The air between them seemed to thicken and tense, but then Amy leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “All right,” she said. “I’ll play along.”
Artur had never been more relieved to see a ring on a woman’s finger than when they met their tour guide for the day, Katerina. She was beautiful, like all three women had been. Amy could insist all she wanted that she’d chosen them based on their qualifications alone, but it was obvious that on some level she’d taken their looks into consideration too.
Katerina looked quickly from Artur to Amy as they were introduced, a sheepish expression on her face as she explained that she’d become engaged just a few days earlier, after Artur had already started his tour. “It was a whirlwind romance,” she explained, pink coming to her cheeks. “We had something of a relationship in college, and when he came back into town—”
Artur held up a hand, keeping the sheer relief off his own face. “Don’t worry about it another moment. We’re here to tour the national park and learn all we can about this area of the country.”
“Oh, thank good—thank you, Prince Artur,” Katerina said. She wore a sleeveless dress and flat shoes. They looked a little too nice to be tromping around in the woods in, but Artur couldn’t blame her for that. Lots of people overdressed to meet the royal family.
Katerina led them through a short loop of the trail. At the farthest point, the trail opened onto a viewing area that looked out over the forest. Artur’s breath caught like it did every time. There were thousands of trees spread out beneath them in a valley that seemed to stretch out forever. Hills rose and fell, carrying the trees with them, and the summer sun shone down on all of it.
“Incredible,” he said, the word full in his throat.
“Yes,” Katerina agreed. “That’s why we need to save it.”
Amy looked over at Katerina. “You’re talking about the deforestation? It’s hard to tell it’s happening at all from this vantage point.”
Deforestation? This was the first Artur was hearing of this.
“It is.” Katerina furrowed her brow. “That’s why it’s so insidious. The companies that are doing this stay out of sight as much as they can, on the fringes of the park, but they’re still doing irreparable damage.”
Artur shot a glance at Amy. “I hadn’t heard that things were this bad.” Or that any of it was happening at all.
“We’re losing hundreds of thousands of acres a year,” said Katerina. “The volunteers here have been trying to get in contact with someone in the royal family, but—”
“How can it have come to this?” Artur said. His jaw was tight. “We’re working on that, Katerina, I promise you.”
“Thank you.” Katerina stepped back a little, giving them some space. “I’ll leave you to enjoy the view.”
Her footsteps retreated down the trail. “I’m sorry,” Amy said as soon as she was gone. “I didn’t realize you didn’t know about the deforestation. I should have shared more of my research with you.”
“It doesn’t make sense, how all this communication slips through the cracks.”
“Honestly,” Amy said, “I think it’s a matter of segmentation. All communication goes into the same pool, and it makes sense that the emergency issues are dealt with first. But that means there’s no specific time set aside to deal with other, less immediately urgent matters. You’ll have to make a plan for which issues you want to address at different intervals, because otherwise it’ll become a deluge. There’s obviously a backlog of things to deal with.”
“You should write up your ideas for how to smooth it out,” Artur told her, trying not to get distracted by how she looked with her dark hair gleaming in the sun.
“Okay—” Amy thought about it. “I’ll take a stab at it. I can give some tips of an organizational nature, but I probably won’t weigh in on the politics. My job is to stay behind the scenes.”
He felt drawn to her, and stepping toward her seemed as natural and as inexorable as the sunset. Artur slipped one arm around her waist and Amy leaned into him. “We’re behind the scenes right now.”
“Oh yes?” Amy’s voice was warm, inviting...sensual.
“Yes. And if you need to be more behind the scenes, I’ll take you there.”
He expected her to protest that they couldn’t possibly do anything here, out in the open, but when she stayed silent and looked intrigued…that’s exactly what Artur did—he took her.
He swept her toward the tree line, out of sight of the trail. He’d worn a jacket for the tour to keep up his princely image, but it was the first thing to hit the ground—next was Amy’s back, cushioned by the expensive fabric. She tilted her head back, offering her lips to him, and he took them gladly.
Then he lowered his head to her neck and sucked lightly at the tender flesh there, knowing all the while they could be caught, knowing they didn’t have much time—
“Oh please,” Amy breathed, the moan as soft as a whisper. “Please—”
It took no time at all to hike up her skirt around her waist and tug her panties aside. He stroked the warm folds between her legs, finding her already wet and wanting, and then it was too much to wait another moment. He unzipped his pants and climbed over her, entering her in a single powerful thrust.
“Oh,” Amy said. “Oh, oh—”
He felt lost in her, in the sheer, sharp pleasure of the air against his skin and her body taking him in, and he tilted his hips forward to get more contact against her clit. It made her shake and shiver beneath him and then she tightened, every muscle contracting, and pulled his head down to draw him into a furious kiss as she came. He followed her not long a