Kitabı oxu: «The Future King's Love-Child»
Two crowns, two islands, one legacy
A royal family, torn apart by pride and its lust for power, reunited by purity and passion
The islands of Adamas have been torn into
two rival kingdoms:
TWO CROWNS
The Stefani diamond has been split as a
symbol of their feud
TWO ISLANDS
Gorgeous Greek princes reign supreme
over glamorous Aristo
Smouldering sheikhs rule the desert island of Calista
ONE LEGACY
Whoever reunites the diamonds will rule all.
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF KAREDES
Many years ago there were two islands ruled as one kingdom – Adamas. But bitter family feuds and rivalry caused the kingdom to be ripped in two. The islands were ruled separately, as Aristo and Calista, and the infamous Stefani coronation diamond was split as a symbol of the feud and placed in the two new crowns.
But when the king divided the islands between his son and daughter, he left them with these words:
“You will rule each island for the good of the people and bring out the best in your kingdom. But my wish is that eventually these two jewels, like the islands, will be reunited. Aristo and Calista are more successful, more beautiful and more powerful as one nation: Adamas.”
Now, King Aegeus Karedes of Aristo is dead, the island’s coronation diamond is missing! The Aristans will stop at nothing to get it back but the ruthless sheikh king of Calista is hot on their heels.
Whether by seduction, blackmail or marriage, the jewel must be found. As the stories unfold, secrets and sins from the past are revealed and desire, love and passion war with royal duty. But who will discover in time that it is innocence of body and purity of heart that can unite the islands of Adamas once again?
THE FUTURE KING'S LOVE-CHILD
MELANIE MILBURNE
MILLS & BOON
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Dedicated to my beautiful daughter-in-law Dunya, who is
one of the most courageous and loving young women
I know. We are so delighted to have you as part of the
family, it seems like you have been tailor made just for us.
Love you round the world and back. xxx
CHAPTER ONE
CASSIE was just congratulating herself on getting through two hours of successfully shielding herself behind the Aristo palace’s pillars and pot plants, dodging both the press and Prince Regent Sebastian Karedes, when she suddenly came face to face with him.
She swallowed thickly, her heart coming to a clunking stop in her chest as her eyes went to his inscrutable dark brown ones so far above hers. She opened her mouth to speak but her throat was too tight to get a single word out. She felt the slow creep of colour staining her cheeks, and wondered if he had any idea of how much over the last six years she had dreaded this moment.
‘Cassie.’ His deep voice was like a warm velvet glove stroking along the bare skin of her shivering arms. ‘Have you only just arrived? I have not seen you until a few moments ago.’
Cassie moistened her dry-as-parchment lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘Um…. no,’ she said, shifting her gaze sideways. ‘I’ve been here all evening…’
A small silence began to weight the atmosphere, like humidity just before a storm.
‘I see.’
Cassie marvelled at how he could inject so much into saying so little. Those two little words contained disdain and distrust, and something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
‘So why are you here?’ he asked, his eyes narrowing even further. ‘I do not recall seeing your name on the official guest list.’
Cassie swept the point of her tongue across her lips again, trying to keep her gaze averted. ‘As part of my…um…parole programme, I took a job at the orphanage,’ she said, loathing the shame she could feel staining her face. ‘I’ve been working there for the last eleven months.’
When he didn’t respond immediately Cassie felt compelled to bring her gaze back to his, but then wished she hadn’t.
A corner of his mouth was lifted in an unmistakably mocking manner. ‘You are looking after children?’
She felt herself bristling. ‘Yes,’ she clipped out. ‘I enjoy every minute of it. I’m here tonight with some of the other carers and educational staff. They insisted I attend.’
Another tight silence began to shred at Cassie’s nerves. She would have given just about anything to have avoided coming here this evening. She had felt as if she had been playing a high stakes game of hide and seek all night, the strain of keeping out of the line of Sebastian’s deep brown gaze had made her head pound with sickening tension. Even now the hammer blows behind her eyes were making it harder and harder for her to keep her manner cool and unaffected before him. His commanding and totally charismatic presence both drew her and terrified her, but the very last thing she wanted was for him to realise it.
