Seduced (Royal Expat Series Book #1) (4 page)

When she woke up, the early morning sunlight was peeping through the blinds, and Damian was still beside her, propped up on one elbow and considering her thoughtfully, his grey eyes lighter in the morning light, full of mystery.

“Good morning,” she mumbled, suddenly self-conscious again as she remembered what they had done last night. She had never done anything like it before, and she didn’t know how to act.

“Hi,” he grinned. He leaned down and gave her a long, deep kiss
, instinctively knowing how to soothe away her anxiety. She could feel the stirring of arousal beginning again, but she pulled away before either of them could respond to the call of their bodies. As much as she wanted to lie with him forever, she had to be level-headed about this. With a heavy heart, she realized that she’d have to approach Colin before getting in too deep with Damian.

“I hate to say this, but you need to get going soon,” she said reluctantly
, hoping he wouldn’t take it as a dismissal.

“Are you sure?” Damian’s palm stroked from the nape of her neck down to the base of her spine, causing her to shiver with de
light. “It’s a Sunday morning. I don’t know about England, but around here, that means morning sex and pancakes.”

“
Mmm, that sounds amazing,” Matilda grinned. “But there’s something I have to admit.”

“Yeah?” Damian looked curious.

“Us being together—it can only be this one time. It’s a bad idea for my family to find out about this, trust me.”

“So you only wanted a one night stand, is that what you’re saying?” Damian tried to look casual, but Matilda could read the disappointment in his eyes, which made her feel both happy and guilty at the same time.

“Not at all. I’d love to see you again. Just…I could get into real trouble over this.”

“You worry too much,” Damian said. “Besides, now I’ve had a taste, I’m never going to give you up.”
The look in his eye now was unreadable. It looked almost like triumph, but that didn’t make any sense. She ignored the though, and tried to concentrate on the matter at hand.

Matilda hesitated—
the warmth from Damian’s body pressed against hers felt so good, and she could smell his smoky, delicious scent on her skin. Did she really want to walk away from that? Could she even walk away from it? The idea that he wanted to keep seeing her was flattering, and she had never felt so good before. She knew that there was only one answer. She had to see him again.

“Then… if we saw each other again, it would have to be a secret,” she warned.”

“If you insist,” Damian shrugged. “I don’t care if we have a secret—os long as I get to see you again. In fact, I kind of like the idea of having you all to myself.”

Matilda smiled, and leaned in for a short, sweet kiss.

“Whatever happens—that guy who was with me last night—he can’t know,” she stated.

“He’s not a boyfriend is he? Because I don’t like to share,” Damian frowned.

Matilda felt a thrill of excitement go through her at the words. She loved the fact that he had already claimed her for his own.

“No, like I said, he’s a friend of my dad’s who’s keeping an eye on me,” she said. “My dad’s protective, but I like to humor him.”

“Well, whatever,” Damian said. “I won’t cause any trouble if I can help it.”

“Thanks!” Matilda breathed out a sigh of relief.

“So, when are you free? I don’t want to be away from you for too long.” Damian looked at her naked body hungrily, and Matilda felt a sparking of arousal shoot through her, although she was too tired and sore from the night before to act on it.

“I’ll call you,” she said.

“I don’t have a cell,” Damian admitted. “I don’t like society to be keeping track of me.”

“Oh,” Matilda was surprised.

“How about tomorrow? Same time, same place?” Damian suggested.

“OK,” Matilda agreed happily.

“I’ll take you somewhere amazing,” Damian promised.

“Where?” Matilda was immediately curious, excited for their next meeting.

“Wait and see,” he said with a mysterious smile.

-

As Damian walked away from her apartment, he smiled to himself. He’d done it—seduced the cultured little English girl right out from under the nose of that stuffy old man. But instead of feeling the rush of triumph over him at his conquest, Damian couldn’t get her out of his mind. She had been so sweet, shy yet curious, like a tiny kitten with coal-black fur.

Damian passed the door of the apartment under hers. He knew from what she had said that
he
lived there. The man he had challenged last night. Should he knock and gloat? He thought about it, but Matilda’s serious face floated in front of his eyelids.

“Whatever happens—that guy who was with me last night—he can’t know.”

Was it worth it? Would he rather have his victory than see her again? He usually didn’t feel the need to have a woman more than once, but he could already feel his body yearning for hers. Something about her was intoxicating.

