The Secret Prince (6 page)

He glared at the stone wall to his right and, for an instant, she could imagine a rage and frustration so great he might throw a fist at the cold, gray marble.

Elly's heart went out to Dan. She stepped in front of him and brought her hands up to frame both sides of his strong jaw. “I know Karl hurt her,” she whispered. “It was wrong that he deceived her. But I believe from all I've read of his correspondence that he deeply loved your mother and only wanted to hold on to her for as long as he was able. Eventually, his duty to the crown dictated his marriage to the woman betrothed to him. He had no choice, Dan. Not at that time, before the rules were challenged by his own son, Jacob.”

Dan gripped her wrists as if to pull them away from his face, but his eyes met hers and something sharp and quick and piercing passed between them that transcended his bitterness. In a single motion, he stepped forward, backing Elly into the wall. She felt the cool curve of each stone from her hips to her shoulder blades.

Elly knew before his mouth covered hers that he was going to kiss her unless she struggled or cried out for him to release her. And she would do neither because she had wanted him since the moment they had met
and now the need had intensified to a white heat that defied common sense as well as her own secret fears.

His hands found their way to her breasts through the bodice of her dress. They kneaded her pliant flesh and raised her nipples to hard peaks that pressed through the fabric. She felt her insides go liquid. A welcome heat pulsed through her body.

He didn't ask her permission. It was as if he understood the surge of desire rushing through her body, which fed his own. His mouth lifted from hers. Gasping for breath she curled her fingers through the short hairs at the nape of his neck and nibbled hungrily at the spot on his throat where the muscles angled along his shoulder.

She luxuriated in the sensation of his hands moving over her, through clothing, then beneath. Her flesh prickled and danced at his touch. She glanced down to see that the buttons at the front of her dress had come open, and she sensed that he was waiting just these few seconds to see if she might protest. When she didn't, he snapped the front clasp of her bra between thumb and finger, and it parted to expose her breasts.

As he bowed to touch a nipple with the tip of his tongue she arched toward him, asking for more. He complied, drawing the soft flesh into his mouth, warming her with his tongue, teasing the erect brown tip with the sharp edges of his teeth. Her fingers bit gloriously into his shoulders, and she dropped her head back against the stone.

He grasped her hand urgently in his. “Touch me.”

Unsure of what he wanted at first, she let him guide her hand down the length of his body. Beneath the zipper of his pants she felt his strength, his hardness.

“I know it's too soon,” he growled. “But I need you to know how much I want you, Elly.”

Too soon?
She thought dizzily.
Or has it been far, far too long?

It seemed as if all of her life she'd waited for a man who could come this close to making her forget all the hurt and loss and heartache of the day she'd lost both mother and infant brother. And the emptiness of her own childless future.

The emotional connection had been there between them from the start, she now realized. She understood his turmoil, believed in him, wanted to comfort him in this difficult time of his life. And maybe she even wanted his strength and comfort for herself. Maybe she could trust him enough to accept those gifts from him. He was right, she reluctantly admitted; they'd known each other only a handful of days. But she pushed that knowledge aside, refusing to let rational thoughts dictate her actions this one time.

Elly kissed Dan with fierce abandon, pressing her hand against his hardness.

He let out a low moan at the parting of their lips. “Don't do that again unless you—” Interrupting him by pressing her mouth over his, she put more pressure behind her hand. He gasped for breath. “—mean it.”

She let her lips part, silently inviting him to deepen their kiss. They touched tongues. His hands slid possessively up beneath her skirt. Through the thin silk of her panties, he touched her.

Then the one thing she most dreaded happened.

As if something mechanical inside of her suddenly shut down, she felt nothing where all the warmth had been. Then the nothing turned cold and frightening. Her mother's swollen face flashed before her, then the
image of a tiny casket lying beside a larger one. The old terror seized her, turning every sweet impulse into lethal temptation. Elly's body stiffened in Dan's arms.

“What?” he asked.

“I can't,” she whispered, the words catching in her throat. Her eyes burned, and she squeezed them closed and wished with all her heart that she could find the strength to give herself to this wonderful man. “I want to, but I can't.”

