The Duke's Runaway Princess (Love By Accident) (15 page)

Fifteen minutes later, he was surprised to see her coming out of his bedroom, fully dressed but with her hair twisted into a knot on the back of her head and his shirt covering her cocktail dress from the night before. He was impressed because women, in his experience, took hours to look this good. He finished buttoning his shirt as he walked up to her. “You even smell delicious,” he said as he bent down and nuzzled her neck.

“None of that!” she said but laughed at his tickling.

“Definitely more of that,” he countered but put an arm around her waist. “But later. Now I need sustenance because you wore me out last night.”

Zarah smacked him lightly on his flat, hard stomach because of that comment. “I didn’t do anything last night! You’re the one who kept bothering me. I was sleeping innocently, trying to regain my energy while you were merciless.”

He laughed as they descended the stairs, hugging her gently. “I plan on depleting your energy again tonight. What time are you finished with meetings and work at Mary’s place?”

Zarah considered her schedule, ignoring her guilt at being with a man outside of marriage. Rashid was a wonderful brother, but she wouldn’t let him take away this kind of happiness. She would be extra careful about the pregnancy issue, but for right now, she was going to enjoy Derrick as much as possible. She had five more months before she promised to come home and fulfill her royal obligations to marry some disgusting man. For now, she was just a woman in….love?

Derrick was pulling out the chair in a pretty little sun room where he obviously ate breakfast each morning since it was set up with coffee and tea already. “What’s wrong?” he asked, instantly sensing that something had changed in her.

Zarah looked up at the handsome man who was still holding the back of her chair. Was she really in love with this man? He was incredibly striking, wildly passionate and brought out feelings in her that she didn’t know existed. His confidence and intelligence were so attractive that, seeing his confidence or brilliance in action, sometimes sent a shiver down her back with excitement. But was it love? Or was it simple lust?

Lust implied a physical attraction, which she definitely felt with Derrick. But what she was feeling right now was much more than just a physical need or interest. It was deeper, more intense. Could it be love?

She was suddenly sad because she didn’t want to be in love with a man she couldn’t spend the rest of her life with. She wanted to fall in love with her husband, to grow old with him and fight with him and raise a family side by side with the man.

“Nothing,” she said and looked down at her lap as she placed her napkin across her thighs, smoothing it out for an additional moment to get her facial features back under control.

“That look wasn’t ‘nothing’,” he countered as he took the chair across from her. He didn’t press immediately because his housekeeper bustled into the room, carrying warm croissants and muffins along with a huge bowl of freshly cut fruit with brightly colored berries and watermelon.

“This looks delicious!” she commented, smiling at the grandmotherly housekeeper. The kind woman smiled warmly before leaving the two of them alone to converse.

“What was that about?” Derrick asked, pouring her some tea, then lifting the coffee pot for himself.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, stirring lemon and honey into her tea, pretending ignorance because she didn’t want to answer his question. She even lowered her eyes because he always seemed to be able to figure out when she was lying to him.

“Zarah, talk to me. What’s on your mind?”

The soft, gentle voice was still firm, but she could hear the tenderness in his voice. “I just have a lot to finish with the festival coming up in a few weeks.”

Derrick could tell that she was holding something back from him, but had no idea what that might be. He wanted to lift her into his arms and carry her back to his bed because she was honest with her reactions when they were there. She couldn’t hide anything from him, he wouldn’t let her and demanded that she reciprocate and tell him what she wanted. Something in her eyes told him that she was upset, but he couldn’t imagine what had changed in the last few moments, but he suspected it had something to do with the phone calls she went into London to make each week.

A thought occurred to him and he was instantly furious. Slamming his coffee cup onto the saucer, he leaned forward and glared at her. “You aren’t married, are you Zarah?”

Zarah was so startled by his question and anger that she almost dropped her cup. “Of course not!” she replied instantly. “Where did that question come from?”

