Читать книгу: «Prince's Love-Child»

CHAPTER ONE

RIK PRINCE had recognised her, Sapphie realised with inner dismay as he continued to stare at her in disbelief.

Not that any of her own emotions showed—she kept her own expression deliberately bland, and betrayed none of her shock, or the effects of the painful memories that were flooding back: the love that had shaken her world apart after she had spent a night with this man. Most definitely, she showed none of the horror she felt inwardly at finding herself face to face with a man she had thought she’d never see again!

But then, it might have been OK if he hadn’t so obviously recognised her and remembered too…!

Her small, pointed chin rose defensively as she thrust her hand out in greeting. ‘Sapphie Benedict, Mr Prince,’ she introduced herself with a pointedness that only a complete idiot could miss. And, despite the fact she knew that Rik Prince loved Dee to distraction, she didn’t believe he was a complete idiot.. just a selectively blind one!

Rik continued to stare at her, making no effort to take her outstretched hand, giving every impression of a man who had just been poleaxed.

Sapphie’s direct stare turned to a glare as she mentally willed him to pull himself together and say something. Anything. Just staring at her in this way was sure to be noticed, and commented on, by the other couple who were with them, and—

‘Miss Benedict,’ Rik Prince finally bit out tautly after briefly touching her hand. ‘Or is that Mrs…?’

‘It’s Miss,’ she corrected abruptly, her hand dropping back to her side, unobtrusively massaging the slight tingling of her fingers where he had briefly touched her.

Incredible…! She couldn’t believe, after all this time, that she could still be so totally aware of this man. It had been five years, for goodness’ sake; she should have got over this long ago!

‘Much too formal,’ Jerome put in with cheerful reproach. ‘Rik and Sapphie sounds much more friendly!’

Friendly was the last thing Sapphie wanted to be with Rik Prince! Especially with Rik Prince. Something she intended making clear to him at the earliest opportunity. In fact…

‘Why don’t you take Dee to see those accessories she was interested in, Jerome?’ she encouraged lightly. ‘Rik and I will order more coffee for us all, and by the time the two of you get back we may have managed to get on to a first-name basis!’

‘You will join us for coffee, Rik…?’ Dee prompted huskily.

Sapphie’s brows rose as Rik dragged his gaze away from hers in order to answer Dee in the affirmative.

Really, did the man have no sense whatsoever? she wondered impatiently; Dee and Jerome’s suspicions were sure to be aroused if he didn’t stop behaving in this way.

Not that Jerome seemed to have noticed anything unusual as he turned, smiling, to his wife. ‘Come on, honey, I want to buy you an anniversary present,’ he encouraged Dee indulgently. Then the two of them departed to go shopping.

Leaving behind them the kind of silence that could be cut with a knife!

But what else could Sapphie have done but encourage Jerome to take Dee away from here—even though the last thing she wanted was to be left alone with Rik Prince? He certainly hadn’t been playing his part in the drama of two strangers being introduced for the first time.

‘I thought Dee and Jerome’s wedding anniversary was in September.’ Rik suddenly spoke as he turned back from watching the couple leave.

‘It is,’ Sapphie sighed, moving to sit down at the table where Dee’s coffee was cooling. ‘Please—join me,’ she invited curtly as Rik Prince continued to stand in the middle of the pavement, as if unsure what to do next.

She had seen that dazed look before on dozens of men’s faces after spending time looking at Dee—seen it and, in this case, lamented it.

She slipped her sunglasses up in her hair as she continued to look at Rik Prince. He was just as handsome as she remembered: perhaps slightly leaner, but his dark hair was still as vibrantly overlong, brushed carelessly back from his brow, and his eyes as deep blue, his good-looking face all strong angles, and his muscular frame visible beneath the faded denims and cream polo-shirt he wore.

Finally he moved, his movements fluid as he sat down in the chair facing hers, his expression under control now, his eyes guarded by lowered lids.

