Chapter Two
CAIUS WATCHED AS the woman stood and took her shirt from the hotel staff member. He couldn’t recall a time when he’d met someone so…reticent. Reluctant to make themselves known to him. She had to know who he was. He wasn’t being arrogant, it was just a statement of fact.
Since he’d been crowned king, the press had been even more voracious in their appetite for following him. But this woman didn’t seem remotely interested or impressed.
She could be playing a game. Feigning disinterest. It had happened before.
Women trying to get Caius’s attention by any means.
But this time, he hated to admit it, if it was her agenda, it was working.
Because he was intrigued. Even more so when his shirt had never looked so sexy on him as it did on her.
Did she realise that she’d buttoned it up haphazardly so he could see tantalising glimpses of her lace-clad breasts through the gaps between the buttonholes?
And she didn’t want names exchanged. He found that somewhat refreshing. Even though he felt almost certain she knew who he was, it was nice to not feel the weight of his title or name or history for a moment.
The staff member walked out and Caius stood too and she looked at him. Her dark hair was coming loose from its knot and he had an urge to undo it completely and spear it with his hands, tilting her face up so he could cover her mouth with his and see if she tasted as tempting as she looked.
The mask was lace and seemed to enhance her features. Drawing the eye to those magnificent cheekbones. Her eyes were dark, long lashes.
She put her hand to his shirt and said, ‘I guess I should return this.’
The air between them was suddenly charged.
Caius glanced at the door. There was a lock.
His blood started to sizzle. This was so unexpected…
so illicit. And yet a moment of weariness caught at him to recognise that if he was to pursue this feeling of electricity in the air, if he was to try and seduce this woman, this stranger, he would be living up to the reputation that had settled like concrete around him.
People would expect nothing less of the playboy prince.
But right now all he could see when he looked back was her.
Looking at him from under that mask. All at once provocative, and so alluring.
And he knew that once he chose a queen, moments like this would be few and far between because he would have to conduct his private liaisons with military-level discretion.
He wasn’t going to follow in his parents’ footsteps and conduct marital affairs to inflict maximum pain on his spouse.
But right now he didn’t have a queen. He had this moment to seize.
Caius said with a smile, ‘I could leave you in my shirt and wear yours but somehow I don’t think I’d look as good in your shirt as you look in mine.’
Colour turned her cheeks pink. She was blushing? Definitely not a reaction Caius was used to.
Then she said, ‘Are you saying you like what you see?’
The air got thicker. Caius’s cock thickened and grew hard. Deus. He wanted her. He nodded, looking down over her body, taking his time. Almost insolent. Leaving her in no doubt what he meant when he said, ‘Yes, very much.’
King Caius Mansur de Roche, the man who had declared that she wasn’t his type, wanted her. She could see it in his eyes. They were even more piercing. She couldn’t help her gaze dropping and her pulse sped up when she saw the unmistakable bulge pressing against his trousers.
He was hard for her. Her heart pounded and her skin felt tight.
Poppy was so tempted right now to behave more audaciously than she’d ever behaved.
For once her security weren’t breathing down her neck; they’d been instructed to stay in the lobby of the hotel.
So she was alone in a room with the sexiest man she’d ever met and he wanted her.
The advantage that she had in knowing who he was meant that she also knew that this kind of liaison was common for him. It would mean nothing.
She wouldn’t ever marry this man but she could know him in the most intimate way. She could do this and walk away and he would never even know who he’d had sex with. As if he’d even remember her anyway, among the hordes of his other lovers.
Sex. Her heart pounded. Was she really contemplating this? Giving her innocence away before marriage? Oh, she was under no romantic illusions. The chances of her marrying for love—even if that did exist—were slim to none.
Not that she ever aspired to being in love.
The thought of being vulnerable enough to lower her emotional guard and allow a man to hurt her was anathema.
But so was the thought of still being a virgin on her wedding night.
She wasn’t some medieval princess. She was a modern woman and she would have slept with someone by now if the oportunity had afforded itself.
