THEIR_VIRGIN_PRINCESS (7 page)

The sheikh shrugged negligently. “Dane is in charge of
security. He can hire and fire as he likes. But he might want to remember that
there are more important things at stake than whether Landon followed orders.”

Dane turned and glared at Lan, seemingly trying to
intimidate the younger man and waiting for him to break, to ask for
forgiveness.

And Alea was now looking through one of the folders, her
skin turning pale as she caught sight of the pictures taken of her in the
hospital after her rescue. That frail, gaunt creature looked nothing like the
stunning beauty standing before him now. Her hand shook as she touched the
picture.

Lawson Anders stood up, shoving some file folders into his
briefcase. “To answer your question, Princess, yes. My gut tells me that
whoever is responsible will come after you again. They had a bleak future all
planned for you, and it didn’t involve you being rescued and coming home. I
don’t know why you weren’t killed, but if someone wants to wipe you off the
face of the Earth, I suspect they won’t hesitate to snuff you out next time.”

Alea’s eyes fluttered, and her shoulders dropped. “And you
believe this is someone I know, someone I spend time with?”

There was no hint of emotion in Lawson’s eyes. “Yes. No idea
who yet, but we’ll find out.”

Tal cursed and glared at Law. “Did you have to be quite so
blunt?” Without waiting for an answer, he turned to Alea. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, looking drawn and still.

Straightening his tuxedo jacket, the sheikh cleared his
throat, hiding a whole lot of pissed off. “Then I’m retiring back to the
ballroom. I probably only have a few more hours of peace left. Once Piper finds
out about this meeting, there will very likely be hell to pay. The good news
is, she’s adorable when she’s mad. We’ll leave the cleanup to you three. After
all, you wanted to be responsible for her. Be careful what you wish for.”

After Tal had gone, Alea swayed on her feet. Cooper moved
across the room in a flash as her eyes closed and her body crumpled. He caught
her just before she hit the floor and lifted her weight into his arms as if she
was a precious burden. Dane and Lan stood right beside him, wearing matching
expressions of concern.

This wasn’t how he’d pictured holding her for the first
time. But no matter. He held her close now, even as her eyes fluttered open.

“Lea, you’re going to be okay.” Damn, was that his voice
shaking?

“I think I’d like to go to my room, Cooper. Could you please
take me?” She wasn’t fighting him. He’d expected her to struggle and tell him
she could walk, but she let her arm drift up around his shoulders and she laid
her head on his chest. She could probably hear his heart pounding.

“Absolutely.” He glanced back at his friends. “Someone get
my med kit.”

Without waiting for Dane and Lan to answer, he started out
the door. If someone was still after Alea, it was time to start putting her
first.

Alea dragged in a long breath as Cooper strode toward her
private apartments. “I changed my mind. You can let me down now. I need to talk
to those investigators and look at that report.”

She enjoyed being in his arms far too much. He made her feel
delicate and feminine, loved and almost innocent. And it was all a lie.

“Not until I’ve examined you, Princess. You passed out.”

“I got woozy. I never lost consciousness.”

No, but that would have been nice. She’d been brutally aware
of all of tonight’s events. Her cousins, whom she trusted more than anyone in
the world, had hired investigators and not bothered to mention it to her. Coop
and Dane had gone along with the plan to keep her in the dark. When had they
planned to tell her that someone was out there waiting for another chance to
send her back to hell?

Cooper used his foot to kick the door open. “You were about
to hit the floor.”

Alea frowned. “Well, the dress is tight.”

She could barely breathe. Her evening gown hadn’t been
designed for comfort. And now she was a little worried that if she tried to
take a deep breath, her breasts might peek or plop out.

“Then maybe you should get out of it, but I’m not leaving
here until I know you’re all right.” His dark eyes were full of glittering
determination.

He swept her through the living area and back toward her
bedroom. He didn’t need to be pointed in the right direction. He, Dane, and Lan
knew every square inch of this place because they were always watching over
her. They did a sweep of her room every single night before she went to bed.
One of them was always somewhere in the shadows, waiting to defend her.

