The Prince’s Virgin Wife
Lucy Monroe

Royal Brides

For Elizabeth Eakin,

otherwise known as LadyB…a fabulous reader and one of my dear LFBJ pals.

Thanks so much for your help with naming the country Isole dei Re for this trilogy.

Hugs,

Lucy

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

COMING NEXT MONTH

CHAPTER ONE

“SO, WERE you able to hire her?”

Principe Tomasso Scorsolini paced the Hong Kong hotel suite, his cell phone pressed against his ear and waited with barely concealed impatience to discover if his prey had taken the bait.

“She came to the palace for the interview as agreed and she impressed me very much.” Therese’s voice rang with approval across the phone lines. “I don’t know how you heard about her, but she’s a sweet woman and will be good with the children. She really is ideal, but I was not certain at first that she would accept the position.”

“Why?” He’d made sure Maggie Thomson had no conflicting loyalties, arranging for her current employers to dispense with her services while at the same time suggesting she consider the position in his household.

“She was concerned about the impact her leaving in a couple of years would have on Annamaria and Gianfranco, particularly in light of Liana’s death.”

“A couple of years? She assumes she will leave?”

“She has plans to open her own day care center after she has saved enough money. It is why she has taken positions with older children up to this point.”

Ah, so she still held onto her dreams. He should not be surprised. Maggie Thomson had a stubborn streak almost as wide as his own. “What did you tell her?”

“I took your advice and introduced her to Gianni and Anna. They liked Miss Thomson immediately and she fell completely under their spell. You know how shy little Annamaria is and yet by the end of the interview, she was sitting in Miss Thomson’s lap. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Therese paused as if collecting her thoughts. “I know this is going to sound strange, Tomasso, but it was as if she was their long-lost mother…the connection between the three of them was that strong.”

She didn’t need to say what they both knew. The connection between the children and their real mother had never been that significant. Liana had not been a nurturer.

“That is good to hear.” Very good.

“Yes, well. I told her that if she would commit to a two-year contract, we would provide her with a generous bonus at the end of it to help her with her business.”

“Did that sway her?”

“Not at first. She was still concerned about the children, but I explained that when hiring domestic help, a two-year contract was a long-term commitment and really better than we might expect to do with someone else.”

He had no plans to let Maggie Thomson go in two years, or anytime thereafter, but Therese did not need to know that. “Brilliant. And she accepted?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Satisfaction filled him. “Thank you, Therese.”

“It was my pleasure, Tomasso.”

“Tell Claudio I will see him when I return to Isole dei Re.”

“You may well see him before I do.” There was something in his sister-in-law’s voice that bothered him.

“Are you all right, Therese?”

“Yes, of course. Miss Thomson agreed to begin her duties immediately as you suggested.”

“Very good.”

“Yes, but I shall miss having the children with me.”

He hadn’t considered that. “I am sorry, Therese.”

“Don’t be silly. I enjoy their company, but it is important for them to have a more consistent caretaker in their lives. If you lived here in the palace, it would be different, but since you make your home on another island entirely, I cannot make up for their lack of a mother.”

“It sounds like Maggie Thomson will do that nicely.”

“For the next two years anyway.”

For a lifetime if it all worked out the way he planned. “I thank you again, Therese.”

She dismissed her role as unimportant and rang off.

Tomasso flipped his phone shut and smiled to the empty room. It was all coming together.

Better than even he could have anticipated, and projecting a plan’s outcome was something he had perfected during his years running Mining and Jewelers.

Apparently his children and Maggie had adored one another on sight and, equally important, she was the same sweet-natured woman she had been in college. He hadn’t really expected anything different since reading the report Hawk’s agency had compiled on her. It also said she retained other characteristics he remembered from his college days.

According to her past employers, she was efficient, content in the domestic environment and peaceful to be around. Traits he hadn’t appreciated nearly enough at the time. He’d been too interested in outward beauty to understand how much her presence meant to him…until it was gone.

He’d taken for granted how smoothly his life had run when Maggie was his housekeeper. Four years in a volatile marriage with Liana had cured him of that complacency.

The first year after her death, Tomasso had refused to even consider taking another wife, having no desire to repeat his first foray into marital disharmony. But neither did he wish to end up like his father and for the past few months, he’d begun to crave the peaceful ease his older brother had in his marriage to the kind and even-tempered Therese.

Every time Tomasso fantasized about that kind of harmony, he could only picture it with one woman. Maggie Thomson. He could hear her gentle voice reminding him to eat breakfast before leaving the house, could remember her busy hands making sure his life ran smoothly.

He wanted that harmony again, but this time he would not make the mistake of giving her an out.

She’d walked away from him once, saying they had nothing more than a working relationship and one that had no place in her life once he was no longer her boss. He’d accepted that blatant untruth for two reasons. The first was because he knew he had hurt her and even though he’d meant to do anything but, he had felt he owed her the honor of respecting her desire to cut him from her life.

The second was that Liana had been jealous of his relationship with Maggie and quite vocal in her desire for him to sever ties completely with the other woman. The unreasonable jealousy had flattered him at the time. He’d taken it as proof of Liana’s passionate love for him. The idiocy of that belief still rankled.

Liana had loved only one person…herself.

He had been the means to her having the lifestyle she wanted. Nothing more. Marry a prince, become a princess. He wondered if knowledge that he was a prince would change Maggie’s attitude toward him.

It did with everyone else. Which was why he had attended college under the assumed identity of Tom Prince.

He’d wanted to make relationships based on who he was, not what he was. He’d wanted to prove that he could succeed on his own, not the strength of his family name. He’d proven that, at least. He’d graduated with honors solely on his own merits, but the relationships had been another story.

Unbeknownst to him, Liana had known his royal status all along, and Maggie had walked away from the simple man Tom Prince too easily.

Would she want him as Liana had, once she knew he was of royal blood?

He conceded that it did not matter. She was exactly what he wanted in a wife and mother for his children. Why she chose to marry him wouldn’t matter because she would still be herself, a woman eminently suitable to make his life more peaceful and to give his children the nurturing they so desperately needed.

He wasn’t a fool, though.

He would not base a lifetime commitment on memories six years old. By hiring her to care for his children, he would have a chance to observe Maggie and be certain she was all that he remembered before informing her of his desire to make her his wife. He also wanted to be sure the latent passion that had existed between them had not disappeared and that it was as intense as the one scorching encounter of his memories.

He was not a man who would be comfortable with a wife who did not appeal to that side of his nature.

He refused to be like his father, finding sexual solace outside the marriage bed. He considered that behavior reprehensible and so in fact, did his father, which was why the king had never remarried after one failed attempt following the death of his first wife.

