Читать книгу Crown Prince's Bought Bride - Maya Blake - Страница 10

LAST NIGHT, SEEING her in real life for the first time, Remi had thought her beauty exceptional.

Right now, watching the muted light from the sun-roof bathe her in a soft glow, she was even more exquisite.

Maddie Myers’s beauty was like nothing he’d ever seen. For starters, he couldn’t put his finger on why she would look so magnificent in a cheap, drab waitress’s uniform when last night she’d been dressed in finer, albeit more risqué, attire.

The other puzzling thing was that Remi had dated women who were equally beautiful. And yet something about this woman, whose beauty oozed from her very pores, triggered a stark, cloying hunger within him that he hadn’t quite been able to get a handle on.

That hunger had roared to life the moment he’d walked into that dismal café, and intensified when she’d dropped to her knees before him. Even now base images reeled through his mind. Images he had no business accommodating in public.

Years spent perfecting the art of schooling his expression had saved him from blatantly telegraphing his reaction. But those images were etched clearly in his brain, gaining lurid purchase as her plump lips part in shock.

‘Jules is really gone?’ she demanded huskily.

Remi gritted his teeth, finding the chore of discussing his half-brother with this woman intensely unsatisfactory. ‘Yes.’

Brows two shades darker than her honey-gold hair bunched together in confusion. ‘But... I don’t understand.’

‘What’s there to understand? He’s finally decided to grow up and make a meaningful contribution to the kingdom.’

‘Just like that?’ she asked sceptically.

‘Of course not. It’s taken a considerable amount of time to make him accept his responsibilities.’

‘And you came here to get him to do that?’

Remi shrugged. ‘It was past time someone did.’ He watched her carefully for signs that whatever had been going on between her and Jules was more than a light dalliance.

Her eyelashes swept down, shielding her expression from him. He fisted his hand on his thigh to curb the urge to cup her chin and expose her gaze to him.

After a moment, she swiped the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip. ‘Did he...did he say anything about me?’ she enquired gruffly.

His irritation grew. ‘Should he have?’

Her long lashes flew up, jade-green eyes flashing at him before she turned to stare blindly out of the window.

Remi continued to study her. Although her fingers twisted the handle of her bag in agitation, her expression didn’t reflect the forlorn anguish of a discarded lover. No, Maddie Myers’s demeanour betrayed a different sort of torment. One of panicked frustration.

Jules had been an important cog in the wheel of her plans. A thwarted plan she was now furiously reassessing.

Still, he needed to be sure. ‘You didn’t kiss him back.’

Her head whipped towards him, her eyes widening. ‘What?’

‘Last night your supposed lover kissed you goodnight. You didn’t kiss him back. In fact you seemed disturbingly apathetic.’

Remi was certain that had been one of the reasons he hadn’t acted on his visceral need to separate them. The other had been because he hadn’t wanted to attract even more attention than his presence in that seedy nightclub had already garnered.

Maddie Myers schooled her features in a way that would have made his childhood deportment instructors proud. ‘Didn’t I? You must be mistaken.’

‘I was not. Why were you with Jules?’ The question was beginning to grate, like a tiny stone in his shoe.

‘According to you, he’s several thousand miles away. Therefore why we were together no longer matters, does it?’

Her gaze dropped to her phone, and there was a contemplative look in her eyes.

‘It matters if you’re planning to contact him the moment you’re out of my sight. If you are, I seriously advise against it.’

Defiant eyes met his. ‘I fail to see how you’re going to stop me, since the minute I step out of this vehicle I intend never to see you again.’

‘You delude yourself if you think you’ll be free of me that easily.’

‘And you delude yourself with...with whatever you think this interrogation is. I owe you nothing. Getting into this car with you was a courtesy. One you’ve outworn. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to work now before I annoy my boss.’

She reached for the handle to the door that would open onto the street.

He darted forward and seized her wrist, quiet fury laced with something that felt alarmingly close to dread fizzing through his bloodstream. ‘Are you always this careless with your safety?’ he demanded, aware his voice was harsh and gruff.

