Escaping A Royal Wedding (7 page)

“What about tomorrow?” he asked, ticking off several meetings he could cancel.

Ana considered the idea for a moment. She didn’t have any obligations tomorrow and she was pretty sure her mother and father were planning on spending the evening at the opera tomorrow. She hated the opera so it wouldn’t be difficult to get out of that event. “I think I could make some arrangements for that,” she smiled, glad he had asked. It would give her something to think about during the tediously boring evening ahead.

“Meet me for dinner?” he asked.

She was now delighted that her parents had booked a box at the opera for the evening. They knew she didn’t like it and hadn’t pressured her to attend. She suspected that it had been left open so Prince Erik might spend some time with her. But since he hadn’t bothered to show up for an official appointment last night, she didn’t feel obligated to be with him tomorrow night nor to hold the evening open for him on the off chance that he would fit his fiancée in to his plans.

“I’d love to,” she said sincerely.

“Where are you staying? I’ll pick you up,” he said.

There was a slight pause before she said, “No, I’ll meet you somewhere. Just name the place and I’ll be there,” she said.

Erik thought quickly. “There’s a small restaurant named Francois. Just give the name to the cab driver and they’ll know how to get there. Meet me there at seven?” he said.

Ana smiled and nodded her head. “Sounds wonderful,” she said. She started to walk away but he put a hand on her arm to stop her.

She turned around and looked up at him, expecting him to say something else. “I’ve been wanting to do this since I saw you on the street,” he said, his voice husky.

His mouth descended quickly toward hers and Ana didn’t stop him, in fact, she raised herself up on her toes to meet him. Just as they had yesterday, as soon as their lips touched, the flames ignited and Ana moaned, leaning closer toward his body. She wasn’t brave enough to actually lean against him but he pulled her the rest of the way so their bodies were touching from shoulder to knee. Ana gasped, initially scared of the contact but thrilled when his mouth moved over hers, touching and caressing, testing.

His mouth finally covered hers and his tongue touched her lips. Again, Ana gasped and his tongue entered her mouth, mating with hers. Ana was so overwhelmed by the feelings, her hands gripped his shoulders. Her mouth moved with his, imitating anything he did. It was wonderful and thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. She tried to pull back but his hand at the back of her head stopped her and forced her closer, deepening the kiss and Ana sighed, wanting more but not sure what would come next.

His hand on her waist was burning a path through her sweater. It moved from her waist to her back, pulling her body closer and Ana’s arms moved to wrap around his shoulder, her fingers touching the hair on the nape of his neck.

“Get a room!” two teenagers yelled from a distance and broke the spell that had been weaving around the two of them. Ana quickly stepped back out of his arms, her fingers touching her tingling lips.

Erik looked around, wanting to smash in the face of whoever had spoken those words. But his initial concern was for the woman still trembling in front of him. “Annie, I’ll see you tomorrow night, right?” he said, afraid he’d scared her off with his passion. She ignited something in him that he was unable to control, nor did he want to even try.

Ana looked up at him, wonder filling her eyes and she nodded in agreement. “Yes. Tomorrow night,” she said, a slow smile forming across her face and her fingers coming up to touch her swollen lips as if she were somehow able to blend the kiss into her skin and lips and keep it forever.

Ana walked away slowly, not really sure where she was going. She looked back and saw him watching her and quickly turned back toward her destination. Ana rushed across the street and made her way carefully toward the hotel, careful to watch out for her body guards. She’d been gone all day and there surely would be questions to answer for her absence.

Ana made her way to her room without incident. And for some reason, no one asked her where she’d been all day. It was very odd, she thought as she let her maid dress her hair in a simple French twist that would be appropriate for the night’s dinner party. Slipping on a black silk dress for the evening, Ana wondered if the security her father had ensured was around her all the time was really as good as he thought. But who was she to question it? She had her panic alarm with her so if anything ever happened to her, she could press the button and her guards would swarm in.

The dinner with the diplomats was just as tedious as she’d anticipated but it was compounded by the fact that she wasn’t with Marcus who stimulated every sense within her. He challenged her ideas as well as awakened her body to thoughts she’d never explored. What would it be like to make love with him, she wondered as the sixth course was placed in front of her. Since she’d just eaten a huge, decadent meal late in the afternoon, she wasn’t particularly hungry. The elderly man sitting next to her was interesting, but had to talk also with the woman on the other side of him so Ana was left with lots of time to wonder what it would be like to be with Marcus.

Chapter 6

Erik watched as the slender woman walked away from him down the street. He knew her name wasn’t Annie. He wasn’t sure what her real name was or what her secrets were but he was going to find out. All of them. He wanted to know everything about the fascinating woman.

He waited until she had walked around the corner before signaling to his security team to follow her. Once he was sure they would be able to track her without her knowing it, he walked over to where Tim was waiting with the limousine driver.

“Everything in place?” he asked, knowing that it would be already.

“Yes, your highness,” Tim replied, bowing as he opened the door for Erik.

Erik looked sharply at his body guard before saying, “Make sure she doesn’t slip away again. I can’t believe we had no trace of her last night.”

“Yes, your highness,” Tim said again before closing the door and getting into the front seat.

Erik watched out the window as the cars passed by the limousine. His body was still rock hard and ready for her but he knew he’d have to slow down. The woman was completely untutored in the art of lovemaking and there had been a point when she’d almost pulled away from just a simple kiss. He wanted her but he’d have to go slowly, he reminded himself.

