TALL, DARK & ROYAL Read online

  To Erin, it looked like a wonderland. "I love it," she said. "How long has it been there? Did you play in it as a child?"

  Daniel nodded. "It's been here as long as I have. When we were children, my brothers and sisters and I played hide-and-seek in there all the time. As I grew older, I sometimes went there for the solitude."

  Erin felt an overwhelming impulse. "Can we go there right now?"

  He looked at her doubtfully. "It's freezing."

  "Are you afraid you'll catch a chill?" she goaded innocently.

  Daniel's gaze darkened. "Absolutely not. I was thinking of you."

  "But you were quite expert at warming me up," she ventured, following another bold impulse.

  "Yes, I was," he said, and nudged her toward the door. "Let's get our coats."

  * * *

  Chapter 8

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  Surrounded by the shrubs, tiny white lights and the cold night air, Erin stood with Daniel in the center of the maze. It was so cold their breaths made puffs of vapor, but the sky was like a black velvet blanket filled with diamonds.

  "It's beautiful," Erin said, her voice hushed.

  He nodded, putting both his arms around her to keep her warm. "Perfect night for wishing on a star, if you believe in that sort of thing."

  Erin looked up at his firm jaw and chiseled features and felt a deep longing to know him. "Do you?"

  "Experience has taught me that if you want something to happen, you usually have to make it happen, but I share my father's Irish roots, so I'm not opposed to a little good luck or magic."

  Erin glanced up at the sky and felt a flood of wishes race through her. Secret longings she buried every day. I wish I'd known my mum longer. I wish my father and I were closer. Erin's heart twisted. The prospect of her accomplishing what her father had asked grew less likely with each passing day. With Daniel's arms around her, however, she felt safer and less alone than she'd felt in her entire life. She wondered, though, what she could possibly bring to such a strong man. He hardly seemed to need anything, let alone her.

  Erin closed her eyes. I wish I were necessary for him. She knew it was silly, but she made the secret, futile wish on the brightest star in the sky, thinking that for her entire life she had wanted to be necessary to someone.

  "I'm making a wish," he told her in a low voice next to her ear.

  She opened her eyes, and the glint of passion in his green gaze sizzled through her. "What is your wish?"

  "I want your lips on mine," he said.

  Standing on tiptoe, Erin pressed her mouth to his and granted his wish, all the while thinking she wanted more with Daniel than this kiss, even if it meant that her father shut her out forever.

  The knowledge ripped her reserve to shreds. She slid her hands inside his coat and dipped her tongue inside his mouth. He tightened his embrace around her, and, despite the cold night air, Erin felt warmth suffuse her. She gently sucked his tongue into her mouth and arched her breasts against his chest.

  Daniel groaned and pulled his mouth slightly away. Resting his forehead against hers, he took a measured breath. "You're making me wish for a lot more than a kiss."

  Erin's heart stuttered. She felt as if she faced a fork in the road, and, once she chose, she would never be able to turn back. She shivered, but the decision echoed inside her like a bass drum. It was so loud she almost wondered if Daniel could hear it. She could no longer deny how strongly she was drawn to him. Even though any woman in her right mind would know she had no future with him, she couldn't not be with him.

  Trying to control her pounding heart, she rubbed her open mouth over his in invitation. "You must be wishing on the right star."

  The next several moments passed in a blur. Daniel led her back through his family's home to say good-night, then drove toward his condo. They spoke very little, but his every look was so sexually intense she felt branded. At each traffic light, he reached over and took her mouth in kisses that left her dizzy.

  As soon as they entered his condo, he turned to her as if he couldn't bear not to touch her. He shoved her coat off her shoulders and unzipped her dress with mind-robbing speed. Before she could take a breath, he lifted her in his arms and carried her to his bedroom.

  Erin felt as if she'd waited her entire life for this moment. He put her down on the bed, grabbed a couple of plastic packets of protection from his bedside-table drawer and shucked his clothes.

