“Maledizione, Gabrielle, I wasn’t feeling validated when I walked away, I was feeling violated. I’ve been incapacitated ever since. All the vile things I had heard about you overwhelmed me until all I could see was another trap like those that have been laid for me ever since I became old enough for women to consider me a ticket to wealth and social status. But I’m used to those traps. I watch them being laid in bored amusement. When I thought I’d failed to see yours, I was enraged. But what really hurt was when I started negotiating with myself to let you have whatever you want, so that I could have you, too. That was the lowest place I’ve ever been. So I walked away.”
Her eyes darkened to the color of cumulus about to hurtle down a deluge. Then she gave a slow nod. “Okay. It must be tough being you. It must be almost impossible for you to trust people’s motivations enough to indulge in even healthy casual contact. I can relate to that, because the would-be exploiters in my own life make it tough for me to trust anyone. In your case, that must be multiplied by a factor of thousands. I just hope you remember it wasn’t my idea to hide my identity that long, that I only delayed introducing myself until you gave me a fair hearing, fearing the reaction you ended up so predictably having anyway.”
“You don’t have to remind me how things went, or that it was I who steered the situation. I remember every second of that night.”
“I’m sure you had fun superimposing your version of my ‘trap laying’ on every second.”
“Fun? I said I was paralyzed for the past few days. I’ve been going mad wondering how you fooled my instincts so totally, yet wanting you so fiercely still, I was willing to risk anything to have you.”
“Sure. You were so out of your mind you would have never seen me again if I hadn’t insulted you into confronting me.”
“I wasn’t in the least insulted. I was stunned, then thrilled. And I was on my way to find you when you arrived.”
That startled her. But not for long. She clearly discounted his claim, huffed. “What a coincidence, huh?”
“I don’t believe it’s a coincidence. I think we’re attuned to one another on a very basic level. We reached the same decision, reached our limit for staying apart at the same time.”
“Not exactly the same time. I arrived here when the idea of coming after me was still in the embryonic stage with you.”
His lips twitched. “Actually, it was in the last stage of labor.”
Her lips almost gave in to the humor tugging at them. Almost. He knew part of her was reveling in their volley match, but she wasn’t about to let him get off that easy. As she shouldn’t.
“Still, according to your theory, because I acted first on that transmission between us, either my receptors are keener, or signals take longer to penetrate that thick skull of yours.”
This was a serious situation. As serious as when she’d been relating her life story. She’d poked fun then, too, if at herself.
He shouldn’t. He couldn’t help it.
He threw back his thick skull and laughed.
No one else had or would ever talk to him like that. Only her.
He stopped laughing abruptly when her gaze strayed behind him. He turned. His bodyguards had closed in and were trying and failing to look as if they were not on full alert.
“So even your bodyguards are terrified I might suck you dry or swallow you whole, huh?” She smirked.
“Should you really be saying things like ‘suck you dry’ and ‘swallow you whole’ to me, out here, where I can’t do much about it? Now that’s a spectacularly effective method of punishment.”
Divine color cascaded from her sculpted cheekbones to flood her face and neck. His mouth tingled to latch onto every inch until he swallowed her whole.
“You turn everything into a sexual innuendo,” she muttered.
“Believe it or not—and you’re not in the mood to believe anything I say—I never did before. I never saw the attraction in the practice. Now I can’t see anything but.”
She fidgeted, as if her skin were suddenly too tight. No matter how affronted, how hurt she was, her body still yearned for his. That was the one thing he hadn’t doubted. He’d thought she’d been playing him, but enjoying him with every fiber of her voluptuous body while at it.
She stole a self-conscious look at his bodyguards. “They’re almost reaching for their guns. Do you have an APB out on imminent redheaded danger?”
“They’re jumpy because the last time I stopped in the street to talk to someone I know, he stabbed me.” Horror burst into her eyes. After a frozen moment, they wrenched from his, careened down his body, as if she could see the injury through his clothes. “Then he bid ten million for a chance to say he was sorry.”
“He was the…? Oh, God…was it…? Are you…?” She seemed unable to go on, her throat working as if swallowing tears.
After what he’d done to her, seeing her so disturbed to think of him hurt was too much.
He interrupted her agitation. “I moved out of the direct path of his thrust. He only penetrated skin and muscles in my left flank.”
Her hand jerked up, trembled as it reached halfway to where his injury was, before she fisted it, pulled it back.
The unwilling gesture of concern closed his throat. “And you know what? I’ll add him to my list. I was adamant about not giving him a second chance, but now I’ll seek him out to talk this through. I find I have a new wealth of empathy for him and his need for forgiveness now that I’m in the same position.”
She gaped. “You’re equating a physical wound with a moral one?”
“I think the moral one is far worse in this situation. I didn’t lose any sleep over the flesh wound. And there are no lingering ill effects. But even though I don’t expect you to forgive me any more easily than I chose to forgive him, I demand that you give me another chance, so that I can earn your forgiveness.”
“Demand? My, is that a royal edict, Your Highness?”
His lips twisted. “I’m a bit out of my jurisdiction, royally speaking. But then, this is my new kingdom, as your report put it. My demands here are considered edicts.”
She coughed a furious chuckle. “You’ve just shot through the barrier of unbelievability into the realm of what’s-he-on.” She thrust her dossier at him. “Here, keep this. Read it through for laughs if you want to see how creative people can get in their vindictiveness, in case you don’t fully know yet. I only read you the highlights, which amounted to three pages out of sixty-two.”