His father had called it the Scorsolini curse. According to King Vincente, Scorsolini men were fated to have one true love. Claudio and Tomasso’s mother had been his. After her death, no other woman could hold his interest completely enough to ensure fidelity. He’d married Marcello’s mother only months after the death of his queen because he’d got her pregnant.

He had an affair and the usually mild-mannered Flavia had gone ballistic. She had refused to be cuckolded and moved back to Italy with the young Marcello, doing the unthinkable and filing for divorce in the process. Since then, his father had had a string of mistresses.

Tomasso didn’t care about his supposed fate. He never wanted to love like his father had and end up a widower, always searching to fill an empty void that could never be satisfied.

He knew that he was different from his father. Even a superficial passion would be enough for him to remain faithful. It had been with Liana. Though he’d believed when they married she was his one true love, he’d soon discovered differently.

Yet he had remained faithful to her despite the troubles in their marriage and his discovery that what he had thought was love was nothing more than being blitzed by her outward beauty.

How much easier would it be to maintain fidelity in marriage to a woman he respected, even if he did not love her?

“Papa will be home soon, won’t he?”

Maggie smiled and tucked Annamaria into the child-size bed. “Yes, sweetie. Just two more days.”

“I miss him.”

“I know you do.” Maggie brushed the little girl’s dark curls away from her face, leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Good night, Anna.”

“Good night, Maggie. I’m glad you came.”

“Thank you, I am, too.”

She turned off the overhead light and left the small night-light glowing before making her way to her own suite of rooms in the opulent home after checking in on Gianfranco one more time. He was asleep…finally, a small lump in the race car bed that was the same diminutive size as Anna’s.

Tall for his five years, he would need a big boy bed soon. Maggie wondered if that would fall under her jurisdiction. There were so many questions she wanted to ask her absent employer, not the least of which was why it seemed the entire domestic staff looked to her for direction as if she was the housekeeper, not the nanny?

There was a housekeeper-slash-cook already, two maids and a groundskeeper besides, but they all seemed to turn to her for major decisions and she found that odd.

It was certainly different than in her last two positions, but then she was working for royalty now. They obviously had their own unique way of dealing with the domestic side of life. It felt odd, but she liked the sense of respect she got from her fellow employees and the obvious importance the prince placed on her role in caring for his children.

She closed the door to Gianfranco’s room, hoping he and his little sister slept well tonight. Their father had not called as was his norm and it had been difficult settling them both into their beds. Her small charges needed her, even more than the family she had left behind.

Which was not surprising considering the fact that Gianni and Anna’s mother had died and they were both so very young, but it was shocking how much she cared already.

She loved them, truly loved them.

It should be too soon to have such deep feelings for children that she had not given birth to, but she felt an elemental connection to them and had from the moment of meeting. She’d been all set to turn down the prince’s offer of employment tendered through his sister-in-law, and then she’d met the children and found she simply could not walk away from the need she sensed in them.

She’d agreed to the two-year contract, but her heart was already asking how she thought she could walk away from her small charges when her time was up. She’d been their nanny for only ten days, but in some ways it felt like a lifetime.

She’d lived in more than one foster home growing up, had had different roommates her last couple of years of college, and then been nanny to two different families, but she had never connected to anyone as quickly as she had to these two.

Except Tom Prince.

And that relationship had ended in pain for her, just as this job was going to.

From what she could tell, both Anna and her older brother spent a great deal of time missing their workaholic father. They needed her on so many levels, she was powerless to turn her back on them. Workaholic, or not, the prince couldn’t be all bad, not and have such two sweet children and such a caring and obviously approving sister-in-law.

He wasn’t exactly neglectful, either. He called the children daily, sometimes twice a day, and spoke to them on a level that showed he understood they were children. She didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but Maggie couldn’t help but overhear the children’s side of the conversations.

She thought he must be a really decent father despite his preoccupation with work.

Her former employer had been much the same. It seemed to be a common enough condition among the world’s truly wealthy. She’d been in her last position for two years and could count on one hand the number of major holidays her employers had spent with their children. It wasn’t a lifestyle she envied, even if it meant living in luxury and extensive travel.

She’d never been interested in connecting with any of the men she’d met in the world in which she had moved since graduating from college. If she ever married, it would be to a man who knew how to be part of a family, not just provide for one.

She wanted something real, something lasting and warm…the kind of family she’d spent her childhood dreaming about.

She sighed and plopped down on the small, elegant Victorian-style sofa in her sitting room. She was twenty-six and beginning to doubt she’d ever meet a man she wanted to share her life with. That thought didn’t hurt nearly as much as the prospect that because of it, she might never have children.

She grabbed the remote and flipped on the television.

She certainly wouldn’t meet one in this crowd, that was for sure. She liked Princess Therese, but her husband, the Crown Prince, was every bit as focused on his work as his younger brother. Maggie doubted that would change when the couple had children and wondered if that was why they had not yet had any.

She flipped through the stations until she came across one of her all-time favorite movies—a romance made in the 1940s. She adored it and knew she’d be up until the wee hours watching it. The hero always reminded her of the one man who had made her heart rate soar into the heavens and her body feel like it was on fire.

Unfortunately, just like the man on the screen, Tom Prince had married another woman. A beautiful, sophisticated, sexy woman. The kind of woman that drew every male eye when she walked into a room. The kind of woman Maggie knew she would never be.

Tom had been her employer and housemate in college and in many ways, no matter what she’d said to the contrary when they parted, the closest friend she ever had. She’d been thinking about him a lot lately. Something about Gianni and Anna brought back memories of him and the feelings he sparked inside her.

She’d been having more of the dreams, too…the erotic ones where she relived the sensations she’d known in his arms that fateful night six years ago. She didn’t understand the connection and liked it even less.

It had been hard enough losing him to Liana and learning to live without his daily presence in her life once. But now she felt like she was going through the withdrawal all over again and she didn’t even understand why.

Determined not to think about the past and its pain, she focused on the movie, but for once, her favorite love story could not hold her attention and soon she was lost to memories she couldn’t stifle no matter how hard she tried…

Maggie nervously smoothed her hands down her skirt. The letter had said casual attire for the interview, but she had wanted to make a good impression.

So, she’d pulled her long, kinky blond curls into a ponytail and pinned it into a bun, hoping she looked just a little older than her eighteen years. She was wearing a longish twill skirt, the color of wheat, and a classic white button-up blouse she’d bought at the secondhand store the year before to wear to her part-time job as a waitress.

