The Prince's Second Chance Read online

  Elena had been as annoyed as she’d been intrigued. Her chief of security had been with her a long time, and he knew that she wanted results, not vague promises. Either he had something or he didn’t—she wasn’t interested in his thoughts.

  Still, she was curious enough to keep the meeting, and she was waiting when Reynard appeared at the door precisely on schedule.

  He knew her well enough not to waste any time on small talk, and as he made his way toward her desk, she could see that he had a small recording device in his hand. A touch of his thumb to one of the buttons and voices filled the silence.

  Elena listened, definitely more intrigued than annoyed now. And when the playback finally ended, she nodded. “Yes, that should serve my purposes.”

  “Shall I arrange for a copy to be sent to his office?” Reynard asked.

  She considered the idea for only a brief moment before discarding it. There wasn’t a lot of time—with each day that passed, Gabriella was sinking her claws deeper and deeper into Cameron. Even though Elena had tried to warn her son about the kind of woman he was keeping company with, he’d refused to listen. His refusal had left Elena with no choice. She would do what was necessary to pull those claws free and if Cameron was left with scars, well, he would have no one to blame but himself.

  “No,” she finally responded to Reynard’s question. “I’ll deliver it to him personally.”

  Gabriella sat alone, thinking over her mother’s words long after Katarina had gone up to bed.

  She was right, of course. Not just about the fact that Gabriella couldn’t stop herself from falling in love with Cameron again, but that the real root of her fear was the knowledge that she was already more than halfway there.

  She should know better. She should have learned her lesson. But even if she didn’t believe his claim that he’d loved her seventeen years ago, she did believe that he wasn’t the same man now that he’d been then. And maybe, if he really did want a second chance and was willing to try to make a relationship between them work, Gabriella could make the effort, too.

  She was scared, because there was so much more at stake now than just her heart. There was Sierra to think about—their daughter who didn’t yet know that Cameron was her father. There’s no reward without risk, she reminded herself, and picked up the phone.

  She faltered when she heard his voice on the other end. She hadn’t expected him to answer, had anticipated leaving a message on his voice mail.

  “I know it’s late,” she said.

  “It’s okay,” he assured her. “I was still awake.”

  “Okay. Well, I, uh, wanted to apologize, for some of the things I said tonight.”

  “That’s not necessary,” he told her.

  “It is,” she insisted. “I was feeling emotional and vulnerable, and I lashed out at you.”

  “And I was pushing for too much too soon,” he acknowledged.

  “Maybe. A little.” She blew out a breath. “Anyway, I thought maybe I could make it up to you, by inviting you to come over here for dinner. Tomorrow night.”

  “I thought you didn’t cook.”

  “I didn’t say I would cook, I said I would provide dinner. Actually, I thought I might be able to cajole my mother into cooking,” she admitted. “But she’s going away for the weekend, which means that I’ll probably get takeout.”

  “Well, that’s an intriguing offer,” he said.

  But he didn’t immediately accept or decline, and Gabriella found herself babbling again. “It’s short notice, I know. I should have realized that you probably already have plans. Or a date.”

  He laughed, although it sounded more strained than amused. “Dios, Gabriella, I don’t have a date.”

  “Oh. Well.”

  “I was just…caught off guard by your invitation.”

  “It was an impulse,” she admitted. “Probably a bad idea. Maybe we should just forget that I called.”

  “No way,” he told her. “Just tell me what time tomorrow and I’ll be there.”

  “Six? Seven? Whatever works for you,” she said. “Although Sierra’s going to a party with some friends tomorrow night, so if you want to see her, maybe you should come a little earlier.”

  “Earlier than six?”

  “No, six would be fine.”

  “Then I’ll see you at six,” he promised.

  “Okay.”

  She hung up the phone and wiped her damp palms on her skirt. She’d sounded like an idiot—worse, a babbling incoherent idiot. And yet, she had another date for tomorrow night.

  She drew out a shaky breath and pressed a hand to her hammering heart. She was excited and terrified and determined. If this was her second chance, she was going to grab hold of it with both hands.

  Cameron wasn’t sure what had precipitated Gabriella’s phone call, and he didn’t care. He was just grateful that they seemed to have turned a corner, that she was finally willing to give him a second chance. He woke up the next morning with a smile that carried him through most of the day. The only snag was an early-afternoon visit from his mother.

  There had been a time when he’d believed that Elena wanted only the best for him. He was no longer as trusting or naive, and he understood now that every action the princess royal performed and every word she spoke were carefully calculated to promote her own agenda. As she demonstrated with the recording she’d delivered to him that afternoon in an attempt to alter his intentions with respect to Gabriella and Sierra.

  He’d been shocked to hear Gabriella’s voice—and stunned by the words she spoke.

  I will do anything for my daughter, even letting Cameron hang around. But I’m using him for my own purposes now, punishing him for dumping me. I won’t fall for him again.

  Elena claimed that Gabriella had spoken those words during a conversation with her mother, and listening to his own mother, he’d actually felt physically ill. Not because he believed what she was telling him, but because he was appalled by her actions. She insisted that she was only trying to protect him, but he saw the truth now: she was trying to control him, and she didn’t give a damn about anyone else who might get hurt in the process.