“I can protect you, Elly.”

“No. You're right. It's too soon.” It would always be too soon for her.

He was silent for a long moment. Then he opened his arms and stepped away from her. The disappointment in his handsome face broke her heart. She'd have given anything to please him and to satisfy the longing within herself.

Elly slumped against the wall, feeling lost, inadequate, chilled.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

What good would that do? All she could say was what had already been said. She shook her head. “I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be a tease or lead you on.”

“I know,” he whispered, touching her cheek with his fingertips. “When the time is right…when the person is right, it will happen.”

She gazed up at him desolately. “You really think so?”

He smiled. “I do. I'd just really like that someone to be me, Elly.”

A
s a man accustomed to an active life, Dan had found only two methods of achieving the physical release his body required on a regular basis. The first was by working out, usually by swimming. But lifting weights was acceptable when the weather was so terrible he couldn't bear plunging into frigid water. The other was through sex.

The second was harder to come by because there wasn't always an available partner. And as the years moved along he found himself less and less inclined to be intimate when he didn't feel an emotional as well as a physical connection with a woman. As luck would have it, he'd felt both with Elly, fiercely so. But she hadn't been able to give herself to him, and the frustration he suffered as a result was unnerving.

He didn't blame her at all. He sensed her need was as great as his, if not greater. He felt confident he could
help her, if only he could break through the emotional barrier she'd lived behind for so long. How he'd go about that without forcing her, though, he had no idea. And force was definitely out of the question.

Meanwhile, there was the problem of his growing restlessness and hunger for physical action. He missed his early-morning swims, and he thought constantly of Elly, her sweet kisses and lovely breasts. He decided he'd have to settle for a good hard run to work off his body's mounting tension.

He had packed running shorts, a T-shirt, athletic shoes and socks. Even though it was winter and snow from the last storm stood in low heaps throughout the garden and on street corners, most of the streets themselves were bare. Besides, he was accustomed to running barelegged on the beach even during the coldest months. He jogged out through the open gates of the Crystal Palace, giving the guard a wave as he left to make sure the man would recognize him and let him in when he returned.

For the first mile he felt stiff, and every stride required intense labor. His breathing was tight. His pores began to sweat in response to the exertion. Somewhere in the middle of the second mile, the muscles in his thighs and hips loosened, and his arms began to pump smoothly at his sides like well-maintained machine parts. His shoulders and neck felt relaxed. He moved with the automatic grace of an athlete.

Dan looped through the quaint medieval streets of Elbia, the only real city in the tiny country by the same name. If a visitor didn't know better, Dan mused, that person might assume he'd either been transported back in time by hundreds of years, or else this was an immense amusement park that had been built to resemble
a historical period. But Elly had told him a little of the amazing history of Elbia, which had survived two modern wars and many ancient ones. As he ran faster, harder, he marveled at colorful shops that might have been kept by the great-grandfathers of present owners, not yet open for the day, and the homes with their sturdy stucco-and-stone walls and charming peaked tile roofs.

He set each foot carefully, stride after long stride, on the rounded cobbles, concentrating on working his body, less and less aware of the carved wooden signs dangling from chains over the sidewalks and the flashes of color from shop windows. It was Elly's sweet face that floated before him. She was a lovely enigma, a challenge and a troubled soul. Yet, as difficult as it was to overcome her fears and win her trust, he sensed the effort would be well worth it to a man. If only he had the patience to hold out that long.

Then a disturbing thought came to him.

She was clearly attracted to him, and they had been well on their way to making love the night before. But why was she so willing to be with him if she was really so terrified of having children and she knew that he wanted them? Was it because she had known from the day she'd waved him down on the beach in Ocean City that he was the son of a king? Because she figured he was marked to inherit thousands, possibly millions?

Even more alarming was his own longing for her despite her having made it clear she would never agree to have children. He felt he was a fair man, willing to make compromises. He no longer expected to find the perfect woman—the ideal blend of intelligence, sexuality, gentleness, beauty and practicality. But the decision to create a family, to have babies or remain
childless, was a make-or-break point in the classic bargain struck between a man and a woman, at least as far as he was concerned.

