By Royal Demand Read online

  His brows drew together. Are you all right'?' 'Never better ' she vowed huskily and began to play the seductress in earnest using her body to set the pace, to stake a subtle claim.

  A claim he'd probably choose not to recognise.

  It didn't matter. He was her other half the only man who complemented her and made her whole. Oh she could live without him-she'd have to-but it would be a life without savour and love.

  She half expected him to resist when he realized what she was doing, but he didn't' although she saw the immense effort it took him to lock his muscles and lie still he gave her the freedom of his body.

  Letting her emotions tell her what to do how to do it she leashed the heady clamour of desire that urged her to take swift satisfaction and pleasured them both into a dreamy sensuous madness as the tropical day burned into afternoon.

  Until Gabe said in a constricted goaded voice Any more of this torment you witch and I won't Iastl' Yet still he didn't reach for her didn't seize control. By then the time for sensuous deliberation was past for her, too' she wanted nothing more than the consummation that beckoned so urgently.

  She took him into her moving with fierce energy as her tight inner muscles clasped and clung and almost instantly she soared to a rapture so intense she almost blacked out when at last she surrendered to it.

  Hands clamped on her thighs his eyes blazing blue Gabe followed her there. A low harsh sound surged up from deep in his throat and his magnificent body arced beneath her like a bow.

  Sara collapsed tonelessly onto him listening to the thunder of his heart as his arms clamped around her.

  When his breathing had steadied enough for him to be able to speak he said 'Food. You need food.'

  His protectiveness touched her but. . . I need you she thought listening to her own heartbeat as a drifting melancholy stole over her.

  He lifted her chin searching her face with hooded eyes. ‘Need me'?' he said harshly.

  Humiliation swept across her. Oh God she'd actually said it. She closed her eyes against his unsparing gaze and burrowed into his chest her mind racing frantically for some way of undoing the damage.

  And then she lifted her head and confronted him. 'Yes ' she said simply.

  He reversed their positions in one swift powerful movement. 'Like this'?' he asked between his teeth and took her with a single desperate thrust.

  She welcomed him with joy-with joy and rapture and relief. Exquisite sensations flooded through her and her tight inner muscles clamped around him.

  If this was all he had to offer she'd take it. 'Yes ' she breathed looping her arms around his neck to hold him close .

  But from then on he moved with tormenting gentleness as though she was infinitely precious and fragile forcing her to accept a much slower somehow more intimate conquest than the swift fierce conflagration she'd anticipated.

  Paying her back she thought. But this was such sweet revenge. . . .

  Panting her heart thundering in her ears and the blood coursing through her body she discovered again the addictive pleasures of being held in his arms while he worked his sensual magic.

  Yet her second climax took her by surprise shattering her with its consuming elemental power. Her body twisted into the hard length of his and her hands fell away from his shoulders clenching and unclenching on the sheets as waves of erotic pleasure spread from her core drowning out everything but the sharp ecstasy of release.

  She called out his name his arms tightened around her and he spilled into her and together they clung until the ecstasy faded into a sense of profound fulfilment.

  Eventually Gabe moved ignoring her muted protest to turn onto his side and scoop her to lie on top of him.

  She stretched languorously and listened to his heartbeat solid steady and infinitely comforting.’Go back to sleep ' he commanded his tone rough.

  And she did losing herself in bittersweet dreams until she woke again. This time she was alone in the bed and her panicked reaction told her more than she wanted to accept about her complete capitulation.

  Unwillingly she forced her eyelids up. The room was empty, and the bright flamboyant sky through the shutters told her that sunset was approaching.

  Had Gabe gone? She turned over onto her stomach burying her face in the pillow while questions hammered at her brain. What was he doing here? Had he really asked her to be his wife? No, that must have been a hallucination. But making love hadn't been. She stretched relishing the pull of rarely used muscles the sleek languorous satisfaction in every cell.

  So-what was going to happen now? Why had he come all the way across the world? She'd have bet her life that he'd had no intention of doing that when she'd left the Wolfs Lair.

  A few seconds later she sensed that he'd returned' carefully she turned her head and sneaked a glance from between her lashes her heart bolting when she saw him put a jug of water onto the bedside table. His tall presence was a shadow and the rapidly approaching dusk hid the expression on his face but she sensed that he'd retreated into himself shutting her out.

  Pouring out a glass he said quietly ‘How do you feel'?' Terrified-yet fighting back a wild persistent hope. But that wasn't what he wanted to know. 'Much better thank you.'

  She accepted the glass gratefully and let the cold iced water trickle down her throat with sensuous appreciation.

  'You sound like a small girl after a party.' He paused then said in a completely different tone ‘1 can't ask for forgiveness but I'm sorry I didn't trust you enough to believe that you hadn't stolen the Queen's Blood.'

  Sara swallowed down the last of the water and stood the glass on the table. ‘lt's all right ' she said. ‘1 understand why. The last thing you'd have expected was for Marya to decide to set you a test' His mouth tightened. ‘I hope I'd have believed you if it hadn't been for that damned photograph.'

