The Duke's Runaway Princess (Love By Accident) (8 page)

“I’ve had my housekeeper make dinner. I hope you’re hungry,” he said as he stood up, taking her hand in his and pulling her along.

Zarah tried to pull her hand out of his larger one, but he simply looked down at her and held her more firmly. “Don’t be afraid of me,” he said, those dark, brown eyes watching her carefully, studying her face as if he could see into her soul.

Zarah blushed and relaxed her hand. “I’m not afraid of you,” she lied.

One side of his mouth lifted with amusement. “Of course you are. But I promise not to hurt you.”

Zarah wasn’t sure she wanted that promise. How could he guarantee something like that? He didn’t know anything about her and she suspected there was a secret to his past that could rise up to hurt both of them.

Besides, she only had five and a half more months here before she had to return home. And that was only if her brother didn’t find her first.

He ignored her reluctance and simply tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and covered her fingers with his other hand, leading her down a stone hallway lit with electric wall sconces that Zarah suspected had been lit by torches or candles at one point. “Where are you from?” he asked as he opened an old, wooden door with black iron hinges. It didn’t even creak, which irritated Zarah for some reason.

“I’m from the Middle East,” she said evasively.

He laughed softly as he held a chair out for her beside a pretty, linen covered table set beside one of the windows in a large, plant filled solarium. “I had already guessed that. But which country?”

He sat down opposite her and a servant instantly walked in and placed two plates in front of both of them. There was a delicious salad with crisp greens and what she suspected was goat cheese and a salmon fillet with what looked like a lemon sauce.

“This looks wonderful,” she said and picked up her fork.

“You’re avoiding the question,” he commented. “I wonder why.” He picked up his own fork and sampled the salmon. “Do you have a horrible, dark secret that would be revealed if you told me where you were born?”

She had to laugh because he was exactly on the mark. “Yes. If I dared to tell you anything, you’d know so much about me that you’d run screaming to the hills,” she quipped, tossing his original comment to her right back at him. Her heart warmed when he threw back his head and laughed, his gaze admiring her quit wit.

Unfortunately, her comment probably wasn’t far from the truth. If she told him where she was from, he could do an internet search on the country. Possibly the first hit would be the official government site with the royal family portrait on the front page, and her right in the middle between her older siblings.

She smiled cheekily across the table at him. “So where are you from? And tell me your darkest secrets and then I’ll share mine.”

He laughed and shook his head. “I can’t imagine someone as young and lovely as you having any horrible secrets.”

She shook her head. “And now you’re evading my question.”

“You didn’t ask a question. You offered a proposal.”

“And you’re still avoiding telling me about your past.” She tilted her head as she watched him. “Why are you so mysterious?”

“There’s nothing mysterious about me, I’m afraid. I grew up in this house, my father was the 10
^th
Duke of Waren and I’m the 11
^th
. I went through all the appropriate steps through school…”

“Which are?” she asked when he didn’t elaborate.

“Attended the correct schools, horseback riding, golfing, tennis lessons. Anything that an old, aristocratic family should do, my father had me schooled to do.”

“Sounds a like a poor, little rich boy story coming along,” she teased.

When his eyes darkened, she knew that she’d hit a sore spot. “I’m sorry,” she said immediately. “That was cruel of me. I know better than most that having privilege doesn’t always equate to happiness.”

The vulnerability she’d glimpsed was immediately gone and in its place was that sharp, instantaneous intelligence that never failed to make her nervous when he was pointing it in her direction. “So you grew up in a wealthy family as well?”

She thought of the palace where she’d grown up, spent all of her tutoring time until she’d left for Columbia University for college. “You could say I was pretty well off.”

“I’m guessing that means that you were a snotty, bratty teenager who flitted from party to party just to irritate daddy. So what happened to turn you into the intelligent, successful woman you are now?” He grinned evilly as he said, “And please tell me you have a whole series of tattoos and body piercings from your rebellious stage.”

She had to laugh while she shook her head. “I’m so sorry but no, I never got any tattoos.”

“Not even a little butterfly on your incredibly cute bottom?” he asked hopefully.