Maybe it was just because it was a secret. Maybe that added mystery and excitement. But he thought it was more than that. He had felt real jealousy and disappointment when she had said she couldn’t see him again. For some reason, he still wanted her.

Well, last night had been some of the best sex of his life. Why give that up? He’d stay with her a while longer, as long as it took for him to get itchy feet and need to move on. He wasn’t tied to this place, so there would be no repercussions for him when he did.

Smiling to himself, he found himself eager for the next day, when he would be able to see her again.

-

Once Damian had left, Matilda began to let her mind consider the consequences of her rash actions. A strong part of her was triumphant, exulted at the evening’s activities and delighted at the idea of seeing Damian again so soon. It felt as if she alone in the universe had been picked out and given the best prize imaginable.

On the other hand, she remembered what had occurred with
Colin the night before—what would the consequences of her actions be? He was surely going to do something about it. He would almost certainly tell her father, and then what would happen? Her only option was to reach some kind of agreement with him. After all, why shouldn’t she see someone? It wasn’t as if anyone in the media would find out if they kept the relationship discreet, and there was certainly no need for her father to even know about it unless Colin wanted to lose his job.

Matilda decided to wa
it until Colin spoke to her—which he undoubtedly would—and in the meantime, she tried to empty her head of her worries and delights. As much as she tried to keep her head clear, though, all the feelings and sensations from the night before came flooding back to her—the way Damian’s rough hands had felt against her soft skin; the way his lips had felt pressed against hers; the way he had felt moving inside her.

Matilda was jerked out of her fantasies
by a sharp knock on the door—it had to be Colin. Taking a deep, calming breath, she went to answer it.

“You are going to tell me everything that happened last night,” Colin told her sternly, “and then I will decide what to do about it.”

“Now wait a second,” Matilda said, her sense of fairness flaring up at this command, “I’m not a child. I’m a mature adult and I’m allowed to make my own decisions.”

“Well my job is to make sure those decisions don’t lead the Royal Family into embarrassment and notoriety,” Colin said. Matilda thought he looked a little crazed, like a bull being taunted by a matador. His close-set eyes bulged slightly, and his nostrils were white, his face taut and twisted.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Matilda protested.

“No? Did you fuck him?”

“I beg your pardon!” Matilda was shocked by the vulgar language coming from the usually boring and polite man.

“Did you? Did you open your legs for him like a little hussy?” Colin sneered, a fleck of saliva at the corner of his mouth.

“I won’t be spoken to like that,” Matilda said strongly. She had expected him to want some answers, but he was acting crazy and it took her by surprise.

“You’ll be spoken to how you deserve to be spoken to,” Colin spat. “You’ve put me in a difficult position and you’ve jeopardized your family’s reputation. You had a one night stand with some wastrel who’s probably given you a whole host of diseases or got you pregnant.”

“How dare you accuse me of being stupid?” Matilda said, her usually calm temper rising. “I spent the night with a man I have every intention of seeing again. I am well within my rights to have a boyfriend—my father is hardly going to force be to be a nun for the rest of my life. Even he allows me to date.”

“Not while I’m around,” Colin said decisively. “While you are under my protection you will be
living by my rules—and I forbid you to go near that man again.”

Matilda was speechless. How could the usually calm and quiet man who spent his time shuffling papers and agreeing with everything her father said be verbally abusing her and ordering her ar
ound? She was her own woman—but the fear of what her father could do made her pause. One word from Colin about her behavior and he could have her deported with a click of his finger. She wouldn’t put it past him, either. Prince Laurence was a kind man, but where it came to his daughters, he ruled with an iron fist. She had to somehow gain the upper ground without her father finding out.

“If father knows you left me alone that night, he’ll fire you,” she said, hating herself as she said it. “You’re at risk just as much as me if he hears about it. So why don’t we make a deal. I promise to be
discreet when I see Damian, and you don’t let my father in on anything. That way, we both get what we want.”

She thought it was a fair bargain, but the look of contempt on Colin’s face told her that he wouldn’t be agreeing with her any time soon.

“Your father trusts me,” he said. “I’ve been working with him for the past seven years and he knows that I am completely honest with him. When I tell him that you deliberately tried to cause a scene in order to make me leave, who do you think he is going to believe?

Matilda considered—
would her father really believe an employee over his own daughter? She thought about how strict he was, and how hard he had come down on the idea of her dating anyone while she was in high school and university. The first boyfriend she had ever had was in her second year at Cambridge. He had been a nice guy, but after their photographs together had cropped up in several newspapers and gossip magazines, her father had come up to Cambridge and insisted on talking to him.

