

Knight Security Series 0.5

Resisting Alexandre

By

Carole Mortimer

USA Today Bestselling Author
COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2016 Carole Mortimer

Cover Design Copyright (C) Glass Slipper Designs

Editor: Linda Ingmanson

Formatter: Matthew Mortimer

ISBN: 978-1-910597-21-7 (mobi)

ISBN: 978-1-910597-22-4 (ePub)

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved.

DEDICATIONS

My Wonderful Family
Chapter 1

No!

No, no, no, no, no, _no!_

She hadn't.

_No, I couldn 't have done._

Stazzi slammed her forearms down on the desk either side of her laptop, a sick feeling in her stomach as she stared at the screen, hoping--praying-- _willing_ the damned image to change. To see her Sent box no longer showed that her last email, meant for her best friend and flatmate Lissa had gone instead to Prince Alexandre, the ruler of the island principality of Androcco.

An email in which Stazzi totally lost it and blasted off a diatribe of exactly what the demanding prince could do with himself. In graphic detail.

In the past two weeks, Stazzi had received dozens of emails from Gerard St Sebastien, the prince's cousin and private secretary, each one listing more of the prince's needs during his week-long stay at the Meyers Hotel. An exclusive and discreet London hotel, one of its fifty luxurious suites took up the whole of the penthouse floor.

And, coincidentally, that was the suite Gerard St Sebastien had demanded for his cousin's stay.

Along with many other demands.

His Highness requires fresh fruit and flowers in his suite at all times.

His Highness requires down pillows, not synthetic.

His Highness sleeps between silk sheets, not cotton.

His Highness requires green towels in the bathrooms.

His Highness wants this, His Highness needs that, His Highness whatever.

The list of what His Highness did and didn't "require" was over two pages long.

As the manager in charge of the exclusive penthouse floor of the Meyers Hotel, it would be far from the first time Stazzi had been asked to cater to the whims and fancies of a particularly demanding guest. Maybe not one who looked quite like His Highness Prince Alexandre Sylvain Claude St Sebastien of Androcco, but still...

Tall and dark haired, his tanned and chiseled features dominated by emerald-green eyes, Prince Alexandre had been something of a playboy until the sudden death of his father in a car accident almost two years ago. His photograph had often been plastered across the front page of the tabloids, after one wild escapade or another, or the breaking up of his latest... Well, Stazzi was loath to call them romances when those relationships had inevitably lasted only a week or two.

The unexpected death of his father meant the wild prince had to step up as ruler of the small island in the Mediterranean, rumored to have acquired its original wealth from the fifteenth-century piracy of the many ships traveling through the treacherous waters about its coastline. Nowadays, the island practiced a different sort of piracy, adding to its considerable wealth from its casinos and exclusive homes of the ultra-rich and famous.

A lifestyle Prince Alexandre no longer seemed to be a part of. His dark hair was worn shorter, he was always photographed wearing dark, perfectly tailored suits, silk shirts, and ties, and no longer gave the tabloids fodder regarding the week-long parties aboard his private yacht or ski lodge in Klosters. Nor did he attend film premiers with a beautiful actress or model at his side, let alone engage in much-publicized affairs with them.

From all accounts, His Highness Prince Alexandre of Androcco was now the respectable and responsible ruler of his small principality. He was also still single at the age of thirty-four, making him the most eligible, as well as the richest, bachelor in the world. Well, according to all those polls in glossy women's magazines he was.

Stazzi and Lissa had spent hours one evening trying to decide if this new Prince Alexandre wasn't too good to be true.

A couple of bottles of wine later, and Lissa had even gone one step further and speculated as to whether the prince had secret fetishes he now practiced in private. Like bondage. Which Stazzi found a complete turn-off, but Lissa had said she might be willing to try if she could have Prince Alexandre as her Dom. The two of them had giggled over that one.

Stazzi no longer felt like giggling.

On top of all the prince's demands, there had been a visit yesterday from a man representing Knight Security. Daniel had brought him up to the penthouse floor and explained the other man was here on the prince's behalf, checking to see that all the prince's prearrival security was in place.

Then this morning she'd received an email directly from the prince himself, stating it was now his intention to arrive a day earlier than expected, and asking--which Stazzi read as being a princely command--she be present when he arrived at the hotel at nine o'clock this evening. The "if that is convenient" had definitely been an afterthought.

And it wasn't convenient. Far from it.

Stazzi was meant to be having dinner at eight o'clock this evening with Will, her boyfriend of the last six months. When pressed, he'd been very mysterious about where they were going, except to say it was somewhere they could have a "conversation where they wouldn't be interrupted." As far as Stazzi was concerned, that could mean only one thing. Will was going to propose.

Except now Prince Alexandre had upset all her plans for leaving early, going back to her apartment, and indulging in a relaxing soak in a bubble bath, before just as leisurely getting herself ready for her date. She had even popped out during her lunch break yesterday and bought herself a sophisticated new black dress to wear.

None of which was going to happen now. Along with the proposal.

Prince Alexandre's nine o'clock arrival meant she couldn't spare the time to meet Will before the prince arrived, and she doubted Will would appreciate her fitting him in after she had seen the prince comfortably settled into his suite. Especially when she had no idea what time she would be able to get away.

_And maybe none of that is going to happen, and instead I 'll very shortly be out of a job altogether once the prince has complained to Daniel Meyers, the owner and manager of the hotel, about the outrageous and insulting email he'd received from one of the other man's employees._

Stazzi stared at the screen, still not quite believing what she'd done. She had been upset, and then annoyed, at having her plans for the evening disrupted so arrogantly, and as a consequence hadn't been concentrating on what she was doing, but--

Oh God, it was still there, in very black-and-white, that her last email had definitely been sent to Prince Alexandre.

Maybe its content wasn't as bad as she thought it was?

Stazzi quickly read what she'd written-- _believed_ she'd written, to Lissa.

No, if anything, it was worse than she'd thought.

She and Lissa had been friends since they'd attended the same boarding school at the age of thirteen, both attended university in Edinburgh, and shared an apartment since they moved to London five years ago, and the two of them had absolutely no secrets from each other.

The words "selfish bastard," "arrogant prince," and "princely pain in the fucking ass" now leapt off the screen at Stazzi. Worst of all, Stazzi had then gone on to describe exactly what penis-shaped fruit she would like to painfully shove up that demanding princely ass.

So far, there had been no reply.

Well, there wouldn't be, would there.

Prince Alexandre was probably too stunned and outraged at having one of the employees at the exclusive Meyers Hotel write to him in such graphic terms.

She was screwed.

Well and truly screwed.

Maybe she should just save Daniel Meyers the trouble of listening to the prince's complaints against her and just hand in her notice now?

"I still don't understand the reason you decided to arrive in London a day earlier than planned."

"It's not necessary you understand, Gerard," Alexandre coolly answered his cousin and private secretary as the two men sat together in the limousine driving them into London from the private airfield several miles outside the city.

"Then I should have been the one to alter the arrangements for you."

"I was quite capable of changing the arrangements myself."

The older man frowned, obviously displeased with Alexandre for having done so. "The doctor says you aren't fully recovered from this last bout of illness."

Alexandre scowled at this reminder of the affliction that had been troubling him on and off for the past year. "The doctor you brought over from France is not only overcautious but in no way lives up to the reputation for excellence you claimed he has." So far, the man had diagnosed gastric flu, food poisoning, and now he'd decided Alexandre had an ulcer and prescribed a foul-tasting medicine to be taken after every meal.

"You did at least bring all your medication with you?" Gerard fussed.

"Yes," Alexandre bit out between clenched teeth. Besides the disgusting medicine for a supposed ulcer, he also had an epinephrine autoinjector in his breast pocket, in case he accidentally ate shellfish. He had almost died the last time he had forgotten to carry one of those. "But I think I'll consult with another doctor while I'm in London." A second opinion certainly couldn't do any harm. Especially when his own doctor didn't actually have a conclusive opinion.

"I'm not sure Dr. Assante will like that." Gerard frowned.

"I don't particularly care whether he likes it or not," Alexandre dismissed in a bored voice.

"Is seeing another doctor the reason we're arriving in London a day early?"

He almost smiled at Gerard's tenacity. "No."

"Then--"

"It's personal."

Gerard's eyes widened. "Personal?" he repeated doubtfully.

Alexandre would have laughed at his cousin's comical expression if he hadn't felt irritated by it too. Because they both knew Alexandre no longer had a personal life. How could he, when his every waking moment was taken up with the smooth running of Androcco, domestically and internationally.

That was about to change.

Because of a black-haired, turquoise-eyed woman he hadn't even met in person.

Yet.

Anastazia Carmichael.

Manager of the penthouse floor of the Meyers Hotel.

Also the woman who had sent him an email earlier today, in which she had insulted and lambasted him in a way no one else had ever done, and referred to him as 'a princely pain in the fucking ass.'

Alexandre inwardly chuckled as he recalled the email hadn't been meant for him at all, but someone called Lissa. No doubt a close friend of Anastazia's.

So far he had only seen a photograph of Anastazia on the hotel website, smiling and very professional, but that had been more than enough to pique Alexandre's interest. And a certain part of his anatomy, which hadn't had nearly enough use the past two years.

That was about to change too.

He shifted in the leather seat to accommodate his cock swelling in arousal caused by merely thinking of the tall, blue-eyed, long-legged woman with the voluptuous figure. "Exactly how demanding were you in regard to our stay at the Meyers Hotel?"

"What...?" Gerard looked suitably confused by this change in subject.

The two men weren't only cousins but had been friends since childhood, Gerard the son of Alexandre's Uncle Frederic. With only a year between them in age, they had shared a nursery, gone away to an English boarding school together, both attended Oxford University, and now, with Gerard as his closest adviser, they necessarily had a strong working relationship.

But Alexandre knew Gerard could be overbearing when it came to Androcco and the deference he insisted be shown to the St Sebastien family that had ruled the small principality for over six hundred years. He suspected Gerard's high-handedness was one of the reasons for Anastazia Carmichael's frustration earlier today, his own instruction of arriving a day early possibly having been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Alexandre eyed the other man mockingly. "It really isn't necessary that I always have green towels in the hotel bathrooms, you know."

"Very funny." Gerard gave him a scathing glance. "The color of the towels in the bathrooms is merely a symbol of the respect and deference our family deserves."

"If you say so..." Alexandre had lost interest in the subject now they had entered the city itself. In just a few short minutes, he was going to see and be with Anastazia.

The woman, whose photograph alone intrigued and aroused him more than any other woman had ever done.

Stazzi silently fumed as she gave another glance at the clock on the wall of her office on the penthouse floor. Nine thirty already, and no word as yet from downstairs to alert her to the fact that Daniel was greeting the newly arrived His Highness Prince Alexandre of Androcco.

And the wait was killing her after a day waiting for a response to the email she had sent him by mistake...

They had been long hours, painfully so, when Stazzi had spent every moment of it expecting at any second to be summoned to Daniel Meyers's office, and severely rebuked for her carelessness in insulting one of the hotel guests, before being shown the door.

Instead, there had been this nerve-racking silence.

The first thing she'd done after realizing her mistake was to call Lissa at the travel agency where she worked and tell her friend what she'd done. There had been complete silence on the other end of the line. For all of ten seconds. After which, Lissa obviously hadn't known whether to cry or laugh on Stazzi's behalf. In the end, the other woman had settled for words of comfort.

Lissa had been calling her on and off all day ever since to see if there had been any sort of response from the prince.

There hadn't.

Stazzi had come to the conclusion he must be waiting until he arrived at the hotel before thoroughly humiliating her by insisting on being present when she was fired.

The thought of that had been enough to overshadow even Will's displeasure when she telephoned earlier and told him she couldn't make dinner this evening after all.

Maybe--

Stazzi's already frayed nerves jangled along with the buzzing of her mobile, the call from the front desk brief and to the point. His Highness Prince Alexandre of Androcco had arrived and was on his way up to the penthouse floor with Daniel Meyers.

In other words, she was to get her butt along the hallway and be waiting outside the lift in readiness for greeting his royal self.
Chapter 2

Whoa.

From the photographs Stazzi had seen of the prince, she had expected him to be tall, but not this tall. Four, possibly five inches over six feet in height, he stood several inches taller than Daniel and the group of men--bodyguards?--accompanying him.

Stazzi was forced to tilt her head back in order to look him in the eyes as he stepped out of the lift, despite her own five feet ten inches in height in her three-inch-heeled shoes.

The photographs of him in the newspapers the past ten years, hadn't nearly done him justice.

They hadn't captured the sheer intensity of those piercing green eyes, for one thing.

Or the air of authority and power that came off him in waves.

Or the fact that the muscular width of his shoulders filled out the jacket of his perfectly tailored suit, as the shirt was fitted to the flatness of his washboard abdomen, his hips lean and powerful above long legs.

His Highness certainly didn't spend all his time sitting behind a desk.

Which inappropriately took Stazzi's thoughts straight to that conversation with Lissa of a couple of weeks ago, regarding where and how he might spend his time. Faced with the man himself, it was far too easy to imagine this gorgeous man in a candlelit dungeon or bedroom, sweat gleaming on that bared and incredibly wide and muscular chest. He would be wearing only a pair of black leather pants that clung lovingly to his hips and legs, and clearly outlining the impressive package nestled between his thighs, before he set about ravishing the naked woman tied to his bed.

The image instantly made Stazzi's legs feel weak and sent every other thought out of her head, and she could only stare at him as Daniel made the introductions, her mouth slightly agape, nipples perked in arousal, and a sudden rush of heat moistening between her thighs.

Lust at first sight.

What the hell...?

She was a twenty-seven-year-old woman poised on the edge of an engagement and marriage. She shouldn't be having lustful thoughts about any man but Will.

That might be true, but she was also a woman. And almost being an engaged woman didn't make her blind.

Stazzi gave herself a mental shake as she realized she couldn't just continue to stand there staring at him; otherwise, the drool might actually start to dribble unattractively down her chin.

"Your Highness," she greeted him shakily, deciding it might be better if she didn't attempt a curtsey. She wasn't sure her knees would support her when she tried to straighten. Instead, she held out her hand.

Which Prince Alexandre instantly took into the warmth of his much larger one, sending a sizzle of awareness up Stazzi's arm and into her already tingling breasts. Her blue silk blouse and the lace bra she wore beneath it suddenly felt uncomfortably constrictive, the black jacket of her business suit uncomfortably hot.

"Anastazia." Even his voice was made for sex, low, with a hint of gravel, along with heat and sensuality.

The same heat that now flooded between her thighs as the prince lifted her hand to press those chiseled--warm--lips against her knuckles. All the time, that dark green gaze held hers captive.

It was as if there were only the two of them in the hallway. No Daniel watching them with amusement. No Gerard St Sebastien frowning his disapproval. No expressionless bodyguards.

Bodyguards.

Because the man still holding her hand was a prince.

"Stazzi," she corrected distractedly, removing her hand from his.

His head tilted as he studied her with those intense green eyes for several long seconds. "I prefer Anastazia," he finally dismissed.

As if that was the end of the subject. Which it probably was. This man was a prince, Stazzi reminded herself self-derisively. Absolute ruler of his own island and everyone who lived on it. And her too, for the length of his stay at the Meyers Hotel.

If she still had a job after tonight. The fact that Daniel was smiling told her the prince hadn't mentioned her email to him yet, but she couldn't count on that continuing to be the case.

Talking of which... "Mr. St Sebastien." She turned to greet the man standing at the prince's side. The same man who had sent her all those previous emails over the past two weeks.

It was easy to tell the two men were related, Gerard St Sebastien a pale imitation of his cousin; his eyes were hazel rather than green, his hair brown instead of blue-black, his features less chiseled, and he stood an inch or two shorter than the other man too.

He also had a very limp handshake. A reluctant handshake that told Stazzi he would rather not have to touch her at all, but politeness dictated he should.

"I'll now leave you in Stazzi's very capable hands." Daniel smiled at the prince before giving Stazzi a brief nod and stepping back into the lift to return to the ground floor.

Stazzi avoided looking at the prince. "May I introduce Adrian and Grant." She turned to smile at the two hotel employees who had accompanied her. "They will be responsible for taking care of all your needs twenty-four-seven and are answerable directly to me, so if there's anything--"

"I want you."

Stazzi's mouth went dry and her cheeks burned as the prince spoke to her in that voice of gravel and sex. He _wanted_ her. What on earth--

"By all means, Adrian and Grant may take care of Gerard and my men." He smiled at the two hotel employees behind her before returning that piercing gaze to Stazzi. "I would prefer that you're the one to personally take care of all my personal needs during my stay here."

If he meant that as further clarification for his original statement, then he had completely failed to reassure Stazzi.

Maybe she had misunderstood him?

Or maybe not...

There was a predatory glint in those dark green eyes looking down at her so intently, and his tone of voice had definitely implied _something_. A voice that had sent her imagination into overdrive. Those sensual lips were also curved slightly, as if Prince Alexandre was inwardly laughing at her.

Mocking her.

Stazzi had spent most of the day ensuring that this suite was prepared exactly as Gerard St Sebastien and the man from Knight Security had instructed. She'd had to cancel her special date with Will tonight in order to accommodate the prince's demand she be here when he arrived a day early. She'd also been on tenterhooks all day waiting for the other shoe to drop in regard to her wrongly sent email. And now he was daring to mock her?

"I'm sure you'll find Grant and Adrian more than sufficient--" She broke off her brisk dismissal as the prince stepped forward, totally invading her space as he lowered his head and spoke softly beside her ear.

"'A princely pain in the fucking ass'?"

Stazzi felt the color leech from her cheeks at hearing the prince quietly quote those words directly from her email. Even her lips felt numb, and she was pretty sure her eyes had widened guiltily as the prince moved back only slightly to look down at her in challenge, the warmth of his breath a soft caress against her jaw.

She couldn't look away, was held totally captive by those predatory green eyes.

Intense, compelling eyes, that told her she hadn't misunderstood him. That this man meant exactly what he'd said. He did _want_ her. Physically. Tied to his bed or otherwise.

That realization was a little overwhelming. Flattering too, if she was honest with herself. The man was a prince, for goodness' sake, and as rich as Croesus. What woman wouldn't feel flattered at being told she was wanted by him?

Except it wasn't going to happen. She was almost engaged, and even if she hadn't been, she certainly didn't supply those sorts of _needs_ for the hotel guests.

Alexandre admired the light of rebellion that appeared in Anastazia's eyes even as the color returned to her cheeks and she tilted her chin in an attempt to return his challenging gaze.

She was even more beautiful in the flesh than she appeared in her photograph. Her long hair gleamed blue-black in the overhead lighting, her eyes were the turquoise blue of a mountain lake, and her skin smooth and the color of ivory. Her lips were full and soft, the bottom lip slighter redder than the top, despite the application of a clear peach-tinted lip gloss. As if her teeth had been worrying at that lip before his arrival. Because of the email she had sent him earlier today? Alexandre had a feeling that might be the case.

His gaze moved lower to where he could clearly see the voluptuousness of the breasts pressing against her silk blouse, her waist slender, hips curvaceous. As for her legs... Those long shapely legs seemed never-ending.

Alexandre could all too easily imagine those legs wrapped about his waist as he entered her slick heat before pounding into her remorselessly. The thought of it was enough to cause his cock to swell in anticipation.

"If you would excuse us, gentlemen?" He took a firm hold of the top of Anastazia's arm and kept her at his side as he dismissed everyone else. "Perhaps Adrian and Grant would be good enough to show you to your rooms?"

"Of course." The elder of the two men--Adrian?--complied. "If you would care to come this way, gentlemen."

Alexandre might find being the ruling prince of Androcco irksome at times, but he was all too appreciative of it now. Only Gerard dared to give him a frustrated glare of disapproval before he too trailed reluctantly down the hallway behind the other men. Leaving Alexandre alone with Anastazia. "Shall we go through to the sitting room?" he prompted smoothly.