  Sara looked up into his face the bone structure more dominant than usual all hard angled and planes. Her

  passionate wildfire hope faded into ashes cold and dark and useless. The photograph was always going to be between them she knew-fake but utterly damning.

  He went on ‘lt cut my pride to the quick and it reinforced your supposed guilt. Yet it was a complete coincidence.

  I'm almost beginning to believe Marya has it right-that the Queen is still watching over her valley and her descendants setting tests like some ancient autocratic schoolmistress. It was certainly a test for me-another one I failed.'

  Sara started to protest but when he turned away she bit back the words too afraid to hope too afraid not to knowing only that her future depended on the next few minutes.

  Gabe stopped to stare through the window. The sun was ready to sink into oblivion below the horizon but its dying brilliance flooded the world light pouring through the wooden shutters to tiger-stripe his big lithe body in gold and dark bronze to lovingly outline the powerful pull of muscle and sinew.

  He said evenly 'When I watched you march out of the castle with your back straight and your shoulders set I vowed that I'd never willingly set eyes on you again.' He swung around fixing a fiercely intent gaze onto her face.

  'But I kept thinking of the way you'd shielded that child in the village with your body, and your compassion for Marya in spite of what she'd done. And although the photograph had been judged genuine by the expert I took it to you'd shown no signs of being attracted to Hawke. Or he to you.'

  She waited heartbeats suspended while from somewhere outside a tikau bird called the mystical carillon of notes falling like silver bells on her ear. Rare secretive found only on Fala'isi the bird was supposed to sing only to true lovers. . . .

  Gabe said abruptly 'When you saw it you looked shocked. Not guilty not ashamed not even self-conscious-just stunned and totally disbelieving. I told myself it was because you hadn't realized the paparnppo was there-but I had to admit that it could have been because it never happened.'

  She wanted to tell him that the only time Hawke had touched her was his brief sympathetic hu
g, but some hidden instinct kept her silent.

  In the same deep deliberate voice he went on ‘I reminded myself how wrong I'd been about the Queen's Blood. So I got in touch with the expert again. Then I came here.'

  'What did he-your expert-say'?' Hardly daring to breathe she waited for his answer.

  ‘I haven't heard from him.' He shrugged. Apparently he's viewing it with an armoury of new tricks.'

  Startled she said 'When will he know'?' ‘lt doesn't matter.'

  Had he gone mad? She repeated starkly, ‘lt doesn't matter'?' 'Not any longer.' He paused.

  ‘on the way here I did something I should have done a year ago-! ignored my wounded pride and tried to think logically. In the end it came down to two things-your character and the photograph. You prickle with independence-you wouldn't let me buy you clothes or shower you with gifts the way I wanted to. Even when we were lovers you wouldn't move in with me and you kept working. AII of which could have been because you were planning to steal the Queen's Blood but you were transparently honest in your emotions your reactions. I let myself believe that you were a thief because I didn't want to be in love with you.'

  ‘I understand. I do ' she insisted when she saw disbelief twist his mouth. ‘I didn't want to love you, either. It was-' she gestured widely a-too big. Too overwhelming-frightening. As for the photograph-well I know how I'd feel if the situation were reversed if I'd been shown a photograph of you holding another woman both of you apparently naked. And Hawke is very dishy.'

  His eyes narrowed and she gave a wry smile. ‘Come on Gabe-you know perfectly well that he's good-looking. But he's-' She stopped.

  His eyes hardened. 'He's what'?' She said ‘I rather think your sister finds him very attractive.'

  'Melissa'?' His brows drew together. 'she's too young.'

  ‘Cabe she's twenty-two plenty old enough to fall in love. And then there was the Queen's Blood-you see

  because I hadn't taken it I knew it had to be Marya.'

  ‘lf that photograph hadn't arrived in my a-mail the day after the necklace had been stolen I mightn't have been so intransigent.'

  'Why didn't you show me then'?' She held her breath until he said in a flat aloof voice

  ‘I didn't want to see you again. Actually, I didn't dare see you again-! was afraid I might end up forgiving you. That's why I didn't tell you face-to-face that our engagement was over', I'd always rather prided myself on my strength of character but I discovered the day after the theft that where you're concerned I have none. I'm sorry you had to learn it from my letter.'

  She'd learned it from a press statement waved in the hands of a journalist but she wasn't going to tell him that now. Hardly daring to breathe she waited for him to go on his every word fanning the hope she'd thought so dead.

  'Marya is completely convinced that the welfare of everyone in the valley and the castle depends on the happiness of each lord. So it's vital that his marriage is happy. And to be happy it has to be built on strong foundations.'

  Mouth and throat dry Sara waited for his next words. He spoke slowly as though clarifying his inner thoughts.