After their ‘talk’—
which neither her boyfriend or her father ever elaborated on—her boyfriend told her that he wasn’t ready for what their relationship meant. After that, Matilda had given up on trying to have a normal relationship. She had never met a guy who had been worth the hassle—until now. But it would be so easy for her father to separate her from Damian. He was sure to disapprove of him, not only because he was American, but because he didn’t match up to the educated, neat and gainfully employed ideal he had in mind for her. It was hopeless. Of course he would side with Colin.

It was
a disgusting situation, but her hands were tied. The only way she could get Colin off her case was to obey him, much as she wished she didn’t have to. She hated not being in control of her own life.

“Fine,” she said. “I won’t see him again.”

“Damn right you won’t,” said Colin. “Now that you’re seeing sense, I don’t see any need to tell your father about this little indiscretion—but if it ever happens again, rest assured that there will be consequences. And Matilda, you won’t like those consequences at all.”

Matilda nodded meekly, suppressing her anger and loathing. It was clear that she would not g
et anywhere arguing with him. The only way she could do this was behind his back. If that’s the way he wanted it, then she was willing to take the risk.

All in all, she considered, perhaps it was better this way. Colin would be stalking her every move if she was d
ating someone out in the open—this way she could keep Damian all to herself.

-

The entire day at work on Monday, Matilda floated around with the words of Damian’s promise repeating in her head—same time, same place, and I’ll show you something incredible.

She was intrigued about what he could possibly have meant by that. It only crossed her mind for a mom
ent that he might not turn up—that it might just have been a one-time thing, and he would move on without a word. Somehow, something about the way he’d looked at her the next morning, as if he was trying to memorize each and every one of her features in order to keep him going until the next time they met, told her that he was just as eager to meet again as she was.

“Are you OK? Job getting to you?” her colleague, Sylvie, asked her as she stood in the middle of the archive, file in her hand, completely spaced out.
Sylvie was a warm, middle-aged woman with light brown hair and nut-brown eyes. She had probably once been very beautiful, but her once voluptuous curves were now slightly more voluptuous than curvy. Nevertheless, she had taken Matilda under her wing since day one, and Matilda liked the kind older woman despite her tendency to talk a little too much when they were supposed to be working.

“Oh—
yeah, sorry,” Matilda said, realizing that she had been standing there daydreaming for the past ten minutes at least. “Just jet lag, you know.”

“Looks more like love to me,” Sylvie said shrewdly. “Did you meet an American cutie over the weekend? I’m sure that accent of yours will have guys rushing at you like flies.”

“Not really,” Matilda said, blushing.

“Ah, I see. Unrequited love,” Sylvie decided
, based on absolutely no evidence other than her extensive bookcase of romance novels. “Poor lamb.”

“No, really, it’s nothing like that. I’m still just a little spaced out from jetlag is all,” Matilda said earnestly.

“Well, if that’s the story you’re sticking to, then fine,” Sylvie smiled mysteriously. “But I always have an open ear for a love story.”

“I’ll keep it in mind
,” Matilda said politely. “Um—where does this file go again?”

She tried to listen attentively as Sylvie gave her another run-down of how the extensive archive system worked.

The day seemed to crawl on, and Matilda was relieved when five o’clock came around and she could catch the bus back to Georgetown and walk the few blocks up to her apartment.

“Good day at work?” Colin smiled at her from the door of his apartment, where he was loosening his tie, fresh from a day at the office completing some dull-sounding paperwork related to the British Royal Family.

“Fine,” Matilda shrugged.

“Are you hungry? I thought I’d cook dinner for us both,” Colin suggested. His face was cle
ar and possibly even penitent. Matilda hated to bear a grudge, and part of her thought that perhaps if they got on friendlier terms, he would begin to see her point of view and give her a little more of the freedom she deserved.

“That sounds lovely,” she said, hitching a smile onto her face. Somehow, something about him left her cold, but she had to make an effort to come to an understanding with him if she wanted to see Damian again.

“We’re not so different, really,” Colin told her as he added some herbs to the pasta sauce he was making. “I’m not so much older than you. I know what it’s like to want to go out into the world and see things for yourself.”

“So you do understand,” Matilda said gladly.
Maybe he realized how much he had overreacted the day before.