  She admired his muscular body. When he removed his drawers and she saw the size of his masculinity, a sliver of trepidation scurried through her.

  He looked at her through hooded eyes and propped himself on top of her, resting his weight on his elbows. "Are you sure about this?"

  Loving the way he surrounded her, she fought a slice of panic. Heaven help her, she didn't want to hiccup. "Yes," she managed over the loud beating of her heart.

  "You don't look sure," he said, nuzzling her neck and sending delicious sensations through her nerve endings.

  "I'm sure," she insisted breathlessly, arching toward him.

  "I wish you weren't wearing a bra," he said, running the tip of his tongue down her throat.

  Erin bit her lip and fumbled with the clasp of her bra, freeing her breasts.

  His gaze devoured her. "Your breasts drive me crazy," he said. "I can't decide whether to touch them with my hands or take them with my mouth."

  Erin felt her nipples turn to stiff buds, and she deliberately shed her timidity. "With your mouth," she suggested, winning a look of aroused surprise from him.

  He looked down at her breasts again and lowered his head to lazily lap at one of her nipples. He drew the tight peak into his mouth and she felt a tug all the way down to her blooming femininity.

  Shifting restlessly beneath him, she lowered her hands to his head. At the same time he slid his hands down to her bottom, rotating her pelvis against his. The combination of sensations sent a roll of thunder through her.

  "I wish I didn't want to go so fast," he muttered, lifting his head.

  "I don't want to help you with that wish," she admitted, and he gave a low, sexy laugh that sent a rush of heat through her blood.

  "I wish you weren't wearing any stockings," he said.

  "Then help me take them off."

  His eyes glittering with arousal, he helped her remove them, so that she was completely naked before him. His nostrils flared as he looked at her. He slid his fingers between her legs to where she was wet. "Soft as a rose," he said, toying with her, slipping his finger inside her. "So pretty," he murmured. "Everywhere." He met her eyes. "Touch me."

  Her tight chest squeezed the oxygen from her lungs, and Erin lifted her hands to Daniel's chest. She ran her thumbs over his flat nipples, then lower to his belly, then lower still to his thigh.

  Daniel watched her through dark, wanting eyes and stayed so very still, as if he were a lion preparing to pounce. She could sense his instinctual need to take her as he slid his finger inside her yet again. Erin felt herself grow swollen with need. With each stroke from his hand, she wanted more and more.

  She skimmed her hand up his thigh to his hard masculinity and watched him exhale on a hissing breath. His passion fed hers; he guided her hand around him, gently pumping. A drop of honeyed arousal formed and she rubbed the tip of him with her thumb.

  He closed his eyes as if her touch brought him to the point of pleasure/pain. He stilled her hand and shuddered.

  He fondled and stroked her femininity until she was breathless, biting her lip to keep from begging him to take her. "I wish," she said, wrapping her fingers around his arms, "you were inside me."

  Daniel swore under his breath and quickly put on the protection. Easing her legs apart, he pushed just inside her opening and stopped.

  Feeling herself stretch to accommodate him, she wiggled to take in more.

  Daniel swore again. "You're not making this easy for me. I want this to be good for you."

  Her urgency for him making her restless, she moved aga
in. "You are good for me, but I want—" She broke off when he pushed farther inside her. The stretching sensation intensified.

  "Too much?" he asked through gritted teeth as his biceps strained with the force of his restraint.

  Erin automatically shook her head. She could never get too much of Daniel.

  He thrust past her resistance, taking her breath with his complete invasion. He felt too big, too hard, and it hurt.

  For five seconds.

  His nostrils flaring, he stared into her eyes. "Tell me when you're okay."

  Erin bit her lip and felt her heart twist. "I haven't been okay since I met you," she confessed.

  He closed his eyes for a second, then opened them and looked at her with such tenderness she could have wept. "You're such a sweetheart. You make me want to take care of you," he said, then slowly moved. "In every way."