Derrick watched her, relieved because her response was quick. She didn’t have to think about it, therefore, it sounded more honest. He accepted her answer simply because he didn’t want to consider that she was married and would lie to him. And then he remembered that she’d been a virgin until last night and his shoulders relaxed. “Sorry. It just occurred to me that your weekly jaunts into London might be to visit with your husband or lawyer.”

Her eyebrows went down with her increasing temper. “If I were married, I definitely wouldn’t cheat on my husband!”

Since he’d remembered that she was completely his, he smiled and winked at her, more at ease with that realization. “I know you wouldn’t.”

“Then why did you ask such a horrible question?”

“Because I know you’re hiding something and being married at your age and with your looks it seemed like a reasonable assumption. But I apologize for maligning your character in that way.”

She continued to glare at him, but his apology appeased her. Mostly. “Thank you for that.”

“So will you tell me what the weekly visit and phone call are about?”

“No.”

Derrick nodded, accepting that she trusted him in bed with her body and care, but there were some parts of her that she still felt she needed to keep hidden. For now. Eventually, he would know everything about her. “Okay.”

She was startled by that response, not sure what it meant. “Okay? Just okay?”

He laughed and picked up his fork, stabbing a bright, red strawberry and bringing it to his mouth. “Do you want me to interrogate you? A bit of torture to find out what you’re hiding?”

“Of course not.”

“Then I’ll accept that you’ll soon learn that you can trust me and will tell me what’s going on each Saturday morning. Until then, I’ll pick you up from work and will make love to you until you can’t move any longer.” He stabbed another strawberry and brought it to her lips, watching as her pretty, white teeth bit down on the succulent fruit. “You’ll learn to trust me outside of the bedroom eventually, Zarah.”

He held her gaze for a long moment, but his housekeeper coming back into the room distracted him. Zarah’s heart rate slowly returned to normal and she savored the fruit while sipping her fragrant tea. Derrick had to take a phone call and she listened, amazed at the large sums of money he worked with on a daily basis. He was apparently buying up some ailing corporation and challenging one of his vice president’s assumptions on the cost to bring the company back to profitability.

When he finished the phone call, he apologized and tucked the phone back into his pocket. “Time to get you home so you can change for your meeting,” he said.

Zarah was grateful for the ride back to her apartment. Thankfully Suzanne wasn’t home because Derrick insisted on walking her to her door and kissing her passionately before letting her go inside to change. Zarah blushed when he stepped away because he knew she was thinking about the things they’d done the previous night. “What time will you be finished tonight?” he asked as he unlocked her door, then handed her keys back to her.

“I think Mary needs me until about six o’clock.”

“Okay. I’ll pick you up then.” He didn’t ask, and Zarah didn’t reject his offer. She was happy to be able to anticipate seeing him again tonight. He kissed her once again briefly, then hurried down the stairway before disappearing from her site.

Zarah’s day was wonderful. She floated through her meetings with the shop owners, answered all of their questions, checked on the status of various issues for the festival and sold ten more dresses to villagers while working in Mary’s shop. Mary smiled with glee at her increasing profits and during Zarah’s downtime in the shop she worked on building a web site for Mary’s dresses. She’d start off slowly with about twenty designs, then expand as Mary learned how to get her distribution processes in place.

And the whole day, she kept smiling over the fact that she would be seeing Derrick soon.

When he arrived a bit before six o’clock, Zarah was helping a customer from another village. Zarah tried to pretend he wasn’t there but his large presence was hard to ignore. Mary came up to him, flirting outrageously and laughing at his compliments back to her. Even the new customer saw Derrick and blushed even though the woman had to be at least sixty years old. It was sweet the way Derrick made every female think she was special.

He took her back to the castle that night and his housekeeper fed them a delicious meal of grilled steaks with some sort of creamy potato and steamed vegetables. It was an elegant meal but Zarah loved the way it was just the two of them, his housekeeper having left everything in the oven for them and then disappeared. Over a bottle of wine, she and Derrick talked about the festival, about his work and what had happened over the day. By the time the sun had set, Derrick pulled her into his arms and Zarah went willingly, eager to experience his magical touch once again.

