“Have you seen Rachel?” Gaelen asked.
SMACK!
Tarin stared up at his brother, the matt underneath him barely absorbing the brunt of his fall. “That was a good one!” Amit called, walking over and peering down at Tarin.
Tarin growled as he lunged upwards, furious that his brother had distracted him.
“Damn, Gaelen, you’ve woken the beast!” Amit laughed, smacking Gaelen on the back hard enough to send a normal man flying. But the Raminar brothers weren’t normal. Amit and Gaelen were about the same height at six feet, three inches, but as the youngest brother, Tarin must have gotten a bit of extra testosterone because he was six feet, four and a half inches. Plus he easily added muscle to his tall frame with his daily workouts. When they were younger, the brothers used to tease Tarin, calling him “The Hulk” because he was so big. Now they didn’t tease him because he would flatten them, although Tarin knew that his brothers still used the old nickname when he wasn’t around.
“Low blow,” Tarin grumbled. But along with his extra height and brawn, he’d also gotten a smooth temperament. Of the three, Tarin was the most laid-back, easiest to tease, and…the fastest to get retribution.
This time however, his brothers’ teasing remarks had hit a nerve. He looked around, his hands fisted on his hips. “She’s back?” he asked.
The other two had gone back to sparring, but they answered in between seemingly harsh blows.
“I heard from Rashid that she checked into the apartment late last night,” Amit confirmed as he circled Gaelen, referring to the set of royal apartments set aside for diplomats or special guests. Or in Rachel’s situation, for someone working on a special assignment as a favor to the palace.
Gaelen didn’t even glance in Tarin’s direction as he circled their oldest brother. “I heard she’s wearing a pretty flowered dress this morning.”
Tarin rolled his eyes. “She’s always wearing a pretty flowered dress, you ass!”
Instead of wading into the fray, he headed towards the showers. “I have things to do. You boys can play around if you want.”
The older two brothers stopped circling and straightened to watch their youngest brother head for the locker room. “He’s got it bad,” Amit muttered.
Gaelen nodded, smiling smugly. “Oh yeah. He’s smitten.”
Amit punched Gaelen’s shoulder playfully. “Excellent idea bringing her back here.”
Galen shrugged, and moved back into position for another round. “The idiot would have gone on moping around here if we hadn’t done something. At least now he has a chance with her.”
“If he doesn’t mess it up,” Amit agreed, then with lightning fast reflexes, moved in and tried to flip Gaelen over. He almost had him too, but Gaelen anticipated the effort and shifted his weight to the left, throwing Amit off balance. Heavy thuds echoed through the room as they pounded each other.
An hour later, Tarin adjusted the cuffs of his suit as he walked towards his office, his body alive and alert, ready to tackle the world. Or if not the world, at least one slight, delicately boned, beautiful, and elusive lady with magical curls and huge, green eyes, he thought.
Turning the corner, he only half listened as someone came up to him and asked for guidance on a bridge under construction. As Minister of the Interior, Tarin was ultimately responsible for every bridge, road, water system, and electricity grid within the country. He was in charge of ensuring their safety and building new infrastructure systems when needed.
And this latest project might not be completely within his area of responsibility, but he’d happily taken on the task when it was suggested last month. Even better, after his initial grumbling, Tarin was eager to work with Rachel on the project. She was a hell of a detail person, amazing at organizing everything and…!
She was pulling her stockings up.
Tarin stood in the doorway, admiring Rachel’s very long, very sexy leg. Her flowered skirt was pulled all the way up to the top of her thigh. Tarin could clearly see the black lace of her garters holding up the taupe stockings. Holy hell! The demure, overly-efficient, flowered skirt was covering sex-kitten stockings and garters?!
Her legs were even sexier than he’d imagined. And he’d imagined a lot! Never, not in any of his dreams, either awake or sleeping, had he pictured her wearing stockings and garters! Cotton panties? Yep! And damn it, he’d thought even those would be sexy on Rachel! Cotton bra with no lace or any sort of accessory? Oh yeah! He’d thought himself a sick puppy when he’d considered that hot!
But silk stockings held up by a lacy garter?
Tarin watched as her long, delicate fingers slid her stockings up, as if they’d sunk down her legs somehow. She unattached the black clasp and reattached the stockings in a different place, the garter holding those sex-fantasy-things up against her pale skin.
Breathe, he reminded himself as he backed away into the hallway. Closing his eyes, he tilted his head back, clenching his fists as he took in deep gulps of air.
“She didn’t know I was there,” he told himself. “She thought she was alone!”
Damn it! He took several more breaths, trying to get himself back under control. It was difficult though, because keeping his eyes closed meant that he kept picturing her delicate hands sliding along her legs…her long, slender fingers doing that sexy thing with the clasps. Damn, how many times had he taken stockings off women in the past? Or left them on? Hell, he loved feeling stockings on a woman when he made love to her.
But never had he ever considered that Rachel would wear anything like that! Never! No way! He was almost angry about his discovery, because it would only add a whole new level of pain to his desire!
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Tarin’s eyes flew open