Sapphie gave a frustrated sigh at his continued silence. Jerome might have been unaware of the intimacy between Dee and this man a few minutes ago, but she certainly hadn’t been. She also questioned whether the meeting had happened by chance; if anyone had known how devastated Rik Prince had been five years ago when Dee married Jerome, then it was her. He had been in love with Dee then, and Sapphie had every reason to believe he was still in love with her now.

‘Today is the anniversary of the day Dee and Jerome first met,’ Sapphie informed him softly.

‘I see,’ he bit out tautly, the expression in those deep blue eyes still unreadable.

Sapphie wasn’t sure at that moment which of the sudden impulses she felt was the stronger—the need to shake or hit him!

It had been five years, for goodness’ sake; surely he had got over his feelings for Dee by now?

It had to be obvious to anyone looking at Dee and Jerome that, for the most part, theirs was a happy marriage. It had its occasional hiccup—like any other marriage—but even in these days of quick divorces and remarriages, it had to be clear that Dee and Jerome were destined to last for some time yet.

‘I never—’

‘Before—’

They both began talking at once, only to come to an awkward stop, then stare enquiringly at the other.

‘Please,’ Sapphie invited before turning smilingly to the waiter to order more coffee, only to turn back and find Rik Prince looking at her in brooding silence. ‘You were about to say something,’ she reminded him, unnerved by his steadily intense stare.

He seemed to mentally shake himself, sitting up straighter in the cane chair. ‘I was going to say that, after all this time, I never expected to see you again.’

Amusement curved her lips. ‘You mean, you hoped never to see me again!’

He frowned. ‘If I had meant to say that, then that’s what I would have said.’

‘Oh, please.’ Sapphie brushed his protest away with a wave of her hand. ‘The sentiment, I can assure you,’ she told him with feeling, ‘is mutual!’ She had never wanted to see him again, never wanted to even hear of him again, just wanted to block his existence even from her memory.

And yet now that she had seen him and spoken to him, she could see just how dearly familiar were his dark good looks and piercing blue eyes. Too familiar…!

Rik gave a humourless smile. ‘That’s honest, at least,’ he drawled drily.

‘It’s a trait too few people possess nowadays. And, continuing to be honest,’ she added, ‘what I was going to say just now was that I feel, before Dee and Jerome return, which won’t be too long now, I should make it perfectly clear to you that under no circumstances—and I do mean that,’ she emphasised firmly, ‘do I wish for either of them to discover we ever knew each other before today.’ She looked at him challengingly.

He frowned for several long seconds, and then his brow cleared as he looked at her with mocking blue eyes. ‘By saying that the two of us knew each other, I take it you mean—’

‘I mean,’ she put in forcefully, ‘that I would rather Dee and Jerome believed we met for the first time today,’ she explained clearly and succinctly.

Rik Prince gave an acknowledging inclination of his head, whatever disadvantage he had felt earlier seeming to have evaporated as he relaxed back in his chair, his eyes clearly showing his amusement now.

Well, she was glad he could find something funny about this situation—because she certainly couldn’t!

‘How does that sit with the honesty you mentioned only seconds ago?’ he ventured sardonically.

‘Oh, don’t be so obtuse!’ Sapphie replied impatiently. ‘There’s a time for honesty, and—’

‘A time for dishonesty?’ Rik finished derisively.

‘Please don’t tell me you’re any more anxious than I am to admit to Dee and Jerome that the two of us stupidly spent the night together after their wedding!’ She was breathing deeply in her agitation as she glared at him.

But her impatient anger couldn’t keep the memories at bay of that night, of no words having been spoken between them as they’d seemed drawn to each other like magnets, of the passion they’d shared—a fierce and wondrous passion, as they’d sought oblivion in each other’s arms.

Even now Sapphie could remember each caress, each kiss, their need wild and uninhibited, both of them seeming to recognise and accept that, in the clear light of the following day, they would each go their separate ways, never to see one another again.

And that was how it should have remained. How, if she had had her way, it would have remained!

‘That day, you had just seen the woman you love marry someone else!’ she prompted angrily.

Colour darkened his cheeks, his eyes the blue-grey of a stormy sea now. ‘And if I had?’ he bit out icily. ‘What was your excuse?’

