She was right about the kiss, she thought; he held her so tightly her breasts were crushed against his chest. She moaned softly at the bittersweet pain.
“Sorry.” He took a deep breath and held her away from him. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Shaken by the magical sensations rushing through her, and sensing they were just a prelude, Victoria shook her head. “You haven’t. Just love me.”
“I will,” he promised and lowered his head to hers. Gently, back and forth, his lips moved, teasing her lips into opening for him. When his tongue brushed the inside of her mouth as he deepened his kiss, Victoria’s world tilted on its axis. When he moved on to her throat and down to the slant of her exposed breasts, she experienced shocks of sweet sensation. And when he lowered her gown and teased her sensitive nipples with his tongue, she melted in his arms.
She heard him sigh, felt his hands tighten around her, pulling her closer. “This may sound crazy, but I can’t get enough of you,” she heard him murmur. “Who are you, moon sprite? Where have you come from? Where can I find you in the morning?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “We have tonight.” She glanced around her, searching for a more private place where she could show him how real she was without revealing her identity. A place where the world couldn’t intrude on her new-found happiness.
Tonight would be the night of passion she had dreamed of all her adult life, she mused as she slipped across the lawn, drawing her phantom lover with her. She would make love with him until the dawn, then slip away into the real world. For surely such a man could only exist in a dream.
Victoria drew him deep into the heart of the maze until they reached the white lattice-work gazebo. Cushioned benches rimmed the walls; luxurious rugs carpeted the floor and sweet-smelling vines crept through the latticework. “This used to be one of my favorite places to hide when I was a little girl and came to visit my cousin,” she said happily. “I used to sit here hoping no one would find me, and I’d invent all kinds of fairy tales.”
“And now?” He stroked the sides of her face with gentle hands. “Is it still your favorite place to hide?”
“Not since I grew up,” she said, “but it is as long as you’re here with me.” She raised her lips for his kiss.
Her phantom lover murmured his pleasure at her answer. Grasping her around the waist, he drew her to a cushioned corner of the gazebo. He ran his hands over her shoulders, her swollen breasts that ached for his lips. And slowly, sensuously down her hips to the place that cried out for his touch. She couldn’t get enough of him, couldn’t wait to belong to him.
“Love me,” she said impulsively, not recognizing herself. She felt alive, wanton and needy for him. Her hands plucked at his shirt until he drew it over his shoulders and, chest bare, pulled her into his arms again. She tongued his nipples as he had tongued hers and found his bare skin salty to the taste. Flames ran through her as her desire to become his grew. “Love me as if you mean it,” she whispered.
“I do,” he said into her lips, his voice shaking with desire. “So help us both, moon sprite, I do.”
“My turn,” he finally said and drew her robe and nightgown all the way off her shoulders. She stepped out of the garments and he tossed them onto a bench, held her away from him for a moment, then smiled. “You’re even lovelier than I thought you would be.”
In a few heated moments her phantom became everything she had wished for, dreamed of and had despaired of ever finding, Victoria thought dimly as she lost herself in a storm of passion. Skin to skin, lips to lips, he drew her deeper and deeper into a fantasy world that knew no end of desire. She forgot everything but the man who was making all of her yearnings come true.
“I love you,” she heard herself whisper when her release began to ebb, leaving her floating in a warm sea of sensations. “I will love you forever,” she whispered into his closed eyes.
Too late, she realized her phantom lover had drifted off to sleep. She smiled sadly as she realized he hadn’t heard a word she’d said. She shouldn’t complain, she told herself. After all, he’d taken her into a place every woman dreamed of. A place she’d longed to be in without knowing why.
And now she knew.
She moved closer into his warmth and closed her eyes. The return to reality would inevitably come with the dawn, but the night belonged to her.
CUDDLED UNDER the blankets in her room in the palace’s guest wing later that day, Victoria opened her eyes when she heard her name. The lasting sweet sensations of last night’s stolen hours still lingered. A new tender sensation between her thighs reminded her of last night’s passionate embraces.
“Time to get up, my dear.” Lydia Monsour, Victoria’s long-time elderly friend and companion, glanced at the small gold watch pinned to her blouse. “It is well past noon.”
“Not now, please,” Victoria murmured, reluctant to let go of a dream that had come true.
“Now,” Lydia said firmly. “Today is a very important day. The wedding rehearsal for your cousin’s wedding is to take place this afternoon.”
Victoria smiled dreamily. The romantic wedding ambience of her cousin’s marriage had been part of the reason for her restlessness last night. A restlessness she wouldn’t have been able to explain before, not even to herself. But now she knew it had been the desire of a woman to be held in the arms of a man who loved her back. Last night had turned into the most wonderful night of her life.
She glanced over at Lydia. If there were anyone she could tell of meeting her phantom lover last night without hearing recriminations, Lydia was the one.
“I met someone late last night,” she began dreamily. “Out in the palace gardens.”
Lydia froze. “Alone? At night? It isn’t done! If you wanted to go out to get some fresh air, you should have called me. I would have gone with you.”
“Yes, alone.” Victoria stretched and turned over on her back. “He was wonderful.”
“Obviously.” Lydia glanced uneasily at her charge’s glowing face. “Who was he?”
“An American. Probably one of the groomsmen over here for May’s wedding.”
Lydia relaxed. “Good. Then we don’t have to worry about your meeting him again once the wedding is over. He will undoubtedly return home.”
“I have to find him, Lydia,” Victoria said. She threw back the covers. “First, I’m going to take a shower.” Dream or not, real or not, and no matter what Lydia might think of her, Victoria had to find her phantom. “I have to know if last night was a dream or real.”
Lydia tightened her lips. “I don’t understand what drove you to do such an outrageous thing, my dear; certainly not after your convent upbringing. Did you stop to think of possible consequences?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I thought not,” Lydia sighed. “Your mother has told me that your own wedding will be announced soon.”
Victoria smiled. “Not when I tell her I have found the man I love.”
“You said it was in the middle of the night. How will you be able to recognize the man in daylight?”
“I’ll know him from the sound of his voice,” Victoria said as she headed for the shower. “He has an American accent, the same as Cousin May’s bridegroom. He must be here as a member of the groom’s party. That should make it easy to find him.”
Lydia