Resisting Alexandre (Knight Security 0.5) (8 page)

“Thank you.”

She eyed him mischievously. “You don’t know what movie I’m going to choose yet!”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to be watching the movie anyway,” he confided huskily.

He was going to be watching her, Stazzi realized. At the same time as she realized she didn’t mind.

Those few minutes of tension between them a few minutes ago, when she was sure Alexandre didn’t want to see her again, had at least shown her that she did want to see and be with him again.

And it had nothing at all to do with being on the rebound from Will…

Chapter 7

“What do you really know about this woman?” Gerard frowned his disapproval the following morning after Alexandre had instructed him over breakfast to cancel any and all of his engagements for this evening. When pressed, he had confided he would be spending that time with Anastazia. “She could be a fortune hunter. Possibly sleeping with the billionaire prince so that she can sell her story to the media. Or—”

“Don’t, Gerard.” Alexandre’s voice was quiet, but that in no way lessened the icy anger he felt at his cousin’s comments.

“But—”

“I said don’t,” he repeated.

Gerard scowled. “You’re the ruler of Androcco now and can no longer behave like a playboy prince—”

“I can behave any fucking way I choose.” Alexandre’s hands were clenched on his thighs beneath the table, his eyes narrowed in warning.

“I’ll do a background check—”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort!” Alexandre exploded forcefully. “Leave her out of your fucking paranoia, okay? I mean it, Gerard. She’s beautiful, funny, and I like being with her, and that’s all either of us needs to know about her.”

“But—”

“Go, Gerard, before I lose my temper.” Alexandre stood up to walk over and stare unseeing out of one of the floor-to-ceiling windows, hands thrust into the pockets of his tailored trousers. “And, Gerard,” he said without turning to look at the other man, “don’t even attempt to check into Anastazia behind my back, and then claim it was in the name of security.”

Alexandre waited until he heard the door close softly behind his cousin before relaxing the tension from his shoulders.

He knew Gerard meant well, but when it came to Anastazia, he didn’t want any interference from his cousin. She was already proving elusive enough, without any help from Gerard in pushing her away.

“Don’t even ask!” Lissa muttered as she let herself into the apartment the following morning as Stazzi was leaving to go to work.

Her brows rose. “No?”

“No.” Lissa’s eyes flashed in warning.

“Ash an asshole again?”

“Oh yeah, majorly so,” her friend muttered with feeling. “I don’t know how I got the impression he could ever be anything else.” She gave a self-disgusted shake of her head. “How was the rest of your evening?”

“It was good.” She didn’t quite meet Lissa’s gaze. “I’ll…probably be back late tonight. I have another date with Alexandre,” she revealed with a wince, carrying a bag with her change of clothes for this evening. There was very little point in her coming home if she was meeting up with Alexandre and having dinner with him at seven o’clock.

Lissa was trying her best to appear composed, but Stazzi knew her friend well enough to know that she was hurting. She also knew Lissa must have really liked Asher Knight to have spent the night with him. Pity that liking had been misguided.

“Have a lovely evening.” Lissa gave her a quick hug. “I have to shower and change now and then get to work.”

Stazzi paused in the open doorway. “But you’ll be okay?”

“I’ll be fine.” Lissa brightened. “Into every woman’s life an asshole must fall,” she misquoted wryly.

Stazzi chuckled as she knew she was meant to, but it didn’t stop her from worrying about Lissa on and off for the rest of the day, and telephoning a couple of times to check on her friend. Or feeling slightly angry with Asher Knight for hurting her. Perhaps a misplaced anger considering he had made no attempt to give the impression he was anything other than what he was. A selfish asshole. Taking into account Will’s behavior, there seemed to be a lot of those about at the moment.

Stazzi saw nothing of Alexandre as she went about her business for the rest of the day. According to Adrian, the prince had informed him he would be out at business meetings all day.

Consequently, she was more than a little nervous when she arrived as a visitor to the penthouse suite at exactly seven o’clock.

Her eyes widened when the lift arrived and she found Alexandre standing outside in the hallway waiting for her, looking totally relaxed in well-worn denims and a black short-sleeved polo shirt that showed off the bulge of muscles in his shoulders, arms, and chest. His hair looked damp from a shower, his jaw freshly shaved.

