King's Ransom (Man on a Mission 2)

“The only reason for King’s Ransom was to bring you here.”

Her brow wrinkled in puzzlement. “I don’t understand.”

“I knew that love story had always fascinated you. I found a good screenwriter, paid her, gave her access to private historical records from the palace library to research the story. Then I contacted the studio and offered to underwrite the film, but gave them two conditions—anonymity...and you. No one was to know of my involvement, especially you. And no other actress could play Eleonora. Then when they signed you I granted them permission to film on location.”

“You...planned it?” she asked in wonder. “All of it?” When he nodded, she said, “I...I don’t know what to say.” Amazed. Trying to calculate what it must have cost him—the financing alone on a movie like this would have been...

A king’s ransom, she acknowledged, stunned speechless by the realization. Andre paid a king’s ransom to bring me back to him. Just like...

“I had waited too long for you to return on your own, but you never did. I had to find a way to bring you back to Zakhar. To me.” He drew a deep breath. “I knew there was no other man in your life, and had not been for years. So I knew I still had a chance to win your love.”

“How did you know that?” She shook her head. “The stories in the magazines...on the internet...”

He hesitated, as if he didn’t want to confess something, then he said, “I had men watching you. Guarding you.”

“What?” She didn’t know if she should be angry, hurt or...touched. Touched that he’d wanted to win her back despite thinking the worst of her. Then she thought of something. “Do you have men guarding me here in Zakhar, too?”

“Of course,” he said simply. “You are precious to me. I would do anything to keep you safe, even if it means protecting you against your will.”

“That was one of your men? The man who saved my life when the car almost ran me down by accident?”

“Of course,” he said again. “Lieutenant Marek Zale, a good man. He headed up the team guarding you in Hollywood, the team that followed you here and kept you safe. But once he saved your life he had to be pulled off the protective detail surrounding you. I did not want you to know you were being guarded, and if you saw him again you might have become suspicious.” Then he added, “But was it an accident? I do not believe so, and neither does Lieutenant Zale. And there was the incident with the light that fell on the set.” He started to say something else, but Juliana interrupted.

“They had to be accidents,” she averred dismissively. “Who would want to kill me?”

He didn’t answer and she was silent for a moment, putting aside that question and digesting his earlier statement about setting men to watch over her in Hollywood. Fitting this new aspect of him into what she’d thought she’d known. “When I met you again I didn’t know what to think. You wanted me. You told me in no uncertain terms, but you thought I was...easy.”

“Never that,” he insisted fiercely. One arm wrapped around her like an iron band, drawing her flush against his body, and she could feel his desire. “Last night when you came to me...could you not tell? I thought it was painfully obvious the only reason I wanted you was because I loved you. Because I have always loved you.”

His face wrinkled in pain. “The other men in your life...I told myself they did not matter—they were part of the price I paid for taking your innocence and then letting you go without a word.” She closed her eyes at the harshness in his voice, but now she knew it wasn’t directed at her; it was directed at himself. “But, Juliana,” he continued, “I could never take you except in love. That is what I meant that first night.”

She opened her eyes and saw the truth written on his beloved face. “I didn’t know,” she told him softly. She brushed the fingers of one hand along the curve of his cheek and felt it harden beneath her touch. “I didn’t understand. I thought you were just staking your claim as the next man to have me, even though you’d already had me years earlier.”

She gazed into his green eyes, those eyes that had haunted her dreams for eleven years, willing him with her soul to believe her next words. “I have no proof to offer you other than my love. I’ve never slept with any man...except you.”

He stared down at her for endless seconds, then drew a sharp breath. He caught her hand, lifted it and pressed a fervent kiss into her palm. “Thank you for that, little one. I do not deserve it—and I would have loved you even if it had not been true—but...thank you.”