The Future King's Love-Child

‘No, it is at the palace.’

Cassie wondered if he was telling the truth, but she could hardly ask to search him. She gnawed at her lip for a moment. ‘Could you have someone send it to me in the post?’ she asked.

‘Not unless you want to take the risk of it being mislaid or perhaps even stolen,’ he said. ‘I would prefer to hand it over to you face to face. It looks rather valuable.’

‘It is,’ Cassie said, her heart sinking as she realised she would have no choice but to accompany him back to the palace. They had met in secret so many times in the past, just the thought of doing so again conjured up so many intimate images. She wondered if Sebastian was revisiting any of them in his own mind.

‘Come.’ He placed a firm hand at her elbow. ‘There is a back entrance to the palace a couple of blocks from here.’

Cassie reluctantly fell into step beside him, her flesh burning under the touch of his hand. They walked in silence, she because she didn’t know what to say and he—she assumed—because he was waiting until he had her somewhere secluded to discuss whatever he had planned for her. That there was a plan she was in no doubt. Proud men like Sebastian Karedes did not take rejection on the chin, and her rejection of him had been particularly cruel.

Sebastian led her through a wrought-iron gate where an aide was waiting. They exchanged a brief exchange before the man led the way to a suite of rooms down a long, marbled corridor. The walls were lined with generations of the Karedes family; all their eyes seemed to be following Cassie as she walked soundlessly by Sebastian’s side.

The aide opened a door leading into a private lounge. The furniture was modern and, although the palace was centuries old, somehow the mix of old and new worked brilliantly.

‘So, Cassie,’ Sebastian said once the aide had closed the door on his exit. ‘This is like old times, is it not?’

Cassie searched his features for a moment but couldn’t read his inscrutable expression. ‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ she hedged, although her mind had already taken a wild guess.

He reached out and lifted her chin with the blunt end of one of his long fingers. She felt a shiver of reaction cascade like a shower of exploding fireworks down her spine at that jolt of skin-to-skin electricity passing from his body to hers. It had always been this way between them. The air in the room was charged with the electric tension of sexual attraction. She could see it in the dark, brooding intensity of his gaze; she could sense it in the sensual curve of his mouth and, God help her, she could feel it in the core of her body where her intimate muscles were already starting to ache.

‘You and I always met in secret, did we not?’ he said, looking down at her mouth for a pulsing moment. ‘I see no reason to change that now.’

Cassie stepped back out of his light but eminently disturbing hold, her legs almost tripping over themselves in her haste to put some distance between her body and his. ‘You are surely not suggesting we resume our illicit affair?’ she said in a brittle keep-away-from-me tone.

He gave a little shrug. ‘We were good together, Caz,’ he said, using the private nickname he had chosen for her all those years ago. ‘You know we were.’

Cassie wanted to cover her ears and block out the sensual lure of his deep velvet-toned voice. God, did he have any idea of how he still affected her? How could he possibly think she had forgotten how good they had been together? The moment she had set eyes on him again it had been as if the faint background pulse in her body she had done her best to ignore had suddenly come to fervent life again. It was thumping now beneath her skin, so strong and heavy it made her feel dizzy.

She had been so strong for all this time. Now was not the time to fall apart. Not now when she was so close to final freedom. She had just a matter of weeks to go until her parole period was finished. Once that time was up she would leave Aristo with Sam, making a new life for them both. This was not the time to be drawn back into Sebastian Karedes’s sensual orbit, no matter how very tempting it was.

Cassie pulled back her shoulders and sent him a glittering glare. ‘You seem to be forgetting something, Sebastian. We ended our association six years ago.’

‘You ended it, Cassandra. I did not,’ he said with an unmistakably embittered edge to his voice.

Cassie lifted her chin even higher. ‘I can still call you Sebastian, can’t I, or would you prefer Your Royal Highness? Should I have bowed or curtsied when I ran into you on the street? How very remiss of me.’

Something moved at the side of his mouth as if her words had pulled on a tight string beneath the skin on his jaw. ‘Sebastian will be fine,’ he said through tight lips. ‘At least while we are alone.’