“You look nice,” he greeted huskily as he bent to kiss her lightly on the cheek.

Stazzi had changed out of her work clothes and was now dressed as casually as he was, wearing a midnight-blue T-shirt and black low-rider jeans. “Thank you. So do you,” she returned just as huskily.

“We’re both very formal all of a sudden.” He grinned. “Let’s order dinner, and then we can choose a film from the hotel—”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Alexandre, but I need your signature on these letters tonight so they can be sent to the appropriate people.”

Stazzi turned to look down the hallway at Gerard St Sebastien as he walked toward them carrying a folder. Only to recoil slightly as she saw the venom in his eyes as his gaze flickered over her contemptuously from her booted feet to her recently brushed hair.

“I’m sure you appreciate how precious Prince Alexandre’s time is, Miss Carmichael,” he added with cold dismissal.

What Stazzi
appreciated
was that this man didn’t like her one little bit. Which wasn’t a problem for her, because she didn’t particularly like him either. There was something about Gerard St Sebastien that was distinctly unpleasant.

“They can wait until the morning, Gerard.” Alexandre’s response to his cousin was harsh, even as he maintained a firm hold on Stazzi’s arm. “Nothing will go off in the post until then anyway.”

“I need to discuss the Thomson Enterprises letter with you before—”

“I said we’ll discuss it in the morning, Gerard,” Alexandre bit out through gritted teeth, knowing it wasn’t the only thing he and his cousin were going to discuss in the morning. “Now, if you will excuse us? Anastazia and I were about to order dinner.” He turned his back on the other man as his hold on Anastazia allowed him to take her with him into the sitting room before closing the door firmly behind them.

She winced. “Your cousin doesn’t approve of me.”

“My cousin doesn’t approve of anyone,” he dismissed lightly.

“Not even you?”

“Most especially me,” Alexandre acknowledged ruefully.

“Why not?”

“I’m not nearly a formal enough ruler for Androcco for Gerard’s liking.”

“I’m sure you are when you need to be.”

“But tonight I don’t need to be.” He released her to pick up the room service menu. “Shall we order dinner?”

Stazzi felt less as if she were dining with a prince as they argued over whether or not they should drink beer or wine with their burgers and NY cheesecake. They both settled for beer with the burgers and wine with the cheesecake. After which the two of them talked about their families and growing up.

Stazzi spoke lovingly of her parents but left out the part about her father being an impoverished duke. It wasn’t important, and she had learned her lesson from Will’s reaction regarding her father’s title but lack of wealth. The fact that she worked as a manager at this hotel was indicative of her family’s finances.

Alexandre talked as affectionately of his own childhood, as well as the loss of his mother when he was a teenager and the sadness of his father’s death two years ago.

“My British public school life doesn’t sound half as much fun as yours and Lissa’s,” he drawled as he relaxed back in his chair opposite where Stazzi sat on the sofa. Their meal was over, and they had pushed the room service trolley out into the hallway.

“I thought you said you and Asher met at school…?”

“We did. Unfortunately, Gerard always attended the same schools and university as me too.”

Stazzi almost choked on her beer as she gave a splutter of laughter, taking a few seconds to mop up before answering him. “Buzzkill?”

Alexandre shrugged. “He was always far too conscientious in regard to our family’s position in life. He would have made a far better heir than me,” he added wistfully.

Their position in life being the House of St Sebastien, the ruling family of the principality of Androcco. “He’s older than you, right?”

“By one year. But my father was the eldest brother and Uncle Frederic the spare.”

“Does that really still apply? An heir and a spare?” she explained as Alexandre looked at her questioningly.

“Oh yes.” He sighed. “You would be surprised at the amount of rules and pomp still attached to royalty, even a minor principality such as my own.”

She wouldn’t, actually. She was occasionally called upon to do her duty as Lady Anastazia Carmichael, daughter of the Duke of Warminster, and appear at a Royal Garden Party or some other formal occasion. Not too often, thank goodness.

“What happened last night with Ash and your friend Lissa?”

She glanced across at Alexandre. “You haven’t spoken to Ash today?”

