Chapter 19
Erica finished up the last piece of documentation following her latest taxi flight to Madrid and back.
The cockpit itself was quiet because she had sent Bertrand home to his family, but she could hear the cabin crew and maintenance staff going about their post-flight business.
Now it was time for her to go back to her apartment and try not to think about Raul.
An impossible assignment when she wanted to know whether her crazy idea about Odette had worked.
Or had blown up in Raul’s face, a more likely outcome since Erica knew nothing about psychopaths.
She sighed and shrugged into her uniform jacket. Picking up her cap and flight bag, she said goodbye to the crew and started down the plane’s stairway. As she reached the last step, a voice called her name. She turned to see Dario walking toward her in the echoing hangar.
If Dario is here, does that mean Raul is too?
But she saw only the maintenance crew and the approaching bodyguard. Disappointment hit her like a lead balloon.
“Erica, el principe requests that you accompany me to the VIP lounge,” Dario said.
The balloon turned light and buoyant as her heart bounced in her chest. He’s here.
“Of course,” she said. Dario fell into step beside her as they walked out of the hangar’s side door toward the airport terminal. “How’s his ankle?” she asked, to make conversation.
“He refused to use the cane today at the wedding rehearsal, but you can see a slight limp if you know to look,” Dario said. “He has promised to stay off the ankle for the rest of the day, but you know how stubborn he is.” The bodyguard shrugged.
Stubborn and determined not to take any attention away from Quinn and Gabriel’s big day. It was admirable, really. But she knew that Dario’s comment came from the bodyguard’s genuine concern for his prince.
“He does things his own way,” she said.
They arrived at the door to the VIP lounge, and Dario swung it open for her. When she stepped onto the thick green carpet, the room was empty.
“A moment,” Dario said and crossed the room to another door.
Erica dropped her flight bag and hat on the leather sofa. The memory of her meeting with the queen rose up, the encounter that had started this strange, wonderful, agonizing time in her life.
The door Dario had exited through opened, and Raul walked in.
Her breath hitched. He wore a light gray suit, so perfectly tailored that the fine fabric showed not a single wrinkle over his broad shoulders or trim waist. Every wave of his hair was tamed into place, and his dark red tie was snugged up at his neck.
His chin was lifted, and his expression was solemn.
For a moment, they simply looked at each other. Erica let her gaze linger on the firm curves of his lips and the clear pale blue of his eyes. Then she straightened her own shoulders, glad of her uniform to remind her of her position.
“ Buenas dias, Su Alteza Real,” she said. “How did the rehearsal go today?”
“Raul,” he said, his voice tight with intensity. “I am Raul.”
The best she could do was nod and twine her fingers together in front of her waist. Because she wanted to bury them in his glossy hair to muss the too-neat waves and then trail her fingertips along his sculpted jaw.
He gestured that she should sit, so she sank onto one end of the couch.
He seated himself on the other and swiveled toward her with a wry smile.
“You wanted to know about the rehearsal. Quinn asked Gabriel at least a dozen times if they could elope. Then she told me it was my fault that the wedding is so elaborate.”
“Your fault?”
“She said if I’d gotten married first, Pater would have focused on making that a big deal and wouldn’t have cared so much about Gabriel’s wedding.” His smile widened a bit. “She might not be wrong.”
“She’s Quinn, so she’ll suck it up and make everyone proud,” Erica said.
Raul’s smile vanished. “Gabriel is a lucky man. She does this out of her profound love for him.”
“They’re a great couple.” When she saw them together, the bond between them was obvious. So mismatched on the surface, yet so right for each other where it counted. If only Raul were a duke instead of the prince.
Raul acknowledged her comment with a nod before he said, “I wanted to speak with you about two matters. You have a right to know what is happening.”
Her throat tightened. His meeting with Odette must have gone badly.
“First, Mikel has a lead on the dragon eggs and possibly the dragon,” Raul said.
So he was going to make her wait to find out about Odette. She clenched her fists on her thighs but tried to look interested. “Bertucci contacted someone?”
He nodded. “He contacted a man named Fabio Yarza, who is already known to the police as a smuggler. After Mikel’s people put surveillance on Yarza, they discovered that he has been in touch with Nasir al-Buya, an amir of a small oil-rich principality in the Middle East called Symari.
Al-Buya is famous—or infamous—for his menagerie of exotic animals. ”
“ Mierda! Let me guess. Al-Buya is invited to the wedding.” Her attention was caught now.