This time it was Cassie’s mouth that went tight. ‘I do not intend being alone with you in future,’ she said with a deliberately haughty look. ‘Please give me back my bracelet. I need to get home.’

His eyes burned into hers. ‘You are forgetting yourself, Cassie,’ he said. ‘That is not the way to speak to a member of the royal household. I will dismiss you when I see fit, not the other way around.’

‘What are you going to do about it, Sebastian?’ she asked, throwing him another mocking glare. ‘Lock me up in the palace tower and throw away the key? I’m sure I’ll institutionalise rather quickly considering where I’ve spent the last few years, don’t you agree?’

He held her gaze for an interminable pause but Cassie was determined not to look away first.

She could do this.

She could stand here and fire back at him without breaking down.

She had to do this.

His expression was nothing short of contemptuous as he held her look. ‘Your anger towards me is rather misplaced, Cassie,’ he said. ‘You were the one to bring an end to our affair by flaunting a host of lovers in my face. If anyone has a right to be angry it should be me.’

Cassie gave herself a mental kick. He was right. She had told him a parcel of lies in an attempt to get away from the island, never dreaming it would backfire on her the way it had.

‘Is that not correct, Cassie?’ he prompted again with steely purpose.

She pressed her lips together and lowered her gaze from the searing probe of his. ‘Yes…’ she said. ‘That is correct.’

‘Is that who you are rushing off to return to now?’ he asked. ‘One of your many lovers? No doubt you are keen to make up for lost time, ne?’

Cassie now understood what it felt like to be hoist with one’s own petard and it wasn’t particularly comfortable. ‘There is just the one person I care about now,’ she answered.

There was a short but tense pause.

‘Do you intend to marry this man?’ he asked.

Cassie brought her eyes back to his. ‘No, I do not.’

She saw the disdain in his gaze as it warred with hers, and, although he didn’t say the words out loud, she could hear them ringing in the stiff silence.

Whore.

Slut.

Jailbird.

‘I want to see you again,’ Sebastian said with a masklike expression. ‘Here, tomorrow, for lunch, and do not think about saying no.’

Cassie felt her eyes go wide and struggled to control her escalating panic. ‘I-I’m working at the orphanage t-tomorrow,’ she stammered. ‘We’re short staffed as it is. I can’t just breeze out for lunch.’

His stance was implacable. It was clear in the months since his father had died Sebastian had become accustomed to having each and every one of his words obeyed. ‘I will have my personal secretary notify the head of the orphanage that you have an official appointment at the palace.’

Cassie gave a tight swallow. ‘What will the press make of that if they hear about it?’ she asked.

‘They will not hear about it from me,’ he said. ‘If on the other hand you get it in your pretty little blonde head to inform them yourself, I have already warned you what will happen if you do.’

She glared at him in fury. ‘You think you can blackmail me, don’t you?’

He gave her an imperious smile. ‘If you want your bracelet back, then, yes, I am sure I can blackmail you to do whatever I want.’

Cassie clenched her hands into fists. ‘You bastard,’ she ground out bitterly.

‘Careful, Cassie,’ he warned her silkily. ‘I don’t think a charge of common assault will go down too well right now with your parole officer, will it?’

Right now Cassie felt as if it would be worth it just to slap that arrogant look off his too-handsome face. ‘I am going to ask you one more time,’ she said in a cold, hard tone. ‘Give me back my bracelet.’

He held up his hands above his head. ‘Come and get it,’ he said, nodding towards his left-hand trouser pocket.

Cassie felt her heart skip a beat at the challenging glint in his dark eyes. She pulled in a breath, and with a hand that was nowhere near as steady as she would have liked, slipped it tentatively into his pocket. Her belly quivered as she felt the distinctive swell of his body against her searching fingers, but there was no bracelet. She pulled out her hand and sent him a fulminating look.

‘Try the other one,’ he said with an inscrutable smile. ‘I must have forgotten which side I put it.’

Cassie sucked in another furious breath and a little less cautiously this time dug her hand into his right pocket, but before she could locate the circle of pearls his hands came down and held hers against his now pulsing full-on erection. Her eyes flew to his in shock, the erotic feel of him even through the layers of fabric making her heart race out of control.

