Simple words she’d heard many times.
Yet she experienced the greatest fracture in her armour. And long after he’d wrapped her in a blanket and carried her all the way back to the cabin, his face set in new lines of sombre contemplation, Lotte was beginning to think Prince Valenti Domene had, with those two words, breached her defences permanently.
‘Is there something you want to tell me?’
Lotte hinged upright in the armchair and frowned at the deep, quietly furious and perhaps even disappointed voice. Blinking she glanced across the room, forcing her brain to track. But after a long night of lovemaking with Valenti, she’d fallen into heavy sleep upstairs, only to wake when she missed his presence beside her. She’d come down, wolfed down the large breakfast he’d made, then promptly fallen asleep again in the armchair in his office.
Moving now, she flushed at her deliciously protesting muscles, a little dismayed that she’d displayed just how inexperienced she was by falling asleep while he looked so vibrant and rampantly male.
Even if highly vexed. ‘Like what?’ she drawled, nonchalant even as her heart began thumping for the reason she suspected he’d uncovered.
He held up his sleek tablet. ‘I have your latest security report.’
She played for time. ‘And?’
His baleful stare said he knew what she was doing. ‘After drawing my attention to it I’ve had a deeper look. You claim to be independently wealthy, which is true enough. But more than half of your earnings is immediately parcelled out to secret accounts in two dozen different countries. What the hell is going on? And before you think to evade or challenge me, know that I can have that information too within the day. You think I don’t respect your privacy? Evidently that wasn’t the case since your safety was my priority over the contents of your bank account. But that can all change,’ he finished with implacable warning.
Perhaps it was some newfound confidence from this precarious circumstance and connection they’d formed. Perhaps it was as basic as sharing her body with him and seeing her effect on him that strengthened the core that seemed so shaky before. He’d accepted compromises whereas as recently as her nineteenth birthday, he’d coldly dismissed her from his presence—a memory that still stung if she was honest.
Whatever it was steeled her spine and lifted her chin, pride pulsing through her. Being overwrought at how Valenti would perceive her deeper goals didn’t hold such sway over her anymore.Shewas proud of herself and the work she was doing. ‘I started a secret network that helps victims, mostly women in…precarious, often abusive positions.’
He stiffened, several emotions streaming through his eyes before they went ablaze as he leaned forward to rest his palms flat on his desk. ‘You what?’ he breathed.
‘You heard me perfectly well. You can growl and rage at me—’
‘I’m not raging.’ He paused, jaw clenched, and exhaled audibly. ‘You must know that kind of help, however well-meant, brings risk, especially from those abusers?’ His voice was low, deep. Curiously shaken.
‘I know. That’s why I use an encryption system.’
‘How did you come by this system?’ he asked, his brow a giant thundercloud. ‘And how many people know about it?’
She told him about the college roommate who’d written the software for her. ‘I trust her. She’s the reason I started it in the first place. Her home life wasn’t ideal. There was abuse and neglect and fear and…’ She shook her head. ‘I know what I’m doing and I’m very careful, Valenti.’
He dragged his fingers through his hair, but a layer of tension left his shoulders. ‘My people will vet the system thoroughly. And you’ll give me the list of everyone you’ve helped, past and present.’
‘If you’re about to suggest I stop, the answer is a hard no,’ she warned.
His nostrils flared but the look in his eyes was no longer the curious mix of fury and concern. It had morphed into surprise and…respect. Her heart lurched, a lump rising thick and fast to block her throat.
‘Come here,’ he rasped, still in that peculiar voice.
Chin angled in irritation, she shook her head. ‘No. You come here.’
Mouth twitching, he rounded his desk and approached. When he reached her, she pushed him into her armchair, making room for herself between his muscled thighs, a place she was discovering she liked a little too much. His hands braced herlower thighs, then with his gaze pinned on hers, slowly worked their way up her hips to cage her waist.
Electricity zapped between them, hot and powerful. But as always, it was overlaid with intense watchfulness. As if he saw into her very soul.
‘I’m not mad,litla. Far from it. I’m proud of you,’ he stated with thick gravity. ‘You will have no opposition from me, once I’ve established what you’re doing is safe,’ he added with unyielding firmness.
Shock and surprise dragged a sound from her throat, a hybrid sob-laugh that made his mouth twitch before the sombre expression resumed. ‘I thought I’d have to pull out my bigger guns to win this battle,’ she teased, then her smile slowly dissolved as his face grew increasingly taut and bleak. ‘But if there’s no problem, why do you look like your worst dream has come true?’
CHAPTER TEN
He’ddroppedtheball.
Again.
He’d done the necessary and ensured her day-to-day physical safety with prime bodyguards and fully vetted staff, then retreated without digging deeper. He hadn’t factored in her personal or emotional fulfilment or that she might be surrounded by people but yet lonely, which was ironic since he knew that state very well indeed.
