Particularly after he managed to secure what he wanted from her. Nando was a generous man in all things. In his estimation, pleasure and wealth were best enjoyed with others. He had no reservations about dispersing both. He wanted to shower Eleanora in jewels and pleasure her until she was mindless.
He wanted her naked in his bed and covered in diamonds and rubies and sapphires.
Best not to reveal that part of his plans to her just yet, however.
“I don’t require your largesse, Your Royal Highness.”
“Of course you don’t require it. But what one requires and what onewantsare two entirely different birds, are they not?”
He didn’t miss the flare of awareness in her eyes. She was no naïve innocent, even if she wasn’t a seasoned woman of experience as he had oft preferred in his women. She knew what he was implying quite well. And despite herself, she was tempted.
Watching Eleanora Brett fall would be the most potent aphrodisiac of his admittedly dissolute life. Of that, Nando had no doubt.
But she wasn’t there yet.
He watched as she summoned her icy reserve as if it were a suit of armor she could don and prepare for battle. Her shoulders straightened. Her lips firmed into a thin, grim line. Her spine stiffened with renewed resistance.
“I concern myself with what I require. Frivolous cares are for those with the liberty of basking in them.”
It was a pointed little barb. But it bounced off Nando. She could insult him all she liked. He was still going to woo her and win her. And bed her. As many times as he could until the poison of desiring Miss Eleanora Brett was out of his blood.
Nando was reasonably certain his attempt at a smile resembled a grimace more than anything else.
“But only think, my dear,” he said smoothly, “of how enjoyable it would be to bask in wants rather than needs. I can assure you that it is most rewarding.”
Her wintry determination showed no signs of melting. The challenge was almost as rewarding as his inevitable victory would be. She was utterly intoxicating. He wanted to kiss and lick every inch of her delectable body.
“I would prefer not to think of such things since I cannot accept your offer. Now, if you please, Your Royal Highness, I must attend to the duties awaiting me. I shouldn’t have come here at all, and I most definitely shouldn’t linger. Pray excuse me?”
“What duties can be more important than the well-being of a prince?” he asked, shamelessly invoking his royal heritage and not moving from his position, keeping her pinned between himself and the door.
In truth, he had never felt like much of a prince. His brother, Maxim, had shouldered all the burdens and responsibilities of their kingdom. It had been Maxim who had fought in the Varros Great War to reclaim the throne. Maxim who bore the weight ofduty with regal grace and responsibility. Nando, meanwhile, had been left to his own devices.
Protected. Spoiled. Debauched.
“Your welfare is of the utmost concern to this household, as evidenced by my presence at your sickbed when you requested it. However, I fear I’ve already spent far too much time alone with you. My reputation is paramount, and now that you’re obviously healing nicely enough to be on your feet, I cannot help but to think further lingering here in your chamber would prove disastrous.”
Ah, now she was wanting to abandon him altogether? He must have pierced her armor more fully than he’d believed.
“It can hardly prove disastrous when I’m an invalid,” he said, although aside from the pain in his arm, he felt perfectly hale.
He was possessed of a hearty disposition. His wound was already healing. He would survive despite the intentions of the bastard who had dared to lay him low that day. There remained, of course, the unpleasant business of finding out precisely who it was who had shot him and why. But Tierney was a man of many talents, and he had eyes and ears everywhere in London. Nando had great faith in the man’s ability. And in his present state, all he wanted was to further his cause where Eleanora was concerned.
“You are looking rather well for an invalid,” she observed shrewdly, tearing him from his whirling thoughts as her gaze traveled up and down his dressing-gown-clad form.
He grinned. “My dear Eleanora, I’m so pleased to know you’ve been inspecting my person.”
The flush on her cheeks deepened.
God, she was adorable.
And eminently fuckable. Oh, how he would enjoy debauching her.
“I was hardly inspecting your…your person,” she stammered, as if she could scarcely bring herself to mention his body in any fashion.
Her hesitation and stumbling over her words were so unlike the stern, unflappable woman he’d come to know that it left Nando with no doubt that she wasn’t as unmoved by him as she pretended. In fact, he would wager it was quite the opposite.
“You weren’t?” He pretended to frown and reached for the fastening on his robe as if he intended to whisk it away. “Perhaps we ought to rectify that matter.”
