Page 7 of Incognito (Royally Reckless #1)

7

“ W hat are you doing here?”

Natasha glared at Clay, hating the perfection of his smooth blond hair artfully gelled, the supercilious sneer, the cocky squared shoulders ready for battle.

She loathed him.

She hated him.

Yet she’d once loved him with all her heart.

Thank goodness she had a wake up call before she made the biggest mistake of her life.

Being engaged to the cocky jerk had ruined her family. She shuddered to think what would’ve happened if she’d gone all the way and walked up the aisle.

Sadly, she already knew.

The scumbag had told her in great detail, when she’d broken off their engagement after learning the truth about why a suave entrepreneur would be interested in marrying a hospitality worker.

“I guess there’s no need to ask what you’re doing.” Clay sneered. “It’s obvious you’ve taken up sport since we parted.” His glare made her feel like she’d been doused in slime. “Tonsil hockey.”

“Leave the lady alone,” Dante said, his voice low with menace, a protective arm still wrapped around her waist, and Natasha instinctively snuggled deeper before realising she shouldn’t.

But she didn’t want to move. Having Dante’s arm supporting her felt good in the face of Clay’s derision.

Clay’s withering gaze turned on Dante. “And I must’ve been mistaken about you. I thought you were the Prince of Calida back there, but guess I was wrong.”

“I’m no prince,” Dante said, his hand tightening on her waist.

Natasha stiffened, knowing how much Dante’s privacy meant and what a prick like Clay could do with the information if he found out. Guys like Clay did everything for a reason, usually involving getting ahead in the world and looking out for number one, themselves.

“Instead, you’re Natasha’s new boyfriend. How sweet.” There was nothing remotely sweet about Clay’s false saccharine or the nasty leer he turned on her. “I should’ve known. There’s no way a prince would be remotely interested in someone like you.”

Natasha flinched despite the shield she’d built around her ego after ending the relationship with Clay.

Damn him for still having the power to hurt her.

Damn him for being here and potentially ruining her plan to use the prince to salvage something from the mess Clay had lumbered her family with.

“Apologise to the lady,” Dante said, his voice a low growl. “Now.”

Dante’s arm slipped from her waist as he took a step forward and crazily, she missed his solid warmth.

Clay’s sneer turned sinister, the same expression she’d seen when she told him what he could do with his two carat baguette diamond the night she’d come to her senses.

“Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?” Clay matched Dante’s step forward until the two were almost toe to toe.

Natasha laid a steadying hand on Dante’s arm, shocked how hot his bare skin felt under her palm and how much she liked it.

“He’s someone you’ll never be,” she said, wishing she’d had the guts to inject this much scorn into her voice the last time they spoke, when Clay threatened her family yet again. “Now get lost.”

It didn’t pack the same punch as ‘fuck off’ but she didn’t want to appear uncouth in front of Dante, not when she hoped to get him onside for her plan.

Clay’s eyes narrowed to slits, reminding her of a snake she’d once seen at Australia’s biggest reptile park: dangerous, slimy, lethal.

“You’ll be sorry,” he said, so softly she could’ve imagined it.

However, Dante’s bunched forearm muscles under her hand told her she hadn’t. Wound tighter than a spring, Dante looked ready to defend her honour whether she needed it or not.

As much as she liked Dante’s chivalry, she didn’t need an international incident on her hotel’s doorstep. Besides, Clay wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t worth anything.

Not anymore.

“First you don’t apologise, now you’re threatening the lady?” Dante shrugged off her restraining hand and now stood inches away from Clay’s face, while Natasha struggled between wanting to leap on Dante’s back to distract him and slug Clay herself. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I was the fool going to marry her,” Clay said, casting one last malevolent glare her way before turning on his heel and striding away.

Clay’s cowardice shouldn’t surprise her. Nothing about him surprised her, considering what he’d put her through, what he’d put her family through.

Dante turned to face her, incredulous. “You were engaged to that dick?”

“Don’t remind me.” She held up her hand as if trying to ward off further talk of Clay. Needless to say, a smart guy like Dante didn’t buy it for a second.