And now it looked like she needed them more than she’d
imagined. Some psycho had gone to a lot of trouble and expense to make her life
hell and was probably waiting to do it again. God, that someone must truly hate
her. The fact that it could be someone she knew boggled her mind. She tried to
think of any obvious enemies she might have, but came up terribly blank.

“Alea? You went pale again.” He carried her to her bed and
settled her on top of the silky, pale-gray comforter. His hand went straight to
her forehead. “You’re hot.”

She wished he’d said that in a way that meant he found her
attractive—and that she could believe. Unfortunately, Cooper Evans was an
outrageous flirt. She couldn’t take anything he said seriously. And he’d only
meant the words medically.

“It was stuffy in the ballroom.”

Cooper looked behind him. “Where the hell are they? I need
my kit.”

“I’m not sick,” Alea insisted. “You don’t need to examine
me.”

She struggled to sit up. She really did need to talk to
those investigators since she’d only gotten a brief glimpse at the reports, and
so much of what they’d said had been strained through the filter of her
incredulity. Just thinking about what had happened in the past—what might
happen again—her heart ratcheted up to a jackhammer’s pace.

Oh, god no.

For the last two years, she’d been plagued by panic attacks,
though they’d begun to slow down. She’d thought she was getting better, but now
she couldn’t breathe. Damn it, she needed to breathe.

Alea pushed off the bed and started charging across the
room, her blood racing through her veins, her heart roaring in her ears.
Blackness swam at the edge of her vision.

“Lea? Baby?”

The “baby” nearly did her in. She needed his arms around
her, and it wasn’t going to happen. Coop probably called every female under the
age of eighty “baby.” Even if his voice had been so tender that she wanted to
cry, she couldn’t take his endearment personally.

Suddenly, Coop raced around her, gripping her shoulders,
holding her secure. He towered over her, his golden brown hair shining under
the soft recessed lights. His broad shoulders seemed to go on for days. He
looked so masculine, so fiercely capable of protecting the woman he loved. Yet
Coop regarded her with such soft concern.

She wanted to melt against him—and if she did, she’d make a
fool of herself. Time to put space between them. “I’m going to the bathroom.
Just go away, Cooper. I’m fine.”

Alea charged toward her luxurious bathroom, slamming the
door behind her. He would leave now. And damn it, no, that wouldn’t disappoint
her. Cooper had a job to do, so of course he would retreat outside her bedroom
doors, leaving her utterly alone.

Even knowing that’s what he should do, she leaned against
the back of the door, trying to get a lungful of air, and fought tears. Why cry
for what she couldn’t change? Angrily, she swiped at the wet paths on her
cheeks, then wound her hands to the back of her bodice, pulling at the cinches.
In a moment, her breasts broke free and she dragged blessed oxygen into her
lungs.

She pushed the whole gown off and got out of the god-awful
spandex undies she’d forced her body into because she didn’t want anyone to
know that she wasn’t perfect. God, if they only knew.

Tears streaked down her face as she turned and caught sight
of herself in the mirror. She wasn’t beautiful. She was supposed to be a
princess, but somehow she’d ended up with small breasts and an ass that was a
bit too wide. Her stomach wasn’t flat.

They had beaten her for that in the brothel. She could still
feel the switch they had used on her, still see the faint scars on her belly.
She wasn’t pretty enough to sell. She wasn’t sexy enough to fuck. No one would want
her.

But someone hated her enough to have her kidnapped and
tortured.

Alea crossed to the sink and turned on the cold water. She
had to get control of herself quickly because the coronation ball was still in
progress. Piper would expect her there. She needed to get dressed again. And
she needed to confront her cousins who had involved everyone in the
investigation about her abduction except her.

She’d been so sure when Khalil had died that her ordeal was
all over. She’d cried and tried to come to terms with everything. But she’d
been safe—or so she had believed. Now she knew it had all been a falsehood.

And her cousins had perpetrated it.

She couldn’t face the investigators again wearing that
dumbass gown. She’d picked it out for stupid reasons. Piper had told her it was
gorgeous, and she’d thought that maybe Dane, Landon, and Cooper would think she
was pretty for an evening.

