The Marine & The Princess Read online

  Their kiss took on a new urgency that was interrupted a few moments later by the sound of the cab screeching to a halt and the cabbie clearing his throat. “We are here,” he announced with an Indian accent.

  Mark broke off the kiss, leaning his forehead against hers. Vanessa could feel his pounding heartbeat beneath her fingertips. “Yes, we are here.” And the way he said it made her think that here was a pretty awesome place to be. Here was a turning point in their relationship, the point of no return. She couldn’t wait.

  Apparently neither could Mark because the instant he paid the cabbie he swept her back into his arms and whisked her up the stairs.

  “I can walk,” she told him in between fierce kisses.

  “I know.” Mark paused at every landing to show her why staying in his arms was a better idea. And he took his time doing it.

  He couldn’t get enough of her. Kissing her just made him want her more. Every second brought new discoveries. That she moaned when he teased the roof of her mouth with his tongue. That she shivered when he nibbled on her lower lip. That he went up in flames when she did the same to him.

  He slowly slid her to the tiled floor outside the apartment’s front door, letting her body brush against his. Her sweet scent drove him mad. Carnations. He’d been smelling carnations for days. And nights. How he’d fantasized about her during the long and sleepless nights.

  But even his hottest fantasies weren’t as incredible as the reality of being able to curve his hands around her lush derriere and pull her close to his throbbing arousal. She smiled in the dim light of the hallway and rubbed against him with primal feminine enticement.

  Growling, he pinned her to the wall, lifting her leg so that she wrapped it around his hips. She braced her bare foot against the back of his thigh as she pressed closer. His hands shifted up and around to once again slide beneath the temptation of her tube top. He brushed his thumbs against her taut nipples and watched her face flush with passion.

  “I’ve wanted to do this from the first moment I saw you in that purple robe of yours.” His voice was soft and rough with desire. He lifted the tube top just enough out of his way on one side so that he could bathe her breast with kisses.

  Sighing, she slid her fingers through his dark hair and held him closer, her nails raking his scalp.

  When he finally took her bare breast into his mouth, she arched her back with unspoken bliss. He caressed her nipples with a tongue made warm and wet from her kisses.

  Vanessa thought she’d go up in flames right there, right then. She was filled with a taut urgency that was spiraling out of control. Her lower body was pressed tightly against his and still it wasn’t close enough.

  She loved the way he was making her feel. She loved him.

  She couldn’t wait to show him how much.

  He made her feel more like a woman than she’d ever felt before. He’d never seemed impressed that she was a princess. But right now he was huskily murmuring his awe and approval of her body and the way she made his respond.

  “Feel what you do to me,” he groaned, moving against her, his hips surging against hers.

  “I want to feel even more,” she whispered. “Let’s go inside.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “We’ve wasted enough time.” She undid the final button on his shirt and tugged it from the waistband of his pants. “I want us to be together,” she murmured against his bare chest, licking the saltiness from his skin. “Where’s the key?”

  “Key?” he repeated in a dazed voice.

  “To the apartment.” She slid her hand into his right trouser pocket only to be surprised at what she found there. “Oh my!” She hesitantly stroked him through the material. “Oh my!”

  Mark dug into his other pocket and thrust the key into the lock even as he thrust his tongue into her mouth for a searing kiss that spoke of a raw passion running out of control.

  Without lifting his lips from hers, he backed her into the darkened apartment, not bothering to turn on the lights as he aimed her for the couch. He’d be lucky if he could make it that far. He wanted to take her right here, right now, right where they stood.

  Danger! His warrior’s instinct gave him the dire warning a split second before the lights were suddenly switched on.

  He immediately thrust her behind him as he faced the intruders.

  He could feel her shifting against his back as she readjusted her tube top before peering around his shoulder. “Oscar! How dare you!” Her voice was filled with regal outrage.

  Mark’s gut clenched.

  Vanessa grabbed his hand as if to tug him out the door with her, as if she was planning on making a run for it with him by her side.

  Oscar was not alone. He’d brought three royal security guards with him. Mark recognized one of them as the guy with the camera in Central Park.

  “Captain Wilder, the king is most dissatisfied with your most recent reports,” Oscar declared. “We feel you have not been entirely forthcoming with us.”

  The words halted Vanessa in her tracks. Her father’s press officer was speaking to Mark as if he knew him.

  Her heart began a slow pound of dread. “Reports?” she repeated. “What reports?” Turning to face Mark, she said, “What reports?”

  The guilty look in his eyes made her heart stop. When it began beating again, she was a different woman. A woman betrayed.

  “No.” Her voice was wobbly with emotion. Shaking her head, she dropped his hand as if it were poisoned. “No.”

  The pain was overwhelming. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. She could only gaze at the man she loved with mute despair.

  “Vanessa, listen to me. You don’t understand. This wasn’t my idea. I was ordered to report to your father.” Mark reached out to her, but Vanessa pushed him and his words away.

  She fell back on her years of training, of hiding her feelings, of playing the role of a princess completely unaffected by human emotions. Hard as it was, she regained control. She had to. It was either that or fall into a million tiny pieces right where she stood.