At this time in his life, when he should have been seriously focusing on the woman capable of and willing to be the mother of his children, he should have walked away from Elizabeth Anderson. Instead, he hungered for her.

Feeling more and more off balance, Dan swung back along the outer edges of the city as the streets began to come alive with people opening their shops or seeking their morning coffee and fresh roll before heading for work. The palace gates came into view. Something had changed. He slowed at the unexpected sight before him.

A cluster of men and women armed with cameras, microphones and compact tape recorders slung over shoulders milled around outside the main gate. A man with a TV camera propped on one shoulder was shooting between the iron bars, which had been shut. One guard stood alertly inside the massive metal grille, another outside, watching the cameraman warily.

Dan came to an abrupt stop, hesitated a moment, then slowly approached the group. The outside guard saw him just as Dan was about to raise his hand to signal he had returned. Before he could do or say anything, the soldier broke through the crowd and came swiftly to Dan's side.

“This way, please sir,” he said in heavily accented English.

With a hand on Dan's shoulder blade, the guard pushed him between camera-whirring, question-shouting reporters. The other guard already had cracked open the gate. With a sudden lunge Dan and
his escort were through it and into the safety of the courtyard. The disappointed paparazzi were left outside, still shouting, clicking and whirring.

“What the hell is going on?” Dan gasped for breath.

“We were hoping, sir, that you would return before they arrived.”

“You knew this would happen?”

“It wasn't unexpected, sir.”

Dan shook his head and allowed them to usher him through the towering central doors into the great hall where Jacob stood between Elly and his queen. All three turned toward him with worried expressions. Jacob's bloomed into anger at the sight of his half brother.

“
Where
have you been?” Elly asked breathlessly.

Dan shrugged. “Out for a run. Is that a crime in this country?”

Jacob took a step forward, glowering at him. “It was a foolish thing to do. We might have found a way to send them away if they hadn't seen you. Now there is no hope of denying your presence in Elbia.”

“I came here to work out a solution to this mess,” Dan growled. “I'm not hiding from anyone.”

“Not very well you're not!” Jacob snapped.

Elly stepped between the two men. “This isn't helping. Stop arguing, please.”

The young king stared coldly at her as if shocked by her continued interruptions. Elly felt chilly sweat rise across the nape of her neck. What had she been thinking, talking to him that way? If Jacob sent her away, she'd be unable to right their mistakes and rebuild her father's company's reputation. Then there came an even darker thought:
She'd never see Daniel Eastwood again.

Allison sighed. “Jacob, please, she's only trying to help. And your brother doesn't yet understand how it is here…how we must live in the public eye.” She smiled adoringly at him, and Jacob visibly relaxed a notch.

“I'm beginning to get the idea,” Dan muttered, “and I can't say that I like it. I needed to work out. You don't seem to have a convenient ocean, so I thought a run through—”

“In the first level below ground, there is a gymnasium with every sort of equipment you might require,” Jacob said. “All you had to do was ask.”

Dan observed him, trying to figure out what made the two of them go at each other's throats this way whenever they were in the same room. Did all brothers do this at one time or another? Battling like two male lions competing for dominance in the pride? Maybe because they had grown up apart, not meeting until they were adults, they had to fight their way through this stage of their relationship now? Whatever the reason, he resented Jacob for interfering in his life and for ordering him around.

“Don't you ever feel you just have to break free, Your Highness?” Dan asked in a low voice. “Don't you ever yearn to get the hell out of these stone walls?”

For a long moment, Jacob just stared at him, and neither woman dared speak. Then Jacob's lips barely moved. “Nearly every day of my life.
Nearly every day.
”

Dan was stunned. His brother was human after all, and perhaps more like him than either of them had guessed.

Allison's hand reached out and touched her hus
band's arm. She turned to smile faintly at Dan. “We both look forward to the quiet days when the international press corps is off covering other people's lives in other countries. That happens so seldom. We rarely can travel outside Elbia without at least a small contingent of reporters.”