And she’d washed all the scuff marks from her single pair of white sandals, the ones her foster mom had bought her in exchange for mowing the lawn two summers previously. Her nails were clean, but unpainted. Her lightly freckled and very ordinary features were without makeup. Which was a good thing because if she’d been wearing lipstick, she would have chewed it off her bottom lip in nervousness by now.

She needed this job. The salary listed wasn’t huge, but the live-in position would make it possible for her to pursue her studies without getting another low-paying job to cover living expenses.

She rang the doorbell and took a hasty step backward when it opened almost immediately to reveal a man who was way younger than she’d expected. In fact, he wasn’t much older than her. With curly black hair, a face that could have been chiseled by Michelangelo, blue eyes that would have graced an angel and a body that towered over her with finely honed muscle, he was also drop dead gorgeous.

“There must be…I think I made a mistake.” She looked away from his to-die-for body and surveyed the other homes on the tree-lined street.

Had she gotten the number wrong? She pulled the paper from her purse and looked down at the highlighted address. The number was the same as the one beside the open door.

“Are you here about the housekeeping position?” Tall, Dark and Gorgeous asked in a voice that made her stomach flip.

“Um…yes.”

He looked her up and down, his expression weighing. “I expected you to be older.”

“Me, too.”

“You thought you were older?” he asked with a gleam of amusement in his cobalt-blue eyes.

“I thought you would be older,” she corrected, blushing.

He stepped back and indicated she should enter. “Then we were both destined for a surprise, were we not?”

“I suppose so.”

“I’m Tom Prince and you must be Maggie Thomson.”

“Yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Prince.”

“Tom, please.”

“All right.” She followed him into the living room.

“You have experience keeping house?” he asked as they took seats on opposite sides of a glass coffee table.

Remembering her years taking care of her foster siblings and ailing foster mom, she nodded with vehemence. “Lots.”

Then realizing that probably wasn’t as specific of an answer as he would like, she proceeded to outline her household duties for the past few years.

His expression was odd. “You took care of the house, the children and your foster mother while working a part-time job?”

“I’m good at multitasking.” Hopefully that would be in her favor.

“But now that you are eighteen, you have moved out?”

“Once I turned eighteen I was no longer eligible to be part of the system. Helen couldn’t get help for my living expenses, and needed me to leave so she could take another child in.”

Knowing that, with all she’d given to her foster mom, Maggie still hadn’t meant any more to the older woman than the money she brought in from the state had hurt. She didn’t share that bit with Tom though.

His too observant and surprisingly compassionate eyes said he’d read between the lines anyway. However all he asked was, “The small salary is not a deterrent for you?”

“No. It would be a godsend to tell the truth. My scholarship doesn’t stretch to living expenses.”

“You are attending university on scholarship?”

“Yes. An academic one.” As if there would be any possibility that her average build would somehow have managed to enable her to attain an athletic scholarship. She smiled self-deprecatingly.

“You must be very bright.”

That made her shrug. Her intelligence was something she’d always taken for granted. If she hadn’t been smarter than the average student, she would have flunked out of high school for lack of time to study between her part-time job and caring for her foster family. “I like school.”

“What is your major?”

“Early childhood development.”

He didn’t laugh like a lot of people did when she told them. For some reason, the idea of going to college to earn a degree so she could care for children seemed amusing to most people.

“What do you want to do?”

“One day, I want to have my own day care center.”

“You should take some business courses as well then,” he said rather bossily.

But she didn’t mind. “I plan to.”

He nodded his approval at this and the interview went on from there. Surprisingly they had a lot in common. Neither liked to watch television very much, they both liked the same authors and they shared a similar sense of humor. It was nice.

She would have thought she would be tongue-tied around him, but she wasn’t because although he was the most beautiful man she’d ever met, he didn’t act at all conceited or cocky about his looks.

She was getting ready to go when he said, “I have one last thing I need to discuss with you before I can make my decision.”

“Yes?”

For the first time in forty-five minutes he looked less than totally self-composed. “I think we could be friends.”

She nodded eagerly.

“I like you, Maggie.”

“I like you, too,” she said breathlessly.

He got very serious. “The position is a live-in one.”

“Yes, I know. That’s perfect for me.”

He nodded. “If I hire you, you have to promise you’ll never attempt to take our friendship beyond that. From your letter of application, I thought you would be older…I didn’t think this would be an issue I would have to bring up, but I see that I must and there is no benefit in putting it off. I don’t date people who work for me. Ever.”

She stared at him and didn’t know what to say. He seemed awfully young to have such a policy, but she certainly didn’t expect him to break it with her.

When she said nothing, his expression turned even grimmer. “If I wake up to find you naked in my bed, I will fire you on the spot.”

She couldn’t help it, she burst out laughing. The very thought of her doing something so bold…so absurd…was more than she could take. She laughed so hard, she fell against the wall, her head shaking in negation to his comment.

Realizing that he was frowning, she forced herself to stop chortling. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed.”

“I am quite serious.”

That was weird, the way his speech patterns got so formal sometimes, like the informal speak of a college student wasn’t natural for him.

“You’ve had that happen before?” she asked with disbelief.

“Yes,” he said shortly.

Wow. Bummer.

“I promise on both of my parents’ graves that I will never climb into your bed, naked or otherwise.”

“Both of your parents are dead?”

“Yes.”

“I am sorry.”

“Me, too, but thank you.”

“You’ll never try to seduce me?” he asked, as if there was still some doubt in his mind.

It took every bit of her self-control not to laugh again, but she managed it. “When you know me better, you’ll realize what a ridiculous thought that is, but please believe me when I say that you don’t ever have to worry about that kind of thing from me.”

“Why, are you gay?”

She gasped and then closed her eyes, trying hard to stay collected. She opened them again. “No. I’m not gay. I’m not the type to try to seduce anybody, male or female,” she said for good measure.

He still looked worried and she sighed.

“Look, you said you thought I must be pretty intelligent. Well, I am. Definitely smart enough to realize you are way out of my league. I don’t know where you come from that you have women falling all over themselves to have sex with you, but I was raised to keep out of men’s beds until I got married and that’s exactly what I intend to do. Even if you were a reincarnation of John Wayne, I would not climb into your bed and beg you to have sex with me. Okay?”

“John Wayne? You lust after the Duke?”

She rolled her eyes. “Never mind who I fantasize about…just don’t worry about it being you.”

Suddenly a smile lit his face and she just about fell against the wall again, this time from the sheer animal impact, but managed to stay upright. Barely.

“You’re hired.”

CHAPTER TWO

SHE moved in a week later.