Still laughing, she shook her head again. “Not even a butterfly tattoo and no piercings except for my ears.”

He sighed as if disappointed. “I supposed it would be a shame to mar that perfect skin.”

She almost dropped her fork with his words. Her smile vanished and she looked up into his eyes then gasped. He wasn’t looking at her as if the comment were innocent. The heat coming at her from that look almost singed her whole body. She saw the intent, the need that was probably reflected right back at him because her stomach flipped once again and her skin felt as if it were on fire. Her eyes glanced down, noticing his hands and her mind instantly conjured up the image of those large, tanned hands on her skin, touching her everywhere. It wasn’t hard to imagine since her mind took her there every night when she fell asleep.

He took a bite of his salmon, which thankfully released her from that visual image that had captured her so completely. She glanced down at her own food and took a bite, but she couldn’t taste anything else. She was trapped, thinking of his hands and what they might feel like.

She knew that they discussed other things, but as he walked her to the front door, she couldn’t remember any of it.

“Zarah, I want you to remember one thing,” he said, his deep voice sending shivers along her body.

She was already shaking, wishing she could just run out of his house and into the heat of the summer evening. She needed space and fresh air, or at least air that wasn’t filled with this man’s spicy, male scent.

She turned to face him but was too overwhelmed by his nearness to look him directly in the eye. She wasn’t sure what she might do if she got close, so she maintained a distance of several feet, even placing her hand on the handle of the door to open it quickly once he’d told her whatever it was he needed her to remember.

“What’s that?” she asked, worried about what she was feeling and how she could overcome this sense of lust that filled her whenever she was around him.

“This,” he replied and stepped forward, eliminating all the distance between them and pulling her closer, so there was absolutely no space between their bodies. His hand dove into her hair and tilted her head back, and before Zarah understood what he was about to do, his mouth covered hers, his tongue invading her mouth and kissing her passionately and deeply.

Zarah was still for all of one second before she shuddered violently, then wrapped her arms around his neck. She didn’t even realize what she was doing but her body understood. Need eclipsed common sense and she kissed him back, imitating anything he did to her, unknowingly increasing the lust within both of them with her actions.

Derrick wished she had just pushed him away but her soft sighs and her even softer body pressing against his made his body react. The arm that was wrapped around her waist pulled her closer and he angled her head to the side so he could deepen the kiss, his tongue diving into her mouth, tasting her sweetness over and over again. Each time he felt her soft, velvety tongue against his, he wanted more. Nibbling on her lower lip, then pressing her for deeper contact. He tried to pull away, to step back and give her space but as soon as he relaxed his hold, she whimpered and he pulled her closer once again.

Someone was knocking on the front door, the loud banging of the iron door knocker reverberating in the stone foyer finally got through to his brain. He pulled back and looked down at her lovely features. She looked like she’d just been thoroughly kissed and he smiled at the realization that whoever was behind that door would know exactly what they had been doing.

That was an odd reaction he thought as he bent low for one more gentle taste. He released her and watched with fascination as her eyes fluttered open and she sucked in a deep gulp of air to try and steady herself.

He couldn’t believe that he actually wanted the person on the other side of the door to see Zarah like this. He was generally a very private person, not wanting the villagers to gossip about him anymore than possible. He understood that they lived in a sleepy little town and anything that happened in their area to break the monotony was fair game for gossip, which he worked hard to minimize.

But he wanted his stamp of ownership on Zarah. He wanted the villagers to know that he’d staked a claim and she was his. There were several other men in the village he knew were trying to gain her attention, but as soon as she left his house looking so thoroughly kissed, they would all know that he was going to win.

He frowned as she picked up her purse and opened the door with a shaky hand. He didn’t like the idea of her leaving like this. She looked too off-balance. Okay, a part of him liked that, wanted to make her even more off balance. But another part of him worried that she wouldn’t be aware enough of her surroundings to be careful.

“Zarah, I’m going to drive you back to Mary’s place. Just let me get my keys,” he said and was about to close the door, ignoring the man smiling on the other side of the threshold.