  “Oh, I understand perfectly.” Her voice was now icy cold. The transformation was complete, from woman in love to ice princess.

  “No, you don’t,” Mark began, only to be interrupted by her father’s minion.

  “If Her Highness says she understands, then I’m sure she does understand,” Oscar said with a prissy smirk that Mark wanted to wipe off his face. The small man had dark beady eyes and a thin mustache. He also had the pompous manner of someone capable of misusing power. “What I don’t understand is how you could allow her to go out in such attire.”

  “You go too far, Oscar,” Vanessa warned him in a steely voice.

  Oscar bowed his head with false remorse. “I apologize if I have offended you, Your Highness, but I fear the king will be even further offended by your…clothing.”

  “So he hired a U.S. Marine to act as my nanny? He must have had to pull a number of strings to do that.”

  Turning to face Mark, she said, “Just tell me one thing. Did Prudence know about this?”

  “No,” Mark assured her, hurriedly rebuttoning his shirt and stuffing it back into his pants. “Prudence had no part in any of this.”

  Vanessa had to look away. She was the one who’d wantonly undone his shirt, who’d kissed and caressed him like a besotted fool. She was ashamed in a way that hurt and made her feel ill.

  “Your father bugged your phone at the Plaza Hotel,” Mark said. “And when you called Prudence and talked about your plan, he knew about it. I’d already agreed to come help you when your father contacted the State Department and through them, the Marines.”

  “I don’t believe you.” She’d deal with her father later. What she didn’t believe was that Mark had already agreed to come to New York. He’d been ordered to do that, ordered to spy on her.

  “Your Highness, the king feels you’ve spent enough time in New York,” Oscar pompously stated, bending his head to her with feigned obs
equiousness. “He feels that it’s time you return to your duties in our homeland. We shall have to have the royal hairdresser do something with you before the king sees you.”

  “The hair color is temporary.” Now Vanessa was the one who bent her head, as if unable to withstand the weight of her shattered illusions a moment longer.

  “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” Mark reminded her. “Vanessa, you don’t have to go back.”

  “Captain, you are not helping matters here,” Oscar stated. “Your presence is no longer needed.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” Mark warned the smaller man, who looked as if he was about to order his security men to deal with Mark. They all halted in their tracks, unaccustomed to hearing a U.S. Marine officer bark an order. The voice was universally effective at making men obey.

  Returning his attention to her, he said, “Vanessa, listen to me—”

  “Why should I listen to you?” she interrupted him. Clearly his officer voice didn’t work at making this princess obey him. “Why should I listen to a single thing you have to say?”

  “I’m sorry I had to deceive you—”

  She interrupted him again. “You had to deceive me? And why was that? Was someone holding a loaded gun to your head, Captain?”

  “I was following orders.”

  “Ah, yes. Just a loyal Marine. Following orders. Nothing personal.” With every word another small part of her died. She should have listened to him that very first day, when he’d warned her that her Cinderella glass slippers were going to get broken in the real world. He hadn’t warned her that he’d also shatter her heart.

  She yanked the slipper necklace from her neck, breaking the delicate chain and leaving a red mark on her skin. She dropped the necklace onto the coffee table with the bitter knowledge that unlike Cinderella, there was no fairy-tale happy ending in sight for her.

  “I had to do it,” Mark was saying. “I couldn’t disobey my orders.”

  “Weren’t you the one who said ‘I’m a Marine, I don’t do anything against my will’?”

  Oscar impatiently interrupted them. “Your Highness, we are wasting time.”

  “Put a sock in it,” Mark warned Oscar. Facing Vanessa, he tried to defend his actions. “I didn’t ask for this assignment.”

  Wrong thing to say. He saw that the moment the words left his mouth. He could feel the tension emanating from her. She was a land mine ready to detonate, and she did.

  “I’m so sorry you were burdened with the assignment, Captain!” Her green eyes flashed with fury. “But look on the bright side. Your job is over now.”

  “It wasn’t just a job.” His voice was clipped. “You weren’t just a job.”

  “Right,” she scoffed. “I’ll bet you say that to all the princesses you deceive.”

  “Look, I know you’re upset right now.”

  “Upset doesn’t even come close,” she said, trying to keep the anguish at bay.

  Later, she thought detachedly. Later she would allow herself to feel ashamed at the way she’d offered herself to him, the way she’d responded to his kisses. But not now. Not in front of him. Not in front of anyone.

  “We’ve taken the liberty of packing your things, Your Highness,” Oscar said. “The private jet is waiting.”

  “Let it wait,” Mark growled, sending him a lethal look that had Oscar taking a step back. “You’re not taking her anywhere against her will.”

  “Of course…we would never…” Oscar sputtered.

  “There is nothing of importance here that I need to take with me,” Vanessa said in a painfully polite voice.

  “What about those hopes and dreams you shared with me?” Mark said.

  “The ones you told my father about?” she retorted. “Do you mean those hopes and dreams? Did you include those in the reports you sent my father? I’d like to see them someday. I’m sure they’d be fascinating reading.” There was a wealth of bitterness in her words.

