Читать книгу Modern Romance November 2016 Books 5-8 - Мишель Смарт, Rachael Thomas - Страница 21
ОглавлениеNATHANIEL AND CATALINA exited his jet to a balloon of flash bulbs. The newly-weds, who’d kept themselves cocooned away from the spotlight, had suddenly emerged. The rumours of their marriage already being in trouble had been dispelled by one unofficial press release from the palace and now their exit from a jet.
As the excited crowd, kept back by a strictly enforced cordon, called out questions and messages of love to their Princess, Nathaniel suddenly understood why her father was so desperate to keep her in the fold.
Catalina was the member of the royal family the public loved. While her brother screwed his way around the planet under the guise of being on official visits—and many unofficial ones in seedy establishments—and her sister had turned from a wilful brat into a married woman travelling the world with her new husband, Catalina had been the one who had always been there for her countrymen. She’d visited hospices, opened junior school fetes, publicly supported many varied charities, all while attending functions and charming visiting dignitaries. The people of Monte Cleure loved their kind, beautiful Princess. Without her, the House of Fernandez would lose its crowning jewel.
Nathaniel would bet her father had come to realise this since they’d married, too. Hiding Catalina away as a punishment had only hurt the House of Fernandez. Without Catalina there to deflect all their countrymen’s attention, that attention had focused on the remaining family members. Her rumoured disappearance had only made the discontented mutters worse.
‘Are you going to miss all this?’ he asked when they were safely in the back of his car.
‘Miss what? The press?’
‘Being a princess. Having the love of your people?’
For a moment her expression clouded then she met his gaze. ‘None of it’s real. They don’t love me, just the image they see. So long as our child is free from palace interference, that’s all I care about.’
‘We’ll be out of Monte Cleure before our baby is born.’ The King had sent a message during their flight back demanding a private meeting with Nathaniel.
The hard work was just beginning.
* * *
Her return to Monte Cleure wasn’t as dramatic as Catalina had feared. The crowd at the airport had lifted her spirits and, rather than the armed guards she’d secretly feared arriving to spirit her away, she’d received a personal invitation from her father for lunch in two days. Nathaniel wasn’t invited.
Nathaniel had left the apartment within minutes of dropping her back, citing a meeting that he needed to attend. He arrived back to find her gazing at the invitation.
‘I thought this would happen,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘I didn’t say anything earlier because I didn’t want to cause you worry, but the meeting I just attended...it was at the palace.’
‘And? Has he given the deeds back to you?’
He shook his head. ‘He’ll give it all back after his birthday party. We’ve arranged to meet again on the Monday after. He’ll hand the deeds back to me and issue a press statement revoking the fraud allegations.’
‘That’s a start.’
‘This invitation is so he can satisfy himself that you’re going to toe the line from now on. You need to convince him that you’re sorry.’
‘I can do that.’
He stared at her thoughtfully.
‘What is it?’ she asked after a pause.
‘I think you should give me your passport for safekeeping.’
‘Why?’
‘A gut feeling. Running away was your second rebellious act in a matter of months. He’s suspicious. Dominic is too.’
‘He was there?’
Nathaniel’s jaw clenched as he nodded. Dominic had sat in on that meeting, the look of a bulldog on his ugly face.
The King had been in charge but there was no doubt in his mind Dominic was pulling the strings.
He was certain Catalina’s instinct that Dominic was behind the fraud allegations and the title revocation was correct. Dominic didn’t care that the public loved his sister. On the contrary; that was probably what infuriated him so.
‘I’d like to keep hold of my passport myself, thank you.’ That passport was hers. It was her only guaranteed document that gave her freedom.
‘That’s fine but you need to convince your father,’ he reiterated. ‘Show him you’re serious about sticking to your part of the bargain. Convince him you’re still prepared to remarry an aristocrat of his choosing. Once I get my deeds back I can get moving on the sale.’
She nodded. Convincing her father would be easy. She had spent her whole life putting on a façade for both her family and the world at large. Any underlying guilt at lying to her father she smothered. Her father cared more for the House of Fernandez than he did for her and her child, something she would not allow herself to forget. She couldn’t forget it. ‘I will do whatever is necessary. But...’