She stood her ground. "If this is about that email I sent to you by mistake earlier today, then please accept my sincere apology. It's no excuse, but--"

"No, it isn't."

She blinked. "You haven't heard my excuse yet."

"Do I need to?"

She gave him a quick glance before just as quickly looking away again.

"Also," Alexandre continued softly, "I have a feeling your idea of an apology and my own are entirely different."

She eyed him nervously. "I don't understand..."

"Then perhaps we might discuss the problem over dinner?"

"Dinner?"

"Eating here would be preferable, of course, because then we wouldn't need the presence of my bodyguards. Unless, of course, you have plans to assassinate me?" he added dryly.

"No, of course I don't!" she gasped.

He nodded. "Then my bodyguards would need to come with us if you would prefer to eat at a restaurant outside the hotel--"

"I'm not--I have no intention--I've already eaten dinner." Anastazia gave a firm shake of her head.

Alexandre studied her through narrowed lids, noting the anxiety about her eyes, the slight pallor to her cheeks. "Why did you just lie to me?"

"I didn't--"

"What did you eat for dinner?"

"I... Well..." She gave an exasperated frown. "Look, Your Highness--"

"Alexandre."

She blinked. "Mr. Meyers prefers his staff not to be overfamiliar with the hotel guests."

"I am sure Mr. Meyers prefers that his staff not call one of those guests 'a princely pain in the fucking ass' too, but we both know that ship has already sailed," he drawled as he once again grasped the top of her arm and took her with him as he strolled through to the huge sitting room of the suite. A room shrouded in the warmth given off by two lamps, one on each table beside one of the two low couches.

"Your Highness--"

"Alexandre," he encouraged as he released her to walk across to the bar and peruse the array of bottles there, all of them to Alexandre's preference. And all, no doubt, requested by Gerard on his behalf.

Stazzi chewed her bottom lip, a habit she had when worried or, in this case, out of her depth.

She had done a lot of lip chewing today.

If this man thought--

"Whisky or wine?"

Stazzi frowned. "I don't--"

"I believe the whisky would be better for your nervousness," the prince mused as he ignored her obvious protest to pour the single-malt whisky into two crystal glasses.

Nervousness? Stazzi wasn't feeling anything as insipid as nervousness. Sheer terror at the power this man currently held over her might be a better description.

"Here we are." He strolled across to where Stazzi stood, holding out one of the glasses to her until she took it with trembling fingers. "To us." He tapped his glass against hers before raising it to his lips and taking a sip, that intense green gaze once again holding her captive over the rim of the glass.

_To us?_

What the hell did that mean?

There was no _us._ Not now. Not ever.

_Even if this prince is the most gorgeous and sexy man I 've ever set eyes on and he so obviously wants me?_

Yes, even if.

She had Will. She was about to become engaged to Will.

What she _wasn 't_ about to become was the sexual plaything of some princely ruler of an island in the Mediterranean.

Stazzi straightened her shoulders. "If you're looking for female companionship during your stay, then I'm sure your cousin is perfectly capable of making those arrangements for you too--"

"I want you."

This time, there was no mistaking Alexandre St Sebastien's statement for anything other than what it was.

A statement of intent.

_Or a princely decree._
Chapter 3

Stazzi raised her chin. "I'm engaged to be married."

His mouth tightened, that piercing gaze hardening before shifting to the fingers tightly curled about her whisky glass. "You aren't wearing a ring."

"Well... No." Damn this man's powers of observation. "What I meant to say was I'm about to become engaged to be married. Tonight, in fact. As soon as I leave here." She couldn't seem to stop babbling, her words tumbling defensively over each other.

Maybe the prince was right and she did need a swig of his fifty-year-old single-malt whisky?

She took a huge swallow, almost choking as the alcohol hit the back of her throat before warming, burning, as it traveled down to her stomach. Her empty stomach. Another thing the prince had been right about; Stazzi hadn't eaten dinner yet. Or lunch either, for that matter. She had been too apprehensive all day, in regard to his expected arrival, and what he might say to Daniel Meyers about her, to be able to eat.

That predatory gaze remained fixed on her. "The obvious way to prevent that from happening, would appear to be not to allow you to leave here this evening."

Stazzi placed the glass of whisky carefully down on the coffee table, her mouth and throat feeling as if they were on fire. "I'm flattered by your interest, of course--"

"Then stay."

Her frown was pained. "Look, I realize you're absolute ruler of your own island, but things have moved along here in England. Nowadays we take a more democratic point of view. A less...feudal approach."

Dark brows rose. "Feudal?"

"Yes. You know that thing they used to have centuries ago."

"Thing?"

"Droit du seigneur, or whatever it was called."

Alexandre didn't know whether to laugh or be annoyed at this young woman's even more outrageous comment. "How long have you been employed at the Meyers Hotel?"

Blue eyes narrowed. "If that's another threat--"

"It isn't."

"Oh. Well." Her brows lowered as she gave the question some thought. "About four years. I've been manager of the penthouse floor for the past year."

"Successfully?"

"Well, of course success-- Sorry." She grimaced at her obvious aggression.

Alexandre chuckled. Not only beautiful, but funny too. And so outspoken.

Except Anastazia still wasn't saying what he wanted to hear.

He knew he was coming on too strong, that she was wary of the depth of his interest. It was just difficult, now that he was actually here and in her company, to behave any other way. He had wanted this woman sexually from the moment he first saw her photograph. Now he wanted to know her too. What she liked and disliked. How she spent her time away from work. _When she 's going to agree to share my bed._

She drew in a deep breath before speaking. "The two of us have obviously got off to a bad start, Your Highness. Completely my fault, I accept that. I made a serious error earlier today, and I deserve to be punished for it."

"You believe my...interest in you to be a punishment?"

"I believe you're enjoying discomforting me, yes."

"My interest in you causes you discomfort?" he persisted.

Her cheeks flushed. "Could we just move on? Or you could just demand that Daniel dismiss me? Because I'm really not enjoying being toyed with in this way."

Alexandre made himself comfortable in one of the armchairs. "I have no intention of demanding Daniel Meyers dismiss you."

Some of the tension visibly eased from her shoulders. "I really am sorry about the email today. I was distracted, and a little...annoyed at having my plans changed for this evening. I realize that's no excuse for having insulted you," she added hastily. "But I truly hope that won't affect your enjoyment of your stay at the Meyers Hotel."

"Very nicely and professionally said," Alexandre drawled. "Now could we get back to the subject of the two of us having dinner together?"

"Are you deaf or just--" She broke off with a wince as she realized she was about to be rude to him again.

Her outspokenness really was refreshing. Alexandre hadn't had this much fun in...well, almost two years, to be exact.

He had been in shock and grieving for his father's early demise during those first months of ruling Androcco. Gerard had been a great help, of course, as his father had helped Alexandre's father before him.

But by the time Alexandre came out of his fog of grief he found himself changed, in both appearance and demeanor. He also felt very much alone, apart from the company of the stalwart Gerard.

The friends Alexandre had partied with in the past now all seemed shallow and without purpose. The women who pursued him were more interested in becoming the Princess of Androcco, and in the wealth and privilege that involved, rather than loving and helping him with the burden of actually ruling the island.

He couldn't remember when he had last fucked a woman, let alone spent any time alone with one.

Until now.

He was alone with Anastazia Carmichael, and she was proving to be even more of a diversion than he had imagined she might be. A photograph had been enough to tell Alexandre he wanted her sexually, but the fact she wasn't afraid or in awe of him, and the lack of censorship in her remarks when in his company, was proving highly entertaining. The droit du seigneur remark had been priceless.

Considering the lack of a woman in his bed these past two years, the idea currently had its merits too.

Except Anastazia Carmichael wasn't one of his subjects, and she happened to be the one woman he wanted. Even more so since meeting her.

Her imminent engagement was a complication Alexandre hadn't foreseen. Not insurmountable, but an irritation nonetheless. The fact that it was imminent and not yet fact meant he certainly wasn't above using his title, and his position as a guest in the hotel, as leverage to attaining his goal. Which was Anastazia Carmichael. Naked. In his bed.

The thought alone was enough to cause his already engorged cock to heat and throb. "As you know the room service menu, perhaps you would care to order dinner for both of us?" he suggested. "Anything but shellfish. I have an allergic reaction to it. But then you probably knew that...?" he added ruefully, knowing that Gerard would have done his job as usual, and informed the hotel of his allergy.

"I've made a note of it, and informed the hotel kitchen staff, yes."

He nodded. "Otherwise, I eat and enjoy all foods."

Stazzi decided this arrogant prince wasn't deaf but instead had selective hearing. She had turned down his dinner invitation twice now, and yet still he persisted-- He hadn't made it an invitation this time, but a statement, Stazzi realized as she once again began to chew on her bottom lip.

"Do you do that a lot?"

Stazzi gave a start at the realization Prince Alexandre had not only risen to his feet while she had been lost in thought, but he now stood just inches in front of her, that dark green gaze fixed intently on her mouth as her teeth worried her bottom lip.

She stopped chewing as she became aware of the sudden thickening of the air around them. Of their total awareness of each other.

This close to him, Stazzi could smell the insidious aroma of his aftershave: sandalwood, lemon, and spice, and a hot maleness she knew had to be completely him. The same invasive heat she could feel coursing through her own body, causing her nipples to ache and that uncomfortable dampness between her thighs.

She was becoming aroused just by the proximity of Prince Alexandre of Androcco!

The telling bulge in the front of his tailored trousers told her he was as aroused by her.

This was overwhelmingly real, Stazzi realized as she felt herself sway toward him.

Immediate.

Intense.

Irresistible.

_And totally disloyal to Will and our future together._

A reminder that flew totally out of her head as she felt the warmth of Alexandre's breath against her cheek before his lips softly claimed hers.

He didn't touch her in any other way. Just those chiseled and sensuous lips, soft at first, and then harder, becoming more demanding, as his tongue swept along the crease of her lips, asking her permission before entering.

She had to stop this. Needed to stop this--

Stazzi gave a groan, her lips parting of their own volition as that tongue breached and then laid siege to her mouth, claiming everywhere it licked and touched.

The press of his cock through the thin material of his tailored trousers was causing the juices to flow between her thighs, in readiness for the claiming thrust of that heavy cock--

Stazzi broke the kiss. "Alexandre...?"

"I want you so much." Alexandre cupped her cheek with his hand as he lifted her face back up to his with the obvious intention of kissing her again.

She put her hands against his chest, meaning to push him away, only to have her betraying fingers linger and enjoy that heat, along with the play of hard muscles beneath the silk of his shirt.

"I would never hurt you, Anastazia."

She looked up at him in bewilderment, knowing this was wrong, _he_ was wrong, and yet, for the moment, she couldn't remember why, felt totally bedazzled by the man and the intensity of the sexual arousal he was creating inside her.

"I very much want to make love to you, Anastazia." His lips moved against the warmth of her cheek before those even white teeth nipped gently against her earlobe, his breath a caress against her skin. "To take you to bed and--"

"I said no!" Sense--what little she had left--reasserted itself, reminding Stazzi of exactly why this shouldn't be happening.

Who she was.

A woman on the brink of an engagement and marriage.

Who _he_ was.

A ruling prince who could have any woman he wanted.

Except her.

He couldn't have her, because she was already taken.

_And if I wasn 't?_

She couldn't--daren't, even go there. Because her response to this man was so unexpected. Worrying. Confusing, when she knew it was only her loyalty to Will and their future together that was holding her back from succumbing completely to Alexandre's seduction.

A man she barely knew.

A man who was only playing with her.

A prince who was used to demanding what he wanted and expecting it to be obeyed.

A prince who was totally out of her league.

"I'm a man first and foremost." Alexandre spoke as if he knew her thoughts.

Or as if she had spoken those thoughts out loud?

All of them? Or just that last part about him being a prince?

Not that it mattered. There was no way Alexandre could help but be aware of her response to him. The air around them had grown even thicker and become spiced with the aroma of the arousal dampening her panties. As insidious as the heat of Alexandre's body as it curled about her senses.

She would deal with the guilt of that arousal later. Right now, she had to put distance between herself and the man creating it. "A man I don't know." She stepped back and was at last able to draw a deep breath into her starved lungs. "A man I don't want to know," she added determinedly.

"Another lie," Alexandre murmured regretfully. "You may lie all you want to yourself and the man you are contemplating marrying, but don't attempt to lie to me. I know you, Anastazia--"

"Like hell you do!" She glared her anger at him, cheeks burning. "You don't know a damn thing about me. Nothing. Zilch. Nada." Her hands were clenched at her sides. "We've just met, you're a VIP guest in the hotel I work at, and because of that I will be as polite and helpful to you as I would be to any other guest. But," she continued firmly as he would have spoken, "don't ever attempt to repeat what happened just now."

"Or?"

Her mouth firmed at the amusement she could see in the depths of those deep green eyes. The bloody man was laughing at her again. Arrogant bastard! "Or I'll be forced to report your behavior to Daniel Meyers."

"What do you expect his reaction to be?" the prince drawled.

Stazzi drew in a deep breath at his arrogant confidence. "Daniel has an unwritten rule. The staff don't fraternize with any of the guests, but equally, the guests don't attempt to seduce any member of his staff."

"I assure you, Adrian and Grant hold no interest for me whatsoever--"

"You think this is funny?" Her eyes were wide and accusing. "You think you can come here, trample all over everyone else's feelings, take what you want, and then leave, because you're a prince?"

"An arrogant pain-in-the-fucking-ass prince."

Her lids narrowed as he once again quoted her email back at her. "You know what, I don't give a damn whether you tell Daniel about my mistake earlier today or not. You _are_ an arrogant pain-in-the-fucking-ass prince, I'm even more convinced of that now I've actually met you."

This evening had not gone at all as Alexandre had wished it to. He had imagined meeting Anastazia, inviting her to have dinner with him, the two of them getting to know each other as they ate together, followed by a seduction. His attraction to Anastazia in her photograph had been immediate, so strong and all-consuming, it hadn't occurred to him to question whether or not she would, or was free, to return that attraction. Except, he reminded himself again, an imminent engagement was not marriage.

And either he was sadly out of practice in the seduction of a woman he desired, or he really had become the arrogant bastard she was accusing him of being for simply having assumed the attraction would be mutual.

_Except it is._

He hadn't imagined Anastazia's response to him just now, or her arousal.

A response and arousal she obviously regretted.

Because she was going to marry another man.

_She has no right to even think of marrying another man when she responds so heatedly to me._

Maybe not, but that wasn't for Alexandre to decide, when he had nothing but here and now to offer her.

His ministers on Androcco had recently begun to make serious noises about it being time for him to marry and produce his future heir. They had even put together a list of foreign princesses and other suitable female members of royal families around the world, and presented it to him at their last meeting, with notations as to which of them was the most suitable.

Anastazia Carmichael's name would never appear on such a list.

Alexandre may have had his wild years, the parties, the women in his bed, but underneath all that, he had always known what his duty was as heir to his father, to Androcco. His future wife would be chosen carefully, the marriage for political reasons, or otherwise beneficial to Androcco in some way, as had been his parents' marriage, and his grandparents before them. Love was for a mistress, not a wife.

He doubted someone as fiercely independent and outspoken as Anastazia would ever agree to take such a subservient role to his official wife.

Nor would he ever insult her by suggesting she did.

He straightened. "You're right, my behavior this evening has been unacceptable. I apologize."

She blinked. "You do?"

He gave the ghost of a smile. "I do."

She stared up at him uncertainly for several long seconds, obviously unsure as to whether or not he was mocking her. "Good, then." She finally nodded acceptance of his apology, her gaze no longer meeting his. "Adrian will be on duty tonight. If you need anything, just ring extension one on the hotel telephone. Grant will take over at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

"And you?"

"I will be back on duty at eight thirty in the morning."

Alexandre's mouth tightened. "An engaged woman."

Her chin rose defensively. "Yes."

"Your fiance is a lucky man."

She gave him another suspicious glance before answering. "I think so, yes. I wish you a good night, Your Highness."

"Anastazia," he returned gruffly.

Stazzi turned sharply on her heel and marched across the room, anxious to get away now. Desperate to try to get her thoughts in order. To rationalize her response to His Highness Prince Alexandre Sylvain Claude St Sebastien.

But something drew on her, pulled inside her, daring her to glance back at him when she reached the doorway. Half of her expected him to be watching her departure; the other half hoped he wasn't.

He was.

The lighting in the room was such that she couldn't read the emotion in those glittering green eyes, but she saw something else. Something unexpected.

A man alone.

Not just alone, but lonely?

For the first time, it occurred to her that being the absolute ruler of his own island couldn't be all champagne and roses. Alexandre's parents were both dead, and he had no siblings. Gerard St Sebastien was the only close family he had left. And wasn't he just a barrel of laughs!

There was no one, at the end of a long day, for Alexandre to just sit down and talk with, eat a companionable dinner with, go to bed with.

_Oh, come on, Prince Alexandre of Androcco isn 't alone or lonely. No doubt once I've gone, he'll get out his little black book and give one of the women in it a call and invite her to come and spend the night with him._

Whereas Stazzi desperately needed to leave here, to get some perspective back into her life.

And forget all about princes from sun-warmed Mediterranean islands who said they wanted her...
Chapter 4

"I never liked him anyway."

"What?" Stazzi stared bleary-eyed at Lissa as the two of them sat opposite each other at the breakfast bar in their apartment the following morning.

Lissa was eating her toast with obvious enjoyment, while Stazzi nursed a cup of black coffee. The thought of eating anything made her feel nauseated.

"Will," Lissa dismissed airily. "I never liked him, or the way he sometimes looked at the two of us as if we're from another planet, just because we share the same sense of humor and laugh at ridiculous things. Judgmental prick," she added with feeling.

Stazzi slowly put down her coffee mug. "I never noticed that..."

Her friend grimaced. "Well, you wouldn't, because you were too busy hoping that he was 'the one.' Oh, I'll grant you that on the surface, Will had it all. Handsome. Charming. A lawyer. Owns his own house. Understated but expensive car. No scary mother-in-law to cope with, only an elderly father."

"I like his father."

Lissa snorted. "I'm sure he liked your father too."

Stazzi frowned. "Are you saying Daddy, who he is, was the reason Will went out with me?"

"Not the only reason, no." Lissa smiled ruefully. "You're gorgeous, let's face it."

"Thanks...I think."

"Your parents don't like him, you know."

Stazzi's eyes widened. "Did they tell you that?"

"Maybe," Lissa admitted with reluctance.

"Why didn't they tell me?"

"Because you're their only child, and they would never deliberately hurt you." Lissa shook her head. "But the fact your father is an impoverished duke rather than a rich one, and that even the title will eventually go to some obscure male relative, will have been deciding factors for someone like Will. He wants money to go with the prestige."

"I can't believe I missed all this about him."

Lissa sighed. "Believe me, Stazzi, you may not think so now, but you're better off without him. He has such an inflated opinion of himself. You would have had to take a subservient role all the time if you'd married him. In Will Granger's opinion, only Will Granger matters."

"Why have you never said any of this before?" She felt slightly punch-drunk, completely dazed by Lissa's blunt insights into the man Stazzi had thought she was going to marry.

_Had_ thought.

Because that was no longer going to happen.

She'd called Will as soon as she left the hotel the night before, needing to be with him after that encounter with Prince Alexandre. Will had suggested the two of them meet for a late-night coffee.

Turned out that the conversation Will wanted to have with her wasn't a marriage proposal at all, but the ending of their six-month relationship.

His reasons?

Because she was, to quote Will "too caught up in your job to give me and our relationship the time it deserves." And "after careful consideration, you aren't a suitable wife for a man who is being made junior partner of the firm." Last, but certainly not least, he had told her there was someone else. When Stazzi asked who, Will had admitted he had been dating the daughter of the senior partner for several weeks now. The daughter of the very wealthy senior partner. Which would seem to confirm Lissa's opinion of Will requiring a wealthy father-in-law and not just a titled one.

