Page 18 of Out of Office Nights (Royals of Cartana #2)

‘There’s a rumour that you—’

‘I don’t deal in rumours. I go to the source if it’s important enough or not at all.’

She paused, gathered her breath. ‘Is it true you seduced your friend’s older sister into teaching you fashion design?’ she blurted. Then cringed as his eyebrows slowly rose in clear derision and flames devoured her face.

Had she gone insane? Of all the questions, she chose to ask him this?

His gaze dropped to his wine glass for a long pause. ‘You’ve been reading the tabloids. I wouldn’t have pegged you for a gossipmonger.’

She scrambled to regain composure that’d fled in acute mortification, her cover-up shrug almost disintegrating when his gaze dipped to her bare shoulder. ‘When you hear the same story repeatedly, it’s hard not to believe there’s no smoke without fire.’

His quicksilver gaze rose, unapologetic, to lock hers in place.

‘First of all, he wasn’t a friend. He was the arrogant son of an aristocrat who believed himself better than me because I was born out of wedlock.

’ He paused, smiled humourlessly. ‘I would’ve let it go if he hadn’t dragged Valenti into his denigrating slurs.

Then he needed to be taught a lesson. I chose the most effective one. ’

Her breath strangled in her throat. ‘You seduced her as payback for whatever her brother did?’

‘You sound surprised. And yet you don’t hesitate to look down that sexy nose at me for being an amoral playboy.’

‘I—’ She bit her tongue to avoid stating a clear untruth. Her hesitation earned her another derisive stare. It raked her face, exposing her every thought before he took a lazy sip of his wine.

‘I promise you she wasn’t an unwilling participant. Turned out she was equally peeved about her brother’s antics. So we collaborated.’

‘Then carried on collaborating?’

Another flash of pristine white teeth in a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. ‘Indeed. It was a productive summer that turned out to be life-changing.’

Something sharp and poisonous lanced low in her gut. That infernal jealousy. ‘Because you discovered you had an affinity for reducing women to pools of lust? Or was it more a challenge to see if you could give Lothario a run for his money?’

The glint in his eyes sharpened. Turned dangerous and ominous.

‘You seem entirely fixated on my epic sexual chronicles. Some might even say you’re obsessed.

’ His mighty regal head tilted, and she wanted to hate the way the golden terrace lights poured over him, casting him perfectly in that fallen-angel illusion of light and shadows that had mesmerised her from the moment she’d first set eyes on him.

She wanted to rail at the unfairness of it, but if life was fair, she wouldn’t be in this position.

Wouldn’t be tolerating this insufferable situation.

Tolerating? Really? Drinking fine wine in a gorgeous villa with even more breathtaking company?

She pushed the droll taunting away. ‘You’ve foisted relaxation on me. The least you can do is make conversation. If you’re too scared to delve deep, then I’m happy to sit in silence.’

‘ Delve deep ?’ he enquired, the weighty silkiness draping his questions layering every inch of her skin in gooseflesh.

It didn’t help that the words projected wildly carnal images in her mind.

A searing reminder of how long it’d been since she’d permitted sex to come within a whisker of impeding her thoughts or life.

‘Is that what we’re doing? Are you sure you want to go there, carina ?’

Heat surged higher, engulfing her whole being.

And while it wasn’t the wisest thing in the world, she couldn’t back down from his blatant challenge.

‘It isn’t the strangest thing in the world to want to know a little bit about your boss after working for him for this long, is it? I don’t even know your middle name.’

She’d expected another one-two punch of derision, maybe even a flash of his spine-melting but empty smile.

She wasn’t prepared for the wave of icy chill that spilled over his features, the dimming of the glint in his eyes or the tension that gripped and held him for a handful of heartbeats before he visibly slouched against his chair.

For the longest time, he remained silent until she thought he didn’t intend to answer.

‘My middle name is Alfonse, after my father,’ he eventually offered without a single inflection, his gaze rising to track a flock of birds racing across the horizon. ‘By deliberate and trenchant intention on my mother’s part.’

‘Why?’ she asked, acutely aware of the deepening rasp in her voice.

The stiffness in his body. But she was helpless to push the implications back.

She cared about his answer. Cared about why a middle name had peeled back layers of the veneer she was used to seeing, granting her a hazy glimpse beneath. A glimpse of…anguish?