‘What’s on your mind?’
‘Next time you meet my father or have other meetings that concern me, please don’t lie about it.’
‘I didn’t lie.’
‘You didn’t tell me the truth either. I don’t want protecting any more.’
‘I’m not used to accounting for my whereabouts.’
‘I’m not asking that. I’m only asking you to let me know of anything that affects me. We’re a team, remember?’
‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ he said with a wry grin. ‘Okay. I’ll remember.’
* * *
The one person genuinely happy about Catalina’s return was Clotilde, who’d been on leave on their return to Monte Cleure. She arrived in Catalina’s room two days later with a beaming smile that could have powered the country. When she discovered that she wasn’t expected to do as much as Catalina’s companion as she had before, the smile dropped.
‘But I like doing things for you,’ she said, her expression woebegone.
‘I know you do,’ Catalina said gently. ‘And I appreciate everything you did and everything you’ll do. I still need a companion while I’m here, just...maybe a little less attentiveness, okay?’
‘Okay.’ Then the smile came back and Clotilde leaned in conspiratorially. ‘Julie tells me Nathaniel spent the night in here with you.’
‘Did she?’ Catalina said innocently, knowing the flush of heat rising to her face would be a giveaway.
Even after their night together in the hotel she hadn’t dared to think it could happen again. It had been an emotional day and evening for both of them. They’d both revealed things about themselves and their pasts neither had shared with anyone before. Making love had been a release for them both. A joyous, glorious night of bliss.
On their first night back they’d dined out at a hotel in Monte Cleure. Nathaniel had entertained her with tales of his school days, stories of the strange people and customs he’d encountered due to his various developments across the globe. Neither of them had mentioned her family or their situation. After all the angst she’d been living with recently, it had been a welcome relief to simply enjoy the moment without worrying about the future and what it held.
When they’d returned to the apartment, he’d poured himself a nightcap then, without her knowing who had taken the first step towards the other, she had been in his arms. He’d carried her to her room like the heroine of an old black and white movie, and laid her down on the bed...
He’d joined her last night too.
‘She did,’ Clotilde assured her. ‘Does this mean...?’
‘It doesn’t mean anything,’ she said quickly. ‘Would you like to brush my hair?’
She knew how much Clotilde had longed to brush it since she’d first arrived at the apartment, and it proved to be exactly the right thing to distract her.
Soon her hair was brushed to a gleam then expertly tied into a French plait.
‘I’ve been practising,’ Clotilde said proudly.
Catalina chose her outfit carefully from her limited wardrobe, now wishing she’d taken up Nathaniel’s offer all those weeks ago and gone shopping. When she thought of all the clothes left in the palace, hanging there, untouched and unloved, she wanted to cry at the waste.
Today, she would see if she could have them returned to her. She would have to play it by ear, gauge her father’s mood.
She hadn’t seen him since the wedding, when he hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye.
Eventually selecting a demure black knee-length dress with a collar and long sleeves, she slipped her feet into a pair of low-heeled black shoes and left the apartment.
It felt fitting to meet her father for lunch dressed appropriately for a funeral.
The bodyguards and Nathaniel’s driver were waiting for her. The last she’d seen of her husband had been when he’d kissed her goodbye after breakfast. She knew he was meeting with his sharpest legal minds, getting his pieces into place for the coming battle ahead.
Her welcome at the palace brought her much relief. All the courtiers, family members and others alike, were there to greet her. They must have known she’d run away. They must know of the threats made against Nathaniel to bring her back. None of them cared. All that mattered to them was the House of Fernandez and their own positions in it. But their smiles and well wishes were genuine, and that warmed her heart more than she could have thought possible.
It was an even greater relief to find her father’s private dining table set only for two.
‘Is Dominic not joining us?’ she asked after they’d exchanged a tentative embrace.
Her father’s welcoming smile was too forced to be trusted.
‘Your brother is on a state visit in the UK,’ he said reproachfully, as if this were something she should have known.
‘Of course.’ She smiled easily and waited for her father to take his seat before taking her own.
