Redemption (Red Dragon Book 1) (3 page)

Chapter Four.

“Cat?” He found himself walking towards her, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he did so. “My God you're beautiful.”

As he watched a blush came to her cheeks, before she straightened her posture. “Valdamer, please won't you join me.”

He nearly smiled at that. Cat had always had a certain way of speaking, almost like she had stepped out of the pages of a Jane Austen novel and he had always found it endearing. His favourite times had been when he had been able to trip her up, making her fall into slang or even more hysterically swearing.

“Yes,” he said. “Thank you.”

With that he unbuttoned his jacket, shrugging it off and then draping it over the back of his chair. Looking back up at her, he was pleased to see her giving him a quick once over, flushing again when she noticed. While Cat may have changed since he had last seen her, Valto was well aware that he was probably almost unrecognisable. Upon losing her, he had put all his effort into a military career and had lost over a hundred and fifty pounds. He also had a six pack now. Part of him wondered what she would make of that.

“So you responded to Lowri's request for a suitable husband for me?” She poured him a cup of tea, dropping in two sugar cubes. “Not what I expected from you Valdamer.”

“Cat,” he said. “You don't need to act so formal with me.”

“We are no longer friends. Even though you are now my suitor and are attempting to court me.” Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes. “That doesn't mean I like you, or that I will ever like you.”

He had known she would be like this. Steph had warned him that a woman who had had her heart broken was a formidable thing, and that he needed to stand tall through her bitterness until he was able to heal the hurt. It was different though, watching it with his own eyes and seeing her obvious pain reflected onto him. 

“Yet you agreed to me being here.” He sipped his tea. “You picked me out of however many potential suitors replied.”

“All of them,” she said. “All of them replied.”

Valto would like to say he was surprised; however Cat was gorgeous, powerful, and rich. Men were probably clambering all over each other to try and get her favour, or at least get into her bed. Thinking about her bed brought back the memory of the man who, according to gossip anyway, was still sharing it. Or at least she was sharing his.

“Hans,” he said, watching as she rolled her eyes. “Are you still...?”

He found that he couldn't even find the words to ask whether they were still lovers or not.

“That ended the moment I discovered that Lowri had chosen a suitor.” She folded her arms across her chest defensively.

“So I won't be needing to look the other way from time to time?”

Cat's eyes widened in surprise at that, and her hand fluttered in her lap as though she wanted to reach for him but had thought better of it. “I would never do that. I'm not a cheater.” She all but choked out the words, and he knew that it had to hurt her to be saying them after so many years.

“I know,” he said. “I know that, Cat.”

Cat wiped a tear away from her cheek, her eyes suddenly downcast. “You finally believe me then?”

“Johann finally came clean.” Valto flinched as she gave a snort of disgust at that. “He told me that he never touched you. That he never even thought about it, never even tried, and that despite everything he would never do that to his own fiance.”

“He hasn't seen Myf in six years,” said Cat. “Are you trying to tell me he does things so as not to hurt her? Because I can tell you right now it's not working.”

Deciding to ignore her anger over her sister's honour, he reached across the table and took her hand. “You never slept with him?”

She seemed to freeze at his touch, however he was happy to note that she didn't pull away. “Why would I have wanted him when I had you?”

“Johann's always been handsome, charming, experienced ...”

“And I loved you!” She ripped her hand from his grasp. “I was waiting for you to want me … I didn't want anyone else.”

“Cat, I want to court you,” he said. “Properly court you. I want us to get to know each other again. I want to be your husband.”

She picked up her cup and took a sip of her tea. “You do realise what marrying me entails, right? You will need to give up everything in your life to be here with me.”

“You're worth it.” Valto sighed as dropped her gaze from his. “I mean it.”

“You don't even know who I am anymore,” she said. “Valdamer, we're not the same people now.”

“Then let me get to know you. Let me make everything up to you.”

The look on her face clearly said that she didn't think that he would ever be able to make the past five years up to her. “I have agreed with Lowri that for whatever reasons you are the best choice for the future Prince Consort. You have until December to decide whether this is what you truly want or not. I will be getting married on the eighteenth of March whether to you or someone else.”

