Page 28 of Summer on the Ranch (Royally Wed #1)

A lex’s expression shifted swiftly, showing shock, then disbelief, then guilt. Until he’d seen the last emotion, Mitch had been praying he’d been wrong. But her sudden inability to meet his eyes warned him that his worst nightmare had just come true.

‘‘How did you know?’’ she asked.

‘‘I didn’t,’’ he said flatly. ‘‘It was a hunch. You just confirmed it.’’

‘‘Oh.’’

‘‘Yeah, oh.’’

He pulled out of her and rolled onto his back, then pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes.

What the hell had he just done? Alex looked a few years younger, but he knew for a fact that she was pushing thirty.

How could she still be a virgin? Then he remembered that she wasn’t an ordinary woman—that she was royalty and that she’d been saving herself for Prince Charming.

‘‘What gave me away?’’ she asked. ‘‘Did I do something wrong?’’

He felt more than heard the quaver in her voice. Dammit. She was about to get all female on him and start worrying about whatever it was women worried about in this particular situation. When had everything spun out of control, and how could he undo what they’d just done?

Except he didn’t want to. Mitch groaned low in his throat.

That was the hell of it. Even if someone offered him a way back about thirty minutes, he wouldn’t take it.

Because for some stupid macho reason, he was glad that he’d been Alex’s first time, which made as little sense as her wanting him to be the one to change her life.

He rolled over and faced her. Her auburn curls tumbled across the pillow. Her skin was impossibly pale, with a faint rose glow staining her face and her chest. It was the lingering physical manifestation of her release, and he was fiercely glad that he’d done that to her.

‘‘It’s your fault,’’ he told her. ‘‘If you weren’t so beautiful and so imperious, none of this would have happened. I’ll be damned if I’ll have regrets, but we both know we shouldn’t have done that.’’

‘‘Why not?’’

‘‘Because.’’

She smiled. ‘‘Oh, there’s a sterling reason.’’

He touched her cheek, then rubbed his thumb across her mouth. ‘‘You make me crazy.’’

‘‘In a good way?’’

‘‘In the best way possible.’’ He lowered his hand into her hair and squeezed a fistful of curls. ‘‘So have I committed a felony or what? There have to be some pretty stiff penalties for stealing a royal princess’s virtue.’’

‘‘I’ll have to do some research, but I have a fairly close relationship with the king, and I’m sure I can get him to go easy on you, as they say here in your country.’’

‘‘Sorry, Alex, but the king isn’t going to want to do much more than change me from a bull to a steer.’’

She thought about that for a second, then glanced down. ‘‘Oh, my. I see your point. That would be tragic.’’

‘‘For me more than you.’’

They stared at each other. She drew in a deep breath. ‘‘Was it awful?’’

‘‘What? Making love with you?’’

She nodded.

‘‘Why would you think that?’’ he asked. ‘‘It was incredible.’’

‘‘Then how did you know I was a virgin?’’

‘‘You were more tentative than I’d expected, and you seemed too startled to have done it before. But I wasn’t sure.’’ He grimaced. ‘‘And I was too much of a selfish bastard to make sure before I had my way with you.’’

Her blue eyes darkened. ‘‘So you’re sorry?’’

‘‘Only for how it affects you. I’ve changed you, Alex, and you can never go back.’’

‘‘I don’t want to go back. I’ve been saving myself for years, and I suddenly realized there wasn’t much point. I’m not engaged. So far my parents show no signs of arranging a match for me. I refuse to die an old maid.’’

‘‘You’re far from that.’’

She turned toward him and rested her hand on his waist. ‘‘I’m not sorry. I don’t have any regrets. Given the choice, I would do it all again…with you.’’ She moved closer, then lowered her hand and encircled him. ‘‘Speaking of which.’’

Her fingers were warm and tentative, but they were more than enough to get him hard again. He sucked in a breath. ‘‘It’s like being seventeen again.’’

‘‘Is that a bad thing?’’

‘‘Not if you don’t mind doing it five or six times tonight.’’

She smiled. ‘‘That sounds like a good plan to me. I have a lot of catching up to do. I want to learn everything and I want you to be the one to teach me.’’ She pressed her mouth to his.

He couldn’t resist her kiss any more than he’d resisted her touch, or the woman herself.

As he began touching her, a little voice whispered that he was in way over his head.

