Along Came A Prince (15 page)

“Wow!” Clay said
as he came up behind her. “You’re especially gorgeous this morning.”

“Thanks. I feel
wonderful. How about you?” She stretched and glanced down, blinked her eyes a
couple times, then slowly raised her face to meet his gaze.

“I feel great
right now,” he admitted.

Evidently he
wasn’t going to say a thing about how he felt last night when he was angry.
That’s good, she thought, then she didn’t have to apologize either.

She kept his eyes
captive with hers for a few seconds, certain, as always, that she was able to
see into his soul. He sure had sexy eyes. A girl could spend the rest of her
life just gazing into them.
Better get back to business
, she decided.
“What’s on the schedule for today?” she asked.

“As irresistible
as you are, I’m ready to do anything,” he said.

“So am I,” she
whispered, again giving him the full benefit of her
sea-green
eyes. She
allowed her voice to return to normal. “How about a picnic by the pond?”

“Anything special
you want for lunch? It’ll take a few minutes for the chef to fix it.”

She licked her
lips…slowly. “You decide. Whatever sounds good to you.”

“There’s an
obvious answer to that.” Clay took her hands in his. “Suppose you tell me what
this change from last night is all about.”

“I don’t know what
you mean,” she denied and blinked her eyes at him again.

Clay sighed and
let go of her hands. “All right. We’ll play it your way.” He took his phone out
of his pocket and called the kitchen to issue instructions. “Ten minutes will
be fine,” he said to the chef. “Send it out to the golf cart area when you’re
finished, please.” He turned toward Stacia. “Okay, Miss Scarlett O’Hara, let’s
go.”

“I’m right behind
you, Rhett Butler, Sir.”

“Is this where I’m
supposed to say, ‘Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a damn?’ I hope not, because
it wouldn’t be appropriate with my feelings right now.”

“And how do you
feel?”

“Ready to do all
the things I promised I wouldn’t, Scarlett, Ma’am.”

...Dr. Fulton
arrived at the estate, Victoria’s tattered suitcase in his hand. He gave it to
his grand-mère’s butler. The butler told him that Victoria was in the rose
garden, and he went directly there. She was seated on a white metal bench next
to a large blooming bush caressing one of its large pink roses between her two
fingers. She seemed relaxed and at peace. He approached silently and was in
front of her before she noticed him.

She looked up.
“Oh, Doctor Fulton. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“You mean you
forgot about me after only a week?”

“No...no...not
at all,” she said as she let go of the rose, then pointed to it with her hand.
“I was just thinking of the beautiful pink roses you sent for Lily’s casket.
She would have loved them, you know.”

He sat down
next to her. “We have to straighten something out right now. I’m no longer Dr.
Fulton. I was your sister’s physician. I am not yours, and I believe it would
be against the Hippocratic Oath if I accepted you as a patient. I would very
much like you to call me Dean. It doesn’t seem right to me somehow that I call
you Victoria and you call me Dr. Fulton.” He grinned broadly. “Now, tell me how
you’re doing.”

“Your grand-mère’s
wonderful. She’s caring, loving, thoughtful, kind. Name any good adjective you
want, and that’s her. She’s shared her home with me and her heart. See, I can
even do this sometimes now.” She touched her smile.

“I don’t know
if you remember or not, but I told you the day you arrived you could stay as
long as you want. Even if you can smile a little now, you have a long recovery
to go.”

“But I don’t
want to become a pest to you or her,” Victoria protested. “Besides, I need to
get back to my job.”

“You can never
be a pest to me,” he said. “Everything can wait awhile longer. My nurse went to
your apartment and packed your things. She also decided to adopt a certain
black and white dog she found there. I, however, had a better idea.” He pursed
his lips and whistled.

Within seconds,
a Dalmatian bounded into the garden, raced to Victoria and jumped on her and
started to lick her face.

“Spotty. Oh,
Spotty, I love you.” She turned to Dean. “And I…” Then she paused, catching her
almost revealing outburst. “Thank you very much,” she said as she averted her
eyes.

“Your concern
over your job is unnecessary also. I have talked to your boss and requested a
leave of absence on your behalf, and he has consented to it. So, see, your
troubles are over, and you have nothing to do but heal. And that’s a Dr. Fulton
order and a ‘Dean’ one too.”

“Yes sir.” She
raised her hand and gave him a small salute...

♥♥

All
the way on the drive to the pond one thought kept running through Stacia’s
mind.
I can do this. I can do this
. Peeking at Clay’s profile convinced
her it would be no effort at all to melt in his arms, and... even the
and…
the
land she’d never visited, sounded enticing. She reached over and placed her
hand on his leg, moving it ever so slightly, hoping to tease him just a bit.
“I’m having such a wonderful time,” she said in her best temptress voice.

