Читать книгу: «A Royal World Apart»
“Where are you running off to?” he asked.
“Nowhere,” she said, turning to face him. Her expression—her eyes wide, her lips parted slightly, full and inviting—drew him in closer. “I just needed some air.”
“Dancing with Bastian had such a strong effect on you?” he asked, advancing further.
She turned her head, casting her face into shadow. Her expression was obscured. “No. It had no effect on me. As usual. But it was more disturbing this time since the date of my official engagement is set now. And he’s very likely the one I’ll be engaged to. If his bid is high enough. I’ve been too cowardly to ask what the price is on my head—or hand, as the case may be.”
“You want to feel attraction for him?”
“I want something. Anything.”
Makhail stopped right in front of her, noticed a shimmer in her dark eyes, pale moonlight reflected there, betraying the depth of her emotion. He put his hand on her face. Just to offer comfort, just for a moment. There was no harm in that.
The feel of her smooth skin beneath his palm sent a shock of desire through him. Strong. Foreign. Intense. It was almost enough simply to feel that need. To revel in it. The desire of a man for a woman. Almost.
About the Author
MAISEY YATES was an avid Mills & Boon® Modern™ Romance reader before she began to write them. She still can’t quite believe she’s lucky enough to get to create her very own sexy alpha heroes and feisty heroines. Seeing her name on one of those lovely covers is a dream come true.
Maisey lives with her handsome, wonderful, diaper-changing husband and three small children across the street from her extremely supportive parents and the home she grew up in, in the wilds of Southern Oregon, USA. She enjoys the contrast of living in a place where you might wake up to find a bear on your back porch and then heading into the home office to write stories that take place in exotic urban locales.
Recent titles by the same author:
ONE NIGHT IN PARADISE
GIRL ON A DIAMOND PEDESTAL
HAJAR’S HIDDEN LEGACY
Did you know these are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk
A Royal World Apart
Maisey Yates
MILLS & BOON
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To Megan Crane and Paula Graves. It was our
Twitter conversation that inspired me to write Mak.
And to my fabulous editor Megan Haslam,
who always helps bring out the best in me.
CHAPTER ONE
THE scandalous princess had done it again. Evangelina Drakos had slipped away from yet another one of his top security guards. It was inexcusable. It was something that should never happen. And yet, it had. Three times in as many weeks.
Makhail Nabatov did not tolerate mistakes. Mistakes, no matter how small—from losing the princess one was meant to be guarding, down to the simple act of spilling hot coffee on yourself while driving—could be disastrous.
He slammed his car door and rolled his shoulders forward, trying to ease the tension that had every muscle in his body bound into knots as solid as stone. He didn’t believe in letting anything affect him like this. Yet another way Princess Evangelina seemed to be messing with the carefully well-ordered life he maintained.
When he’d met her for the first time, all glossy brown curls, dark, glittering eyes and golden skin, she had seemed every inch the demure princess. Nothing like the bold, vivacious party girl who was making tabloid headlines with increasing frequency. He had wondered if the media had exaggerated her image.
Over the past six months he’d discovered that the tabloids were right, and he was wrong. He was never wrong. And yet the Drakos princess had proven him so.
He didn’t like it.
It defied logic that one petite royal could cause so much trouble. And yet, this one seemed to have a knack for it.
He punched the speed dial on his phone for the man he’d had watching out for the princess. “Ivan, where did you last see her?”
“The casino. She disappeared into the crowd,” Ivan said, his voice filled with fear. More weak emotion. He despised it.
“You’re fired.” Makhail clicked the end-call button and stuffed the phone back into his pocket, straightening his tie before striding down the electric strip of the only major city on the island of Kyonos. He was willing to bet Evangelina was still in the casino. Gambling away her father’s money, no doubt.
He moved seamlessly through the crowd, weaving past revelers on his way through the gilded doors. Princess Evangelina wouldn’t be in the main entry trying her hand at the slots. He’d bet she was in one of the high-roller rooms. It was the only place in a casino for a spoiled brat with a penchant for drama and pink champagne.
He passed quickly through the lobby and headed toward a pair of black doors in the back, flanked on either side by guards in suits.