“You can do so much better than him.” Dante spoke softly, his blue eyes warm, a tentative smile flirting around his mouth as he reached out and captured her hands.

Natasha had expected him to interrogate her, to question her lousy judgement, rather than hold her hands with a gentle tenderness that brought a lump to her throat.

She stared at their linked hands, enjoying the solid warmth they provided, a comfort she never got from the few times Clay would deign to be touched in public.

But she shouldn’t be enjoying Dante’s comforting touch. He was a prince, a prince she needed to save her business, a prince who needed his identity protected, yet here she was, turning to mush over his chivalry out the front of her hotel.

Disengaging her hands from his, she folded her arms over her chest. “What was the urgent business?”

And what was all that scintillating kissing about , though she wisely kept that question to herself for now. She needed to focus before she tackled him over his kisses, considering her resistance was at an all time low following his knight-in-shining-armour impersonation.

“That idiot was following me. He called out ‘Prince’ several times but I ignored him. I wanted you to meet me out the front so you could pretend to be my girlfriend and throw him off track.”

He had the grace to look sheepish. “I didn’t know he was your ex. I’m sorry about that. Fate has a way of laughing at me when I least expect it.”

That explained his overzealous welcome when he’d first seen her outside the hotel. But his kisses had seemed so real…

Natasha tilted her chin up and glared at Dante. “Pretty stupid plan.”

He shrugged, more adorable than guilty or apologetic, with that sexy smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “It was all I could think of on the spur of the moment. I can’t let anyone know who I am. You know that, it’s too important to me.”

Natasha stifled a snort. “When I gave you my number for emergencies, I didn’t expect…” she trailed off, not wanting to bring up the sizzling kisses, yet knowing it couldn’t be ignored. “This,” she finished lamely, waving a hand between the two of them.

“You mean the way I kissed you?”

With a cheeky glint in his eyes, his gaze focussed on her lips and they tingled at the memory of his wonderful technique, how he made her forget every worry she had.

“Yes, that.”

Heat seeped into her cheeks, scorching with embarrassment. It wasn’t that he’d kissed her but how she’d responded, like a woman who liked it way too much, and she suspected he knew.

“Like I said, a spur of the moment impulse,” he said, a hint of laughter in his voice. “I apologise if it wasn’t right.”

“Oh no, it was fine,” she blurted, before clamping her lips shut in horror.

He’d meant it wasn’t the right thing to do, she’d responded about his technique. Could the ground just open up and swallow her now? Please?

Thankfully, he didn’t call her on her monstrous gaff. He just stood there looking way too sexy, with his grin, his tousled hair, and those gorgeous blue eyes sparkling with humour.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” he said, giving another of those quaint little bows that must be signature for royalty in Calida. “Shall we retire?”

Natasha nodded and managed a sedate ‘uh-huh’ before she made a total ass of herself and took his question as an invitation to go up to his room and tuck in his royal pain-in-the-ass.

As they entered the elaborate lobby and she caught site of herself in the huge ornate mirrors lining the pillars, Natasha stifled a groan. Grey sweatpants, a pale blue hoodie, and navy-beaded flip-flops did little to accentuate her makeup-less face and wet ponytail.

She looked like a bedraggled waif next to a tanned god, and for a split second, chastised herself for wishing things were different and annoyed that she cared.

Forgetting his royal status, what would it be like to stroll into a hotel with a guy like Dante by her side? A guy who protected his woman, a guy who looked like every woman’s walking-talking fantasy, a guy who could kiss like a dream?

“In your dreams,” she muttered, grateful when the lifts came into sight.

“Pardon?”

She forced a tight smile. “Goodnight.”

“Pleasant dreams,” Dante murmured, planting a quick kiss on her cheek before she could move. “And thank you once again.”

Natasha whirled on her heel and entered the lift for the apartments, her cheek tingling, her emotions in turmoil. She waited until she heard the zing of the lift for the hotel rooms before turning around, tapping the button for her floor, and sinking against the side wall, grateful for the support.

She needed it, with her head spinning from encountering Clay, kissing Dante, and the pathetic way she’d tied herself up in knots.

Definitely time for that choc-fudge ice-cream. Though after the last half hour, nothing less than the tub would do.