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He nodded in concession, hardly breathing for fear of alerting her to how very turned on he was. “It was my one noble gesture for the decade. Don’t expect another one.”
She laughed and he felt it vibrate against his rock-hard lower half, which did not improve matters down below. Dangerous and forbidden did it for him in the worst way and when both came in a package like Bella, he might as well surrender to the moment right now. They were both aware of where this was headed, weren’t they?
“You know, you spend a lot of time blabbing about how wicked you are, but I’ve yet to see evidence of it.” Her brow arched saucily, turning silvery in the moonlight. “What happened to my man of action?”
“You wanna play?” he growled and slid his hand to the small of her back, pushing her deep into the crevices of his body. “Here’s round one of How Bad Can James Be?”
Tipping up her head, he captured her smart mouth with his lips, molding them shut while tasting her simultaneously. What started as a shut-up kiss instantly transformed, becoming slow and sensuous and exploratory as he delved into her sweetness. She met him stroke for stroke, angle for angle, silently begging him to take her deeper.
He finally had Bella in his arms. Exactly as he’d ached to have her since releasing her from their first embrace.
Still in the throes of an amazing kiss he never wanted to end, he pinned her against the stone railing, wedging their bodies tight and leaving his hands free to roam where they pleased.
And that creamy expanse of flesh from neck to waist had been calling his name for an eternity. Almost groaning with the pleasure of her mouth under his, he slid a palm north to let his fingertips familiarize themselves with her bare back. Heated, smooth flesh greeted his touch. Greedily, he caressed it all and she moaned throatily, flattening her back against his palm, pleading for more.
He gave it to her.
Nearly mindless with the scent of Bella filling his head, he held her closer in his arms, sliding a knee between her legs to rub at her sweet spot. Heavenly. He wanted to touch every part of her, to taste what he’d touched. To take them both to nirvana again and again as the blistering, forbidden attraction between them was allowed free reign once and for all.
Suddenly, she tore her mouth free and moved out of reach, breathing heavily. “That was...um—”
“Yeah.” Earthshaking. Unprecedented. Hotter than Brazil in the summer. “Come back so I can do it again.”
He reached for her and for a second, he thought she was going to do it. Her body swayed toward him and his mouth tingled in anticipation of locking on to those lips of hers again.
But then she shook her head, backing up another step. “I can’t be with you like this. It’s not fair to Will. We have to straighten everything out first.”
Bloody hell. Will hadn’t crossed his mind once while James kissed his brother’s date. Any of dear Father’s business cronies could have come upon them on the terrace and there were few people in Alma who confused the twins. Everyone knew James had inherited Grandfather Rowling’s priceless antique watch—much to Patrick’s chagrin. It was the first thing people looked for when in need of a handy way to identify the brothers.
“Yes, of course you’re right.” Though his body ached to yank her back into his arms, he gave her a pained smile instead. “This isn’t over.”
“Oh, no.” She shot him an indecipherable look. “Not by half. The next time you and I are together, I will be naked and screaming your name.”
His eyelids flew shut and he groaned. “Why can’t that happen tonight?”
“Because as far as the rest of the world is concerned, Will is the Rowling I’m supposed to be with. I’ve had too many scandals mess up my life to knowingly create a preventable one. That’s why it must be perfectly clear to everyone that Will and I are not getting married before you and I get naked.”
Grimly, he nodded, the photo of the two of them on the front page fresh in his mind. They should probably address that, too, at some point, but he’d topped out on issues he could reasonably deal with.
“You should go. And go fast before I change my mind.” Or lose it. “I’m fresh out of nobility and the capacity to resist you.”
She whirled and fled. He watched her beautiful back as she disappeared inside the house, and then went in search of a bottle of Jameson to get him through what promised to be a long night indeed.
Five (#u95456b5c-1bd8-59ae-8557-b83e323f81fb)
James cornered Will in his Rowling Energy office at 9:05 a.m. This was the earliest James could recall being awake, dressed and out of the house in quite some time. But this cat-and-mouse game had grown tiresome, and the man who shared his last name, his blood and once upon a time, had even shared a womb, had the power to end it.
“Will.”
James didn’t cross the threshold out of respect for the fact that he was on his brother’s turf. Instead, he waited for him to glance up from his report. Will’s expression remained composed, though James caught a flash of surprise in the depths of his gaze, which the Master of Calm quickly banked.
“Yes?”
And now they’d officially exchanged two words this week. Actually, James couldn’t remember the last time they had talked. They’d never been close. Hell, they were rarely on the same continent, but that wasn’t really the reason. The divide had started the night their mum died and grown exponentially over the years.
“We have to talk. Can I come in?”
“Since you’re here already, I suppose.” Will’s long-suffering sigh said he deserved a medal for seeing James on such short notice.
