His Arranged Marriage (9 page)

“I do not sneak!” She raised her eyes to stare at him. “I knocked, but you did not answer.”

“At that hour, no.” He gave her a wry grin. “So maybe it would be less trouble if I just kept you in my room. That way I could anchor you to the bed when you decided to make my breakfast. You don’t have to do that for me, Serena.”

“I know you think that princesses do not cook, Cade, but if your mother does, then so can I.” She leaned forward earnestly, and the sheet drooped slightly.

“Where is your shirt?” he asked, his eyes suddenly serious and direct on the light blue bra strap.

She pulled the sheet back up. “I was about to change when you walked in,” she said as airily as she could, though she was becoming nervous all over again.

He was silent as he considered her. Serena sat still, trying to judge the new look she had never seen in his eyes before. Then he reached out and with
one finger, gently drew the sheet down to expose her entire bosom.

“You purchased unusual brassieres, I see,” he said huskily.

“You said you wanted me wearing them, and this is what Jessica suggested,” she said earnestly. “It has a magical button here, you see, which is, the saleslady claimed, ‘unlike any other bra made in the world!’ If you do this,” she said, touching the button once, “it does
this,
and tightens the cleavage. And you can do this three times—” she went click, click on the button again “—for a look no man can fail to appreciate, or so the saleslady made me believe.”

She met his gaze hopefully. Cade hadn’t moved, hadn’t so much as blinked.

She didn’t think that was a very good sign. “It’s called a Click bra,” she said uncertainly. “If you do not like it, I will take it back at once and tell the saleslady not to trick the Princess of Balahar again.”

He let out a long, low exhalation of breath as he got up from the table. He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets as he stared first into her eyes, then back at the magical bra the saleslady had hawked with such blandishments. “Eat your breakfast,” was all he said as he finally left the room.

Serena lowered her head. Neither breakfast in bed nor her miraculous bra seemed to have had much impact. Cade was determined to treat her like a for
bidden princess he’d married without fully considering his actions.

Suddenly his head poked back inside the room. She jumped, nearly upsetting her tray.

“Serena, keep the bra,” he said before quickly retreating.

She smiled as the door closed. Maybe her husband wasn’t as immune as he tried so hard to appear!

Good cooking, dress for success,
and what was the third idea she’d gotten from the American talk show?

“Oh, yes. Show interest in his work,” she said, snapping her fingers.

That was plan C, which would surely show Prince Kadar how well she could fit into his world!

An hour later, Cade went to the barn, his mind torn. He’d run a quick errand, chafing because he’d just left the most desirable woman he’d ever seen up in his bed—his mind was definitely back there. In all her innocence, Serena could have no idea of the wallop she packed as she offered her beauty to him without guile—clad in lingerie he’d wanted to pull from her body
immediately.

When her cleavage, as she’d called it, rounded up over the light blue fabric to make plump half-moons, all he could think of was that she looked like a white-skin peach he desperately wanted to bite into.

But no lingerie was going to cause him to lose his self-control. He had eleven more days with Serena before she had to make up her mind to return home. Hopefully that was long enough for her to decide whether she liked him, liked his family, liked Texas. He reminded himself that she was innocent;
she had no full concept of the temptation she lay before him.

Gritting his teeth, he told himself he could hold out.

“Not that I counted on Jessica to launch the Victoria’s Secret war on me,” he grumbled to himself as he went to grab a pitchfork in the barn.

“Trouble?” Mac asked.

He stopped, turning to look at his brother. “Oh, hey, Mac. I didn’t see you.”

“And a good day it is, too,” Mac said cheerfully. “For most people, anyway. Something thorny under your saddle, bro?”

“There is nothing under my saddle,” Cade said tightly. “With Mother and Jessica firmly aligned against me, I don’t need you encouraging Serena to bring me my favorite breakfast, and whatever else.”

Mac laughed. “She asked what you liked. I told her.”

“Yes, she mentioned that.”

“What did it hurt, Cade? I like Serena. I’m not going to ignore her just because you do.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Cade demanded.

Mac leaned against a post and grinned at his brother. “If you ignore a woman, other men are going to pay attention to her.”

“You had your chance at her. As I recall, you passed.”

His brother laughed at him. “You sound jealous. Kind of eaten up with it.”

Cade glowered. “I have no comment to make to encourage your idiocy. If you are trying to make me jealous, it won’t work.”

Mac turned back to what he was doing. “Okay.”

The easy acquiescence displeased Cade. “Is that what you’re trying to do?”

Mac shrugged, his shoulder muscles straining against the blue work shirt as he lifted a saddle. “You said it wouldn’t matter, so why do you care? Since you
don’t
care, that is.”

“I care,” Cade said on a growl.

“Well, okay, then. Shut the hell up and quit acting like Mr. Coldhearted.” Mac turned back around to face him. “All I meant was that Serena needs a friend, Cade. I like her. We get along real well, mainly because she reminds me a lot of Jessica and I’m comfortable with that kind of gal. And I see Serena knocking herself out to please her husband, and I think with a little aim in the right direction, maybe my dense brother will finally wake up and appreciate what she’s trying to do for him.”