‘How much do you want your bracelet?’ he asked, his eyes now almost black with diamond-hard purpose.

She felt him surging against the palm of her hand and her stomach turned over, every pore of her flesh crawling with a desire so overwhelming she was sure he could sense it. ‘What exactly are you asking me to do, Sebastian?’ she asked in a brittle tone. ‘Get down on my knees and service you like the whore you think you can make me?’

His pupils flared, making his eyes even darker, like bottomless pools of ink. ‘If anyone has made you a whore it is yourself,’ he said. ‘I know the game you are playing, Cassie. You deliberately left that bracelet behind this evening, did you not?’

Cassie threw him a withering look. ‘That really would have been casting pearls before swine, now, wouldn’t it?’

He pulled her hands away from his body, bracketing her wrists either side of her body in a movement so sudden she felt every last breath of air rush out of her chest. ‘I must say I like this new hard-to-get game you are intent on playing,’ he said, pressing his hardened lower body into the softness of hers. ‘It makes me all the more determined to have you.’

Cassie’s gaze went to his mouth, her stomach doing a quick flip-flop as she realised his intention. But instead of pulling out of his hold, she pressed herself closer as his mouth came down to hers.

It was an angry kiss, a kiss of built-up resentment and bitterness, but even so she couldn’t stop herself from responding to it. His tongue didn’t ask for permission to enter her mouth, it demanded it, thrusting between her trembling lips with an intention that was as deeply erotic as it was irresistible. His mouth ground against hers, drawing from her whimpers, not of protest but of pleasure. Her body moulded itself against his, seeking his hardness, thrilling in the feel of his arousal, her heart racing at the thought of the dangerous game they both were playing.

One of his hands slid beneath her track-suit top, his warm palm rediscovering the weight of her bra-less breast. Cassie’s belly contracted when he took her nipple between his thumb and index finger, the gentle pinch and pull caress making her breathless with desire.

Her hands went on their own journey of rediscovery, pulling his T-shirt free so she could feel his skin beneath her palms. She felt the heavy thud of his heart against her hand, before she took her hand lower to feel the shape of him through his track pants. She heard him groan as she stroked his length, and she increased the speed and pressure of her caresses.

He lifted his mouth off hers to place it hot and moistly over her breast, sucking on her, not too hard, not too soft, but enough to have her senses spinning madly out of control.

He pulled her hand away from his body and looked down at her with his eyes blazing with desire. ‘So it is the same for you as it is for me,’ he said. ‘Six years has done nothing to change the chemistry between us.’

Cassie wanted to deny it, but her hand was still tingling where she had touched him, so instead she said nothing.

He brought up her chin and pressed a brief hard kiss to her mouth. ‘You can have your bracelet back tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I will give it to you after we have lunch together.’

‘That’s blackmail.’

Sebastian gave her a nonchalant smile. ‘No,’ he said. ‘That is a promise.’

He watched as her mouth tightened. ‘My bracelet is valuable to me, but not enough to lose my self-respect,’ she said. ‘If I sleep with you again it will be because I want to, not because I have been forced to.’

Sebastian held her fiery look for a moment. It was a sweet salve to his pride to know she still wanted him. He could take her here and now, he could see it in her eyes, the way they kept flicking to his mouth, her tongue sneaking out to her lips to taste where he had been. But he wanted to keep her dangling, just as she had done to him in the past.

‘All right,’ he said, moving away to the other side of the room where a desk was situated. He unlocked one of the drawers and, taking out her bracelet, came back to where she was standing.

He took her right hand and laid the pearls against the soft bed of her palm, then gently closed her fingers over them, one by one. ‘I think you should have the safety catch repaired before you wear it again,’ he said, his eyes meshing with hers.

Cassie swallowed as his eyes burned into hers, their sensual promise heating her blood all over again.

‘If you do not turn up tomorrow as arranged, Cassie, I will come to the orphanage and fetch you myself,’ he said with a glint of steel in his gaze.

