Prince's Pleasure. Carole Mortimer

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      CHAPTER THREE

      ‘WHAT are you doing!’ Tyler gasped, eyes wide as Zak raised her head and tipped some liquid into her mouth. Fiery liquid that burned as it went down her throat. ‘No!’ she protested, desperately trying to push his hand away, and not succeeding as he forced another mouthful of the foul-tasting liquid down her throat. ‘What was that?’ she groaned as he placed her head back on the sofa.

      ‘Brandy,’ he told her with satisfaction. ‘Guaranteed to—’

      ‘Make me ill,’ she finished heavily. ‘Even more so on an empty stomach.’ A very empty stomach. In fact, it was because she hadn’t eaten anything, since a hurried slice of toast for breakfast this morning, that she had collapsed in the first place.

      She had been dismayed when she had first moved to London at how high the cost of living was here, her reporting job not exactly earning her big bucks. So, in order to survive on those wages, as she had sworn she would when she’d walked out of her sumptuous home in New York with claims to her family that she could make it on her own, she had had to economize on things. Like eating.

      Bread, milk and cereals were cheap, as well as being quite nourishing, which was just as well, because it was what Tyler had mainly been living on for the last six months, with the odd hamburger thrown in here and there as a treat.

      ‘Why do you have an empty stomach?’ Zak probed, shrewdly attacking the relevant part of her statement. ‘It’s nine o’clock at night, so why haven’t you eaten dinner yet?’

      Because dinner was a luxury she could rarely afford. Lunch, either, for that matter. Although having eaten either wouldn’t have lessened the effect the brandy was going to have on her any second now.

      ‘I have an allergy.’ She ignored his questions, trying to sit up. ‘And if you don’t get me to the bathroom in the next ten seconds I’m going to be ill all over this expensive carpet!’

      ‘An allergy?’ Zak Prince repeated with a dark scowl, making no effort to step forward and help her. ‘What sort of allergy—damn it, Tyler…!’ he rasped in disbelief as she put her head over the side of the sofa and was indeed ill all over the carpet.

      As predicted.

      It had been the surprise of her life to discover, on entering college, and the round of parties that had followed, that alcohol of any kind caused this reaction in her.

      ‘What—how—what sort of allergy?’ Zak Prince queried as he came back from the bathroom with a couple of towels, handing one to Tyler and throwing the other one over the mess on the carpet.

      ‘To alcohol,’ she had time to answer him before she was ill once again.

      Not that this could last for too long; there was really nothing in her stomach for her to be ill with except that slice of toast and liquid!

      Although it was unpleasant enough while it lasted, Tyler acknowledged half an hour later, equally exhausted and devastated that she had been sick in front of Zak Prince of all people. The fact that he was the one responsible for giving her the alcohol in the first place didn’t lessen that feeling in the slightest!

      ‘Damn it, you only had a couple of sips of the stuff!’ he protested as he helped her to the bathroom to wash her face and clean her teeth, before easing her back onto the sofa.

      ‘The amount doesn’t seem to matter,’ she explained. She was already feeling the start of the headache that usually followed one of these bouts. Not that there were any now that she simply avoided drinking alcohol.

      Unless it was literally forced down her throat!

      Sleep was the best thing for her now, although there wasn’t too much chance of that until she had got herself back to her apartment…

      * * *

      It was dark when she woke up. Very dark. And very silent. Apart from the sound of steady breathing.

      Tyler held her breath.

      The sound of breathing continued.

      Where was she?

      More to the point, who was that breathing beside her?

      She sat up with a start, groaning as she felt the pounding pain in her head.

      ‘Are you okay?’

      There was a movement beside her, and Tyler quickly closed her eyes as a light was switched on, its brightness only increasing the pounding in her head. As did the easy recognition of that voice!

      ‘Tyler?’ Zak repeated with concern.

      What was she doing lying in bed beside Zak Prince? How had she got here? More to the point, what was she still doing here?

      The last thing she remembered was being violently ill, knowing she had to sleep, and then—nothing.

      ‘Tyler, open your eyes and talk to me,’ Zak Prince instructed forcefully, at the same time grasping her arms and shaking her slightly.

      ‘If you don’t stop doing that my head is going to fall off!’ She gently lowered herself back onto the pillow.

      Zak instantly stopped shaking her. ‘Sounds like you have a hangover to me.’ He sounded amused. ‘Are you sure you hadn’t been drinking before you met me last night?’

      Her eyes shot open as she ignored the pain in her head to glare at him indignantly. ‘I told you, I’m allergic to alcohol! One mouthful and I’m violently ill.’

      ‘You sure are!’ He grinned, leaning on his elbow to look down at her. ‘In fact, I’ve never seen anyone as ill as you were last night. Before you blacked out, of course,’ he added.

      ‘I fell asleep,’ she defended, and then winced at the loudness of her own voice. ‘I fell asleep,’ she repeated huskily, suddenly very aware of where they were, and of how close Zak Prince actually was. ‘What time is it?’ She turned her head slightly, having trouble trying to focus on the luminous clock on the bedside table.

      The bedside table! She really was lying in bed with Zak. Both of them were fully dressed, she was relieved to see, but it was still a huge double bed the two of them lay in.

      Zak peered past her at the clock. ‘A few minutes after eleven o’clock,’ he supplied.

      ‘Oh, that’s not so bad!’ She sighed her relief. ‘I’ve only been asleep for an hour or СКАЧАТЬ