  His betrayal cut through her like a fiery sword being driven into her very soul. She’d loved him. She thought she’d found the one man who could love her for herself. She’d bared her soul to him, she’d told him things she hadn’t revealed to anyone else. And now he had the nerve to talk about her hopes and dreams, after he’d just pulverized them all.

  She’d trusted him. With her innermost thoughts, with her confessions, with her very heart.

  And all the while, he’d gone to his laptop computer every night to relay it all back to her father, who’d betrayed her as well.

  Her own father didn’t appear capable of loving her. Why should she think that Mark could love her? Maybe it was her. Maybe there was some fatal flaw in her.

  She stared at the royal coat of arms on the royal security guards’ jackets with eyes too dry to cry. Misery clawed at her heart as a child’s rhyme played in her head. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men…couldn’t put one shattered princess back together again.

  And shattered she certainly was, standing here with only one sandal. She tore it off and quickly slipped on her original walking shoes, which she’d carelessly left by the front door. She had to get out of here.

  “You wanted to live a life that completed you instead of one that left you empty,” Mark reminded her.

  “Don’t you dare throw my words back at me,” she said fiercely, her control strained to the limit.

  “Her Highness lives a very full life,” Oscar stated. “Her fiancé is eagerly waiting for her return.”

  “Fiancé?” Mark went very still.

  “Sebastian de Koonan is one of our wealthiest citizens,” Oscar bragged. “His family has been connected to the royal family for generations. He is a successful business tycoon and a man of sophistication and class. He will make a fine and worthy husband for our princess.”

  Why wasn’t Vanessa saying anything, why wasn’t she denying it? Mark stared at her, willing her to look him in the eye. Instead, a gulf of silence separated them. He tried to bridge it. “You told me there weren’t any besotted beaux in the picture.”

  “Sebastian is in Volzemburg.”

  She wasn’t denying it. There was a fiancé. Rich. Suitable. All the things he wasn’t. Fury consumed him. “So what, that means out of sight out of mind with you?”

  “My private life is none of your business.” His snort of disbelief made her want to hurt him just a tenth as much as he’d hurt her. “Did you really think a princess like me would want a Marine like you?”

  His face was instantly wiped clean of all expression. She’d made a direct hit, but the knowledge gave her no pleasure. She had to leave—now, before she broke down entirely. As if sensing her distress, Oscar placed a velvet cloak over her shoulders and guided her toward the door. Tucking the ends of the cloak around her body with numb fingers, Vanessa tucked the raw edges of her emotions deep inside, where no one could see them, where no one could access them and use them to hurt her.

  “Dumb me for feeling guilty about deceiving you, Princess.” His voice was gritty. “You were the one deceiving me all along.”

  “We deceived each other,” Vanessa said, staring at him with green eyes dark with pain before walking out with Oscar and the guards.

  Leaving Mark alone in an empty apartment, staring down at the silver slipper she’d left behind.

  Chapter Ten

  “Your performance in this matter is a serious disappointment to me, Captain.”

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Mark replied the next morning as he stood in his C.O.’s office at the Marine Combat Center in Quantico, Virginia. He’d taken the first flight out of New York and arrived here at 0900 hours. He hadn’t gotten any sleep at all last night after Vanessa had left. That didn’t matter. Marines didn’t need sleep. They didn’t need love either. Not from a princess engaged to another man.

  Mark yanked his thoughts back to his current surroundings. The office was filled with standard government-issued desk, office chairs, bookcases and filing cabinets. In on
e corner stood the American flag, while prominently displayed in the opposite corner was the Marine Corps flag. Lined up around the wall in immaculate precision were framed photographs of Marine greats like Chesty Puller.

  Mark’s C.O., Lieutenant Colonel Charles Wilkes, had the square-jawed face and military haircut of Chesty. He also possessed his own brand of steely-eyed stares that could be as piercing as a saber.

  Lieutenant Colonel Wilkes used that stare on Mark as he stated, “Sorry doesn’t cut it in the Marine Corps, Captain.”

  No excuses, no exceptions. The philosophy of every Marine. Mark nodded. “Understood, sir.”

  “You should know that.”

  “Yes, sir.” There was a lot Mark should have known. Like the fact that Vanessa was engaged to some tycoon back in Volzemburg. Why hadn’t that tidbit shown up on the files he’d been given?

  “I understand that the king’s press officer and the royal security guards walked in on you and the princess in a…compromising situation.”

  “Actually, sir, for the record, we walked in on them.” Mark’s voice was as crisp as the Marine uniform he wore. “They were waiting for us in the apartment.” Ready to ambush us. Mark didn’t say that, he just thought it. The door had been locked when he and Vanessa had arrived, which meant the royal security guards must have picked the lock and then relocked it once they were inside.

  “And what if they’d been hostiles instead of the king’s men? What would have happened to the princess then, Captain Wilder?”

  “She would have been in danger, sir.” Regret shot through Mark. Regret for so many things, he didn’t even know where to start. Regret that he’d been given this assignment in the first place, regret that he’d let his emotions get out of hand, regret that he’d put her safety at risk, regret that he’d been taken in by her beauty. “That was a major error in judgment on my part, sir.”

  “Yes, it was. The question is what are we going to do about it?”