She could be selective, make excuses, could even evade the issue. But the truth, she knew—or at least the part she was willing to admit to Rik!—was much more likely to put an end to this conversation. ‘Me?’ she echoed self-disgustedly. ‘I had just watched the man I loved marry someone else!’ She now met Rik’s gaze unflinchingly.

Because it was only part of the truth of what had happened to her that day. Sapphie had gone to Dee and Jerome’s wedding believing she was still in love with Jerome, and had felt nothing but misery as she’d watched him marrying Dee.

But then something—she wasn’t sure what—had made her glance around the church, and her eyes had come to rest abruptly on Rik Prince as he’d stared broodingly down the aisle at the couple being married, obviously as unhappy about it as she was.

Until that moment, love at first sight had just been a phrase to Sapphie, not something that ever happened to real people like her. Well, except perhaps those people who realised the following morning, as they looked at the person beside them in bed, that it had probably been lust at first sight, rather than love!

She wasn’t one of those people; she’d woken at dawn the morning after Dee and Jerome’s wedding to gaze hungrily at the man sleeping beside her, knowing that not only did she love every hard plane and hollow that made up his physical being, but that she also loved his gentleness, his intelligence, and sense of honour too.

She had gone to the wedding the day before believing herself in love with one man, but after the celebration had realised that she was irrevocably in love with another.

A man who’d made no secret of the fact that he was in love with Dee…

* * *

Jerome?

Was Sapphie Benedict referring to Jerome Powers?

Sapphie, with her mesmerising, amber-coloured eyes, and her grim determination to discuss and dismiss their first and—until now—only other meeting, had been hurting as much as Rik had five years ago because she’d been in love with Jerome Powers? She’d spent the wedding reception with him, and the night with him, because she had just watched the man she loved marry someone else?

But hadn’t he just admitted to having done the same thing? Wasn’t that night—and Sapphie herself—something he had kept buried deep at the back of his consciousness, the door to it tightly locked and bolted?

Yes, of course it was. But that was because he had always felt guilty about that night, about the fact that he had used Sapphie as a way of blocking out his pain. Knowing she had used him in the same way added a dimension now that filled him with anger. His fury wasn’t logical, and it certainly wasn’t fair, but it was how he felt, none the less.

‘Are you still in love with Powers?’ Rik rasped contemptuously. ‘Is that the reason you’re still hanging around the two of them? Hoping to step into Dee’s shoes if the marriage should falter?’

‘How dare you?’ Sapphie gasped incredulously, having paled dramatically, those amber eyes the only colour in her face now. ‘For your information, Mr Prince, I’m not hanging around the two of them at all. I happen to have been in Paris for four days now, doing some research. Dee and Jerome decided to stop off here yesterday in order to see me on their way to Dee’s film première in London next week.’

‘How convenient for you,’ Rik scorned.

He hadn’t even attempted to see Dee since her wedding day five years ago, whereas this woman appeared to have remained friends with both Dee and Jerome. Masochistic or what?

‘It isn’t convenient at all,’ Sapphie came back forcefully. ‘And as for my wanting to step into Dee’s shoes if the marriage should falter—if you listened to what I said just now, then you’ll have realised I used the past tense concerning my feelings towards Jerome. I was in love with him then, but I’m not now.’ She was breathing hard in her agitation, her eyes sparkling with anger.

Considering how defensive she was, Rik wasn’t sure that he believed her.

But somehow, looking into those amber-coloured eyes and seeing the contempt gleaming there, he doubted Sapphie Benedict cared whether he believed her or not!

What was hard to believe, as he looked at her now, seeing how her eyes gleamed challengingly, twin spots of fiery colour burned her cheeks, and the fullness of her mouth had thinned to a taut line, was that he had ever explored every inch of that slenderly tiny body, that he had run his hands time and again through the auburn thickness of her shoulder-length hair, kissed every inch of her gamin-featured beauty and tasted the intimate delight of her luscious lips and mouth.