Cassie felt something small and dark scuttle inside her chest cavity. Would he do it? Would he draw such attention to himself or was he calling her bluff? How could she risk it either way? ‘I—I will be here,’ she said, slipping her eyes out of reach of his.

He touched her briefly on the curve of her cheek with the tip of one finger. ‘See you tomorrow, Cassie,’ he said, and reached for the bell to summon his aide. ‘I am already looking forward to it.’

Within seconds Cassie was being driven home, her chest feeling as if a headstone had been placed inside it, making it hard to pull in a breath. She looked back at the glittering ancient palace as the dark car growled like a panther as it ate up the cobbled streets, and suppressed a little shiver.

Until tomorrow…

CHAPTER THREE

SAM’S little hand suddenly clutched at the front of Cassie’s uniform, his eyes huge in his stricken face. ‘You’re c-coming back again, aren’t you, Mummy?’

Cassie squatted down to his level and looked deep into his troubled gaze. ‘Yes, sweetie, of course I am.’

His expression was still white with worry. ‘You’re not g-going to be locked away like before, are you?’

Cassie suppressed a frown as she hugged him close. She had always tried to be as honest with him as possible without distressing him with details too difficult for him to understand. After all, it seemed pointless pretending the fifteen-foot-high barbed wire and concrete enclosure of the Aristo prison was some sort of luxury accommodation, but she had never gone into the sordid details of why she had had to be housed there. But it made her wonder who had been talking to him about her past and why. He was only just five years old. Apart from her flatmate and close friend, Angelica, he was with her all the time at the orphanage. But it was clear someone had said something to him, or perhaps he had overheard some staff members talking.

‘Baby, that was a long time ago and it’s never going to happen again, I promise you with all my heart,’ she said, holding him gently by his thin little shoulders. ‘I am never going to be separated from you again. Never.’

Sam’s chin wobbled slightly and his stammer continued in spite of his effort to control it. ‘I heard Spiro t-talking to one of the carers,’ he said. ‘He said you k-killed my grandfather, and that you said it was an accident, but no one believed you.’

Cassie bit down on her bottom lip. She had naively hoped this conversation was several years away, but the gardener at the orphanage had never liked her since she had spurned his advances a few months ago. But that he would discuss her past with one of the children’s carers was reprehensible to say the least. She loved her job. She needed her job. It wasn’t just the money—the wage was hardly what anyone would call lucrative; it was the fact that for once in her life she was able to give something back to those in need. She had misspent her youth, wasted so many precious years being seen at the right parties with the right people, turning into a glamorous coat hanger for the ‘right’ clothes, mouthing the vacuous words that marked her as a shallow socialite looking for a good time.

The more her prestige-conscious and controlling father had protested, the more outrageous she had become. Cassie hadn’t needed the prison psychologist to tell her why she had behaved the way she had. She had known it from the very first time she had realised what her birthday represented. It was certainly not a date to be celebrated, but she hadn’t realised the sick irony of it until she had faced the judge and jury.

Cassandra Kyriakis had not just killed her father, but on the day she had come into the world she had taken her mother’s life as well.

Cassie hugged Sam close to her chest, breathing in the small-child scent of him, her heart swelling with overwhelming love. ‘We’ll talk about this when I get back and Mummy will explain everything. I won’t be away long, my precious,’ she said. ‘I’m just having a quick lunch with…with a friend.’

Sam eased back in her hold to look up at her. ‘Who with, Mummy? Have I met them?’ he asked.

Cassie shook her head and gently ruffled the black silk of his hair. ‘No, you have never met him,’ she said, her heart aching at the thought of her little boy never knowing his father. She had never known her mother and often wondered if her life would have been different for her if she had.

‘He’s a very important person on Aristo,’ she added. ‘He is soon to be the king.’

Sam’s eyes were like wide black pools. ‘Can I give you a picture to take for him to hang at his palace?’ he said. ‘Do you think he would like that?’

She smiled at him tenderly, her heart squeezing again. ‘You know something, sweetie, I think he would.’

He scampered over to his little wooden desk and brought back a coloured drawing of a dog and a cat and something she thought looked like a horse. ‘If he likes it I can do another one and you can give it to him the next time you see him,’ he said with a shy smile.

