The Princess and the Playboy

‘I wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ she assured him. ‘After you’ve shown me the site of your resort, I want to show you a Crystal Bay which outsiders seldom see.’

He felt a frown etch his brow. ‘Carting me around some picturesque village won’t make me change my plans, if that’s what you’re hoping.’ It didn’t take a genius to work out that she didn’t favour the resort, which was strange, given her husband’s involvement with tourism.

Her look was mild but her hands wove together in her lap, he noted. ‘Somehow I doubt if anyone makes you do anything, Jase.’

She didn’t exactly say, ‘So who am I to try?’ And she didn’t bat her eyelids. But both were implied. He got a sense of performance in her behaviour today, as if she were acting a part. Probably the submissive Sapphan woman, he decided. Feminism wasn’t exactly rampant here but neither were the women especially submissive. They owned property, ran businesses, held government office, exactly as they did in his own country. Maybe she had some notion of using feminine wiles to influence his plans. ‘Why didn’t you go with Michael to Europe?’ he asked, suddenly suspicious.

She shrugged. ‘He didn’t ask me to.’ It was the absolute truth.

‘You didn’t remain behind precisely so we could have the discussion we’re having now?’

She drew herself up. Regal was the only word which fitted her bearing, as if she wasn’t accustomed to having her word doubted. ‘What are you implying, Jase?’

He folded his arms across his chest. ‘You don’t like the idea of a resort at Crystal Bay.’ It wasn’t a question. Her behaviour had already given him the answer.

‘I make no secret of it,’ she confirmed. ‘Today I mean to show you my reasons.’

Honesty at last. He nodded slowly. ‘This should prove fascinating.’

The road to the resort site at Crystal Bay was a winding dirt track, littered with fist-sized stones. Jase kept the car windows wound up against the gritty dust blowing against the glass. ‘This road is the first thing I plan to upgrade,’ he said through clenched teeth.

The daunting road also deterred outsiders from intruding on the villagers’ way of life, but Talay kept the thought to herself, reluctant to invite another lecture about the dangers of stagnation.

Another jolt threw her sideways against Jase and she was forced to cling to him until she could lever herself upright. About the only benefit she could see in a smooth road was to save her the indignity of constantly being thrown into contact with him, she thought, feeling her face flame. In the driving mirror she glimpsed amusement dancing in his eyes. The wretched man was enjoying this.

Fortunately, he blamed the jolting ride rather than the intimacy of the contact for her discomfiture. She would die before admitting that every move, every touch between them, sent her senses haywire. She had never experienced anything remotely like his effect on her, and it took her breath away. Keeping her mind on her mission was becoming more and more of a challenge.

‘I gather you’re a jewellery designer,’ he surprised her by saying.

Her startled look flitted to him. ‘How did you know?’

‘This morning I saw some sketches you left lying on the coffee-table. From the look of them, you have a lot of talent. I’m surprised Michael never mentioned it.’

Her thoughts raced. ‘It’s something I studied as a single woman.’

Jase nodded, his lean hands flexed around the steering-wheel as he controlled the powerful car over the tortuous road. ‘And now you’ve decided to go back to it.’ He shot her a sidelong look. ‘Are you and Michael having some trouble?’

Her eyebrows lifted involuntarily. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘I can add up. He didn’t ask you to go with him to Europe. You’re reviving an interest in a former career. And you obviously don’t see eye to eye on the resort plans.’ Without warning he stopped the car and turned to her. ‘What are you playing at?’

Confusion ripped through her. His instincts had warned him she wasn’t being honest with him but he had reached a totally unexpected—and wrong—conclusion. ‘What do you mean?’ she hedged.

‘Michael didn’t sign the message inviting me to use the villa in his absence. Did you send it, Allie?’

‘What makes you think—?’

He seized her wrist and turned her to face him. ‘First things first. Did you send the message?’

White-hot anger seared her veins. ‘You forget with whom you’re dealing.’ In dismay she realised her imperious tone belonged more to Princess Talay than Allie Martine.

His hold didn’t slacken but thankfully he misunderstood the source of her rage. ‘It’s a bit late to remind me of your married status now, isn’t it? You should have remembered it before arranging for us to be alone.’

‘I have no idea what you mean.’ In truth, she didn’t.

His hard gaze bored into her. ‘Don’t you? You may think you know what kind of man I am—but think again. In spite of my reputation, I have no interest in providing a fling for a woman whose marriage has gone stale.’