“Name?” One of the men asked.
“Mak,” he said. “I’m here to see the princess.”
“I’m afraid you can’t just …”
One of the doors opened and a socialite in a skin-tight dress breezed out, the scent of alcohol clinging to her body. He took advantage of the moment and gripped the edge of the door, pulling it open the rest of the way and walking in.
He spotted her right away, bent over the table, laughing as she watched the man to her right roll a pair of dice, cheering when the numbers came up favorably. Then she looked up, at him.
Her dark eyes rounded, her pink lips parting slightly. She touched her companion’s arm and said something quickly before edging away from him. She wasn’t trying to run, not from him. She knew better than that.
One of the guards rushed into the room and everyone looked up from the game. “Princess,” he said, “is everything …?”
She regarded Mak cooly, her manner distant, disdainful. “I would prefer it if this man wasn’t here, but trust me when I say there’s no way you can remove him,” she said crisply. “He’s in the employ of my father. You can see that that could become problematic.” Her tone was commanding, haughty. Her dark eyes glittered with anger, proving her collected tone of a voice to be a lie. “So, I’m to be taken back to my cell then?”
“Your cell?” he asked. “Is that what you call that frilly pink bedroom of yours?”
A hint of raspberry color touched her golden cheeks. “Not officially.”
“How did you lose your tail?”
Her lips curved upward into a smug smile. “Did you see the women at the slot machines in front? The ones who make change for patrons?”
He shook his head once. “No.”
“Ah. Well, your guard did. Or more specifically, he noticed the fact that the necklines of their dresses were cut down to their navels. I took the opportunity to slip in back. He must have assumed I’d gone out front, as he’d suggested.”
Mak clenched his teeth. “He was deluded. Naive enough to believe you would do as commanded.”
Evangelina raised her eyebrows, her expression overly innocent. “Indeed.”
“I am not.”
One side of her mouth quirked upward. “I noticed.”
He regarded her for a moment. She had a feline quality to her. Lithe, graceful and more than ready to bare her claws if the need presented itself. He could see how she’d managed to intimidate the palace guards, how she’d managed to dupe his men.
She would not do the same to him.
“I would recommend, printzyessa, that you come with me.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Your father will hear of this,” he said.
She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. Now, her breasts he noticed. She wasn’t showing off every bit of skin she could get away with and still be considered dressed. And it made her figure all the more enticing for it. It made him wonder. Made him wonder if she was golden all over. Made him wonder what her breasts would look like, uncovered for him.
He clenched his hands into fists, battling the images that flashed through his mind. He didn’t let women distract him. Ever.
This was an aberration. As unusual as it was unwanted. It would not happen again.
“I’m not all that concerned over my father hearing about this. What will he do? Lock me in the dungeon? Or perhaps he’ll marry me off to a stranger at his convenience? We both know he won’t do the former, and he’s actively attempting to accomplish the latter.”
“I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you out. If your designer heels don’t make it …” he shrugged, “it’s not my problem.”
Her dark eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t.”
He took a step toward her. She didn’t shrink, didn’t step away. “You don’t think?”
She regarded him for a moment. “I’ll allow you to escort me out.”
He reached out and took hold of her arm, running his fingers over her smooth skin, her flesh hot beneath his palm. He pulled her to him, linking their arms. He leaned in, his lips brushing her ear. “I will allow you to leave on your own two feet.”
She turned to face him, deep brown eyes blazing with defiance. “Good for both of us, as I imagine the alternative would not have ended well. For you or for me.”
“Then it’s good you chose the right option.” He held tightly to her arm, leading her from the room. She kept her chin tipped up, her neck craned, likely so she could look down her nose. It gave her a haughty, untouchable air. It made all of the men in the room practically fall at her feet.
They breezed through the foyer and back out into the damp night air. Salt spray lingered, thick and pungent and the sound of the sea could be heard roaring in the distance. He opened the passenger door to his car.
“In,” he commanded.
She complied, stiffly, her posture rigid as she settled into the vehicle, her eyes fixed straight in front of her. He rounded the car and got into the driver’s side, revving the engine and pulling away from the curb, heading in the direction of the palace.
