Page 40 of To Claim His Heir by Christmas

His cat-like reflexes kicked in and he dropped his hands to her waist to keep her upright.

‘Dios, I crave you like a physical ache. Not here, though, angel. I can’t lose it with you here,’ he breathed in a rush of warm air over her cheek as he ran his nose up the side of hers and rested there for a gloriously intimate beat.

No. She couldn’t possibly sleep with him. It would make everything a hundred times worse. And what was more…

‘Thane, you have to stop calling me that, okay?’ It tore off another piece of her heart every time he did.

‘What…? Angel? Why? It’s what you reminded me of last night in the limousine, with your hair this colour. Darkly spun gold. Seraphic. Beautiful. As you are, Luciana. Inside and out.’

‘D…Don’t put me on a pedestal, Thane. I’m no angel. Sooner or later I’ll drop from a great height.’

And, like finely spun glass, she would shatter to the floor in a million pieces.

A rueful light flickered in his eyes as he hiked one broad shoulder. ‘Then maybe we will be equal.’

Guilt. So much guilt it seemed to suffocate his soul.

‘What your father did—giving control to your uncle—it’s not your fault.’

Scepticism vied with his obvious desire to believe her.

‘What job or mission did you refuse to do, anyway? What would anger him so much that he’d delay your taking the throne for so long?’

That had to have been ten years ago…

A shadow swarmed over his face and in that moment somehow she knew.

Foreboding crackled down her spine and she stumbled back a step. ‘Go on. Say it.’

He shoved his hands through his wind-tousled raven-black hair and his chest swelled as he hauled in air. ‘How did you know?’

‘I wasn’t sure until right this moment. But rumours have a way of reaching the right ears and poisoning minds.’

A muscle ticked in his jaw as he gave a short nod. ‘I disobeyed a direct order and refused to kill your father.’

CHAPTER NINE

LUCIANA CURLED UP on a cushioned recliner on the beach and gazed up at the midnight sky, wishing on a billion twinkling diamond stars that Thane’s business calls would take all night. But, as she already knew, burying her head in the sand would help no one—least of all herself.

The drive back down to the coast had been taut with tension, and by the time dinner had been served on the upper floor balcony Luciana had been strung so tightly she’d barely eaten one mouthful of the delicious seafood paella Hanna had slaved over. Which had only made her feel guiltier still. And she wouldn’t have thought that was possible.

Closing her eyes, she recalled their brief conversation in the car.

‘I didn’t want to tell you,’ he’d said. ‘I thought you’d hold it against me.’

‘I’m glad you told me. You saved his life in the end. It must have been a horrendously hard call for you. Thank you…’

Thane had saved her father’s life. Paid an extortionate price for disobeying his tyrannical King. All for a man he hated. His enemy.

And how is he being repaid? His son is being kept from him. I didn’t know. I didn’t know any of this.

The guilt and pain tearing through her in one relentless lash after another wouldn’t cease. Not for a second.

One day. She’d been here one day and the enormity of what she’d discovered had her reeling. In truth, she wasn’t sure she was taking it all in.

The rush of the ocean lapping over the shore was broken by the sound of bare feet padding down the deck, sending her heart trampolining to her throat and her stomach vaulting with a hectic tumble of dread and anticipation.

Thane straddled the recliner in front of her, one long-stemmed glass of ruby-red liquid in his large grip.

With a wriggle, she edged back to give his broad frame more room, and rested her head against the mocha cushion to drink him in.

He was breathtaking. His dark, fathomless eyes pulled at her like a hypnotic suggestion pressing against her mind. A constant murmur of want that was becoming impossible to ignore. But fight it she would.

‘You are very quiet since we got back,’ he said, his voice low and warm with concern.

‘Just thinking.’

‘No more thinking of the past tonight, hmm? Let’s focus on the future. On us.’

She wasn’t sanguine enough to believe there would be an ‘us’ come the dawn.

You don’t know that for sure, Luce. He might listen to you. Try to understand.

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