“It
just gets better and better, doesn’t it?” Clay replied, glancing down at her
hand.

She
placed her right arm across the back of his seat, allowing her fingers to graze
the hairline on the back of his neck. Tiny shivers shimmied through her
fingertips and spread throughout her entire body.
Fantastic! Maybe I should
have been doing this for years!

Clay
laughed. “Do I need a haircut?” he asked.

She
gulped and pulled her arm back. “Not that I can see,” she said. This kind of
sneak attack always worked on the guys in the movies. And with her trying it
for real, all the man thinks of is a
haircut?

“I
didn’t mean you should move your arm. I was enjoying your massage.” He smiled
at her and reached over, picked up her hand, and put it back on his neck.
“Stroke away,” he said.

And
she did. Stacia made tiny circles with her fingertips all along his hairline,
enjoying what she was touching as much as she hoped he was. She wondered if he
remembered making the same size circles in the palm of her hand. She knew she
did. He relaxed his shoulders and leaned his head back slightly.
Oh, he was
enjoying it all right!

“Hmm,” he
murmured. “Like I said, today gets better and better.” Clay pulled the cart
into the parking lot at the pond. “Let’s picnic,” he said, and grabbed the
backpack the chef had prepared and a blanket out of the back seat.

They crossed the
bridge and entered the wooded area.

“Let’s go someplace
where no one else can find us,” Stacia requested, then seeing the surprised
look on his face, quickly added, “Oh, I just mean somewhere that’s private
where we won’t be disturbed. Picnics are more fun that way.”
Nice rebound
,
she thought as she congratulated herself.

Clay just smiled
and kept walking. After a few bends and turns on the trail, he stopped next to
a small clearing at the foot of the waterfall. “How about this place? Is it private
enough?”

“It should do just
fine.” More than fine, she thought as she swallowed hard
. What a great place
to lose her...
She’d better stop thinking about that subject right there, before
she got herself in deeper than she already was. She peered up at him and blinked
slightly, in what she hoped was a flirtatious way. Was he ever going to kiss
her, so they could get on with whatever was going to happen?

Clay spread the
blanket on the ground. He slipped the backpack off his shoulder and set it down
also. “Are you hungry? Do you want to eat now?” he asked.

She shook her
head. “My mind’s on other things,” she purred, which wasn’t true at all. She
was starving. No breakfast, then this walk. But Ms. Femme Fatale wouldn’t think
about eating at this intimate moment, so why should she?
Come on, kiss me.
She
gazed up at him and poured all the sexiness she could manage into her body
language. Lips pouted, eyes half-closed, hands planted in her back pockets,
chest stuck out and slightly lowered to give him the full vantage point of her
ample cleavage.

He just grinned
and sat down on the blanket with his back to her and began to zip open the
backpack. “Maybe I’ll have a sandwich. I’ve worked up quite an appetite.”

Stacia glared at
his back. Was he human? Or didn’t the royal blood running in his veins allow
him to be? What more did she need to do to turn him on? She slid off her blouse
and let it slip to the ground and knelt down on the blanket behind him, making
sure her body was touching his. Then she began to stroke his neck as she had in
the car, and began gently massaging his scalp. When he relaxed into her hand as
he’d done before, she put her other hand on his shoulder in an effort to turn
his body toward her. He turned willingly, and when he did, she put both her arms
around his neck and kissed him passionately on the mouth.

His response
indicated that royal blood might just run
hotter
than peasant blood. His
arms went around her, one hand cradling her head while his spread fingers
caressed her hair.

“Stacia, I...” He kissed
her again.

The fire blazing
between them became more intense, one exploding kiss after another. He laid her
gently on the blanket, his lips never leaving hers. When the kiss ended, he
raised up slightly and pushed her hair from her face. “Such beauty,” he
whispered. Then he kissed her again, his hands wandering the curves of her body
pressed against him.

Suddenly, Clay
bolted upright to a sitting position. “I can’t do this,” he gasped.

“Why?” Stacia
asked. “Don’t you have protection?”

He grinned.
“That’s not the problem. I just think I might be making love with the wrong
woman.”

“So, I’m good
enough to be seen with, but not good enough to have sex with? Isn’t it usually
the other way around?” Stacia flung out, sitting upright and crossing her arms
indignantly.

Clay chuckled and
touched the tip of her nose. “Not so, my sweet. But you see, I like to
know
the woman before I make love with her, and I don’t recognize this Stacia at
all, as tantalizingly sexy as she is.”

“I thought you
wanted this. Last night you said –”

“I didn’t say I
wanted a woman to throw herself at me. You’ve become...” He hesitated. “One of
the women my mother warned me about.” Clay laughed. “I can get as many women
like that as I want, but you know what? I don’t want any of them.”

