Romancing The Crown: Lorenzo and Anna: The Man Who Would Be King / The Princess And The Mercenary. Marilyn Pappano

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      “It had to be hunters,” he told Eliza when they met back at the campsite. “He heard the guns and must have thought someone was shooting at him.”

      “So he took off.”

      Lorenzo nodded grimly. “He wouldn’t have gone south, that’s where the hunters were.”

      “And the cliffs on either side of the creek made it impossible for him to go east or west. He had no choice but to go north.”

      “Just like Willy said,” he retorted. “Crafty old goat. I bet he knew about that deer stand all along.”

      Eliza shrugged, a rueful smile curling the corners of her mouth. “I wouldn’t put it past him. Willy doesn’t always feel the need to share everything he knows.”

      “Now you tell me,” Lorenzo retorted, but he couldn’t complain. Willy had put them on the right path to finding the prince, and he owed him for that. There was no question that the king and queen would reward him for his help if he would let them, but for now, he couldn’t worry about Willy. Half the day was gone, and he had a feeling they had a long way to go before they tracked down Lucas. By mutual agreement, they headed north.

      For a while, they made good time. Hurrying to keep up with Lorenzo’s long stride, Eliza didn’t notice that the terrain had become progressively rougher until she unexpectedly stepped in a hole. Between one heartbeat and the next, she went down.

      She didn’t remember crying out, but suddenly, Lorenzo was there, his handsome face lined with worry. “Are you all right? What happened? Here, let me help you up.”

      “I stepped in a hole,” she said, dazed. She struggled to her feet, only to wince, and in the next instant, he’d swept her up off her feet and set her head spinning. “Lorenzo! What are you doing?”

      “Making sure you didn’t break your ankle,” he growled, and carried her over to a nearby log. Setting her down, he immediately dropped down to a knee in front of her and began gently tugging off her right boot and sock.

      Eliza told herself there was nothing personal in his touch—he would have done the same for anyone. Then his hand closed around her bare ankle, and just that easily, he set every nerve ending in her body tingling. Startled, she gasped softly…and drew his eyes to her.

      “Does that hurt?” he asked huskily.

      He knew it didn’t—she could see the awareness in his eyes, the same awareness that now had her heart thundering in her breast—but she only shook her head. “No,” she choked. “It’s just a little tender. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

      He frowned at that. “Maybe we should call off the search for the rest of the day.”

      “No! I appreciate the offer, but it’s not necessary. Really,” she insisted when he hesitated. “I’m fine. Look.”

      She wiggled her foot, testing her ankle. Under his hand, Lorenzo felt the delicacy of her bones, and in spite of himself, he was fascinated. Because she was such a tiger when it came to her job, he tended to forget just how delicate she was as a woman…until he touched her. Then he found himself wanting to run his hands over her. Just once, he told himself, he wanted to see how soft she was.

      Don’t even think about going there, a voice in his head growled. Not unless you want the story to end up on the front page.

      That brought him back to his senses as nothing else could, and with a hastily swallowed oath, he jerked his hand back and handed her her sock. “If you’re sure. Tell me if it starts to hurt you.”

      Rising to his feet, he vowed he wasn’t going to touch her again. But as soon as she’d pulled her sock and boot back on and they continued moving north, he couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to help her whenever they reached a rough spot. And with every touch of their hands, he found it harder and harder to let her go.

      When they finally reached the end of the narrow valley and stumbled onto a road, Lorenzo was torn between relief and frustration. He didn’t have to touch her anymore, but they’d come to the end of the trail. Once Lucas reached the road, he could have gone anywhere.

      Chapter 6

      The town of Lightning, Colorado, might have only been fifty miles from Boulder, but it was as far from the city as Jupiter was from the sun. With a population of three hundred, there was no hotel, no sophisticated restaurants, nothing that would appeal to royalty. The local café wasn’t open for dinner, but the bar next to the town’s only motel was. Divided by the two lane highway that went right through the middle of the town, Lightning was little more than a wide spot in the road. It couldn’t even claim a traffic light.

      When Lorenzo pulled up in front of the motel, Eliza half expected him to suggest that they drive on to the next town before stopping for the night. The Lightning Bolt Motel was little more than an old-fashioned motor court that must have been there since the forties. A neon sign blinked in the office window, the parking lot was full of potholes and what little paint there was on the long, narrow ranch-style building was faded and chipped. To put it bluntly, the place looked like a dump.

      But Lorenzo didn’t even blink twice at the sight of the place. “I’ll check in,” he said as he cut the engine. “There’s no use both of us going in. You can stay in the car and rest.”

      Exhausted, Eliza could have hugged him for that. After they’d lost the prince’s trail when they’d come to the two-lane highway, they’d hiked back to the truck, retraced their route, then discreetly checked the towns up and down the highway in either direction, stopping at local restaurants, gas stations and hotels to see if anyone favoring a candid picture of Lucas had come through there during the past year. It was a tedious exercise in futility, and not surprisingly, no one had been able to help them.

      Logically, they had both known finding the prince wasn’t going to be easy, not after so much time had passed since the crash, but the enormity of what they were up against hadn’t hit them until they kept running into one brick wall after another. The prince could be anywhere. For all they knew, he’d left the state of Colorado and could be sunning himself on the beaches of Florida…or Hawaii, for that matter. If he was even in the United States. At this point, there was no way to know.

      They’d set themselves an impossible task—they were looking for a needle in a haystack—but Eliza knew Lorenzo was as dedicated as she to finding the prince. That wasn’t the problem. It was the realization that they were going to have to spend a lot more time together than either of them had anticipated.

      Hours after she’d nearly twisted her ankle, she could still feel the touch of his hand on her. And he’d touched her countless times since. Every time they came to a stump or the creek or rocky ground when they were hiking through the woods, he’d held out his hand to her, his eyes had met hers, and something had passed between them that still had the power to make her heart turn over in her breast.

      “Stop thinking about it,” she told herself sternly, but she couldn’t. Her imagination was a blessing and a curse at one and the same time. With no effort whatsoever, she only had to close her eyes to feel his hand slide slowly up her calf to her knee, then her thigh—

      The driver’s door opened with no warning and Lorenzo slid behind the wheel. “Okay, we’re all set,” he began, only to stop when he noticed her face. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

      Mortified СКАЧАТЬ