She surreptitiously fondled the smooth pearls of the bracelet around her wrist, the only thing she still had left of her mother’s, hoping it would give her the courage and fortitude to get through the next few minutes until she could make good her escape.
‘Well, then,’ he said as his eyes continued to skewer hers, that sardonic half-smile still in place. ‘As the royal patron of the orphanage you now work for, I would have thought you would have made every effort to include yourself in this evening’s proceedings rather than hide behind the flower arrangements.’
Cassie’s chin came up. ‘And have the press hound me for an exclusive photo and interview?’ she asked. ‘Not until my parole is up. Maybe then I’ll think about it.’
His eyes began to burn with brooding intensity. ‘I must say I am surprised you haven’t already sold your story to the press, Cassie,’ he said. ‘But perhaps I should warn you before you think about doing so. One word about our…’ he paused over the word for an infinitesimal moment ‘…past involvement, and I will have you thrown back into prison where the majority of the population of Aristo believes you still belong. Have I made myself clear?’
Cassie felt anger run through her like a red-hot tide. ‘Perfectly,’ she bit out, her eyes flashing with fury. How she hated him at that moment. The injustice she had suffered was bad enough, but to have him threaten her in such a ruthless manner was abominable. But until her parole was up what else could she do but pretend she had nothing to hide? She had learned the hard way that silence was her best defence—her only defence.
Sebastian was conscious of the time and the press of the crowd behind them. He had told his bodyguards to give him a few minutes but he knew they would come looking for him soon. His formal duties for the evening were more or less over and the crowd would soon begin to disperse. But he hadn’t seen Cassandra Kyriakis for close to six years, and he had to make sure she was not going to be a threat to his future as King of Aristo now she was out of prison. They had parted on such bitter terms; he had been so blisteringly angry at the way she had ended their affair, and her betrayal still rankled even after all this time.
When he had caught sight of her disappearing behind one of the pillars he had thought he must have conjured up her image, so great was the shock and effect on him of seeing her again. It had taken every bit of the thirty-two years of his royal training to keep his reaction hidden. He had formally opened the gala, chatted with the official guests, smiled in all the right places, but all the while wondering how he could capture five minutes in private with her.
But now that he had, he wondered if it had been wise to seek her out. Every pore of his skin was erect with awareness, his nostrils automatically flaring in the primal hunt for her feminine scent, and his groin tightening with an ache so intense he had trouble standing still.
It annoyed him to find his body still hummed with desire for her. He had considered himself over her, and yet one glimpse into that emerald gaze of hers had made him realise there was still a place deep inside him that responded almost involuntarily when he looked at her. It was as if she had secretly planted a tiny fish hook in his chest all those years ago, and every time their eyes met he felt its tiny but still-painful tug.
For all her supermodel beauty there was no escaping the fact she was a sleep-around socialite tart who had wantonly led him on only to dump him, no doubt for the glory of having bedded a prince. He had met plenty of women like her before and since, but he had not seen her rejection and betrayal coming and that irked him more than he wanted to admit. No one had done that to him before. He had never had his pride rubbed in the dust like that, but then that was Cassie for you. She had come along with those amazing green eyes, her long, silky, blonde hair and sensually seductive wiles, and snatched the breath right out of his chest.
His eyes ran over her appraisingly. She was wearing a shell-pink sheath of a dress that clung lovingly to her willowy frame, highlighting the small but perfect globes of her breasts, skimming over the slight, almost boyish hips and the endless legs that had so many times wrapped around his in the throes of their heated passion. Her slender arms were bare, but on her left wrist she wore a pearl bracelet which he had noticed her fiddling with earlier with those slim fingers of hers.
Sebastian had to remind himself Cassandra Kyriakis had killed her father with those very delicate feminine hands. The lesser charge of manslaughter didn’t make her any less of a murderess, or at least certainly not according to the press and public’s view. But right now she didn’t look capable of doing anyone harm. She looked nervous, agitated almost, her bottom lip being savaged by her small white teeth, and her body looked tense and ill at ease.