“It will be me.” Valto had never been so determined in his life. “I promise you.”

***

Valto had agreed that he would call Kai the moment that he was settled, which happened to be quite late that night after a dinner with Lowri, in which Cat wasn't in attendance. However despite her absence it was clear that her step-mother was happy with whatever she had been told about their meeting.

“Valto. How's Wales?”
Kai's voice was a welcome sound through his mobile phone.

“Overcast,” he said. “But that's nothing new.”

“And Cat?

“You weren't wrong when you said she was hot.”

Hot was such a pale word in comparison to how utterly gorgeous Cat truly was; it seemed that she had faded somewhat in his memory over the years. Either that or he hadn't really seen her in this kind of light back then. However he was more than aware that he had been a late bloomer in that department, if his long held virginity had anything to say about it.

“I told you. She looks a little bit like Steph, I think.”

“You would do. No offence to your fiance Kai, but Cat outshines even her.” He flopped back on the huge bed that nearly took up the entire of the guest room. “Was she always this beautiful?”

“You didn't used to think she was beautiful? Valto you were engaged to her for four years! You used to follow her around like a love sick puppy.”

“I loved her Kai, I still love her but now I just see her differently.” He closed his eyes at the memory of the flash of creamy thigh he had got when she had stood up from the table, or the rush the sight of her cleavage had given him when she had leaned over for something. It felt like his whole body was on the edge, tingling with anticipation, almost as though it was desperate for her touch. “I think I'm in lust now too.”

“You want to fuck your fiancé … I think that's good thing Valto.”

“I've never felt like this before. I mean I've found women attractive, and I've gone to strip clubs and things, but I've never wanted someone like this in the flesh before. I don't know what to do.”

“What do you mean you don't know what to do?”

“Well of course I know what to do, you know physically. But how do I handle these feelings? How did you cope when you realised you were attracted to Steph?”

“I didn't, she seduced me.”

“Well I doubt that will happen.”

The very idea of Cat seducing him was enough to set his blood on fire, and he flung his spare arm over his eyes. Then again he supposed sex was going to happen between them, whether Cat fell in love with him again or not, because Wales would demand an heir.

“Kai she's accepted the courtship. I'm going to be getting married.”

Chapter Five.

“I didn't know you swam.”

Valto had been at Caerdydd Castle for a rather uncomfortable four days, when Cat caught him in the huge ornamental swimming pool nestled into the side of the main building. She had come out here to read some Dickens. Finding her fiance doing laps had certainly been a surprise, even though intellectually she had known that he had been in the military for the past three years it hadn't quite sunk in. Until now anyway.

When she had first fallen in love with him, and throughout their entire initial courtship, he had been overweight. Unhealthily so. Then again she hadn't really cared, her own sister had been of a similar size at the time and she had quite liked the way she had sunk into his embrace. Now though he was all tanned skin and muscle, barely recognisable as the young man who had stolen her heart.

“It helps with my knee.” He stopped doing laps, instead swimming to the side of the pool and leaning against the edge.

She raised an eyebrow as she settled on one of the sun lounges, stretching her legs in front of her and opening the book. “I didn't know you had a bad knee.”

“Shrapnel,” he said, the words causing her heart to stop beating for a moment. “Clearly not enough to cause any damage, but enough that sometimes it plays up.”

It hurt that nobody had thought to tell her that he had been injured, that it was assumed that their seven years together would mean nothing to her. Then again, in a way it was for the best; Cat wasn't sure that she would have been able to stop herself from running to Iraq to make sure he was ok. Not exactly the most dignified thing for a Crown Princess to do for her ex-fiancé.  “I wasn’t aware that you had been hurt.”

She knew her voice had a tone of hurt to it, and his expression turned confused. “I didn't think that you would care.”

“Of course I would care.” She looked down at her book, unable to look at him any longer. “I would probably have been on the next plane to Baghdad.”

