Seducing Ethan (Knight Security 6) Page 13

  Tall and dark haired, his tanned and chiseled features dominated by emerald-green eyes, Prince Alexandre had been something of a playboy until the sudden death of his father in a car accident almost two years ago. His photograph had often been plastered across the front page of the tabloids, after one wild escapade or another, or the breaking up of his latest… Well, Stazzi was loath to call them romances when those relationships had inevitably lasted only a week or two.

  The unexpected death of his father meant the wild prince had to step up as ruler of the small island in the Mediterranean, rumored to have acquired its original wealth from the fifteenth-century piracy of the many ships traveling through the treacherous waters about its coastline. Nowadays, the island practiced a different sort of piracy, adding to its considerable wealth from its casinos and exclusive homes of the ultra-rich and famous.

  A lifestyle Prince Alexandre no longer seemed to be a part of. His dark hair was worn shorter, he was always photographed wearing dark, perfectly tailored suits, silk shirts, and ties, and no longer gave the tabloids fodder regarding the week-long parties aboard his private yacht or ski lodge in Klosters. Nor did he attend film premiers with a beautiful actress or model at his side, let alone engage in much-publicized affairs with them.

  From all accounts, His Highness Prince Alexandre of Androcco was now the respectable and responsible ruler of his small principality. He was also still single at the age of thirty-four, making him the most eligible, as well as the richest, bachelor in the world. Well, according to all those polls in glossy women’s magazines he was.

  Stazzi and Lissa had spent hours one evening trying to decide if this new Prince Alexandre wasn’t too good to be true.

  A couple of bottles of wine later, and Lissa had even gone one step further and speculated as to whether the prince had secret fetishes he now practiced in private. Like bondage. Which Stazzi found a complete turn-off, but Lissa had said she might be willing to try if she could have Prince Alexandre as her Dom. The two of them had giggled over that one.

  Stazzi no longer felt like giggling.

  On top of all the prince’s demands, there had been a visit yesterday from a man representing Knight Security. Daniel had brought him up to the penthouse floor and explained the other man was here on the prince’s behalf, checking to see that all the prince’s prearrival security was in place.

  Then this morning she’d received an email directly from the prince himself, stating it was now his intention to arrive a day earlier than expected, and asking—which Stazzi read as being a princely command—she be present when he arrived at the hotel at nine o’clock this evening. The “if that is convenient” had definitely been an afterthought.

  And it wasn’t convenient. Far from it.

  Stazzi was meant to be having dinner at eight o’clock this evening with Will, her boyfriend of the last six months. When pressed, he’d been very mysterious about where they were going, except to say it was somewhere they could have a “conversation where they wouldn’t be interrupted.” As far as Stazzi was concerned, that could mean only one thing. Will was going to propose.

  Except now Prince Alexandre had upset all her plans for leaving early, going back to her apartment, and indulging in a relaxing soak in a bubble bath, before just as leisurely getting herself ready for her date. She had even popped out during her lunch break yesterday and bought herself a sophisticated new black dress to wear.

  None of which was going to happen now. Along with the proposal.

  Prince Alexandre’s nine o’clock arrival meant she couldn’t spare the time to meet Will before the prince arrived, and she doubted Will would appreciate her fitting him in after she had seen the prince comfortably settled into his suite. Especially when she had no idea what time she would be able to get away.

  And maybe none of that is going to happen, and instead I’ll very shortly be out of a job altogether once the prince has complained to Daniel Meyers, the owner and manager of the hotel, about the outrageous and insulting email he’d received from one of the other man’s employees.

  Stazzi stared at the screen, still not quite believing what she’d done. She had been upset, and then annoyed, at having her plans for the evening disrupted so arrogantly, and as a consequence hadn’t been concentrating on what she was doing, but—

  Oh God, it was still there, in very black-and-white, that her last email had definitely been sent to Prince Alexandre.

  Maybe its content wasn’t as bad as she thought it was?