“To a point,” Colin acknowledged, “
but sooner or later, everyone has to grow up and accept that trivial romances and flights of fancy don’t get you anywhere. Reputation—that’s what gets you places. Status, power; without those, you’re nobody. Your father understands that, and he’s giving you the opportunity to learn for yourself what it truly important.”

“Isn’t happiness more important than power?” Matilda ventured
, feeling a little disgusted that Colin would value status and power above anything else. She herself would give up all claims to being a princess if she could only have freedom and happiness.

“You can’t have happiness without two things: money and freedom. And the only way to get those things is to have power,” Colin
said. “Take now for instance—I have power over you. But if you were to marry a suitable person with status, you would have the power.”

“No,” Matilda corrected him. “I would be tied into an unhappy marriage and I’d have no freedom or power
at all.” She didn’t like where this was going. What was he suggesting?

“It depends who you married,” Colin reasoned, putting food on two plates and bringing them over to the table. “If it was someone your father approved of and who you came to love, you would have the ability to choose your path in life.”

“I don’t think anyone I know fits into that category,” Matilda said, privately thinking that nobody apart from Damian could ever live up to her expectations now. Although she had only spent one night with him, the way he made her feel was unlike anything else. She couldn’t imagine any other man living up to that.

“Well, what about me for example?” Colin said lightly. “Your father trusts me, and I would certainly allow you the freedom to be successful in your career.”

“Ha,” Matilda said without thinking. “My dad certainly wouldn’t want me to marry my bodyguard—that’s basically what you are, isn’t it? The only person who he would ever be satisfied with would be a politician of some sort, or minor royalty—at least someone well educated. I couldn’t think of anyone I was worse suited to marry.”

She noted the way Colin’s hand shook as he forked noodles into his mouth, and wondered why
on earth he had brought it up—it couldn’t be his goal to marry her, could it? It was preposterous. Even if the thought of embracing him didn’t leave her cold and grossed out, her father would want someone of far higher status to marry his daughter. She wondered if she had been too honest in her reply. To make up for it, she hastily changed the subject, hoping that this conversation would be forgotten.

After dinner, with a lot to think about, it was no time at all before it was time for Matilda to sneak out and meet Damian.
Her nerves were tingling with excitement, and she could barely contain her anticipation. She slipped quietly out her front door, careful to close it in a way that made no sound. Creeping down the stairs on tiptoes, she was satisfied that she had made no sounds which would arouse Colin’s suspicions. Once out the front door of the apartment building, she broke into a run, rejoicing in the feeling of being completely and utterly free.

As she turned the corner, she slowed to a walk, conscious that she was attracting attention. Her entire body was buzzing with anticipation. She coul
dn’t wait to see Damian again. Just picturing his charming, handsome face in her mind caused her to break out into a beaming smile, and the memory of his touch sent shivers of eager excitement through her limbs.

She was dressed casually in a light blue cotton skirt and a white tank top, with her glossy black hair loose over her shoulders. She hoped she didn’t look like she’d made too much effort, but she also wanted to see Damian’s eyes light up at the sight of her. She was oblivious to the numerous other lustful looks she received as she made her way down to t
he street where she had met Damian.

She was ten minutes early
when she arrived at the bar, and she hesitated, wondering if she should go inside or wait for him outside. Before she could decide, however, she spotted him, striding purposefully from the same direction she had walked in, a broad smile on his face.

As he reached where she was standing, he swept her up in his arms, spinning her around and kissing her hard before putting her down. She was flushed and giggling, delighted by his enthusiastic greeting.

“I saw you coming,” he said. “You were in front of me. I thought of running and surprising you from behind.”

“I’m glad you didn’t; this was a much nicer greeting,” she affirmed.

“Glad to be of service,” he grinned, stealing another lingering kiss, tilting her chin up with one finger in order to capture her lips. Matilda felt the now familiar dizziness from his proximity, and immediately leaned in for more.

“I thought you wanted to keep our relationship on the low down,” Damian teased her between kisses.

“Mmm, who cares,” murmured Matilda.

“Not
me,” Damian said, taking her hand and bringing it to his lips, making her heart flutter. “I want the world to know that you’re all mine.”

“We can’t,” Matilda sighed reluctantly. “It has to be a secret for now.”

“As you wish, my lady,” he said.

“So where are we going tonight?” Matilda asked, excited about the surprise Damian had promised her.

“Follow me and you’ll soon find out,” Damian grinned.

-