“He wangled an invitation through one of his more prominent and less sleazy cousins.” Raul’s lips curled in distaste. “And he is arriving on his superyacht tomorrow.”
“But Mikel’s people haven’t found the dragon or the eggs yet?” The thought of the captured dragon still trying desperately to protect her eggs made Erica’s heart twist.
“Since they tagged him, Yarza hasn’t gone anywhere that a dragon could be held.
” Raul ran his fingers through his perfect hair, rumpling it slightly.
Erica’s nerves did a little dance of desire.
“Mikel is confident that they will be able to retrieve our stolen wildlife when it’s transferred to the yacht. ”
“Thank God! That poor creature! She must be so bewildered and stressed.”
“If she is still alive.” Raul’s tone was grim.
“I’m going to believe she is until you learn otherwise.” Holding on to hope was a useful trick. She screwed up her courage. “Did you meet with Odette?”
A slight shudder passed through him. “This morning.”
She wanted to reach out to him, to comfort him for what must have been a failure. A failure that was her fault.
“Your suggestion about how to handle Odette was brilliant.” He twisted his dragon claw ring. “In return for my promise to meet with her, she has agreed to stop harassing my family. Beginning with Dupont’s silence about the details of the kidnapping.”
The relief was so powerful that she nearly gasped out loud.
“That’s great news,” she said with maybe a little too much enthusiasm. She toned it down. “I’m glad I could help in some small way.”
“Your help was not small.” His voice was a low rumble. “I am very grateful to you for your insight.”
“But you don’t seem pleased about your success.”
He tapped his ring against the stainless-steel frame of the sofa a couple of times, then clenched his hand into a fist.
“That place.” He finally met her gaze. His eyes were shadowed. “The prison reeks of evil and violence. And Odette is…pure hatred. I made a deal with the devil, and I don’t know if she is capable of keeping her side of the bargain. Her desire to destroy us may overpower her craving for attention.”
God, she wanted to put her arms around him and comfort him with a kiss. She curled her fingers into her thighs as she considered his fear.
She shook her head. “Odette doesn’t want to destroy you. She needs you to hate, or she has no purpose in life, nothing to fill the endless days of her imprisonment. She’ll keep the deal because your visits will give her something to plan for.”
“What would she plan?”
“How to inflict the maximum verbal pain, I imagine.” And he would have to endure it year after year.
She couldn’t stop herself. She leaned forward to press her hand over his where it lay on the sofa cushion.
“If you need someone to talk to afterward, I’m always willing to listen and never speak of it to anyone else. ”
Hope flickered in his eyes and then faded. “Your offer is both kind and generous, but I cannot accept it.”
“Why not?” She slid her hand away and straightened, hanging on to her pride.
“I do not want kindness from you.” His lips twisted in an unhappy grimace, and heat flared in his eyes.
“As we sit here, it is taking every ounce of my self-control not to pull you into my arms and kiss every inch of bare skin I can find. And then strip off that uniform that looks so sexy on you and kiss the rest of you. And then…”
He stopped with a groan.
Carajo! Each word felt like a kiss, but not on her mouth. No, she felt them much lower, so her nipples tightened, and she pressed her thighs together as arousal coiled there.
“I see.” Her voice hitched on a breath.
“Do you?” He locked his eyes on her face as they blazed. “I want all of you, not just your body, not just your friendship, but everything you have to give. Your heart, your soul. And I want to give you mine.”
He shoved off the sofa and paced away to stand behind a chair, his fingers digging into the back cushion as he stared downward and ground out, “But my duty denies me that.”
She wanted to shout that the new queen was an American commoner. That Quinn was an American too. But she understood. His father’s first marriage had been to a Calevan noblewoman. Luis had done his duty first and then been free to love wherever he found it.
Her heart felt like it was being torn apart. To know that Raul wanted her that badly was both heaven and hell.
“We could just…” She reached toward him, not caring if he had to discard her when he chose a bride. Her pride was powerless against her feelings for this man.
He made a slicing motion with his hand. “No! I will not use you that way. Please don’t tempt me.”
She let her arm drop as everything in her screamed that she should break his will by throwing herself into his arms and kissing him. “I guess I should go.”
He lifted his head to show her a face so miserable that she nearly cried out. Instead, she stood, picked up her cap, and grabbed the handles of her flight bag. Giving him a small curtsy, she managed to push out, “Su Alteza Real,” before she strode out the door.