The Duchess and Her Bodyguard

“If you don’t mind my saying so, it sounds to me as if you’ve already tried your wiles on the Secret Service men and couldn’t get away with it,” he said dryly. “You can forget trying anything on me.”

“Now see here, Commander,” she retorted, all traces of the wistful and sexy woman gone in the blink of an eyelid. The imperious duchess was back. “In spite of what you think about me, I am not a spoiled child. Nor am I a fool. I am not looking for trouble, either. I merely wish to see your country’s capital and I wish to see it my way.”

“I don’t have a problem with that as long as the Secret Service tags along,” he agreed. And then he asked the question that continued to bother him. “Of all the men you could have asked for as an escort, why me?”

She looked at him cooly. “Simply put, Commander, I chose you for an escort because you looked to have an open mind and apparently knew how to enjoy yourself. So, if you think my dressing up or dressing down will make me inconspicuous, I will allow it.”

Wade reluctantly nodded his agreement. In his book the lady could never be inconspicuous. He might take her shopping for nondescript clothing, but as for her fading into the tourist landscape, he wasn’t going to bank on it. Any more than he could bank on her complete cooperation.

To make matters worse, there seemed to be no way out of the escort duty.

Escorting the duchess around Washington might actually turn out to be interesting, he mused as he eyed the folds of sheer material designed to hide her pert breasts. Instead, they only managed to heighten his interest. He’d always felt that when a woman left some hint of modesty in her clothing, it did more for him than a blatant invitation.

Whoever had designed the duchess’s cocktail dress had known exactly what he or she was doing. And, from his own reaction to the way she looked, he wouldn’t have been surprised if the lady knew it, too. To muddy the waters, he was sure, from the parting look she gave him she hadn’t given up on persuading him to see things her way.

He followed her back to the party with a sinking feeling in his middle. He was going to have to protect the lady for a few days. But who was going to protect him from her?

Chapter Two

She hadn’t told him the whole truth.

May, as the family called her, hastily adjusted the neckline of the white evening dress that had drawn Wade Stevens’s frankly interested gaze. The whole truth, a truth she wasn’t about to share with him, was that she’d requested him as her escort because she’d been as attracted to him as he seemed to have been drawn to her.

His age, his personality and the probability he was more likely to understand her than the two older Secret Service men hovering over her, had been a factor in his favor. But the truth was that it had been his virile appearance in his immaculate white dress uniform that had first captivated her and then held her attention.

She’d kept her eyes on him while he’d worked his way through the room, occasionally stopping to chat with someone he knew. It had been his easy smile, the way the corner of his eyes crinkled as he laughed that had finally convinced her.

She’d sensed then he was a man who had a sense of humor and knew how to enjoy life. A man who would know how to make her laugh.

She hadn’t known much laughter during her arranged marriage. Married at nineteen to a titled cousin, chosen for her by her father, she had tried to be the proper wife her late, older husband had expected. He had suddenly fallen dead at her feet of a heart attack a year ago.

Her period of mourning over, she had taken her father up on his invitation to travel with him on this short trip to the United States. She was desperate to enjoy her stay. Now was her chance to enjoy her youth and taste the freedom that had evaded her as a member of the royal family of Baronovia, and, until the recent birth of her half brother, its heir apparent.

The sight-seeing agenda laid out for her by the U.S. State Department had left her cold. The rules laid down by her Secret Service escorts had left her even colder. As for the commander, he may have been right about her wanting to see a side of Washington that was more than its stone monuments, but she didn’t care. She was more determined than ever to visit the places she’d longed to see.

If it meant using her royal status to charm or intimidate him into seeing things her way, so be it.

It was too bad she had to play a game with him, she thought regretfully as he held the door open for her. He appeared to be a genuinely decent man. Just as she knew herself to be a flesh-and-blood human woman under the role of imperious royalty she was playing. In different circumstances she might have enjoyed meeting him.

“EVERYTHING SETTLED?” Undersecretary of the navy Logan materialized at Wade’s elbow.

“You might say so, sir,” Wade agreed cautiously with a glance at the duchess.

“Good.” As Logan shook Wade’s hand, his relief was evident. “What’s on your sight-seeing agenda for tomorrow?”

“Sorry, sir,” Wade replied. “I’ve found it best never reveal my plans ahead of time.”

Logan started to speak, then appeared to change his mind. “Of course, Commander. You’re in charge.” He smiled at the duchess. “With your permission, Your Grace, I’ll leave you in the commander’s capable hands. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.” He bowed and hurried away.