  A year of hell ' he finished in a harsh undertone because of a myth'

  'But it's not a myth for her and probably not for most of the peasants ' Sara said quietly skating over the surface of his words because she was too afraid to probe deeper. 'Listening to her tell the legend is like slipping back into the past into a world where the sprite Queen guards her jewels for hundreds of years until her true love comes to claim her and them.'

  He said tersely, ‘lf I'd known-if I'd been brought up in the Wolfs Lair like my father-perhaps I'd have understood how much of a hold the old story had on the people in the valley. But I didn't.'

  Sara was silent biting her lip to keep the words back. Marya had other reasons for her actions. She'd understood that although Sara loved Gabe he didn't love her.

  He caught her chin and tilted her face to meet his merciless gaze. 'What's going on behind that serene face'?' he demanded.

  ‘lt's just that I understand. From Marya's point of view she had everything covered. If you passed her test-if you trusted me enough to believe me-then we'd be happy together which would mean security for the valley. If you didn't trust me then you didn't love me and the sooner we broke up the better for everyone. I can see her point.'

  Eyes blazing with blue fire in his dark astonished face he let her go. 'Not love you'?' He exploded. 'What the hell gave her that idea? Why would I have asked you to marry me if I hadn't loved you? She must be mad.'

  As though he couldn't contain his energy he strode across to the window and stood staring out across the lagoon.

  Sara smiled sadly. 'she's a very astute woman. And she was right-if you'd loved me you'd have believed me' The last edge of the sun moved below the horizon and dusk fell abrupt and clinging warm and seductive.

  'she made it impossiblel' Gabe ground out. ‘1 was certain Marya of all people wouldn't have stolen the necklace. And when I saw that photograph-! wanted to kill Kennedy. I couldn't think straight-l'd never felt such a fury of anger before. Damn it no reasonable man would have believed that you were innocent'

  'But a man who loved me would have listened ' she pointed out quietly her heart breaking again.

  Tense silence echoed around the room. Again Sara heard the exquisite trill of the secretive tikau. An ancient tradition on the island held that when two people heard it together they were fated to happiness.

  Like so many ancient traditions it didn't hold up in the light of day, she thought sadly.

  At last Gabe said in a cool judicial tone 'Love isn't necessarily a lasting thing in my world. My parents weren't particularly happy' they stayed together for our sakes. It sounds conceited but I've been a target since I grew up' the title was a magnet to some women and the fact that I made a lot of money fast made me more of a prize.

  There was nothing personal in it.'

  Sara said incredulously ‘lf you really believe that I have a bridge somewhere I can sell youl'

  ‘1 could be a metre tall and ugly and it would have made no difference ' he said cynically. 'Money is a great aphrodisiac. I've seen marriages splinter and crumble all around me all my life. I thought I wanted the moon-a love that was rock-solid and honest based on something much stronger than passion. But then I met you and all my logical decisions flew out the nearest window. I had to have you.'

  He gave a brief tight smile. ‘1 lose control when I look at you. I wanted you beyond bearing yet I felt that my complete absorption in you made me less of a man as though I had no life apart from you. So I used the disappearance of the Queen's Blood as an excuse to regain my autonomy and I seized on the photograph as reinforcement' She started to laugh and he swung around his face set in lines of total hauteur.

  Her laughter cracked died away. ‘1 felt exactly the same ' she said lips trembling. I thought that what we had was nothing more than sublime sex and that when it faded-because that base point of physical attraction does doesn't it?-there'd be nothing but ashes.' But she'd loved him so much she'd been ready to risk it.

  Finally Gabe said into the richly perfumed dusk ‘1 was afraid.'

  She tried to resist the cautious embers of hope that were warming her. ‘of what'?'

  ‘of losing myself in you.' He shot her a shouldering glance over his shoulder before addressing the garden and the lagoon again.

  ‘l'd never felt like that about anyone before. It's no excuse and saying it sounds stupid because now I know what life without you is like-sheer bloody desolation-but I didn't know how to handle it.'

  Sara felt as though she'd been hit repeatedly about the head. 'You were angry.'

  He sent her a startled look then nodded. ‘l'm used to being in control. My father died when I was nineteen and I took over the family business and looking after Melissa and Marco. I had my life in perfect order. Then you walked into that party and stole my heart and I couldn't do anything about it. I loved you from the moment I s
aw you, and every moment I spent with you just tipped me deeper and deeper into what I feared was obsession.'

  He came back to the bed grabbed the glass and poured himself a drink. Sara shivered torn between burgeoning hope and fear.

  He said sombrely 'Nevertheless I had to ask you to marry me. When you said yes I felt as though I'd conquered the world but even then I must have been looking for a way out. So when Marya came up with her damned crackpot test I thought that I'd mistaken lust for love. I was a coward.'

  Sara closed her eyes her stomach churning. Yes she understood that' it had happened the same way for her, a swift immersion in the sea of love and then that desperation as though she was drowning in emotions too big too unmanageable to cope with.