“So,” she said, her voice conversational, “you won’t tell my father?”
“No.” It wouldn’t benefit anyone to bring the king into this.
“I might tell him,” she said, her tone still light, casual. Obnoxious.
“Why is that?”
“As I said, he won’t do anything about it. He has no leverage. At least, as far as what he can do to me. Now you … he may fire you.”
Makhail tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “He won’t.”
“Really?”
“No. He won’t. I fired Ivan, and now I personally will be guarding you. Your father knows that there isn’t anyone better suited to the job.”
“Does he?” she said, her tone flat.
“Your palace guards can’t keep tabs on you, and they cannot be distracted from issues of national security to deal with a brat who has no interest in her own safety. That leaves me. I am in the unique business of guarding royalty when the built-in protection of a nation proves to be ineffective. And I never make mistakes. It’s regrettable that one of my employees did.”
“Two,” she said.
“What?”
“Two of your employees did.” She reinforced the figure by holding up a matching number of fingers. “I’ve given two of them the slip while they were busy rubbernecking some woman’s figure.”
“Former,” he said.
“What?”
“Former employees. They lacked discipline, and that means I have no room for them among my staff. You may not realize this, as your spoiled tendencies keep you from looking too far outside of yourself, but this is about more than image.”
“Is it? I thought it was mainly about making sure I didn’t look unsuitable to possible fiancés.”
“This is about your safety. You are an important piece of political power, printzyessa.”
“Am I?” She injected false, breathless surprise into her voice. “And here I thought I was just Evangelina.”
“When a title is involved, no one is ‘just’ anything.”
She turned to face him, the indicator the sound of her clothes sliding over the leather. He didn’t turn to look at her. Didn’t take his eyes of the road. “Except I am. I am just a political pawn.”
“An important one,” he said.
She snorted and he heard her flop back against her seat. “What more could a girl ask for?”
Eva felt as though she was going to crawl out of her skin. Her arm still burned from where Makhail had touched her, and she was so angry she thought she might actually fold in on herself. Yes, she was being outrageous and she knew it. But it was her power. Her only power.
Impotent, it turned out.
Six months ago, when her father had introduced her to Makhail she’d breathed a sigh of relief that he was no longer a field agent. That he wouldn’t be guarding her personally. Because he … well, he was just too disturbing. Far too big. Too masculine. Broad shoulders and cropped brown hair, a square jaw, a mouth that looked as if it had never smiled. And his eyes … gray like the barrel of a gun. And they were every bit as cold.
And now here he was. It was one thing to mess around his goons. Easy too. They were far too interested in what was going on around them. But Makhail focused in on her in a way that no one else ever did. It was as if he was looking into her. She didn’t like it at all.
“Perhaps a girl could ask for more diamonds in her gilded cage?”
“You think because I’m rich I have no right to complain?” she asked.
“Not at all. I’m not here to have an opinion. An opinion would imply that I care. I don’t. I am here to do a job. Keep you safe, keep you scandal-free. I will do it.”
“Until my marriage?”
“After, if I must.”
A strange thought. That she would be guarded even after her marriage was secured, and yet she knew it was true. She was a royal, destined to marry a royal. From the moment she’d been born, her life had been controlled down to what shoes she was to put on in the morning.
And of course, the man she would marry was also to be carefully selected. Just like her breakfast cereal.
It had been over six months since she’d woken up to a terrible, clawing fear that she would never be able to make a decision for herself. Not one. Not about what she wore, not about where she went, or what she ate. That was when the serious rebellion started. So Makhail Nabatov could talk about duty and spoiled brattiness all he wanted, but he didn’t know what it was like to be her.
He was the enemy.
“I dare say my husband will have his own guards intent on ensuring my submission.”
“And what makes you think they’ll be any better than your father’s guards?”
He didn’t look at her, never took his eyes from the road, his profile strong, uncompromising. A crooked nose that looked as though it had been broken at least once, a square jaw that verged on being too sharp. A mouth that looked incapable of smiling.
“They may not be. But maybe I won’t try to escape. That all depends on who my father selects, I suppose. Or if I fall in love with him.”