  Stazzi quickly read what she’d written—believed she’d written, to Lissa.

  No, if anything, it was worse than she’d thought.

  She and Lissa had been friends since they’d attended the same boarding school at the age of thirteen, both attended university in Edinburgh, and shared an apartment since they moved to London five years ago, and the two of them had absolutely no secrets from each other.

  The words “selfish bastard,” “arrogant prince,” and “princely pain in the fucking ass” now leapt off the screen at Stazzi. Worst of all, Stazzi had then gone on to describe exactly what penis-shaped fruit she would like to painfully shove up that demanding princely ass.

  So far, there had been no reply.

  Well, there wouldn’t be, would there.

  Prince Alexandre was probably too stunned and outraged at having one of the employees at the exclusive Meyers Hotel write to him in such graphic terms.

  She was screwed.

  Well and truly screwed.

  Maybe she should just save Daniel Meyers the trouble of listening to the prince’s complaints against her and just hand in her notice now?

  “I still don’t understand the reason you decided to arrive in London a day earlier than planned.”

  “It’s not necessary you understand, Gerard,” Alexandre coolly answered his cousin and private secretary as the two men sat together in the limousine driving them into London from the private airfield several miles outside the city.

  “Then I should have been the one to alter the arrangements for you.”

  “I was quite capable of changing the arrangements myself.”

  The older man frowned, obviously displeased with Alexandre for having done so. “The doctor says you aren’t fully recovered from this last bout of illness.”

  Alexandre scowled at this reminder of the affliction that had been troubling him on and off for the past year. “The doctor you brought over from France is not only overcautious but in no way lives up to the reputation for excellence you claimed he has.” So far, the man had diagnosed gastric flu, food poisoning, and now he’d decided Alexandre had an ulcer and prescribed a foul-tasting medicine to be taken after every meal.

  “You did at least bring all your medication with you?” Gerard fussed.

  “Yes,” Alexandre bit out between clenched teeth. Besides the disgusting medicine for a supposed ulcer, he also had an epinephrine autoinjector in his breast pocket, in case he accidentally ate shellfish. He had almost died the last time he had forgotten to carry one of those. “But I think I’ll consult with another doctor while I’m in London.” A second opinion certainly couldn’t do any harm. Especially when his own doctor didn’t actually have a conclusive opinion.

  “I’m not sure Dr. Assante will like that.” Gerard frowned.

  “I don’t particularly care whether he likes it or not,” Alexandre dismissed in a bored voice.

  “Is seeing another doctor the reason we’re arriving in London a day early?”

  He almost smiled at Gerard’s tenacity. “No.”

  “Then—”

  “It’s personal.”

  Gerard’s eyes widened. “Personal?” he repeated doubtfully.

  Alexandre would have laughed at his cousin’s comical expression if he hadn’t felt irritated by it too. Because they both knew Alexandre no longer had a personal life. How could he, when his every waking moment was taken up with the smooth running of Androcco, domestically and internationally.

  That was a
bout to change.

  Because of a black-haired, turquoise-eyed woman he hadn’t even met in person.

  Yet.

  Anastazia Carmichael.

  Manager of the penthouse floor of the Meyers Hotel.

  Also the woman who had sent him an email earlier today, in which she had insulted and lambasted him in a way no one else had ever done, and referred to him as ‘a princely pain in the fucking ass.’

  Alexandre inwardly chuckled as he recalled the email hadn’t been meant for him at all, but someone called Lissa. No doubt a close friend of Anastazia’s.

  So far he had only seen a photograph of Anastazia on the hotel website, smiling and very professional, but that had been more than enough to pique Alexandre’s interest. And a certain part of his anatomy, which hadn’t had nearly enough use the past two years.

  That was about to change too.

  He shifted in the leather seat to accommodate his cock swelling in arousal caused by merely thinking of the tall, blue-eyed, long-legged woman with the voluptuous figure. “Exactly how demanding were you in regard to our stay at the Meyers Hotel?”