It had been that last admission, the knowing that Will had been seeing someone else while still stringing her along, that had been the blow that killed every last vestige of feeling Stazzi had ever believed she felt for him.

_As well as making me regret turning down Prince Alexandre._

"You seemed so set on him." Lissa reached across the table and squeezed Stazzi's hand. "I didn't want to burst your bubble with my niggling doubts." She straightened. "Besides, I could have been wrong about him. With my record for choosing the wrong man, I'm not the best person in the world to give an opinion on any of them." She always wore her heart on her sleeve, and inevitably had it broken. "The fact we now know the bastard was deceiving you with the daughter of the senior partner of Barrett, Barrett, and Palmer just confirms every bad thing I ever thought about him."

Lissa had already been in bed and asleep in her room when Stazzi came home the night before, still in shock from that conversation with Will. But Stazzi hadn't cried when he told her those things. She had more pride than that. The tears had come later, once she was alone in her bedroom.

Which was the reason she felt heavy eyed and lethargic this morning.

"I'm so sorry I was actually right this time. Will isn't worth another minute of your time, love." Lissa smiled at her sympathetically.

No. No, he really wasn't.

It was her dreams for the future she mourned the most, Stazzi realized sadly. The husband, house in the suburbs, children playing on the swing set in the neatly trimmed and pruned garden. All things she had imagined with Will. All gone now.

"Now tell me what happened last night with your gorgeous Mediterranean prince?" Lissa sat forward in anticipation.

Stazzi felt the blush warm her cheeks from merely thinking about Alexandre St Sebastien, and the way he had kissed her the night before. And her response to those kisses.

Realizing if it had happened just one day later, and feeling as empty and uncertain as she did now, she might not have said no to him...

"How are you today, Anastazia?"

Stazzi almost knocked over the vase of fresh flowers she was arranging in the sitting room of the penthouse suite--as per Gerard St Sebastien's instruction--at hearing the sound of Alexandre's voice just behind her.

She turned, eyes accusing. "I really wish you wouldn't creep up on me like that."

He raised one dark eyebrow. "I wasn't aware of doing so."

She was overreacting, Stazzi acknowledged. Being rude again to one of the hotel's VIP guests. _The_ VIP guest. And it wasn't Alexandre's fault she was so tired and jumpy this morning.

She gave a heavy sigh. "I apologize. I was concentrating on what I was doing and didn't hear you."

She had been thinking about Will and trying to stop the tears from falling. But she knew Lissa was right and Will simply wasn't worth the tears she had shed. He was ruthless and calculating, was dating the daughter of the senior partner at the firm where he worked, Stazzi now believed, in order to advance his career as much as anything else. None of which prevented Stazzi's feelings of humiliation.

She winced as she recalled shopping for a new dress for her special date, her excitement yesterday, and her expectations. All dashed to hell by a man she now realized was a calculating and pompous prick, who had used her and then dropped her when a better prospect came along. The rich and prestigious Stephen Barrett would make a much better father-in-law than her own father, an impoverished duke whose estate was falling down about his ears.

"We seem to feel the need to apologize to each other quite often," Alexandre observed.

She grimaced. "I know. But please believe my own apology just now was sincere. It's no excuse that I was distracted and didn't hear you come in."

Alexandre studied the pallor of Anastazia's cheeks. The dark shadows under those beautiful blue eyes that remained fixed on his clean-shaven chin, rather than met his searching gaze. He glanced down at her left hand. Still no ring.

Dare he hope...?

Hope what? That Anastazia wasn't engaged to another man after all? What difference would it make if that were true?

Alexandre had taken a long hard look at himself and his life after she left him the previous night. He was a ruling prince, and the expectation politically was that he would take an equally royal wife and produce doubly royal children. Desire, even love, were not luxuries a ruling prince could afford.

No, much as Alexandre desired Anastazia, his circumstances said he would never be able to offer her any more than an affair. Short- or long-term.

Much as he desired her...

And he did still desire her. More than ever. Had spent the rest of the previous evening thinking about her. How she smelled of lemons and flowers, how soft her skin was to the touch, how delicious her lips and mouth tasted beneath his. He had dreamt about her too, once he was in bed and finally fell asleep. Those dreams, sensual and unchecked, had taken him much further than just those explorations of the sweet temptation of her mouth.

His hands had roamed freely over each curve of her body, cupping her breasts, lifting them each in turn so that her nipples could receive the rasping attentions of his tongue before his mouth closed over one and suckled hard, while his other hand stroked and pulled on its twin. Before that hand moved lower, to the undulations of her hips, her whimpering sighs becoming a plea.

His fingers had stroked along the dampness of her curls before moving lower, and then deeper, two of his fingers entering her as she parted her legs wider for him, her sighs becoming groans of ecstasy as the soft pad of his thumb found and pleasured her clit and she climaxed, coming apart beneath him as she rode that climax, and then another, until her breath was no more than gasping sobs.

Alexandre closed his eyes now as he remembered the pleasure as he slowly pushed his cock inside her slick, tight, hot pussy, inch by inch, until he was seated firmly inside her. Her legs--those gloriously long legs--curved about his back as she lifted up and into each thrust, until Alexandre couldn't hold back any longer and he thrust into her wildly, deeper, harder, before his seed erupted inside her.

He opened his eyes again as he remembered the ignominy of waking alone in his darkened hotel bedroom, the evidence of his spent seed all over him. Something that hadn't happened to him since he was a teenager.

"Where's your entourage today?"

"Entourage...?" Alexandre's heart was beating so fast, his cock throbbing at the memory of his dreams, he had briefly forgotten where he was. What he and Anastazia had been talking about.

This woman who had been the sole focus of the dream, just those images in his head having caused his body to harden once again.

"Your cousin." She nodded. "The scary bodyguards."

"They went to their own rooms upon our return from a business meeting." Alexandre had dismissed them all as soon as they entered the safety of the penthouse suite. His business meeting had been long and grueling and he'd had enough company for one day. Unless, he recognized, that company happened to be Anastazia... "And bodyguards are meant to be scary."

"Yes, but yours are really scary." Stazzi had been taken by surprise when she entered to check on the suite earlier--once she was sure Prince Alexandre had left for his business appointment--to find that one of his bodyguards remained on duty just outside the private lift.

It made sense, of course. The hotel prided itself on its privacy and security for all its guests, but a prince really couldn't just leave his temporary living quarters unguarded.

"Especially the guy that came from Knight Security to check the suite yesterday before your arrival." She gave a shake of her head as she once again thought of the man, over six feet tall, with long shaggy dark hair and piercing dark eyes that looked at everything, including her, with suspicion.

Alexandre laughed softly. "Caleb, Ethan, Asher, or perhaps it was Gabriel himself?"

"He didn't offer his name once Daniel had delivered him up here." She frowned. "You know all Knight Security employees by name?"

"The Knight brothers? Yes." He nodded. "I went to school and university in England with Ash."

Stazzi had already guessed at a possibly British education; Alexandre spoke the language with absolutely no foreign accent. He also seemed to get her English idioms. "Well, this brother was tall, dark, and yes, definitely scary."

"All the Knight brothers are tall, dark, and scary. It's the reason I always employ them as extra security whenever I come to England." Alexandre chuckled. "It was probably Asher," he decided. "We're having dinner together this evening."

Was that disappointment Stazzi was feeling? Because Alexandre's dinner engagement meant he wouldn't be renewing his invitation to her?

Perhaps it was as well; a rebound love affair with a sexy prince was a terrible idea.

Lissa didn't agree. Her comment after Stazzi had told her about Alexandre's kiss and the dinner invitation, had been "Whoo-hoo, go for it." Lissa was sure that a few days and nights of raunchy sex with a hot prince were just what Stazzi needed to forget all about the two-timing bastard Will.

Stazzi felt so raw, so hurt by Will's behavior, she was half-inclined to agree with Lissa. So it was probably as well that Alexandre was otherwise engaged this evening.

"Unless, of course," he said softly, "you are available for dinner tonight?"

Stazzi gave him a startled glance. Were her thoughts and emotions so obvious to him? And her disappointment when he revealed he was meeting one of the Knight brothers for dinner?

Wouldn't that be just wonderful?

It was bad enough Will had dumped her in the way he had; she didn't need to have Alexandre guess any of that and feel sorry for her. She felt sorry enough for herself, mainly for being a stupid idiot who hadn't seen what was right in front of her nose.

She gave Alexandre a bright, meaningless smile. "Some friend you are, thinking of blowing off dinner with your childhood friend in order to take a woman out instead."

"Ash wouldn't mind," he assured her with certainty. "Or you could always join the two of us?"

Stazzi's cheeks warmed as she thought of what Lissa would think of _that_ idea. Menage a trois. Stazzi, completely at the mercy of two gorgeous and virile men who were only interested in her pleasure.

Stazzi trembled as a delicious thrill of anticipation traveled the length of her spine.

_What the hell was that?_

She'd just told Alexandre how scary Asher Knight was, and now her imagination had taken her into thinking of having him and Alexandre both pleasuring her until she screamed for them to stop?

Well...yes.

Alexandre was so suave and seductive, and--yes, she could admit it now, she was no longer in another relationship--his kisses were to die for. And just because Asher Knight was scary didn't mean he wasn't also handsome as sin, or that edge of danger surrounding him wasn't a direct challenge to any red-blooded woman. Being in bed with those two men would be heaven and hell--

She must be going out of her mind even to allow her thoughts to go there!

A menage a trois, for God's sake.

What was she thinking?

_I 'm not thinking, I'm feeling. And those thoughts alone, of being in bed with Alexandre and Asher at the same time, have made me wet and aching._
Chapter 5

"Anastazia...?"

She blinked as she refocused on Alexandre before firmly pushing those erotic thoughts away from her. Dangerous thoughts that made her body tremble and her panties wet. She needed to get out of here and well away from this man.

_And perhaps go somewhere private where I can relieve some of this sexual tension._

Great, now she was thinking of-- Shit. At work too. This was mad, unacceptable.

"What are you thinking about...?" It was impossible for Alexandre to miss the way Anastazia's cheeks had become flushed, her eyes unfocused and a darker blue, and her breathing shallow and erratic. Signs of her arousal? The hard tips of her breasts pressing against her blouse, and the spicy heat of her body perfume, would seem to indicate that it was.

Why?

What had he done or said--

Ah.

He stepped close enough to breathe in the perfume of her arousal. "Ash and I would both ensure that you had an...enjoyable evening." During their years at university and since, he and Ash had often shared a woman.

Alexandre frowned, hands clenching at his sides, as he realized he didn't want to share Anastazia. With anyone. Least of all Asher Knight. The man was a demanding, almost feral lover, and Anastazia deserved to be made love to and with, to be savored slowly. By one man. Him.

"It's very kind of you, but no," she refused the invitation.

Alexandre felt some of his tension ease as his hands uncurled and his shoulders relaxed. Although it was interesting that Anastazia had actually seemed to consider the invitation--amongst other things. "Your boyfriend didn't propose to you last night," he rasped.

She instantly tensed, her expression becoming defensive. "What makes you say that?"

He glanced at her left hand. "No ring."

"It could be being resized."

Even more defensive. "Is it?"

She turned away from him to glance around the tidy and comfortable room. "I think that's everything for now--Alexandre, don't...!" The last was a low groan of denial as Alexandre gently took hold of her arm and turned her to face him.

His gaze roamed searchingly over her face. The dark, almost bruised eyes. The pallor of her cheeks. The slight tremble to her lips. As if she were on the verge of crying. "What did the bastard do to you?" His forceful tone demanded an answer.

"Nothing." Her voice was husky with those unshed tears. "He did absolutely nothing," she repeated shakily.

Alexandre's eyes narrowed. "He didn't propose?"

"No."

"Why not?"

She gave a humorless laugh. "Turns out I'm not good enough for him."

"What?" Alexandre stilled. His own thoughts had been so similar earlier.

Oh, not that Anastazia wasn't good enough for him, but that his own wants and needs--his desire for Anastazia--were subject to the wants and needs of others. That he had a duty to his family name and the people of his island, one that didn't allow him to say or act as he wished. That included dating a young English woman with no royal or political connections.

Wasn't that the same thing?

Unfortunately not. His first duty had to be to Androcco, to his people, no matter how much he might wish it otherwise. Her boyfriend--ex-boyfriend, had no such onerous responsibilities.

She shrugged. "Will is a lawyer, an ambitious one, and he told me last night that he's going to marry the daughter of the senior partner of the firm he works for."

Whereas this other man, the man Anastazia had thought would become her husband, had chosen to do what? Further his career by marrying the daughter of the man he worked for? It certainly sounded like it.

"You know," he cajoled, "I believe that an evening out with Asher and myself is exactly what you need. Bring a girlfriend with you, if it would make you feel more comfortable," he added at her doubtful expression.

Could she do that, Stazzi wondered, knowing she was more than a little tempted by an evening out with two gorgeous and dangerous men like Prince Alexandre and Asher Knight. It was exactly what her battered and bruised self-confidence needed.

And what about the hotel policy that employees weren't allowed to be overfamiliar with the guests? Okay, Asher Knight wasn't a guest, but Alexandre definitely was.

If she invited Lissa too, then it would be less Stazzi fraternizing with a guest. She could even claim, if asked, that Asher had been her date for the evening, and she hadn't known Prince Alexandre would be there.

It wasn't an ideal situation, and she wasn't particularly happy about the possibility of having to bend the truth to Daniel Meyers, if it came to that, but a part of her really wanted to go out to dinner with Alexandre. After Will's despicable behavior, she _needed_ to do this.

Besides which, Lissa would never forgive her if she turned down this invitation on behalf of both of them.

"Okay, I'll bring my flatmate Lissa," she accepted. "But it's just dinner," she added quickly as she saw the way those green eyes darkened with satisfaction.

"Of course." Alexandre nodded. "You won't regret it," he added lightly.

Stazzi regretted it almost as soon as she left Alexandre. She also thought of calling him several times during the long day that followed, to tell him she had changed her mind. But each time, something held her back from doing so.

Consequently, she was a nervous wreck by the time she left work to go home, hardly noticing the short journey on the tube to her apartment. She had called Lissa earlier and asked her if she was okay for going out to dinner with Alexandre and Asher that evening. Her friend's scream of excitement had been enough of an answer.

She couldn't help smiling, after letting herself into the apartment and seeing Lissa had the whole of her wardrobe laid out across her bed as she discarded one dress after another in her search for something suitable.

Stazzi had no such problem, knew exactly what she was going to wear. The new black gown she'd bought to go out with Will the previous evening definitely needed an outing. It also gave her a perverse satisfaction to think of wearing it to go out with someone as handsome and sophisticated as Prince Alexandre St Sebastien.

_Eat your heart out, Will Granger!_

"I still can't believe we're actually getting the chance to eat at Fury's!" Lissa gave an excited laugh when their cab arrived outside the restaurant shortly after eight o'clock that evening.

Alexandre had called Stazzi at her office shortly before five o'clock to ask for her address so that he and Asher could collect them on their way to the restaurant. Stazzi had insisted that wasn't necessary, that the two women would make their own way there. Alexandre hadn't been too happy with that arrangement, but Stazzi had been adamant. He had reluctantly given her the name and address of the restaurant where he and Asher Knight would be waiting for them at eight o'clock.

Fury's was the most exclusive restaurant in London right then, and patrons usually had to book weeks in advance to stand a chance of getting a table. Unless, apparently, you happened to be a royal prince...

"Me either," Stazzi answered Lissa. The meal this evening would probably cost more than a month's wages from her job at the Meyers Hotel. "The bodyguards outside and inside are a bit...off-putting, though."

She had easily recognized three of Alexandre's bodyguards outside the restaurant, as they no doubt knew her, although none of them acknowledged the fact. Three more of his men were standing in the reception area as the two women handed in their coats, the bodyguards' expressions watchful, eyes alert for any danger. As if they expected some knife-wielding maniac to storm into the restaurant and attack Alexandre.

Stazzi wondered how Alexandre coped with living in such a goldfish bowl every day. Used to it, she supposed, having no doubt lived this way since birth. It would drive her nuts to have bodyguards dogging her every move--

She forgot all about them, and their reason for being there, as she and Lissa followed the maitre d' into the main part of the restaurant and she immediately saw Alexandre as he stood up from a table situated--deliberately?--in the far corner of the room.

She could barely breathe as she took in his appearance in a black evening suit and white silk shirt, the overhead chandelier giving a slight copper sheen to his black hair, those intense green eyes watching her every move as she walked toward him.

"Stand up, idiot," Alexandre instructed Ash as the other man remained sprawled in his chair on the opposite side of the table.

"They aren't here yet," Ash dismissed uninterestedly.

"Almost," Alexandre hissed under his breath.

The other man shrugged. "You're the one who wants to get laid, not me."

Alexandre drew in a sharp breath, knowing it was true but resenting hearing Ash talk about Anastazia in that way. "You're such an asshole."

"Takes one to know one," Ash taunted.

"Will you stand the fuck up!"

"I don't think ruling princes are allowed to use that sort of language."

"This ruling prince has known you for too many years to care. Now stand the fuck up!"

"Remember, this was your idea, not mine." Ash finally rose slowly to his feet.

Yes, it was, and Ash had made no secret of his displeasure when Alexandre told him he had invited the two women to join them for dinner this evening. No doubt Ash's plans for the evening had involved going on to some nightclub after dinner, where the two men would take their pick of the women there.

Alexandre forgot all about his friend's bloody-mindedness as Anastazia reached the table. She looked beautiful in a clinging black gown that finished several inches above her knees, left her shoulders bare, and revealed the soft swell of her breasts. Her long black hair flowed like silk over those bared shoulders as she smiled at him, her eyes that cool turquoise blue of a mountain lake, a red gloss emphasizing the fullness of her lips.

"We've met before, I believe, Miss Carmichael." Ash's voice was a low rumble once the maitre d' had seated the women between the two men at the round table, the man having lingered only long enough to fill the ladies' champagne glasses before leaving.

"I remember," she acknowledged noncommittally. "Lissa, this is Prince Alexandre and his associate Asher Knight. My best friend and flatmate, Lissa Forsythe."

Alexandre was barely aware of acknowledging the redhead as he and Ash resumed their seats, his attention completely focused on Anastazia.

"And what do you do, Mr. Knight?" Lissa prompted to break the tense silence that had fallen over the table.

"This and that," he answered dismissively. "You?"

Alexandre was going to kill Ash if he didn't stop behaving like a complete dick.

"I'm a travel agent," Lissa answered stiffly.

"Really?" Ash sounded even less impressed, if that was possible. "So you're the person I call if I want to book an airline ticket?" He made no effort to hide his derision.

"Somehow I doubt that," the redhead replied through gritted teeth.

"Oh, and why is that?"

She gave him an insincere smile. "I tend to pass the assholes on to my assistant."

Ash bared his teeth in an appreciative smile. "That's the second time I've been called an asshole this evening."

"Then I'm sure we can't both be wrong!" Lissa came back with insincere sweetness.

"I'm guessing Mr. Knight didn't want us here?" Anastazia whispered to Alexandre as Asher and Lissa continued their barbed conversation.

Alexandre placed his hand over hers as it rested on the tabletop. " _I_ wanted you here."

Stazzi glanced at the other couple rather than at him, so very aware of the warmth of his hand over hers. Aware of everything about Alexandre as he sat beside her. The long length of his thigh just inches away from her own. The subtle smell of his aftershave. The heat of his body.

_The way he can 't take his eyes off me._

Stazzi felt devoured by the intensity of that emerald gaze, and while it was doing wonders for her ego, it was also totally disconcerting.

She shifted uncomfortably. "I should warn you, Lissa has a temper to go with that red hair."

He laughed softly. "Ash's behavior says he deserves all he gets."

Stazzi winced, knowing just how fiery Lissa's temper could be if she lost it. Asher had been uncommunicative and terse when he visited the hotel, but she had hoped that was just his work mode. Obviously, she had been wrong. His behavior tonight was outright rude.