She doubted she would. She had a vague idea of who her father might find suitable, because there weren’t very many royals just lying around for her to marry. A few minor members of nobility, and of course there was Bastian, King of Komenia, a small principality in eastern Europe, actively looking for his queen. She felt nothing for him, no matter how hard she tried. And she did try.
Because he was the likeliest candidate. The one who would bring the most strength, the most power, financial and military resources to Kyonos.
How she felt—love, attraction—didn’t come into it as far as her father was concerned. And Bastian was nice. He was even rather handsome. But there was no spark. He touched her and she felt nothing. He wasn’t the one.
But it was looking as though she would never have the chance to find that man.
“You want love, do you?” he asked, maneuvering the car through the narrow streets, café tables pressed in so close to the roadway that if she rolled the window down she could reach out and steal a cappuccino. Unless of course the windows were locked. Likely, under the circumstances.
“Of course I do. Don’t we all?”
“No,” he said. No explanation, just no. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised. Except she was. And then it made her angry. Because he could have love if he wanted it. He could marry whomever he wanted to, and he didn’t have anyone trying to make the decision for him.
But he just … said no, he didn’t want love. Probably because he was more interested in cleavage, anonymous cleavage, than he was in a real woman. That was what she’d noticed with the other men who guarded her. That was how she’d shaken them.
Makhail was no different, though he was more focused when he needed to be, clearly, since he hadn’t even noticed the busty cocktail waitresses at the entrance of the casino.
But still, he had all the freedom in the world and he wanted to waste it on shallow, frivolous things. Not that her night in the casino had been anything more than shallow and frivolous. But it had been fun, and she’d had a shortage of fun in her life.
“Well. I do,” she said, looking out the window again, her stomach tightening as they neared the palace.
“Why?”
“What do you mean why?” She turned to his profile again. “Everyone—well, not you, we established not you—most everyone wants love. Love is …”
“A lot of work.”
She looked down at his hands, his grip tight on the steering wheel. There was a platinum band there, thick and prominent, on his left ring finger. “Are you married?”
“Not anymore,” he said. There was no emotion in his voice. No hint of how he felt about the subject. Yet he still wore his ring.
“Why?”
He flicked her a glance for the first time. “I did not realize we had to become friends in order for me to protect you.”
“Let’s get one thing straight,” she said, annoyance coursing through her. “You aren’t protecting me. Not really. You’re keeping me out of trouble. Or perceived trouble. I’m an adult woman. I’m twenty, you know. Almost twenty-one.”
“Ancient,” he said, his tone dry.
“Anyway, no, we don’t have to be friends. I suppose us being friends would be impossible, actually, seeing as we’re working with opposing agendas.”
“And what is your agenda, Princess?”
They pulled up to a wrought-iron gate, guards stationed out along the perimeter of the pale stucco wall that stretched around the palace, backed by the Aegean Sea.
“If I told you, Mr. Nabatov, it would be much too easy for you to gain the upper hand.”
CHAPTER TWO
“IT was online, on every trashy news website you could think of, before you ever left the casino, Eva.” Her father paced in front of her, his hands locked behind his back, his expression fierce. “Rolling dice, men on your arm. You looked like a common college student.”
An insult from her father’s lips. There was no mistaking that. Anything common, as far as Stephanos Drakos was concerned, was beneath the hallowed royal family of Kyonos.
“Father …”
“Your Highness,” Makhail stepped in, his voice smooth, confident. “Eva was meant to be under the supervision of one of my men, who has been dismissed now for his carelessness. I have decided I will take on the task of guarding the princess myself.”
Bloody gallant of him. So gallant she’d like to smack that smug expression right off his face. Instead, she cleared her throat and addressed her father. “I don’t suppose you’ve considered that I don’t need twenty-four-hour … nannying?”
“Not for a moment,” King Stephanos replied.
Makhail turned to her, his gray eyes glinting. “I am not a nanny, Princess.”
“You do carry a bigger gun than most nannies,” she said.
He arched one brow. “Among other things.”
“Charming,” she said tightly.
“How do I know I can trust you, Mr. Nabatov, when you seem incapable of keeping an agent in my daughter’s presence?”