There was the sound of him getting out of the water, and she couldn't help herself from taking a peak at him. Wearing nothing but a pair of red boardshorts, he was like something off of a calendar, and she couldn't help her breath catching in her throat. He crouched beside her, the sunlight glistening off of the damp tanned skin of his broad shoulders.

“You would have come to see me?” He rested his hand on her bare knee. The sensation of an electric shock went through her at the feeling of his touch, and she saw it reflected on his face.

Her eyes were focused on the hand on her knee. “I know that you wouldn't have seen me, probably would have sent me away, but despite everything I would have wanted to be there.”

“Cat?” His hand moved from her knee to cup her cheek. “Do you still love me?”

Her emotions when it came to him were complicated. Certainly she loved him, possibly with all her heart and soul, after all if she didn't love him she would have taken one of the many men that had attempted to court her over the many years up on their offer. She couldn't trust him though, couldn't trust him not to rip her heart out of her chest and stomp all over it again, before going and dating some little Scottish tramp. At the thought of Eilidh she pulled her face away from his hand, the woman who he was hanging off of not nine days after he had broken off their engagement.

“I'm not giving you the chance to hurt me again,” she said. “My heart is my own. I won't be giving it away again.”

“Oh Cat.” His fingers brushed against the jut of her jaw. “What do I have to do to prove myself to you?”

She shook her head. “There's nothing you can do.”

With that he gave a deep sigh, before standing up and walking over to where his towel was hanging over another sun lounge. “I think you need to think about whether you really want me here or not.”

He disappeared then into the gardens, leaving her staring at her book blankly as she thought over his last words. Certainly she could have easily chosen someone else to be her husband, Nicko had been her next choice and at least if she had gone on that path they both would have known where they stood. There wouldn't be any love, but there would be plenty of laughs and she would have an incredibly good looking, experienced lover in her bed. Nicko wasn't Valto though, and she knew that ultimately that fact would drive a wedge in any potential marriage.

***

It was the next morning that she finally came to a decision on what she was going to do about Valto. Extending the hand of friendship after so long wasn't going to be easy, especially since she was still all but brimming with bitterness. However they were to be married, and they had been friends once, they could at least be civil.

“Are you still leaving for your sister's wedding this afternoon?” They were seated together at the breakfast table in the conservatory at the back of the castle.

He looked up from his scrambled eggs, clearly surprised that she had broken the silence between them. “That was the plan, if that's still alright.”

“Of course it is,” she said. “Just because we're engaged doesn't mean you don't get to have a life. I wouldn't stop you going to Kai's wedding.”

“I know.” He smiled at her. “Sorry for sounding paranoid.”

She shook her head. It was understandable why he would think something like that, she was after all going to be Queen, which meant that she would outrank him by quite a bit even though he was going to be Prince Consort. That didn't mean she was going to boss him around.

“Here.” She pushed a folded up piece of paper towards him. “I thought you might need this.”

With her heart in her throat she watched as he opened up the paper, quickly scanning it before looking up at her. “Cat?”

“It's my phone number, my personal one,” she said. “It would be nice to keep in contact with you while you're away, you can keep me up to date on what's happening at the wedding.”

As she watched a flush made its way up his throat and onto his cheeks. “That would be nice. Thank you.”

“You're blushing.” She couldn't hold in her laughter. “A big tough warrior like you blushing! I didn't think it was possible.”

“You have this effect on me,” he said.

Suddenly a rush of heat went through her, and she was feeling bold in a way that she hadn't since the night she had seduced Alex. “Stand up.”

Valto dropped his fork as he stared at her. “What?”

“Stand up.” She wiped the corner of her mouth with her napkin, and then pushed back her chair and got to her feet. “Come on.”

He did as she asked, a small smile coming to his lips. “You're still bossy.”

Cat laughed again and shook her hair out of her face. “Are you saying that you don't want to kiss me?”

“What?” His eyes widened in shock. “Of course I want to kiss you.”

That was all the consent that she needed. Slipping on her heels, which she had taken off before breakfast, Cat moved over to him. “Might as well make sure we still have chemistry.”

Running her fingers up the button line of his shirt, she slid her arms around his neck and got onto tip-toes so that she could brush their lips together. Immediately his hands came up to cradle her hips.

