Prince's Love-Child

‘Are you still in love with Powers?’ Rik rasped contemptuously. ‘Is that the reason you’re still hanging around the two of them? Hoping to step into Dee’s shoes if the marriage should falter?’

‘How dare you?’ Sapphie gasped incredulously, having paled dramatically, those amber eyes the only colour in her face now. ‘For your information, Mr Prince, I’m not hanging around the two of them at all. I happen to have been in Paris for four days now, doing some research. Dee and Jerome decided to stop off here yesterday in order to see me on their way to Dee’s film première in London next week.’

‘How convenient for you,’ Rik scorned.

He hadn’t even attempted to see Dee since her wedding day five years ago, whereas this woman appeared to have remained friends with both Dee and Jerome. Masochistic or what?

‘It isn’t convenient at all,’ Sapphie came back forcefully. ‘And as for my wanting to step into Dee’s shoes if the marriage should falter—if you listened to what I said just now, then you’ll have realised I used the past tense concerning my feelings towards Jerome. I was in love with him then, but I’m not now.’ She was breathing hard in her agitation, her eyes sparkling with anger.

Considering how defensive she was, Rik wasn’t sure that he believed her.

But somehow, looking into those amber-coloured eyes and seeing the contempt gleaming there, he doubted Sapphie Benedict cared whether he believed her or not!

What was hard to believe, as he looked at her now, seeing how her eyes gleamed challengingly, twin spots of fiery colour burned her cheeks, and the fullness of her mouth had thinned to a taut line, was that he had ever explored every inch of that slenderly tiny body, that he had run his hands time and again through the auburn thickness of her shoulder-length hair, kissed every inch of her gamin-featured beauty and tasted the intimate delight of her luscious lips and mouth.

Sapphie, as if becoming aware of Rik’s lingering gaze, of the thoughts running through his head, seemed to gather herself up to attack. ‘Let me make one thing clear, Mr Prince—’

‘I thought it was to be Rik and Sapphie,’ he reminded her tauntingly, smiling his thanks at the waiter as he placed the pot of fresh coffee and cups down on the table.

‘Mr Prince,’ Sapphie enunciated carefully once they were alone again, ‘I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you. Is that clear enough for you?’

She really was beautiful, Rik acknowledged slightly dazedly; not that he had thought—even five years ago when he needed to block out the pain—that he would have been attracted to someone who wasn’t beautiful. It just came as a surprise to him now to realise quite how beautiful Sapphie Benedict was.

More beautiful than Dee? Well…no. But Dee’s beauty was made up of golden hues, whereas this woman was all fire and light; her hair, for example, gleamed red as the sunlight caught it, and her eyes had taken on the colour of leaping flames.

There was also the fact that, notwithstanding how much in love he’d been with Dee five years ago, the two of them had never gone any further than a few clandestine kisses. Whereas he and Sapphie Benedict had shared the most complete intimacy there was between a man and a woman.

‘Very clear, Sapphie,’ he finally answered her slowly. ‘But if that really was the case, how would I know about the birthmark you have on your—?’

‘Will you stop that?’ she snapped furiously, sitting forward. ‘Dee and Jerome are on their way back now,’ she hissed warningly after a brief glance over his shoulder. ‘This conversation is over as far as I’m concerned!’

Rik turned to give a cursory glance in the direction of the married couple as they strolled along hand in hand, pausing to look in a store window now, his mouth twisting with distaste even as he acknowledged how right they looked together: Dee so tall and goldenly beautiful, Jerome with that natural confidence of a successful middle-aged man.

‘I would keep that emotion under wraps too, if I were you,’ Sapphie bit out impatiently. ‘Jealousy can be so unattractive!’

Rik turned back to find her looking at him scathingly. Jealousy? Of Jerome’s role as Dee’s husband, was what Sapphie meant. Was he still jealous of Jerome? No, in all honesty, he couldn’t say that he was, any more.

Did that mean that he really was over his love for Dee…?

He raised dark brows as he returned Sapphie Benedict’s challenging look. ‘You would know, I suppose,’ he drawled mockingly, but took no pleasure in the way her face fell at his deliberate taunt.

How ironic, how absolutely incredible, that the two of them should both have been in love with other people five years ago. Although Sapphie denied that she still felt that way about Jerome. And he…He realised with another lightening of his heart that, without even knowing it, he’d got over Dee. She was still one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, but he could now view that beauty dispassionately.