The other couple seemed to call a truce--by simply not talking to each other--as they all studied the menus and then ordered their meal, but Stazzi wasn't sure how long that would last if Asher was going to keep baiting Lissa.

Alexandre gave an inward groan as Anastazia sat forward to lift her glass and take a sip of her champagne.

"Mm, this is delicious." She licked the excess wine from those red-glossed lips.

His cock immediately engorged and swelled in response to the moist sweep of that little pink tongue, and he thanked God he was sitting down and no one could see the obvious tenting of his trousers.

The tension between Ash and Lissa, and his own constant state of arousal from being in Anastazia's company, told him this was going to be a very long evening.

As it turned out, it was nowhere near as long as he thought it would be.

They had barely finished eating the main course of their meal when Lissa turned angrily on Ash, topaz eyes flashing in warning. "How dare you speak to me like that, you egotistical moron!"

Ash shrugged. "I only asked if you wanted to fuck later."

"And now you've repeated it." She glared at him incredulously.

"It's a valid question, surely?"

"Not to me."

"Then why else are you here?"

"I was invited to have dinner with my friend and her--her--"

"Yes?" Ash taunted.

"You're an asshole!"

"And you're repeating yourself."

"If the name fits!"

He shrugged broad shoulders. "Strangely, no one's ever called me that before tonight."

"You surprise me!"

He gave a feral grin. " _Now_ I really do want to fuck you."

"In your dreams, buddy!"

"In my bed would be more comfortable."

"Mr. Knight--"

"Ash--"

Anastazia's and Alexandre's protests went unheard as Lissa threw her napkin on the tabletop before standing up, cheeks flushed, her eyes glittering with either tears or temper. "You're an arrogant fucking bastard!"

Ash was obviously completely unconcerned by the insult, or the interest of the other diners, as he relaxed against the back of his chair to look up at her. "And now we're back to the fucking..."

"I wouldn't fuck you if you were the last man on this earth." Lissa picked up her champagne glass and threw the contents into Ash's face. "Thank you for dinner, but I have to go now," she said tightly to Anastazia and Alexandre before grabbing up her clutch bag and stalking across the restaurant.

"No." Alexandre placed his hand over Anastazia's as she would have stood to go after her friend, his eyes glittering darkly as he turned to Ash. "Follow her and apologize."

"I'm the one who had a glass of champagne thrown over him." Ash grimaced as he used his napkin to wipe the excess liquid from his face and the front of his dinner jacket. "Thanks." He accepted the second napkin handed to him by the flustered maitre d' after he hurried over to their table. "That's fine, thanks," he dismissed the older man. "Nothing to see here," he growled at the other diners gawking across at their table, glaring at them darkly until they all turned away to resume eating their meal or to talking softly under their breath.

Anastazia glared at Ash. "If you had spoken to me like that, I would have hit you over the head with the whole bottle, not just thrown a glass of champagne in your face. How dare you speak to my friend like that?"

"Go," Alexandre instructed Ash tightly.

Ash sighed. "Is that my sometime employer speaking or my friend?"

"Both!"

The other man threw the wet napkin onto the table before rising slowly to his feet to glance across the restaurant where Lissa had disappeared. "Perhaps you might consider searching for my dead body in the morning."

"If I find it, I'm more likely to trample on it," Stazzi assured him, totally stunned by what had just happened. "Repeatedly," she added with feeling.

Asher gave an unconcerned grin. "I have a feeling there may not be enough of me left in the morning to do that."

"Good." Stazzi glared at him as he nodded his good-bye before striding confidently toward the reception area. "I really should go after Lissa--"

"No. You really shouldn't." Alexandre's hand on her arm prevented her from standing. "Give it a few minutes and then call her, by all means. But I doubt she will answer you, and I certainly wouldn't advise following her."

"Why not?"

He grimaced. "The sexual tension between Ash and Lissa was, is...explosive. So much so, I doubt they will get any further than Ash's car before--well, before. The first time, at least."

She gasped. "You're wrong--"

"No, I assure you I'm not." Alexandre turned in his seat, the length of his thigh now resting warmly against her own. "The fact Ash spoke of the morning, twice, tells me exactly what he and your friend will be doing tonight. All night."

"Lissa hates him--"

"She wants him," he corrected huskily, lifting a tress of her hair and curling it back behind her ear.

Was it possible? Stazzi wondered, still dazed by the way Lissa and Ash's barbed conversation had exploded into such a violent verbal and then physical exchange.

Lissa had a temper, yes, but Stazzi couldn't say she had ever seen her friend quite that agitated before.

"Ash wants her too," Alexandre murmured, his breath warm against the ear he'd bared. "In the same way I want you."

Every other thought went out of Stazzi's head as she felt the sharp, arousing nip of his teeth against the lobe of her ear.
Chapter 6

Stazzi had no idea what she was doing sitting in the back of the limousine beside Alexandre, her hand held securely in his much larger one, as they were driven through the lamplit streets of London back to the Meyers Hotel. One of the bodyguards was sitting in the front with the driver, the other five following closely behind in a black SUV. Both vehicles had tinted windows so that no one could see the occupants.

Maybe part of the reason she had agreed to go back to the hotel with Alexandre was because she was still in shock?

Stazzi had done as he'd suggested and called Lissa instead of running after her. Three times. Each time, the call had gone to voice mail. Then she tried texting her friend, asking if Lissa wanted her to come home. Half a minute later she received the text back of "no." Stazzi's return of "why not" had eventually been answered with "not there." She had almost been afraid to ask the next question 'where?' There was a much longer pause this time before Lissa replied "with Ash."

How had she missed what Alexandre so obviously hadn't, that the sniping between Lissa and Ash was actually a fierce sexual attraction? Lissa had been engaged once a long time ago and been badly stung when it didn't work out. She never went home with any of the men she had dated since, and tonight, with Ash, hadn't even been a date.

Come to that, how had Stazzi missed seeing that Will Granger was a two-timing bastard?

Her emotion radar was definitely off-kilter.

Which probably meant acting on her own equally fierce sexual attraction to Alexandre by going back to the hotel with him for his suggested nightcap was also a bad idea.

Probably?

It was a bad idea. If Daniel or any of the other hotel staff saw her--

"Maintaining a hotel guest's privacy is the whole point of having the separate lift up to the penthouse floor."

She turned to Alexandre in the semidarkness. "How did you know what I was thinking?"

He smiled. "Your face is sometimes like an open book."

Really? Did that mean he'd seen the way she couldn't take her eyes off him this evening? For instance, did he know how watching him eat, the parting of those sculpted lips and the placing of food inside, had made her think of having Alexandre eat her pussy with just as much enjoyment?

"Sometimes?" she repeated nervously.

"Most of the time." His chuckle was husky.

_Oh good Lord, he does know._

"Don't say it." Alexandre had turned to place gentle fingertips against her lips as she would have spoken, his face now only inches away from hers in the darkness, his glittering gaze holding her captive. "I promise you that nothing will happen tonight that you don't want to happen. You only have to say no."

Which was no help at all, when what Stazzi wanted right now was him. Both of them naked, on that king-size bed in the main bedroom in his hotel suite. She ached to have Alexandre's hands and lips on her. Her mouth, her breasts, between her thighs. Especially between her thighs. Merely thinking about having his mouth there was making her pussy weep and her clit hard. She clenched her thighs together as she felt the hot flow of juices that dampened her panties.

Bad, bad, _bad_ idea--

She gasped as Alexandre's mouth replaced his fingertips against her lips. Not gently or questioning, but hard and demanding, his tongue running along the seam of her lips to part them before thrusting fiercely inside.

_Oh God, yes!_

This was what she wanted, who she wanted, and to hell with everything else.

Stazzi pulled her hand free of Alexandre's and turned in the seat to put her arms about his shoulders, fingers tangling in the hair at his nape as she pulled him in closer still. Lips devouring, tongues dueling, his chest like steel as he rubbed it against the aroused ache of her nipples.

She gave a low whimper as Alexandre continued to kiss her even as he maneuvered her onto her back on the leather seat, pushing her dress up to her waist before he followed her down to lie between her parted thighs. His cock was long and hard against the thin material of her panties and his trousers as he began to slowly thrust and grind that hardness against her pulsing clit to the same rhythm as his tongue thrusting inside the greedy heat of her mouth.

Stazzi had been in a state of half-arousal all evening as she sat next to Alexandre, and so very aware of everything about him. This overflow of sensations, his claiming lips and tongue, matched with those grinding thrusts against her clit, pushed her over the edge, and she half screamed against his mouth as her orgasm ripped through her and caused her body to arch up into his.

Alexandre continued to taste and lick and bite her lips as he rode her through it, his cock hot and hard against her clit, his hand caressing her waist before moving higher to cup and hold her bare breast, prolonging her orgasm as he pinched and pulled on the sensitive nipple.

"Again!" His eyes glittered down at her in the darkness when he pulled back to hold her gaze captive. His hand moved caressingly down her inner thighs before pulling the lace of her panties aside. "You are so fucking wet," he groaned. His long fingers stroked that wetness over her swollen nether lips and clit, stroking, moistening, before two of those fingers plunged inside her.

Stazzi cried out even while she continued to arch up and meet those thrusts, the pleasure intense as his thumb pressed and stroked her oversensitive clit and those fingers stroked deeply inside her.

"I'm going to take you so hard once we get back to the hotel." Alexandre's voice was guttural, his expression dark and fierce as he looked down at her. He was every inch a demanding and savage lover, rather than the urbane and sophisticated Prince Alexandre. "I'm going to take you everywhere. Be so deep inside you, I'll fucking _own_ you."

Stazzi's breath was a gasping sob as she felt her release surging over and through her for a second time, deeper and more intense than the first, as Alexandre's fingers curled inside her to touch and stroke a place she never knew existed, and causing her juices to flow more copiously. That elusive G-spot? Stazzi didn't care what it was, could only scream with pleasure this time as the intensity and length of her second orgasm claimed her and she lost all sense of anything but that overwhelming pleasure.

She had no idea how much time had passed when she finally came back to an awareness of her surroundings. Of Alexandre as he now lay half on her and half on the car seat rather than having his whole weight on top of her.

_On the car seat!_

The two of them were in the back of his limousine, with a driver and bodyguard seated up front. Okay, so there was a tinted privacy glass dividing the front and back of the car, but that didn't mean they hadn't been able to hear her screams.

"You're okay," Alexandre soothed, his fingers gentle as he caressed away the tears of pleasure from the dampness of her cheeks. "It's okay, Anastazia--"

"Of course it isn't okay!" she protested. She wanted to sit up, to tell him to stop the car and let her out here, but unfortunately, her body still felt boneless, even her arms too heavy for her to lift them. The most she could manage was to put her parted legs together now that he was no longer lying between them. "What did you do to me?" Her vision blurred with fresh and mortified tears.

"I only pleasured you. Damn it, it wasn't my intention to frighten you," he said with soft self-condemnation, unmoving, as if he didn't want to alarm her.

As if Stazzi wasn't spooked enough already!

She had never-- It had never been like that for her before. Never.

She was twenty-seven years old, and there had been other men for her. Not many, but some. Men she had cared about, loved for a short time. Like Will-- No, _not_ like Will. The men before Will had cared for her too. But none of them had affected her like Alexandre had. She had never passed out from an overload of pleasure as it seemed she might have done with him.

"Anastazia?" Alexandre frowned his concern as the tears continued to trickle down her cheeks. "Did I frighten you?" He sat up and took her with him, straightening her dress before lifting her onto his thighs to hold her tightly in his arms, his face buried in the perfumed silk of her hair. "Please tell me I didn't hurt you."

"You didn't hurt me."

"But I frightened you with my intensity?" He knew he'd lost control for a few minutes.

"Not exactly."

Alexandre gave an impatient shake of his head. "I need you to tell me how you feel. Tell me if I did something wrong."

Her eyes were downcast as she gave a shake of her head and trembled in his arms, causing fresh tears to fall.

For a moment, Alexandre's heart ceased to beat at the thought of having frightened her so much she couldn't even talk to or look at him. "I know I was out of control." His arms tightened about her. "But I never want to hurt you, Anastazia. Please, stop crying."

"I'm not crying because you hurt me, Alexandre." She raised her head to gaze at him through tear-wet lashes. "I'm crying because that was amazing. Totally crazy too," she conceded wryly. "Sensual overload." One of her hands moved up to his clenched jaw, fingers a light caress to ease his tension. "But now I need for you to take me home."

Alexandre's gut clenched at the thought of not being with her tonight. All night. "I know you're worried about Lissa, but I seriously doubt she'll be back to your apartment until the morning, and we would be more comfortable together at the hotel." He glanced pointedly at the bodyguard in the front of the car. "Where I go, they go," he reminded her.

"I realize that." Stazzi sighed, her cheeks burning at the memory of her screams. Screams those men couldn't have helped but overhear. "But the same doesn't apply to me. And I do really need to go home. Alone. This is all... It's too much too fast, Alexandre," she added as his expression darkened.

"I'm only in London for a week," he groaned as she moved out of his arms.

Stazzi knew that. As she knew also at the end of that week, this ruling prince would return to his island, and she would never see him again. She needed time, away from Alexandre, to gather together her fractured thoughts and emotions--and her shattered and satiated body--because when she was with him, she couldn't think beyond the moment, let alone what the consequences might be of falling for this man.

It was only twenty-four hours since she had believed she would be agreeing to marry another man. This attraction to Alexandre could merely be a reaction to that, on the rebound, because she felt so hurt and humiliated--

_I was attracted to him before I knew what a bastard Will is._

Well, yes, she had been, but it was an attraction she had denied, out of misplaced loyalty to Will. And despite now knowing of Will's betrayal, she simply wasn't the type to jump into bed with a man after knowing him for only one day.

_I don 't seem to have any problem with that in the back of his limousine._

Because Alexandre was like no other man she had ever met. On the surface so suave and charming, controlled, but underneath that was the dark and intense savage who had made love to her while telling her he was going to "fucking own her."

She gave a shiver, unsure whether it was one of apprehension or anticipation. And if it was the latter, what did that make her? What would it do to her to be owned by this man, body and soul, and then discarded, forgotten, when he returned to his Mediterranean island?

Alexandre was a prince, unmarried or even engaged, but she had no doubts that he would be, and not too far in the future. He was aged in his midthirties, a ruling prince, and one day very soon, he would need an heir. If she hadn't been good enough for Will, she certainly wasn't good enough for this rich-as-Croesus prince.

Nor, once Alexandre married, was she mistress material. It simply wasn't in her to hurt another woman by sneaking around behind her back by having an affair with her husband. Her parents had brought her up never to do anything to another person she wouldn't want done to her. Which meant she could never be any man's mistress. Even more so when she could still feel the humiliation of knowing Will had cheated on her in that very same way.

And she was jumping way ahead of herself. Yes, there was no doubt that Alexandre wanted her now, tonight, maybe even for the rest of the week he was in London, but nothing he had said or done indicated he would be interested in continuing any sort of relationship with her once he returned to Androcco and his life there.

Better not to become involved in the first place--

"Have dinner with me tomorrow night. Just the two of us. At the hotel."

"I can't..." she groaned.

"You can," Alexandre pressed, not touching her, but his proximity was overpowering nonetheless. "All you have to do is say yes. Say yes, Anastazia."

"Ye-- No," she substituted with a decisive shake of her head. "This evening was...different," she acknowledged ruefully as she thought of Lissa's and Ash's behavior, and the fact that her best friend was, in all probability, going to spend the night with the other man. That really was different. "I enjoyed this evening, I really did. But I've had a stressful couple of days and...and I don't want to... Please understand, my last relationship ended only last night, and this--you and I, the attraction between us--could merely be a reaction to the abrupt ending of that relationship. I'm sorry." She grimaced, heart sinking as that frown became even darker on Alexandre's brow, his eyelids narrowing to slits over glittering eyes. No doubt as physical evidence he didn't like what she had just said.

He confirmed that was the case by moving back to his own side of the car before pressing a button on a panel in the door. "Miss Carmichael's apartment, if you please, Tomas," he spoke into the intercom, giving the other man the address.

"Yes, Your Highness," came the immediate response from the front of the limousine as the car immediately changed direction.

"I really am sorry, Alexandre." Stazzi winced at the remoteness of his expression in profile as he looked out the side window rather than at her.

"No problem," he dismissed tightly.

Neither of them spoke for the rest of the journey to Stazzi's apartment. Her own feelings were ones of discomfort at that taut silence, but she had no idea how Alexandre felt or what he was thinking as he continued to keep his distance from her, physically as well as emotionally.

Finally, she couldn't stand that silence any longer. "Are we parting as bad friends?"

Alexandre almost laughed at the ridiculousness of that question. He didn't want to be _friends_ with Anastazia. Damn it, he had wanted _her_ , in his bed, before he even met her. He wanted her even more since meeting her. The last thing he wanted to hear from her was that her responses to him could just be on the rebound from her last boyfriend.

How fucking ironic was that? The international playboy prince who'd had any woman he wanted, now the ruling prince of Androcco, who had only to snap his fingers to have any woman he wanted, being told by the one woman he did want that her attraction to him might have been on the _fucking rebound_.

There had to be some sort of poetic justice in that.

All these years, Alexandre had never felt any more than a fleeting desire for the women he took to bed. Even though several of them had professed to be in love with him, he had never returned those feelings. Now the one woman he wanted so badly it made his teeth ache didn't feel the same way about him.

Poetic justice, indeed.

"Alexandre, please..."

He turned at the sound of her beseeching tone. "What do you want from me, Anastazia? I listened to what you had to say, I accepted your decision, and you are now being driven back to your apartment, as requested. What else do you want from me?"

Her gaze roamed searchingly over his face for several seconds before her lashes lowered and she sighed before turning away. "Obviously, nothing else."

Alexandre's hands clenched on his thighs in his frustration with this situation. This was unchartered territory for him, and he had no idea what to do or say to break the tension that now existed between them.

There was so much he wanted to say. But he very much doubted Anastazia wanted to hear that he believed her ex-boyfriend was an idiot. That Alexandre had wanted her from the moment he saw her photograph on the hotel website. That he wanted her still. Ached with wanting her, in fact. No, Anastazia's behavior made it clear she didn't want to hear any of those things from him.

So he said nothing.

They arrived outside her apartment a few minutes later, Tomas parking the car before immediately getting out to come round to the back of the vehicle to open Anastazia's door for her so she could step out onto the pavement.

"Don't bother to get out." She didn't look directly at Alexandre as he would have slid across the seat to follow her. "Thank you for this evening. I-- No matter what you may think, I did enjoy myself." Her gaze was lowered to the pavement rather than him as she turned and walked away.

To hell with that!

Alexandre caught up with her as she was putting in the code to open the door and enter the building. He grasped her arm and swung her round to face him, his anger dissipating as she looked up at him with blue eyes swimming in tears. "Anastazia!" he groaned as he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly against him, his cheek resting on the top of her sweet-smelling hair.

Stazzi's arms moved about Alexandre's waist, her cheek pressed against his chest as her tears now dampened the front of his shirt. "Please don't be angry with me."

He snorted. "You do know that your ex-boyfriend is an idiot, don't you?" He couldn't hold back on that comment any longer.

She laughed without humor. "I do, yes."

"Good." Alexandre held her tighter still. "I'm not asking this time, Anastazia, I'm telling you. We're having dinner together tomorrow evening at seven o'clock in my hotel suite."

She lifted her head to look up at him quizzically. "Oh, we are, are we?"

"Yes." He returned her gaze challengingly. "Dress casual. We'll order room service, burgers maybe, and then we'll watch a movie together of your choosing. Okay?"

Her smile was less strained. "Okay."

"And if Daniel Meyers wants to know what you're doing in my suite, you can tell him I want to discuss the arrangements for the rest of the week." He dismissed that problem.

