Main Attraction (8 page)

“Get out. I wouldn’t sleep with you for all the money in the treasury.”

“I’m the one holding the gun, Emily. I’ll be giving the orders from now on. Put this coat on and find some sensible shoes. We’re leaving.”

“I’m not going with you. I don’t want to be your lover, Robert. You repulse me, and you’re my stepdaughter’s
husband
. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Aren’t you concerned with how Cindy will take this?” Edna backed slowly away from Robert and the coat he held out toward her. He had said more than enough to incriminate himself, where in the hell was the Queen’s guard?

“She’ll never know.”

“Don’t you think she’ll suspect something?”

“Cynthia is a beautiful girl, an innocent flower and more than fit to bear my sons. She doesn’t have a suspicious bone in her body. I adore that about her. I adore everything about her, but she bores me in the bedroom. She doesn’t like to play the games we like to play, Emily. You know what it’s like to ache for something more.”

“I don’t know anything about my stepdaughter’s sex life, and you don’t know anything about what I ache for.”

“Perhaps not now, but I will,” he said with a small smile that sent an unpleasant shiver down Edna’s spine.

He was completely insane, and nothing she could say would convince him that she didn’t crave the privilege of being his mistress. It was time to run—she’d wonder why her captain had failed her later, after she was safe. Edna turned and did a decidedly ungraceful half-gainer over the couch, landing in a crouched position that she hoped would afford her cover if Robert decided to fire the gun.

“Emily, come back here this instant.”

Ignoring Robert’s directive, she bolted toward the door of the west dressing room. She needed to get out of the line of fire. Then she could lock the door behind her and make a run for the rear staircase. If she took a few seconds to toss off her shoes, she could probably beat Robert to the ground floor. From there, it would only be a few—

“Oh my god!” She screamed and hit the floor as she heard gunfire behind her, covering her head with her hands in a futile attempt at self-preservation.

“Freeze, Queen’s Guard, you’re under arrest.”

Before Edna could lift her eyes to see who was speaking, Robert landed on top of her with enough force to take her breath away. For a small man, he was still damned heavy, and gray spots bloomed in front of her eyes as she rolled over and grabbed for the gun he was now aiming at her face.

“I’ve got her subdued, good work, men,” the king shouted, holding his pistol way too close to her throat for her to be comfortable.

“No, I’ve got
you
subdued, sir.” If she’d thought Frank’s voice intimidating when she’d first met him, she’d been sadly mistaken. Now the man’s every word radiated pure, unadulterated menace as he gripped the king by the neck and pants and pulled him into the air.

Edna opened her mouth to ask him what took so long, but was shocked into silence when Frank let loose a tremendously scary scream and hurled the king against the wall. Robert bodyslammed into the plaster with a sickening thud and then bounced equally roughly to the floor where he lay absolutely still.

“Oh my god,” she breathed, every muscle in her body starting to tremble.

“Are you all right?” Frank asked, turning to her with wild eyes. For a second Edna shrank from the intensity of his gaze before she realized that it was concern, not anger, that burned so brightly there.

“I’m fine, but I was beginning to worry.”

“We had dissension in the ranks, someone who thought we should heed the orders of a madman. He’s been taken into custody, but it distracted our focus. I’m more sorry than I can say.”

“It’s okay. I’m okay, I just—”

“You could have been killed. There’s no excuse for that. I never should have allowed you to be in that kind of danger in the first place.” The look in his eyes was still fierce, wild, but now Edna could see something else there as well. He cared for her, had been afraid for her not only because he had promised to protect her, but because he wanted her around for his own personal reasons.

“It’s all right, Frank. I still trust you. I know you did your best,” she said, taking the hand he offered and rising to her feet. As soon as they touched, that same wild, fevered need started to pulse through her veins again. Even in the wake of being scared for her life, she still wasn’t immune to the powerful draw of this man, and doubted she ever would be. “But what are you going to do? If Robert’s dead, won’t that make it—”

“He isn’t dead.”