Makhail turned his focus to the king, his expression hard. Fierce. Almost frightening. “They were fools. I am not. And your options are limited, Your Highness. Typically, when we protect someone, they have the good sense to want that protection. Princess Evangelina does not.”
“That’s because I’m being protected from myself,” she said. “It’s insulting.”
“You behave like a child, and you shall be treated like one,” Stephanos said. “I am in the process of arranging a union for you that will benefit Kyonos, benefit your people. You disdain it.”
“I … I just want to have a bit of my own life … a bit of …”
“You are royal, Eva. It is not that simple,” the king said.
Eva bit back her response. Because, as much as she hated it, he was right. Every privilege, every ball, had a price. Every ounce of gold dust came with a twenty-pound iron weight attached to it. It didn’t matter whether she accepted it, it simply was.
Still, the outright refusal burned in her throat. Desperate to escape. Words she knew she could never speak.
“Am I dismissed?” she asked.
“You may go,” her father said, nodding his head.
She turned on her heel and walked out into the hall, covering her face with hands, digging the heels of her palms into her eyes, trying to keep tears from falling. She wasn’t weak. She didn’t have time for weakness. Even more importantly, she couldn’t afford to show it.
Not to her father, certainly not to the press. Least of all to Makhail, her brand-new jailer. The only person who understood her, even a little bit, was Stavros, her brother. And at the moment, he had his own problems.
She stalked down the long, empty corridor of the palace, making each step count, her high heels clicking loudly on the marble floor. If she had any idea what she wanted, things would be so much easier.
Making scandal, derailing her father’s plans to find her a suitable husband, that had kept her busy for the past few months, but she had no end plan with it.
What else could she do?
She knew what she wanted. She also knew she would probably never have it. A man who loved her, just her. A man she loved just as madly in return. A marriage that had nothing to do with politics or trade.
It was nothing more than a fantasy. Some little girls dreamed of being princesses. She’d just dreamed of being. Of living on her own terms, making her own goals, goals she could aspire to. It wasn’t possible, but she’d clung to the hope. For too long.
And any freedom she had had a timer ticking on it. The marriage was being arranged. And when she was married … it would all be gone, any hope squashed beneath the weight of it. She would go from being beneath her father’s control to being beneath her husband’s.
It was bleak.
“Princess.”
The deep, rich voice, flavored by a Russian accent, could only belong to one man. She turned and saw Makhail standing there, looking every inch the secret agent in his black suit.
“Yes?”
“I have finalized arrangements with your father.”
“Have you?” she asked, stiffly. “He says you have six months.”
She tried to ignore the sick, sinking feeling in her stomach. “So I’ve been sentenced, then?”
“Is that how you feel about it?”
She laughed, and she wasn’t sure why. She didn’t feel amused. Far from it. “How would you feel? Being offered as commodity to a total stranger? To bear his children and … sleep with him.”
“I imagine I would not enjoy it,” he said, his tone wry. “But then, I have never been interested in sleeping with men.”
“You know what I meant.”
“Listen, Princess …”
“Eva. Just Eva, please. If we have to deal with each other for the next few months it will be easier.”
“Then you can call me Mak.” It wasn’t a friendly offer. More like a prisoner exchange.
“I don’t want to,” she returned, keeping her tone intentionally tart.
He chuckled. “Why is that?”
She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “It humanizes you. I would prefer to stay angry with you for as long as possible.”
His lips curved into a smile, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He took a step, then another, slowly circling around her, like a predator who had found some very tempting prey. “I am certain I will find many ways to make you angry, Eva. You won’t need to manufacture reasons.”
“On that we can both agree.” She turned to face him as he moved to her side. “Stop circling me, I’m not a gazelle.”
He paused. “Excuse me?”
“You look like … like you’re stalking me or something. But I am no one’s prey.”
“I believe it.”
“Tell me then, Mak,” she said his name with as much disdain as she could muster. “What is on the agenda? Has my father lined out every single activity I’m approved for over the six months? Galas and tea parties?”
“Something like that.”
“Lovely,” she said dryly.