Horror gripped Talay. She had never dreamed he would misinterpret her actions so completely. She couldn’t let him believe Allie would do such a thing. ‘You’re wrong,’ she stated emphatically. ‘There’s nothing amiss with the marriage.’

His eyebrows climbed. ‘The marriage, Allie? It’s a peculiar way to describe a love match, surely? What about, “I still love Michael”? Say it and I’ll admit I’m out of line.’

The silence in the car became deafening. Lies argued against Talay’s nature. Already she wished with all her heart that she had never pretended to be Allie. She couldn’t bring herself to compound her crimes by telling Jase she loved Michael.

An impatient breath whistled past Jase’s lips. ‘I rest my case. So there’s only one thing left to prove.’

Something in his tone set her senses on full alert. ‘What do you—?’

Before she could finish the question he slid an arm around her neck and pulled her towards him, the suddenness of the movement driving the air out of her lungs. His mouth crashed down on hers and she was enveloped in a sensation like drowning.

It was drowning of the most sensuous sort and the protest she tried to make forced her lips apart, exactly the way he wanted them she found out when his tongue sought hers in a sinuous dance. She had been kissed before, but never so compellingly that she could hardly think.

Then, somewhere between her attempted cry of protest and his invasion of her mouth, something changed. All the pent-up emotion of the last few hours forced its way into her response until she found herself returning his kiss with all the passion in her soul.

Her arms came up and wound around his neck, her fingers threading through his wonderful long hair which felt like silk. The firmness of his scalp was another source of sensory wonder and she explored it with fingertips as sensitised as a surgeon’s. She felt hungry for something beyond food, thirsty for something beyond water. Blackness fringed the edges of her vision and she wondered fleetingly if you could pass out from an overload of sensual pleasure.

She never found out. As abruptly as he had begun the kiss, he ended it by drawing away from her, imposing a yawning chasm of space between them as he folded his arms and stared grimly out of the window.

As the sensual heat subsided Talay’s muscles ached, as if from a mile-long run. ‘What is it?’ she asked. Why had he stopped before they had barely begun?

He heard the question, without her having to say it aloud. ‘There’s no need to go on. I’ve proved my point. If you want more you’ll have to find some other man to provide it. Michael is my friend.’

Fighting a crushing sense of disappointment, she decided to tell him the truth. She couldn’t let him go on thinking Allie would ever seek an affair outside her marriage. Not only were she and Michael blissfully happy, they were planning for the arrival of their first child at this very moment.

‘This isn’t what you think,’ she began. ‘I’m not—’

‘Save it, I’m not interested in a litany of Michael’s shortcomings as a husband,’ he cut across her savagely. In spite of her turmoil, Talay was mesmerised by the way his breathing came and went, came and went, as if he, too, had been affected by the kiss. But his voice was steady as he said, ‘If I had a choice I’d turn this car around and take you home right now, but my foreman expects me at Crystal Bay in a few minutes so I have to show up. Once we get there I’ll have someone else drive you back. Until then I don’t want to hear another word out of you.’

As a princess she should have found the injunction shocking. No one spoke to her in such a demeaning way. But in her present guise she understood and even admired his loyalty to his friend. But he had to let her tell him the truth. ‘Please let me—’

With the swiftness of a king cobra, he moved to clamp a hand over her mouth, silencing her. ‘Not a word, understand?’

Over the warm pressure of his fingers she saw the determined glint firing his eyes, and she had no choice but to nod. His palm tasted salty against her lips which felt swollen from his kiss. It came to her that he would be stunned when he found out how he’d treated a member of the royal family. It was a pity Sapphan no longer imposed the death penalty for lese-majesty, she raged inwardly. She would take great pleasure in making Jase pay for his callous treatment. At her nod he slowly removed his hand.

Trying to explain would only invite more punishment so she sat in mutinous silence while he restarted the car and drove the remaining distance to Crystal Bay. When they arrived she was too stunned by the scene which met her eyes to say anything.

He noticed her stillness. ‘It looks worse than it is,’ he assured her calmly. ‘We have a complete reafforestation plan in place to ensure that every tree removed and more are put back before we’re done. I have thousands of baobabs, coconut palms, tamarinds, frangipani and flame trees on standby for this area alone.’

‘Big of you,’ she muttered. She was still smarting from the physical way he had ensured her silence.