She was just tugging down at the too-short uniform when Rupert walked into Reception, a look of immense satisfaction on his face.
‘Has the Prince arrived?’ asked Cathy nervously.
‘He’s on his way. One of his people has just rung me.’
She felt the quickening of her heart in alarm. She didn’t want to see him. Liar. You’ve thought of nothing else other than his golden eyes and the soft promise of his lips. ‘I’d…I’d better go—’
‘Wait a minute.’
Cathy realised that Rupert’s attention was focused solely on her, his gaze slowly trailing from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. And she found herself thinking that when the Prince had looked at her—no matter how much her conscience had protested that it was wrong—she had felt an unexpectedly hot kick of awareness. As if his gaze had lit something deep inside her and she wanted it to keep burning. As if he had brought her to sudden life.
Yet when Rupert looked at her, all she was aware of was a faint sense of nausea and a slow creeping of her flesh.
‘You look fabulous,’ he said thickly.
She made to turn away, but he caught her by the arm.
‘No. Don’t move, Cathy. Let me look at you properly.’
‘Rupert—’
‘Very nice,’ he said. ‘Ve-ry nice indeed. What amazing legs you’ve got! Who’s been hiding her light under a bushel all this time?’
She was saved from having to answer by the sound of footsteps ringing out—and Cathy sprang away from the contamination of Rupert’s touch. But not before she whirled round to see the look in the golden eyes of the man who was coming through the doors towards them. A look as hard and as cold as metal itself and she felt a shiver of apprehension shimmering its way down her spine as his eyes iced over her.
She had mentally been preparing for this encounter ever since the Internet had confirmed his identity—but nothing could have cushioned her against the shock of seeing him in his true guise for the first time.
Today there was not a shred of denim or mud-spattered clothing in evidence. Today he could never have been mistaken for anything other than a prince as he arrogantly swept in. His towering height and awesome presence were both imposing and autocratic, with power and privilege radiating from every atom of his being.
And no matter how much she told herself not to stare, Cathy couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. The dark grey suit fitted his body closely—its luxurious fabric skating over every hard contour and drawing attention to the muscular physique beneath. A snowy shirt emphasised the soft olive glow of his skin and the jet-dark ruffle of his hair. But it was the golden eyes which dominated everything—gleaming and dangerous as they raked over her with predatory recollection.
Cathy’s heart raced with fear and self-consciousness. Should she curtsey to him? She had only ever seen people curtsey in films and her attempt to replicate the crossedleg little bob was a hopeless parody of the movement. She saw the Prince’s lips curve in disdain and instantly regretted having made it.
‘Don’t curtsey—I don’t want formalities,’ Xaviero clipped out—but the quiet fury which was simmering inside him was not because she had breached some unspoken code of conduct. No, it had its root in something far more fundamental than etiquette. The inexplicable had happened and Xaviero did not like it.
Because the tiny blonde had haunted him when he had not wanted nor expected to be haunted by such a woman. A chambermaid! A humble, low-paid worker whom he should have forgotten in an instant.
So how was it that ever since he had taken her in his arms last week for that laughably brief kiss, she had disturbed his nights and his dreams. Was it because she was the first woman he’d ever kissed under the guise of total anonymity? And, by responding to him so passionately, hadn’t she somehow managed to explode one of his tightly held beliefs? That despite his undeniable physical characteristics it was the cachet of royal blood which provided his major attraction to the opposite sex. Yet the chambermaid had not known about his royal status and neither had she seemed to care. She had seemed to want him, and only him.
The memory of her hungry reaction had taunted him with tantalising images of how that pale curved body might respond if it were naked and gasping and pinned beneath him. And all too vividly he had imagined plunging deep and hard into her body. Night after night he had awoken, bathed in slick sweat and inexplicably aching to make love to her.
Was it simply a case of her having been in the right place at the right time to excite his interest? His jaded sexual appetite returning with an inexplicably fierce hunger and swinging at him with all the weight and momentum of a giant ball bearing crashing against him? How else could he possibly explain his sustained interest in her?