  She’d decided—for whatever reason so many years ago—that Gabriella wasn’t a suitable partner for her son and she was going to do everything in her power to keep them apart. Apparently that included planting audio surveillance devices in Gabriella’s home. When he confronted her, she neither denied nor apologized for her actions, insisting that she only wanted him to know what kind of vengeful, vindictive woman Gabriella really was.

  Cameron had snapped the disk in half and told his mother to get out of his house. Then, when he’d verified that Gabriella and her mother and daughter were all out for the afternoon, he’d sent his own security team over to locate and remove the bugs. They’d found one in the kitchen, one in the living room, and one in Gabriella’s bedroom.

  On his way to Gabriella’s house later that day, he tried to push all thoughts of Elena’s lies and machinations from his mind. When Sierra opened the door and greeted him with a tentative smile, his heart actually felt as if it was expanding inside his chest.

  And he finally realized that Gabriella was right—that the mistakes of the past didn’t matter half as much as the gift of the present. Even though it was apparent that Sierra was ready to walk out the door as he was coming in, her smile confirmed that he was making progress with his daughter, and that was enough for now.

  “Hi, Cameron. Bye, Cameron.” She smiled again, then kissed her mother’s cheek. “Bye, Mom.”

  But Gabriella held up a hand, halting her daughter’s movement toward the door. “What’s in the backpack?”

  “My pajamas, toothbrush, a change of clothes.”

  “Because?”

  “I’m staying at Jenna’s tonight, remember?”

  “I remember you asking if you could stay at Jenna’s,” Gabriella acknowledged. “And I remember telling you that I didn’t think it was a good idea.”


  “Come on, Mom.” Sierra cast a glance in Cameron’s direction, as if to remind her mother that he was there, probably hoping she wouldn’t want to argue in front of her guest.

  But Gabriella shook her head. “Not tonight.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I wouldn’t have any way of knowing what time you got back to Jenna’s—or even if you did.”

  “I’ll call you at midnight.”

  “No, you’ll be back here by midnight,” Gabriella insisted.

  “You don’t trust me,” Sierra accused.

  “If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be going to the party at all,” her mother told her.

  “This is so unfair.”

  “Twelve o’clock,” Gabriella said again.

  “Do you realize that I’m the only one who has to be home by midnight?”

  “Do you realize that I don’t care what rules other parents set for their children? I only care about you.”

  “My life sucks,” Sierra grumbled.

  “I’m sure, from your perspective, it does,” Gabriella agreed. “But for tonight, you have one of two choices. You can go to the party and be home by midnight, or you can not go to the party at all.”

  Sierra dumped her backpack on the ground. “Yeah, like that’s really a choice.”

  “If you want to invite Paolo to come back here with you, I’m okay with that.”

  “Because Paolo’s really going to want to leave the party at midnight.”

  “Obviously that’s his choice.”

  “Yeah—his choice,” Sierra repeated. “Because his parents don’t treat him like a child.”

  “Maybe because he’s eighteen years old and doesn’t have temper tantrums like a child.”

  Sierra’s eyes narrowed on her mother. She looked both angry enough and tempted to stamp her foot, but of course, that would only prove Gabriella right. Instead, the teenager turned on her heel and slammed the door as she went out.

  Gabriella sighed, then turned to him with a rueful smile. “And that was the entertainment portion of the evening,” she said lightly.

  “Entertaining and enlightening,” he said, matching her tone.

  “Does it make you have second thoughts about wanting to take on the task of parenting a sixteen-year-old girl?”

  “No,” he said. “It only makes me admire you all the more.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  He shook his head. “Every time I look at her, I’m absolutely awed and amazed to think that I had any part in her creation. But all I did was contribute to her DNA. And as stubborn and willful and downright scary as she can be at times, she’s also a great kid, and that’s entirely your doing.”

  Her smile wobbled, just a little. “Thanks. It’s hard, sometimes, trying to enforce boundaries for her own protection when she insists on pushing against them.”

  “Do you really think her request to spend the night at her friend’s house was just a ruse?”

  “I know it,” she said. “Because I was a teenager once, too, and I came up with all kinds of excuses to stay out past my curfew or spend the night with a friend in order to be with you.”

  He frowned. “How old were you, exactly?”

  “Seventeen.”

  He scrubbed his hands over his face. “You were barely older than that child who just walked out the door.”

  “I was old enough to know what I wanted,” Gabriella assured him. “And you were everything to me. I would have done almost anything to be with you.”

  “I don’t think I’d ever been as completely infatuated with anyone as I was with you,” Cameron confided. “From the very first time my friends and I went into Marconi’s and you walked out of the kitchen, weaving your way between the tightly packed tables with a pizza tray held over your head, I was smitten.”

  “You were obnoxious.”

  “Andre was obnoxious,” he reminded her. “I was just desperate to get your attention.”

  She smiled at the memory. “You succeeded.”

  “I ate a lot of pizza over the next few weeks, just so that I’d have an excuse to see you and talk to you.”