The job was an easy one. Tom was not a slob and although he was clearly used to money, he didn’t require Cordon Bleu meals. She had plenty of time to pursue her studies and take care of his domestic needs. On top of that, he made her feel like his house was her home.

All she had to do was perform her job to his satisfaction and she had the run of the place. He was adamant she didn’t limit her time at home to cleaning and then staying in her room. It was very similar to living in the foster care system, where she’d figured out early that if she performed well and made herself indispensable, she’d always have a home.

Mostly it had worked for her.

The only drawback to the perfection of her arrangement with Tom was the fact that she fell totally, hopelessly, forever-after in love with him. And he’d made it clear he wanted nothing more than friendship with her…ever.

His girlfriends were beautiful, sophisticated women that made Maggie feel worse than ordinary. Every single one of them underscored a truth she could not deny: even if she didn’t work for him, Tom Prince would never look at her as anything but a friend.

Then halfway through his last year of graduate school and her sophomore year at the university, he broke up with his latest girlfriend. Instead of starting to date another drop-dead beauty, he took Maggie with him when he wanted companionship…out to dinner, to a movie, to a sports event, or even to a party.

The feelings she’d had during that month were still vivid after six long years of trying to forget.

It had been a cross between Heaven and Hell. She loved the extra time they spent together and her susceptible heart reveled in having his attention all to herself. But she never forgot his warning that he’d fire her on the spot if she tried to pursue anything more than friendship with him. Not that she would. She wasn’t such a fool as to think that the change in his dating pattern meant anything special for her.

One night all of that changed, though.

She was curled up on the plush leather sofa in the living room, studying for her midterms, when he came home.

Looking totally yummy in a pair of dark jeans and Ralph Lauren sweater over a navy-blue T-shirt, he made her feel things that turned her virginal ideals on their head.

She just hoped the sensual hunger did not show on her face. “Hi. You eating in tonight?”

He dropped his books on the table by the doorway. “I thought we could both eat out.”

“I wish I could,” she said sincerely. “I have to study.” She indicated her books and notes surrounding her on the sofa. “Midterms.”

“You work too hard. You need a break.”

“No, I don’t.” Life was easier for her now than it had been in a very long time. “You’re just spoiled.”

“And you are the one who spoils me.” He moved closer to her, his rich, masculine scent tantalizing senses always on edge when he was near. “Let me spoil you and take you to dinner.”

“I can’t. Really, Tom. I have three tests tomorrow.”

He shook his head, his expression disapproving. “You would not have so many tests if you did not take extra classes.”

“I take the maximum the scholarship allows for. I want to be done early. It’s better for me that way. I can start working sooner.”

“If you would let me pay for your living expenses until graduation, you would not have this worry.”

“No can do. What you do for me now is enough. Too much sometimes.”

“You are too stubborn, you mean. And I do nothing for you that you have not earned.”

“Well, since you won’t be living here next year, you can’t say I would be earning my keep if you provided it, could you?”

“Can you not consider it another scholarship?”

She wasn’t the only stubborn one. “No.”

“What are you going to do next year?”

“Get a job, or two, and find an apartment. I think one of the girls in my economics class wants to be my roommate.” She hated talking about the next year, when Tom would be gone.

It hurt to know that for all intents and purposes he would be walking out of her life as easily as he had walked in. While she had a horrible suspicion she would miss him forever.

“There is no reason why you cannot stay here.”

“There is every reason. It’s not my house.”

“It is mine and I want a caretaker.”

“No, you don’t. You want to give me charity and I won’t accept. Please stop pushing it.” She hated arguing with him as much as she hated thinking about never seeing him again.

He grinned, his expression flashing from annoyed dominant male to smiling confidence. “I am very good at getting my way.”

“I noticed. I have lived with you for a while now.”

He plucked her book out of her hand and tossed it to the end of the couch and then grabbed her wrists and tugged her up. “Then you should accept that if I want you to have dinner out with me tonight, that is the most likely scenario for our evening.”

She landed with a thud against his hard male body and gasped before scrambling as far back as his hold would allow. She tried to break it, but though he wasn’t hurting her in the slightest, there was no chance. “I need to study.”

“You need to eat. What can that hurt?”

“We’ll be gone too long. You never just go eat somewhere.”

“So, maybe there is a movie playing that I want to see…you need a break. I said so.”

“And because you said so it must be true?”

“Yes, this is true.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re awfully arrogant for a man who isn’t even twenty-five.”

“I was bred to it.”

“I guess.” She never asked about his background because he made it clear it was not a subject he wished to discuss, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know he came from major wealth.

“Why don’t you ask one of your friends to go to the movie with you?”

“I am. I am asking you.”

“I’m your housekeeper.”

“You are also my friend.”

Maybe…but somehow she didn’t see them exchanging phone calls and Christmas cards after he finished graduate school and moved on. And that was what decided her. She had only a finite amount of time left in Tom Prince’s life. She needed to take advantage of it.

“All right. I’ll study when we get home. Please tell me the movie is an early showing.”

“Your wish is my command, little Maggie.” He sealed his promise with a kiss.

On her lips.

He’d never done that before.

The logical part of her brain told her that kind of salute was common for him, even if she’d always been adept at avoiding any sort of touching between them.

But her body had other ideas, and lips that had kissed only one other boy before him went instantly soft against his, parting in an invitation that was as old as time and equally unmistakable. Being the natural predator that he was, he accepted the deepening of the kiss with alacrity.

His tongue slipped between her lips and slid along hers. She’d dreamed of tasting him, but no dream could compare to the rich ambrosia of his mouth. His lips and tongue explored her with such effective mastery, she moaned in pure pleasure. He made a feral sound low in his throat that sent shivers throughout her body, and pulled her forward, tugging her hands around his hips.

Her fingers convulsed in his sweater, gripping it so tightly it would have ripped if it hadn’t been so well made.

His hands came around her and pressed against her tailbone, bringing her into intimate contact with his lower body. She felt his rigid length hard against her belly, but couldn’t quite work out in her brain what it meant. She was too busy being devoured by an expert kisser. And loving it.

Some small part of her sanity remained and the muffled voice of reason asked her what she thought she was doing, but she had no answer. A far more strident voice, that of unrequited love, told her she would never have such a chance again. It urged her to experience all of him that she could.

Her heart and her clamoring body demanded compliance to that voice.

Tom did something with his hand against her back and her knees buckled.

Suddenly she was tumbling backward and he was going with her. She landed with one hip on the sofa and one hip off. Her equilibrium wasn’t up to keeping the balance and she and Tom tumbled to the floor. She landed on top of him, but amazingly he’d kept their lips locked together. He growled and flipped her under him, his hard thigh settled between her legs. She went utterly still, feelings rushing along her nerve endings that made her tremble and yank her head away from his.