Sapphie, as if becoming aware of Rik’s lingering gaze, of the thoughts running through his head, seemed to gather herself up to attack. ‘Let me make one thing clear, Mr Prince—’

‘I thought it was to be Rik and Sapphie,’ he reminded her tauntingly, smiling his thanks at the waiter as he placed the pot of fresh coffee and cups down on the table.

‘Mr Prince,’ Sapphie enunciated carefully once they were alone again, ‘I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you. Is that clear enough for you?’

She really was beautiful, Rik acknowledged slightly dazedly; not that he had thought—even five years ago when he needed to block out the pain—that he would have been attracted to someone who wasn’t beautiful. It just came as a surprise to him now to realise quite how beautiful Sapphie Benedict was.

More beautiful than Dee? Well…no. But Dee’s beauty was made up of golden hues, whereas this woman was all fire and light; her hair, for example, gleamed red as the sunlight caught it, and her eyes had taken on the colour of leaping flames.

There was also the fact that, notwithstanding how much in love he’d been with Dee five years ago, the two of them had never gone any further than a few clandestine kisses. Whereas he and Sapphie Benedict had shared the most complete intimacy there was between a man and a woman.

‘Very clear, Sapphie,’ he finally answered her slowly. ‘But if that really was the case, how would I know about the birthmark you have on your—?’

‘Will you stop that?’ she snapped furiously, sitting forward. ‘Dee and Jerome are on their way back now,’ she hissed warningly after a brief glance over his shoulder. ‘This conversation is over as far as I’m concerned!’

Rik turned to give a cursory glance in the direction of the married couple as they strolled along hand in hand, pausing to look in a store window now, his mouth twisting with distaste even as he acknowledged how right they looked together: Dee so tall and goldenly beautiful, Jerome with that natural confidence of a successful middle-aged man.

‘I would keep that emotion under wraps too, if I were you,’ Sapphie bit out impatiently. ‘Jealousy can be so unattractive!’

Rik turned back to find her looking at him scathingly. Jealousy? Of Jerome’s role as Dee’s husband, was what Sapphie meant. Was he still jealous of Jerome? No, in all honesty, he couldn’t say that he was, any more.

Did that mean that he really was over his love for Dee…?

He raised dark brows as he returned Sapphie Benedict’s challenging look. ‘You would know, I suppose,’ he drawled mockingly, but took no pleasure in the way her face fell at his deliberate taunt.

How ironic, how absolutely incredible, that the two of them should both have been in love with other people five years ago. Although Sapphie denied that she still felt that way about Jerome. And he…He realised with another lightening of his heart that, without even knowing it, he’d got over Dee. She was still one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, but he could now view that beauty dispassionately.

Sapphie eyed him dismissively now. ‘I never took you for an idiot, Rik. Misguided in your love for Dee, perhaps, but never an idiot.’

He looked at her curiously. ‘You don’t like Dee very much, do you?’ he realised wonderingly; he had never met anyone before, male or female, who didn’t instantly fall under Dee’s charming spell. Although being in love with the other woman’s husband would probably do it, he allowed.

‘Of course I like Dee,’ Sapphie bristled resentfully. ‘Knowing a person’s weaknesses and faults doesn’t preclude your liking them.’

Rik gave her a rueful grin. ‘Knowing mine doesn’t seem to have endeared me to you!’

She eyed him bleakly. ‘There are always exceptions to every rule,’ she retorted before turning to smile warmly at Dee and Jerome as they rejoined them, her expression affectionately indulgent as she took in the new handbag that Dee carried. ‘I see you preferred the larger design,’ Sapphie teased.

Dee grinned unabashedly, her pleasure in the gift obvious. ‘If you’re going to have a designer bag, then it may as well be a big one!’ She dropped gracefully into the chair next to Sapphie before placing the new purchase on the table. ‘Isn’t it absolutely gorgeous?’

The white bag, printed with a pattern of the designer’s motif in different colours, was certainly big, Rik acknowledged. However, it also wasn’t the little purse initially suggested. But then, why shouldn’t Dee choose a much more expensive number? Jerome was so rich he made the multimillionaire Prince brothers look like paupers!

‘It’s lovely,’ Sapphie assured the other woman warmly.