guards on her tonight?”
He shook his head. His hands reached out and cupped her face in his hands. “It's too late even if he has,” he said softly. “I received word thirty minutes ago that Marna is safely out of the palace and on her way to the helicopter.”
Kira was so relieved that she went limp. “Oh, thank God!” she said on a long drawn-out breath. “How did you-?”
“Another bribe. I arranged to have one of the guards get a message to me. I knew you'd be worried until you knew for sure.”
“Thank you.” She could feel the foolish tears well up in her eyes. It was such a wonderfully thoughtful thing for him to have done. “I feel better now. When can we join her?”
“Soon. First we have to provide a logical reason for withdrawing from Stefan's charming festivities.”
“What reason?”
He smiled faintly. “Lust. It's the most convincing reason I can think of-besides being the most enjoyable.” He slowly lowered his head toward her mouth. “I left the door open. I don't think anyone will be rude enough to interrupt us, but it should be fairly clear to any passerby what we're doing here, even though they can't see us too well because of the shadows.” His lips feathered hers, sipping with a teasing delicacy that caused her to arch up to him with helpless abandon. “I missed you last night. I've never had you in my bed, but still I missed you.”
“Did you?” She would never have guessed it. When she had returned to the suite after lunch his manner had been casual to the point of being brotherly.
His tongue brushed her lower lip. “I kept remembering the scent of you and how your breasts tasted. I lay there all night aching and thinking what I'd do to you when we were together. When you walked into the suite I was within an inch of throwing you down and…” He drew a deep breath. “But I knew I wouldn't be able to stop until the ache was gone, and I wasn't sure if that would be in hours…” His lips hardened as he kissed her with almost bruising passion. “Or days… or weeks.” His left hand moved from her cheek, down her throat, and under the silk of her bodice. “And we had a prior engagement tonight.” His warm palm closed over her naked breast and she inhaled sharply. “I love to feel you swell under my hand,” he said softly, his gaze dark and intent on her face. “I can feel your nipple harden and tauten, pushing against my skin. Do you know how it makes me feel to know I can do that to you? I can't wait until I have you back at the lodge. I want to know that anytime I wish, I can just reach out and slip my hand beneath all these silky trappings and you'll be as ready for me as I am for you.” His palm rubbed slowly back and forth. She gasped. “I want to make you want me so much that you're as crazy for it as I am.”
Her hands dug into his shoulders. “Zack, please, not…”
He drew a deep, shuddering breath, but his hand continued to move on her breast as if unable to stop. “I know, but I don't want to-” He broke off. “All right.” His hand reluctantly slipped out of the bodice of the gown. “I'm sorry. I realize it's not the time or the place.” He turned away. “But it sure as hell better be soon, dammit. I can't take much more of this.”
“Neither can I,” Kira said shakily. Her breasts were still swollen and taut and she wanted his hand back on her to ease that aching.
“You go on ahead. I'll join you in the suite as soon as I'm in a little better shape to face Stefan's guests.”
Her cheeks were hot as she turned away. She was sure her arousal was almost as obvious as Zack's. “Perhaps using lust as an excuse wasn't such a good idea,” she said with a quavering little laugh. “I'll see you in a few minutes then.”
“Kira.”
She turned to look at him over her shoulder.
“It wasn't lust.”
“I know,” she said softly as she moved toward the French doors. “I know that, Zack.”
Kira had already changed from her formal wear to jeans, a thigh-length beige sweater, and soft suede boots when Zack opened the door to the suite. He had also changed and was wearing charcoal-gray cords and a black sweatshirt, and carrying his suede jacket. “Ready?”
She nodded as she slipped on a black leather flight jacket and stuffed her passport and wallet into the pocket. She cast a wistful glance at the photographs on the walls. It hadn't been difficult leaving them before, because she had always known she would be back. But after tonight she couldn't be sure she would ever be permitted to return.
“I'll try to arrange to have them smuggled out and brought to you later.” Zack's understanding gaze was on her face.
She smiled with an effort. “They aren't really valuable except to me.” She turned away. “Stefan will probably be so angry he'll make a bonfire of them anyway. Karpathan will no doubt be delighted to supply the match.”
“We could try to take them with us.”
“Too bulky. I don't have the negatives. Stefan destroyed them when he took away my camera. It may come down to having to move fast and free.” She shrugged. “It's all right. I knew when I started this that there were things I'd have to give up. Freeing Marna is worth it.”
“Even if it means giving up your country?”
“I never actually had a country to give up.” She smiled sadly. “Stefan and my parents locked me up in a nice, insulated glass bubble and never let me out of it. Every time I thought I had found the key, they changed the lock.” Her gaze went to the picture of the union leader, Naldona. “When he spoke at that meeting he was talking about all the things I wanted for Tamrovia. How I wished I could help the way he did,” she whispered. “God, I wanted that.”
She didn't realize Zack was behind her until his hands closed gently on her upper arms. “We have to go.”
“I know.” She stepped away from him and straightened her shoulders. “I probably wouldn't have made a very good activist anyway. I managed to mess things up beautifully for Naldona the only time I tried to do something constructive for Tamrovia.” She crossed the room to the paneled wall of bookshelves. “The entrance to the secret passage is right here. This candelabra beside the fifth shelf.” She turned the sconce to the left and the entire bookcase swiveled slowly away from the wall, revealing a dark opening only a few feet wide. “There it is.”
“It's practically noiseless,” Zack said as he peered warily into the darkness. “You must keep the mechanism very well oiled.”
She grinned as she turned on the flashlight to reveal a curving flight of narrow stone steps. “Oh yes, sort of a sacred duty passed on to me by Lance.”
“Sacred duty?”
“Well, perhaps
“Slightly?” Zack asked dryly. “I believe the tabloids referred to him as Lusty Lance.”
She nodded as she began to lead the way carefully down the staircase. “Well, Lance discovered this passageway when he was a teenager and used it to slip in and out of the palace when he wanted to keep a rendezvous with one of his ladies. He told me about it when I visited him in Sedikhan. When I came back I pestered Stefan to let me change suites. It made things much easier for Marna and me, when we couldn't stand it here any longer and needed to get away from all this stifling protocol.”
“Is this the only secret passage in the palace?”
“As far as Marna and I could discover, and this one was apparently unused and forgotten for decades until Lance found it.” She had reached the bottom of the staircase and turned to him with a finger to her lips. “We'll have to be quiet now. This passage runs alongside the ballroom, down some stairs to the dungeon, and under the grounds to the woods across from the main gate. I don't know how thick the walls are in this part of the passage, but we'd better not take a chance.”
He nodded and followed her noiselessly as she turned and made her way swiftly through the twisting passageway.
The lights of the Mercedes splayed out over the countryside, picking up the blue-and-silver gleam of the