He told himself it had nothing to do with the guilt fused into his being. Or the breathtaking smoothness of the skin stretched over her racing pulse.

For some reason she found his question amusing, although her thousand-watt smile barely made an appearance before it was extinguished again. ‘Did you not ask your brother how we met?’

All he’d wanted from Jules this morning was his agreement to board the royal plane back to Montegova, and a promise that he would cease contact with Maddie Myers immediately. Discussions of duty and responsibility had been shelved when he’d realised his brother was severely hungover.

‘The subject didn’t come up.’

‘Well, he nearly ran me over with his supercar. And, no, I wasn’t being reckless. The signal to cross was still green when he hit me.’

Remi’s blood went deathly cold. Over the last two years he’d lived with an unending torrent of might-have-beens. All the things he might have done to alter events. The image of Maddie Myers lying lifeless on a filthy pavement awoke demons he’d fought hard and failed to conquer.

‘Jules hit you with his car?’ He was aware his voice was a thin, icy blade. But it was only when she flinched that his gaze dropped to the hold he had on her.

He loosened his grip as other things began to fall into place. The wincing she tried to hide. The flash of pain across her face last night in the car and when he’d touched her in the café.

Rage rose to mingle with the guilt. ‘How badly were you hurt?’ The gravel-rough demand seared his throat.

Her head dipped and her gaze fell to her lap. ‘Besides my pride and a few bruises and scratches, I’d say the groceries that met their end on Camberwell New Road came off worse.’

Ice-cold fingers gripped his nape. ‘Don’t be flippant about it.’

His harsh rebuttal made her flinch. When her eyes darted to his fists, Remi realised he’d clenched them so hard the knuckles were bloodless.

‘I... It wasn’t a big deal,’ she whispered.

He slowly unfurled his hands. Sucked in one long breath. ‘Was that when you struck this secret bargain between the two of you?’

A flash of alarm crossed her face, then evaporated to leave faint pink spots on her cheeks. Without answering she turned resolutely to the door. ‘This conversation is over. Goodbye, Your Highness.’

Remi had no intention of letting her get away. Not until he’d delved into these new revelations. Revelations that had him secretly reeling.

‘I’ve changed my mind. You no longer have twenty-four hours.’

He picked up the card she’d dropped on the seat between them and slid it back into his pocket.

He nodded abruptly. And a moment later his car had left the kerb and the café behind.

Her shocked gaze swung to the window, then back to him. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

‘We’re going to talk. In one hour you’ll either have decided you don’t work at that café any more or your boss will be adequately compensated for your absence and you can return to work tomorrow morning. Either way, neither of you will lose. Put your seatbelt on.’

‘No! I don’t know how things work in your country, but here what you’re doing is called kidnapping!’

Remi caught her arm just beneath the short sleeve of her cheap shirt, again noting the satin-smoothness of her skin and the sizzle of miniature fireworks that transmitted from her skin to his.

Back in the café, when he’d first touched her, he mocked himself for over-exaggerating the sensation. Now he knew for sure as the blood heated in his veins.

Her breath hitched and her alluring eyes dropped to where he held her before she jerked away from him. ‘Please don’t touch me.’

Reluctantly, he released her. She gave a tiny shake of her head, as if she found the sizzling, unwanted chemistry as confounding as he did. That knowledge only intensified the urgency rampaging through him.

‘You will tell me why you’re anxious to get in touch with Jules. After you tell me in detail about your first meeting.’ He frowned as his memory came up blank on that part of Maddie Myers’s recent history. ‘Why isn’t there a record of the accident or a hospital visit?’

Sparks flared in her eyes. ‘Because there wasn’t one. And in case I didn’t get around to mentioning it last night, it’s loathsome of you to pry into my life the way you blithely believe you have a right to.’

‘Why wasn’t there one?’ he demanded.

‘Because your brother didn’t take me to hospital, that’s why.’