Sapphie eyed him dismissively now. ‘I never took you for an idiot, Rik. Misguided in your love for Dee, perhaps, but never an idiot.’

He looked at her curiously. ‘You don’t like Dee very much, do you?’ he realised wonderingly; he had never met anyone before, male or female, who didn’t instantly fall under Dee’s charming spell. Although being in love with the other woman’s husband would probably do it, he allowed.

‘Of course I like Dee,’ Sapphie bristled resentfully. ‘Knowing a person’s weaknesses and faults doesn’t preclude your liking them.’

Rik gave her a rueful grin. ‘Knowing mine doesn’t seem to have endeared me to you!’

She eyed him bleakly. ‘There are always exceptions to every rule,’ she retorted before turning to smile warmly at Dee and Jerome as they rejoined them, her expression affectionately indulgent as she took in the new handbag that Dee carried. ‘I see you preferred the larger design,’ Sapphie teased.

Dee grinned unabashedly, her pleasure in the gift obvious. ‘If you’re going to have a designer bag, then it may as well be a big one!’ She dropped gracefully into the chair next to Sapphie before placing the new purchase on the table. ‘Isn’t it absolutely gorgeous?’

The white bag, printed with a pattern of the designer’s motif in different colours, was certainly big, Rik acknowledged. However, it also wasn’t the little purse initially suggested. But then, why shouldn’t Dee choose a much more expensive number? Jerome was so rich he made the multimillionaire Prince brothers look like paupers!

‘It’s lovely,’ Sapphie assured the other woman warmly.

Rik couldn’t help but admire, on the other couple’s return, the way in which Sapphie seemed to have shaken off her obvious animosity towards him. Anyone glancing in their direction now would be sure to think they were just four friends enjoying a cup of coffee together on this glorious Parisian day.

Rik wasn’t actually quite sure whether he could really class the four of them as friends, given all the emotions teeming beneath their surface politeness!

Nevertheless, he was reluctant for their time together to end. It had taken five years for him to meet Sapphie Benedict again and—surprisingly!—he found he was so intrigued, that he didn’t want there to be another five before it happened again!

‘I was just suggesting to Sapphie,’ he gave her a sideways glance, his mouth quirking humorously as he noticed the disapproving tightening of her full lips, ‘that it would a good idea if the four of us were to have dinner together this evening.’

He had turned back to the married couple by the time he made this suggestion, so he didn’t actually see Sapphie’s reaction to his suggestion—but he certainly felt it!

Shock was quickly followed by waves of pure animosity in his direction which she made no effort to conceal!

CHAPTER TWO

‘YOU’RE incredibly stupid or totally insane—and as I don’t believe for a moment that it’s the latter, I can only assume that it’s the former!’ Sapphie spoke vehemently even as she marched her way past Rik and into the sitting-room of his hotel suite, not sparing her obviously luxurious surroundings a second glance as she turned to glare at him.

‘Come in, why don’t you?’ Rik drawled sardonically, taking his time about closing the door and joining her.

Giving Sapphie the opportunity to take in exactly how handsome he looked in the black evening suit and snowy white shirt and black bow-tie. Not that she hadn’t ever noticed how devastatingly attractive he was, it was just that he just looked breathtakingly so in this formal attire, every inch the wealthy and powerful screenwriter that he was.

She had responded to the way he looked five years ago, but also to the way he’d made her feel; she’d been attracted to his inborn confidence and sophistication as much as to his handsome features. But this was something else entirely.

Now he wasn’t just Rik Prince, the youngest, and reputedly the most sensitive, of the powerful Prince brothers; now he was also the link between herself and the past, between her and…

No, she mustn’t even go there! She had spent a night of mindless passion with this man, and he had to believe that was all they had shared.

He arched dark brows now as he eyed her teasingly. ‘Am I to take it from your previous remark that you aren’t looking forward to the four of us having dinner together this evening?’

Looking forward to it—it had to be the worst torture she could ever imagine!

Spending hours in Rik’s company. Aware all that time that he was probably still in love with Dee. In a constant state of agitation herself, in case either Dee or Jerome said anything that might arouse Rik’s suspicions. No, she wasn’t looking forward to it at all!