“Chemistry?” His breathing was coming in quick bursts against her lips. “What kind of chemistry?”

She moved even closer, letting her breasts press into his chest and finding herself pleasantly surprised at how good he felt in her arms. “Sexual. We're going to need to provide an heir or two Valto, plus if you think I'm going celibate for you think again.”

“Sex?” His voice was hoarse, and a shudder went through his body.

“You do know what that is right?” She drew back from him slightly. “Valto?”

“I know what it is,” he said, fingers caressing the curve of her arse in a way that made her gasp. “I just haven't had the pleasure.”

Of the many things that she had expected from it wasn't that he would still be a virgin; after all he had been in the military for three years, and with Eilidh for the two years before that. She had thought that he would have got naked and sweaty at least once before now.

“What on Earth were you waiting for?” The look on his face suddenly went sad, and his big grey eyes were almost piercing as they looked at her. It didn't take a genius to work out what he was trying to tell her. “Me? Valto you've hated me for the last five years.”

He pulled her closer then. “I tried, like really tried, Cat. With about four different women. All I could see was you. I just couldn't do it.”

She had no verbal response to that, though her body had a shot of lust the moment she heard those words. Instead she wound her fingers through the light blonde hair at the back of his neck, pulling his head down and gently pressing their lips together. He released a low moan at that, hands letting go of her hips so as to wrap tightly around her waist and drag her against him. Almost as one their lips parted, and the kiss deepened immediately. A high whine rose from her at the pure taste of him, a deep masculine hit which was addictive. For several long moments they remained intertwined in the conservatory, trading long deep kisses as their breathing became ragged and their bodies heated.

“Holy shit.” Their kiss broke, and he rested his forehead heavily against hers.

“I think we have chemistry.” Which was an underwhelming way to put the throbbing in her groin and the way her underwear was sticking damply to her bare flesh. Then again he was in a similar situation if the hard column pressing into her stomach was anything to go by.

“Can I kiss you again?” His words were hoarse, and she had barely nodded her head before his mouth was on hers.

The idea of taking his virginity right then, on the breakfast table, was compelling and she pressed herself even closer to him as their tongues slid together. She didn't think she had ever been so aroused before in her life, not even with Alex, and she felt close to losing it already. With one last groan she pulled herself from his arms, her hand against her tingling lips looking at where he was stood panting.

“What time do you leave?” Her voice was rough even to her own ears, and she shakily sat back down in her seat.

“Two o'clock,” he said, all but falling into his own chair. “The wedding isn't until the twenty-first but Kai and Steph both want me there for the rehearsals.”

Of course they did. Valto was Kai's main supporter and really he should probably be in Helsinki now getting ready rather than fretting over his scrambled eggs. Twirling a strand of her hair around her finger, Cat pushed it behind her ear before looking up at him. “I'm sorry I couldn't come with you.”

“We didn't exactly give you time to plan.” He smiled at her. “You're busy Cat, and you know Steph, when she got it into her head she was getting married it was happening sooner rather than later.”

“Well we at least have nine months to get organized,” she said.

In all honesty, nine months wasn't a very long time to organize the wedding of a Crown Princess, especially not one who was going to be crowned only a handful of months later. For the most part she was leaving it in the hands of whoever it was that Lowri decided to hire for the job, or more like the army of people. Cat herself wasn't going to have a lot of time for planning her own wedding; her schedule was full enough as it was.

“I have to put in for my discharge.” Valto picked up his coffee and took a sip. “As well as pack some stuff from my apartment in Helsinki, so it's good I'm going early.”

Cat couldn't help but wince at that. She hated the idea of him having to give up his military career, but it just wouldn't do for the Prince Consort of Wales to be active in the Finnish military. It was something that he had to have known and contemplated before he had even made an attempt at courtship.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Give up your whole life just for a chance to sit on the throne?” she asked.

He narrowed his eyes at that. “I'm not marrying you for your title.”

“I know that Valto.” She pressed her fingers against her lips again. “That is the one thing I do know.”