Dan met Jacob's eyes. There was no softening in them, but there was a flash of longing for solitude and peace that he could understand only too well. If they had just been two ordinary guys back in Ocean City, Jacob would match him stroke by stroke in the chilly Atlantic along a deserted beach at dawn. But here in his royal world he would never know the luxury of privacy.

“I'm sorry if I've caused a stir,” Dan said sincerely. “I didn't mean to.”

Jacob gave him a brief nod of acknowledgment. “What's done is done.” He started to turn away. “Let's adjourn to my office. My PR officer is meeting us there, and we can discuss a statement to placate the press.”

Dan looked down at his sweaty T-shirt and brought the bottom edge up to wipe the sweat from his face. “I'd like to change first, if that's all right.”

“Certainly,” Jacob said.

Dan started toward the stairs leading to the upper chambers, but Jacob called after him. “I should mention that I've conferred with my advisors, and I can offer you a monetary settlement for publicly renouncing the throne. Since lying to the public is something you disdain, this will enable you still to claim my father as yours, but will get you off the hook since you say you don't want anything to do with the von Austerands
and Elbia. You can sign the agreement today if you like.”

Dan froze, mid step. He turned and looked at Elly, whose face had turned ashen, as if she knew what his reaction would be before he did. She blinked once at him, urging caution and restraint, he supposed.

But he wasn't in the mood for tiptoeing around issues or for doing something just because it was a convenient solution for his brother. He rounded slowly to face Jacob across the expanse of pale gray marble, his hand gripping the carved banister.

“Listen,” he said slowly, “I may be just a city kid who fought his way to making good in a small way. I may not live in a castle or have a title or be able to live in your grand manner, Jacob. But I am proud of who I am. Not because I have a king's blood in me. Just because I'm me.”

Jacob's eyes darkened to blue-black chips of obsidian, but he said nothing.

“I resent you treating me like an intruder and trying to buy me off.” Dan paused long enough to let his last words sink in and make sure Jacob was listening to the rest. “I won't sign your document or accept a penny from you.”

 

Less than an hour later, Dan stood at a casement window, his mood still dark as he looked over the formal gardens behind the castle. Paths looped through dormant winter shrubs as dusk fell. Nearly hidden by tall evergreen hedges was a glass-walled gazebo. Still within the castle walls but barely visible from where he stood was the helicopter pad where they'd landed earlier that day.

He pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb
and forefinger, trying to erase the growing tension he felt in a tight band across his forehead. He was worried about a lot of things, including the incident in Elly's room. The memory of their embrace still erupted in little simmering pools of heat in unexpected places within his body.

But now he thought again about Madge. She seemed to blame herself for the current complications in his life. Although they'd initially arrived in the royal city without fanfare or any sign of reporters, it had been only a very short while before the press figured out where their quarry was hiding. Since then his mother had appeared more and more nervous.

Dan didn't understand all this fuss over a love affair that had ended decades ago, but Elly assured him the public's interest would be high enough to spur on greedy tabloid stringers and photo jocks. For now, though, the castle seemed a peaceful enough place. He stared down at the rose bushes, dormant for the winter, and imagined how beautiful they would be in full bloom, come the spring. And the snow-covered mountains hovering behind a purplish haze in the distance…how magnificent this land and this immense structure that surrounded him were! It was hard to believe a castle had been his father's home, which made the place Dan's own ancestral home. That would take some getting used to.

“What are you thinking?”

He turned at the gentle sound of Elly's voice. “About destiny, I suppose.”

“Destiny?” She pursed her lips and frowned. “Why is that?”

“I look around this amazing place where I've never been. Yet somehow it feels familiar to me.” He wig
gled an eyebrow at her, going for a lighter tone than he felt. “Spooky, huh?”

“Definitely.” She came up beside him and peered through the narrow opening in the stone wall.

The glass pane had an antique, wavy appearance that made it appear he was viewing the world through water. At the time the palace had been built, he supposed, there must have been no glass at all to cover windows, then the place would have been very drafty indeed. Centuries had seen the structure modernized—electricity installed in the main wings, plumbing added. But it still felt richly gripped by the past.