Cade was silent.

“It’s what I’d do for anybody who was a guest at the ranch. Making Serena comfortable is the least I can do for the poor, stranded girl.”

“She’s not stranded. I check on her all the time.”

“Yeah, like a great hulking warden checking in
on his prisoner. Or maybe,” Mac said slowly, “more like a little kid keeps checking his cage to make sure the pretty bird he’s caught hasn’t flown away.”

Cade pressed his lips together as he stared at his brother. “I get your point,” he finally said. “Exactly what is your advice to me on the matter of Serena, Mac? Go ahead, spit it out, don’t pull your punches,” he said with some sarcasm.

“If you want her to be happy here—and that’s supposedly the reason for your, um, separation from her—you need to romance her. Not the other way around. Or at least don’t let her efforts go unreciprocated.”

“It’s not that easy,” Cade said quietly. “She’s a hard woman to be around.”

Mac cocked a brow at him. “Oh?”

Cade thought about the clicking bra and the soft, peachy-white skin. He thought about how she felt up against him in the night. “Maybe I do avoid her a little, but it isn’t my intention for her to feel unwanted.”

“Oh, you’re trying to be heroic,” Mac said with a dawning tone. “Maybe you should tell her that when you’re around her, you feel like you’re about to pop your zipper.”

“For crying out loud!” Cade stared at his brother. “I can’t tell her that!”

“Why not? A woman who’s worked as hard as
she has for your attention would probably be happy to hear it.”

“Well, I can’t, that’s all. I can’t say something like that to a princess! And besides which,” he said quietly, darting a look around him, “you don’t know Serena. If she knew how close she is to getting what she wants, she’ll unleash all the temptations of Eve on me, and I’m only so much man. I can’t stay away from her forever!” He paced to the opposite end of the barn and then back. “I can hang on until she knows her mind. I can be that much of a gentleman.”

Mac laughed. “We’re not going to see you for a week once you finally let your guard down, bro.”

Cade shook his head. “Two weeks, I hope. Hey, listen, I’ll be back in ten to help you with this, okay?”

“Where are you going?”

“There’s something I forgot to tell Serena,” he called over his shoulder. Maybe he’d better tell her how much he liked her, he thought as he strode off. Maybe just telling her not to return the bra and fixing her a reciprocal breakfast wasn’t enough for a woman. If Mac was right, she just might get tired of being at The Desert Rose.

And that was the exact opposite of what he’d been trying to do. He still wouldn’t make love with her—he didn’t want to rush her.

But he could certainly do more to let her know that he enjoyed having her around.

“T
HERE
,
NOW
,” Mac said to Serena as she came out from behind the stall door where she’d been currying a horse in her effort to be a part of Cade’s life. “Feel better?”

Serena blinked. “I had no idea he felt that way! It seems like an elaborate scheme to keep me, Mac. I would never have thought that Cade would believe that staying away from me would make me want to stay.”

He laughed. “I don’t think he’d thought his plan all the way through. Everything’s happened pretty fast. Besides which, you’ve yanked a pretty good knot in my brother. I’ve never seen him act like this about a woman before.”

A warm glow of hope filled Serena. “You haven’t?”

“Nope. He looked like he was about to bite my head off when I pricked his jealousy a little bit.”

She smiled. “He did not sound too happy.”

“No. He did not.”

“So now what do I do?”

“Can I make a suggestion, Serena?”

“You know him much better than I do. I will be glad to hear anything you have to say.”

“You don’t want to go back to Balahar, do you?”

Serena lowered her gaze for a moment. “I do, one
day. I want to see my family and my home. But if you are asking if I could be happy here, the answer is yes. I consider my place to be at Cade’s side.”

“Well, then, let’s have you be a bit more elusive.”

“Elusive?”

Mac nodded, grinning. “We’ve got him feeling guilty now. A couple of days where you don’t seem all that consumed to please him wouldn’t hurt the old princely ego much.”

Serena considered that, thinking that plans A, B and C hadn’t been exactly foolproof. “But I do not like to appear aloof to my prince,” she said. “It is not done that way in my country. Our women in the harem show their eagerness so that they will be chosen. Otherwise, how will the prince know that they are willing?”

“Sometimes, when one is setting out bait, it’s best to let the prey get close to check it out, whet its appetite. Then the prey will follow it right into the trap, or onto the hook, if that sounds less mercenary.”

She frowned. “My husband is not something to be caught like a fish.”

“Well, you’ve tried it the woman’s way. I’m just telling you the man’s way. We’re hunters at heart, basically. The thrill of pursuit doesn’t scare us off. Or at least it won’t in my brother’s case, let me say
that. Me, I’m a much different kind of guy,” he said quickly. “This plan wouldn’t work on me.”