A little stab of guilt pierced him. His threat had perhaps been a little heavy-handed and ruthless, but he had to be absolutely sure she would keep quiet about their previous relationship. He would make it worth her while, although any dealings he had with her now would have to be conducted under the strictest secrecy. The press were like sniffer dogs when it came to the Karedes royal family and it would be risky even being seen talking to her, but it would be well and truly worth it if he could achieve what he wanted. He knew it just by looking at her. The old adage might have it that revenge was a dish best served cold, but the sort of revenge Sebastian had in mind was going to be hot—blazingly so, for he had a score to settle with her and he knew where it would be settled best.
In his bed.
A palace official approached, and Sebastian exchanged a few words with him, turning back barely thirty seconds later to find Cassie had completely disappeared. He narrowed his gaze and scanned the crowd, looking for a flash of baby-pink chiffon or platinum-blonde hair, but there was none.
‘Are you looking for someone in particular, Your Royal Highness?’ the junior official asked. ‘I can organise security to find them for you if you like.’
Sebastian schooled his features into impassivity. There was only one aide in the palace he could trust with this sort of minefield situation, and this unfortunately was not him. ‘No,’ he said curtly. ‘That will not be necessary.’
The young man gave an obsequious bow and moved away. It was only then that Sebastian saw the tiny bracelet lying on the floor where Cassie had been standing such a short time ago. He bent down and picked it up, his fingers absently stroking over the string of smooth orbs as he scanned the dispersing crowd once more.
As yet another official approached, Sebastian surreptitiously slipped the bracelet into his trouser pocket, inwardly smiling as he let the pearls slide through his fingers, one by one.
Cinderella might have escaped from the ball, but this particular Prince Charming was going to lure her back to him with something even more fitting than a glass slipper.
‘Cassie, what’s wrong?’ Angelica, Cassie’s flatmate, asked as soon as she came in. ‘You look totally flustered. Is everything all right?’
Cassie closed the door and leaning back against it, pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers, her eyes squeezed tightly shut in a vain effort to ease the tension about to explode behind her temples. ‘No…no, I’m fine, just a headache.’ She opened her eyes and, pushing herself away from the door, moved farther into the flat.
‘Is Sam OK?’
‘Of course he is,’ Angelica assured her. ‘He was a bit unsettled at first, but I promised him you would be back as soon as you could, and he eventually went to sleep and hasn’t stirred since. I just checked him a few moments ago. He’s out for the count.’
‘That’s good,’ Cassie said, expelling a tiny breath of relief, although her stomach was still full of fist-like knots.
‘You worry too much, Cassie,’ Angelica admonished her gently. ‘Sam’s five years old now. He needs to learn to be away from you occasionally. You can’t keep him tied to you for ever, you know.’
‘I know. It’s just he’s never really got over being separated from me when I was in prison,’ Cassie said, trying not to think of that harrowing time when Sam’s desperate cries had echoed in her head for months after he was wrenched from her arms. She had been allowed to give birth to him inside the high walls of the Aristo prison and keep him with her until he turned three. Of all the suffering she had endured over the years that had been by far the very worst. Relinquishing Sam had felt like having one of her limbs torn off. She still had nightmares about it, waking up in a lather of sweat, in case someone had crept into the flat during the night and stolen her baby son away from her all over again.
‘You’re the one who hasn’t got over it,’ Angelica said astutely. ‘Put it in the past where it belongs. You’re on a roll now, Cassie. Your work at the orphanage is your ticket to a new life off the island once your parole is up. And, speaking of the orphanage, how did the fund-raising event go at the palace? Did you see Prince Sebastian? Is he as handsome as he looks in all the press photos?’
‘Um…yes, he is…’ Cassie felt her heart give a painful squeeze as she thought of that brooding, dark, all-seeing gaze. She had taken a huge risk leaving the gala so abruptly, but she couldn’t have coped with another torturous minute in Sebastian’s company. The air between them had been charged with sexual energy; she had felt it as soon as she looked into his face. She had felt the slow burn of his gaze through the fine layers of her dress, as if he was recalling every intimate inch of her and how he had pleasured her in the past. A shiver travelled the entire length of her spine at the thought of how she had come apart time and time again in his arms. Had he guessed she still felt the same way? Oh, please, God, don’t let him have guessed!