For the first five years after her mother had died, Catalina and her father had made all the state visits together. She knew he would have preferred to take his favourite, Isabella, with him but she’d been too young, so he’d had to accept Catalina as the best replacement. They’d got on well enough but any hopes of establishing a closeness with her remote father had been dashed. Her father’s heart was so closed it only had limited space for love. And that love had been reserved for Isabella. Catalina was able to find comfort in the knowledge that at least she’d had her mother’s love. Of that there had never been any doubt.
It had infuriated Dominic to see the sister he loathed having such high status within the family and enraged him to see the world fall in love with her. His subtle hints and needling to the King had eventually worked and now he conducted most state visits himself, effectively sliding himself into position to take over the throne.
She doubted her father would abdicate but knew he was proud his son and heir was taking the throne and its attendant duties so seriously.
She also doubted Dominic was happy to be missing this lunch. He would have enjoyed nothing more than to watch her squirm as she was given the anticipated dressing down that was surely to come.
‘He’ll be back on Friday. I know he’s looking forward to seeing you at my party next week.’
She gave another smile. That was all that was ever required of her. A smile of acceptance or approval or whatever particular outward emotion was deemed appropriate for the situation.
Their first course of cream of wild mushroom soup was brought to them. A courtier cut and buttered them a fresh roll each, then put a clean spoon into her father’s bowl and sampled a soupçon of it.
When he was satisfied the courtier wasn’t about to drop down dead, her father judged it safe to eat.
‘That Giroud,’ he said between noisy slurps. ‘He is mistreating you? Is that why you ran away?’
‘It isn’t an easy marriage,’ she said quietly, casting her head down so he couldn’t read the truth in her eyes.
Her answer clearly pleased him, for he chuckled. ‘The man is an animal.’
She clenched a handful of the skirt of her dress between her fingers. ‘Yes. He is. I’m sorry for running away, Father, but I couldn’t see any other way out. I hate living with him.’
‘Look at me, Catalina.’
She obeyed and found his brown eyes, so like her own but ringing with malice.
‘You have always been a good girl. It’s why I decided you should marry Giroud rather than cast you out as your brother wanted—you understand your brother was only thinking of what’s best for the House of Fernandez?’
‘I understand,’ she said meekly, wondering how he would react if she threw her bowl of soup into his face.
‘Good.’ He smiled. ‘You’re a valued member of our family but I will not tolerate any further dissent. Lauren will accompany you back to the apartment. You will give her your passport. I will keep it safe for you until your bastard is born and you’re married to Johann. He’s agreed to the marriage. Your honour will be restored.’
Her heart clattering against her chest so hard it was a struggle to get any words out, she said, ‘I don’t have my passport. Nathaniel—Giroud—has confiscated it. He doesn’t trust me,’ she added for good measure.
Nathaniel’s instincts had been right. Her father didn’t trust her.
The King inhaled deeply then flashed his teeth. ‘Bring it to me at my party. If you fail to do so I will have him arrested on the spot.’
He must have seen something in her eyes that she wasn’t quick enough to hide because his smile turned into a leer. ‘Do not underestimate me, Catalina. I might be transferring much of my power to your brother but I still rule this country and everyone who lives in it.’
* * *
Nathaniel knew there was something wrong the moment Catalina got into the car. He’d finished his meeting with his lawyers early enough so he would be there to meet her. He hadn’t been thrilled with her going to the palace on her own but they both knew that, for their plan to succeed, they had to carry on as normal. And that meant Catalina obeying her father’s commands.
‘What happened?’ he asked.
She shrugged and looked out of the window. ‘He’s arranged my next marriage.’
‘The Swedish duke?’
‘Yes.’
‘Don’t worry about it. It isn’t going to happen.’ He stared hard at her as a thought came to him. ‘Unless you’ve changed your mind?’
‘I haven’t.’ She turned to face him and smiled. It didn’t meet her eyes. ‘You know that’s not the future I want for our child.’
He let out a breath and reached for her hand. He razed a kiss across the knuckles she’d managed to slice. The cuts had healed beautifully, and were now only fading pink lines across the pale skin.
‘Is there something else troubling you?’ They both knew her wedding to the Swedish duke would never happen.
She gave a brave smile. ‘My mother’s jewellery. I don’t think I’ll ever get it back.’