  “I didn’t mind—you never skipped out on your bill and always left a decent tip.”

  “And still, you kept refusing to go out with me.”

  “I didn’t understand why you kept asking,” she admitted. “It was so obvious to me that you were way out of my league.”

  “You were so beautiful.” He stroked a hand over her hair, let his fingers sift through the silky ends. “You are so beautiful.”

  “And you’re still way out of my league,” she said, sounding regretful.

  “Don’t you remember how good we were together?”

  “Good is a valuation,” she hedged. “And I didn’t have any experience to judge it against.”

  “Then you’ll have to trust my judgment, and believe me when I say that we had fabulous chemistry.”

  “We’re not kids anymore,” she said. “And now we have a kid to think about, which makes this a lot more complicated now than it was all those years ago.”

  “So tell me to go.” He dipped his head and brushed his lips against hers, softly, fleetingly. “Tell me to go, and mean it, and I’ll turn around and walk right out that door.”

  The tip of her tongue touched her bottom lip. “I invited you to come for dinner,” she reminded him. “It would be rude to tell you to go without even feeding you.”

  “I don’t care about dinner.”

  “I was going to order Thai.”

  “Tell me to go,” he said again. “Or ask me to stay. But be sure you know what you want.”

  He saw the indecision in her eyes. Desire warring with caution; hope battling with fear. He understood her hesitation. They were at a crossroads, and if they went forward from here, there would be no going back.

  She lifted a hand, laid her palm over his chest where his heart was beating fast and hard against his ribs.

  “You,” she finally said. “I want you.”

  Then her hand slid up to cup the back of his head, drawing his mouth down to hers so that she could whisper against his lips, “Stay.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Cameron’s heart pounded hard against his ribs. Once, twice, as his mind absorbed her response. “You’re sure?”

  He couldn’t believe he was asking the question. But the first time, he hadn’t given her a choice. He’d seduced her thoroughly and completely, so that she’d been incapable of refusing what he wanted, what he needed.

  He needed her no less now, but he also needed to know that the choice was hers and one made freely and without hesitation.

  “I’m sure,” she promised, and held out her hand.

  He linked his fingers with hers and let her lead him up the stairs to her bedroom. The door was open, as were the pair of windows that flanked the gaslight-style double bed, and light, gauzy curtains waved in the gentle breeze. On the opposite wall, there were two mismatched dressers, with photos of Sierra hanging above. He didn’t take in any other details—he was focused only on Gabriella.

  She’d paused in the center of the room, and was looking at him uncertainly. He raised their still-joined hands to press his lips to her palm, and felt her tremble.

  “I feel like I’m seventeen again,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “The way my heart is pounding and my knees are shaking.”

  He pressed her palm to his chest again, so that she would know that his heart was pounding, too. “I feel as if I’ve been waiting for you forever.”

  His lips brushed over hers, softly, testing.

  Her eyelids drifted down on a sigh.

  He took his time. Even if this was what they both wanted, he didn’t want to rush. Not this time. Instead, he lingered on her mouth, sampling, nibbling, savoring her uniquely exotic flavor. When he finally slid his tongue between her lips, a low hum of pleasure sounded in her throat, and he took the kiss deeper.

  It was only when his hands moved to
the top button of her blouse that she started to draw back.

  “I should pull down the shades,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “Because it feels strange to be taking my clothes off with the sun streaming in the window.”

  “You don’t have any neighbors close enough to peek in,” he said, brushing his lips against hers again. “And I want to see you. Every inch of you. Gloriously naked.”

  “Now I’m really nervous,” she admitted.

  “Only because you’re thinking. So stop thinking,” he instructed, and kissed her again.

  It was a long, deep kiss that completely and effectively wiped all thought from her mind. She wasn’t thinking anymore, she wasn’t capable of thinking anymore, only feeling. She could feel her heart pounding, she could feel the heat that pulsed in her veins, and she could feel the desperate, aching need that spread through her body.

  This time, when he started to unfasten her buttons, she didn’t even think of stopping him. When he pushed the blouse off of her shoulders, the balmy air caressed her skin, raising goosebumps on her flesh. Then he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her tight against his body, and all she felt was heat.

  He ran his hands over her shoulders, down her arms. She tugged his shirt out of his pants, anxious to touch him as he was touching her. Her hands fumbled, just a little, as she worked at his buttons. When she had most of them unfastened, he tugged it over his head and tossed it aside.

  Her hands splayed over his chest, relishing the feel of solid, warm flesh beneath her palms, and the strong, steady beat of his heart. Her hands slid lower, tracing the hard ridges of his abdomen, then lower still.

  Within minutes, they were both naked, but as eager as she was for the joining of their bodies, she didn’t want to rush a single moment of their time together. Cameron must have felt the same way, because he didn’t immediately move toward the bed but seemed content to keep kissing her, touching her, teasing her.

  When he finally lowered her onto the bed, the old mattress protested with a creak and a groan that jolted Gabriella back to reality. What was she thinking—making love with him here? He was used to being with glamorous women in exclusive penthouse hotel rooms, making love on top of sheets that probably cost more than all of her bedroom furniture combined. He was a prince and she—