Justine Davis - Romancing the Crown - Kate & Lucas - Under the King's Command / The Prince's Wedding

Her fingers trembled at his teasing words. She was standing so close. She had already breached the distance between them by touching him. It would be so easy to go further. All she had to do was lean down and she could press her lips to his taut, tanned skin. Rub her cheek across the washboard ridges of his abdomen. Savor the fresh tang of his scent the way she used to when they were lovers…

Slowly she raised her gaze to his. She recognized the expression in his eyes. It had nothing to do with duty. He looked at her mouth, a brief glance that she felt as clearly as a physical touch.

He’d been doing that more and more lately. A lingering look. A flip comment. Small, unmistakable signals to remind her that he was still interested.

She should tell him to stop, but they had worked together well for a week. Technically he was keeping his distance. He wasn’t harassing her. How could she voice an objection without coming across as uptight and paranoid?

At least, that was the excuse she gave herself.

Let me know if you change your mind ….

The words he’d uttered more than a week ago echoed teasingly. For a breathless instant she swayed toward him. Her fingers splayed over his side, soaking up his warmth, tingling at the strength that pulsed under her hand.

The radio in the cabin crackled, snapping her to her senses. She snatched her hand away and bent to retrieve her mug. “We’d better get back to work.”

The black car glided smoothly through the palace gates. At the end of a curving cobblestone drive, the sun-bleached stone of the main structure rose from the surrounding greenery. The car eased to a stop in front of a gracefully arching marble portico. Instantly a young man in the black, white and gold royal livery appeared to open the door.

Kate and Sam were ushered past a pair of guards who flanked the palace entrance. She tried not to gawk as she walked inside, but it was impossible to remain unmoved by the splendor around her. Sam had been here before when he’d initially been assigned to this mission, but this was her first time inside the palace. The entrance foyer took her breath away, its marble floor reflecting stately pillars that stretched two stories to the roof. Sunlight streamed in from a hexagonal dome of glass in the center, illuminating the huge room with warm shafts of gold.

“Gets to you, doesn’t it?” Sam asked. “All this wealth and power?”

She nodded. “It’s beautiful, but it’s a little intimidating.”

“It’s meant to be. The Sebastianis know what they’re doing,” he said wryly. “Ruling Montebello has been the family business for centuries.”

“Some family business.”

Sam lowered his voice. “You’re not looking forward to this, are you?”

“Not really.” Kate smoothed her skirt and checked that her cuffs were straight. “It would be different if we had some progress to report.”

“Yeah. King Marcus seems like a reasonable man, though. He probably didn’t order us here to chew us out.”

“He has no reason to. We’ve done our best with what we have.”

“That’s right. But if they try to take us to the basement, I’m outta here.”

“The basement?”

He winked. “The dungeons, remember?”

She gave him a nervous smile. She knew he was trying to ease her tension and she was grateful for his effort. “Very funny.”

“Lieutenant Mulvaney, Lieutenant Coburn, if you would follow me, please? The king will see you in the solarium.”

The speaker was a short man in his early sixties. His gray hair and salt and pepper mustache were neatly trimmed, his expression the blank politeness of someone who had spent his life as a servant. He led them past the grand staircase that rose majestically from the foyer. They progressed through a corridor, their footsteps echoing between rows of gilt-framed oil paintings of Sebastiani ancestors.

Eventually, the marble floor gave way to carpet and the splendor became less formal. It appeared to Kate as if they were leaving the public area of the palace and moving toward what must be the royal family’s private quarters.

She couldn’t understand why they were being shown here. If the king wanted a progress report, shouldn’t they have been meeting in a more official setting?

Their escort halted in front of a set of ornately carved arched wooden doors. Voices drifted faintly from the other side, along with the fretful cries of…a baby.

Kate looked around quickly. No. There must be some mistake. This butler had brought them to the wrong room and—

The doors parted to reveal a blaze of sunshine. The far walls of the room were all windows. Long, lush cream-colored couches and chairs were arranged to take advantage of the view of the garden and the ocean beyond. It was a beautiful, airy room, as splendid as any of the others she’d glimpsed on their route through the palace, but this one was obviously designed for living.

Several people were gathered, including King Marcus and Queen Gwendolyn. No one had noticed Kate and Sam’s arrival. Everyone’s attention was focused on Prince Lucas as he awkwardly tried to comfort the baby who fussed in his arms.

Unconsciously, Kate lifted her hand to the place where her butterfly charm rested under her uniform. She would have preferred being reprimanded for her lack of progress. She didn’t want to be here to witness this. It had nothing to do with her duty.

“Poor bastard,” Sam muttered, dipping his head close to Kate’s. “He still looks like he’s been hit by a truck.”

She and Sam were standing just inside the doors, but even from this distance Kate could see what Sam meant. Lucas’s chiseled, aristocratic features were as tense as they had been a week ago when she’d seen him in the hospital. His dark hair lay in crooked furrows, as if he’d been raking it with his fingers. Although his shoes were polished and his pants were neatly pressed, his tailored shirt was misbuttoned.

“Fatherhood is going to take some adjustment for him,” she said, keeping her voice low so they wouldn’t be overheard. Still, considering the noise the baby was making, nothing short of a shout would be noticed. “Until this last year, when his plane crash and the business with Jessica happened, he was reputed to be a real playboy.”

“He must have enjoyed his freedom.”

“A lot of men do.” She shifted her scrutiny to Sam, unable to stop the past from tangling with the present. “That’s probably why he left, so he could live the life he’d planned.” Like you , she added silently.

“Why would you assume that?” Sam asked. “I heard he had to leave. There were duties he had to attend to. He tried to contact Jessica but she wasn’t at the ranch where they’d met. By the time he sent someone to look for her, it was too late.”

“If he really cared, why didn’t he try to find her sooner?” she challenged. “If he had, it might not have been too late.”

“I wonder why Jessica didn’t contact him when she discovered she was pregnant in the first place,” Sam said. “She should have. He had a right to know.”

“I disagree. He left her to deal with the situation on her own. Why should she tell him?”

“He still had a right to know he was going to become a father. If he’d known—”

“What? He would have gone back for her sooner? He would have ignored his duties just because of the baby?”

“Well, yes.”

Kate stretched to look Sam in the eye, her words a harsh whisper. “No relationship should be based only on a child. Jessica must have realized she would be better off without a man who didn’t love her. She could raise the child alone and give him enough love for two parents instead of making everyone miserable by forcing an instant family on a man who hadn’t planned to settle down. She made the right choice, I’m sure of it.”