He squeezed her hand lightly, wishing this were something he could fix for her but, short of launching a full-scale assault on the heavily guarded palace, he didn’t see how that was feasible.
‘How would you like to visit a Club Giroud next week?’ he said, wanting to distract her from something he knew caused her much anguish. ‘I would take you sooner but I think it’s best we stay in Monte Cleure for a while to try and stave off your father’s suspicions.’
‘Dominic told me they’re places full of debauchery.’
He laughed. ‘Your brother wouldn’t know—he’s banned from them.’
‘Really?’
‘I don’t let any old riff-raff in.’
Now Catalina was laughing too; a low, sweet musical sound he’d never heard from her lips before. It filled every part of him as much as her scent always did.
* * *
Alone in the bath, Catalina closed her eyes. She wanted to cry. She wanted to howl. She could do neither.
Her father had her exactly where he wanted her. He knew it and so did she.
Dominic’s poison had seeped fully into him.
There had once been some compassion in the man who had raised her. Not much by any means but enough for her to pretend he did love her as a daughter and not just a princess to show off to the world and bring pride to the House of Fernandez. It seemed Catalina’s failed betrothal to Helios had killed the last of it and created an opening for Dominic’s hatred towards her to pour through in replacement.
As she shampooed her hair, trying to relish the freedom of doing this act alone, all too aware that within a year Marion or one of her other palace companions would be at her side, because a princess couldn’t possibly wash her own hair, it came to her what she must do.
The freedom she had been so close to having for ever had been snatched from her grasp but that didn’t mean her baby’s freedom had to be snatched away too.
* * *
They took Nathaniel’s jet to Marseille. From there it was a short drive to one of the city’s most famous hotels. Hotel Giroud. The first project he had undertaken and the catalyst for the fortune he had acquired throughout the subsequent decades.
‘I thought you sold this when it was completed?’ she said as they entered the plush foyer.
‘I bought it back five years ago. It had been allowed to fall into disrepair so I revamped it.’
‘It’s beautiful.’ It was also very decadent. The place screamed money.
The reception staff all leapt to attention when they saw the boss. Waving them away with a grin and words of encouragement at their hard work, he led her to a back office. Adjacent to it was an elevator.
She raised her eyebrows and her silent question was answered with a gleam of teeth. Nathaniel keyed in a code and the elevator opened.
They stepped inside and, moments later, the elevator came to a halt. When they stepped out it took a couple of moments for her eyes to adjust to the dimness. Then she blinked. And blinked again.
‘What is this?’
They were standing in a vast, cavernous space with beautiful oak flooring. In the centre of it was a huge round bar, the polished wood gleaming, the brass rail around its rim shining even more so. Dozens and dozens of richly dressed men and women stood around the bar drinking. Dozens more filled the card and roulette tables strategically placed around the room and even more sat at normal tables, socialising and networking.
Music played in the background, a pulsing beat she felt through the soles of her feet.
‘This, mon papillon, is Club Giroud.’
She twisted round to look at him. ‘I didn’t know it was part of the hotel.’
‘Only those who are members know the clubs’ locations, and only those members and the staff who work in them know how to access them. This one has its own elevator from the underground car park.’
Catalina had heard much about these secret members-only clubs Nathaniel owned but, of course, she had never been in one. A club owned by a notorious womaniser had not been considered a suitable establishment for a virgin princess to venture to.
He laughed. ‘What were you expecting? Strippers and topless waitresses?’
‘Something like that,’ she murmured.
‘We do provide entertainment at the weekend which is of the adult variety, but nothing that wouldn’t be fit for the eyes of a princess.’ He leant down to speak into her ear. ‘There’s a back room I hire out to members. A few of those private parties have been known to become rather wild.’
There was something about the atmosphere of the place, the music and the feel of Nathaniel pressed so close to her that made her quite breathless.
‘Come,’ he said, taking her hand. ‘Let me give you the tour and introduce you to everyone.’
For the next hour they socialised. Catalina knew a few of the members, who all betrayed their shock at seeing her there. After a while it amused her.
‘It’s like they can’t believe they’re seeing me out of my natural habitat,’ she whispered to Nathaniel.