It hadn’t. Until now. There was also something deliciously ironic about giving her innocence to a king. To the king who had essentially called her boring.
Before she lost her nerve Poppy said, ‘Are you saying you want me?’
A muscle in his jaw bulged. ‘Do I really need to spell it out?’
He wasn’t used to answering questions. She got that. Someone in his position rarely had to justify or clarify. But she needed to be clear. She had no intention of being made a fool of, or exposing herself.
Displaying a confidence she really wasn’t feeling, Poppy said, ‘Tell them we don’t want to be disturbed and lock the door.’
His eyes flared and her pulse thundered. She wondered if she’d stepped over a line. But he was walking towards the door now, every movement fluid with animalistic grace. Confident. He opened the door, issued a command she didn’t hear and then closed the door and locked it.
He turned around and rested back against the door for a moment. ‘Now you have me here all to yourself.’
Poppy suddenly felt nervous, on the verge of giggling at the audacity of her actions and also deadly serious.
‘Come here,’ she said, feeling a creeping vulnerability.
No. There was no need for vulnerability.
She was just taking something for herself.
Something she could bring with her as she stepped into her future. A secret she would never share.
Caius came back towards her. Bare chest gleaming in the low lights. He stopped a foot away. She looked up at him. His eyes were very blue. He said, ‘Take off my shirt.’
For a second as she looked at his bare chest taking up most of her vision Poppy didn’t understand what he meant and then it clicked. His shirt, on her. Oh.
She looked down and realised that the shirt was gaping a little because she’d done the buttons up wrong. She slipped them through the holes until they were all undone and the shirt fell open but not all the way. Hanging off the edges of her breasts.
‘May I?’
She looked up at Caius. She wasn’t sure what he was asking but she nodded. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them. And then he put his hands out and pulled apart the shirt.
Poppy heard his indrawn breath and saw the way his eyes widened. She felt a surge of very feminine pride. She knew she wasn’t anything spectacular but under his gaze she felt as though she might be something a little more than average.
He breathed out, ‘You are stunning.’
Poppy felt her cheeks heat. She knew she was more womanly than the fashionably stylish ideal.
She’d never fitted into sample sizes and working with Clotilde was the first time she’d had a stylist who got who she really was.
Even down to her underwear, forcing Poppy to throw out the far more serviceable items she was used to wearing.
So Caius was looking at the new adventurous Poppy. Whose breasts were encased in sheer silk and lace.
Caius gently pushed the shirt off her shoulders and it fell down, all the way to the floor. He put his hands on her bare waist and the feel of his warm palms touching her sent a shock wave through her body. She put her hands on his arms to steady herself. He was warm, muscles taut.
His gaze moved up to her face. Poppy bit her lip, her eyes fixed on his mouth.
The strong sensual contours. Giving into an impulse too strong to ignore, she reached up and touched his mouth with her index finger.
Tracing its shape. Caius opened his mouth and nipped at her finger, stroking it with his tongue.
It was shockingly intimate and yet Poppy couldn’t pull away.
She was mesmerised by the sensations moving through her body.
Electricity. Liquid heat…a pulse between her legs.
She was swaying towards Caius and he tugged her closer, until her breasts were pressed against his chest and abdomen.
He caught her wrist and brought her hand down from his mouth.
Then he speared his other hand into her hair and undid it, letting it fall around her shoulders.
‘You have beautiful hair,’ he said thickly.
Poppy felt her conscience twinge. Not her natural hair colour.
Maybe if he saw that he’d recognise who he was with and be turned off?
Wanting to distract him, she said, ‘Kiss me?’
He looked down at her. His eyes were darker blue now. Like hard sapphires. It made Poppy shiver a little. Wondering what it would take to make this man lose his composure, and suddenly wanting to be the one to do that.
His head was lowering now, slowly, as if giving her time to be sure of what she wanted. Poppy hadn’t expected him to be so…considerate. When his mouth touched hers it was warm and firm, she opened a little on a sigh and any sense of consideration was gone.