Crown Prince's Bought Bride
He picked up the card she’d dropped on the seat between them and slid it back into his pocket.
He nodded abruptly. And a moment later his car had left the kerb and the café behind.
Her shocked gaze swung to the window, then back to him. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
‘We’re going to talk. In one hour you’ll either have decided you don’t work at that café any more or your boss will be adequately compensated
for your absence and you can return to work tomorrow morning. Either way, neither of you will lose. Put your seatbelt on.’
‘No! I don’t know how things work in your country, but here what you’re doing is called kidnapping!’
Remi caught her arm just beneath the short sleeve of her cheap shirt, again noting the satin-smoothness of her skin and the sizzle of miniature fireworks that transmitted from her skin to his.
Back in the café, when he’d first touched her, he mocked himself for over-exaggerating the sensation. Now he knew for sure as the blood heated in his veins.
Her breath hitched and her alluring eyes dropped to where he held her before she jerked away from him. ‘Please don’t touch me.’
Reluctantly, he released her. She gave a tiny shake of her head, as if she found the sizzling, unwanted chemistry as confounding as he did. That knowledge only intensified the urgency rampaging through him.
‘You will tell me why you’re anxious to get in touch with Jules. After you tell me in detail about your first meeting.’ He frowned as his memory came up blank on that part of Maddie Myers’s recent history. ‘Why isn’t there a record of the accident or a hospital visit?’
Sparks flared in her eyes. ‘Because there wasn’t one. And in case I didn’t get around to mentioning it last night, it’s loathsome of you to pry into my life the way you blithely believe you have a right to.’
‘Why wasn’t there one?’ he demanded.
‘Because your brother didn’t take me to hospital, that’s why.’
This time he couldn’t contain his curse, the fury that tripled his heartbeat or the churning alarm that underpinned all his emotions. ‘He nearly ran you over and you didn’t demand to be taken to a hospital?’
Her expression closed and she avoided his gaze. ‘I told you—’
‘You’re trying to hide the fact that you’re favouring your right arm and yet you flinch and grow pale with every contact. Either you’re truly intent on deluding yourself that your injury is no big deal...’ he paused as a deeper bolt of emotion, a protectiveness he didn’t welcome, kicked him in the gut ‘...or there’s another reason you’re burying your head in the sand.’
He hit the intercom and instructed his driver on a different destination.
‘Either way, it has nothing to do with you,’ she replied stiffly.
‘That’s where you’re wrong, Miss Myers.’
Wary eyes blinked at him. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means it’s my duty to ensure that nothing a member of my family does comes back to bite us when we least expect it. And now I have a better idea of what went on between you and Jules we can get down to the bottom line. But not until I find out what I’m dealing with.’
‘I... I don’t understand.’
‘I’m taking you to the hospital, Madeleine. You can protest if you wish, but know this: the earlier you deal with me, the earlier we can be rid of each other.’ He waited a beat, despite the volatile emotions churning through his bloodstream. ‘So will you come with me of your own free will?’
Green eyes flew to his and again he caught the faint alarm in the bronze-flecked depths. Her lightly glossed lips parted and she sucked in a slow breath. After a moment, she nodded. ‘Yes.’
The churning subsided a touch. ‘Good.’
Reaching over her shoulder, he drew the seat belt across her body, forcing his gaze not to linger on her breasts as he secured her in place.
* * *
‘This isn’t a hospital! This is—’
‘My private physician.’