“He sure looks dead,” Edna said, darting a glance to where the man lay alarmingly still in a crumpled pile on the floor. Blood had started to seep where his dark hair touched the white carpet. Obviously time to consider a new color floor covering.

“He isn’t, he’ll live to stand trial. Armand, Thomas, take the king into custody. You can allow the royal physician to attend to him, but don’t leave him unguarded. We’ll need to keep him under constant supervision until Parliament can decide how to house him until trial.”

The two officers Frank had spoken to crossed the room and scooped Robert unceremoniously up from the floor. He moaned and shifted as they hoisted him into the air, but his eyes didn’t open and his skin remained a ghostly shade of white. Based on her own observations, the king didn’t look to be in very good shape, but Frank’s confidence was contagious and Edna felt the knot in her chest begin to ease ever-so slightly.

“Not on your life. I refuse to go!” Cindy was screaming and struggling in a very flustered-looking Nate’s grasp as the door to the dressing room slammed open.

“Captain, she’s refusing to be taken into custody.”

“How can she refuse, Officer? She’s half your size, and I believe you’re armed,” Frank said. Nate flushed bright red in response and made a reach for the handcuffs on his belt.

“But, Captain Frank, please, it wasn’t even a real gun! I was just going to use it to scare Edna into leaving so I could be here when Robert arrived and confront him myself. I never intended to hurt her, I don’t deserve to be arrested.”

“It’s true. The gun was a fake, sir,” Nate supplied, though he held onto both Cindy and the handcuffs.

“I’m sorry, my Queen, but I only know that the law was broken. Threatening a citizen with a weapon—”

“But—”

“Even a
fake
weapon, is a crime,” Frank continued impassively. “Take her into custody. Keep her and the king separated. We want to be sure their testimony remains as pure as possible.”

“You can’t do this! I’m the queen!” Cindy sputtered. “I’ll still be the queen, no matter what happens with Robert. You know Parliament won’t impeach me. I’ve done nothing, Frank, nothing!”

Frank ignored her while Nate snapped the cuffs on and led her from the room. Considering how long a part of her had wished to see this very sight, it still made Edna strangely sad to see Cindy taken away. True, she’d only helped raise her stepdaughter for four years of her life, but Edna had never wanted to see a kid who had been in her care taken away in handcuffs.

“Frank, you know she’s probably right, and I don’t want you risking your position for me. I’ll be fine as long as—”

“I’m not doing anything but following the letter of the law,” Frank interrupted before striding out after the rest of the guards. He was nearly to the door before Edna realized that he really intended to leave without a word of goodbye, without even so much as a “I’ll call you to discuss the way we nearly made love on your couch later”.

“Frank?” Edna called after him, unable to keep silent or to believe that he was really leaving just like that.

Didn’t he have anything he wanted to say? Hadn’t what they’d shared meant anything to him, or at least made him curious to learn what more they could be to each other? The look in his eyes a second ago had made her feel certain that he felt the same draw, the same irresistible pull that she felt. How could she have been so mistaken? It just didn’t make sense, there had to be some other explanation for his sudden coolness.

“I have a job to do, Edna,” he said, looking over his shoulder with not a hint of emotion in his bright blue eyes. “It was nice meeting you.”

That was it? Nice
meeting
you? That was all he had to say? “Right…the pleasure was all mine,” Edna said with a tight smile, somehow managing to keep it together until the door closed behind him. She listened as the men loaded into the elevator, and all too quickly the parlor was as silent as a Sunday morning.

He was gone. Just like that.

Edna felt her face start to crumple, but struggled to keep from losing it completely. She hadn’t cried either of the two times she’d had a gun held on her tonight, she wasn’t going to cry a second time over Big Baldy. So he’d made her feel more alive than she had in two years, more treasured than she had ever felt in the arms of her first husband. Those feelings had obviously been nothing but the product of deception. He was a man looking to entertain himself, kill some time, nothing more.

“No. He listened, he really did,” Edna murmured to herself, something in her refusing to believe she’d been that horribly mistaken.

