Protected by the Prince

His smile broadened and her breath snared.

‘I want you to be my companion.’

CHAPTER FOUR

‘YOUR…companion?’ Tamsin snapped her mouth shut before she could say any more.

He couldn’t mean what she thought.

Companion could have all sorts of interpretations. It was shaming proof of the way he turned her brain to mush that she’d immediately thought he meant lover.

Her heartbeat ratcheted up a notch and her breathing shallowed as, unbidden, another graphic picture filled her brain. The two of them, stretched naked on the carpet before the fire in his library. Limbs entwined. Lips locked. His hard, capable hands shaping her body.

Was that answering heat in his eyes? He watched her so closely. Could he guess her thoughts?

Tamsin forced her breathing to slow and sat straighter. She reminded herself she was known for her analytical mind. Not flights of fantasy.

He kept her hand anchored against him. Foolishly she couldn’t bring herself to pull it away.

‘That’s right.’ He nodded.

Companion to Prince Alaric of Ruvingia. Women would kill for time with Europe’s most notorious bachelor. For the chance to persuade him into marriage or just to experience his vaunted expertise as a lover.

Desperately Tamsin told herself she wasn’t one of them.

‘You’ve mistaken me for someone else.’ She lifted her chin, bracing for the moment he told her this was a joke.

Instead he shook his head.

‘No mistake, Dr Connors.’ He paused, his lips pursing ruminatively. To her horror, Tamsin couldn’t take her eyes off his mouth. ‘Perhaps I’d better call you Tamsin.’

A delicious little shudder tickled every nerve ending as he said her name like that.

As if it pleased him.

As if he looked forward to saying it again.

Reality crashed down in a moment of blinding insight. He was playing with her. A man like him would never view a woman like her in that light.

‘Feel free.’ She forced her voice not to wobble. ‘What is it you’re proposing?’

One straight brow lifted, giving him a faintly superior air. ‘Exactly what it sounds. I need a companion and you’d be perfect. There’d be benefits for you too.’

Tamsin resisted the impulse to shake her head to clear her hearing. She’d watched him speak. She knew what he’d said. The excited patter of her pulse was testament to that.

No man had described her as perfect before.

‘My invitation this evening wasn’t totally altruistic,’ he continued.

Did he realise he’d begun absent-mindedly stroking the back of her hand with his thumb as he clamped it to his leg? ‘I wanted to see if we’re compatible.’

‘Compatible?’

His lips stretched in a brilliant smile that made something flip over inside. Only the hooded intelligence in his bright stare hinted this wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

Sternly Tamsin told herself to be sensible. Logical. All the things she didn’t feel when he touched her, smiled at her like that.

‘I need a companion who won’t bore me in the first half-hour.’

‘I take it I passed muster?’ Anger ignited at the notion of being assessed. Had it occurred to him she might have better things to do with her time?

She was sure she’d think of them in a minute.

She tugged her hand but he didn’t release it.

His expression sobered. ‘I needed to be sure you’d handle it, too. It’s not necessarily fun keeping me company while I play prince-in-residence for all comers.’

Tamsin stared, curious at the bitterness in his voice as he spoke of his princely role. Was it real or feigned?

‘I wasn’t bothered.’ She’d felt privileged to be with him and to see the able way he’d dealt with requests from the light-hearted to the serious. He had an easy manner with people. She envied that. ‘But I still don’t understand.’ She took a deep breath and willed herself to concentrate. ‘Why do you need a companion? And why me?’

‘Ah, I knew you’d go to the crux of things.’

Alaric watched her troubled face and realised he’d have to do better. He’d only aroused her suspicions.

He supposed it was the shock of rescuing the boy that had done it. The initial explosion of sound: probably a firecracker but for an instant so like the report of a firearm. The need for urgent action combined with the feel of those small, bony shoulders beneath his hands, the distress on the kid’s face. The huge, fearful dark eyes that for a moment had looked so hauntingly familiar. Together they’d triggered memories Alaric usually submerged beneath the everyday demands on his time.

It had only taken seconds, but that was enough to tip the balance and slide him into a nightmare world of guilt and pain. In an instant he’d been back in another time, another place. To another life he’d been unable to save.