  Bending down, he took her mouth the same way he was taking her body. The combination was too erotic, too much for Erin, and a jolt of pleasure sent her over the edge. She felt as if she were free-falling from the sky and just as she started to land, he gave one final thrust and took his own pleasure in her.

  Erin had never felt so fulfilled, so complete—almost necessary.

  * * *

  Daniel kept Erin with him the whole night, taking her again in the morning, then pulling her into the shower with him. He would have spent the entire day making love to her again and again, but he didn't want to make her sore. He was acutely sensitive to the fact that she had been a virgin and he was the man who had altered her status forever. He couldn't explain it, but he felt protective of her. She tried to hide her vulnerability, but now more than ever, he knew it was a front. Her trust wrapped around him like silken cord.

  Underneath her prissy exterior she was a sensual woman just waiting to come into her own, and heaven help him, he wanted to be around for every discovery she made. Looking down at her naked body, he wanted to take her again. His body grew hard. He felt a possessiveness that surprised the hell out of him.

  All along he'd sensed that Erin possessed a loyalty that a man would prize. Daniel wanted the prize, and she had just demonstrated that he had earned a part of it. He craved the rest.

  "Why are you staring at me?" she asked.

  "I was thinking how beautiful you are," he said, allowing his gaze to roam over her damp hair, lips swollen from his kisses and the rosy tips of her breasts.

  "I'm not perfect," she told him.

  "I thought we covered the perfection lesson. Even still, I have to disagree," he said, lowering his mouth to one of her nipples. He rolled his tongue over the tip, feeling himself grow hard at the same time she did. "Your nipples fit perfectly in my mouth," he said, and the arousal burned inside him. "Damn, I want you again."

  She looked at him from beneath her eyelashes. "Is that so horrid?"

  He smiled at her British tone. "No, but it would be horrid if I made you sore."

  "Does that mean you can't kiss me?" she asked, wrapping her fingers around his arm and tugging.

  Daniel groaned as he lowered his mouth. "No," he muttered as she gave him a French kiss that belied her lack of experience. She slid her hands over his chest and down to his buttocks.

  His mind teeming with swearwords, he fought the urge to devour her, to plunge inside her with nothing between them and spill his pleasure inside her. The very thought was so arousing it nearly sent him over the edge.

  "How did you become such an incredible lover?" she whispered into his mouth as she lowered her hands to the part of him that ached for her. "Is it because you've had so much experience?" she asked, and the combination of her words and hands taunted him mercilessly.

  "Partly," he managed. "But you motivate me."

  "It's not entirely fair that you have all this experience and I have none. I feel the need for more experience," she said, her hands driving him insane.

  "You can get experience with me," he told her. She moved her open mouth down his chest as she continued to caress him. She scorched him when she ran her tongue over one of his nipples, then kissed her way down his belly. Her cheek glanced his hardness, and he bit back a moan.

  "Erin, what are you doing?" he asked.

  She answered him by touching him intimately with her mouth. He looked down at the sight of her blond hair splayed over his abdomen and her lips on his masculinity.

  He didn't know whether to pray or swear, but it didn't much matter. His vocal cords had ceased functioning.

  She lifted her smoky gaze to his. "I want to do this right," she said, lowering her head again, "so tell me if I am."

  She took him into her oh-so-proper mouth with such enthusiasm and untutored perfection that Daniel had to move her away while he spilled his pleasure. He pulled her head into the crook of his shoulder as he gasped for air.

  "You never said if I was doing it right," she ventured.

  Daniel could only groan.

  * * *

  Two days later after a call from his brother Brett, Erin watched as Daniel's world began its apple-cart turnover. The media had grown hungry and needed to be fed. It was time for Daniel's first interview as incoming King of Altaria. Her heart burst with pride at his immediate decision to show sensitivity to the citizens of Altaria by conducting an interview to be aired on Altarian television and radio before the American interview. Honoring the line of generational unity to a nation still grieving, his mother appeared with him, but gently demurred for the American interview.

  The Altarian reporter was respectful and reserved, the American more hard-hitting, but Daniel appeared confident and in control.

