The Prince's Resistant Lover (5 page)

Wyndi woke up and looked around, instantly realizing that she wasn’t in her apartment any longer. It was strange though because she’d slept for so long, so undisturbed by the nightmares that normally plagued her. Too often, she found herself screaming out, wrenching herself from sleep as the nightmare invaded her dreams.

But today she felt more refreshed than she had in a long time.

Unfortunately, she also didn’t know where she was. Looking around, she saw the luxurious bed, the elegant cabinets, but none of it made sense. Even the bed was softer than she was used to. This definitely wasn’t the mattress she’d bought for twenty dollars at the thrift store down the street from her apartment.

She still didn’t have any clothes on and that realization brought to mind all the memories of the previous night. Once again, Tamar had taken her into his arms and kissed her. From that moment on, she had been putty in his hands, desperate for his touch and to touch him. It had been a fascinating experience and she shivered at the memory of how sated she’d felt after each climax. Was that normal? She didn’t think it was, if the talk from her friends and co-workers was any indication.

She spotted her jeans and a red tee-shirt on the chair beside the window but the sight only confused her more. Where was she? The fear started to bubble up as she took in more of the details. This wasn’t just a room, she started to understand. This was a plane! She was flying!

She stood up, taking the sheet with her because, other than her location, nothing had changed. She was still naked, still felt the tenderness between her legs and her sore muscles from the exertion after Tamar’s touches last night.

But where was she? She started opening doors and discovered a bathroom. There, she took care of the necessities, including a quick shower, not even bothering to revel in the luxurious shampoos and soaps available to her. At another time, she might have appreciated them, but she was becoming terrified of the unknown.

Back out in the bedroom, she quickly slipped underwear, her jeans and tee-shirt on, then went out the other door. Even looking through the windows didn’t give her a clue as to where she was because there were only clouds below, nothing to give her any sort of location.

She opened the door, her eyes looking for anything that would give her answers. When they lit upon Tamar who was sitting in a large, cream leather chair reading a newspaper, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Tamar, where are we?”

Tamar braced himself to not stand up and greet her as he normally would have done. She was his prisoner, not his guest, he had to remind himself. Albeit, a lovely, exceedingly sexy prisoner who still looked warm and inviting after her shower. He berated himself when he noticed that the dark circles were gone from her eyes. He didn’t care about her sleep, he told himself firmly. He would not ask her why she’d been so tired since the moment he’d first met her. He knew the answer. She didn’t sleep at night, too busy digitally infiltrating companies to copy information!

Damn her! He’d started to think she was different from the other women! She’d fooled him into thinking she wasn’t a money grubbing opportunist but she was worse that all the others. He’d played women’s games in the past, humoring his mistresses when he was pleased but ignoring their feminine manipulations when he was irritated.

Wyndi had been different! At least he’d thought so until he’d uncovered her perfidy!

“We are heading to a secure location. Have no fear, my dear. As long as you tell me what I need to know, no harm will come to you.”

Wyndi heard the words but had to play them over again in her mind, not sure that she’d heard him correctly. “A secure location,” she parroted, wondering what had happened to the warm, demanding lover of the previous night.

He folded his newspaper carefully, laying it on the table beside him. “Yes. A location where we can talk undisturbed and where you can give me all the information on what you’ve been doing.”

She blinked, not sure what he was talking about but definitely sure that she was scared now. “Tamar, what are you talking about?” she demanded, her hands forming fists so he couldn’t see her trembling. “Where are we going and why?”

He regarded her for a long moment, considering the best way to get the information he needed. Finally, he waved to the seat across from him, indicating she should sit. When she just glared back at him, he suppressed the amusement at her stubbornness.

“As I said, we’re heading to a secure location where you will explain all of your illegal activities, you will tell me who you sold the information to and what data you sold, and then, depending on how cooperative you have been, I will decide whether to turn you over to the authorities or not.”