  “What…?” Gerard looked suitably confused by this change in subject.

  The two men weren’t only cousins but had been friends since childhood, Gerard the son of Alexandre’s Uncle Frederic. With only a year between them in age, they had shared a nursery, gone away to an English boarding school together, both attended Oxford University, and now, with Gerard as his closest adviser, they necessarily had a strong working relationship.

  But Alexandre knew Gerard could be overbearing when it came to Androcco and the deference he insisted be shown to the St Sebastien family that had ruled the small principality for over six hundred years. He suspected Gerard’s high-handedness was one of the reasons for Anastazia Carmichael’s frustration earlier today, his own instruction of arriving a day early possibly having been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

  Alexandre eyed the other man mockingly. “It really isn’t necessary that I always have green towels in the hotel bathrooms, you know.”

  “Very funny.” Gerard gave him a scathing glance. “The color of the towels in the bathrooms is merely a symbol of the respect and deference our family deserves.”

  “If you say so…” Alexandre had lost interest in the subject now they had entered the city itself. In just a few short minutes, he was going to see and be with Anastazia.

  The woman, whose photograph alone intrigued and aroused him more than any other woman had ever done.

  Stazzi silently fumed as she gave another glance at the clock on the wall of her office on the penthouse floor. Nine thirty already, and no word as yet from downstairs to alert her to the fact that Daniel was greeting the newly arrived His Highness Prince Alexandre of Androcco.

  And the wait was killing her after a day waiting for a response to the email she had sent him by mistake...

  They had been long hours, painfully so, when Stazzi had spent every moment of it expecting at any second to be summoned to Daniel Meyers’s office, and severely rebuked for her carelessness in insulting one of the hotel guests, before being shown the door.

  Instead, there had been this nerve-racking silence.

  The first thing she’d done after realizing her mistake was to call Lissa at the travel agency where she worked and tell her friend what she’d done. There had been complete silence on the other end of the line. For all of ten seconds. After which, Lissa obviously hadn’t known whether to cry or laugh on Stazzi’s behalf. In the end, the other woman had settled for words of comfort.

  Lissa had been calling her on and off all day ever since to see if there had been any sort of response from the prince.

  There hadn’t.

  Stazzi had come to the conclusion he must be waiting until he arrived at the hotel before thoroughly humiliating her by insisting on being present when she was fired.

  The thought of that had been enough to overshadow even Will’s displeasure when she telephoned earlier and told him she couldn’t make dinner this evening after all.

  Maybe—

  Stazzi’s already frayed nerves jangled along with the buzzing of her mobile, the call from the front desk brief and to the point. His Highness Prince Alexandre of Androcco had arrived and was on his way up to the penthouse floor with Daniel Meyers.

  In other words, she was to get her butt along the hallway and be waiting outside the lift in readiness for greeting his royal self.

  Chapter 2

  Whoa.

  From the photographs Stazzi had seen of the prince, she had expected him to be tall, but not this tall. Four, possibly five inches over six feet in height, he stood several inches taller than Daniel and the group of men—bodyguards?—accompanying him.

  Stazzi was forced to tilt her head back in order to look him in the eyes as he stepped out of the lift, despite her own five feet ten inches in height in her three-inch-heeled shoes.

  The photographs of him in the newspapers the past ten years, hadn’t nearly done him justice.

  They hadn’t captured the sheer intensity of those piercing green eyes, for one thing.

  Or the air of authority and power that came off him in waves.

  Or the fact that the muscular width of his shoulders filled out the jacket of his perfectly tailored suit, as the shirt was fitted to the flatness of his washboard abdomen, his hips lean and powerful above long legs.

  His Highness certainly didn’t spend all his time sitting behind a desk.