  "Why would a successful American businessman choose to accept a primarily superficial role as king of a small, exotic island country?" the American interviewer asked.

  "This American chooses to accept the role based on some old-fashioned reasons: family honor and responsibility. I disagree with your view that the role of king is superficial. My understanding is that this job expands and contracts with the individual filling it."

  The woman reporter looked surprised. "Is that so? Then do you have any plans for your reign, Your Majesty?" she asked with a great deal of skepticism. Erin felt an overwhelming urge to pinch the woman, but noticed Daniel didn't take the bait.

  "It would be wrong for me to enter this role with the notion that I want to change everything. Altaria has succeeded just fine without my ideas for centuries. On the other hand, I would feel irresponsible if I didn't attempt to bring anything new to the table. I'm currently researching the possibility of expanding Altaria's airport. This would improve both tourist and business prospects. I want to explore some possibilities for initiating higher education on the island. I also intend to initiate an audit of all government agencies, including the Rosemere Institute, which my family has funded in the past."

  That reply might give her father indigestion, but Erin found it inspiring.

  A Connelly PR person agreed, whispering to her, "He's excellent. He handles the press as if he were born for the job."

  "He was," Erin reminded him, and at the same time, reminded herself that her relationship with Daniel would be changing all too quickly. Her stomach clenched at the thought.

  "So you won't be the royal equivalent of an empty suit?" the woman interviewer said.

  Daniel smiled. "Nothing could be less likely."

  "Tell me about the Rosemere Institute," she said.

  "The Rosemere Institute was founded by my grandfather, the late King Thomas, to promote technical and medical research. In particular, after my grandmother died of cancer, significant research has been devoted to finding ways to fight cancer."

  Erin watched as Daniel used his everyman charm and intelligence to successfully field the interviewer's questions. His thoughtful sincerity would break down walls. By the end of the session, she had never been more certain that Daniel was the best man to become King of Altaria.

  He disconnected his microphone, shook hands with the interviewer and ran his searc
hing gaze over the studio. "Erin?" he called, making her heart leap.

  She waved and he spotted her. Shooting her a private half grin, he quickly joined her. "I'm hungry after that duel with the devil," he murmured for her ears only. "Chicago dogs or pizza?"

  "What about security?"

  "Tomorrow morning," he said, and she could feel the clock ticking inside her. "We have one more night without an army of Peeping Toms. I'm not wasting it," he promised.

  * * *

  Erin and Daniel filled every minute the rest of the day and into the night. They grabbed a take-out meal of Chicago hot dogs and Daniel fed Erin hers in the most audacious, provocative manner she could have imagined. She paid him back by using her tongue to lick a thin line of mustard all the way up the hot dog. The food was quickly forgotten and they devoured each other.

  Rising early, Daniel hustled her in and out of the shower, and they took Jordan for a brisk walk.

  "It's a sunny day," he said as he guided her down the sidewalk.

  "A freezing sunny day," she said.

  "I'll warm you up," he promised with an expression in his eyes that made her stomach dip and sway. He slowed and kissed her.

  "You'll be too busy for warming me up," she gently told him. "Many meetings today."

  "I'll never be too busy to warm you up, Erin. Don't forget that." He grabbed her hand and began to walk again.

  Rounding the corner, Erin heard a loud sound as if a car were backfiring. The sound cracked through the air, and a window just above her shattered. Startled, she looked up.

  "Get down!" Daniel cried, shoving her to the ground as another shot rang out. She heard the squeal of tires on the pavement and saw a black car disappear down the street.

  Fear raced through her like ice water. She clung to Daniel. "Daniel? Daniel?" When he didn't immediately respond, her heart stopped. She turned his face to hers, and nearly fainted at the sight of his blood-splattered forehead.

  * * *

  Chapter 9

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  Hours later after the Chicago Police Department had thoroughly questioned Daniel and Erin, and the Connelly men had joined ranks for a private meeting, an official Altarian security guard stood outside Daniel's condo. Erin began to breathe again.