Princess in the Iron Mask - By Victoria Parker Page 0,24

should have told her she was beautiful. How he itched to untie her hair, to caress her long, sultry curls.

As it was, the memory of a hard floor against his back and a walking centrefold in the cushy bed thirty feet away would haunt him for days. By four a.m. he’d done six hundred sit-ups, cleaned his gun, had three showers and interviewed the man in the white pick-up. Armande had hauled the bastard into the adjoining suite at midnight. A shifty Arunthian reporter whom Lucas had despised on sight. One who wouldn’t be returning to his home country for some time. Not as long as Claudia was there.

The reminder brought him back to her comment. She wasn’t in Arunthia. Yet.

‘Our flight is at three p.m. You have plenty of time to make your visit. Accompanied,’ he tagged on, unwilling to be moved on the point.

Tearing at a slice of wholemeal toast, she chewed with vigour and speared him with arrows of contempt.

Good. She hated him. As long as he kept that look on her face they’d make it home without another hitch. Problem was Lucas had an uneasy notion that Claudia was about to produce a hitch the size of Mount Vesuvius.

* * *

‘There is something wrong with you?’ asked Lucas, with a harshness that made Claudia’s skin bristle.

Sliding her eyes over the vast entrance of St Andrew’s Hospital, she knotted her fingers atop her lap.

What? Was he concerned that he’d have to take damaged goods through Security in Arunthia? Claudia would laugh if the chord didn’t strike through to the very heart of her. How many times had she dreamed of being perfect, being cured, just so her parents would come back for her? Days, months, years spent waiting, her naïve heart still hoping.

Throat thick, pain smashing into her forehead, she rubbed her brow with an unsteady hand. Why couldn’t she forget? Why couldn’t she just get over it and move on?

‘Claudia? Answer me!’

She turned to look at a scowling Lucas in the seat beside her, hating the instant fire in her belly just one look ignited. ‘No, Lucas, there is nothing wrong with me. Apart from the insane urge to strangle you.’ The man was driving her to Valium.

Scowl diminishing, a smile played about his lips. ‘The feeling is entirely mutual, princesa. So, tell me, why are we here?’

‘I sometimes work here and—’

He snorted, relief easing the two little lines he got when he frowned. ‘I should have known.’

‘Actually, on this occasion it isn’t about work. I was about to say I met someone here. Bailey, remember? So if you’ll excuse me—’

‘Wait,’ he said, grasping her wrist.

Whether it was the hundred volts ripping up her arm or the fact he’d touched her wrist, she wasn’t sure, but she twisted her arm, writhing from his hold. ‘Please don’t touch me there.’

Lucas instantly let go and held up his hand. ‘I would not hurt you, Claudia,’ he said, voice gruff, his brows low over intense eyes brimming with...pain? Oh, no. No!

‘Of course you wouldn’t.’ No thought, no hesitation, she reached over, lightly grazing his fist where it now curled on his hard thigh. His skin was so warm. So perfect. ‘I know that.’

‘Bueno. Good,’ he said, his chest visibly easing.

Yes, he was hard—but in a warrior-like way. Good fighting against evil.

And that one thought...the mere possibility that he might have faced evil...coupled with that one agonised look derailed her pride, her every defence. ‘I’m just really funny about my wrists. That’s all. And when...’ When you touch me I feel alive. For the first time in my life. And it scares me.

Those beautiful sapphire eyes flicked down to where her fingers still smoothed over his flesh and his hand slowly began to stiffen as if repelled.

Hurt kissed her heart and she snatched her hand back. ‘Anyway, I need to go inside.’

Lucas reached for the door handle. ‘Sí. We will go,’ he said, fierce, dominating, as if the moment had never happened.

The change in him was so swift it took her a moment to gather her wits. ‘We? No, Lucas. That’s not acceptable.’

She wouldn’t put Bailey through a meeting with a stranger. She remembered all too well the pity. The staring. The crushing silence that seemed to stretch the air so thin she could barely breathe. The powerful desire for them to leave followed by the stomach-wrenching emptiness of the room. And just as unforgettable was the palpable unease of others. It wasn’t fair on Lucas either.

‘Claudia, you are in