It was too much.

She clamped her lips shut on a tiny whimper, but it escaped anyway.

He looked down at her, the angles of his face drawn with an emotion she did not recognize. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head, unable to speak.

“You whimpered.”

She stared up at him, mute, her legs separating just a tiny bit in an involuntary gesture that she immediately tried to rectify, but could not. He had settled more firmly between her legs and pressing her own back together only had the effect of hugging his masculine thigh tighter to her.

She gasped and closed her eyes against the disgust she knew would be in his. She’d promised never to do this, but it was as if her brain had lost control of her body and it had a definite will of its own.

The fact that it was following her heart did not help her self-control.

“Open your eyes, Maggie,” he demanded in a tone she doubted many people would have the strength to disobey. “Look at me.”

She steeled herself to deal with his anger and opened them. “I’m sorry,” she managed to whisper.

Far from being angry, his eyes were heated with a look he’d never directed her way before. “Why?”

Her gaze slid to his lips before returning to his eyes. “For kissing you.”

“I kissed you.”

But she had invited more. She’d been the one to open her mouth. She simply shook her head, unwilling to put her culpability into words.

“You want me.” He sounded as if the thought had never once occurred to him, but she could still see no evidence of anger that she had broken their agreement. “Since when?”

She turned her head away, her pride refusing to give him an answer. The sofa was so close she could see the grain of the leather, but as a distraction from his presence it failed miserably.

He tugged her chin with implacable fingers until she was once again looking at him. “I want you, too.”

“You do?” she asked in utter shock. “That’s not possible.”

He laughed and moved against her, making her aware of more than just the hardness of his thigh. “I’d say it’s very possible.”

As the implication of what she felt sank in, she blushed hot crimson.

He laughed again and then his mouth lowered over hers. This time, it was he that demanded entry to her mouth with his tongue. The kiss was incendiary, burning her sense of reality to ashes around her.

All she could do was feel. Every touch was new for her, every caress a step into an unknown but amazing world. One where passion ruled and desire was a tangible presence surrounding her.

He traced the curves of her face and neck with barely there fingertips. But when he reached her breast, his touch changed, growing more insistent and he cupped her soft curves possessively through the thin fabric of her worn flannel shirt. It was so intimate, she shuddered from the impact while he growled his approval of her braless state.

He began to knead her with a knowing finesse that made her ache in her most private place.

She needed to touch him, too, wanted to feel his skin with no barriers between them. She yanked his T-shirt out of his jeans so she could get her hands under it and his sweater. His skin was hotter than she expected, emanating warmth that made her fingertips burn deliciously.

And the hair on his chest was silky smooth. She touched everywhere she could reach, exploring his tight body with hungry innocence. When she found the nubs of his hard nipples, she stopped and circled them with her thumbs, then brushed over them, primal delight shimmering through her at his passionate response.

She was only vaguely aware of him unbuttoning the front of her shirt and peeling it back.

She noticed when his hand touched her bare skin though. Her whole awareness was consumed with the feel of his hands on her bare flesh, as her nipples hardened almost painfully and small goose bumps broke out on her flesh.

He kissed along her jaw and down her neck. “You’re so soft, Maggie, so delicious.”

Her only response was another soulful whimper as his mouth found her breast and then a scream as he began to suckle the nipple. Her hands fell to her sides, thudding against the carpet. She twisted her head back and forth as a mewling sound came from her throat that she could barely recognize as herself.

Then speech burst forth from her, words she did not plan on uttering tumbling from her lips in a breathless cascade. “Oh, wow! I knew it would be wonderful, but this beats anything. I feel so much, like my whole body is buzzing from a beesting.”

He laughed, pulling his mouth from her nipple. “I will gladly sting your petals and drink your nectar with my tongue.”

The erotic words shivered through her and she moaned.

He smiled darkly and went back to sucking her tenderized flesh. She tried to arch off the floor, but his body held her down.

“Tom…that’s so good, oh, it feels so good…” The word drew out long and low on a moan she didn’t even try to stifle.

She wasn’t sure how it happened, but he lost his T-shirt and sweater and then she felt his bare skin against hers. It was amazing and things were happening inside her she’d never experienced before…a feeling of spiraling tension she didn’t know how to handle. It just grew tighter and tighter and then he unzipped her jeans and slipped his hand inside.

His fingertips trespassed the top of her panties, touching her mons and then slipping between her swollen lips to caress her sweetest spot. Something happened inside her. It was like a rocket exploding and she screamed as her body bowed with unbearable pleasure.

“That’s right, bella. Let me feel your pleasure.”

She stared at him, her body convulsing as his fingers continued their ministrations. Who was Bella? Her thoughts splintered as one fingertip barely slipped inside her and he pressed the heel of his hand against her clitoris, prolonging the bliss.

He pushed further inside and she felt a stab of pain at the same time as he said, “Maggie!” his voice laced with stunned disbelief.

“You are a virgin?” he demanded as he withdrew his hand from her body, but his hand remained in possession of her most private flesh.

“Yes.”

Something strange flashed in his eyes and he started whispering in a language she didn’t understand and pressing kisses all over her face and throat. Overwhelmed by sensation, she didn’t realize what was happening until he started pulling her jeans off.

“Tom?”

“What, bella?”

His use of the other woman’s name again brought her back to herself with a jarring thump. Of course he was thinking she was another woman. He wouldn’t want her otherwise, but she couldn’t give him her virginity on such a pretext. Could she?

“What are you doing?” she asked stupidly.

He laughed, the sound husky and strained. “Making love to you.”

But it wasn’t love. It was sex and she didn’t know if she could go through with it. “I’m a virgin.”

“I know.”

“I mean I’m not on the Pill, or anything.”

He had her jeans down to her knees and he tugged them to her ankles. “I have condoms.”

“But…” She put her hand down to shield herself even though she was still wearing panties. “Please, Tom. Wait.”

He stopped and looked at her, his expression frightening in its intensity. “You do not want to go all the way?”

“You called me Bella.”

Uncomfortable chagrin flashed in the depths of his cobalt blue eyes, confirming her fears she was a substitute for another woman. “Well…yes. You need me to explain?”

“No!” The very thought of hearing about some other woman he had loved while she lay practically naked below him was repugnant. “Absolutely not.”

Now he looked confused. “Then what is the problem?”

Was he really that dense? “I don’t want to make love with you while you’re thinking of one of your girlfriends.”

“I would never do such a thing,” he said, his whole body going stiff with affront.

She wished with all her might she could believe him, but what had he just been doing if not that very thing?

