Lisa Laurel - The Irresistible Prince

“That’s why I am willing to put myself—my future—into your hands. Miss Lane, with or without your help, I will be married in two months. That is a fact of my life, because of a circumstance that I cannot change.” He paused. “But whether I will be happily married depends upon whether or not you will help me.”

She knew—oh, did she ever know!—that there was only one way he would be happy in marriage, and that was if he found true love. Without knowing why, she sensed somehow that behind his wariness, beneath his jaded exterior, that was what he was really looking for, whether or not he knew it or wanted to admit it. But she of all people knew that love was a tricky thing. She could match him up with every woman in town and see true love if it was there—but if it wasn’t, she couldn’t conjure it out of thin air. She bit her lip, stymied. How could she explain that to him?

He seemed to take her silence as discouragement. She could almost feel him pluck up his courage before he made one last appeal. “Miss Lane, I need your help,” he said, his voice resonant with feeling. “If not for my sake, then for the sake of the children I am depending upon this marriage to give me.”

Children. He not only wanted a happy marriage, but he wanted children, too. The undisguised hunger in his voice set off a vibration of longing deep inside Annah, a feeling whose strength surprised her, given how long it had been since she had last allowed herself to indulge in it. Once upon a time, she too had wanted it all.

He lowered his voice to a raw whisper. “Please don’t refuse me.”

She swallowed once, painfully, and put the errant memory back in its place. Then she looked up, and their eyes caught and held. It was as if she were looking into the deep shadows of those gray eyes for the first time, her vision untainted by preconceived notions of who he was or what he wanted. Something in that silent exchange made Annah feel as though a match had been struck somewhere deep inside her, and the flame had caught hold in her innermost self.

No, it couldn’t be—no—it must be empathy that had engendered this sudden bond. For who better than she could understand the yearning and the uncertainty in his gaze? The prince was chasing a dream, an oh-sobeautiful fairy tale. It had eluded Annah, but it could come true for him. The growing warmth inside her seemed to fire her very being. In that moment of shared romantic hope, all her reservations turned to ash. Far from refusing his request, she knew she would move heaven and earth and Anders Point itself, rock by rock, in order to help him.

He needed his dream to come true. And if he had the will, she just might have the way.

Chapter Two

Prince Lucas had started pacing again by the time the huge grandfather clock in the castle entry hall chimed quarter to eight. The relief he had felt when Annah Lane had told him that she would help him had faded in the few hours since he had left her house and come here to the castle at the tip of the Point. While he had slept off the worst of his jet lag, showered and dressed for dinner, a renewed sense of urgency had crept back in.

He had wanted to talk strategy immediately, but she had suggested that they do it over dinner. Even that slight delay in getting the process rolling was frustrating for him, but then, he had been hashing all this over for ten months. It made sense to give her a few hours to do the same.

The sound of his echoing footsteps received the sudden punctuation of a ring at the front doorbell. He swung open the heavy front door. “Good evening, Miss Lane,” he greeted her.

“Good evening, Your Highness,” she answered. She was carrying a large, two-handled pot, which she set down on an antique table in the entry hall.

“What’s that?” he asked, looking puzzled.

“Dinner,” she said succinctly. She disappeared out the door again, heading for the car that was parked in the front drive, and fished a couple of large paper bags out of the trunk.

“Did you make dinner?” he asked when she returned.

“Of course,” she said, sounding surprised at his surprise. “I told you I would.”

He had assumed that her offer to “take care of dinner” meant that she was going to order the meal from a restaurant and arrange for its delivery. “You shouldn’t have gone to such trouble.”

“It’s no trouble,” she said, smiling as if that were true while she breezed past him. “Grab that pot for me, would you?” she called over her shoulder.

What could he do? He picked up the pot and carried it obediently into the kitchen.

“Just set it on one of the back burners,” she said as she put the bags on the counter. If her voice sounded breathy, she hoped he would think it was from lugging dinner up the stone steps out front. The truth was that she had once more been thrown off balance simply by being near him, although she wasn’t sure why. A woman who was nearly thirty ought to be able to be in the presence of a handsome prince without having her backbone begin to melt. That she had never felt this way around Prince Erik or Prince Whit must be because they were “hometown” princes. Their mother had been from Anders Point, and the two of them were no strangers to the town when they stayed here in their family’s castle.

If she felt differently around Prince Lucas, she would just have to get over it. She reminded herself of the deep bond she had felt between them before he had left her coffee shop. Making his dream come true was what mattered. And if she was going to help him, she couldn’t be walking on eggshells around him just because he was royalty. Not if her plan was going to work.

She was starting to struggle out of her jacket when his voice came from close behind her, soft and low. “Allow me.”

She kept her back to him while he helped her off with her jacket, chiding herself for her weak-kneed reaction to his performing this small courtesy for her. While he left the room with it, she busied herself getting dinner underway. “I have a few things to finish up,” she told him when he returned.

He had that slight frown that she was becoming familiar with. “What with preparing this meal, Miss Lane, have you had any time to think about my situation?”

He was direct, she had to give him that. She looked up from the pot she was stirring. “I do my best thinking when I’m cooking,” she told him with a smile.

“Then by all means, cook,” he said briskly. He stood next to her at the counter, which had the effect of totally disrupting her thinking. It was just the feel of his nearness, because she had to look out of the corner of her eye to see him—not that she was sure that was a great idea, either. He had been born a prince...did he have to be so darned attractive, too? The man was a walking woman-magnet even without a wedding deadline, and Annah could well imagine the world’s social climbers climbing all over each other to get at him. There weren’t women like that here in Anders Point, but even here they would act differently around him, less comfortably, knowing he was a prince. That was just human nature. Annah knew her plan was right on target. But she wasn’t about to just blurt it out. She had a feeling it would be better to get him used to the idea gradually.

“Nice castle, isn’t it?” she asked conversationally.

“Yes,” he answered. “It is not large, but it is beautifully sited up here on this bluff.”

“As a place used only for their stays in America, I suppose the Anders family didn’t need it to be large. And it will be plenty big enough for Whit and Drew to live in after they return from their honeymoon. Lexi is thrilled about moving in here.”

He seemed to smile slightly at the mention of his friend’s six-year-old daughter, but merely said, “I was glad of Whit’s offer to let me stay here while I am in town.”