Wyndi swallowed painfully, feeling as if she might just throw up. She’d been caught! And not by the police or whatever authority regulates cyber-spying, but by a man whom she had trusted. She’d slept with this man, made love to him and drew him into her body. She’d begged him, pleaded with him to take her and he’d built up her need so high that she’d been his to command.

“You bastard!” she gasped, sitting down only because her legs wouldn’t hold her any longer. “What you did…the things…” she stopped, feeling sick just thinking about the things they’d done together. Shaking her head, she looked down at her fingers, a painful, humiliated feeling washing over her whole body. “You used me.”

Tamar couldn’t believe the anger that burst out of him. He could honestly say that he’d never been so furious in all his life. “I used you? That’s rich, my dear, since you have been sneaking into my companies and my government, stealing information. How much money did you make selling proprietary information to my competitors?” he demanded. “How many state secrets did you discover and sell to Surisia’s enemies? Are we vulnerable in some way?”

Her mouth fell open as he spoke, stunned by his words and his accusations. “What are you talking about?” she asked, trying to make sense of this whole scene.

“Your program, the one that you developed,” he spat out, pushing her laptop closer to her. “It was designed to break into company files and search for information.”

He wasn’t asking, she understood. He was accusing. “You think I created that code so I could steal information and sell it? Sell it to whom?” she asked, still not sure what he was talking about.

“Don’t lie to me!” he snapped. “And don’t you dare try to play dumb! The person who created this code is brilliant!”

She crossed her arms over her chest belligerently, pushing her chin out because she was so scared and trying to hide it behind a façade of defiance. “I’m not stupid. Nor am I even trying to convince you that I am.”

“Are you telling me you didn’t create this code?” he demanded, leaning forward, his eyes burning with his anger.

“I created it,” she confirmed.

His temper rose several notches. He felt like he was slowly burning up with the fury caused by her betrayal of his trust and the mounting evidence of how stupid she’d made him look. But with her admission, a small part of something inside of him unclenched. “Glad to know there’s a small part of you that can be honest,” he replied. “So next you’re going to create two lists. The first one will include all the information you obtained from your program and the next list will provide me with every single person you sold the information to. I want contact information, names, companies, titles if you know them and if you don’t, guess based on your conversations. I also want every single piece of e-mail or digital communication you’ve had with your contacts.” With that, he shoved a note pad towards her, slapping his pen down on top of it.

Wyndi glared at the man who had held her so tenderly only hours ago. What had happened? Why was he doing this? And then she looked at her laptop. It was laying there, so innocuously and yet it was obviously the bone of contention between the two of them.

A smarter woman might tell him what he wanted to know. But he’d basically kidnapped her, accused her of a horrible crime and was now debating her future without hearing any of the evidence. Unfortunately, she had a horrible stubborn streak inside of her, one that wouldn’t allow her to give him what he was asking for simply because he was being a horrible human being.

If he’d found the evidence back at her apartment and asked her about it, she might have given him at least part of the story. She couldn’t ever tell him all of it. She had to protect her brother until she knew what had happened to him. Royston had been more stubborn and defiant than she had ever been and Wyndi was afraid he might have gone down the wrong path. The possibility that he had died was not something she would even consider. She had to continue to hope that he was out there. And if he was in trouble, she would fix it for him. Somehow, some way, she was going to get her family back together, even if it was only the two of them.

She picked up the note pad and the pen, glaring at him the whole time. She could tell from the look in his eyes that he was expecting a long, detailed list. He even shifted in his chair, looking like he was some sort of king about to bestow a favor upon one of his subjects. Well, he might be a horrible royal to some kingdom or another, but she didn’t care any longer. She refused to care because he hadn’t trusted her. She’d given him her body and he’d returned that gift with distrust and kidnapping.