“But –” she
protested.

“I’m very fond –
notice I didn’t say
love
for your benefit only – of the original,
authentic Stacia. She’s sweet, gorgeous and nice, and the greatest thing about
her is she’s completely honest and totally real. There’s nothing fake about
her. After all, how many women would admit they hadn’t slept with any guy, even
if they were angry? I respect that. I’m even fond of her
red-haired temper.
”
He took her hands into his. “And I know when the real Stacia falls in love, I
only hope I’m the lucky one to receive her love...and share sex with her.” He
stood up and pulled her to her feet. “Do you want to go back now?”

She nodded, too
overwhelmed to speak. She should be embarrassed, or furious, that he’d refused
her sexual ploys, but she was too happy he’d made things right again by knowing
the correct thing to say. Their relationship and their comfort with each other
were still intact. And for now, that was enough.

♥♥

“Where are you?”
the frantic voice of Stacia’s assistant wailed over the phone later that
afternoon. “The media’s going crazy. Everyone’s sighting you and the prince
somewhere, day after day. The headlines scream that you’re either in Australia,
Paris or Jamaica or, I suspect, Timbuktu. You have like a thousand messages.”
Jamie stopped to breathe. “So where are you?”

“Switzerland,”
Stacia answered calmly, almost sorry she’d initiated her call home.

“Switzerland? How
did you get there? Are you with the prince? Please tell me what’s going on.
No...wait. I have to tell you something.” Jamie regained her composure. “This
is quite urgent. Hal’s called here a number of times, begging me to tell him
how to reach you. I keep saying I don’t know where you are either, but he keeps
calling back constantly. Doesn’t your cell phone work over there? I’ve left you
messages.”

“I guess I forgot to
turn it on or to check my messages. Sorry,” Stacia apologized.

“He must be quite
a distraction,” Jamie mumbled, rushing on. “It seems Sterling and Keyes are
having some difficulty with the preliminary work they have to do before
London
Affair
starts filming. They need you to come home as soon as possible – or
sooner as Mr. Sterling said. And the studio has called several, no, make that
many times since you disappeared and wants to know where to send the script, so
you can start learning your lines.”

“Whew,” Stacia
said. “Sounds like you’ve been very busy, even without me around to bug you.”

“That’s my job.
Are you having a good time?”

“Wonderful. I’ve
found the perfect Shangri-la where the paparazzi can’t find me.”

“Or anyone else,”
Jamie muttered. “When are you coming home?”

“I’ll try to leave
today, if possible.”

“What should I
tell people who call?”

“That I’m
relaxing, so I’ll be in top shape to start my new film.” Stacia heard a knock
at her door. She walked over to answer it with the phone in her hand. “Gotta
go,” she said when she discovered it was Clay. “I’ll call you when my plans are
finalized.” She pushed the “off” button and tossed the phone on the sofa.

“What plans?” Clay
inquired.

“I have to leave
for home immediately. Jamie said Nathan and Arthur need me for some preliminary
work, and the studio is evidently going crazy worrying about whether I’ll have
time to memorize my lines.”

“You mean you’re
ready to brave the jungle of paparazzi reporting once more?”

“Speaking of that,
evidently our picture has been in all the papers again. It seems they can’t
find us.”

“I know,” he said.
“Father mentions the headlines daily. I didn’t want to say anything because I
didn’t want to upset you.”

She walked into
her bedroom. “I’m going to start packing. How do I get a plane out of this
paradise?”

Clay stuck his
head around the corner of the door frame. “Leave that to me.” He picked up his
phone and made a call. “Okay,” he said when he’d finished. “The jet will be
ready in an hour. It’ll take you to London.”

She started
folding the clothes in her suitcase that were crumbled in a heap after the
morning’s scavenger hunt for the right outfit. “You’re wonderful, you know, in
more ways than one. And thanks for not taking advantage of me in the woods.”

“Who was taking
advantage of whom?” Clay walked over and wrapped his arms around her so they
were face-to-face. “When do I get a second chance?” he asked.

“Long distance –
that would be a feat.” She wished she could keep standing there looking up at
him for the rest of the day, or forever for that matter, but she couldn’t if
she wanted to make her plane. She took his finger, lifted it to her lips and
gave it a little kiss. She walked into the bathroom and began gathering her
cosmetics.

“This is the
twenty-first century, remember?” Clay called out. “It only takes hours for me
to get to Hollywood. A call in the morning, and I can be at your doorstep by
evening.”

She walked back
into the bedroom and placed her cosmetic case and curling iron into her
suitcase. “That does sound nice. I’d love to have you come visit me. But with
shooting the picture and everything, I’m going to be pretty busy.”