‘That’s a great idea,’ Cassie said and, folding the picture neatly, put it in her handbag. She didn’t like to tell her little son she didn’t intend seeing Sebastian again. Instead she got to her feet and, holding his hand, led him back to Sophie, one of the chief carers at the orphanage. She bent down and gave him another quick hug and kiss, and, while Sophie cleverly distracted him with a puzzle she had set out, Cassie quietly slipped out.

* * *

The palace was no less intimidating in the daylight than it had been the night before. With commanding views over most of the island, including the resort and Bay of Apollonia and the casino and the Port of Messaria, the royal residence was much more than a landmark. Every time Cassie had seen those twinkling lights from the prison on the western end of the island she had thought of the richness of Aristo as a kingdom and how Sebastian’s father, King Aegeus, had built it up to be the wealthy paradise it was today.

It was only as Cassie came up to the imposing front gates that she realised Sebastian hadn’t given her instructions on how to gain access. But she need not have worried, for waiting at the entrance was the aide, Stefanos, who had been present the previous evening. After a quick word to the guards on duty he led her through the palace, using a similar route to the night before, but this time taking her to a sitting room overlooking the formal gardens of the palace.

‘The Prince Regent will be with you shortly,’ Stefanos informed her and closed the door firmly on his exit.

Cassie let out her breath in a ragged stream and looked to where a small dining table with two chairs had been assembled in front of one of the large windows.

The door opened behind her and she turned to see Sebastian enter the room. He was wearing charcoal-grey trousers and a white open-necked shirt, the cuffs rolled back casually past his wrists. It didn’t seem to matter what he wore, he still had an imposing air about him, an aura of authority and command that only added to his breathtakingly handsome features.

‘I am glad you decided to come,’ he said into the silence.

‘I figured the orphanage is not quite ready for an impromptu visit from royalty,’ Cassie said, thinking on her feet. ‘The press attention might have upset the children.’

He frowned as he came closer. ‘Seeing you at the gala last night was a shock,’ he said, looking down at her. ‘A big shock.’

‘Did you think I had escaped from prison and had come to gatecrash your party?’ she asked, not quite able to subdue the bitterness in her tone.

He gave her a long and studied look. ‘No, Cassie, I did not think that. It was just that I wish I had been told you had been released.’

‘You could have made your own enquiries,’ she pointed out and, with another embittered look, tacked on, ‘discreetly, of course.’

A two-beat silence passed.

‘You are very bitter,’ he observed.

‘I’ve lost almost six years of my life,’ she bit out. ‘Do you know what that feels like, Sebastian? The world is suddenly a different place. I feel like I don’t belong anywhere any more.’

‘You killed your father, Cassie,’ he reminded her. ‘I am not sure what led you to do that, but the laws of this island dictate you must pay for that in some way. There are many people on Aristo who feel you have been given a very lenient sentence.’

‘Yes, well, they didn’t know my father, did they?’ she shot back without thinking.

His frown deepened. ‘Your father was well respected in all quarters. What are you saying…that he was not the private man we all knew in public?’

Cassie wished she could have pulled her words back. She had revealed far more than she had intended to. She had told no one of her father’s behaviour over the years. Who would believe her if she had? It was a secret, a dirty secret that she alone had lived with. Shame had always kept her silent and it would continue to do so. Besides, she hadn’t done herself any favours behaving like a spoilt brat for most of her life. Her father had played on that for all it was worth, publicly tearing his hair out over her behaviour to all his well-connected friends and colleagues.

Cassie quickly averted her gaze, and, shuffling in her bag, drew out the picture Sam had drawn in a desperate attempt to change the subject. ‘Um…I almost forgot to give you this,’ she said, handing it to him with fingers that made the paper give a betraying rattle. ‘One of the…er…orphans drew it for you. He insisted I give it to you.’

He took the picture and gently unfolded it, his eyes taking in the childish strokes of pencil and brightly coloured crayons. ‘It is very…nice,’ he said and brought his gaze back to hers. ‘You said this child is without parents?’

Cassie looked at him blankly for a moment.