Tamar glared at her, surprised when she actually picked up the note pad and started writing. But he knew she hadn’t been completely honest when she handed it back only seconds later. He held her eyes for a long moment, trying to figure out her game. When he looked down at what she’d written, he had to admit that his previous thought was wrong. The fury that exploded inside of him as he read the words, “Go to hell!” exploded into a white-hot flame. His previous assumption that he’d never been so angry was surpassed by the intensity of what he was feeling now.

And she simply sat there, glaring back at him as if she hadn’t just lit the fuse of his temper. But with merciless self-discipline, he contained the raging inferno. Calmly and with great care, he set the pad down on the table beside him and contemplated the beauty sitting in front of him so defiantly. “You don’t want to test me, my dear. You have no idea who you are dealing with.”

Her chin went up another notch and she fought back the tears, refusing to give in to the release until she was alone. “Oh, I do though. I’m sitting across from the worst excuse for a man I’ve ever met.”

At this point, she would have walked away, tried to find some way to exit the area but since they were on a plane, there was no place to go. So she sat there, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring right back at him.

She breathed a sigh of relief when a phone on the table next to him rang. He continued to stare at her as he picked it up and answered it. Unfortunately, she had no idea what he was saying since he was using that other language. So she had to just sit there, trying to figure out how to extricate herself from this nightmare.

He ended one call and was about to speak but a lovely flight attendant stepped out of the front. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Your Highness, but the pilot has informed me that we will be landing in approximately five minutes.”

Tamar saw her pretty blue eyes change from defiance to anxiety and he smiled ruthlessly, contemplating his next step. “Yes, you should be very worried, my dear. You are now in my country, regulated by my laws. And my authority.”

“You’re not the ruler here!” she gasped, terrified of what he could do to her. She pictured in her mind a horrible, damp cell where she’d be forgotten. That definitely wasn’t the rosy, family filled future she’d been hoping for.

He chuckled and shook his head while he fastened his seat belt. “No. I’m not the ruler. But my cousin is. And I can guarantee that I will have complete authority over you, my love.”

She gasped, horrified at the possibilities. “I’m not your ‘love’!” she exclaimed, grasping on the only thing she could control at the moment.

He chuckled. “No. There was no love lost between us, was there? It was a mutual exploitation. You used me, and I used you to get information.”

She couldn’t believe the harsh, stabbing pain that streaked through her chest from his words. She wished she could come back with something equally painful to say back to him, but she just sat there, trying to hide her misery.

Tamar cursed as he took in her wounded eyes. She was a criminal, he reminded himself. She’d made a fool of him! She didn’t deserve his compassion! He would use her, get the information he needed from her and then turn her over to the authorities to face charges of treason! She deserved nothing less, since she’d chosen to follow the path of a criminal. He shouldn’t be hurt simply because he’d said something that hurt her.

He turned away in disgust, not with her so much as with himself. Never had he allowed his personal feelings to get in the way of fulfilling his duties and protecting his country.

The plane landed smoothly and he stood up, buttoning his jacket before turning to extend a hand to her. It was an automatic gesture but he just about ground his teeth in fury when she rejected his hand. Standing up, she glared up at him, looking for all the world like a conquering heroine that had been wronged. Damn, she was a good actress!

“This way,” he told her and led the way off of the plane. They didn’t have time to talk since he’d ordered his helicopter to be standing by. As soon as his jet had landed, the rotors of the helicopter started moving. So by the time he was off the plane, the bird was ready to take flight. He ducked lower, about to enter through the side door, but he glanced back to make sure Wyndi was following. He was stopped by the look of sheer terror in her eyes. She wasn’t moving, wasn’t even looking at him. Her eyes were glued to the swinging rotors, almost transfixed by their motion.

“Get in the helicopter,” he told her when he was once again standing next to her.

Wyndi looked up at him, trying to swallow past the lump in her throat but nothing was happening. She couldn’t get on that helicopter. There was simply no way. Her feet refused to carry her forward and there wasn’t anything he could do to get her there.