But when Rik had made his suggestion earlier about dinner at Fouquet’s, and it was greeted with such enthusiasm by Dee and Jerome, Sapphie simply hadn’t been able to think of a good reason for not joining them. Especially as it had already been agreed earlier in the morning that she would eat with Dee and Jerome tonight. Besides, she dared not dine with all of them, because she was still nervous that either Dee or Jerome might unwittingly say something about Matthew…

Even so, she was sure that Rik had known earlier exactly how she felt about having dinner with him, since she’d spent the rest of their meeting this morning in silence, nodding her agreement to the suggestion they all meet in the hotel foyer downstairs at eight o’clock.

‘Idiot!’ she snapped now, totally immune to his admiring glance as he took in the black sheath knee-length dress she was wearing, and the way her auburn hair fell loose on the bareness of her shoulders. She gave an impatient shake of her head. ‘This is a dangerous game you’re playing—’

‘Dangerous?’ Rik echoed, dark brows arched mockingly. ‘You aren’t suddenly going to launch yourself at me in a passionate frenzy, are you?’

‘Oh, very funny,’ Sapphie bit out disgustedly. ‘You are such a funny man, Rik. In fact, with your wit, I’m surprised you’ve never turned your talent to writing comedies!’

He grinned unconcernedly, an endearing dimple appearing in one cheek, obviously feeling completely relaxed about the evening ahead. ‘I’ve never really thought about it,’ he shrugged, ‘but now that you mention it…’ He smiled in the face of her obvious frustration. ‘It’s a little early yet for us to go and meet Dee and Jerome; would you care for a drink before we leave?’

As it had turned out, Rik and Dee and Jerome were all staying at the George V, just off the Champs-Elyseées, whereas Sapphie had decided to stay in a more obscure—and less expensive!—hotel in one of the avenues off the Arc de Triomphe, so it had been decided that the three of them would meet in the foyer of the George V before strolling along to the restaurant.

And yes, Sapphie was well aware of the fact that it was too early to meet the other couple. Deliberately so. As this man had to be well aware.

‘A brandy would be nice,’ she accepted abruptly, having already noticed the untouched bottles of whisky and brandy on one of the side-tables. ‘Thank you,’ she added awkwardly.

‘So far this evening you’ve called me “incredibly stupid” and an “idiot”—don’t you think it’s a little late for politeness?’ He eyed her laughingly.

Sapphie felt a leap of awareness in her chest at how very attractive he was in this teasingly friendly mood. It would be so easy to forget everything else, and just enjoy being in his company…

His company was something she dared not risk enjoying! In fact, she couldn’t let her guard down for even a second, had been a mass of churning emotions since the moment they’d met again this morning, feeling as if she were remaining only two steps ahead of a tsunami—and while it was increasing in force she was tiring fast!

She had to find a way of stopping it—stopping Rik—in his tracks!

‘Thank you,’ she murmured again as she took the glass of brandy from his hand and took a sip of the fiery liquid, hoping it would give her the courage she so badly needed.

Courage…? She was going to need more than courage if she was going to completely alienate Rik Prince. And that was exactly what she had to do—if she could stop him finding her amusing long enough to do it, that was!

Under other circumstances, meeting Rik again could have been the highlight of her trip to Paris. But as it was…

‘Mr Prince—’

‘You know, you really can’t carry on being so formal with a man you’ve shared a bed with,’ he cut in smoothly.

And a sofa. And the floor. Even the shower—if her memory served her correctly. And she knew that it did.

All of which would be better forgotten, let alone talked about! ‘Rik,’ she corrected tautly, sitting down in one of the armchairs and instantly wishing she hadn’t, as Rik’s gaze was drawn to the amount of silk-covered thigh revealed by her dress riding up her legs. ‘The danger I was referring to has nothing to do with me—’

‘Pity,’ he responded, relaxing back in an armchair himself now as he looked across at her with narrowed eyes.

‘—and everything to do with Dee and Jerome,’ Sapphie continued determinedly.

She had given this a lot of thought when she returned to her hotel earlier—in the circumstances, how could she possibly think of anything else?—and had decided she couldn’t make this personal, otherwise Rik’s suspicions would be aroused anyway. So she had decided to make Dee and Jerome the issue instead.