She eyed him teasingly. "What arrangements would they be?"

"I haven't decided yet," he announced arrogantly. "But you can rest assured they all involve the two of us getting to know each other better."

"Okay," she said again.

"Okay?"

"Yes."

"That's all it took to get you to agree?" His brows rose. "A little bit of arrogance on my part?"

"Well, it was hardly little, and you are a prince..."

He winced. "Don't remind me."

She laughed softly. "Not as glamorous as it sounds?"

"Not glamorous at all." He sighed with a pointed look at the bodyguards who had left the limousine and black SUV and were now standing only feet away in a protective circle, not quite in listening distance but close enough to make their presence felt. "No privacy either."

Anastazia glanced at the other men too. "I see what you mean. Okay, burgers from room service and a movie tomorrow evening it is."

"Thank you."

She eyed him mischievously. "You don't know what movie I'm going to choose yet!"

"It doesn't matter. I'm not going to be watching the movie anyway," he confided huskily.

He was going to be watching her, Stazzi realized. At the same time as she realized she didn't mind.

Those few minutes of tension between them a few minutes ago, when she was sure Alexandre didn't want to see her again, had at least shown her that she did want to see and be with him again.

And it had nothing at all to do with being on the rebound from Will...
Chapter 7

"What do you really know about this woman?" Gerard frowned his disapproval the following morning after Alexandre had instructed him over breakfast to cancel any and all of his engagements for this evening. When pressed, he had confided he would be spending that time with Anastazia. "She could be a fortune hunter. Possibly sleeping with the billionaire prince so that she can sell her story to the media. Or--"

"Don't, Gerard." Alexandre's voice was quiet, but that in no way lessened the icy anger he felt at his cousin's comments.

"But--"

"I said don't," he repeated.

Gerard scowled. "You're the ruler of Androcco now and can no longer behave like a playboy prince--"

"I can behave any fucking way I choose." Alexandre's hands were clenched on his thighs beneath the table, his eyes narrowed in warning.

"I'll do a background check--"

"You'll do nothing of the sort!" Alexandre exploded forcefully. "Leave her out of your fucking paranoia, okay? I mean it, Gerard. She's beautiful, funny, and I like being with her, and that's all either of us needs to know about her."

"But--"

"Go, Gerard, before I lose my temper." Alexandre stood up to walk over and stare unseeing out of one of the floor-to-ceiling windows, hands thrust into the pockets of his tailored trousers. "And, Gerard," he said without turning to look at the other man, "don't even attempt to check into Anastazia behind my back, and then claim it was in the name of security."

Alexandre waited until he heard the door close softly behind his cousin before relaxing the tension from his shoulders.

He knew Gerard meant well, but when it came to Anastazia, he didn't want any interference from his cousin. She was already proving elusive enough, without any help from Gerard in pushing her away.

"Don't even ask!" Lissa muttered as she let herself into the apartment the following morning as Stazzi was leaving to go to work.

Her brows rose. "No?"

"No." Lissa's eyes flashed in warning.

"Ash an asshole again?"

"Oh yeah, majorly so," her friend muttered with feeling. "I don't know how I got the impression he could ever be anything else." She gave a self-disgusted shake of her head. "How was the rest of your evening?"

"It was good." She didn't quite meet Lissa's gaze. "I'll...probably be back late tonight. I have another date with Alexandre," she revealed with a wince, carrying a bag with her change of clothes for this evening. There was very little point in her coming home if she was meeting up with Alexandre and having dinner with him at seven o'clock.

Lissa was trying her best to appear composed, but Stazzi knew her friend well enough to know that she was hurting. She also knew Lissa must have really liked Asher Knight to have spent the night with him. Pity that liking had been misguided.

"Have a lovely evening." Lissa gave her a quick hug. "I have to shower and change now and then get to work."

Stazzi paused in the open doorway. "But you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine." Lissa brightened. "Into every woman's life an asshole must fall," she misquoted wryly.

Stazzi chuckled as she knew she was meant to, but it didn't stop her from worrying about Lissa on and off for the rest of the day, and telephoning a couple of times to check on her friend. Or feeling slightly angry with Asher Knight for hurting her. Perhaps a misplaced anger considering he had made no attempt to give the impression he was anything other than what he was. A selfish asshole. Taking into account Will's behavior, there seemed to be a lot of those about at the moment.

Stazzi saw nothing of Alexandre as she went about her business for the rest of the day. According to Adrian, the prince had informed him he would be out at business meetings all day.

Consequently, she was more than a little nervous when she arrived as a visitor to the penthouse suite at exactly seven o'clock.

Her eyes widened when the lift arrived and she found Alexandre standing outside in the hallway waiting for her, looking totally relaxed in well-worn denims and a black short-sleeved polo shirt that showed off the bulge of muscles in his shoulders, arms, and chest. His hair looked damp from a shower, his jaw freshly shaved.

"You look nice," he greeted huskily as he bent to kiss her lightly on the cheek.

Stazzi had changed out of her work clothes and was now dressed as casually as he was, wearing a midnight-blue T-shirt and black low-rider jeans. "Thank you. So do you," she returned just as huskily.

"We're both very formal all of a sudden." He grinned. "Let's order dinner, and then we can choose a film from the hotel--"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Alexandre, but I need your signature on these letters tonight so they can be sent to the appropriate people."

Stazzi turned to look down the hallway at Gerard St Sebastien as he walked toward them carrying a folder. Only to recoil slightly as she saw the venom in his eyes as his gaze flickered over her contemptuously from her booted feet to her recently brushed hair.

"I'm sure you appreciate how precious Prince Alexandre's time is, Miss Carmichael," he added with cold dismissal.

What Stazzi _appreciated_ was that this man didn't like her one little bit. Which wasn't a problem for her, because she didn't particularly like him either. There was something about Gerard St Sebastien that was distinctly unpleasant.

"They can wait until the morning, Gerard." Alexandre's response to his cousin was harsh, even as he maintained a firm hold on Stazzi's arm. "Nothing will go off in the post until then anyway."

"I need to discuss the Thomson Enterprises letter with you before--"

"I said we'll discuss it in the morning, Gerard," Alexandre bit out through gritted teeth, knowing it wasn't the only thing he and his cousin were going to discuss in the morning. "Now, if you will excuse us? Anastazia and I were about to order dinner." He turned his back on the other man as his hold on Anastazia allowed him to take her with him into the sitting room before closing the door firmly behind them.

She winced. "Your cousin doesn't approve of me."

"My cousin doesn't approve of anyone," he dismissed lightly.

"Not even you?"

"Most especially me," Alexandre acknowledged ruefully.

"Why not?"

"I'm not nearly a formal enough ruler for Androcco for Gerard's liking."

"I'm sure you are when you need to be."

"But tonight I don't need to be." He released her to pick up the room service menu. "Shall we order dinner?"

Stazzi felt less as if she were dining with a prince as they argued over whether or not they should drink beer or wine with their burgers and NY cheesecake. They both settled for beer with the burgers and wine with the cheesecake. After which the two of them talked about their families and growing up.

Stazzi spoke lovingly of her parents but left out the part about her father being an impoverished duke. It wasn't important, and she had learned her lesson from Will's reaction regarding her father's title but lack of wealth. The fact that she worked as a manager at this hotel was indicative of her family's finances.

Alexandre talked as affectionately of his own childhood, as well as the loss of his mother when he was a teenager and the sadness of his father's death two years ago.

"My British public school life doesn't sound half as much fun as yours and Lissa's," he drawled as he relaxed back in his chair opposite where Stazzi sat on the sofa. Their meal was over, and they had pushed the room service trolley out into the hallway.

"I thought you said you and Asher met at school...?"

"We did. Unfortunately, Gerard always attended the same schools and university as me too."

Stazzi almost choked on her beer as she gave a splutter of laughter, taking a few seconds to mop up before answering him. "Buzzkill?"

Alexandre shrugged. "He was always far too conscientious in regard to our family's position in life. He would have made a far better heir than me," he added wistfully.

Their position in life being the House of St Sebastien, the ruling family of the principality of Androcco. "He's older than you, right?"

"By one year. But my father was the eldest brother and Uncle Frederic the spare."

"Does that really still apply? An heir and a spare?" she explained as Alexandre looked at her questioningly.

"Oh yes." He sighed. "You would be surprised at the amount of rules and pomp still attached to royalty, even a minor principality such as my own."

She wouldn't, actually. She was occasionally called upon to do her duty as Lady Anastazia Carmichael, daughter of the Duke of Warminster, and appear at a Royal Garden Party or some other formal occasion. Not too often, thank goodness.

"What happened last night with Ash and your friend Lissa?"

She glanced across at Alexandre. "You haven't spoken to Ash today?"

"Oh, I've spoken to him." Alexandre sat forward to top up their wineglasses. "Ash isn't saying anything."

Well, that was something. At least Asher didn't appear to be the type of man who would totally humiliate Lissa by discussing his conquests with other men.

Stazzi grimaced. "Lissa doesn't want to talk about it or him."

He frowned. "I'm sorry."

"It isn't your fault."

"But I introduced the two of them."

"And Lissa would be the first one to tell you she's a big girl now and quite capable of making her own mistakes without help from anyone else." In fact, that was exactly what Lissa had told Stazzi during their last telephone call just after six o'clock this evening.

"It went that well, hm?"

"I believe so, yes. Now, which film are we going to watch?" She deliberately changed the subject. Lissa might take responsibility for her mistakes, but Stazzi wasn't about to discuss this one with a third party. Even Alexandre. Maybe especially with Alexandre, as he was such a close friend of Ash's.

The change of subject led to another heated discussion regarding the merits of the newest superhero film or a comedy. Stazzi won, removing her boots before she and Alexandre sat together on one of the sofas in front of the television, the lights turned down as they watched the superheroes once again save the day.

"You just wanted to look at that guy's abs," Alexandre commented dryly once the credits were rolling.

"And?"

"And nothing." He chuckled at Anastazia's expression of "duh."

"There was humor in it too," she defended. "I distinctly heard you laugh a few times."

She had, yes, but that was mainly because Alexandre was totally relaxed in her company, and he had also enjoyed sitting back and watching her enjoyment of the movie. He had a private cinema in the palace in Androcco, could watch any film he wanted whenever he wanted, but this, here and now with Anastazia, was the most fun he'd had in... Well, in two years, to be exact.

She was also far more relaxed in his company this evening.

"Can I kiss you?"

Stazzi instantly tensed. Not because she didn't want Alexandre to kiss her. But because she did. Even more so after spending such a relaxed evening with him. She really wasn't sure it was a good idea to have him kiss her too.

_And who decided that everything I do has to be a good idea?_

She _liked_ Alexandre. Maybe a little more than liked him after spending such an easygoing evening with him. But as long as she didn't allow herself to get too carried away with the moment, where was the harm in a kiss? Or two? Alexandre had kissed her good night outside her apartment building last night before he left, and it hadn't turned her into the wanton she had become in the back of the limousine.

Maybe that was because of all those bodyguards standing only feet away? Bodyguards that were nowhere near this evening...

She dismissed those warnings as she turned toward him. "Yes. Please."
Chapter 8

Alexandre's breath caught in his throat as he shifted along the sofa until he sat close enough to Anastazia to place his hands against her cheeks. He lifted her face up to his before he lowered his head and claimed her lips with his own.

He loved Anastazia's mouth. The parted softness of her lips and the promise of heat beneath. The way she now responded almost shyly, despite the intimacies they had shared the previous evening in the back of the limousine. He could spend hours just kissing her, sipping, tasting, exploring, as he learned every warm contour and nuance of her lips and mouth.

Stazzi wondered why she'd ever thought indulging herself with one kiss--or two--would ever be enough to satisfy the craving she now felt for more. So much more, as her hands rested on the broad width of Alexandre's muscular shoulders, loving the feel of the shift of those muscles beneath her fingers as Alexandre's arms moved about her waist and he scooped her up to sit her across the hardness of his thighs.

Her lips parted against the onslaught of his marauding tongue, hands moving instinctively to allow her fingers to become entangled in the hair at his nape. She groaned softly, nipples tightening, a burning ache at the apex of her thighs as the kiss became wild and heated and Alexandre laid claim to every part of her mouth. In the same way the hot throb of his arousal beneath her thigh said he wanted to claim all of her.

She had no idea how long the increasing wildness of those kisses lasted--minutes, hours, _days_ --the room filled with the sound of their hungry groans as their hands roamed and caressed with increasing desperation. One of Alexandre's hands cupped and squeezed her aching breast before moving lower, and that hand parted her denim-clad thighs. He pressed and stroked her swollen clit until she began to gasp and arch into the sureness of those strokes.

The ever-increasing swell of Alexandre's arousal told her that his need was as urgent as her own. More so, probably, because she had selfishly taken last night, with no return to Alexandre for the pleasure he had given her, not once but twice.

"What--" Alexandre's protest when Anastazia broke the kiss died in his throat, his heart beating loudly as the stormy blue of her gaze held his captive and she slid down to the carpeted floor to kneel between his thighs.

"Anastazia...?" He barely breathed as her fingers moved to unfasten the top of his denims before sliding the zip down, lifting up slightly to help her as she tugged his denims and boxers down to his thighs, allowing his cock to spring free of its confinement.

"God, you're beautiful..." Anastazia's fingers gripped and then stroked the length of him, her gaze becoming both hot and hungry as a bead of precum escaped the slit at the top in response to those fingers grasping him tightly.

Alexandre groaned as the tip of her tongue appeared and slowly moistened her lips before she rose up on her knees and that tongue flicked out to gather up the bead of precum, only for it to be followed by another, and then another, all licked up greedily by that hot and rasping tongue.

"Mm, you taste delicious," Anastazia murmured appreciatively before parting her lips and slowly feeding his cock an inch at a time into the heat of her mouth.

_Fuuuck!_

Alexandre almost lost it completely as she sucked his cock to the back of her throat and her fingers gripped him tightly. It felt so fucking good. Indescribably amazing. Heaven and hell at the same time, and so much more intense than pleasure given in a dream or by his own hand. Alexandre felt his balls tighten at that overload of pleasure after months, years, of grieving for his father or being too busy ruling Androcco to so much as look at a woman with sexual interest, let alone do anything about it.

Until Anastazia.

Alexandre groaned as he sank farther down on the sofa, becoming boneless and totally unable to stop watching Anastazia through narrowed lids as she set up a sensual and heated rhythm of pleasure. Her lips were wrapped tightly about his cock as she took him to the back of her throat, and then that wicked tongue would lick along his length as she slowly pulled back, before concentrating that silky hot tongue on the sensitive knot of nerves just below the bulbous tip.

And each time she did, his balls drew up tighter and his self-control slipped a little further out of his grasp. He needed to stop this. Had to stop this.

_But it feels sooo good. Too good to stop. I --_

"Oh fuck!" Alexandre sat forward abruptly to grasp Anastazia's shoulders as she cupped his balls in her hand and one finger pressed against another knot of nerves beneath them. "You have to stop," he gasped, fingers gripping tighter in an effort to stop himself from coming. "Anastazia, if you don't stop, I'm going to come!"

She lifted slightly, releasing him with a loud moist pop. "Then come..." Her breath was warm against the dampness of his flesh before the heat of her mouth once again enveloped him.

Fuck, fuck, _fuck_! "For God's sake don't stop." He totally contradicted himself as she sucked his cock deeper still, followed by her tongue licking in that wicked rhythm as she slowly raised her head. She repeated the hot caress again and again, until Alexandre felt sure he would go insane from the pleasure. "God, Anastazia!" he cried out as he began to desperately stroke his cock into that moist furnace.

He thrust again and again, and it was pleasure such as Alexandre had never felt before. Because it was Anastazia? He had no time to think about why as, mere seconds later, his pleasure became so intense, he exploded and his cum pumped out of him in thick and molten, seemingly never-ending jets, to be swallowed down by Anastazia's hot and greedy mouth.

Their ragged breathing filled the air in the aftermath of Alexandre's sexual explosion.

He fell back against the sofa, groaning at the release of one last painful shuddering pulse of cum from the visual pleasure of his still-hard cock held captive in Anastazia's mouth.

_Well, this is awkward_ , Stazzi realized self-consciously, lashes lowered as she slowly raised her head, releasing Alexandre from her mouth to place her hands on her jean-clad thighs. She sat back on her haunches. Her eyes flickered up and then quickly down again as she heard Alexandre's groan and realized it was in response to the sweeping of her tongue across her lips as she licked up and relished the taste of the last of his release.

She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and then released it again when she saw the heat of Alexandre's gaze as he watched her. Because she was doing that "chewing your bottom lip" thing again.

"Alexandre, I-- What are you doing?" Her eyes widened as he straightened his clothes before leaning forward to scoop her up in his arms. Her arms moved quickly about his shoulders when he stood up and strode across the room towards the closed door. "Where are we going?"

"Bedroom. Open the door, please," he instructed gruffly.

"But--"

Alexandre didn't ask her a second time, bending slightly at the knees so that he could open the door with the hand he had beneath her thighs, before stepping out into the hallway.

Stazzi felt the warmth enter her cheeks when she saw the bodyguard on duty outside, his eyes widening briefly before he quickly averted his gaze.

Alexandre didn't so much as glance at the other man but set off down the hallway in the direction of the bedrooms. Because he was used to living in that goldfish bowl? So much so, he probably hadn't even noticed the other man. But Stazzi noticed him as he had noticed her, and she knew he must be drawing his own conclusions about where the two of them were going and what they were going to do once they got there.

Was this what she wanted?

She had so enjoyed giving Alexandre pleasure. Had felt empowered when he lost complete control and came in her mouth. She could still taste him there, salt and sweet at the same time, with an added dash of spice. Utterly delicious.

_Oh, to hell with it --yes, Alexandre is exactly what I want._

Not on the rebound from Will, as she had suspected last night, but because she wanted Alexandre. This Alexandre. The man she had spent this evening with. Dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt, his hair tousled from her caressing fingers, those green eyes dark with passion as he glanced down at her.

Stazzi relaxed and smiled at him, then settled more comfortably in his arms, her own arms tightening about his shoulders. He entered a darkened bedroom and kicked the door shut behind them, the room lit only by the light of the moon shining in through the windows.

She kept her arms about Alexandre's neck while he laid her down on top of the bed, parting her thighs to welcome him as she pulled him down on top of her.

Alexandre felt his cock engorge and swell again when he settled between the heat of Anastazia's thighs, his weight on his elbows while he looked down at her. "I want to make love to you."

"I think I already know that," she teased.

"All of you."

"Yes."

His heartbeat sped up. "Yes?"

"Yes," she confirmed breathlessly.

His gaze roamed over Anastazia's face, searching for any sign of uncertainty on her part. Her eyes looked back, shining and assured, a slight smile curving those delicious lips. "God, Anastazia..." He buried his face in the thickness of her hair, breathing in deeply. Breathing _her_ in deeply. The lemon smell of her hair, the floral and spice of her, and the hot and heady perfume of her arousal.

Removing her clothes, one item at a time, was like unwrapping a Christmas or birthday present, each layer taking him closer to the holy grail that was Anastazia. First her top, then her bra--God, her breasts were perfect. Small and yet full, and tipped with dark, engorged nipples that he enjoyed with his lips and tongue before releasing them so that he could move lower and deal with the fastening to her jeans. He slid those denims down her thighs, along with her lace panties, revealing dark curls at the apex before removing the clothing completely, along with her socks.

Alexandre sat back on his haunches to gaze at Anastazia's nakedness. Her hair was a glossy black tumble on the pillow behind her, the ivory skin of her naked body bathed in moonlight as it picked out all the perfect dips and hollows. "You're as beautiful as I imagined you would be."

"For all of forty-eight hours?" she teased huskily.

His gaze flickered briefly up to her face. "I saw your photograph long before that."

"Photograph?" She frowned.

He nodded. "The Meyers Hotel has a website. You're on it. I saw you, and I wanted you."

