The Duchess and Her Bodyguard. Mollie Molay

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ said, they’re in.”

      Her face paled and her eyes turned as cold as the glittering emeralds around her neck. “I think you’re forgetting who I am and who you are, Commander.”

      Wade felt as if he’d been slapped in the face.

      “Not at all, Your Grace,” he said with as much restraint as he could muster. “I’m Commander Wade Stevens, of the United States Navy. A lawyer attached to the Judge Advocate General Corps. While I’m not normally in the escort business, I am also the man you apparently asked for as an escort. And as your chosen escort I get to make the rules. You might say,” he added dryly, “you’re in my hands for the duration of your stay.”

      At the annoyed expression that came across her face, Wade began to wonder if the duchess actually knew the reason his government was interested in protecting her. Or if she realized that if she hadn’t been in some kind of danger, the Secret Service and his own services would never have been called into play. Just how urgent remained to be seen.

      He settled for the middle ground. “Where I come from, Your Grace, anything worth doing is worth doing well. Especially after an order from my superiors. So, how about starting over? As long as we appear to be stuck with each other for the next few days, how about a truce?”

      He knew, even as he asked the question, that any truce the lady might agree to wasn’t going to be worth the powder to blow it to hell.

      MAY GAZED in stony silence at the man who was turning out to be her bodyguard as well as her escort. Instead of being intimidated by her royal status, he appeared not to be impressed. Part of her was annoyed, even angry at his take-charge attitude. Another part, the sensible part of her, admired his courage. If there ever was a man she wanted as an escort around Washington, D.C., it was this Wade Stevens. From the moment she’d watched him make his way across the room in his eye-catching uniform, she’d sensed that a woman could be a woman and enjoy herself with him. Now, if she could only make him see things her way.

      He stood more than six foot tall, with wavy brown hair and hazel eyes that changed with his thoughts. In his pristine white uniform, his athletic figure stirred emotions in her no other man before him had managed to do. Certainly not her late husband.

      When their gazes locked, she realized that she wanted more than Wade Stevens’s company. She wanted him as a woman wants a man, and, heaven forgive her, in ways she was almost embarrassed to contemplate.

      On the other hand, attracted to him or not, she had promised herself she would never let a man control her again the way her late husband had been wont to do. And certainly not a person from another country. Asking her to cooperate with him was one thing. Ordering her to do it was another.

      She’d spent her life as a member of the Baronovian royal family, with a position to be upheld. Unfortunately, upholding that position had too often kept her from going where her heart and her interests had led her.

      And now, to her surprise, her heart had led her straight to a man she could never make her own.

      She had hoped things would be different in the United States, a country where her tutors had told her everyone had been created equal and everyone was free. Somewhere she could be herself—May Baron—instead of the Dowager Duchess Mary Louise.

      If only she could tell him she wasn’t the woman she appeared to be.

      She pulled her thoughts together, told herself to ignore Wade, to ignore her attraction to him. She wanted to see how ordinary people lived in the United States, a country that had intrigued her for years. No way was she going home without seeing the city she’d read about in a magazine during her flight here.

      Even though she came only to his chin, she drew herself up to her full height. Instead of being May, the woman she actually yearned to be, she assumed the persona of Dowager Duchess Mary Louise of Lorrania, widow of the late duke of Lorrania. “I am going to speak to my father,” she repeated. “And, since I am surely safe here, you may consider yourself at liberty to leave. I will see you at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

      Wade stared at her for tense moment before he shook his head and kept a studied smile on his face for the benefit of possible watchers. She’d agreed to go along with him a moment ago. What had changed her mind?

      “Take it easy, Your Grace,” he said. “We’ll visit your father together. Then, I’ll leave.”

      Prince Alexis paused in conversation with a foreign diplomat and greeted his daughter with a broad smile. “Ah, my dear, I was beginning to wonder where you were.” He glanced at Wade as if he didn’t know who he was. “Why don’t you introduce your escort, my dear?”

      Wade bit back a comment. According to Logan, the prince had been consulted about his daughter’s choice of escort. Now, the prince was pretending not to know him. And not to know the duty included being his daughter’s bodyguard as well as her escort. If the assignment was a secret, there had to be more here than met the eye. Hopefully, he thought with crossed fingers, an escort was all he would be called upon to be.

      “Commander Wade Stevens of the United States Navy,” Mary Louise replied distantly. “My father, Prince Alexis.”

      Wade shook the prince’s hand. After seeing the fond gaze the man sent his daughter, Wade didn’t have the heart to suggest his daughter needed to be told to listen to reason. Or to even suggest it was time to tell her all the reasons for their visit and any danger that might be attached to it.

      “I just wanted to say good-night, Your Highness,” Wade said after noting the wary look in the duchess’s eyes. He knew, without her saying so, she wasn’t anxious for her father to hear about her behavior. “With your permission, sir, I expect to pick up Her Grace tomorrow morning at nine.”

      “Of course, Commander. I’m sure my daughter will be very grateful to get away from boring affairs of state. Where are your plans for sight-seeing?”

      Wade sensed the duchess tense beside him and couldn’t bring himself betray her. Somehow, somewhere, under that royal facade had to be the woman in white with the sensuous smile he’d been attracted to. A real woman he could reason with. It was up to him to find that woman without making a public deal of it. “Her Grace and I are going to make our plans in the morning.”

      He heard her sigh of relief. Behind that cool royal exterior and imperious manner there beat the heart of a young woman. A woman who valued her father’s approval, even if she didn’t value his.

      Wade turned to the duchess. “I’ll be here to pick you up at nine, Your Grace. But I would appreciate your walking me to the door. With your permission, sir?”

      “Of course,” the prince remarked. “Go ahead, my dear. I’ll be here waiting to say good-night when you return.”

      May took the arm Wade held out to her as they threaded their way through the thinning crowd. “Thank you for not telling my father we are not in agreement,” she said in an undertone. “I am sure I will have a wonderful time in your city. And by the way, you may call me May when we are out in public. It’s the name my family calls me. That way no one will know who I really am.”

      Wade took his cap from an attendant. It was becoming difficult to keep up with the lady’s many mood changes, but duty was duty. After a quick glance at the door, he led her back to a quiet corner. “I have two things to say to you before I leave, May.” He waited until he had her undivided attention.

      “One—never, СКАЧАТЬ