Page 13 of Out of Office Nights (Royals of Cartana #2)

Teo pulled up at the villa he’d rented seven miles away from Sabeen’s house.

For endless moments, he remained in the saddle, earning himself puzzled looks from his security detail.

He’d already made them nervous enough when the motorbike had been delivered. They had no doubt reported him to Valenti, their boss. Teo would bet a hefty slice of his fortune that his twin would text him with strident views about his recklessness before morning.

That was Valenti’s clinical way of coping. Teo didn’t begrudge him that. But neither could he live his life by his twin’s strait-laced standards.

Especially when he knew his father would sooner shuffle off his mortal coil than show his own son an ounce of regard.

Acid churned in his gut at the recollection of his father’s words at the wedding.

He vehemently suppressed it, begrudgingly glancing up at the property his assistant had secured for him.

It was beautiful, of course, as befitting a man of his status.

The mellow stone blended well with the arched Moorish windows and the yellow light spilling from within.

The interior was equally welcoming.

Except he didn’t want to be here, seven miles away . He gritted his teeth as visions of another room, and the person occupying it, filled his head.

Dios mio. He was going out of his mind.

Every reason he’d conjured up for pursuing this thing with Sabeen disarmed and disturbed him.

You should cut your losses. Let it go and move on.

But…instinct insisted that unlocking her talent would be vital to his goals. Plus, hadn’t he vowed to make her regret those assumptions about him? Wasn’t that why he’d jumped straight into the hunt when she’d finally been located?

His skin tingled with anticipation. With the thrill of killing two birds with one stone. Taking a dire situation and turning it around so he wouldn’t be deemed so…superfluous? So worthless to both his father and Sabeen.

‘Your Highness?’

‘What?’ he snarled.

His head bodyguard took a step back.

Teo sighed. ‘What is it?’ He tried modulating his voice.

It didn’t work. That hollow sensation stalking through him only intensified.

Cartana was a mere two and half hours away by air.

He could be there before midnight. He could confront the old man, demand to know why it was so easy to be discarded.

Then maybe he might be free of this…this burr in his side he refused to admit was corroding something inside him.

Except, could he live with causing his father’s condition to worsen? Some bored deity was toying with him, because every time Teo and his brothers believed their father was on a definite road to recovery, he would suffer a setback. Keep them dancing on their toes.

Would he even hold on long enough for what Teo had planned?

‘We’re just checking…if everything’s okay?’

Teo glanced past the guard to the stunning, empty house. And just because he could, he smirked at himself for the frivolous notion. ‘No, it’s not. Contact my staff. Tell them to find me another villa. Closer.’

The man stared at him, wary and befuddled. ‘Closer…to what?’

He jerked off the bike, tossing his helmet at the guard who, to his credit, expertly caught it. Teo would endorse Valenti giving him a raise.

He and his crew had only given him minimal hassle.

Not so much the four previous teams, who seemed to object to Teo’s occasional penchant for going AWOL without warning.

Advising Valenti that he needed to hire men who could keep up with him hadn’t gone down well.

But his twin had eventually heeded that advice.

‘Your Highness?’

Gritting his teeth at the reminder of the royal blood running through his veins, he stalked to the front door. What had the man asked? Right, about the relocation…

‘Closer to her!’

His mood wasn’t much improved when he woke up five hours later. A run on the beach followed by a swim in the chilly North Atlantic invigorated him enough. But the tightness in his chest as he knocked on Sabeen’s door thirty minutes later unsettled him anew.

She opened the door, wearing a simple short-sleeved white linen top and a pair of orange shorts meant to keep her cool in the hot temperatures.

Except it left her miles-long legs on sinful display.

The deep V hinted at mouth-watering cleavage, visible turquoise straps hinting at the bikini beneath it.

Which of course conjured up images he couldn’t easily banish from his mind.

Of her in his arms, her sublime taste in his mouth.

He really should’ve spent twenty-four hours in Monaco. Still could. Except the idea left a sour taste in his mouth, enough to draw a grimace.

Seeing it, she tensed, and her face, not entirely beaming in welcome but composed enough, turned a touch chilly.

‘ Buenos dias ,’ he greeted her, a little rougher than planned. ‘Sleep well?’