Driven by fear of playing substitute and what making love would ultimately entail physically, she said with pure honesty, “I’m not ready.”

“I think you are.”

“You said you’d fire me if I ever tried to seduce you. What would happen if we had sex right now?” she asked.

His expression turned grim, disappointment flashing in his blue eyes. “It would no doubt ruin a good friendship,” he said cynically.

Despite her protests, that was not what she had wanted to hear. Pain lanced through her. “I guess you’re right. It would be stupid to make love, then. I can’t afford to lose my job over a single night of lust.”

She hated saying the words, no matter how true they were.

He jerked back from her, an impenetrable emotionless mantle settling over him. “I will not push you into doing something you believe would be damaging to you,” he said stiffly.

“I know that.”

He did not reply, but moved to sit on the sofa. She could not see his expression because his head was down and his big body shuddered with several heavy breaths.

Without the passion to lose herself in, she became embarrassed and quickly redressed. She stood up, awkward and unsure what to say.

After a few seconds, even his breathing was under control. When he looked at her, there was nothing in his gaze to tell her what he might be thinking. He simply sat there in silence with his hands dangling between his jean-clad legs.

“Tom, I, uh…”

“If I found you naked in my bed, I would not fire you.” That was all he said and then he got up and walked out of the room without another word.

A second later, the front door opened and shut and she was completely alone in a house that seemed to echo with all that had not been said.

Had he really wanted her?

Who was Bella?

She took his place on the couch, tears burning her eyes. Had she just avoided a monumental mistake or made the worst one of her life?

Those questions along with his words played inside Maggie’s head throughout the following week.

They popped into her consciousness first thing when she woke up in the morning and bedeviled her throughout the day and then made it hard to sleep each night. When she did sleep, she dreamed of him and the pleasure he’d given her.

She would wake up aching between her legs and craving him. Her desire for him grew to unbearable heights. Two things held her back from jumping into his bed: the memory of him calling her by another woman’s name and the fact that he was rarely around. Being honest with herself, she had to admit that if the latter were not the case, the former probably wouldn’t even matter.

He hadn’t dated a Bella that she’d known of, but when Maggie had stayed on as caretaker of his house the past summer, he had gone home. He could have dated anyone then. Had he fallen in love with Bella and she dropped him?

It would explain why he hadn’t been as focused on his relationships with women this year, why he’d only had one girlfriend and he’d broken up with her when she started getting serious. Maggie hated the thought of being a substitute for another woman. However, the temptation to try to capture his affection for herself through passion became more irresistible with every passing day. Particularly as Tom grew more distant and spent less and less time around her.

He wanted her and he’d practically invited her to his bed. Those were two facts she simply could not dismiss from her mind.

Finally the fear of losing what she did have of him decided for her. It was after eleven already and Tom wasn’t home. He’d called and said not to worry about dinner, that he had a study group he was going to. On a Friday night. Like he had ever attended one of those before. He was avoiding her and she couldn’t take it any longer.

She’d known it would be hard to watch him walk away at the end of spring, she hadn’t known it would be impossible to live in the same house and lose what she had of him anyway. Right or wrong, she was going to sleep with him and she just hoped it would regain the closeness they’d shared before the encounter in the living room. It was worth any risk to have a future with the man she loved…even knowing that future might be extremely short-lived.

She donned her nightgown, nowhere near bold enough to actually climb naked into his bed, and turned out the house lights except one in the hall. Then she walked into his dark, empty bedroom with her heart pounding a mile a minute. She had no idea how she would have survived doing this if he’d actually been home.

The prospect of him finding her in his bed seemed much less daunting than to have to go to him and explain what she wanted. He was smart. He’d figure it out.

Even so, she got beneath the covers gingerly, feeling like a thief or something. But he had told her he would not fire her if he found her naked in his bed. She clung to that thought as she snuggled into his pillow, inhaling his scent. They would be intimate tonight and then this awful, empty void inside her chest would be gone.

As she lay there waiting for him, her week of sleepless nights caught up with her and unbelievably, her eyes grew heavy. Her last memory was looking at his digital clock to see that it was now after midnight.

She woke up to whispered voices on the other side of the bed. The mattress dipped at the same time as the small bedside lamp was clicked on and she gasped at what the light revealed.

Tom had his hand on a woman’s shoulder. A gorgeous brunette with deep brown eyes, her blouse unbuttoned to reveal perfect curves encased in black lace.

“Maggie, what are you doing here?” Tom demanded, his blue eyes wide with shock, his hair obviously mussed from what they’d been doing before coming into the room.

“Sleeping,” she blurted out blankly.

An explanation for her motives in being there was totally beyond her and Maggie’s heart shattered while the beautiful brunette looked at her like a particularly nasty bug caught under her shoe.

The light of understanding dawned in Tom’s blue gaze and along with it a wary chagrin that hurt as much as his new girlfriend’s sneering regard.

“Maggie, I…” For the first time in eighteen months she saw Tom Prince at a total loss for words, but his girlfriend wasn’t.

“Why is your housekeeper sleeping in your bed?” she asked Tom, her voice laced with suspicion.

“I forgot to tell her I was coming home tonight. It’s wash day. Her bedding must have been unavailable.” As excuses thought off the top of the head and given without the least advanced warning, it was a pretty good one.

However, the knowledge he didn’t want the other woman to know Maggie might have another reason for being in his bed burned through her like acid.

The beautiful woman’s lips pursed in disapproval. “I should think she’d sleep on the sofa, then.”

“Yes. I should have,” Maggie said with quiet dignity. She stared at Tom, her eyes accusing. “It was a big mistake to come in here.”

“The timing was unfortunate,” he replied, a wealth of meaning in his words.

“Most unfortunate,” the brunette agreed. “However, the problem can now be rectified, can’t it?”

“Of course.” Maggie climbed from the bed, glad she’d worn her white cotton gown.

If she’d been naked, she wasn’t sure she could have survived the humiliation. As it was, she felt angry and mortified, tears burning the back of her throat. She’d been such an idiot not to realize a man like Tom Prince wanting her could only be a temporary aberration.

Refusing to justify herself, and frankly incapable of saying another word, she spun on her heel and rushed from the room. She sprinted down the hall to her own room and rushed inside, slamming the door and locking it before collapsing on the floor and giving into the pain mushrooming inside her.

She’d been so stupid to think he really wanted her. She’d thought he was avoiding her because he couldn’t handle the fact she’d said no, when in fact he’d simply found another woman and had been spending time with her. Her foolish dreams mocked her with painful indictment.