  Which inappropriately took Stazzi’s thoughts straight to that conversation with Lissa of a couple of weeks ago, regarding where and how he might spend his time. Faced with the man himself, it was far too easy to imagine this gorgeous man in a candlelit dungeon or bedroom, sweat gleaming on that bared and incredibly wide and muscular chest. He would be wearing only a pair of black leather pants that clung lovingly to his hips and legs, and clearly outlining the impressive package nestled between his thighs, before he set about ravishing the naked woman tied to his bed.

  The image instantly made Stazzi’s legs feel weak and sent every other thought out of her head, and she could only stare at him as Daniel made the introductions, her mouth slightly agape, nipples perked in arousal, and a sudden rush of heat moistening between her thighs.

  Lust at first sight.

  What the hell…?

  She was a twenty-seven-year-old woman poised on the edge of an engagement and marriage. She shouldn’t be having lustful thoughts about any man but Will.

  That might be true, but she was also a woman. And almost being an engaged woman didn’t make her blind.

  Stazzi gave herself a mental shake as she realized she couldn’t just continue to stand there staring at him; otherwise, the drool might actually start to dribble unattractively down her chin.

  “Your Highness,” she greeted him shakily, deciding it might be better if she didn’t attempt a curtsey. She wasn’t sure her knees would support her when she tried to straighten. Instead, she held out her hand.

  Which Prince Alexandre instantly took into the warmth of his much larger one, sending a sizzle of awareness up Stazzi’s arm and into her already tingling breasts. Her blue silk blouse and the lace bra she wore beneath it suddenly felt uncomfortably constrictive, the black jacket of her business suit uncomfortably hot.

  “Anastazia.” Even his voice was made for sex, low, with a hint of gravel, along with heat and sensuality.

  The same heat that now flooded between her thighs as the prince lifted her hand to press those chiseled—warm—lips against her knuckles. All the time, that dark green gaze held hers captive.

  It was as if there were only the two of them in the hallway. No Daniel watching them with amusement. No Gerard St Sebastien frowning his disapproval. No expressionless bodyguards.

  Bodyguards.

  Because the man still holding her hand was a prince.

  “Stazzi,” she corrected distractedly, removing her hand from his.

  His head tilted as he
studied her with those intense green eyes for several long seconds. “I prefer Anastazia,” he finally dismissed.

  As if that was the end of the subject. Which it probably was. This man was a prince, Stazzi reminded herself self-derisively. Absolute ruler of his own island and everyone who lived on it. And her too, for the length of his stay at the Meyers Hotel.

  If she still had a job after tonight. The fact that Daniel was smiling told her the prince hadn’t mentioned her email to him yet, but she couldn’t count on that continuing to be the case.

  Talking of which… “Mr. St Sebastien.” She turned to greet the man standing at the prince’s side. The same man who had sent her all those previous emails over the past two weeks.

  It was easy to tell the two men were related, Gerard St Sebastien a pale imitation of his cousin; his eyes were hazel rather than green, his hair brown instead of blue-black, his features less chiseled, and he stood an inch or two shorter than the other man too.

  He also had a very limp handshake. A reluctant handshake that told Stazzi he would rather not have to touch her at all, but politeness dictated he should.

  “I’ll now leave you in Stazzi’s very capable hands.” Daniel smiled at the prince before giving Stazzi a brief nod and stepping back into the lift to return to the ground floor.

  Stazzi avoided looking at the prince. “May I introduce Adrian and Grant.” She turned to smile at the two hotel employees who had accompanied her. “They will be responsible for taking care of all your needs twenty-four-seven and are answerable directly to me, so if there’s anything—”

  “I want you.”

  Stazzi’s mouth went dry and her cheeks burned as the prince spoke to her in that voice of gravel and sex. He wanted her. What on earth—

  “By all means, Adrian and Grant may take care of Gerard and my men.” He smiled at the two hotel employees behind her before returning that piercing gaze to Stazzi. “I would prefer that you’re the one to personally take care of all my personal needs during my stay here.”