‘There’s always been an air of mystique about you,’ he murmured back. His hands brushed against her side. ‘Would you like to see my office?’
‘I’d like to see more than that.’ Where the words came from, she didn’t know. As the days together passed, the greater her longing for him had become. She craved him.
In a few days’ time she would hand her passport, her ticket to freedom, to her father.
There had been so many times she’d opened her mouth to tell Nathaniel what her father had demanded of her but she’d always bitten back the words. She didn’t know how he would react. They might be having hot, passionate sex at every opportunity but that didn’t mean he cared about her on any other level.
She didn’t think she could bear to look in his eyes when he learned that she would never be able to leave Monte Cleure, and to find that he simply didn’t care. Not for her.
But he cared about their baby, of that she was certain.
Once she’d given her passport over to her father, she would confess and tell him her plan. Nathaniel and their baby would be okay. She couldn’t save herself but she could save them.
Now, his eyes gleaming, Nathaniel led her to a door marked ‘Private’ and locked it behind them.
It was just an ordinary office, much like the one in his apartment, dominated by a large desk and not much else.
He didn’t need much else, not when he spent so little time in any one place.
And right then they didn’t need anything but each other.
He brushed his lips against her neck and wound a hand round to grasp a buttock. ‘We don’t have much time. Not unless you want people to wonder what we’re up to.’
A pulse throbbed low in her pelvis, so familiar a reaction it was as if her body was training itself to seek pleasure from his very first touch.
His mouth found the lobe of her ear.
She moaned softly then turned her face to find his lips. ‘If we only have limited time,’ she breathed, ‘I suggest we make the most of it.’
‘You do?’ he murmured, his hand squeezing her sensitised breast lightly before dipping lower to her thigh and bunching the material of her dress between his fingers.
‘Oh, yes. I do. In fact, as a princess of Monte Cleure, I demand it.’
His other hand unzipped his trousers and freed his large erection. It brushed against her thigh, sending another pulsation racketing through her. ‘What do you demand, Your Highness?’
She raised her bottom to allow him to tug her black lacy underwear down. ‘I demand you.’
With little effort on her part, her underwear slid down her legs and fell to the floor.
‘Then you shall have me.’ Then, without ceremony, he plunged inside her, groaning loudly as he filled her in one motion.
Holding her tightly with his hands on her hips, Nathaniel moved inside her with short, hard thrusts that were carnal and utterly erotic. He didn’t kiss her, just stared into her eyes with an intensity that penetrated her as deeply as his thrusts.
Until this moment, they’d always taken their time making love. They’d explored every inch of each other and the few inhibitions she’d ever had around him had been shorn away in their time together. Every coupling had stripped her back a little more and now she was putty in his hands.
He was everything she wanted and everything she needed. She knew now she’d been in love with him for years and couldn’t imagine her life without him.
But she would have to imagine it because that day would come. Until then...
Grabbing his buttocks to drive him deeper inside her, she felt the pulsations in her grow quickly. He knew the exact amount of pressure and the precise amount of friction needed to bring her to a peak. He knew her body as well as she did.
She buried her face in the curve of his neck as she came, her cries of pleasure muffled by the warmth of his musky skin. With the tremors still rippling through her, Nathaniel threw back his head and shuddered, his fingers biting into her flesh until the pulsing abated. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to him.
She could feel the strength of his heartbeat, the touch of his fingers through the fabric of her dress as he made little swirls on her back.
She pressed her palms to his cheeks and brought her lips to his, then pulled away a little to look at him.
Despite her best laid plans, she really had fallen in love with him.
She’d learned from her mother that loving someone wasn’t a choice but Catalina had been arrogant enough to think she was different, that she could make herself immune to the emotion and prevent it from happening by sheer willpower alone.
Was this what her mother had felt for her lover? Had she fought the attraction? She must have done. She’d known the dangers better than anyone. She’d known it could never be.
But love didn’t care for danger or willpower. It crept up on you so subtly that it was burrowed into your skin before you knew it was there.
Once lodged in the heart, love was impossible to remove.
And now that it was there she would care for it with everything she had. If, to protect Nathaniel and their baby, she had to submit her life to the will of her father and brother for ever, then that was what she would do.