But he hadn’t bothered to tell her he’d found someone else. Probably because in his mind it wasn’t someone “else” but merely someone. What he’d said hadn’t meant anything more to him than a reassurance about her job after the embarrassing debacle the week before. His comment hadn’t been an invitation at all. It couldn’t have been, not with him going out with another woman immediately after.

It had all been a product of her overactive imagination. Nothing more. But he shouldn’t have said it if he didn’t mean it. It wasn’t fair. Maggie felt like she was going to be sick, but she swallowed down her bile. Instead, for the first time in years, she let the silent tears flow.

In that moment, she hated Tom Prince as much as she loved him.

CHAPTER THREE

THE next morning, Maggie woke feeling like she had an empty hole in her chest. Her relationship with Tom was irrevocably altered and she knew now without the shadow of a doubt that her feelings for him could never be returned. There would always be another beautiful woman waiting around the corner for men like Tom Prince.

She would have to find a roommate sooner than she had expected…and another job. It wouldn’t be easy, most of the part-time jobs that worked around student hours had been filled at the beginning of the year, but she had no choice.

She walked on silent feet into the kitchen, not wanting to wake the other occupants of the house. Unfortunately, Tom was standing near the coffeepot waiting for it to finish brewing when she entered.

He eyed her warily. “Good morning.”

“Is it?” she asked in a flat tone. She supposed for him, a highly sexed male whose sexual fast had ended the night before, it was.

He winced. “I am sorry about last night.”

“Are you?”

“Yes. It was unfortunate.”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

“I did not mean for you to be embarrassed that way.”

Was that all he thought had happened? That she’d been embarrassed? She wished. He’d broken her heart and, like Humpty Dumpty, not all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could put it back together again.

“Liana doesn’t know you came to my bed to make love. She believed my excuse last night.”

“It was a clever story. You think fast on your feet in these situations. Are you sure you haven’t had a little practice at it?” she asked with unusual cynicism.

And did he really think that it would make her feel better to know the other woman saw her as such a noncompetitor that she’d swallowed the story whole?

“Do not be sarcastic. Please. It is not like you and I have said I am sorry.”

“And that is supposed to make it all better?”

“Yes,” he informed her with breathtaking arrogance. “We did not have a relationship. I broke no promises. You should not be so upset.”

Pain that should not be possible considering how numb she felt in her misery sliced through her. “No. We didn’t…don’t have a relationship, but you told me you wouldn’t fire me if I came to your bed.”

His face cleared as if finally he understood what was upsetting her. “And I will not,” he said as if he deserved a medal or something. “It was a simple misunderstanding.”

She shook her head at his misreading of the situation. “I’m going to be looking for another job today.”

He frowned in irritation. “You cannot.”

“I can.”

“Not over this. There is no reason. It was a foolish mistake we would both be better off forgetting.”

“There is every reason. I can’t forget it. I’m sorry.”

“I do not want your apology. I want you to stay on as my housekeeper.”

“How can I?”

“You are being unreasonable. You have no reason to be embarrassed or want to leave. As far as I’m concerned, last night never happened.”

“Does Liana know that?”

“I did not mean—”

“I know what you meant.”

“It is inappropriate for you to comment on my private life in that way.”

“Pardon me. I guess it’s a good thing I’ll be looking for other employment, then, isn’t it? I’m obviously not as discreet as you need me to be.”

“This morning is an aberration. One I intend to forget.”

Just like she had been forgotten when a beautiful woman had come along to usurp her in his sexual desires.

“Have you considered it will not be so easy to find another job?”

“Yes.”

“At least agree to stay until you find something else.”

“Fine.”

She’d ended up staying until the end of the semester as she’d originally planned, because finding another job to work with her tight school schedule had been impossible. But things changed between them.

She still took care of the domestic side of his life, but she spent a lot more time on campus, at the library and with the few friends she’d made. She now prepared most of his meals ahead of time and left instructions for heating. When he wanted Liana to dine with him, she made the extra portions without complaint, but never shared another meal with him herself. Not even breakfast.

Thankfully Liana was not a local college student, so she wasn’t there often, but her presence could be felt in the daily constraint between Tom and Maggie.

When he asked the other woman to marry him, Maggie was not surprised, but being prepared for it did not soften the blow, and her heart bled.

He invited her to the wedding and she told him they didn’t have that kind of relationship, that she didn’t plan to see him again after school ended for the summer. He was her boss, not her friend and when school got out, he would no longer be even that.

For once, he had not stubbornly insisted on getting his own way, which said all she needed to know about how he really saw her.

She’d worked out a job and living arrangements by the end of the semester and moved out a week before he did. She did not bother giving him her new address and did not ask for information on where he planned to live after graduation.

She would not be able to handle seeing him married to the other woman, but she hoped he was happy. She loved him too much to ever wish otherwise.

She attended the graduation ceremony though, sitting high in the bleachers where he would not see her watching him receive his master’s degree with honors. He’d worked hard to be at the top of his class.

She clapped enthusiastically when his name was called, but was gone from the stands by the time the graduates left their designated seating to join the crowd.

She’d never seen Tom Prince again, but she’d never been able to forget him, either.

Some women only fell in love once, or so she’d been told, and she figured she was one of them. He’d married a woman worthy of his incredible looks and dynamic personality, but there was a part of Maggie’s heart that would always belong to him.

Maggie had only been asleep for about forty-five minutes when the feel of a small body climbing into either side of her bed woke her. She opened her eyes. “Gianni?”

“Anna got scared, Maggie. She wants to sleep with you.”

The little girl snuggled up to Maggie’s back, giving credence to her brother’s words.

“And you do, too?”

Gianni nodded in the shadowy dark of the room. “I had a bad dream.”

“I miss Papa,” Anna said from behind Maggie.

Maggie was too tired herself after staying up with her memories and the movie to argue. She merely cuddled them both close and slipped back into sleep herself.

However, two hours later, after the third small and pointy elbow poked a sensitive body part, she carefully climbed out of her bed and went in search of somewhere else to sleep.

Both children were sleeping too soundly for her to willingly wake them and put them back in their own bed, but she wasn’t sure what to do with herself.

Their beds were much too short for a grown person, even a woman of her no more than average height. The Victorian-style sofa in her sitting room was no longer than a love seat and no better a proposition. To her knowledge, the only other bed made up was in the master suite.

She stumbled sleepily down the hall to Anna and Gianni’s father’s room. He would never know she’d slept there. She’d get up in the morning and wash the sheets and replace them and when he returned the next day, he would be none the wiser.

She tossed the extra decorative pillows from the bed onto the floor and slid between the sheets. There was something vaguely familiar about the scent on the pillow where she laid her head, but she was too tired to work out what it was.