Her fingers automatically went to her left wrist, her heart giving a sudden lurch of panic when she found it totally bare. ‘Oh, no!’
‘What’s wrong?’ Angelica asked. ‘You’ve gone as white as a ghost.’
Cassie swung around and backtracked her way to the front door of the tiny flat with agitated steps. ‘I’ve lost my bracelet,’ she said, searching the floor in rising desperation. ‘My mother’s pearl one. It must have fallen off on the way home. I was sure it was still on my wrist when I was at the palace.’
‘Maybe it fell off in the cab,’ Angelica suggested. ‘You could call up the company and ask them to look for it.’
Cassie turned to look at her friend. ‘I didn’t take a cab home.’
Angelica’s eyes widened. ‘You walked home in the dark in those shoes?’
No, I ran home in the dark, Cassie felt tempted to confess but instead said, ‘I felt like I needed the fresh air. The palace was crowded and…and stuffy.’
‘I’ll get a torch for you,’ Angelica said. ‘I’ll mind Sam while you retrace your steps, or do you think we should wait until morning when we can both search?’
Cassie shook her head determinedly. ‘No, someone might pick it up before then. I’ll go a few blocks and see if I can find it. I’m sure it can’t be too far away.’
‘Make sure you take your mobile with you,’ Angelica said. ‘You don’t know who might be out on the streets at this time of night. And you had better get changed. You are going to stick out like a sore thumb in that dress.’
Cassie quickly checked on Sam on her way to her room to change into a track suit and sneakers. He was sleeping peacefully, his beautiful face so like his father’s it made her heart contract again in unbearable pain. Her little son would never be able to run to his daddy and place his arms around his neck; he would never be able to look him in the those deep brown eyes exactly the same shade as his for reassurance, or for the guidance and support she could already see he so desperately needed.
He had been cheated of so much, just as she had, but she was going to do her utmost to make it up to him. As soon as her parole period was up she and Sam would be off the island and begin a new life, a life where no one knew who Cassie was, what she had supposedly done and—even more importantly—whose child she had secretly borne.
CHAPTER TWO
THE cobbled streets were lit with the occasional lamp post but even so Cassie felt the menacing shadows of the night creeping towards her with every step she took. She shone the narrow beam of the torch Angelica had given her around, but so far she had found nothing but the occasional cigarette butt or gum wrapper. It made her think of her father, how he as the town mayor had orchestrated a campaign to clean up the ancient streets of Aristo, even though his own home had contained the most filthy of all secrets.
Cassie gave a little shudder and forced the memories back and continued on her mission, her head down, her steps carefully measured as she went as close to the palace as she dared.
She was no more than three blocks away when she suddenly came up short, her heart thudding in fear as a pair of large male sports shoes were illuminated by her torch. She brought the beam shakily upwards to find Sebastian Karedes, dressed similarly to her in a dark track suit, his eyes unreadable as they meshed with hers.
‘Looking for something, Cassie?’ he asked.
Cassie had never imagined there would be a time in her life when she would have rather met a mugger on a dark street than the man she had once loved with all her being. She had faced fear before, many times, gut-wrenching fear that most people thankfully never had to face. But this was something else again. Sebastian had the power to destroy her in a way even her father hadn’t been able to do. Everything she had fought so long and hard for seemed to be hinged on these next few moments. The tension built in her spine; she could feel it moving up vertebra by vertebra, a vicelike grip that made her stomach crawl with the long spidery legs of apprehension.
‘I…I seem to have lost my bracelet,’ she said, lowering the torch. ‘I thought if I retraced my steps I might find it.’
‘You left without saying goodbye,’ he said. ‘I was hoping for a few more minutes with you in private. There are some things I would like to discuss with you.’
Cassie turned off the torch with her thumb in case the soft light showed the fear on her face. ‘I’m not sure it’s such a good idea for us to be seen anywhere together, Sebastian,’ she said. ‘You know what the paparazzi are like. You are about to be crowned as King. It would not do your reputation any favours being seen talking with an ex-prisoner.’