It seemed to be working as Rik’s mouth tightened, his expression grim. ‘What about them?’ There was a definite edge to his voice now. ‘As you’ve already been at great pains to point out to me, they are obviously a happily married couple.’

‘Yes, they are.’ Sapphie nodded. ‘But beneath his genial façade, Jerome is a very jealous man.’

Rik gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘Dee is a lot younger than him, and a very beautiful woman.’

‘She can also be a very silly one,’ Sapphie told Rik with feeling. ‘Not that it’s her fault,’ she added, remembering all too well Rik’s earlier accusation that she didn’t like Dee. Of course she liked Dee, but if this was going to work, then she had to exaggerate some of Dee’s less admirable traits. ‘Dee was very overindulged as a child. Her father adored her, always referred to her as his perfect diamond.’ Sapphie shook her head. ‘Is it any wonder that she grew up expecting every other man to adore her, too?’

‘I don’t know,’ Rik said slowly. ‘Is it?’

‘Of course it’s not,’ Sapphie shot back. She wasn’t getting through to him at all! ‘I mentioned earlier that Dee and Jerome have had their share of hiccups…? Well, those hiccups usually occur after one of Dee’s—flirtations. Jerome, understandably, resents any man who gets too close to his wife.’

‘Understandably,’ Rik echoed tightly. ‘Although I still don’t see what this has got to do with me.’

Sapphie eyed him exasperatedly; this wasn’t going at all as she had planned. She had intended giving Rik a little friendly advice—such as ‘stay away from Dee because of Jerome’s jealousy’!—and he obviously wasn’t getting it at all. She felt like boxing his ears now!

‘You’re in love with Dee—’

‘Am I?’

She frowned frustratedly. ‘Of course you are!’

‘If you say so.’ He shrugged.

‘Look, I’m trying to help you,’ she pressed on impatiently.

‘So it would appear.’

She sighed at his lack of cooperation. ‘The last man to get too close to Dee ended up losing his job on the New York Times newspaper and going back writing about cattle shows in his home state of Texas!’ A fate that was a vast improvement on the one that had befallen Dee’s admirer before that, an actor who was sacked from his role in a major film and was now working behind the counter of a fast-food chain!

Rik looked amused. ‘And you think that might happen to me?’ he queried. ‘It’s very nice of you to be so concerned on my behalf, Sapphie, but it really isn’t necessary.’

She really wasn’t getting through to him, was she? So much for advising him to stay away from both Dee and Jerome—and, as a consequence, away from her too; he just seemed to find her advice amusing!

‘I am not concerned about you,’ she stood up, deciding to try a different tack; if he didn’t care about himself, then perhaps he would care on Dee’s behalf. ‘It’s Dee I’m worried about.’ She glared down at him.

Rik returned her gaze with cool blue eyes, his thoughts now unreadable behind a cold mask.

‘Are you telling me,’ he finally spoke carefully, ‘that Jerome is likely to become violent towards Dee if—?’

‘No, of course I’m not,’ Sapphie denied exasperatedly; she just seemed to be making this situation worse, not better. And she had thought it couldn’t get any worse! ‘For all that she’s emotionally immature, Dee really does love Jerome. Being older than her, he gives her the stability she felt she had lost when her father died—’

‘You presume to know an awful lot about the emotions of the woman who married the man with whom you yourself were in love,’ Rik rasped harshly.

Perhaps she was getting through to him after all.. he certainly didn’t seem amused any more!

‘I don’t presume to know anything—’

‘I think that you do.’ Rik stood up in one fluid movement. ‘And in the circumstances, I find your so-called concern for Dee a little—suspect, shall we say?’

He was very overbearing, towering over her like this, but Sapphie refused to back down now, finally feeling as if she was getting through to him. If she succeeded in getting him to back out of Dee’s life—and consequently her own!—then she didn’t care how intimidating he appeared!

‘No, we will not say,’ she replied tartly. ‘As Dee’s sister, of course I—’

‘As her what?’

Sapphie instinctively took a step backwards at the vehemence in his tone, her eyes widening now as she took in the look of complete shock that he was too disturbed to even attempt to hide.

He hadn’t known, she realised belatedly.

Incredibly, somehow, with everything else that had happened between them that night five years ago, she must have forgotten to mention that Dee was her little sister!

* * *

Sapphie was Dee’s sister? The same stepsister who, along with her mother, had pressured Dee five years ago into going through with her marriage to Jerome Powers?

