One Summer Night: An Indecent Proposition / Beholden to the Throne / Hers For One Night Only?

‘It’s the hoopoe bird,’ Zander explained. ‘You rarely see them, you just hear them, but they are beautiful birds. They’ll be gone soon …’

Like you, Charlotte thought as they walked down the hillside, a rare beauty she had briefly glimpsed but could never hope to truly capture. She wanted to be back in his arms, wanted more of his kiss, but instead she held onto his hand as they walked and Zander talked.

‘They head to the Canary Islands for the colder months.’

‘It’s a strange call.’ She stood for a moment and listened, drank in the unfamiliar sound, wanted to remember the Xanos hillside for ever. ‘So relaxing.’

‘Not for the locals.’ Zander interrupted her thoughts. ‘They say when the hoopoe sings in the evening then soon there will be war. It’s just superstition.’ He smiled as her eyes widened. ‘The island is full of it.’ His hand was warm around hers, his smile reassuring. ‘You like birds?’

‘I guess,’ Charlotte said as they reached their scooters. ‘I think I like anything that can fly.’

They rode back to the hotel, and only as she climbed off the scooter in such gorgeous surroundings did she realise how grubby and unkempt the day had made her, but she felt as if she was wearing a ballgown as he offered his arm and they walked inside.

‘We will meet for dinner,’ Zander said, for he would not take no tonight. ‘I’ll call for you in an hour. What is your room number?’ He was so direct, so all-assuming. Again she reminded herself that Nico was her boss. She had to somehow wrestle control back, for around Zander she had virtually none.

‘I haven’t said yes yet.’

Oh, you just did, Zander thought, for he could see her pulse leaping above her collarbone, could almost smell the want that was in the air.

‘Fine,’ Zander said, and as he had last night he made as if to leave it, even turned his back and went to walk away, so positive was he she would call him back, but he was caught off guard by her words.

‘Perhaps I should offer to take you to dinner,’ Charlotte said, and he turned his head. ‘I am sure Nico would expect no less.’

She saw his eyes shutter, for a moment thought she might have offended him, but when she looked again he was smiling, and she must have imagined the flash of darkness.

‘I’ll meet you in the foyer,’ Charlotte said, not sure she wanted this stunning man knocking at her hotel-room door, not sure at all that she could resist him.

‘I’ll look forward to it’ was all that Zander said.

And so too would she.

She rang the nursing home and, as advised, spoke not to her mother but to the staff and was informed that Amanda had settled in a little better, which should have reassured her, but she didn’t quite believe it was true.

‘If she does get upset,’ Charlotte said, ‘please remind her that this is just temporary, that I’ll be home in a couple of days.’

It might bring comfort to Amanda, but it brought little to Charlotte. She truly didn’t know if she missed her mum, if she even wanted to get back to her real life. There was guilt with the realisation, guilt that seemed to layer on guilt, but she quashed it. She was determined to just enjoy her time her on Xanos, to go back a better daughter for the temporary reprieve.

He was a reprieve, Charlotte told herself, a brief indulgence that she could handle, dinner and perhaps one more kiss.

As she undressed in the bathroom, slipped her freshly foiled hair into a hotel shower cap, she felt more like the old Charlotte than she ever had—felt like the jet-set woman she once had been, a woman who could handle a man like Zander Kargas.

It was bliss to sink into the bath, and more to step out of the bathroom and to see the pulled curtains, to resist the temptation to open them. It was heady and dizzy but she felt as if his eyes could burn through the fabric as she massaged her skin with oil, felt as if he was watching her as she dressed slowly.

For him.

Somehow he made the fantasy real.

Made her feel special enough to take that extra care.

She was used to doing her hair quickly, so she stood in the marble bathroom and smoothed it out with her trusty straighteners, but it needed something more so she skilfully spun thick, heavy ringlets, over and over again, each one, Charlotte thought, for Zander. With each curl, she imagined his fingers through it later, and then told herself there could be none of that.

She told herself he was a guest of Nico’s tonight, if only to help herself behave.