“Oh, I’ve spoken to him.” Alexandre sat forward to top up their wineglasses. “Ash isn’t saying anything.”

Well, that was something. At least Asher didn’t appear to be the type of man who would totally humiliate Lissa by discussing his conquests with other men.

Stazzi grimaced. “Lissa doesn’t want to talk about it or him.”

He frowned. “I’m sorry.”

“It isn’t your fault.”

“But I introduced the two of them.”

“And Lissa would be the first one to tell you she’s a big girl now and quite capable of making her own mistakes without help from anyone else.” In fact, that was exactly what Lissa had told Stazzi during their last telephone call just after six o’clock this evening.

“It went that well, hm?”

“I believe so, yes. Now, which film are we going to watch?” She deliberately changed the subject. Lissa might take responsibility for her mistakes, but Stazzi wasn’t about to discuss this one with a third party. Even Alexandre. Maybe especially with Alexandre, as he was such a close friend of Ash’s.

The change of subject led to another heated discussion regarding the merits of the newest superhero film or a comedy. Stazzi won, removing her boots before she and Alexandre sat together on one of the sofas in front of the television, the lights turned down as they watched the superheroes once again save the day.

“You just wanted to look at that guy’s abs,” Alexandre commented dryly once the credits were rolling.

“And?”

“And nothing.” He chuckled at Anastazia’s expression of “duh.”

“There was humor in it too,” she defended. “I distinctly heard you laugh a few times.”

She had, yes, but that was mainly because Alexandre was totally relaxed in her company, and he had also enjoyed sitting back and watching her enjoyment of the movie. He had a private cinema in the palace in Androcco, could watch any film he wanted whenever he wanted, but this, here and now with Anastazia, was the most fun he’d had in… Well, in two years, to be exact.

She was also far more relaxed in his company this evening.

“Can I kiss you?”

Stazzi instantly tensed. Not because she didn’t want Alexandre to kiss her. But because she did. Even more so after spending such a relaxed evening with him. She really wasn’t sure it was a good idea to have him kiss her too.

And who decided that everything I do has to be a good idea?

She
liked
Alexandre. Maybe a little more than liked him after spending such an easygoing evening with him. But as long as she didn’t allow herself to get too carried away with the moment, where was the harm in a kiss? Or two?  Alexandre had kissed her good night outside her apartment building last night before he left, and it hadn’t turned her into the wanton she had become in the back of the limousine.

Maybe that was because of all those bodyguards standing only feet away? Bodyguards that were nowhere near this evening…

She dismissed those warnings as she turned toward him. “Yes. Please.”

Chapter 8

Alexandre’s breath caught in his throat as he shifted along the sofa until he sat close enough to Anastazia to place his hands against her cheeks. He lifted her face up to his before he lowered his head and claimed her lips with his own.

He loved Anastazia’s mouth. The parted softness of her lips and the promise of heat beneath. The way she now responded almost shyly, despite the intimacies they had shared the previous evening in the back of the limousine. He could spend hours just kissing her, sipping, tasting, exploring, as he learned every warm contour and nuance of her lips and mouth.

Stazzi wondered why she’d ever thought indulging herself with one kiss—or two—would ever be enough to satisfy the craving she now felt for more. So much more, as her hands rested on the broad width of Alexandre’s muscular shoulders, loving the feel of the shift of those muscles beneath her fingers as Alexandre’s arms moved about her waist and he scooped her up to sit her across the hardness of his thighs.

Her lips parted against the onslaught of his marauding tongue, hands moving instinctively to allow her fingers to become entangled in the hair at his nape. She groaned softly, nipples tightening, a burning ache at the apex of her thighs as the kiss became wild and heated and Alexandre laid claim to every part of her mouth. In the same way the hot throb of his arousal beneath her thigh said he wanted to claim all of her.

She had no idea how long the increasing wildness of those kisses lasted—minutes, hours,
days
—the room filled with the sound of their hungry groans as their hands roamed and caressed with increasing desperation. One of Alexandre’s hands cupped and squeezed her aching breast before moving lower, and that hand parted her denim-clad thighs. He pressed and stroked her swollen clit until she began to gasp and arch into the sureness of those strokes.