“No!” she gasped and held up her shaking hand. She realized that she’d just made both men freeze with the vehemence of her tone and took a deep, calming breath. With a forced smile, she said, “Thank you very much for dinner. And I appreciate the offer for a ride back, but it’s not very far at all and I’d rather….I need to….I just….” She almost ran out the door, stumbling down the steps and hurrying away from Derrick as fast as her feet would carry her.

Chapter 5

Zarah ran almost the whole way back to Mary’s store, slamming the door after she was inside, then rushed to the store room. She didn’t even care that Mary and two other ladies were in the store, she just needed a moment to collect herself.

She went to the farthest point in the room where it was dark and quiet and slowly sank down onto one of the old chairs that were stored in the room for no apparent reason. In the dark and quiet space, she took several deep breaths, bending down and putting her head between her legs. She slowly breathed in and out, filling her lungs with air that had not a single particle that smelled like Derrick. She didn’t even care that it smelled stuffy and dusty as long as it didn’t have that intoxicating male scent.

She estimated that it took her about fifteen minutes to recover from Derrick’s kiss. The more she thought about it, the sillier she felt. She’d rushed out of his door earlier like she’d just been beaten instead of experiencing the man’s kiss. She couldn’t imagine what Derrick thought of her now. Probably some ridiculous virgin who had never really been kissed by a man.

Okay, so that was true, she told herself. Well, she’d been kissed. She’d dated other men and at the end of the night, they’d moved in and kissed her.

But nothing like
that!

She’d never walked away from any of their kisses feeling like she’d just been struck by lightning. They had always been pleasant interludes, but nothing she would get excited about. Some were actually boring.

Derrick’s kiss was
not
boring. She could apply several adjectives to the way she was feeling right now, but bored didn’t even make it to the bottom of the list.

Frazzled. That one would be at the top. Excited? No, she couldn’t describe what she was feeling right now as excited. That was too calm of a word.

She really wasn’t sure what she was feeling right now besides completely confused.

What did the man have in mind? Was he just after an affair? Did she want to fall into bed with an infamous lothario?

Well, yes….she did want to fall in bed with him.

But she wouldn’t!

No, she had too much pride for that. She needed to keep her head about her because having sex with Derrick would be disastrous. Just look at her reaction from just a kiss! Good grief, she couldn’t even contemplate what she would be like after sex with the man. She’d have to be committed!

She chuckled to herself, remembering the look on his face when she’d rushed out of his front door, so eager to escape his embrace that she almost tripped down his stairs.

She’d have to play that up, she thought silently. Regrettably, she couldn’t let Derrick know that he’d affected her so deeply. She didn’t want him thinking that she was his for the taking. She’d have to be strong and professional about this situation. Derrick was a fabulous lover. She was innocent in that area. Therefore, she needed to laugh off the evening’s kiss and pretend that it wasn’t so incredibly….mid blowing.

Deciding her course of action, she took one more deep breath, then stood up and walked out of the store room. Mary was alone now, folding the sweaters on the front table that continuously became messy because of people picking them up to take a look at them.

“That must have been some meeting with our famous, part-time resident,” Mary said without looking up from the pile of sweaters.

Zarah groaned silently and quickly tried to cover up her mistake at letting Mary see how affected she’d been when she’d come back.

“Not really. Derrick’s a very smart man. He has some great ideas. I just needed to figure out how to implement them before I forgot about them.”

Mary looked over at the pretty woman who was trying to appear casual as she shifted the sizes on a rack of dresses. Apparently, Zarah was completely unaware that she was instead mixing up the styles instead of sorting them so they were organized. Mary had to stifle her laughter at the sweet woman’s attempt to hide what was going on. Everyone in the village was watching and eager to see what happened between these two. Zarah was light and happiness, new ideas and energy whereas the other women they’d seen their Duke with were darkness and not very refined. Oh, they might have titles or wealth, but not a single one could match Zarah’s poise and grace, not to mention her soft, sultry beauty. They were harsh and brittle, rail thin to the point of emaciation with bones sticking out in the wrong places. Zarah was soft everywhere, including that tender heart of hers.