There wasn’t really much decision as to what to wear. She had brought her faithful travel wardrobe of old, which consisted of a black evening dress, a touch slinky with spaghetti straps, and a small wrap, or another more demure dress, a soft brushed velvet in chocolate brown with a cowl neck.

She settled for the brown.

Hoped the demure cut of the dress might calm her but, even slipping it on, the sex in her mind brought the dress to life; the fabric seemed tighter around her bust and more clingy over her hips. Her eyes glittered in anticipation and her cheeks glowed at the very thought of Zander. She begged herself to reel it in. She had to keep her head for one night, one night only, for tomorrow the secret would be out. Tomorrow she could fall into his arms, as she now so badly wanted to.

She was dizzy with lust as she sprayed fragrance not just on her wrists and neck but the backs of her knees too. She imagined his mouth there on the tender flesh and she knew she must not, that tonight somehow she had to resist him, that tomorrow, after tomorrow, when he and Nico were reconciled, when things were more ordered, then she could think about them.

Except she could only think about him.

Could only shiver at the memory of his kiss.

It wasn’t a date. It was not a date, she told herself, but it felt like it was as she glossed her lips and had one final check in the mirror.

Zander was absolutely potent and she had to keep her head tonight, had to see how things went with Nico and Zander before she did anything. She almost doubled up then, stunned at the possibilities her mind lurched to, for he made her feel rash, dizzy, to want.

Zander too smiled as he looked into the mirror.

Tonight would be such an unexpected treat.

He had enjoyed flirting with Charlotte on the phone, getting her to open up a little, and though last night he had more intended to loosen her tongue with fine wine, the stakes were raised now. He had not anticipated the rare beauty of her, that she might live up to the voice he had enjoyed these past weeks.

Now he wanted her.

Wanted her to sob his name into his brother’s mouth. How sweet was delayed revenge, for he wanted everything his brother had and then some more, but the thought of her with another made him churn in a way he never had before. As he stared into the mirror he chose not to shave, just splashed on cologne. Then his thoughts were darker, his intent deeper, for he would leave Nico with nothing, as he had been left with nothing, and his mind was made up. It was not a cruel decision, Zander told himself as he headed down to meet her. He might be misleading her but soon she would come to understand.

Tonight he would have Charlotte in his bed.

Tomorrow she would be in his life.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_2a66b233-f05c-593f-838a-4ddcd0d6e948)

CHARLOTTE had worked long enough with Nico to know how he liked things, and what he expected from her when dealing with clients. She knew as she arrived before their arranged time that, despite the butterflies in her stomach, despite the thrill of an evening with Zander, she was, even if Nico was unaware, working for her boss tonight.

She did as Nico would expect of her—arriving in the foyer a full fifteen minutes early, she whiled the time away till Zander arrived looking into the boutique windows at the bags and purses with leather so soft they seemed to beg her to go in and stroke them. She wandered to the jeweller’s, blinked at the most stunning of necklaces, thick with rubies and diamonds. She had possibly never seen anything so lovely.

‘It would look good around your neck.’

She heard his words, heard his greeting, smelt the freshly washed male scent of him. It felt as if not the necklace but Zander was around her throat, for it was so tight as she turned to greet him.

Oh, he had once looked like Nico, but now, to Charlotte, all he was was Zander. There could be no mistake ever again. It wasn’t just that Zander’s hair was a little longer, his strong jaw shadowed, his eyelids slightly heavier lidded, his skin a touch darker. With Zander she felt far from safe, for each parting meant a new greeting and each time the stakes seemed raised. She registered the flare of danger that ignited whenever he approached, acknowledged that he took her, without asking, completely out of her usual bounds. It was Sunday night in Xanos, the dress code smart casual, and Zander wore it incredibly well—black dinner trousers with a white fitted shirt that showed his toned body. His hair was tousled but gleaming yet there was an edge to him, something in the unshaven jaw and black gypsy eyes that set him apart, a statement made without words, something that warned he had never been and could never be tamed.

‘Have you been waiting long?’ Zander asked.

‘Not at all,’ she tried, even if it was a little late to do so, to sound professional, to make things clear, to draw a safe line. ‘Anyway, you’re my guest.’