She forced a laugh. Beautiful? Her? Well, if he could flatter, so could she. ‘So prove it’s not true. Deliver me to my hotel and walk away. Then you’ll be free of this...curse.’
He tilted his head to one side, as if weighing her request. His hand rose again, this time to reach down to encircle her wrist.
With a subtle but firm tug, he pulled her to him.
‘If walking away resolved centuries-old issues, my kingdom wouldn’t be in shambles.’
‘I didn’t mean—’
He pulled her closer. Jasmine was too mesmerised by this enigmatic man to acknowledge the curious stares of the guests beyond the protective circle of Prince Reyes’s bodyguards. And he didn’t seem too disturbed by their growing audience.
His stare turned into a frown. ‘You intrigue me, Jasmine Nichols.’
‘Is that a bad thing?’
He stepped back and he seemed to come to a decision. ‘I’m not certain, but I wish to find out. Come.’
* * *
Reyes Navarre drew a deep breath.
What in Dios’s name was he doing? Not since Anaïs had he behaved so rashly. His carefree period of picking up liaisons for a night had come to a jagged halt five years ago when he’d experienced for himself just how duplicitous women could be. His own mother had hammered that lesson home forcefully in the weeks before her death.
Overnight, Reyes had witnessed the family he’d foolishly thought he could bring together disintegrate beyond recognition. He’d watched the will to live slowly extinguish from his father’s eyes until only a husk remained.
Reyes’s chest tightened painfully with equal parts of remorse and bitterness. Remorse that grew each day because he knew he’d failed to grant his father, King Carlos, his one wish—an heir to the throne while he was still alive. Bitterness because his father had condemned Reyes for choosing to learn from past mistakes. What his father didn’t know was the woman Reyes had thought would be his queen had turned out to be just as conniving and as faithless as his own mother.
The double blow had made abstinence a far better prospect. One he’d embraced and pushed to the back of his mind when his father’s health had worsened.
But tonight...
He glanced at the woman whose delicate scent filled every corner of the limo.
She hadn’t spoken since they’d driven away from the banquet, but Reyes had caught the fleeting glances she sent his way every now and then. Just as he’d glimpsed the little darts of her tongue at the corner of mouth when her gaze fell on him.
She did it again, just then. A different sort of tightening seized his body.
Grinding his teeth, Reyes forced himself to examine why Jasmine Nichols intrigued him. Perhaps it was being away from Santo Sierra for the first time in over a year. Perhaps it was the knowledge that, after months of tough negotiations, Mendez had finally agreed to sign the trade treaty.
Or it could be that he just needed to let himself feel something other than bitterness and recrimination...to experience a moment of oblivion before the relentless pressure of his birthright settled back on his shoulders.
Whatever the reason, he didn’t stop himself from pressing the intercom that connected him to the driver.
‘Take us to the boat,’ he instructed.
Jasmine immediately turned to him. ‘You’re not taking me to my hotel?’ Her voice held a touch of trepidation but no hint of panic.
She knew the score.
As he should.
Except he didn’t.
He was acting out of character. Had been from the moment he saw her.
His smile felt strained. ‘You owe me a drink, I believe. I’m choosing to take it before I have you delivered to your hotel, not after.’
‘Just in case I renege? You’re not very trusting, are you?’
The twinge in his chest stung deeper, but he refused to acknowledge it. ‘No, I’m not.’
Her eyes widened and she looked away. ‘Are we really going to your boat?’ she asked with a curious note in her voice.
‘Yes.’
Reyes remembered she didn’t like boats. Was that why he’d brought her to his yacht instead of the royal suite that awaited him at the Four Seasons? Was he hoping she would quail at the sight of the big floating palace and ask to be returned to her hotel?
Or had he brought her here for his own selfish reasons? Because, for some reason, focusing on her made his tumultuous feelings subside just a little?
All through the interminable dinner, he’d watched her, his gaze unable to stray from her for more than a few seconds because every time it had, he’d felt the darkness encroaching.
He watched her now from the corner of his eye, waiting for a reaction. But her hands remained folded in her lap, her gaze on the large vessel they’d pulled up to.
Unfortunately his thoughts and emotions suffered no such languor or calm. They churned in rhythm to the heavy pounding of his heart at what was to come.
Thoughts of sating himself on a woman had been pushed far back into the recesses of his mind, especially in the last year as he’d battled to salvage the trade treaty with Valderra. But his efforts had paid off.
He’d brought Mendez and Valderra to the treaty table, the result of which would mean a much-needed economic boost for his people.
Tomorrow they would complete the signing of the Santo-Valderra treaty. The concessions had been heavy. Mendez had made outrageous demands, like the excessively extravagant banquet held here tonight to honour his birthday. A ceremony Reyes had initially balked at attending, but had eventually given in to, because he suspected Mendez would use any excuse to postpone the final signing of the treaty.
The concessions Santo Sierra had given would be recouped with time. And, most importantly, the trade blockage had been removed.
He still faced an uphill battle in convincing his council members to accept the changes to come. And there was also his father...
Reyes pushed thoughts of his father and grief aside and reminded himself that his father was alive.
And for one night, this night, Reyes intended to turn his mind to more...pleasant matters.
Jasmine sat in silence beside him, a beacon in the gloom that threatened to swallow him whole. But Reyes sensed that she was almost as reluctant as he to test the depths of awareness that zinged between them, just as he was quietly amazed by the depth of his attraction for her.
The memory of her skin when he’d held her on the balcony returned. His hand tightened next to his thigh.
He’d taken one look at Jasmine and the foundations of his self-imposed celibacy had started to shake. All through the banquet he’d been unable to take his eyes off her, a notion that had at once fascinated and irritated him. By the time the banquet was over, he’d known his resistance was severely compromised.
Yet, he’d been determined to walk away. Bitter experience and the heavy burden of duty had taught him to weigh his decisions carefully.
One-night stands weren’t his modus operandi.
So what in the name of Dios was he doing?
He hadn’t touched her since that last electrifying contact, and yet a storm unlike anything he’d ever known raged inside him. From the corner of his eye, he watched her fiddle with one earring. The sweet, yet provocative movement fanned the inferno of his lust.
‘Are we going to get out?’ Her