But wasn’t that what she was doing now, too? Warning him, and every other man by the sound of it, from going anywhere near Dee’s marriage to Jerome.

‘Your name is Benedict, not McCall,’ he finally bit out forcefully. Stupidly. Dee was an actress; McCall probably wasn’t even her real name. But it seemed so impossible that these two women, so totally physically different, could possibly be related in any way, let alone be sisters!

‘We’re half-sisters,’ Sapphie told him dismissively. ‘I was two years old when my mother married Fergus McCall. Dee was born a year later.’

Rik turned away to walk over to the window, staring sightlessly out into the Parisian night.

Damn it, he had been congratulating himself earlier on the fact that he was over whatever he had felt for Dee, that, without him even being aware of it, his emotions had moved on.

And now this!

He hadn’t asked Sapphie five years ago what she was doing at Dee and Jerome’s wedding, whether her connection was to either the bride or groom. In fact, they hadn’t talked much at all, he realised now.

But, thinking back to that time, remembering the things Dee had told him about her stepmother and stepsister, of how they were pressurising her into marrying the rich and powerful Jerome Powers, he couldn’t help but wonder if his meeting with Sapphie that night had been quite as by chance as it had appeared at the time…

‘Let me guess.’ Sapphie spoke behind him. ‘If Dee spoke of her family at all, it was to regale you with the stepmother and stepsister story?’ She grimaced as he turned sharply back to face her. ‘My stepfather died when Dee was thirteen.’ She gave a sad shake of her head. ‘His death hit her very hard, and the only way she could deal with it at the time was to think of herself as the beautiful swan left in the nest of the ugly ducklings! It seemed harmless enough at the time, if a little hurtful to our mother.’

The picture she was painting of Dee wasn’t a pretty one. Rik remembered Dee as a beautiful butterfly desperately trying to fly away from the two women who were trying to run her life for her.

This woman and her mother!

But her mother and half-sister, not stepmother and stepsister…

He gave a dismissive shake of his head; if he once started to doubt Dee’s integrity five years ago, then he really was in trouble!

Sapphie gave a humourless smile. ‘I can see that you don’t believe me.’

It wasn’t a question of believing or not believing her; he was newly coming to terms with the fact that he was no longer in love with Dee, and also with hearing Sapphie telling him that the woman he had thought himself in love with all those years ago had never really existed either—it was just too much to take in!

‘Why the hell should I?’ he came back harshly. ‘You and your mother got your way five years ago, let’s just leave it at that, shall we?’

Sapphie looked perplexed now. ‘My mother? What does she have to do with any of this?’

‘Oh, please!’ he grated.

And to think he had actually been starting to like Sapphie, to admire the cool way she’d dealt with what had happened between them five years ago. Hell, he was no longer even sure that it had just happened between them all those years ago; in fact, the more he thought about the way they had met, their lack of conversation, that shared passion in his hotel suite, the more he began to wonder if it hadn’t all been planned to keep him well and truly occupied while Dee married someone else.

Although this presupposed that Dee’s mother and sister had been aware that there was someone else in Dee’s life besides Jerome…

Damn it, he had to get out of here—before he let those thoughts take him where he didn’t want to go and he actually resorted to strangling Sapphie Benedict for what he now suspected her motives might have been towards him all those years ago!

‘It’s time to go,’ he instructed after a glance at his wrist-watch. ‘Dee and Jerome will be wondering where we are.’

Sapphie looked up at him uncertainly. ‘Rik, what—?’

‘I said it’s time to go!’ he commanded, grasping hold of her arm and manoeuvring her towards the door, allowing no respite when she stumbled slightly trying to pick up her evening bag.

He was too angry at this moment, needed to be where there were other people. Because strangling was probably too good for this woman.

But kissing her, at the same time showing his contempt for her, certainly wasn’t!

He came to an abrupt halt as he reached the door, turning Sapphie Benedict in his arms to lower his head and take possession of her lips with his.

It was a kiss that wasn’t meant to be enjoyed, by either of them. And as Rik felt Sapphie tremble in his arms he knew that she certainly wasn’t deriving any pleasure from it, that if anything she was wary of him, of where his anger might take them. Well, let her be wary. She deserved to be wary. He wanted her to be wary. He wanted to take her…