"You saw my photograph and wanted me...?"

He winced. "Too stalkerish for you?"

"No. No, not at all," Stazzi assured him wonderingly. It somehow made...this, whatever this was, less...tenuous, to know that Alexandre had wanted her before he even met her. It also made her feel warm inside to know he hadn't come on to her because she conveniently happened to be here, and that his attraction was specific to her.

_Because Alexandre saw my photograph and wanted me._

How much of an ego boost was that, to know that Prince Alexandre St Sebastien of Androcco, once the playboy prince of the West, had seen her photograph and wanted _her_?

She held her arms up invitingly. "Come here."

He held her gaze as he reached for the bottom of his T-shirt and pulled it up over his head, tousling his hair even more and giving him a distinctly rakish appearance as he once again settled his denim-clad thighs between hers and then aligned the hard warmth of his naked chest against her breasts. "I want to savor every inch of you." His breath was warm against her skin as his lips explored her throat. "Kiss, touch, and caress all of you, until not an inch of you remains hidden from me."

"Yes."

"Not one inch, Anastazia. I will know all of you," he warned darkly. "Claim and possess all of you."

Stazzi gave an anticipatory shiver. "Take off the rest of your clothes, Alexandre."

His mouth quirked even as he moved to sit on the side of the bed before standing to finish undressing. "I like that you're as demanding a lover as I am."

She wasn't. Not usually. She was being so now because Alexandre allowed her to be. She had always reined in the depth of her passion with men in the past. Especially with Will, because he didn't like a woman to be in the least demanding in bed, claimed it was unladylike-- Oh, fuck Will and what he did or didn't like. If Alexandre, ruler of his own principality, didn't feel threatened by the depth of her passion or her demands, then she was finally free to be her completely uninhibited and demanding self.

Alexandre's cock gave a welcoming surge as Anastazia moved up onto all fours, her gaze holding his as she prowled across the bed toward where he stood, the glossy fall of her hair shielding most of her nakedness. Which didn't hinder him appreciating the slender length of her back or the perfect roundness of her bottom.

"Not this time." He stepped aside as she would have reached for his cock. "The next time I come, I'm going to be inside you," he promised as he gently nudged her over onto her back before sitting down on the bed beside her. "Deep inside you." He straightened his arm to lean his hand on the bed as his other hand moved to cup her mound, palm pressed against her erect clit even as his fingers parted her swollen folds and he pushed two of them inside her slick heat.

Anastazia gave a low groan and her eyelids fluttered closed, her legs parting to allow him deeper access.

"Look at me. No, not here, down there," he instructed as Anastazia's gaze went to his face before lowering to where he had his hand between her thighs, his fingers glistening with her juices as he removed them fully between each thrust. "You're so hot and wet here, Anastazia." He pressed harder against her throbbing clit as his thrusts became faster. All the time his gaze remained fixed on her face, flushed now, lips slightly parted, her dilated pupils making her eyes appear almost black. "You like this."

"Yes..."

He sat up to allow his other hand to squeeze and roll one of her nipples between his fingers and thumb. "You like that even more," he said with satisfaction. Her back arched into the caress while her thighs met the thrust of his fingers. "Answer me." His voice cracked like a whip in the silence of the bedroom.

"Yes. Oh God, yes, I like that," she groaned.

"How much?" He squeezed the nipple harder, fingers pumping faster between her thighs.

"Very much."

"No, don't touch me," he ordered as she would have reach up to him. "Keep both your hands on the bed."

"Oh God...!" Her head began to toss from side to side when he moved his hand to her other nipple and squeezed even harder, almost but not quite to the point of pain.

Alexandre felt the walls of her vagina contracting and gripping his fingers, telling him that she was close, so very close to an orgasm. His fingers curled up inside her, seeking and stroking along that sensitive knot of nerves, time and time again, causing her hot juices to flow copiously over his fingers until she gave a gasp, eyes widening as he gave a twist on her nipple at the exact moment the pulsing gripping and relaxing of the walls of her channel signaled the beginning of her orgasm.

He watched her with hungry eyes as he prolonged and intensified that climax, never allowing Anastazia to quite come down from it before he launched her into another one. Pinching and squeezing her nipples in turn while he continued to stroke the knot of nerves inside her with each deep thrust of his fingers.

"No more, Alexandre," she finally sobbed, eyes closed, hands at her sides tightly gripping the bedclothes beneath her. "Please..."

Every part of her was oversensitive now. The hard pebbles of her nipples as his fingers brushed against them. Erect and pulsing clit as his fingers captured and squeezed. The slick and swollen lips of her channel. That raw bunch of nerves inside her.

Which was exactly how Alexandre wanted her.

"I'm going inside you now." He moved onto his knees to take a condom from the drawer beside his bed, ripping the packet open and putting it on before kneeling between her thighs, taking his weight on his arms before he entered her in one sure, smooth, deep thrust.

The slickness of her juices and her relaxed muscles allowed him to arch his hips forward so that she took all of him to the hilt, his balls instantly becoming wet from those juices and slapping against her as he thrust. Her hands moved to grasp the muscular cheeks of his ass to give her leverage while she arched up to meet each fierce and measured stroke.

Alexandre gritted his teeth and continued to ride her through her next climax, and the next, reveling in her gasps of pleasure and the heat of her channel as it gripped him in ever tightening, pulsing waves. The need to come became overwhelming--

"Come for me now, Alexandre!" Her fingers squeezed the globes of his ass, nails raking and digging into his flesh and sending him hurtling over the edge into the intensity of his own climax and taking her with him.

Stazzi felt completely disorientated when she woke in the darkened, unfamiliar room. Well...it wasn't completely unfamiliar, she acknowledged ruefully. She worked here five days a week, after all, which meant she knew the bedrooms in the penthouse apartment at the Meyers Hotel intimately. She had just never woken up in the bed of one of them before.

The realization that was where she was, along with the body lying next to her, reminded her exactly _why_ she was waking up in this particular bed next to Alexandre St Sebastien.

They had slept for a short while after that first time of making love, before waking and making love again. Her body now felt not only satiated but well used, and she ached in parts that had never ached before. A pleasurable ache that reminded her of all the many ways Alexandre had made love to her.

Stazzi rolled over onto her back and stretched those aching muscles. She hadn't meant to stay on, but Alexandre had taken her into his arms again and pulled the bedclothes over them both once he returned from disposing of the second condom in the bathroom. Alexandre's warmth had been irresistible as she curled into him, and she had felt too satiated to even attempt to move. She must have drifted off to sleep again in Alexandre's arms.

Thank goodness she had woken up at... A glance at the illuminated digital clock on the bedside table told her it was two o'clock in the morning. She still had time to get dressed, climb into a cab, and go home to her apartment and sleep for the rest of the night. Toe-curling sex was one thing, but she couldn't still be here in the morning. And Alexandre might not appreciate waking up and finding her in bed beside him either.

Talking of which...

She rolled over to indulge herself with a last ogle of the man himself before she had to leave. Alexandre was lying on his side facing her. His hair was tousled over his brow, face relaxed in sleep, and so incredibly handsome. Still naked, his shoulders were wide, with a light dusting of dark hair on that muscular chest--

What the hell...?

The smile faded from Stazzi face to be replaced by a frown as she realized that beautifully defined chest was barely rising and falling.

She sat up quickly to place a hand against where she knew his heart to be, and realized not only was Alexandre's breathing so shallow as to be almost undetected, but his heartbeat was only a faint irregular murmur against the palm of her hand too.

Alexandre was dying in front of her eyes!
Chapter 9

Stazzi was sobbing in panic as she quickly scrabbled to the side of the bed to switch on the bedside lamp so she could take a closer look at Alexandre. His face was deathly pale, and there was even a blueness starting to appear beside his mouth, his breath becoming a shallow, painful rasp in his throat.

Oh my God, Alexandre really was dying.

How could Alexandre be dying? Why was he? What could possibly have caused such a reaction in a man only in his midthirties, who had certainly been healthy enough just a few hours ago to make love to her--

_Reaction_.

Alexandre was showing all the signs of an allergic reaction, and both Gerard and Alexandre had told her he couldn't tolerate shellfish.

Okay so they hadn't _eaten_ any fish at dinner, but what else could this be?

Stazzi was crying in earnest as she began to rifle through Alexandre's clothing scattered about the bedroom floor, searching for the epinephrine pump she knew most if not all people affected by such a severe allergy always carried with them.

Nothing.

She sat back on her haunches, panicked gaze flicking everywhere as she searched the surfaces of the room for the medication, so very aware of the time passing. Alexandre's bodyguards. One of them was sure to be outside in the hallway, and he would know what to do--

There. On the dressing table.

Stazzi had only ever seen this reaction once before in her life, in the hotel restaurant, as it happened. But she remembered what had to be done as she grabbed the epinephrine and hurried back to the bedside, placing the pump against Alexandre's neck and pressing the button to inject the medication. As far as she could remember, the recovery had been almost instantaneous.

As it was with Alexandre. His face was becoming less pale, the blueness disappearing from his lips as he began to breathe more easily.

He gave a groan as he rolled over onto his side, eyes flickering beneath his eyelids for several seconds before he opened them and looked up at her. "Anastazia...?"

Stazzi didn't answer him as she dropped the pump onto the bed. She hurried across the room to grab and put on a robe from the bathroom before throwing open the door. As she'd thought, a bodyguard was standing out in the hallway. "Prince Alexandre has suffered an allergic reaction. You need to--" She didn't get any further as the man pushed her aside and ran into the bedroom, all while talking into the radio attached to his lapel.

What happened next was a blur of activity as several more bodyguards rushed into the bedroom, followed a few minutes later by a fully dressed Gerard St Sebastien. The latter flicked Stazzi a censorious and damning glance as she sat unmoving and numbed in a chair beside one of the long windows before he hurried to his cousin's bedside.

Stazzi might have been invisible as the bedroom filled with yet more people over the next few minutes. A doctor, followed by two ambulance attendants, who bundled Alexandre, naked and still slightly groggy, onto a mobile stretcher before almost running out of the room with him strapped to it and down the hallway to the lift. All the bodyguards and Gerard St Sebastien accompanied them.

Leaving Stazzi sitting alone, still wearing only the hotel bathrobe, in a now-empty bedroom that only seconds ago had been filled with people. The bedroom where she and Alexandre had made love so wildly only hours ago.

Oh God, he had so nearly died. If she hadn't woken up when she did...

She gave a choked sob as the tears fell softly down her cheeks. "Thank you for saving Alexandre's life," she murmured shakily. "You're welcome," she answered herself, knowing that self-pity was ridiculous in the circumstances, but too shaken still to be able to rationalize anything past the fact that Alexandre might have died if she hadn't awoken when she did.

If that really was an allergic reaction to shellfish, then Stazzi had no idea how he could have ingested it. They had both eaten burgers for dinner, and the kitchen staff knew to be extra careful about any of the food they prepared for the prince. And yet all of Alexandre's symptoms, and the fact he had recovered after being injected with the epinephrine, pointed to that having been the reason he had almost died.

Stazzi had no idea how long she remained seated in the bedroom, still too shocked to be able to move.

Certainly long enough for Daniel Meyers to arrive and find her sitting alone and dressed only in a robe in Prince Alexandre of Androcco's hotel bedroom.

"Daniel Meyers totally overreacted." Lissa angrily paced the sitting room in their apartment, having delayed leaving for work once Stazzi told her what had happened. "You _saved_ Alexandre's life, for goodness' sake."

Yes, Stazzi had done that. But she had still been suspended and sent home until Daniel had carried out an investigation. He wanted to know exactly how and why Prince Alexandre had suffered an allergic reaction and had to be rushed to a private clinic for treatment. The reproach in Daniel's eyes also said that he would then have to make a decision regarding Stazzi having obviously spent the night with the prince.

"It's almost as if he thinks you're responsible for Alexandre becoming ill." Lissa gave a disgusted shake of her head.

"Maybe I am." She shrugged. "He has an allergy to shellfish, so maybe he's now developed an allergy to my perfume too. Or my body lotion. Who knows why it happened? The important thing is that Alexandre is hopefully going to be okay."

The _worst_ thing was Stazzi had no way of knowing whether he was or not. Her suspension meant she was no longer in the loop to be able to know the health of one of the hotel guests, and she had no idea what clinic Alexandre had been taken to. She doubted they would give any information out about one of their patients even if she did. And Alexandre was in no condition to let her know how he was.

"Well...yes," Lissa conceded grudgingly. "But a lot of thanks you got for that."

"I don't need thanks." Stazzi grimaced, still nursing the mug of coffee Lissa had made for her when she came out of her bedroom ready for work and realized Stazzi was sitting in the darkness of the sitting room, still dressed in the clothes she had been wearing when she went out the previous evening. "I just need to know he's okay, and I doubt Daniel Meyers is in any mood to tell me." She frowned.

Lissa sighed. "I could always ask the asshole...? I'm sure Ash would be able to find out how Alexandre is."

"Asher!" Stazzi brightened. Why hadn't she thought of that? Because she was too upset and sleep deprived to be able to think straight, that was why. "No, I'll give Knight Security a call, Lissa," she reassured her, knowing by her friend's relieved expression exactly how much Lissa would have hated having to talk to Asher Knight again. But she would have done it for Stazzi. "Directory Enquiries are sure to have the number listed."

"Under asshole?"

Stazzi was totally aware Lissa was trying to alleviate some of her tension with humor, and she loved her friend for it, but she was far too upset about Alexandre to respond.

Directory Enquiries did have a telephone number listed for Knight Security, and even though it was still early, Stazzi immediately called it, only to be told by the woman who answered that Mr. Asher Knight wouldn't be in the office today. Stazzi's enquiry as to when he would be had been answered with the woman assuring her someone else in the company would be happy to assist her if she would like to make an appointment. Stazzi had politely declined, but left a message she had called and her telephone number, so that Asher could return the call the next time he was in the office.

"Would you like me to stay home with you today?" Lissa voiced her continuing concern.

"No." Stazzi gave a rueful smile. "No point in both of us being miserable."

"Misery loves company."

"Not me," she assured her friend firmly. "You're already late to work as it is. Don't worry about me. I'll spend the day cleaning the apartment." It didn't particularly need cleaning, and she doubted it would stop her thinking about Alexandre, but she needed to keep herself busy.

"How did last night go?" Lissa continued to hover. "Apart from the Alexandre-almost-dying-next-to-you-in-bed thing, of course," she added with a wince.

Stazzi gave a rueful smile. "Apart from that, it was wonderful. Just an ordinary date. Dinner and watching a movie together."

"And mind-blowing sex."

"Well...yes, that too." Her cheeks warmed self-consciously.

"Look, I'm sure that Alexandre will contact you himself once he's able to." Lissa brightened. "I have an aunt who has allergies, and it doesn't take long for them to recover once they've received their medication. Alexandre will probably be back at the hotel later today."

"He's a prince, Lissa. I'm sure they'll want to keep him in for observation at least until tomorrow." By which time, Stazzi would be climbing the walls in her anxiety to know if he was okay.

She waited until Lissa had reluctantly left for work before allowing herself to wallow in thoughts of Alexandre. Last night had been...amazing. Not just the sex, but the whole evening. She had felt totally relaxed in Alexandre's company as they ate dinner and then watched a movie together, and she knew he had felt the same way. The amazing sex had been a natural progression from feeling so at ease with each other.

Stazzi felt a sense of unease the more she thought about last night.

Alexandre had been fine when they made love the first time, and then again when they both woke an hour or so later. If his allergic reaction had been to something he ate, surely it would have affected him much earlier than it had? Unless it really was her perfume or body lotion?

Or maybe something about this situation was just off...?

"What do you mean, you have no idea what happened to Anastazia?" Alexandre demanded of his cousin as he quickly dressed in the tailored trousers and formal shirt brought to him in the clinic from the hotel by one of his bodyguards earlier that same evening.

"You're supposed to stay in the clinic overnight--"

"Fuck that," he dismissed as he sat up on the bed after putting on his shoes. "Where is Anastazia now?"

Gerard glared. "Who gives a damn what happened to the little whore who shared your bed-- What the hell are you doing?" He gasped as Alexandre stood abruptly to grab him by the throat and push him up against the wall. Hard.

Alexandre's face was only inches from his cousin's. " _I_ give a damn. And don't ever talk about Anastazia in that derogatory way again." His voice was dangerously soft. "Do you understand?" His fingers tightened in warning about the other man's throat.

"Yes, I understand. I can't breathe, damn it." Gerard tried to dislodge his fingers. Without success.

Alexandre gave one last warning squeeze before releasing him and then stepped away from the other man. "Give me your mobile."

"What?"

"Bruno omitted to bring my mobile from the hotel, I want yours so I can call and check on Anastazia." His hands tensed at his sides before he forced them to relax again, his frustration with this situation such that he was only just restraining himself from grabbing Gerard and attempting to squeeze the life out of him for a second time.

Alexandre had been too out of it earlier this morning to do any more than try to breathe, but it was unforgiveable that his cousin had just left Anastazia alone in the bedroom at the hotel while Alexandre was rushed to the clinic. She must have been terrified when she woke up and found him unconscious in bed beside her, and then was left alone at the hotel in the aftermath.

Gerard's top lip curled back in a sneer. "Why bother? She spent her night with a prince--"

"Have you always been this much of an obnoxious prick, and I'm only just noticing it, or is this something new?" Alexandre kept his voice level, unemotional, in an effort to stop himself from actually murdering his own cousin. Now wouldn't that look wonderful in the headlines: _The Prince of Androcco Guilty of Murdering his Heir!_

"I'm being realistic, not obnoxious. This relationship is going nowhere, so why make such a fuss--"

"Give me the fucking mobile, Gerard. Now," he barked as his cousin merely continued to look exasperated.

Gerard reluctantly took the phone from the breast pocket of his jacket and handed it to him. "I wouldn't bother trying to reach her at the hotel."

Alexandre stilled with his finger poised over the buttons of the mobile. "Why not?"

His cousin shrugged. "Daniel Meyers called me to check on your condition while the doctors were examining you. He's set up an enquiry into what caused this. He also assured me that Miss Carmichael has been suspended, for misconduct with one of the guests. I'm presuming that's you--"

"And you let him do that?" Alexandre demanded incredulously.

"Of course." Gerard eyed him coldly.

Alexandre's teeth ground together. "The doctor said I would be dead if not for Anastazia's swift action in giving me the epinephrine."

"I'm aware of that. But--"

"There is no but to that sentence, Gerard," Alexandre grated. "The principality of Androcco should be giving her a fucking medal, not allowing her to be suspended from her job."

"I-- Where are you going?" His cousin stared as Alexandre threw the mobile down on the bed in disgust before striding across the room to fling open the door leading out into the corridor.

"Mind your own fucking business!"

"It's _your_ fucking that's going to create a scandal," Gerard snapped. "You can't go chasing after this woman like some infatuated schoolboy--"

"I am the ruling prince of Androcco." Alexandre turned to draw himself up to his full height of several inches over six feet. "As such, I will decide what I will or won't do. Do you understand?"

Gerard's eyes glittered with anger. "Fine. Go ahead. Make a fool of yourself, and Androcco, by chasing after some woman who no doubt makes a habit of sleeping with the guests-- Okay, okay, I've finished with the warnings as to the inadvisability of your actions." He held up yielding hands as Alexandre gave a low growl, the muscles bunched in his shoulders in preparation for launching himself across the room. "I completely wash my hands of the whole situation. But you can bet that the governing council of Androcco will have plenty to say about it."

"As, no doubt, you'll take great pleasure in reporting back to them."

"You leave me no choice when your actions are so detrimental to Androcco."

Alexandre gave his cousin one last narrow-eyed glare before turning back to the hallway. "Keep him away from me," he snarled at the bodyguard standing outside. "And instruct my driver to bring my car to the front of the clinic," he added as he strode off down the hallway.
Chapter 10

Stazzi forced her heavy lids to open as she was woken by the buzz of the internal telephone, rolling over with a tired groan before picking up the receiver from the top of the cabinet beside the bed. "Yes, Nigel?" she said to the security guard on duty on the desk in the lobby.