James bit back the sarcasm strictly because he was the one with the mission, though his brother’s condescension pricked at his temper. The brothers would never see eye to eye, though why James cared was beyond him.
They’d taken different paths in dealing with the single most defining year of their lives, Will choosing to compensate for the loss of everything familiar by becoming whatever their father said, as long as the remaining parent paid attention to him.
James compensated for his mother’s death by lashing out at his father, refusing to forgive the ultimate crime—though James could never run far enough or get into enough trouble to drown out the sound of his own conscience. While he’d never forgive his father for driving his mum out into the rainy night, back in the deepest reaches of his soul, he blamed himself more.
Because he’d heard them arguing and hadn’t done anything. What if he’d run out of his hiding place to grab on to his mum and beg her not to leave? She wouldn’t have. He knew she wouldn’t have. But she’d probably assumed both her boys were asleep. One of them had been.
James took a deep, not at all calming breath as he settled into one of the wingback chairs flanking Will’s desk. “It’s about Bella.”
“Ms. Montoro? What about her?”
James rolled his eyes. “Well, I was going to ask how serious you are about her, but that pretty much told me.”
“How serious I...” Will’s gaze narrowed. “You’ve got the hots for her.”
That didn’t begin to describe what had happened on the terrace last night. Or every moment since the princess had blinked up at him with those big eyes after upending his world. “If you’re determined to see this arranged marriage through, I won’t stand in your way.”
Steepling his hands, Will sat back in his chair, contemplating James carefully. “Really? That’s a first.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“When was the last time you considered anyone above yourself? Especially when a woman is involved.”
James was halfway out of his seat before he checked himself. Fisting his hand in his lap as he sat back down, he forced a smile. “I won’t apologize for looking out for myself. No one else does. But I will concede the point. This woman is different.”
He nearly choked on the words he hadn’t consciously planned to say. But it was true. Bella wasn’t like anyone else he’d ever met.
Smirking, Will nodded once. “Because she’s earmarked for me.”
Is that what he thought this was about? That James had come to Will in a fit of jealousy?
“Earmarked? Is that how you talk about her? Bella’s a person, not a pile of money.”
The nerve. Will had spent too much time in budget meetings if he equated a flesh-and-blood woman with reserve funds.
“Yes. But surely you realize we’re talking about an arranged marriage. It’s a form of currency, dating back to the dawn of time. No one is under a different impression.”
James had a sick sort of realization that what Will described was probably quite right. Two fathers had struck a deal, bargaining away their children’s future with no thought to what could or should go into a marriage decision. Namely, the desires of the bride and groom in question.
If he didn’t miss his guess, Will accepted that. Embraced it. Thought it was a brilliant idea.
If James had known this was the case, he’d have taken Bella straight to his room last night and skipped the formality of giving his brother a heads-up that things had changed. “Bella has a different impression. She’s not interested in being bought or sold.”
Will eyed him thoughtfully. “Why hasn’t she come to me herself?”
“Because this is between you and me, brother. She didn’t want to get into the middle of it.” Which he fully appreciated, whether Will did or not. James had to look at himself in the mirror for the rest of his life and he’d prefer not to see his own guilty conscience staring back at him. “And she won’t. Neither will I allow her to. If you say you’re planning to pursue this ridiculous idea of aligning Rowling Energy to the Montoros through marriage, so be it. Just be sure you treat her like a princess.”
Maybe James wasn’t done being noble after all. He’d fully expected to walk in here and demand that Will release Bella from their fathers’ agreement. But somehow he’d wound up caring more about Bella and how she was being marginalized than whether he’d cleared the way to sleep with her.
“I see.” Comprehension dawned in Will’s gaze. “You’re the reason she left the party so quickly last night. Last I knew, she’d gone out on the terrace for some air, and the next, she’d begged off with a headache.”
“I’m sorry,” James said earnestly. “I didn’t plan for any of this to happen. But Bella deserves better than to be thought of as currency. She’s funny and incredible and—”
He broke off before he said something he couldn’t take back, like she’s the hottest kisser I’ve ever met. Somehow, he didn’t think that would go over well.
“You’ve got it bad.” Will didn’t bother to hide his smirk. “Never would have thought I’d see the day. She’s really got you wrapped, doesn’t she?”
As if Bella called the shots or something? James tried to do the right thing one time and all he got was grief.
“She’s important,” James growled. “That’s all.”
Will grinned mischievously, looking more like Mum than he usually did. “Ha. I wouldn’t be surprised if you proposed to her before her brother’s coronation.”
“Propose? You mean ask her to marry me?” Ice slid down James’s spine and he threw up a hand to stave off the rest of Will’s outpouring of madness. “That’s not what’s going on here. We’re just... I’m not... It’s that I didn’t want to poach on your territory. It’s not sporting.”
