The Future King's Love-Child

But now that he had, he wondered if it had been wise to seek her out. Every pore of his skin was erect with awareness, his nostrils automatically flaring in the primal hunt for her feminine scent, and his groin tightening with an ache so intense he had trouble standing still.

It annoyed him to find his body still hummed with desire for her. He had considered himself over her, and yet one glimpse into that emerald gaze of hers had made him realise there was still a place deep inside him that responded almost involuntarily when he looked at her. It was as if she had secretly planted a tiny fish hook in his chest all those years ago, and every time their eyes met he felt its tiny but still-painful tug.

For all her supermodel beauty there was no escaping the fact she was a sleep-around socialite tart who had wantonly led him on only to dump him, no doubt for the glory of having bedded a prince. He had met plenty of women like her before and since, but he had not seen her rejection and betrayal coming and that irked him more than he wanted to admit. No one had done that to him before. He had never had his pride rubbed in the dust like that, but then that was Cassie for you. She had come along with those amazing green eyes, her long, silky, blonde hair and sensually seductive wiles, and snatched the breath right out of his chest.

His eyes ran over her appraisingly. She was wearing a shell-pink sheath of a dress that clung lovingly to her willowy frame, highlighting the small but perfect globes of her breasts, skimming over the slight, almost boyish hips and the endless legs that had so many times wrapped around his in the throes of their heated passion. Her slender arms were bare, but on her left wrist she wore a pearl bracelet which he had noticed her fiddling with earlier with those slim fingers of hers.

Sebastian had to remind himself Cassandra Kyriakis had killed her father with those very delicate feminine hands. The lesser charge of manslaughter didn’t make her any less of a murderess, or at least certainly not according to the press and public’s view. But right now she didn’t look capable of doing anyone harm. She looked nervous, agitated almost, her bottom lip being savaged by her small white teeth, and her body looked tense and ill at ease.

A little stab of guilt pierced him. His threat had perhaps been a little heavy-handed and ruthless, but he had to be absolutely sure she would keep quiet about their previous relationship. He would make it worth her while, although any dealings he had with her now would have to be conducted under the strictest secrecy. The press were like sniffer dogs when it came to the Karedes royal family and it would be risky even being seen talking to her, but it would be well and truly worth it if he could achieve what he wanted. He knew it just by looking at her. The old adage might have it that revenge was a dish best served cold, but the sort of revenge Sebastian had in mind was going to be hot—blazingly so, for he had a score to settle with her and he knew where it would be settled best.

In his bed.

A palace official approached, and Sebastian exchanged a few words with him, turning back barely thirty seconds later to find Cassie had completely disappeared. He narrowed his gaze and scanned the crowd, looking for a flash of baby-pink chiffon or platinum-blonde hair, but there was none.

‘Are you looking for someone in particular, Your Royal Highness?’ the junior official asked. ‘I can organise security to find them for you if you like.’

Sebastian schooled his features into impassivity. There was only one aide in the palace he could trust with this sort of minefield situation, and this unfortunately was not him. ‘No,’ he said curtly. ‘That will not be necessary.’

The young man gave an obsequious bow and moved away. It was only then that Sebastian saw the tiny bracelet lying on the floor where Cassie had been standing such a short time ago. He bent down and picked it up, his fingers absently stroking over the string of smooth orbs as he scanned the dispersing crowd once more.

As yet another official approached, Sebastian surreptitiously slipped the bracelet into his trouser pocket, inwardly smiling as he let the pearls slide through his fingers, one by one.

Cinderella might have escaped from the ball, but this particular Prince Charming was going to lure her back to him with something even more fitting than a glass slipper.

‘Cassie, what’s wrong?’ Angelica, Cassie’s flatmate, asked as soon as she came in. ‘You look totally flustered. Is everything all right?’

Cassie closed the door and leaning back against it, pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers, her eyes squeezed tightly shut in a vain effort to ease the tension about to explode behind her temples. ‘No…no, I’m fine, just a headache.’ She opened her eyes and, pushing herself away from the door, moved farther into the flat.

‘Is Sam OK?’

‘Of course he is,’ Angelica assured her. ‘He was a bit unsettled at first, but I promised him you would be back as soon as you could, and he eventually went to sleep and hasn’t stirred since. I just checked him a few moments ago. He’s out for the count.’

‘That’s good,’ Cassie said, expelling a tiny breath of relief, although her stomach was still full of fist-like knots.

‘You worry too much, Cassie,’ Angelica admonished her gently. ‘Sam’s five years old now. He needs to learn to be away from you occasionally. You can’t keep him tied to you for ever, you know.’

‘I know. It’s just he’s never really got over being separated from me when I was in prison,’ Cassie said, trying not to think of that harrowing time when Sam’s desperate cries had echoed in her head for months after he was wrenched from her arms. She had been allowed to give birth to him inside the high walls of the Aristo prison and keep him with her until he turned three. Of all the suffering she had endured over the years that had been by far the very worst. Relinquishing Sam had felt like having one of her limbs torn off. She still had nightmares about it, waking up in a lather of sweat, in case someone had crept into the flat during the night and stolen her baby son away from her all over again.

‘You’re the one who hasn’t got over it,’ Angelica said astutely. ‘Put it in the past where it belongs. You’re on a roll now, Cassie. Your work at the orphanage is your ticket to a new life off the island once your parole is up. And, speaking of the orphanage, how did the fund-raising event go at the palace? Did you see Prince Sebastian? Is he as handsome as he looks in all the press photos?’

