Operation: Monarch. Valerie Parv

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      “I saw a program on TV about the facilities you people have available at the palace gym. You wouldn’t be here without good reason. Obviously your reason involves me.”

      “I’m sorry,” she began.

      His gesture sliced across her apology. “Never mind that, Serena. What do you want from me?”

      Chapter 2

      She looked around. The thumping music had stopped and people were streaming in from the other room, scattering themselves around the equipment. “Not here,” she said. “Can we go somewhere more private?”

      He draped the towel around his neck. “I’ll meet you out front in ten minutes.”

      She was ready in nine but he was already waiting for her, his dark hair glistening from the shower and his shirt damp as if he hadn’t taken the time to completely dry off. She knew better than to think he had been anxious to meet her. More likely he wanted to get the meeting over with as quickly as possible.

      He gestured toward the battered pickup. “We can talk in my truck.”

      She had been thinking along the lines of coffee and a baguette in a café by the waterfront. She saw him read her body language and frowned in disapproval. For the latte set he thought she still belonged to, or for her company?

      Probably both, she thought on an inward sigh. One day she would learn that he simply didn’t want her around. “Lead on.”

      He threw his duffel bag into the pickup and opened the passenger door for her from the inside. Before she could climb in, he reached down and pushed an assortment of fast-food wrappers under the seat. If not for the immaculate state of his diving equipment, she would have believed he was a complete boor.

      “Now you can get in,” he said, sounding as if he didn’t care either way.

      He slammed the door and she inhaled a mix of chlorine and southern-fried chicken. When he joined her, she asked, “Do you live in this thing?”

      “Not usually.”

      Only since his parents were killed, she interpreted, feeling a surge of compassion for him. She knew he didn’t have any other family, and losing them must have hit him hard. Her background check showed that he normally lived aboard his dive boat which was presently in dry dock. He would have inherited his parents’ house, but maybe he couldn’t bring himself to move in there yet and was living out of his car until his boat was repaired.

      He could also be the rightful heir to the Carramer throne, she reminded herself, although without much conviction. If he ever assumed the crown, the country was in for a shock. The members of the royal family she had met were fairly down-to-earth, but none could match a long-haired, fried-chicken-eating bad boy like Garth. That he could be a de Marigny by birth seemed fantastic beyond belief.

      Luckily she didn’t have to make the decision, only bring Garth to the palace so Prince Lorne could investigate his relationship to the throne. She choked back a smile as she pictured them together, alike enough in looks to be brothers, but as different in temperament as night from day.

      “What’s so funny?”

      “Nothing, really. I’m here because Prince Lorne asked me to renew our acquaintance.”

      “How did you know where to find me?”

      This was the tricky part. A man as private as Garth wouldn’t take kindly to learning she’d been asking about him. “The castle has its resources.”

      “Resources like having me watched?”

      “Only so I could bring you to meet Prince Lorne.”

      He slammed his palms against the steering wheel, making her jump. “The hell with that. Carramer is supposed to be a free country.”

      In many countries he would probably have disappeared before he could destabilize the monarchy, she thought. “It’s precisely because it’s a free country that the prince asked to see you, instead of having you arrested and brought before him.”

      He looked as if he didn’t particularly appreciate the courtesy. “Don’t tell me the navy has seen the error of its ways and the monarch wants to apologize and restore my commission personally.”

      His cynical tone made her want to squirm. She didn’t tell him that the prince had already started a discreet investigation into Garth’s experience with the navy. No sense getting his hopes up in case nothing new was uncovered. “I wouldn’t know about that. He has something more personal to discuss with you.”

      “You aren’t going to tell me, are you?”

      “I can’t. It’s a matter of national security.”

      “Is it, Serena? Or are you enjoying keeping me in the dark to punish me for hurting your pride all those years ago?”

      She half turned, wishing the space weren’t so confined. Garth was so big that their knees were touching, only the gear shift keeping their bodies apart. If she pressed against him, would he feel as hard and lean as he looked? In the gym she had seen how toned he was, wanting to touch him then. She wanted it more now. Evidently she was the only one. Anger drove away the urge, leaving only bitterness. He hadn’t changed. “I’m not that petty.”

      “No you’re not.”

      The admission sounded so genuine so that she felt her eyes mist and she blinked hard. “To what do I owe the concession?”

      He massaged his eyes, digging his fingers into the temples as if his head hurt. “You always managed to bring out the worst in me. I thought I’d grown past it, but evidently not.”

      So he was far from indifferent to her! Struggling to keep her seesawing emotions under control, she said, “My father says the same thing about his brother. Even in their fifties, they still fight over little things. It’s called sibling rivalry.” Maybe she could manage her runaway responses by thinking of him in those terms.

      He gave a humorless laugh. “Believe me, whatever I thought of you, it wasn’t brotherly.”

      Hurt speared her in spite of her attempt to remain unruffled. “Because we came from such different backgrounds?” Was he holding that against her even today?

      “Because we come from such different genders.”

      It took a moment for his meaning to penetrate. “Oh.”

      “They must have taught you about the birds and the bees in security school?”

      Thinking of the ways she had been taught to disable a man who even looked as if he had birds and bees on his mind, she felt a smile start. “Yes, but not in the way you’re thinking.”

      “You have no idea what I’m thinking. If you did, you’d be out of this truck like a shot.”

      If she had any sense, she would leave anyway. But when had she ever had any sense around Garth Remy? And she still had her job to do. She tried for a light tone. “Let me guess. You’re wondering if you made a mistake letting me slip through your fingers the first time.”

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