Wade had been tempted to laugh when Logan acted if a diplomatic crisis had been averted. A stickler for propriety and rules, if Logan had known of Wade’s plans, he would have nixed the idea of shopping for appropriate clothing in Wal-Mart.

Somehow the idea didn’t sound amusing anymore.

Wade gazed down at the duchess. She’d tried to use her charm on him to get her way, but it wasn’t going to work. He’d actually expected her to tell Logan she’d changed her mind about wanting him for an escort. Instead, she’d slipped her hand through his arm, smiled and gazed up at Wade as if she was a star-struck fan of his.

Wade knew better. The wily duchess had an agenda. Although she seemed to have given in to his conditions for their outings, her teasing smile was a dead giveaway. Instinct told him the dimples that danced across her cheeks hid the truth.

He gazed down at her manicured hand. Another gesture that gave her away. He knew that royalty didn’t normally touch strangers. The duchess was acting, trying to use charm to get her way. Only time and his watchful eyes would tell what was behind that smile of hers.

He didn’t trust her as far as the front door to the Blair House.

“You are going to at least consult with me on our agenda, are you not?” the duchess said in a silky voice that dripped with honey.

He wasn’t buying.

Wade hesitated long enough to see her squirm, a question in her eyes. Good. He intended to keep her on edge while he laid down the rules. “That depends on what you have in mind.”

She took her hand away. “To begin with, I saw all of your national monuments that I care to see on our way in from the airport. Now I want to see the other side of the city.”

“Hold it right there,” Wade ordered before the last words were out of her mouth. “I don’t know what you mean by the other side of the city, but I have a strong suspicion it’s the wrong side.”

“Perhaps,” she added with a frown. “At least, the Secret Service agents seemed to think so. Nevertheless I have my mind made up. I will see no more monuments.”

“Really.” Wade’s eyebrows rose and came together. “Just what did you have in mind?”

“I shall give you a list tomorrow, after you call off the Secret Service. Right now I would like to speak to my father.” She started to move away.

“As a matter of fact, so would I.” Before she could take a second step, Wade touched her elbow and urged her to a corner of the room. “First let’s get something straight, Your Grace. You tell me what you’d like to see, then I’ll tell you if I agree. And as for the Secret Service men, forget calling them off. Like I said, they’re in.”

Her face paled and her eyes turned as cold as the glittering emeralds around her neck. “I think you’re forgetting who I am and who you are, Commander.”

Wade felt as if he’d been slapped in the face.

“Not at all, Your Grace,” he said with as much restraint as he could muster. “I’m Commander Wade Stevens, of the United States Navy. A lawyer attached to the Judge Advocate General Corps. While I’m not normally in the escort business, I am also the man you apparently asked for as an escort. And as your chosen escort I get to make the rules. You might say,” he added dryly, “you’re in my hands for the duration of your stay.”

At the annoyed expression that came across her face, Wade began to wonder if the duchess actually knew the reason his government was interested in protecting her. Or if she realized that if she hadn’t been in some kind of danger, the Secret Service and his own services would never have been called into play. Just how urgent remained to be seen.

He settled for the middle ground. “Where I come from, Your Grace, anything worth doing is worth doing well. Especially after an order from my superiors. So, how about starting over? As long as we appear to be stuck with each other for the next few days, how about a truce?”

He knew, even as he asked the question, that any truce the lady might agree to wasn’t going to be worth the powder to blow it to hell.

MAY GAZED in stony silence at the man who was turning out to be her bodyguard as well as her escort. Instead of being intimidated by her royal status, he appeared not to be impressed. Part of her was annoyed, even angry at his take-charge attitude. Another part, the sensible part of her, admired his courage. If there ever was a man she wanted as an escort around Washington, D.C., it was this Wade Stevens. From the moment she’d watched him make his way across the room in his eye-catching uniform, she’d sensed that a woman could be a woman and enjoy herself with him. Now, if she could only make him see things her way.

He stood more than six foot tall, with wavy brown hair and hazel eyes that changed with his thoughts. In his pristine white uniform, his athletic figure stirred emotions in her no other man before him had managed to do. Certainly not her late husband.

When their gazes locked, she realized that she wanted more than Wade Stevens’s company. She wanted him as a woman wants a man, and, heaven forgive her, in ways she was almost embarrassed to contemplate.

On the other hand, attracted to him or not, she had promised herself she would never let a man control her again the way her late husband had been wont to do. And certainly not a person from another country. Asking her to cooperate with him was one thing. Ordering her to do it was another.