‘Um…yes, he is…’ Cassie felt her heart give a painful squeeze as she thought of that brooding, dark, all-seeing gaze. She had taken a huge risk leaving the gala so abruptly, but she couldn’t have coped with another torturous minute in Sebastian’s company. The air between them had been charged with sexual energy; she had felt it as soon as she looked into his face. She had felt the slow burn of his gaze through the fine layers of her dress, as if he was recalling every intimate inch of her and how he had pleasured her in the past. A shiver travelled the entire length of her spine at the thought of how she had come apart time and time again in his arms. Had he guessed she still felt the same way? Oh, please, God, don’tlet him have guessed!

Her fingers automatically went to her left wrist, her heart giving a sudden lurch of panic when she found it totally bare. ‘Oh, no!’

‘What’s wrong?’ Angelica asked. ‘You’ve gone as white as a ghost.’

Cassie swung around and backtracked her way to the front door of the tiny flat with agitated steps. ‘I’ve lost my bracelet,’ she said, searching the floor in rising desperation. ‘My mother’s pearl one. It must have fallen off on the way home. I was sure it was still on my wrist when I was at the palace.’

‘Maybe it fell off in the cab,’ Angelica suggested. ‘You could call up the company and ask them to look for it.’

Cassie turned to look at her friend. ‘I didn’t take a cab home.’

Angelica’s eyes widened. ‘You walked home in the dark in those shoes?’

No, I ran home in the dark, Cassie felt tempted to confess but instead said, ‘I felt like I needed the fresh air. The palace was crowded and…and stuffy.’

‘I’ll get a torch for you,’ Angelica said. ‘I’ll mind Sam while you retrace your steps, or do you think we should wait until morning when we can both search?’

Cassie shook her head determinedly. ‘No, someone might pick it up before then. I’ll go a few blocks and see if I can find it. I’m sure it can’t be too far away.’

‘Make sure you take your mobile with you,’ Angelica said. ‘You don’t know who might be out on the streets at this time of night. And you had better get changed. You are going to stick out like a sore thumb in that dress.’

Cassie quickly checked on Sam on her way to her room to change into a track suit and sneakers. He was sleeping peacefully, his beautiful face so like his father’s it made her heart contract again in unbearable pain. Her little son would never be able to run to his daddy and place his arms around his neck; he would never be able to look him in the those deep brown eyes exactly the same shade as his for reassurance, or for the guidance and support she could already see he so desperately needed.

He had been cheated of so much, just as she had, but she was going to do her utmost to make it up to him. As soon as her parole period was up she and Sam would be off the island and begin a new life, a life where no one knew who Cassie was, what she had supposedly done and—even more importantly—whose child she had secretly borne.

CHAPTER TWO

THE cobbled streets were lit with the occasional lamp post but even so Cassie felt the menacing shadows of the night creeping towards her with every step she took. She shone the narrow beam of the torch Angelica had given her around, but so far she had found nothing but the occasional cigarette butt or gum wrapper. It made her think of her father, how he as the town mayor had orchestrated a campaign to clean up the ancient streets of Aristo, even though his own home had contained the most filthy of all secrets.

Cassie gave a little shudder and forced the memories back and continued on her mission, her head down, her steps carefully measured as she went as close to the palace as she dared.

She was no more than three blocks away when she suddenly came up short, her heart thudding in fear as a pair of large male sports shoes were illuminated by her torch. She brought the beam shakily upwards to find Sebastian Karedes, dressed similarly to her in a dark track suit, his eyes unreadable as they meshed with hers.

‘Looking for something, Cassie?’ he asked.

Cassie had never imagined there would be a time in her life when she would have rather met a mugger on a dark street than the man she had once loved with all her being. She had faced fear before, many times, gut-wrenching fear that most people thankfully never had to face. But this was something else again. Sebastian had the power to destroy her in a way even her father hadn’t been able to do. Everything she had fought so long and hard for seemed to be hinged on these next few moments. The tension built in her spine; she could feel it moving up vertebra by vertebra, a vicelike grip that made her stomach crawl with the long spidery legs of apprehension.

‘I…I seem to have lost my bracelet,’ she said, lowering the torch. ‘I thought if I retraced my steps I might find it.’

‘You left without saying goodbye,’ he said. ‘I was hoping for a few more minutes with you in private. There are some things I would like to discuss with you.’

Cassie turned off the torch with her thumb in case the soft light showed the fear on her face. ‘I’m not sure it’s such a good idea for us to be seen anywhere together, Sebastian,’ she said. ‘You know what the paparazzi are like. You are about to be crowned as King. It would not do your reputation any favours being seen talking with an ex-prisoner.’

‘There is no one about now,’ he said. ‘We could go back to your place. We would not be disturbed there, I am sure.’

Cassie was glad he couldn’t see the way her eyes suddenly flared in panic. Sam was not the deepest of sleepers. He still occasionally wet the bed, which made him wake up distressed and call out for her. ‘No,’ she said, far too quickly. ‘I mean…it’s awkward…I…I have a flatmate.’

‘A man?’

‘No.’

‘You have no present lover?’

Cassie felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck start to prickle at the seemingly casually asked question. Unless she turned the torch back on she had no way of reading his expression, and even then there was no guarantee she would be able to decipher what motive lay behind his query. Sebastian was a master of disguising his feelings, if indeed he had any. She had often wondered if his aloofness and slight air of condescension were a guise or an innate part of his personality. She had never quite made up her mind either way. He had been trained from a young age to step up to the throne upon the death of his father, which had occurred only a few months ago. That he was prepared to risk being seen with her was as surprising as it was deeply disturbing.

Cassie knew she was at risk of revealing too much. She could feel it now even under the cloak of darkness. The pulse of her blood was like thunder in her veins, her breasts felt tight and sensitive, and that secret feminine place he had possessed so many times throbbed with a hollow ache that was almost painful.