‘There is no one about now,’ he said. ‘We could go back to your place. We would not be disturbed there, I am sure.’
Cassie was glad he couldn’t see the way her eyes suddenly flared in panic. Sam was not the deepest of sleepers. He still occasionally wet the bed, which made him wake up distressed and call out for her. ‘No,’ she said, far too quickly. ‘I mean…it’s awkward…I…I have a flatmate.’
‘A man?’
‘No.’
‘You have no present lover?’
Cassie felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck start to prickle at the seemingly casually asked question. Unless she turned the torch back on she had no way of reading his expression, and even then there was no guarantee she would be able to decipher what motive lay behind his query. Sebastian was a master of disguising his feelings, if indeed he had any. She had often wondered if his aloofness and slight air of condescension were a guise or an innate part of his personality. She had never quite made up her mind either way. He had been trained from a young age to step up to the throne upon the death of his father, which had occurred only a few months ago. That he was prepared to risk being seen with her was as surprising as it was deeply disturbing.
Cassie knew she was at risk of revealing too much. She could feel it now even under the cloak of darkness. The pulse of her blood was like thunder in her veins, her breasts felt tight and sensitive, and that secret feminine place he had possessed so many times throbbed with a hollow ache that was almost painful.
‘I’ve been seeing someone,’ she lied, hoping it would put an end to the undercurrent of attraction she could feel coming towards her.
‘The same person you were seeing when you ended our affair?’ he asked with bitterness sharpening his tone.
‘No…someone else.’ Oh, how easily the second lie followed the first, she thought.
‘How serious is your relationship with this man?’ he asked.
‘Serious enough.’
‘Serious enough to risk your freedom?’
Cassie dropped the torch, but even as she heard it clatter its way over the cobblestones she was unable to move. ‘W-what are you suggesting?’ she asked in a dry croak.
He bent down and retrieved the torch and, flicking it on, shone it on her face. ‘How about we go back to my private quarters and discuss it?’ he said.
Cassie blinked against the probe of the torch’s beam. ‘I am not sure there is anything we have to discuss,’ she said, ‘or at least nothing of interest to me.’
‘On the contrary, I think it will be of the greatest interest to you,’ he said, and turned off the torch with a click that sounded portentous in the still night air. ‘You see, Cassie, I have something of yours.’
Yes, well, so do I, Cassie thought wryly, once again glad of the mantle of darkness so he couldn’t read the apprehension on her face. ‘My bracelet?’ she asked hopefully. ‘Do you have it with you?’
‘No, it is at the palace.’
Cassie wondered if he was telling the truth, but she could hardly ask to search him. She gnawed at her lip for a moment. ‘Could you have someone send it to me in the post?’ she asked.
‘Not unless you want to take the risk of it being mislaid or perhaps even stolen,’ he said. ‘I would prefer to hand it over to you face to face. It looks rather valuable.’
‘It is,’ Cassie said, her heart sinking as she realised she would have no choice but to accompany him back to the palace. They had met in secret so many times in the past, just the thought of doing so again conjured up so many intimate images. She wondered if Sebastian was revisiting any of them in his own mind.
‘Come.’ He placed a firm hand at her elbow. ‘There is a back entrance to the palace a couple of blocks from here.’
Cassie reluctantly fell into step beside him, her flesh burning under the touch of his hand. They walked in silence, she because she didn’t know what to say and he—she assumed—because he was waiting until he had her somewhere secluded to discuss whatever he had planned for her. That there was a plan she was in no doubt. Proud men like Sebastian Karedes did not take rejection on the chin, and her rejection of him had been particularly cruel.
Sebastian led her through a wrought-iron gate where an aide was waiting. They exchanged a brief exchange before the man led the way to a suite of rooms down a long, marbled corridor. The walls were lined with generations of the Karedes family; all their eyes seemed to be following Cassie as she walked soundlessly by Sebastian’s side.
The aide opened a door leading into a private lounge. The furniture was modern and, although the palace was centuries old, somehow the mix of old and new worked brilliantly.
‘So, Cassie,’ Sebastian said once the aide had closed the door on his exit. ‘This is like old times, is it not?’
