The Perfect Temptation (59 page)

But she'd barely started to slip out from
under his arm when

he tightened
it
and drew her closer, nuzzling into her neck

and murmuring, "Don't go."

"It's daybreak," she murmured
back, kissing his forehead

before resolutely slipping out of his
embrace. "Mohan will

be rising soon. Sleep a while longer. I'll
wake you later."

He rolled onto his back, and then to his
other side to

watch her walk around the end of the
pallet, stoop to pick up

the letter, and then make her way toward
where they'd left

her wrapper and one of his sheets the night
before.

His head propped in his hand, he watched her
pick up her

silk cover. "I know that there'll be a
reckoning for it later,"

he said softly, "but I want all the
moments together we can

have."

Relief weakened her knees. She'd won. She
wasn't going

to have to give him up too soon. "So
do I," she confessed,

drawing on her wrapper as she tucked away
the parchment

and moved back to the bed. Kneeling down
beside him, Alex

ran her fingers through his tousled hair
and added, "But

there isn't much chance of stealing any
moments around

here. Not during the day."

He cocked a brow and gave her a quirked,
rakish smile.

"We could go to Haven House."

"Oh, now there's an attractive
possibility. Under what

pretext?"

"A riding lesson?" he suggested,
trailing a fingertip down

her throat.

''That would work rather nicely, wouldn't
it?" she offered,

keenly aware that he was veering off course
and drawing

her wrapper down off her shoulder to bare
her breast.

'"My mother
warned
me that men and horses were a
combination

to be avoided at
all
costs,
you
know."

"Why?"

''I don't
know,"
she
replied.
her
breath
catching as he

trailed
his
finger
back
along her shoulder
and
then
down. ''But

she
was
very
emphatic about it"

The comers of his mouth twitched and his
eyes sparkled.

''Is that why you've
used
every
excuse to get
out of it?"

"Yes," she
admitted.
as he drew a slow, tantalizing
circle

around
her hardened
peak.
God.
if she didn't stop him, she

wasn't going to be able to leave.

"Why the sudden change of mind?"

And
Mohan would
have his young sensibilities shredded.

"Because," she answered, leaning
forward to kiss him

quickly before scrambling to her feet and
beyond temptation's

reach. '''There's something at the end of
the ride that I

want." She covered herself and tied
the sash, grinning at

him. "And I want it madly enough that
I'm willing to
take

incredible chances to get it!”

"What
time
do you want to go?"

"After Sawyer gets here."

''I'll meet you in the yard, with horses
saddled," he offered,

his smile wicked and ever so deliciously
promising.

"If
you have boots
and a split skirt, wear them."

A split skirt? She didn't have one, but she
could modify

one of her other ones easily and quickly
enough. But why

it was necessary and why he seemed so
delighted by the

prospect ... "You know why my mother
warned me against

riding, don't you?"

He laughed, mischief dancing in his eyes.
"Nine-oh-five,

darling. A split skirt."

"I'll be there," she promised as
he abruptly sat and

reached for his trousers. ''Aiden, please
don't
get
up," she

cajoled, knowing that he couldn't have had
more than three

hours of sleep in the course of the entire
night. "You need to

sleep a bit longer."

"No I don't," he countered,
trying to both undo the tangle

of his pants and turn them right side out.
"I have to find an

apothecary shop. I'm out of sheaths and I'm
fairly sure that

you won't want to stop with me for them on
the way to

Haven House."

No, she didn't. "They aren't
necessary," she pointed out.

"The count of my days isn't right for
conceiving."

His hands stopped, his brow shot up, and
his smile turned

unholy. Barely moving his head, he looked
at her askance.

"Really?"

"Really."

He tossed his trousers aside and drawled,
"Oh, darling,

today is your day for delightful
discoveries."

"Nine-oh-five," she reminded him,
moving to the door,

her pulse lusciously fast and warm.
"Please don't be late."

He was laughing when she pulled it closed
behind her.

She lingered for just a moment, closing her
eyes and committing

to her memory the wondrous sound of it.
Only when

the dreary shadows of what was to come
drifted up to the

edge of her awareness did she turn and walk
away.

Preeya glanced up from her pan as Alex came
to stand beside

her at the stove. "Much has happened
in your night," she

observed, smiling and going back to her
stirring.

Since Preeya somehow knew that already ...
"I'll tend

the eggs," Alex said, removing the
letter from her pocket,

"while you read this."

Preeya traded the slotted spoon for the
folded parchment.

She opened the folds, read, then pursed her
lips and reached

out to pull the pan off the
fire.
"Breakfast will be
late," she announced.

Holding the letter between them, she asked,
"How

was this delivered into your hands?"

"One of Prince Sarad's bodyguards is
here in London. He

gave it to Aiden. Aiden gave it to me. You
don't seem to be

overly surprised by the news, Preeya."

"We will come to that in time. First,
I would ask why you

have brought it to me."

Alex gave her the obvious reason first.
"So that you can

help me decide how I should tell Mohan. He
has to know at

some point, Preeya. And fairly soon."

"Is that the only reason?"

Alex carefully put the spoon in the pan.
"When I look

past today, I want to cry."

Preeya took her hands and led her to the
stool at the worktable,

saying, "Your world has been changed,
dear Alex. So

quickly, so greatly. And in so many ways.
All in the passage

of one night
It
is understandable that your feelings are in turmoil."

She laid the letter aside and poured them
cups of tea

and allowed Alex several sips before she
asked, "Your

Aiden ... He was good to you? He loved you
tenderly?"

Alex smiled around the china rim.
''Tenderly'' wasn't the

word she would have chosen.
"Well" and "perfectly" came

much closer to being accurate. But that
wasn't what Preeya

really wanted to know. 'That I had forever
to be in his arms."

"If
it is destined,
it will be. You know that."

She nodded, also knowing that what no one
ever said was

that if it wasn't destined, it wouldn't be.
''Aiden's doing better

this morning, but ... " She sighed and
shook her head, remembering.

"He didn't take the news at all well
last night.

He's very good at regretting."

“That is because he is a good man with a
caring heart,"

Preeya observed. She took a sip of her own
tea before

adding, "He wishes no one to ever
suffer. He would cradle

the world if he could. That he has come
into your life is a

great blessing."

"I know you're right. But at the
moment, Preeya, I don't

feel especially blessed."

"Why? Have you quarreled this
morning?"

"No," Alex assured her. "Not
at all." Holding her cup in

both hands, she took a long, slow taste of
tea, trying to find

words that didn't sound self-pitying. And
gave up. "I'm going

to lose him, Preeya. He's mine only until
Sarad arrives."

“Oh,
Alex,"
Preeya offered with a shake of her head.

"Your life has been difficult from the
beginning. I knew in

the first moment I held you that your
journey would not be

an easy one. But I have also known that at
the end of the

journey would be a reward worthy of your
struggle."

Suddenly Alex understood why Preeya hadn't
been the

least bit surprised to learn that the royal
tutor was also a

royal princess. "You were a part of
this, weren't you?" Alex

asked, pointing to the letter with her cup,
her mind reeling.

"Your husband was Kedar's uncle. You
knew my mother before

we came to court, didn't you? You knew
about me."

Preeya nodded, a satisfied smile playing at
the comers of

her mouth. "I had become the third
wife only weeks before

Kedar was sent to join the household. We
were of the same

age and we were both strangers in a place
that was our home.