So stupid. She should have just picked a black dress that
covered everything and wouldn’t potentially embarrass the hell out of her.

“Oh god, you’re gorgeous.”

Alea started, her heart nearly stopping at Cooper’s
masculine groan. He was standing in the doorway, staring at her intently, his
mouth set in a slightly salacious expression. Slightly? A second glance
suggested that maybe she was underestimating him.

Her first instinct was to leap for a robe, a towel—anything
that would cover her—but she just stood there, utterly frozen. He was staring
at her naked body, and he wasn’t running away. In fact, he was moving toward
her. She retreated a quick step, but her back met the marbled wall, and there
was nowhere else to go.

Alea could hardly catch her breath to speak. “You should
go.”

“God, you’re so fucking beautiful.” He sounded like he meant
it. He edged closer, towering over her.

“You can’t be in here,” she protested, but it wasn’t the
sound of a woman who strongly meant what she was saying. Instead, it sounded
breathy, almost like a seduction. What was wrong with her?

“Why not, Lea? Give me one good reason.” He braced himself
against the wall behind her, his body pressing close.

She could think of about fifty reasons, but only one came
out of her mouth. “I’m naked.”

“Yes, and that’s the best reason I can think of to stay.”

He leaned toward her, touching their foreheads together. If
he’d been the least bit domineering, she could have pushed him away, but this
was a sweet intimacy. How long had it been since she’d touched someone? Felt
the heat of another body close to her own quite like this? Never.

“Baby, do you know how many nights I’ve sat up imagining how
beautiful you are? Do you know how off I was? You’re a hundred times more
gorgeous than I ever dreamed. Tell me you don’t want me, too. Tell me, and I’ll
walk out of this room. I won’t try to touch you again, but you should know that
I’ll never stop wanting you. You’re the only woman I’ve been able to think of
since I met you.”

He brought one hand to her shoulder, his fingers just barely
touching her, making her shiver in the most delicious way possible.

She shook her head, trying to come out from under the spell.
“You’ve dated since you’ve been here. Don’t try to fool me.”

His head snapped up, and she found herself staring into the
warmest chocolate brown eyes she’d ever seen. His handsome face settled into a
frown that did nothing to detract from his male-model gorgeousness. “Not once.”

She bit her bottom lip. She wanted to believe him. God, she
was standing here naked with him and she couldn’t seem to make herself move.
“That’s impossible.”

“That’s the truth.” His fingers made their way down her arm.
“I’m worried about touching you. I don’t want to scare you, baby. You have to
know I would never, ever want to hurt you.”

He sounded so different from the laughing, sarcastic man
she’d come to know. This was the Cooper she’d always suspected hid under his
playful exterior. He was so sweet, but it was hard to believe he wasn’t
sexually active. He was the only one of the three of Tal’s guards who regularly
took weeks off and left the country. “I thought you had a girl back home. I
thought that was why you left every six weeks.”

He was staring into her eyes, holding her hostage. “I go to
a little hospital in Pakistan. I have an old buddy who runs a clinic there.
Baby, I’m not seeing someone. I’m vaccinating babies and running the clinic so
he has a little time off. I told you. I haven’t wanted anyone since the minute
I laid eyes on you.” He swallowed hard. “Are you ever going to look at me the
way I look at you?”

Alea wanted to. She studied him all the time when she was
sure he wasn’t looking. Tears sprang to her eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know
that I can do any of this, Cooper. I…I don’t think I function the way other
women do. I don’t respond to sex.”

Except she was kind of responding now. Her breathing was
ragged. She wasn’t panicked the way she’d been after her rescue. When she’d
first come back, she’d pulled away from anyone who tried to touch her. Lately,
she’d been wondering if she was missing out. Piper was a hugger. At first it
had seemed rude to shove her cousins’ wife away, so she’d endured it, but more
and more she found herself initiating the hugs. And she definitely thought
about being able to touch her men. In her dreams, she opened to them fully, and
they took her in every way. She felt such pleasure, such love… What a
far-fetched fantasy.