This time he couldn’t contain his curse, the fury that tripled his heartbeat or the churning alarm that underpinned all his emotions. ‘He nearly ran you over and you didn’t demand to be taken to a hospital?’

Her expression closed and she avoided his gaze. ‘I told you—’

‘You’re trying to hide the fact that you’re favouring your right arm and yet you flinch and grow pale with every contact. Either you’re truly intent on deluding yourself that your injury is no big deal...’ he paused as a deeper bolt of emotion, a protectiveness he didn’t welcome, kicked him in the gut ‘...or there’s another reason you’re burying your head in the sand.’

He hit the intercom and instructed his driver on a different destination.

‘Either way, it has nothing to do with you,’ she replied stiffly.

‘That’s where you’re wrong, Miss Myers.’

Wary eyes blinked at him. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It means it’s my duty to ensure that nothing a member of my family does comes back to bite us when we least expect it. And now I have a better idea of what went on between you and Jules we can get down to the bottom line. But not until I find out what I’m dealing with.’

‘I... I don’t understand.’

‘I’m taking you to the hospital, Madeleine. You can protest if you wish, but know this: the earlier you deal with me, the earlier we can be rid of each other.’ He waited a beat, despite the volatile emotions churning through his bloodstream. ‘So will you come with me of your own free will?’

Green eyes flew to his and again he caught the faint alarm in the bronze-flecked depths. Her lightly glossed lips parted and she sucked in a slow breath. After a moment, she nodded. ‘Yes.’

The churning subsided a touch. ‘Good.’

Reaching over her shoulder, he drew the seat belt across her body, forcing his gaze not to linger on her breasts as he secured her in place.

* * *

‘This isn’t a hospital! This is—’

‘My private physician.’

‘At a private clinic in Harley Street?’

Remi frowned at the accusation. ‘Other than pointing out the geographical location, do you have a point?’

‘Yes. I have a point. I can’t afford a private doctor.’

Agitation charged her movements and he caught her wince as she freed herself from the seatbelt.

‘Dio, calm down before you aggravate your injury.’

‘First of all, we don’t even know if I have an injury. Secondly, please stop ordering me about.’

He took a sustaining breath and reminded himself why he was doing this. For his family.

For reasons he intended to get to the bottom of before the day was out, neither Jules nor his bodyguards had seen fit to report the incident with Maddie. Remi shuddered to imagine what the press would do if it got out.

He wasn’t out of the woods yet. He needed to play this right to prevent any possibility of a scandal further down the line.

But beyond that he knew there was another reason. The unquenchable need to make sure history didn’t repeat itself. That he didn’t spend more nights racked with guilt about someone else—even if that person was this stunningly gorgeous but aggravating blonde who looked nothing like his Celeste but who nevertheless evoked astounding, groin-stirring sensations within him.

He ruthlessly pushed the hot throb of lust aside and nodded to his driver to open the door. ‘I value my time and my privacy. I’m assured of both here. And you insult me by suggesting that I would expect you to pay for medical attention necessitated through my brother’s actions. Now, do you have any further objections?’

Plump lips he found far too tempting stayed shut for a long moment before she exited the vehicle. He followed, telling himself the tingle in his fingers wasn’t from the desire to touch her again, to place his hand on that delicate waist and guide her into the clinic.

In fact, he made sure to keep his distance from her as they were checked in and Maddie was escorted into a suite where a barrage of scans were lined up.

Fifty minutes later he stared out of the window, jaw clenched, as they were driven away from Harley Street towards his hotel.

‘You pushed for those tests and now you’re not going to say anything?’ Maddie asked testily from beside him.

He kept his gaze on the passing view. He deemed it much safer, because something about the sling around Maddie’s arm agitated his every last demon and fired a level of fury he’d never known before.

‘A hairline fracture on your ulna. Two more on your ribs. Bone-deep bruises on your left hip that will take two more weeks to heal.’ The words fell from his lips like shards of glass.