"You have a visitor." There was an awkward pause before Nigel's voice lowered conspiratorially. "He says he's Prince Alexandre of Androcco--"

"Send him up!" Stazzi cut in excitedly, her fingers tight about the receiver as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up, her heart racing. "Sorry, Nigel, could you send him up, please," she repeated in a calmer voice.

Alexandre was here. Downstairs. He had come to her apartment to see her.

Which instantly begged the question, shouldn't he still be at the clinic?

Oh, to hell with where Alexandre should or shouldn't be. He was a prince, he could do whatever the hell he pleased. At the moment, it pleased him to be downstairs asking to see her. And she was a mess, still hadn't changed out of the clothes she had been wearing the previous evening. After cleaning every inch of the apartment, she had been too exhausted to shower and change, and had instead just slipped off her boots before falling asleep on top of her bed.

As her apartment was only on the second floor of the building, it would take Alexandre just a couple of minutes to walk up the stairs, she only had time to stand up and run a hand through her tousled hair before the doorbell rang to announce his arrival.

Not that she cared how she looked. It was how Alexandre was that was important.

Her eyes widened and she took a step back after opening the door to find herself confronted with one of Alexandre's bodyguards rather than Alexandre himself.

The man did at least give her an apologetic smile. "I need to check your apartment before--"

"That won't be necessary, Christophe," Alexandre interrupted smoothly as he stepped around the other man, hair tousled from where he had run his fingers through it repeatedly on the way over here. "As Miss Carmichael saved my life last night, I believe we can safely assume she doesn't intend killing me today," he dismissed as he stepped into Anastazia's apartment to close the door behind him and lean back against it before taking his first good look at her.

She looked...tired. Hauntingly beautiful still, but totally exhausted, with that dark cloud of hair tangled about her deathly pale face, and dark shadows beneath her beautiful blue eyes. There was also a slight redness to her eyes, as if she had been crying.

"Shouldn't you still be in hospital?" She slipped into that endearing habit of chewing on her bottom lip.

"Come here." Alexandre reached out and took her in his arms. "I am so sorry this happened," he murmured against the softness of her hair, so very aware of the trembling of her body as she clung to him.

"It was hardly your fault--"

"It's all my fault," he insisted. "I came here straight from the clinic, but I used the phone in the car to call Daniel Meyers on the way over here to tell him I want you reinstated immediately."

She raised her head to look at him. "I was talking about your allergic reaction, not my suspension from my job."

That was so Anastazia, Alexandre acknowledged, to be concerned about him rather than herself. "It's happened before. There's no guarantee it won't happen again."

"But how did it happen this time?" She shook her head. "You were fine when we--when we went to bed. I don't understand how this could have happened."

Neither did Alexandre, but the germ of an idea had started to take root when he recovered at the clinic earlier. An idea that seemed too incredible to be true, and yet he could think of no other way in which he might have ingested the shellfish that had almost killed him during the night. He had Ash checking into the details right now, but wouldn't have any definite answers to his suspicions until Ash reported back to him later this evening.

"You could have died--"

"But I didn't, thanks to you." He lifted his head, hands moving to cradle her pale cheeks. "I am so sorry you were just left alone at the hotel, and then you had to face Daniel Meyers on your own too." His eyes narrowed. "Gerard should have handled that situation but chose not to."

"His priority was to ensure your health."

Alexandre could feel a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw. "That's no excuse for leaving you to face Daniel Meyers alone."

Anastazia gave a shudder. "I was so frightened." She swallowed, tears glistening in her eyes. "I really thought you were going to die, Alexandre."

"And now I'm here, and we're together again." He stepped back so that he could look at her. There was a little more color in her cheeks, but her eyes were still brimming with tears. "My mother always claimed a soak in a hot, scented bubble bath made her feel better when she was upset. Would you like that?"

She gave a teary smile. "Is that your polite way of telling me I look a mess and also need a wash?"

"I want to take care of you. Is your bathroom through here?" He kept an arm about her shoulders as he steered her down the hallway to what he hoped was the bathroom and bedrooms. "It is." He nodded his satisfaction as the first open door they came to led into the bathroom. "Sit here." He sat her on top of the closed laundry basket before moving to put the plug in the bath and turn on the taps to the correct temperature. He checked the bottles on the shelf above. "Roses or apple blossom?" He held up the two bottles.

"Apple blossom. But--"

"But me no buts," he teased much more gently than he had Gerard earlier, as he tipped some of the bubble bath into the rapidly filling bath. "It's getting dark, so I'll light the candles in here too." He found a box of matches in the medicine cabinet, then struck one and put the flame to the scented candles placed about the tiled room.

The tears fell unchecked down Stazzi's cheeks as she watched Prince Alexandre of Androcco fill a bubble bath and light scented candles for her. She fully appreciated the irony of it, considering her resentment just three days ago because Alexandre's early arrival meant she could no longer indulge in a scented bubble bath before meeting Will.

So much had happened in those three days. She had felt poleaxed when she finally met Alexandre. Then Will had hurt and betrayed her in the worst way possible. She had dined with Alexandre at the most exclusive restaurant in London. Last night, she had spent the evening at the hotel with him, eating burgers and watching a movie before the most amazing lovemaking of her life.

_And then Alexandre had almost died_.

There was something about a near-death experience that clarified exactly what was really important. And Alexandre had become very important to her in a very short time, and Will of almost nonexistent relevance in even less time. Her ex-boyfriend would never have run a scented bath and fussed over her because she was upset, and Alexandre was a ruling prince, for goodness' sake. She could have loved him just for that.

Loved him...?

Yes, Stazzi was sure, if she wasn't in love with Alexandre already, then she soon would be.

"Now to help you undress--Anastazia...?" Alexandre's expression turned to one of concern when he turned from switching off the main light and obviously saw the silver track of tears on her cheeks in the candlelight.

Stazzi smiled through her tears, determined to enjoy this time with Alexandre. He would be returning to Androcco soon, and there would be time enough to miss him after he was gone. "I'm just tired," she reassured him. "And a bit overwhelmed. Don't you usually have servants to do this for you at home?"

"Don't believe everything you hear about the life of a prince." He gave her a wink. "Besides, my father often ran a bath for my mother," he added seriously.

"That's nice."

He nodded. "They were very much in love."

And Alexandre's tone showed he still missed them both very much. "Well, the bath looks and smells wonderful." Stazzi wasn't about to make the mistake of thinking Alexandre was in love with her. They had shared one night together, and that had ended in disaster. Best not to read things into his actions or comments that simply weren't there.

She stood up to take off her T-shirt; there was little point in modesty when Alexandre had already seen, touched, caressed, and kissed every inch of her naked body.

"Let me." Alexandre stepped forward to gently push her hands aside and take off her top before reaching behind her to unfasten her bra, his close proximity bringing his face just inches away from Stazzi's. "Being together last night was..."

"It was," she agreed huskily.

"Anastazia--"

"My bathwater is getting cold," she reminded him, knowing she wasn't emotionally strong enough right now to discuss last night and what it had meant to her.

"Can I join you?"

She swallowed. Hard. Merely thinking of a naked Alexandre in the bath with her was enough to cause a quiver of anticipation down the length of her spine. "It's a small bath for two people."

"That will only make it more enjoyable," he assured her as he slipped her bra straps down her arms and dropped it to the floor along with her T-shirt, his fingers then moving to the fastening of her low-rider jeans.

Stazzi moistened her lips before answering. "Okay."

Alexandre gave a grin. "I like it when you say that."

She quirked one eyebrow. "Because it means I'm doing what you want?"

"Oh yes..." He kissed her lingeringly on the lips before concentrating on removing her jeans and panties. "But it works both ways. If you recall, I was more than happy to obey your commands last night...?"

Despite her earlier dismissal of modesty, Stazzi felt the warmth of a blush in her cheeks that owed nothing to once again being completely naked in front of Alexandre and everything to being reminded of how she had ordered him to come the previous evening.

Alexandre smiled. "I liked it when you were..."

"Aggressive?" She winced.

"Dominating," he corrected. "You're so beautiful." He bent to place a kiss in turn on each of her pebble-hard nipples. "Now, into the bath with you." He straightened to turn her in the direction of the bath. "You can sit and watch as I undress."

Stazzi didn't really need any incentive to climb into the hot, scented bubbles, but if she had, that would definitely have been it. She quickly gathered up her hair and secured it on her crown so that it wouldn't get wet. "Go ahead," she invited once she had stepped into the bath and sunk beneath the bubbles, leaning back as she turned to watch Alexandre.

He held her gaze as he unbuttoned and removed his shirt, baring muscular arms and chest, and the defined muscles of his abdomen before unfastening his trousers and removing them too. He now wore only a pair of fitted black boxers that did very little to conceal the aroused bulge beneath.

God, he was beautiful, like some sun-kissed Greek god come to life. Tall, golden, muscular, his dark hair tousled rakishly over his brow.

Stazzi's breath caught in her throat, her nipples tightening as he removed that last article of clothing and unabashedly revealed the fullness of his aroused cock jutting up from that nest of dark curls. It was just as she remembered from last night: thick, and at least eight inches long, the blood vessels clearly defined along its length, and so engorged, the skin was pulled completely back to reveal the leak of moisture on the mushroomed purple head.

"You have to stop looking at me like that, or I'll forget about the bath and take you straight to bed instead," he groaned.

Stazzi laughed throatily even as she reached out to stroke her fingers along that steel-encased-in-velvet cock.

"Shift forward," Alexandre encouraged gruffly before stepping into the bath behind her and then sinking into the water. He slid the long length of his legs either side of her, his cock nestling against her bottom, as he pulled her back to lie against the heat of his chest. His arms moved about her waist and his hands cupped beneath her breasts. "I could get used to this," he murmured with satisfaction as he lay back against the top end of the bath.

So could Stazzi. It felt somehow...right, to be lying here in a scented bath in her candlelit bathroom with Alexandre. Arousing and yet comfortable at the same time. As if it were meant to be. As if _they_ were meant to be. They obviously weren't, because Alexandre was a prince, and she was...well, the daughter of an impoverished English duke who had to work for a living. But for the moment, she could _pretend_ they were meant to be together.

Couldn't she?

She relaxed back against Alexandre with a contented sigh. "I had the most horrible day," she could admit now. "I was so worried about you. Are you sure the doctors are happy for you to be released so soon from the clinic?"

" _I 'm_ happy to be released from the clinic." Alexandre's chest rumbled against her back when he spoke.

"Do you have any idea what you ate to cause that reaction?"

Alexandre didn't want to discuss his suspicions with Anastazia until he had positive proof. "Have I thanked you yet for saving my life?" He nuzzled his lips against the curve of her throat.

"Yes--"

"But not appropriately," he murmured. "I believe a thank-you for saving my life needs to be said with much more than words." He continued to taste the length of her throat with his lips and tongue as his fingers began to stroke lightly over her engorged nipples, and was instantly rewarded by her groan of pleasure. "You're so responsive--" He broke off as he heard the sound of raised voices outside the bathroom. "What on earth...?" He didn't get any further in his enquiry as the bathroom door was suddenly flung open.

"Whoa." A stunned Lissa Forsythe recoiled slightly as she stood in the bathroom doorway. "Well, I wasn't expecting that..." she muttered to herself.

The disgruntled bodyguard stood behind her. "Your Highness--"

"Alexandre, will you tell this big baboon to take his hands off me?" Lissa attempted to shake off the bodyguard's grip on her arm. "That I happen to live here too?"

"Oh good Lord," Stazzi groaned. "Would someone just shoot me now!" There wasn't enough room in the bath for her to sink completely beneath the bubbles, but if there had been, that was exactly what she would have done.

Could this situation be any more embarrassing?

Not only was Lissa now in the bathroom with them, but also one of Alexandre's bodyguards. All while the two of them sat completely naked in the bath together.

Maybe she should just sell tickets?

_Roll up, roll up, come and see Prince Alexandre of Androcco naked in the bath with his_ -- With his what? Stazzi had no idea what she was to Alexandre. Except he had to be as embarrassed as she was at being seen by one of his employees in such a compromising position?

"It's okay, Christophe." Alexandre didn't sound in the least embarrassed by their audience as he spoke calmly behind her. "Miss Forsythe really does live here. Good to see you again, Lissa," he added dryly.

She shot the bodyguard an "I told you so" glance before answering Alexandre. "I'm not sure you're going to continue thinking that after I tell you that the street outside is full of paparazzi." Lissa grimaced.

Stazzi tensed. "What...?"

Lissa moved farther into the bathroom. "It's all over the news and social media."

"What is?" Alexandre prompted guardedly.

Lissa's eyes flashed darkly. "If I remember correctly, the gist of the story seems to be Prince Alexandre of Androcco narrowly escaping an assassination attempt last night by a female employee of the Meyers Hotel."

Stazzi felt the blood drain from her cheeks as she stared at her friend wordlessly for several long seconds, before finally finding her voice. "Me?" she squeaked.

Lissa's mouth thinned. "They haven't named any names yet, but I don't think it will take long for one of them to sniff out which employee of the Meyers Hotel has been suspended."

_Oh God_...

Chapter 11

"Have Tomas bring the car round to the back of the building," Alexandre instructed Christophe distractedly, his attention on Anastazia rather than the other man.

He had quickly dismissed the two intruders from the bathroom after Lissa dropped the double bombshell of the reporters outside and the belief that Anastazia had tried to kill him. His attempt to take her in his arms, to comfort her, had been shrugged off, and any conversation too as she got out of the bath and wrapped a towel around herself before hurriedly departing, probably to go to her bedroom. Certainly she hadn't been in the sitting room when Alexandre went there after making a brief telephone call and then dressing.

Anastazia had entered the sitting room quietly ten minutes or so later, but she hadn't spoken a word to any of them in the time since. She sat in one of the armchairs, her feet up on the chair, arms wrapped defensively about her knees, and her face deathly pale.

How the fuck had the media even gotten hold of the story at all, let alone such a wrong version of what had happened?

Anastazia had _saved_ his life, not tried to take it, and been suspended from her job for her trouble. Alexandre had dealt with that problem and would talk to Daniel Meyers again once he returned to the hotel, but even so, the other man wasn't going to be pleased at having all that media attention at the Meyers Hotel.

He knew from personal experience that the more any of them tried to deny the story currently circulating, the more the media would sniff around, scenting blood. What the press thought he was now doing at the apartment of the woman who was supposed to have attempted to murder him was anybody's guess!

"Unfortunately, the reporters are at the back of the building too," Lissa revealed, also looking at Anastazia with concern.

This was fucking ridiculous. What--

Alexandre frowned as it was the door to the apartment that burst open unexpectedly this time, and Asher Knight walked in.

Lissa's angrily flushed face told Alexandre that if it had been left to her, the other man would never have _been_ invited in. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded.

The hardness of Asher's gaze swept unemotionally over the four people in the apartment before he answered her. "I was invited."

"Not by me you weren't--"

"Not everything is about you," Ash dismissed coldly before his gaze settled on Alexandre. He gave a barely perceptible nod in response to Alexandre's questioning glance.

Shit. Shit, shit, _shit_.

This situation had just become one hundred percent more complicated.

Alexandre's hands clenched at his sides. "Ash, I need you to take Anastazia and Lissa--"

"I am not going anywhere with him!" Lissa protested.

"Oh, give it a rest, sweetheart." Ash's smile was cold and mocking. "Stazzi needs to be taken away from here, and Alexandre obviously assumed you would want to go with her."

"I--"

"I'm not going anywhere either." Anastazia stood up. "I refuse to be driven out of my own home. Besides," she added as Alexandre would have spoken, "I'm pretty sure the reporters will leave as soon as Alexandre does."

He gave her a frowning, searching glance but couldn't tell any of Anastazia's thoughts from the coolness of her expression or the way her gaze avoided meeting his.

Did she blame him for the mess her life had become?

Probably, Alexandre acknowledged heavily. Because, in this particular case, he was to blame. Everything that was happening to Anastazia now was because of him. Because of who he was, Prince Alexandre of Androcco.

Maybe she was right and he should leave? He didn't want to, wanted nothing more than to take Anastazia in his arms and tell her that everything would be all right. But inwardly he knew that wasn't an option right now, and that his priority lay elsewhere. Anastazia was too upset at the moment to be in the least receptive to any explanations from him, but hopefully he could come back and speak to her once he had dealt with this other situation.

"How did the media get hold of this story?" Lissa was the one to prompt shrewdly. "The Meyers Hotel is known for its discretion, has hosted kings, as well as princes," she added dryly. "I'm pretty sure the clinic you went to would have been the same. I certainly didn't tell anyone. Your bodyguards seem a trifle obsessive in regard to your safety. So who else is there?"

Stazzi had been wondering the same thing. And the only conclusion she had come to was that Alexandre was going to think she was responsible. By broadcasting the story, she would lose her job, yes, but no doubt the paparazzi would pay big money for an exclusive story on Prince Alexandre. And who better to tell that story than the woman who had shared his bed the previous night?

The fact that Alexandre wanted Asher to whisk her away, out of sight and hearing of the media, would seem to confirm that was Alexandre's take on the situation.

She straightened her spine. "I repeat, I'm not going anywhere." She looked at Alexandre for the first time since Asher had arrived, feeling as if she had been punched in the chest when she saw the coldness of Alexandre's expression. He looked nothing at all like the playful lover she had been in the bath with only a short time ago. "If I do feel the need to get away, I'll go and visit my parents for a few days."

"Ash will drive you--"

"I'll drive her," Lissa cut in firmly. "It's almost the weekend, and I could do with a few days away from the city myself." She shot Ash a censorious glare.

"Well, that matter seems to be settled." Alexandre gave a terse nod. "I recommend waiting awhile after I've gone before attempting to leave. One of my men will wait outside to accompany you wherever you wish to go."

Stazzi had the distinct impression Alexandre wanted to get as far away from her as he possibly could. He might even cut his visit to England short and return immediately to Androcco. And no one was allowed on the island without his permission.

She had known from the beginning their relationship was going nowhere, but she hadn't envisaged the two of them parting quite as badly as this. Suspicion on Alexandre's part. Icy dread on hers.

Incredible that this man had become so important to her in such a short time, but there was no denying the pain she felt at the thought of never seeing Alexandre again. Being suspended from her job, being hounded by the press, both paled in comparison to that heartache.

"I--" She broke off as her mobile buzzed with an incoming call.

"Don't answer that!" Alexandre instructed as she would automatically have taken the call.

She raised startled eyes. "You think it's a reporter?"

"I think there's a good chance it could be, yes," he confirmed.

"They found out your address, so it's highly probable they know your mobile number too," Asher confirmed as the buzzing ended abruptly. Only for the landline to ring seconds later. "And your landline number," he added dryly.

Stazzi stared at the telephone on the breakfast bar in the kitchen area, knowing it would go to voice mail, but totally unprepared for the familiar voice that spoke after "please leave a message after the tone."

"If you're there, Stazzi, then pick up the damned phone," Will, her ex-boyfriend, instructed impatiently. "We need to talk. I have no idea what the hell is going on, but I want--"

The audible message ended abruptly as Stazzi snatched up the hands-free receiver, pressing it against her ear, looking at no one before she walked out of the room and down the hallway to her bedroom.

"--you to know that I don't want to hear so much as my name mentioned in connection with you and whatever scandal you've got yourself involved in," Will continued to rant. "I have a reputation to uphold--"

"The only reputation you have as far as I'm concerned is that of a two-timing bastard," Stazzi cut in coldly as she paced the confines of her bedroom. "But thank you so much for your support in what is a horrible situation."

"Created by you from the sound of it," Will came back scathingly. "What the hell are you doing getting involved with a playboy prince in the first place? Jesus, the two of us broke up only a few days ago and--"

"And you were already involved with someone else, so don't presume to judge me."