“Not for either of us and I see no reason to pretend otherwise. I am not a babysitter, so unless you want me to be incredibly irritable during our time together, I suggest you stop acting like a child.”
She stiffened, anger coursing through her veins, her temper, quick at the best of times, ready to snap. “I am not acting like a child. I’m being treated like one.”
“What do you think, Eva, that you’ll find the answers to life in a casino? In a bar? That somehow that sort of freedom means more than doing your duty to your country? If so, you really are a child.”
He turned his back to her and for some, strange reason, she felt compelled to ask him to stay. To make him stay. “Wait.”
He turned back to her. “Yes?”
“Where are you staying? Do you … do you have a home on Kyonos?”
“I shall be staying here.” He smiled slowly. “All the better to protect you.”
“Are you supposed to remind me of the big bad wolf?”
He arched one dark eyebrow. “Do I?”
Come to think of it, he did. “What big teeth you have,” she said, forcing her voice to stay in a monotone.
His dark eyebrow arched. “I won’t say the rest. It would hardly be appropriate.”
A little thrill zinged through her. It certainly would not. And what was happening? Had he … flirted with her? Had she just flirted with her bodyguard?
He was gorgeous. In a very understated sort of way. He certainly wasn’t pretty, he was far too rugged for that. But he was … masculine. And somehow, just being near him, made her feel very, very aware of her own femininity. Dark stubble shadowed his jaw and she imagined it would feel rough beneath her palm.
She found herself brushing her fingertips lightly over her own cheek in response to the thought, feeling the smooth skin there. Craving its opposite.
She dropped her hand to her side, flexing her fingers, trying to get rid of the phantom impression of his scruff, and took a deep breath, attempting to clear her head.
“Hardly,” she said, trying to swallow. Her throat felt tight. Too tight.
“This doesn’t have to be hard, Eva,” he said, his accent shaping her name differently than she’d ever heard it before. It was … intriguing.
“It can’t be anything but. You and I have opposing goals, Mak.”
“What is your goal, Princess?” he asked, his eyes hard on her. Far too perceptive. He made her want to wrap her arms around herself, to try and cover as much as she could. Because she felt as though he could see beneath her filmy dress. More disturbing, she felt that he could see inside of her. See her fears, her desires. Things she’d never shared with anyone. “And be honest. None of this talk about you not telling me. Do you intend to take yourself out of the running for a dynastic marriage by ruining your image?”
“It had crossed my mind. Or perhaps, I simply wanted to start as I intend to go on.”
“Meaning?”
“The lucky royal who takes me as a wife should have an idea of what he’s getting into. He should know I’m not simply some docile piece of arm candy.”
He treated her to that look again. Cool. Assessing. Penetrating. He spoke slowly, as though each word was chosen carefully. For the purpose of irritating her, she imagined. “I doubt anyone could possibly believe you’re docile.”
“Then my job is at least half done,” she said, trying to play it a whole lot cooler than she felt. “I’m tired now. I think I’ll go to my quarters.” She turned away from him and started walking back down the hall.
She could hear heavy footfalls behind her. She turned and saw Mak following behind her. “I said I’m going to my quarters. You aren’t invited,” she said, even as her stomach tightened, thinking of inviting him in.
“I’m simply ensuring you arrive as you should,” he said, completely unperturbed by her prickly responses. She was usually very good at putting her guards off. The palace guards had given up on her, Makhail’s guards hadn’t been able to keep up with her.
And Makhail was … calm. Maddeningly so. As though he felt nothing. Nothing more than a mild amusement over the disaster area that was her life. As though the idea of her being sold into marriage was nothing.
“Think I’m going to knot the bedsheets together and rappel out the window?”
“You’ve done it before.”
Heat rushed into her cheeks. “Once. And I was fourteen. Did you read my file? Oh, theos, have I got a file?” She’d never, ever felt more like one of her father’s assets in her life. Not a person, a thing. A thing that was catalogued, like the antiquities, like the artifacts from the temples of Kyonos. She was another item from the royal collection.
“Of course you have a file. And considering you burn through guards at such an accelerated rate, it’s a good thing too. It made it much easier for me to know you.”