Tomasso let himself into his home quietly, forcing a brain muddled by lack of sleep and other things to remember the alarm codes to allow his entry without setting off sirens. He’d pushed himself mercilessly for the last five days so he could finish his business early and come home. He missed his children and he was impatient to see Maggie again, to find out if she was all that he remembered.

He’d gone totally without sleep for the last thirty-six hours, catching only a catnap on the plane between bouts of work. He didn’t want to go into his office for a couple of days and that meant getting ahead on everything. He’d taken meds for the motion sickness he got flying when he was too tired, and then forgotten he’d taken them and had a glass of wine with his dinner and a neat Scotch whiskey an hour later.

He’d never been drunk in his entire thirty years, but he thought this graceless fumbling was as close as he had come to doing so.

Nevertheless, he scaled the stairs with a sense of anticipation and relief he had not felt in a very long time. Tomorrow Maggie would learn she was working for him. He had no idea how she would react to that news, but now that she was bonded with the children, he did not believe her first reaction would be to quit her job.

He had planned it that way of course, doing his best to stack the odds in his favor, like he did with any business deal. Unlike his first marriage, where he had allowed lust and foolish emotion to cloud his judgment, he planned to approach the situation with Maggie from the same perspective he did business. With cool, calculated reason and an intent to win.

Regardless of how she reacted to learning she was working for Tom Prince again, or that he was really Principe Tomasso Scorsolini of Isole dei Re, he had no intention of letting her walk away from him a second time.

He dropped his briefcase in the study connected to his bedroom and his carryall in the room beyond. He pressed a small button on the panel beside the door and low-level recessed lighting came on. Even so, it felt glaring to his bloodshot eyes. He was never taking that antinausea medication again.

He was loosening his tie as his gaze landed on the pile of pillows on the floor. His foggy brain could not work out why they would be there. His staff was impeccable and his children far too respectful to have had a pillow fight in his bedroom, even assuming the new nanny would let them.

Frowning over that mystery, he peeled off his jacket and hung it over the suit valet while his gaze skimmed the rest of his room. As it landed on his bed, he stopped still in his tracks.

The bed was occupied.

Who would have the temerity to invade his sanctuary? No woman he knew could make it past his security and his staff were too loyal to help any woman intent on snagging a royal lover and/or husband.

And no one, man or woman, would have been expecting him to sleep in his bed tonight. As far as anyone but his personal security team and pilot was concerned, Tomasso was still out of the country on business.

He moved closer to the bed to get a closer look. He had to brush back the mass of curling blond hair to reveal the woman’s features. He did it carefully, so as not to wake her.

Disbelief warred with a feral sense of purpose as his brain identified the intruder.

Maggie.

What was she doing in his bed?

Memories of another bed, another time washed over him.

They’d shared a scorching kiss and he had come very close to making love to her. But she’d been a virgin and she’d hesitated at the last step. He’d wanted her so badly, he was shaking with it, but she had chosen her job over him.

His ego had taken a blow and he’d been both disappointed and angry, but he’d told her he wouldn’t fire her if she changed her mind. Then he’d spent the next week avoiding her and trying to get his libido back under control.

He’d seen their passion as a mistake and was acutely grateful she’d refused to go all the way once he cooled down. Maggie hadn’t been his type back then. She was too ordinary, too innocent and sweet. He went for gorgeous women with sophisticated tastes and a similar outlook on life. He’d thought that was what he wanted, but he’d learned that kind of woman came with a cost.

It was one he would not pay again.

He wanted the simplicity and kindness the woman in his bed had once represented in his life.

One night, six years ago, she had climbed into his bed by way of invitation, but he’d brought Liana home with him and in doing so lost any chance he’d ever had with Maggie.

She was in his bed again. A wholly unlooked-for second chance to rectify the mistakes of the past.

His brain told him there was something wrong with that scenario, that she didn’t even know she was working for him, so she could not be extending any kind of invitation here. Her presence in his bed was no doubt explained by something as prosaic as the excuse he had made up to tell Liana six years ago.

But he didn’t like that logical conclusion.

Okay, so his brain was a bit fuzzy, but even he could see that Maggie Thomson’s presence in his bed was fate. She belonged to him. He should have seen it before. She even bore his name, or a derivative of it, but it meant she was his. Of course it did.

No. Wait. He was supposed to test her out…to see if she fit his life as well as she had before.

But how better to test her than to share her bed? That was important. It was key, even. He already knew from Therese that Maggie and his children were a good fit.

His mind worked sluggishly with arguments for and against sharing the bed with his new nanny while he finished undressing, but in the end it was physical exhaustion that decided him. He was too tired and muddled to worry about finding another place to sleep. She’d opted to use his bed. She could share it.

He slid naked between the sheets. He’d never worn pajamas. He wasn’t about to start tonight. Yet as tired as he was, he did not immediately go to sleep, but turned to watch Maggie’s soft features in repose. Her lips were slightly parted, perfect for kissing.

Would she mind if he kissed her good night? He was a prince. Of course she wouldn’t mind. He’d never had a woman deny him a kiss, not once.

He slid toward her, his tired body reacting to her sweet feminine fragrance with surprising strength. By the time he was close enough to kiss her sleep-relaxed mouth, he was hard and aching, his body taut with need.

He pressed his lips to hers in a chaste kiss.

Her eyes opened and she looked at him as if he were an apparition. “Tom?”

“Yes, little Maggie.” Tomorrow would be soon enough to explain who he was.

She relaxed again, as if his presence did not bother her at all. Her eyes slid shut. “That was nice,” she whispered.

So he kissed her again, and this time she responded with drowsy generosity, parting her lips further so he could find his way inside.

He kissed her with his tongue, tasting the mouth that had haunted his dreams for far too long. She moaned softly against his lips and her small hands began exploring his body the way they had that night six years ago. He deepened the kiss with passion he hadn’t felt for too damn long. She tasted perfect, she felt perfect, and he craved her like he’d never craved culmination with a woman before.

But even as confused as his brain was with exhaustion and the combined effects of the alcohol and the meds, he knew there was something not right about this.

Calling on the last vestiges of his sanity and self-control, he broke the kiss. She made a sound of protest and pressed kisses along his jaw, searching for reconnection to his mouth. His body jerked with need as her hand drifted down his stomach and brushed the hair above his sex.

“Maggie, bella…. do you know what you are doing?”

Her eyes stayed closed, but her lips curved in a sensuous smile. “Oh, yes. I’m kissing you.” And she did it again, this time right on his mouth with unerring accuracy.

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