Cassie searched his features for a moment but couldn’t read his inscrutable expression. ‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ she hedged, although her mind had already taken a wild guess.
He reached out and lifted her chin with the blunt end of one of his long fingers. She felt a shiver of reaction cascade like a shower of exploding fireworks down her spine at that jolt of skin-to-skin electricity passing from his body to hers. It had always been this way between them. The air in the room was charged with the electric tension of sexual attraction. She could see it in the dark, brooding intensity of his gaze; she could sense it in the sensual curve of his mouth and, God help her, she could feel it in the core of her body where her intimate muscles were already starting to ache.
‘You and I always met in secret, did we not?’ he said, looking down at her mouth for a pulsing moment. ‘I see no reason to change that now.’
Cassie stepped back out of his light but eminently disturbing hold, her legs almost tripping over themselves in her haste to put some distance between her body and his. ‘You are surely not suggesting we resume our illicit affair?’ she said in a brittle keep-away-from-me tone.
He gave a little shrug. ‘We were good together, Caz,’ he said, using the private nickname he had chosen for her all those years ago. ‘You know we were.’
Cassie wanted to cover her ears and block out the sensual lure of his deep velvet-toned voice. God, did he have any idea of how he still affected her? How could he possibly think she had forgotten how good they had been together? The moment she had set eyes on him again it had been as if the faint background pulse in her body she had done her best to ignore had suddenly come to fervent life again. It was thumping now beneath her skin, so strong and heavy it made her feel dizzy.
She had been so strong for all this time. Now was not the time to fall apart. Not now when she was so close to final freedom. She had just a matter of weeks to go until her parole period was finished. Once that time was up she would leave Aristo with Sam, making a new life for them both. This was not the time to be drawn back into Sebastian Karedes’s sensual orbit, no matter how very tempting it was.
Cassie pulled back her shoulders and sent him a glittering glare. ‘You seem to be forgetting something, Sebastian. We ended our association six years ago.’
‘You ended it, Cassandra. I did not,’ he said with an unmistakably embittered edge to his voice.
Cassie lifted her chin even higher. ‘I can still call you Sebastian, can’t I, or would you prefer Your Royal Highness? Should I have bowed or curtsied when I ran into you on the street? How very remiss of me.’
Something moved at the side of his mouth as if her words had pulled on a tight string beneath the skin on his jaw. ‘Sebastian will be fine,’ he said through tight lips. ‘At least while we are alone.’
This time it was Cassie’s mouth that went tight. ‘I do not intend being alone with you in future,’ she said with a deliberately haughty look. ‘Please give me back my bracelet. I need to get home.’
His eyes burned into hers. ‘You are forgetting yourself, Cassie,’ he said. ‘That is not the way to speak to a member of the royal household. I will dismiss you when I see fit, not the other way around.’
‘What are you going to do about it, Sebastian?’ she asked, throwing him another mocking glare. ‘Lock me up in the palace tower and throw away the key? I’m sure I’ll institutionalise rather quickly considering where I’ve spent the last few years, don’t you agree?’
He held her gaze for an interminable pause but Cassie was determined not to look away first.
She could do this.
She could stand here and fire back at him without breaking down.
She had to do this.
His expression was nothing short of contemptuous as he held her look. ‘Your anger towards me is rather misplaced, Cassie,’ he said. ‘You were the one to bring an end to our affair by flaunting a host of lovers in my face. If anyone has a right to be angry it should be me.’
Cassie gave herself a mental kick. He was right. She had told him a parcel of lies in an attempt to get away from the island, never dreaming it would backfire on her the way it had.
‘Is that not correct, Cassie?’ he prompted again with steely purpose.
She pressed her lips together and lowered her gaze from the searing probe of his. ‘Yes…’ she said. ‘That is correct.’
‘Is that who you are rushing off to return to now?’ he asked. ‘One of your many lovers? No doubt you are keen to make up for lost time, ne?’
Cassie now understood what it felt like to be hoist with one’s own petard and it wasn’t particularly comfortable. ‘There is just the one person I care about now,’ she answered.
Pulsuz fraqment bitdi.