"Considering what you've got yourself mixed up in, it sounds as if I've had a very lucky escape."

"You self-righteous prig," she said vehemently.

"I am warning you, Stazzi, just one mention of my name to the media, and I will sue you and your lover prince--"

"Oh, go swivel on it, Will." Stazzi put an abrupt end to the call. The last thing she wanted was to give him the satisfaction of knowing she was crying.

Oh, not because of Will's tirade; she had already known she couldn't rely on him to be in the least sympathetic to her plight. His call now had only confirmed it.

No, Stazzi was crying because the icy dam that had formed inside her when Lissa told her the paparazzi were outside the building, hoping for an exclusive on Alexandre's admission to a clinic today, had now melted. Leaving Stazzi completely open and vulnerable to the pain of losing and parting from Alexandre. To the knowledge he somehow thought she was responsible for the story now circulating about the two of them, and possibly even for his having been taken ill in the night too. She couldn't think of any other reason why he had become so cold and distant.

"Is everything okay...?" A hesitant Lissa stepped into the bedroom. "Obviously not," she snapped as Stazzi looked up and she saw the tears tracking down her cheeks. "What has that bastard done now?"

"Talking about me again...?" Asher appeared in the doorway behind her.

Lissa turned to glare at him. "Now who's the one who believes everything has to be about him?"

He gave an uninterested shrug before turning to look at Stazzi. "I think you need to come back to the sitting room."

She tensed. "Why?"

He grimaced. "Alexandre's driver just called up to say Gerard St Sebastien has arrived and is on his way up, and I may need some help when he gets here."

"Why?" Stazzi frowned her puzzlement.

He raised his eyes toward the ceiling. "Why is it that women always have to question everything? Can't you just accept that I'll need your calming presence once Gerard arrives?" His voice softened persuasively. "Alexandre may appear in control on the outside, but I know his temper from our school days together, and right now, he's beyond furious. Without you and Lissa there, we could have a murder on our hands after all, and it isn't going to be Alexandre's."

Stazzi didn't even pretend to know what he was talking about, and neither did Lissa from the irritation on her face as she frowned at the enigmatic Asher. But if Alexandre needed her, for whatever reason, Stazzi wasn't about to continue questioning why.

"You shouldn't have come here, Gerard," Alexandre was telling the other man when the three of them returned to the sitting room.

The older man looked down his nose at his surroundings. "You have merely added fuel to the media speculation by being here."

"And who created the media speculation in the first place...?"

Gerard St Sebastien's gaze swept contemptuously over Stazzi as she stood at the back of the now-crowded room. "I don't believe we need to look far for the answer to that question."

"No, I don't believe we do," Alexandre returned with deceptive mildness. "Even as we speak, the jet is being refueled and readied for returning to Androcco later this evening."

Stazzi felt a painful jolt in her chest at the knowledge Alexandre intended leaving England so soon. She had half expected it, but it still hurt to know he was leaving.

Gerard looked smug. "A good decision." He nodded. "I'm sure that once you're back on Androcco, the speculation regarding this unpleasantness will die a natural death and--"

"The jet's for you, not me." Alexandre eyed his cousin with icy disdain.

"Me?" Gerard looked startled.

Alexandre felt numb inside as he looked at the man he had known all his life. The man who had been his childhood friend. His cousin by blood. His trusted adviser for the past two years.

"How did you know where Anastazia lives, Gerard?" he prompted mildly.

The other man looked confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Answer the damned question," Ash growled.

Gerard looked at him coldly. "I understand that you're a friend of my cousin, and that he has always allowed you a certain...familiarity, but I've never liked you. As such, you will not address me in such a fashion."

"I've never liked you either, you jumped-up little bastard, and _as such_ , __ I'll address you any way I damn well please!"

"Ash," Alexandre warned softly. "You will answer the question, Gerard."

"This is ridiculous," his cousin snapped. "Of course I found out where Miss Carmichael lives once I became aware the hotel is swarming with reporters. There are at least a dozen more outside this apartment building. I really think it would be for the best if we went straight to the airport and left some of your bodyguards to pack and bring the rest of our things later."

"The reporters are at the hotel and outside this building because of you, damn it," Alexandre rasped. "You're the one who told them Anastazia was at the hotel with me last night when I was taken ill, that I was admitted to the clinic for several hours, and the address of her apartment."

Gerard gave an exasperated sigh. "You're talking--"

"The truth," Alexandre bit out tersely. "Do you have the proof I asked you to find, Ash?" His gaze remained fixed on his cousin as he spoke to his friend.

"Right here." Ash produced a bottle from the pocket of his jacket and held it up.

Stazzi frowned as she listened to the exchange, having no idea what was going on. Except to know Alexandre looked grimmer than ever. Asher challenging. And Gerard less sure of himself than he had been a few minutes ago. "What is that...?"

"This?" Ash gave the bottle a considering glance. "Seafood flavoring. More precisely, a strong crab extract."

She gave a slow shake of her head. "I don't understand..."

Ash gave a hard smile. "A liquid seafood flavoring that when mixed with another strong-tasting liquid, such as a medicine, is virtually undetectable."

Stazzi's eyes widened. "Is that-- Was that--"

"Yes," Ash confirmed grimly.

Stazzi felt her face pale at the implications of the bottle Ash held up.

A bottle containing a flavoring that was capable of killing Alexandre.

That had almost killed him?
Chapter 12

Stazzi gave a slow shake of her head. "Where did it come from?"

"Would you like to answer that, Gerard?" Ash taunted. "Or shall I?"

The Androccan looked down his nose at the other man. Not an easy feat considering he was several inches shorter than Asher. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"No?" Ash mused. "Strange, considering I found this bottle hidden amongst the things in your bedroom at the Meyers Hotel."

The older man's nostrils flared angrily. "If you did, then _she_ must have planted it there after attempting to kill Alexandre--"

"No, Alexandre!" Asher stepped forward, blocking Alexandre as he would have lunged at his cousin. "He isn't worth it, man." He placed a hand against Alexandre's rapidly rising and falling chest.

Alexandre bared his teeth. "But I'd feel so much better."

Ash shrugged. "I can't deny I'd like to put in a few punches myself, but I believe between the two of us, we can come up with a much more...fitting punishment."

"How dare you go through my things?" Gerard St Sebastien obviously didn't know when to shut up. "Who gave you permission--"

"I did." Alexandre's eyes glittered furiously. "Once I'd realized the only person who stood to gain anything if I died was you. Strange how so many other things fell into place, once I'd accepted that as being an option for what's been happening to me during this past year. My recurring illness, no doubt building up to the grand finale of my death last night. The doctor you personally engaged and brought to Androcco. His inability to find the reason for my illness. The medicine he prescribed for an ulcer, which you've ensured I take on a regular basis. That would be the medicine I took at one o'clock this morning because I'd forgotten to take it after dinner earlier in the evening. The same medicine _you_ had put in a strong enough dose of the seafood flavoring to kill me."

"Oh dear God..." Stazzi gasped.

Alexandre's expression softened as he glanced at her. "I never for a moment believed you were involved in any of this." His face hardened as he turned back to Gerard. "Was it just that I was born to the eldest son and so was always the heir apparent, or is your hatred of me more personal than that?"

Gerard seemed to be fighting an inner battle with himself as his eyes glittered with that hatred, only his fear holding him back from expressing it. He had to know that Alexandre and Ash were both dangerous men in their own right, but there was also an armed Androccan bodyguard in the room, sworn to protect Alexandre to the death.

"I have always hated you." His cousin finally lost the battle and came down on the side of his true feelings. "The beloved prince," he sneered. "The spoiled and pampered heir to Androcco who grew up to be an equally spoiled and willful man, always bringing the name St Sebastien into disrepute with your scandalous exploits," he continued, seemingly unconcerned that the bodyguard had now removed his gun from his shoulder holster and was aiming it at him. "You are not fit to be the ruler of Androcco."

"But I'm guessing you think you are?" Ash taunted.

Hazel eyes flashed with dislike as Gerard glanced at the other man. "I know I am. I have always been more worthy, more deserving of ruling Androcco, than Alexandre ever has or could be."

"Modest much?" Ash scorned.

"You think you're so clever, don't you." Gerard spat his vitriol at him now. "You and your three equally overbearing brothers."

Ash shrugged. "Probably more so than you, at least. None of us has ever tried to overthrow a ruling prince by poisoning him, for one thing," he added harshly. "I don't believe you'll find any of us feel that same reluctance when it comes to the cousin of that ruling prince, though."

Alexandre knew what Ash had been doing these past few minutes, and he would be forever grateful for it. Ash taunting Gerard had allowed Alexandre the time needed for his temper to cool. "Why now?"

Gerard eyed him scornfully. "Because you said you were going to consult with another doctor here in England."

"No, I meant why have you waited until this past year to try to kill me?" It made Alexandre feel ill to think how much trust he had placed in Gerard, a man who had obviously always hated and been jealous of him.

"Because your ministers and the people are urging you to marry. To produce an heir."

"One more person in the way of you becoming ruler of Androcco."

"Exactly." Gerard snorted. "I hadn't expected Uncle Claude to die so unexpectedly in a car crash. But once he had..."

"There was only me standing in your way."

"Yes!"

Alexandre sighed heavily, more sickened now than angry. "The jet will fly you back to Androcco tonight, under armed guard. You will be placed under house arrest until I've had a chance to talk to my Minister of State and governing council. You will be informed when we have decided what your fate should be. Now get him out of my sight, Christophe."

"I'm so sorry," Stazzi murmured.

Alexandre looked up from pouring single-malt whisky into two glasses. "You have nothing to feel sorry about."

Alexandre had insisted that Stazzi accompany him back to the Meyers Hotel once Gerard had been taken away by two of the bodyguards. Ash went with them to ensure Gerard St Sebastien's safe exit from England.

Stazzi had no idea why Alexandre had brought her here. The two of them hadn't spoken on the drive to the hotel, Stazzi because she had no idea what _to_ say, Alexandre lost in thought, his expression not encouraging conversation.

His silence hadn't ended until after they had reached the hotel and fought their way through the reporters thronging outside. Once inside the building, Alexandre had instructed his men to take Stazzi up to the penthouse floor, while he stayed on the ground floor to talk with Daniel Meyers.

He looked slightly less grim when he joined Stazzi in the sitting room of the penthouse suite, but she still felt she had to say _something_ about the things that been revealed at her apartment earlier.

She was utterly incredulous that Gerard St Sebastien had attempted to kill his own cousin so that he might become ruler of Androcco.

"No," she acknowledged. "But I can't imagine how it must feel to know that your cousin...betrayed you, in that way."

"He tried to kill me," Alexandre corrected her as he crossed the room to hand her one of the two glasses before taking a large swallow of the amber liquid from his own glass. "Worse than that, he tried to implicate you for his crime," he added in disgust. "So don't let's either one of us feel in the least sorry for Gerard, hm?"

"Oh, I don't feel sorry for _him_ ," Stazzi assured him with feeling. "Believe me, I would quite happily have waited in line behind you and Ash for a chance to hit him. I'm just sorry that he hurt you."

Alexandre nodded. "Daniel Meyers is now aware of at least some of the situation. He assured me just now your job here is secure."

She blinked. "I... Thank you." Being reinstated in her job was a double-edged sword, as far as Stazzi was concerned.

On the one hand, she not only needed this job, she also enjoyed it.

On the other hand, she wasn't sure she was going to enjoy it quite as much when she had to come to work day after day and be reminded of the brief time she had spent here with Alexandre. That could prove to be a very painful experience.

"It was the least I could do in the circumstances." Alexandre sat beside her on the sofa before leaning back and stretching out his long legs. He turned his head sideways on the cushion to look at her beneath lowered lids. "Why did your ex-boyfriend call you earlier?"

She pulled a face. "To warn me not to mention his name if I spoke to the press; otherwise, he would sue both of us."

"Bastard." Alexandre scowled.

"Oh yes." Stazzi took a sip of her whisky, allowing the alcohol to warm her before speaking again. "So what happens now, Alexandre? No doubt you'll want to return to Androcco soon?" She hoped she'd managed to make her voice sound upbeat, even though it wasn't in the least how she felt about never seeing Alexandre again.

He turned on the seat to look at her. "What do _you_ want, Anastazia?" His voice was gruff.

"Me?" She gave him a startled glance. "I... Well--I already have my job back."

"And is that all you want?" Alexandre reached out to capture a thick strand of her hair, allowing it to drape silkily over his fingers before looking up to hold her gaze with his. "The reason I didn't return to Androcco this evening with the others is because _I_ don't want to leave you."

She swallowed. "I don't want you to leave me either."

He drew in a sharp breath. "Is it too soon--" He broke off, shaking his head. "Of course it's too soon for that," he answered himself impatiently. "You must have some holiday time due to you. Will you come back to Androcco with me?"

Stazzi's heart jerked in her chest, her eyes wide. "You want me to accompany you to Androcco for a holiday...?"

"I want you to _stay_ on Androcco," he assured fiercely. "But I will settle for your agreeing to a holiday there to begin with. I can show you my island. Introduce you to my friends. My people. My governing council. I want them all to get to know you, to love you as--" He broke off again, lips firming. "I want you to love my island as much as I do."

Stazzi's heart was now threatening to beat itself out of her chest. "Why...?"

His frown was pained. "Do you believe in love at first sight, Anastazia?"

Her heart spluttered and faltered before beating faster than ever. "I believe it does happen, yes."

"It does," Alexandre confirmed with certainty, his fingertips light against the heat of her cheek. "I wanted you sexually the moment I saw your photograph."

"That's...good." Her cheeks warmed.

He nodded. "I was amused by the email you sent to me by mistake."

Stazzi winced. "That's not so good."

"But it is." He chuckled softly. "Too much of my life has become...controlled. Repetitious and mundane. From the first, you've refused to be intimidated by my title or wealth, always saying and doing exactly what you feel. You're like a breath of fresh air in a world that's become stifling."

"Ah. Well. There is a reason I'm not intimidated by the title or wealth." Who her father was, the fact that she attended several state occasions every year, and was friends with several of the British royal family, didn't allow for intimidation. "Although you are a little overwhelming." A little? Alexandre had stepped out of the lift that first day and knocked her off her emotional feet. Her response to him had been visceral, so deep-rooted it was impossible to deny. So much so she hadn't been able to resist him. Time after time.

Alexandre tilted his head as he studied her. "I don't ever want any part of me, who and what I am, to be overwhelming to you. I never want that."

"Never...?" Stazzi repeated breathlessly.

"Never," he confirmed gruffly. "Anastazia, I... This is going to sound crazy," he muttered.

She drew in a deep breath before coming to a decision. That decision made, she reached out and took Alexandre's glass from his unresisting fingers and placed it on the coffee table with her own, before moving closer to him on the sofa. "Let's both be crazy and jump off the cliff together, shall we?" She kissed him softly on the lips. "I think you should know I--I've fallen in love with you."

Alexandre's breath caught in his throat before he gathered Anastazia tightly in his arms. "I love you too. Dear God, how I love you!" he repeated shakily, face buried in the perfume of her hair.

"Alexandre...!"

Once Alexandre began kissing her, he didn't want to stop. Except there was still so much for them to say to each other.

He continued to hold her tightly in his arms, never intending to let her go. "We've known each other such a short time, but you've become everything to me. Not just because you're so beautiful. So outrageously outspoken I can't help but laugh at some of your comments to me. You're also totally loyal, even when that loyalty is misplaced, as it was with your ex-boyfriend."

"Never mention him to me again." Anastazia gave a shudder.

Alexandre had no problem with that request. "You're also a generous and exciting lover, and the only woman I've ever loved. Will ever love. All I could ever, or will ever, want," he assured her as his eyes looked unwaveringly into hers. "Will you marry me, Anastazia, if not immediately, then very soon? Rule Androcco at my side? Become my princess? Mother of our children?"

Stazzi was sure that her heart had stopped beating altogether now. The heart she knew belonged completely and utterly to Alexandre, the ruling prince of Androcco. This man who returned her love and wished to make her his princess. "How do you think your governing council and the people of Androcco would feel about your marrying me?"

"They will either accept it or not. It's ultimately of no relevance to my love for you or my wish to marry you." He was every inch the arrogant prince in that moment. "Your coming back to Androcco with me now will give them a chance to know you, to love you as I love you, before we're married," he finished the sentence he hadn't earlier. "But ultimately, it will make no difference to the outcome. You are my choice. The only wife I want. If you'll have me?" He looked less certain now.

Stazzi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, though either of them would be with joy at being loved by a man as wonderful as Alexandre. "You'll have to speak to my father first. Ask his permission."

"I would expect no less."

"My family has absolutely no money. You realize that?"

"I have more than enough for all of us," he dismissed.

She nodded, having expected that to be his answer. Anyone less like the mercenary and opportunistic Will than Alexandre, she couldn't imagine. "I have a huge family, and they would all want to attend our wedding," she warned.

"Of course."

"Including all of the British royal family."

"I don't understand..."

Stazzi did laugh and cry with joy now. "Alexandre, my father is the Duke of Warminster. I'm _Lady_ Anastazia Carmichael. I believe--although it could have changed if any more babies have been born in the past few weeks, which in our family is a distinct possibility--I'm one hundred sixty-seventh in line to the British throne."

Alexandre stared at her unblinkingly.

Stazzi slowly sobered the longer he continued to just stare at her. "Say something," she finally pleaded.

"I don't-- This is-- _Lady_ Anastazia Carmichael?"

"Mmm." She confirmed with a wince. "Although that isn't something I've bothered to share too much since coming to work in London. It tends to put employers off. But my father really doesn't have any money, just the illustrious title and our connection to the royal family. I don't want to be the cause of any disharmony on Androcco. Do you think my father being a duke will be enough for your government and people to accept me?"

Alexandre still felt a little dazed by who Anastazia was, even more so by her comment " _just_ " her connection to the British royal family. He intended marrying her anyway, had been determined to do so if she would have him. He wanted to spend the rest of his life loving Anastazia and being loved by her in return, laughing with her, having children together who would be surrounded by and included in that love and laughter.

But he couldn't deny her father being a duke would make that transition a little easier with the people of Androcco, including his government ministers. He wouldn't be in the least surprised if Anastazia's name was on that list he'd been given of possible future brides, after all...

He heard Anastazia gasp as he moved down onto one knee in front of her, taking her hand into his as he looked up at her. "Lady Anastazia Carmichael, will you do me the honor of marrying me?"

"Yes," she answered without hesitation, her eyes glowing a deep, clear blue as she launched herself at him.

Alexandre laughed as he caught her in his arms, and they both tumbled full-length onto the carpet, after which there was only the sound of their words of love and their soft gasps of pleasure.
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About The Author

Carole Mortimer is a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award 2015, a Pioneer for Romance Romantic Times Award in 2014. She was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for her 'outstanding service to literature'. Carole has written over 200 contemporary and Regency novels.

She is happily married to Peter. They have 6 sons, and live on the beautiful Isle of Man. She also loves to hear from Readers!
Other books by Carole Mortimer

Carole has written 173 romance novels in the Presents/Modern series from Harlequin Mills and Boon.

She has also written 24 Regency romance novels in the Harlequin Mills and Boon's Historical series.

Knight Security Series:

Resisting Alexandre (Knight Security 0.5)

Defying Asher (Knight Security 1)

Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2)

More books to come in this series

ALPHA series:

Christmas Alpha

Dark Alpha

Shadow Alpha (Author's 200th book)

Midnight Alpha

Renegade Alpha

Warrior Alpha

Rogue Alpha

Savage Alpha

Series now complete.

Regency Unlaced Series:

The Duke's Mistress (Book 1)

Claimed by the Marquis (Book 2)

Taken by the Earl (Book 3)

Pursued by the Viscount (Book 4)

Desired by a Lord (Book 5)

Captured by a Gentleman (Book 6)

More books to come in this series.