A muscle twitched in his cheek as his gaze moved from the swimming pool to the dark expanse of the sea a hundred yards away.

‘Firstly, she mistakenly thought it would sway my father into changing his mind about his choice of bride. Then it was so she could shame him over what she deemed his promiscuity. Flaunt his misdeeds to the world just before he married someone else.’ He settled deeper into his seat, but the indolence he’d displayed all day was markedly missing.

The tension riding him was familiar now, similar to his tension that evening of the wedding. Notably reappearing over these last few days. Today.

And it led directly to his parents.

‘Why would she want to do that?’

A mask of bitterness etched his face in mesmerising marble.

Even his eyes were pools of bleakness as he stared into the middle distance.

Then rousing, he exhaled long and slow. ‘Because my father committed the crime of choosing another woman over her. He chose to marry the mother of his firstborn son. A choice she, who had birthed twins and nearly died in the process, therefore believing herself to be saint-adjacent, took great exception to.’

‘But… I read that he hadn’t planned to marry at all. That he was…’ She drifted to a stop, reminded by his comment about rumours.

He didn’t rebuke her this time. ‘ Sí , he believed himself to be infertile from contracting an illness in his late teens. It turned out he was wrong.’ Again bitterness flashed hard.

‘For the sake of the throne and royal protocol he had to marry one of the mothers of his children.’ He twirled his glass without sipping.

‘But it didn’t matter to her what his initial plans were.

She only cared that she wasn’t the one chosen.

And in true melodramatic fashion, everyone had to suffer the consequences of her thwarted destiny. ’

She sucked in a breath, knowing she was catching a glimpse of just what made his depths run so deep.

‘What did she—?’

He halted her with a wry head shake. ‘You’ve strutted well past your mile now, Sabeen. And I’d rather not spoil the meal with indigestion.’

She examined his set profile, the unbending steel in his eyes just as a memory shimmered across her senses: a video she’d seen of him giving a toast at one of his birthday parties. Something about mummy issues.

Pieces fell into place, but he’d shut the door on her curiosity, so she curbed her questions and ate the sublime food until she couldn’t eat another morsel.

And when a mobile phone rang nearby, she was almost relieved when he excused himself to take the call. She rose and padded to the edge of the pool, almost tempted to dip her feet in it to cool herself down.

Large swathes of today had been relatively uneventful.

Yet somehow she’d kissed Teo again… and liked it.

Had confirmed his past wasn’t as uncluttered with issues as his Playboy Prince persona indicated.

And she’d uncovered a different sort of craving.

The need to delve beneath his surface. Venture closer to the flame she now wasn’t so sure would decimate her.

Was she insane?

She bent her knee and dipped one foot in the pool. Then switching over, she started to dip the other.

‘You shouldn’t—’

‘Argh!’ The unladylike yelp at the sound of his deep voice, so close, triggered a sideways tumble and a loud splash before the water swallowed her whole.

Chlorinated water went down the wrong way, sending her spluttering as she broke the surface.

Only to be submerged again when Teo dropped into the water next to her.

Arms seized her, yanking her flailing body upright.

One hand dragged wet strands of hair off her face before he frowned down at her. ‘ Madre de Dios , you could’ve hurt yourself.’

Planting her hand on his chest, she shoved him away. He remained immovable. ‘Whose fault would it have been? You sneaked up on me.’

Jaw clenched, his hands wrapping tighter around her, he kicked towards the edge. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Other than ruining a good meal with an unwanted nightcap of chlorinated water? Sure, I’m peachy.’

His eyes glinted. ‘Your fire, tesoro . It’s remarkable,’ he rasped.

Fire morphed from combative…to something else. No, not something else. A replay of what had happened in the art room. But more potent now.

He drew another wet strand off her cheek to tuck it behind her ear.

His touch lingered on her earlobe, sending shivers dancing through her bloodstream, her breath strangling in her lungs.

Under the terrace lights, she watched droplets of water trickle over his chiselled cheekbones, into the divot above his upper lip, down his strong jaw.

The craziest urge seized her. To lick one of those drops. Maybe more. Wash away the chlorinated embarrassment with the storm of his kiss.

When her gaze flicked up from staring so damn longingly at his mouth, he was waiting for her. Molten silver cut into her, exposing her cravings to the moonlight. And again… daring her.