By the time the weekend rolled around, Zarah knew that she was in love with Derrick. He was kind, gentle, passionate, intelligent and one of the most interesting men she’d ever met. She didn’t understand why he was doing something so generous for the villagers but knew that there was a story behind all of it, something the other villagers wouldn’t reveal to her. It might be because she was an outsider, or because they had all worked so hard to get the two of them together and whatever secret there was could be a problem.

She didn’t know and didn’t care. She was so in love with him that she actually missed his company during the day. The festival was coming together perfectly and vendors were lining up, eager to sell their wares along with the village shop owners. So it was wonderful to give Derrick daily reports and see the admiration on his handsome face at her progress. She eagerly accepted his suggestions, incorporating them into the plans because she respected his intelligence so much and his ideas turned out to be ingenious.

She woke up on Saturday morning and sighed with resentment at having to take the time to drive all the way to London just to call her brother. Reassuring him was becoming a burden that she didn’t feel was necessary. As she curled up against Derrick’s muscular chest for a few more precious moments with him, she considered various ways she could try and convince Rashid that she was fine and didn’t need to marry some disgusting man. After having been with Derrick the past week, she knew that she couldn’t marry another man. She was so in love with Derrick that the idea of another man touching her was repulsive.

With a sigh of resignation, she slipped out of Derrick’s bed and headed for the bathroom. She had to get this phone call out of the way so they could enjoy their weekend. She showered quickly, then pulled on a clean pair of khaki slacks. She’d started bringing a change of clothes with her to Derrick’s each day, knowing that she would be spending the night with him and the thought of putting on the previous day’s clothes each morning and hurrying back to the apartment she shared with Suzanne to change clothes was just silly. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know that she would be spending the night with him, in his arms and in his enormous bed.

Zarah smiled as she pulled a sweater over her head to ward off the early morning chill. She was looking at Derrick as he slept, amazed at how muscular his body was. She had no idea what he did to build up those muscles, she’d never seen him work out except when he swam in his lake. But the lake wasn’t large enough for him to get that buff. Maybe he did something during the day, she wondered. She’d have to ask him tonight, she told herself as she picked up her overnight back and stuffed the previous day’s clothes inside.

Downstairs, she smiled at his housekeeper but shook her head when the kind woman suggested a cup of tea before heading out. “Thank you, but I’ve got to rush. I’ll grab something when I get back to my place.”

Zarah hurried down the road, enjoying the birds singing and the cool air that was almost misty at this time of the morning. The dew on the grass made everything look surreal and she hummed an old song that had been going through her head as she walked quickly back to her apartment.

Suzanne was still asleep, so Zarah put her overnight bag down and wrote her friend a note, letting her know that she was taking her car and driving into London for the weekly call to her brother.

She drove for forty-five minutes, finding a new spot by one of the larger shopping malls. She hurried to put the battery back into her cell phone and turn it on. She wanted this phone call over with so she could get back to Derrick. They didn’t have any specific plans for the day, but it would be nice to be able to spend a whole day with him. She hoped he was counting on that as well. As she dialed her brother’s phone number, she wondered if maybe they could take a picnic lunch back down to the lake and spend the day swimming. The morning had started off cool, but it was going to be pretty hot once the sun was fully up in the sky.

She heard the rings and counted to five before Rashid finally picked up. That was odd, she thought. Normally he was expecting her call and answered on the first ring.

“Where are you, Zarah?” her older brother demanded harshly.

Zarah took a moment to calm down. The authority in that tone of voice always intimidated her. He had been able to do that since she’d been a little girl but she wasn’t little any longer and she was not going to take it now.

“I’m fine. And you probably know my general area, so let’s just leave it at that.”