He had some nagging guilt about initiating a virgin but that thought was ignored as his body refused to calm down. No woman had ever had this affect on him. It wasn’t just sex though. She stirred something in him, a chivalrous core that he’d thought had been beaten out of him by the mercenary women who constantly tried to get into his bed in order to become the next Princess of Montbain. He wanted to be with her sexually, but it was also nice to just talk to her and have her blatantly tell him he was wrong. No one had ever dared to do that with him. He also wanted to make all her dreams come true. Erik had never spent enough time talking with a woman to know if she had dreams or not, much less care if her dreams were ever realized. Ana might be new to the art of lovemaking, but he was new to the art of talking and actually listening, enjoying the company of a woman. He was a little surprised at how much he simply liked being with her.

She couldn’t have come into his life at a worse time either. Erik remembered his father’s admonishing look this morning and his lecture on his royal obligations. Since he’d missed his own engagement party, his father was not happy with him. Erik hadn’t bothered to tell him that he’d been trying to track down a woman. That might have just compounded the issue.

The limousine dropped him off at the building where he maintained a penthouse for use when he was in Washington. The top floor looked out onto the Capitol building and the Potomac River and Erik watched the riverboats move slowly down the water. Who was this mystery woman and why did she have to enter his life a month before he was supposed to get married? That wasn’t Erik’s usual luck but he wasn’t going to question it. He would figure out a way to keep her in his life. He’d kept mistresses in the past. Perhaps she would agree to come back to his country. He had several beautiful estates and he traveled often so it would be easy to find time to be with her.

Erik heard a door open and close behind him. He watched as Tim walked up and bowed before speaking. “She is staying at the Mayflower, your highness. The team is now trying to find out more about her. So far, none of the staff at the Mayflower have any information.”

“Good,” Erik replied. “Keep it up. Someone is bound to have something on her. A woman can’t just disappear like she did yesterday without any kind of a trace.”

Tim bowed out of the room and left Erik to stare out into the dark night. He sighed a few minutes later and went into his room where his valet had already laid out his evening attire. He was supposed to be attending a dinner meeting with several heads of oil companies. Putting on the suit, Erik contemplated his first night with Ana. He knew she’d be scared but he’d take things slowly and carefully, bring her to a climax before entering her. Erik played out the scene in vivid detail, his body reacting to his thoughts.

The following evening, Ana waited until Marabeth had left for her evening with her mother and father. Ana had begged off the night at the opera, telling them she wanted to be alone for a while. She was still unsure why no one had questioned her long absence yesterday but was grateful no one had seen her leave.

She dressed carefully once she was alone. Choosing a simple black dress that hugged her figure, she wondered if the spaghetti straps and V neckline were too risqué for the evening. With trembling fingers, she put on a diamond pendant that laid a few inches above her slightly exposed cleavage and added a pair of diamond earrings. Staring at her reflection she wondered if she should put her hair up but in the end, she left it down simply because she ran out of time. It was almost six thirty when she stared at the finished product and there was no time to change. Nor did she want to. She wanted to impress Marcus and feel pretty, sexy tonight.

Again, she stepped out of the elevator, her hair covered again by a scarf but this one was black, as was her sleeveless cocktail dress with a chiffon skirt that fluttered around her knees.

The spring night was cool and she asked the doorman to hail her a cab. She had cash stored in her purse that she’d gotten from the front desk. She’d found out that she could get a cash advance on her credit cards and was thrilled to have the extra security.

“A restaurant called ‘Francois’ please,” she said to the cab driver, just as Marcus had instructed her to. And sure enough, the man nodded and drove off, making a U turn at the first intersection. It took less than ten minutes to arrive at the restaurant. Ana was ushered into the elegant interior and smiled at the maitre d’.

“I’m here for Marcus…,” she said, halting at the realization that she didn’t know the man’s last name.

“This way, ma’am,” the Maitre’d said without blinking or even waiting for a last name, and he led her to a small table in the back of the restaurant, secluded from the other patrons by potted plants. Marcus stood as soon as she rounded the corner and his eyes flared when he looked at her dress.

“You look beautiful,” he said, lifting her hand to kiss the back gently.

“Thank you,” she replied and admired his perfectly cut dark suit. “You look very dapper yourself.”

“Thank you,” he replied. He pulled out her chair and waited until she was seated before stepping around to the other side of the table to sit down across from her. His eyes never left her face as he moved. “I like your hair down. It’s the first time I’ve been able to see it unhindered by a scarf of some kind,” he said.

She was unable to reply since the waiter arrived and poured champagne that was already at the table chilling in a bucket of ice. “What did you do today?” he asked as he pushed her chair in for her.

“I met with a bunch of old men who sat around telling war stories,” she said, smiling mischievously.

“That doesn’t sound very interesting,” he chuckled. “But it’s about the same thing I’ve been doing.”

“What were your old men talking about?”

“Oil. And yours?”

“Education,” she said. They talked politics again and after fifteen minutes, Ana shook her head. “You’re just trying to rile me, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” he said. “You look so beautiful when you’re fired up. I admit that I do try to do it,” he said.

Ana flushed but she saw the admiration in his eyes. “That’s not very gentlemanly of you.”

“I never claimed to be a gentleman.”

She laughed softly at his straight face. “Oh, but you are. And a wonderful one at that.” For some reason, she was absolutely sure about that.

He raised one eyebrow questioningly. “Are you saying that there are awful gentlemen? Doesn’t that run against the definition of a gentleman?”

Shaking her head, she was thrilled with the banter. “No. What I meant was, there are some who have to try to be a gentleman but for others, it comes naturally.”

“And which category do I fall into?”

She smiled broadly. “The natural one, of course.”

The waiter arrived soon after that and they ordered their dinners but neither seemed too eager for the meal to begin. For Ana, she didn’t want to waste time eating. It was too exhilarating just talking with him and arguing, or just sitting across from him and discussing how boring her day was.