He’d told her about his son, worried about her safety and looked at her as if she were the most sexy, desirable woman in the world. Surely she hadn’t imagined all that. But whether she had imagined it or not, he was most certainly gone now, and she was most assuredly alone. Frank had left, taking with him one regulation slave loincloth and a piece of her heart.

Three days later…

Edna sighed and shifted uncomfortably on the throne-like chair that dominated the corner of her new sitting room. The space was easily twice the size of her entire house, and only part of the large castle suite she now occupied. Every amenity was provided, and she had wanted for nothing since her arrival—from food to entertainment to a full-body rubdown from the royal masseuse.

There was no doubt that the digs and service were fantastic, but Edna just wanted to be back in her own home.

It had been two years since she’d had the luxury of puttering about her house in the daytime. She’d always had to sleep through the morning and early afternoon to be rested for her Wicked Stepmothering. Now that all of that was behind her, she couldn’t imagine anything more fabulous than hanging out in her breakfast nook with a cup of coffee and the morning paper and watching the sunlight move across the wall.

Instead, she was here, a pampered captive in the guest quarters of the castle while the media frenzied around her house and former place of business. She’d had no choice but to accept Cindy’s kind offer of accommodation for her own protection. The sensation caused by the revelation that King Robert had been in love with his stepmother-in-law and planned to keep her captive as his sex slave was more than the average reporter could handle and still keep their manners about them.

Edna had nearly been trampled on her way from her front door to the car Cindy sent to take her to the castle. She hadn’t ventured out since and was beginning to feel the opposite of agoraphobic—whatever that was called.

But it wasn’t
all
bad. Cindy had been remarkably sweet the past few days, since Parliament had decided not only
not
to prosecute, but to allow her to remain as ruler

until her son or daughter was old enough to rule. Come to find out, Cindy was already four months pregnant, a condition that no doubt contributed to her despair at finding out her husband was an insane lech. Still, it had also contributed to Parliament’s decision to be lenient with her stepdaughter, so Edna figured the situation evened itself out rather well.

Impending motherhood had also seemed to increase Cindy’s empathy for Edna’s position. They’d had a few long, mother-daughter-type talks and had actually come to a tentative reconciliation. Cindy had apologized for her horrible behavior, and Edna had finally been able to convince her how much she had loved her father, and that marrying him hadn’t been Edna’s way of ruining Cindy’s twelve-year-old life.

For her part, the new queen seemed more than eager to make up for the years of hostility between them. Edna was open to being friends, but would rather have begun their new relationship from the safety of her own home. No matter how well behaved, Cindy was still Cindy, and there was only so much Edna could take before her stepdaughter started to try her patience.

All she could hope was that the first wave of craziness would fade, and soon she’d be able to return to some semblance of a normal life. Not that she’d even know what that was at this point. It had been years since Edna’s life had felt normal. It was kind of scary to think of what she would do with herself now that her name had been cleared and a very generous sum paid to her by her stepdaughter in restitution for the king’s attempted kidnapping. She was finally a free woman. Now she had to figure out what to do with that freedom.

A sudden knock on the door gave her at least one idea—breakfast. A woman had to eat, and the castle chefs did their best to tempt her appetite.

“Come in,” she called, fighting the urge to spring from her chair and open the door. The castle staff had made it clear that they did not like her opening doors for them or in any way facilitating their work. They weren’t used to the people they served lifting a finger and it made them nervous.

“Come in!” Edna called the words a bit more loudly. She kept forgetting how thick the walls were, the castle having been built back in the time when solidity was valued over almost everything else.

“Hello?” A deep male voice sounded from the other side of the door. Speaking of solid…

“Co-come in,” Edna stuttered, struggling to slow the racing of her heart as a sudden burst of nerves made her fidget madly with the fringy trim on her throne-chair. There was only one voice that sounded like that, one voice that sent chills racing across her skin and electricity throbbing straight to her clit.

She’d never expected to hear that voice again, let alone to see his face or be in the same room with him. He’d left her that night, and she hadn’t heard a word from or about him since. It was as if the moment they’d shared never happened. It was just a haunting, erotic dream that woke her in the night, aching for the only man who had ever made her feel so perfectly fulfilled.