the blanket, grabbed the basket, then held out an arm for her to take, flashing one of those sizzling smiles. “Shall I walk you back for that nap?”

She wrapped her arm tightly through his and pressed herself against his side, smiling up at him. “The sooner the better.”

She doubted it would be restful, but it would probably be the most pleasurable nap she’d ever taken.

Chris dropped the basket in the kitchen on the way in and led Melissa upstairs to her room. The halls were blissfully silent, and thankfully they didn’t run into anyone on the way up. Not that it would have stopped Chris from going into her room. He’d have fabricated some reason they needed to be alone.

If Louisa hadn’t interrupted them, he might have made love to Melissa right there on the blanket under the tree, the consequences be damned. Everything about her was so sweet and soft and sexy. He might not have been able to stop himself. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t have put up much resistance, it was obvious she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

They were mere steps from her door, and Chris was already plotting just how he would get her out of her clothes, when a bodyguard named Flynn caught up with them.

“Sorry to interrupt, sire,” he said, bowing his head to both Chris and Melissa. “Prince Aaron is looking for you.”

Yeah, well, Prince Aaron was going to have to wait. “Tell him that I’ll speak with him later.”

“He said it’s urgent,” Flynn insisted. “Regarding the matter this morning, with the e-mail.”

“Right!” Chris said, before the man said too much and piqued Melissa’s curiosity. Aaron had obviously discovered something important. “Where is he?”

“The tech office, your highness.”

“Fine, tell him I’ll be right down.” When he was gone, Chris turned to Melissa. “I’m sorry. I need to take care of this.”

“Trouble getting your e-mail?” she teased.

If only it were that simple. “A security issue,” he said, not wanting to give any more than that away.

“It’s all right. I actually am a little tired. Maybe I’ll lie down for a while.” She grinned. “Reserve my strength for later.”

“I’ll try to make it quick.”

She rose up on her toes and pressed a lingering kiss to the corner of his lips, and it took everything in him not to say to hell with it and back her into her room. But he didn’t want to feel rushed. When he made love to Melissa, he was going to take his time. With this security thing hanging over his head, he would be distracted.

“You know where to find me,” she said, then she slipped into her room and closed the door.

Bloody hell. He lingered another second, tempted to follow her in, then he forced himself to turn and head down to the tech office, hoping Aaron had answers and they could wrap this up quickly. But the instant he stepped inside and saw the look of concern on Aaron’s face, he knew this was going to take a while.

Chris stepped into the tech office and closed the door. “I’m guessing the news isn’t good.”

“Good guess,” Aaron said.

The systems administrator, Dennis Attenborough—though everyone called him by his hacker name, Datt—gazed grimly at his computer screen. “This guy knows what he’s doing.”

“Guy?” Chris asked.

Datt shrugged. “Guy, girl, whatever.”

“So we don’t know who it is?”

“No, but statistically, most hackers are men.”

“Whoever it is,” Aaron said, “they managed to hack into the e-mail system undetected.”

That wasn’t good. “Were any other systems breached?”

Datt shook his head. “Nothing critical.”

“Can you trace the ISP?”

“As I said, he knows what he’s doing. He was in and out like a ghost. Completely untraceable.”

“Could it be someone on the inside?”

“It’s possible, but I doubt it.”

“Could it happen again?”

“With any luck, yes.”

At Chris’s surprised look, Aaron told him, “Datt is setting a trap.”

“How do you trap someone who sneaks in and out undetected?”

“You put out a net,” Datt said.

“A net?”

“Think of it like a spiderweb,” Datt told him. “If he gets back in, he’ll get stuck. Although odds are he won’t try it again.”

“Why is that?”

“He’s smart. He’ll anticipate our next move.”

“Meaning he’ll just give up?”

“Or try to find another way in, through a different system.”

Bloody fantastic. “Will he get in?”

Datt looked up at him. “No, sire, he won’t.”

“See that he doesn’t. And if you learn anything, I want to be informed immediately.”

“Of course.”

With a jerk of his head, Chris gestured his brother into the hallway. When they were alone, he said in a low voice, “We need to keep this to ourselves.”

“The staff has been advised that the king should be left out of the loop. Although if he does find out, he’ll be furious.”

“Then we’ll make sure that he doesn’t. With any luck we’ve heard the last of this.”

Somehow, Chris doubted they would get away that easy.

Melissa checked her e-mail, then fired off a quick message to Phillip, giving him a rundown on her day so far. Almost immediately a reply appeared in her inbox. It said simply:

Keep me posted.

Nice to hear from you, too, she thought. Though she wasn’t the least bit surprised.

There was another e-mail, one from Chris that she had received early that morning. That was sweet, she thought. It read:

Meet me in the maze.

Midnight.

She smiled, and wondered exactly what he had in mind. If he would let her find her own way through this time, or send her on another wild-goose chase. Or it was possible he had other plans for her that didn’t involve the maze at all?

She replied, I’ll be there.

She hit Send, then shut down her computer.

She stretched out on the bed and closed her eyes. She would rest for just a few minutes, then maybe take a walk in the garden until Chris had finished with his business. When she opened her eyes again, he was sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling down at her.

She sat up, hazy and disoriented. The curtains were drawn and the room dark. She couldn’t tell if it was morning or night. “What time is it?”

“Seven,” he said. “It’s time for dinner.”

“How long have you been sitting here?” She hoped she hadn’t done anything embarrassing, like snore or drool on the pillow.

“Only a few minutes.”

She covered a yawn with the back of her hand. “I didn’t mean to sleep so long. Did you just finish your meeting?”

“Hours ago. I came by to see you, but you were sound asleep.”

“You could have woken me.”

He shrugged. “I figured you could use the rest.”

“For our date tonight?”

“Date?”

“I answered your e-mail,” she said. “I guess you didn’t get it yet.”

There was a flicker of emotion in his eyes, something that looked almost like apprehension, then it was gone. “You got an e-mail from me?”

He didn’t remember? “Well, I assumed it was from you. Your name was on it.”