But he ignored the words, much as he ignored the sensation of his heart opening up to this very special, very unavailable woman.

* * *

‘‘Are you ready?’’ Alex asked as the limo pulled in front of the Century City Hotel.

Mitch nodded without speaking. He would rather be dragged around a corral by an angry bull than admit that he was nervous…but he was. It wasn’t every day that a man escorted a royal princess to a high-society event.

He and Alex were staying at a small, exclusive hotel in Malibu.

Their suite took up the entire top level, and there were security people staying on the floor below.

One of the royal bodyguard rode next to the driver in the limo, and there would be more security people—from both Wynborough and the United States Secret Service—at the fund-raiser tonight.

Mitch had even been briefed on the proper etiquette for the evening.

The right rear door opened. As he’d been instructed, Mitch stepped out first, then assisted Alex.

She straightened and smiled to the crowd.

Instantly the evening exploded as dozens of flashes popped all around them.

Mitch stayed in the background and was jostled and ignored as the press tried to get Alex’s attention.

‘‘What do you think of your stay in our country?’’

‘‘Where have you been hiding out, Princess Alexandra?’’

‘‘Have you met any Hollywood heartthrobs?’’

Alex kept smiling, then took Mitch’s arm and allowed him to lead her toward the entrance to the hotel.

Mitch found that a firm right arm worked wonders in holding back the crowd.

But there were too many people taking up too small a space.

He was reminded of the time when he’d been eight and had fallen into a corral of milling steers.

He’d been tossed and jostled until his dad had come to his rescue.

Just when he figured he’d had all he could take, they pushed through the last of the people and made it inside. The foyer of the hotel was open, well lit and relatively quiet.

A well-dressed man in his mid-thirties greeted them. ‘‘Princess Alexandra, welcome to America. I’m Miles Stanford, an attaché with the State Department.’’ He bent over Alex’s hand, then straightened and smiled at Mitch. ‘‘Mr. Colton, a pleasure.’’

Mitch wasn’t sure what to say, but Miles didn’t wait for any greeting.

He took Alex’s arm and led her toward the ballroom, chatting all the way.

Mitch trailed after them. There were dozens of women in fancy dresses partnered with tuxedo-clad men.

The light sparkling off all the jewelry was enough to blind a person.

Nothing about this event made him happy.

He knew he was out of place and he figured just about everyone around them knew it, too.

He should have waited back at their hotel.

Except Alex had asked him to come, and he hadn’t wanted to disappoint her.

If he was going to be honest with himself, he would also admit he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.

She wasn’t going to be in his life forever, and when she was gone he would miss her.

So rather than waste time, he would put up with the formalities and the State Department and even the press.

They entered the ballroom. There was an instant hush, followed by a burst of conversation.

Mitch kept a few steps back as Alex was introduced to the waiting dignitaries.

He saw the men watching her and the women talking about her, and he knew it wasn’t all because she was royal.

Some of it was because of how she looked.

They’d spent the past three days in bed, discovering each other.

Although he knew every inch of her body and could reduce her to damp, quivering passion in about thirty seconds, he hadn’t known she was a princess.

Not really down-to-his-bones known, the way he had when she’d come out of their bathroom in their suite.

In a matter of less than an hour, with some cosmetics, hot curlers and whatever magic it seemed women knew from birth, she’d transformed herself.

He’d always thought she was hot and sexy, but she’d turned into stunning and regal, as well.

She wore a long, silk, strapless gown in deep red.

The soft fabric clung to her curves, outlining the perfect shape of her body.

The same fabric draped across her midsection and fell to the floor forming a kind of train.

A diamond and ruby necklace with matching, dangling earrings caught the red of the dress and sparkled in the light.

He figured there was enough carat weight around her neck alone to finance about ten thousand head of cattle.

Her long, auburn hair had been piled high on her head in a riot of curls anchored in place with an honest-to-God tiara.

The kind he’d only ever seen in pictures.

She’d told him it was nearly four hundred years old and insured for six million dollars.

Six million for headgear. Who would have thought?

She wore long, red gloves and an antique-looking bracelet around her left wrist. He hadn’t dared to ask the value of that bauble.

As the crowd pressed around them, Mitch found himself pushed farther away from Alex. In three-inch heels, she towered over many of the people around her, so it wasn’t hard to keep her in view.