smooth her ribcage, and she leaned into the sweep of his palm, all her skin ablaze, aching for such touch from him over every inch—inside and out. Exhilaration soared. Her toes curled and she pressed her hips forward, grinding them back against his to feel the shockingly huge reality of his arousal. Heated pleasure stormed, setting off a volley of vibrations within. Lust coiled higher still, the yearning inside widened. His hand at her breast. The scrape of his thumb across her nipple. The ache to be naked. All consumed her.
‘Alvaro...’
He smothered hot, wide kisses across her face and down her neck and his hips pressed against hers again and again, mimicking the ultimate act of passion and possession. Never had she felt such excitement, such abandonment. Never had she wanted anything as much. Never had anything so instinctive overtaken her so completely. She cried out as he savagely sucked, then nipped, her sensitive skin.
‘J—’ He broke off the guttural mutter and abruptly flung back from her, leaving her slumped back against the wall.
Shocked and suddenly cold, she put her hands palm down for balance, absorbing certainty from the solid wall as she watched him transform before her in the blink of an eye—from passionate lover to furious stranger.
His hair stood in tufts from where she’d tugged at him like some untamed creature. His chest rapidly rose and fell and there was a wild look in his eyes. But his glare solidified and scoured her insides. ‘If you’re not Juno, then you’re...’
Her lips felt puffy and oversensitive and she couldn’t bear to press them together. She licked them but it didn’t soothe their hungry ache. And she had to answer him. ‘Jade.’
His hands curled in fists and he jammed them onto his hips, his chest rising and falling as if he’d just run a life-or-death sprint. ‘Juno’s identical twin sister.’
‘Yes,’ she confessed. But his angry reaction horrified her. ‘I’m sorry you thought I was her.’ Oh, God, she realised the worst and whispered, ‘You wanted to kiss her.’
‘What? No!’ His frown deepened. ‘I’ve never wanted to kiss Juno. Never wanted to order her into my office and slam the door behind her so I could grab her and strip her—’ He broke off and cursed—a full sentence of self-berating filth.
She stared at him as something feral inside roared with primal pleasure. Every millimetre of her skin tightened again with awareness and want.
‘I’ve never wanted to do that with any of my employees,’ he said more calmly a few moments later. ‘I’ve never been unable to control my reaction to anyone before.’
‘But your reaction to me?’ Her mouth dried because she was stupidly nervous. As if she were facing all the exams of her life in the one moment. Pass or fail were the only options. Win or lose. Have or have not. She wanted to win. She wanted to have.
Just this one moment.
But she could see him calculating and she could feel him cooling...so quickly. His emotional withdrawal wasn’t just visible, wasn’t just audible, it was palpable. And she felt it as the devastating loss it was. She wanted his heat, his body, his intimacy. For once in her life, she wanted to obliterate her isolation.
‘If you’re Jade,’ he said quietly, ‘you’re the Queen.’
Her heart dropped to the floor, but she tried to pull herself together, to answer with her old, customary politeness. ‘That’s correct.’
The change in the atmosphere was as strong as if a foehn wind had lifted and turned all the fallen leaves over, presenting the whole world in a different colour.
But it wasn’t the whole world. It was only her. She was being seen in a new light. No longer an employee. No longer a woman.
She was merely—only—a monarch.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘YOU SWITCHED PLACES,’ Alvaro said with cold clarity. ‘At the weekend.’
‘Yes,’ Jade admitted miserably, mortified by her unthinkable, inappropriate actions. All of them. ‘I’m...’
Unable to think.
Why had she said anything at all? Why had she betrayed Juno so swiftly? She’d only been here a few days and she’d let desire overrule everything. She’d never let personal wishes get in the way of professional duty before. And her duty right now was to Juno. She’d let her sister down badly. But she’d not been able to resist him any longer, and certainly not been able to lie to him any longer.
‘What are you playing at?’ He watched her from those few paces back. ‘Why?’
‘Juno needed time in Monrova.’ But without further explanation her reason sounded weak. Yet those reasons