“You’re just saying that in case you ever bring home a woman. You don’t want me telling her this.”

Mac winked at her. “It strikes me that you’re a very smart woman, Serena, and yes, my words could very much come back to haunt me someday.”

They laughed with each other for a moment. “Do you have a lady you like?” Serena asked softly.

He shook his head a bit reluctantly. “I…met one that I liked once.”

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. Believe it or not, I don’t even know her name.”

“Oh. That is sad!” Serena said. She leaned close to give him a fast hug, hoping to erase the hopelessness in his eyes.

“Serena!” Cade roared. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”

Her breath jumped into her throat, tightening it, and instinctively she would have leaped away from Mac for fear of her actions being misunderstood. But Mac’s hand pressed her back, stilling her, and Serena remembered his words.

“You found me, husband,” she said archly, rather than offering the dire and fearful apology that would have been due in her country. “Is there something you wanted?”

“I want to talk to you.” He strode forward to where she stood, her hand still on Mac’s shoulder, patting nervously, before she went to retrieve the currycomb she’d left in the stall.

“I am listening, my husband,” she said, not meanly, but not eager as she had been in the past.

He hesitated, uncertain.

No doubt wondering why I am not jumping to please him,
Serena thought with a secret smile.

“It…it worried me when I could not find you,” Cade finally offered. “I wanted to check on you.”

Serena glanced at him as she led the horse out to walk it down to the enclosure for hosing down. “As you can see, I am fine. Although I thank you for your concern.”

He frowned as she met his gaze with a heart-tugging smile. “You’re not hanging out with Jessica today?”

“She went into town, and your mother is busy with a project, so I decided it was time to get outdoors and learn about your ranch,” she said airily.

“I’ll give you a tour—”

She shook her head. “It won’t be necessary. But thank you.” Turning the water on, she began rinsing down the horse’s back, and then the front legs.

Cade turned to stare at his brother. “I’m trying.”

Mac nodded. “You are.”

“She doesn’t seem all that deprived of my attention,” Cade said thoughtfully. He wondered at the
change in Serena’s attitude. Usually she was delighted to have him near her.

“Well,” Mac said, his grin huge as he turned back to what he’d been doing before the two lovebirds had flown into the barn, “with all your experience with women, Cade, you’ll be able to figure this out soon enough.”

Cade glanced at his brother suspiciously, wondering if the cough he heard was Mac’s attempt to swallow a laugh. His gaze returned to Serena, but she blithely ignored him.

All his experience with women wasn’t helping him with Serena, and Mac darn well knew it.

Even Cade knew it, and he didn’t like it one bit.

“I don’t like women who change from minute to minute,” he groused.

“Did you say something, my prince?” Serena called, her smile just as inviting as it had ever been for him.

His heart dropped into his stomach as he stared at her. Even damp and slightly grubby, she was intoxicating. “I said I wish you wouldn’t work like this,” he fibbed. He warmed to his subject. “You’re a princess. I don’t want you doing hard work.”

“I am a princess,” she agreed. “And I shall do as I like.”

That
was new. She had never said anything like that to him before. Cade warily approached his bride. “I would be embarrassed if your father knew
about you doing this type of thing. He would think I had no intention of treating you as you deserve.”

She threw him a wry glance. “Do you think me incapable of using my mouth to tell my father that this is my choice? To bathe horses rather than sit in the house like a useless piece of furniture?”

“Maybe I should take you into town,” Cade said helplessly, caught between wanting to romance her and wanting her to stop working. “I’m sure you didn’t do this kind of thing in Balahar.”

She smiled at him. “I would not have been allowed.”

“Then you shouldn’t be allowed here! Let me take you into town. We can eat lunch out—”

“My husband,” she interrupted with determination. “Please be quiet. Your worrying is giving me a headache.”

“Wow! Is that the princess?” someone’s triumphant voice suddenly exclaimed. “She looks just like her picture!” Lights flashed inside the dim barn. A horse reared, startled by the commotion of six strange men crowding around Cade and Serena. One shook Cade’s hand, holding out a press card. “We’re from—”

But Cade didn’t hear the rest. All he could see was Serena, wet and bedraggled, shrinking up against the big horse in an attempt to shield herself from the photographers’ assault.

“Out!” he shouted. “Every last one of you—get out!”

T
HE PICTURES ON
the evening news that night were no consolation to Cade. Serena looked frightened out of her wits, like a waif who had been caught in a barn.

He burned, knowing that the pictures would make their way to Balahar, and to the king’s eye.

“I can’t understand how they found out Serena was here,” Rose said. “Now that they know, your chance at privacy is gone, Cade.”

So much for them getting to know each other without a thousand eyeballs prying into their business. Cade groaned. “I just hate to think what her father is going to believe when he sees those pictures.”

“He is not going to be happy,” Rose confirmed. “You should be prepared for anything to happen.”

“What are you saying?” Mac asked. “That they may send a plane for Serena and drag her back home?”