princess.’
‘Are you crazy?’ She wrenched backwards, so abruptly that he finally let her go. ‘Andreas, I know nothing of your world. How can you ask it of me?’
‘Find out. Come back with me to the mainland. Meet my family.’
‘And be photographed from every angle as the woman you seduced years ago? To have a whole country saying I should marry you? No, thank you.’
‘Then decide now,’ he said. ‘Marry me now and go back to the mainland as my bride. But you must marry me.’
‘I must do nothing. There’s nothing in it for me.’
‘How can you say that?’ He didn’t have a clue where to take this from here. His instinct was to shut up, to leave it, but the need was too urgent to let it go. ‘There’s a crown. There’s money.’
‘I’ve done very well for all my life with no crown and no money.’
‘Then what about me?’ Andreas said, watching her face. Knowing there were more than cold hard facts ruling her. ‘I ask again, have you done very well without me?’
‘I’ve had to,’ she managed through clenched teeth. ‘Do you think I haven’t tried to forget?’
‘But yet you’ve remembered,’ he said softly, and he moved again. But slowly, giving her time to back away if she wanted. Purposefully. ‘As I’ve remembered.’ He reached for her hands again and held, but lightly, no pressure. But he pulled her in all the same, the force not of physical strength but almost as a magnetic pull so two bodies that belonged together came together.
He’d been wanting to do this for so long, since the first time he’d seen her, angry and miserable and frightened on the plane. Maybe since he’d left her all those years ago. When she was little more than a girl.
She was no girl now. Nor was she frightened. Despite Alex’s outrageous wardrobe collection with its heavy sexual connotations, Holly’s no would mean no.
But she was still furious, and she was still confused. He could feel it in the rigid way she held her body, yet she still allowed herself to be tugged against him. It was almost as if she needed to see if there was something there.
There certainly was. On his part at least. He felt his body respond as her beautiful curves came in to lightly brush against him, and it was as if he were touched by fire.
Her dress was truly lovely and had been worn by no woman until tonight. It could fit no other, Andreas thought as his hands slipped to her sides and felt the way the silk clung to every inch of her as if it were another skin.
He could feel the warmth of her body under the silk. Involuntarily his hold tightened. His hands found the small of her back and pressed her tight against him. There was a moment’s resistance but then she yielded, letting her breasts be crushed against his.
Holly.
He’d forgotten a woman could be so beautiful.
‘Do you remember the first night I kissed you?’ he whispered and she gave a sharp shake of the head.
‘Liar,’ he said, smiling softly. He remembered it like yesterday. His green girl. It had been the first night of his arrival. Her parents had given a ball in his honour. She’d been dressed all in white. When all the guests had gone he’d been left in the homestead’s massive ballroom and she’d been sent in to help clear glasses. She’d dropped one. It had snapped in two, they’d bent together to retrieve the broken portions and had almost hit heads. But then…they’d been so close…to kiss her had seemed the most natural thing in the world.
As it was now. His long, tanned fingers tilted her chin so his mouth could lower to meet hers. Wondrously she didn’t resist. For whatever reason, the fight, the anger had faded. He felt her hands on his hips, and gloriously they were tugging him closer.
And then the sensation ceased as his mouth met hers.
The years slipped away. Right there. Right then.
He’d thought his memories of what he’d had with Holly all those years ago had been tinged rose-coloured with distance and regret. When he’d made love with his wife he’d thought longingly of what he’d felt with Holly. It had distressed him unutterably. Finally he’d dismissed the memories as a boy’s romantic imagining, unfair to Christina, to be blocked out as fanciful and unreal.
Only it wasn’t. He knew it now, the moment he touched her. For this was no kiss. It was the searing fusion of two bodies kept apart for too long, two bodies meant to be together as one.
Forged by fire…That was how it felt. The heat was not imagined-it was real-a flame consuming all, making his hold on her tighten so he was crushing her against him as his mouth devoured hers, taking as well as giving, demanding her response, needing her as he needed a part of himself.
Holly. His heart, his home. The words slashed into his consciousness. How could he have forgotten his desire for this woman? He’d pushed it into the dark recesses of his memory, yet here she was, exquisite, desirable-and free.
He was free as well. Fix it, Sebastian had ordered, and he could, simply by taking this woman as his wife.
Holly. His captive wife. He was tasting her, loving her, wanting her. She was all his, folded into him, with his body moulding against hers. His hands slipped to her hips, cupping the smooth rise of her thighs. He was tugging her closer, closer, but still she wasn’t close enough. Without breaking the kiss he lifted her, up into his arms, against his heart.
For one glorious moment he felt her submit. He felt her arms come round his neck, deepening the kiss, clinging, merging into him. She was his. His!
But then…He shifted slightly, to gain a better hold, and the movement broke the contact. Just a touch-a heartbeat. But it was enough. He felt her hands come between their breasts and she was pushing away.
No! He tugged her close, intensifying the kiss, but she was hauling away, breaking the contact.
‘Andreas, stop.’
And he knew what she was saying. For already he was turning towards the bedroom, intent, desperate, wanting only to be as close to this woman as he could possibly get.
He could take her. This was his woman.
But this was Holly, and somewhere beneath the smouldering desire of a royal prince was a boy who’d been in love. Instinctively, involuntarily, he hesitated and looked down at the woman in his arms. Her eyes were dark with passion but there was something else. He expected anger but the anger was gone. In its place…
Trouble. Doubt.
‘
‘I don’t want this.’
‘You don’t want me?’
‘That’s not what I said,’ she whispered. ‘I think I want you as much as life itself-I always have-but, Andreas, you have to give me time to think.’ It seemed as much as she could do to get the words out.
‘If you think then you’ll refuse me,’ he said simply.
‘Then maybe I have to refuse you,’ she managed. ‘Please, Andreas, put me down.’
‘And if I don’t?’ He didn’t want to release her. Damn his scruples. He was prince here after all, and this was his woman. This was how he felt about her. She was the mother of his child and he wanted her so much his thighs burned.
‘If you’re the man I think you are then you won’t take me against my will,’ she