‘Yes. But maybe I should be asking you that?’ Lushly lashed eyes swept over him, and every inch they travelled left a trail of heat he wanted to growl at.

The urge to rile her up struck hard. And yes, he wished for someone to be in the same irate mood he was in. But Dios , even he wasn’t that childish. ‘Nothing another coffee wouldn’t fix.’

She studied him for another few seconds, then stepping back, pivoted on the balls of her feet. Sure enough, that drew his attention like a shark to prey, and heaven help him, the sight of her bare legs and feet did something to him. Every inch of her taunted and tempted.

Monaco. Next stop. As soon as he was done here.

But maybe not for sex. It would please him greatly to spend a night at his favourite Monte Carlo gambling table, taunting some pompous CEO into losing a few million or his most prized supercar.

Speeding up and down the hills of the French countryside with a newly won sports car always cheered him up.

He shut the door behind him then paused when that hollow sensation in his middle instantly lessened. Valenti would tell him he was losing his mind. Teo wouldn’t fight that assertion.

By the time he prowled down the hallway into the living room, she was returning from the kitchen, a mug of coffee in hand.

‘Black, no sugar?’ she asked, her gaze stalling on the rim of the cup before rising to his.

He shouldn’t have felt a sliver of satisfaction that she knew how he took his coffee, and yet there he was, basking in it.

He took it, nodding his thanks. Then tensed at the disarray on the dining table.

‘You started without me?’ Teo abstractly registered that he generally experienced three settings with her.

Vexation. Taunting. Temptation. None of them reaped benefits satisfying enough to please him.

The unwelcome truth was that Sabeen unbalanced him in a way he didn’t enjoy.

And it was a failing he needed to work out of his system.

‘You were supposed to get a good night’s sleep so you can start with a clear head.’

She stiffened then moved away from him to the table. ‘I never sleep past dawn. I didn’t see the benefit of just idling in bed when I could be sketching.’

He drained his cup just for something to do besides picturing her in bed. ‘There’s a reason delayed gratification produces indescribable benefits.’

The surge of heat in her cheeks pleased him far too much. ‘You want me to bottle everything up until I’m at the point of explosion?’ she tossed out, then groaned softly under her breath. ‘I won’t be reduced to making sexual innuendos as part of this process.’

Santo cielo , neither could he. Not if he wanted to keep his sanity.

‘Then, let me put it simply. You need to dig deeper. Go bolder.’ When she blinked her incredible eyes at him, he pushed on. ‘Tell me what you were feeling when you created Eden’s wedding gown.’

‘Mainly? Deep irritation with you because you couldn’t stand your brother’s anxiety about his wedding so you decided to share your ill temper with everyone else!’

True, but there’d been the underlying reason, the perennial one that demanded perfection so he couldn’t be seen as flawed. Only valuable. ‘Be that as it may, what you created was far from hideous. It most definitely wasn’t angry. So?’

‘Friendship?’

‘Is that a question?’

She huffed. ‘Fine. Friendship. She was… is beautiful and kind, and after what she’d been through, she deserved something memorable and gorgeous. Something unique.’

He nodded, picked up one sketch to examine it. ‘Good. Now, forget Eden. Pick someone else equally important to you. Find something that has made an equal impact on you. Put your own unique take on it.’

Sabeen watched him, a little intimidated by how easily he cut through obstacles. By the electrifying presence he conjured up just by being . ‘Is that what you do?’

The chameleon morphed again, an eerie mixture of resolve and bleakness washing over his face.

He didn’t disguise it. Hell, he almost exulted in her seeing it.

Openly warning her she’d fail if she attempted to define him.

‘No, carina . My demons feed me all the inspiration I need,’ he drawled without a hint of humour or cynicism.

He meant every word of that.

Shock shortened her breath. His gaze dropped to her mouth, instantly spinning awareness tighter, more urgently around them.

If Farah was sunshine and smiles, embracing love and light with a loud, full-throated voice, Teo was turning out to be multilayered, the thickest of which was the Playboy Prince persona he’d fully mastered.

The one which she needed to guard herself against. Because while she understood now that he was deadly on all fronts, that was the one she knew would be most potent.

She’d seen him wield it in a three-minute clinch that still sent shockwaves through her every time she thought about it.