“Gabriella. Paulinha. Abril.” Ticking them off on his fingers, Will cocked his head. “I think there was another one, but her name escapes me.”
Revisionist history of the worst kind. “If I recall, Abril went home with you. Despite the fact that I saw her first.”
“But that’s my point. We’ve competed over women in the past. But you have never come to me first.” Will’s phone rang, but he ignored the shrill buzz. “We’ve always subscribed to the may-the-best-man-win philosophy. So obviously Bella is the one.”
Yeah, the one James wanted in his bed. That was it. Once they burned off the blinding attraction, they’d part amicably. “No way. You’re reading into this.”
An even worse thought occurred to him then. Did Bella think there was more going on here? Like maybe James wanted to take Will’s place in the diabolical bridal bargain their fathers had struck? Surely not. There’d been plenty of flirting, and lots of use of the word naked. But no one had said anything about being serious.
Will shook his head, a smile still tugging at his lips. “I don’t think so. Put your money where your mouth is.”
“A bet? Seriously?” All the long hours in the service of Patrick Rowling’s ego had obviously pickled his brother’s brain.
“As a heart attack.” Nodding at James’s wrist, he pursed his lips for a beat. “Grandfather’s watch. That’s how bad I think you’ve got it. If you propose to Bella before Gabriel Montoro takes the throne, you give it to me, free and clear.”
James laughed. “You are so on.”
What a stupid thing to ask for. Will knew how much James loved his grandfather’s watch. It was one of the few mementos from England that James had left, and Grandfather had given it to him on his eighteenth birthday. Losing it was not happening. Proposing to Bella was not happening, before the coronation or after.
Sucker’s bet. James rubbed his hands together gleefully. “If I don’t propose, then what? Make this worth my while.”
“I’ll come up with something.”
James and Will shook on it.
“So this means the arranged marriage is totally off, right?” No point in going through all of this just to find out Will was toying with him.
“Totally off.”
A glint in his brother’s eye caught his crossways. “You were never interested in her.”
“Never,” Will confirmed solemnly. “Bella’s got all the right parts and everything, and she would have opened up some interesting possibilities for Rowling. But she’s not my type. I’m fine with cancelling the whole agreement.”
Not his type. That was insane. How could Bella not be every red-blooded man’s type? “You’ll talk to Father?”
“Sure. It’s better coming from me anyway. Now get out so I can run this company.”
James got out. He had a naked princess in his future after all.
* * *
Bella’s eyes started to ache after thirty minutes of trying to read the tiny map print.
“I give up,” she muttered and switched off the lamp adorning her bedside table.
All of the words were in Spanish anyway. How was she supposed to use this map Alex Ramon’s assistant had given her to find the farmhouse Tía Isabella had mentioned?
When Bella had asked Rafael about it, he sent her to speak with Alex Ramon, Alma’s deputy prime minister of commerce. His assistant helped her scour the royal archives until they found one solitary mention of the abandoned farmhouse in a long list of Montoro holdings. But there was little to go on location-wise other than Aldeia Dormer, the name of a tiny village.
At least Mr. Ramon’s assistant had managed to find the key to the property tucked away in a filing cabinet, a real plus. Assuming the key still worked, that was.
Now she just had to find the farmhouse. Tía Isabella’s urgency had taken root, not to mention a healthy dose of curiosity about how an old farmhouse counted as part of a legacy. There was no way Bella would actually give up.
Plus, finding the farmhouse was a project, her gift to Isabella. Bella needed a local with plenty of time on his hands and access to a vehicle to help her scour the countryside for this farmhouse. And who didn’t mind ditching her babysitters-slash-security guys.
Her phone rang. She glanced at it and frowned at the unfamiliar number. That was the second time today and the first caller had been Will. Dare she hope this might be the brother she’d rather talk to? “Hello?”
“You haven’t been to the beach all day.” James’s smooth voice slid through her like silk.
“Was I supposed to be at the beach?” With a wide grin, she flipped over on her back to stare at the ceiling above her bed, completely uninterested in cryptic maps now that she had a much better distraction.
“How else am I supposed to run into you?” he pointed out. “You never gave me your phone number.”
Because he’d never asked. “Yet it appears I’m speaking to you on the phone at this very minute.”
“A bloke has to be resourceful around this island if he wants to ask a princess out on a date. Apparently.”
A little thrill burst through her midsection. After walking away from James at the party, she’d mentally prepared for any eventuality. A woman didn’t get between brothers, and James, for all his squawking about being a bad boy, wouldn’t have pursued her if Will had called dibs.
And then there was always the possibility James would grow weary of all the obstacles between them. She didn’t have any guarantees she’d even hear from him again.
“This is your idea of resourceful? What did you do, hit up Will for my phone number?”
