The Prince's Second Chance Read online

  The thought drifted away as his hands stroked over her, shooting arrows of pleasure streaking across her skin. Yeah, he was a prince, but he was here with her now, and that was all that mattered.

  He worked his way from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, exploring and arousing every single inch of her. He used his hands and his lips and his body until she was panting with want, aching with need, and willing to beg. He took her to the sharpest edge of pleasure and then, finally, over. Her body was still trembling with the aftershocks when he drove into her, sending a whole new wave of sensation crashing through her system. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, her legs anchored around his hips. She felt as if she could drown in the pleasure he was giving her, and she gloried in it.

  She cried out, her nails digging into his flesh as her body tightened around him, dragging him into the storm of sensation along with her.

  He held her in his arms. As the last of the sun’s rays faded from the sky, plunging the room into darkness, he continued to hold her. Her head was nestled against his shoulder, her arm draped across his belly—until his stomach grumbled, loudly.

  “We skipped dinner, didn’t we?”

  “I wasn’t hungry before,” he said, his hand stroking down her back. “Except for you.”

  She tilted her head back to look at him. “And now?”

  “Now, I’m starving,” he admitted.

  So they ordered the Thai food she’d promised him earlier. Then, refueled and re-energized, they went back to her bedroom and made love again.

  “I missed you,” he said, somehow finding it easier to speak the truth in the darkness. “I don’t think I realized how much until I saw you again.”

  “While I appreciate the sentiment—”

  “You don’t believe me,” he guessed.

  “Cameron, I went to see you less than a month after the weekend we spent together and you didn’t even remember my name.”

  “That’s not true,” he told her. “I only pretended not to remember your name.”

  “Why would you do something like that?” He heard the skepticism in her tone and ached for the hurt he’d caused.

  “Because I didn’t want to admit—even to myself—how much you meant to me. In only a couple of months, you’d gotten under my skin, wholly and completely. When I got home after saying goodbye to you at the end of that weekend, all I could think about was seeing you again.”

  “And I’m supposed to believe that’s why you never called?” she asked dubiously.

  “I know it sounds crazy—”

  She didn’t deny it.

  “—but you have to understand how unusual that was for me. I was a royal—and I’d become so accustomed to having women throw themselves at me, I felt as if that was a birthright as much as my title.

  “You were different, right from the start. I’d never felt about anyone else the way I felt about you, and the depth of those feelings terrified me. I was sure that if I just took a step back, I’d realize you weren’t any different from any other girl I’d been with.”

  “That’s flattering,” she said dryly.

  “But I was wrong,” he told her. “The longer I stayed away, the more I missed you. And the harder I tried to deny my own feelings. When you showed up at the college that day—I was so thrilled to see you, and equally determined to play it cool. And then, when you told me you thought you might be pregnant…well, that panic was very real.”

  “I was feeling a little panicked myself.”

  He stroked his hand over her hair. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m not,” she said. “I was hurt and angry for a long time, but once I got past that—or mostly past it, anyway—I was more grateful than anything else. Because Sierra truly was a blessing. I was young and alone and terrified, but I knew I had to get it together for her. She gave my life a focus—everything I did, I did for her.”

  “You put your own life on hold to raise our daughter while I was raising hell around the globe,” he realized.

  “We each have our hobbies,” she said lightly.

  He brushed a strand of hair off of her cheek. “When is it going to be time for you?”

  “Well, I kind of think this was for me,” she teased, trailing a finger down his chest, then beneath the covers and lower still.

  She closed her fingers around him, and his eyes nearly crossed. “Yeah, that’s definitely for you,” he told her.

  “Show me,” she whispered against his lips.

  It was a request he couldn’t—and didn’t want to—refuse.

  A sound from downstairs stirred Gabriella from the depths of slumber. Her eyes went automatically to the clock on the small table beside her bed, though she had to squint to focus on the glowing numbers. When the time finally registered, she jolted from half-asleep to wide-awake in two seconds, but it was two seconds too late.

  “Mom?” Sierra’s voice was followed immediately by her footsteps.

  Gabriella swore and pushed back the covers. Her clothes were still scattered on the floor, so she grabbed her robe off the hook on the back of her door.

  “I’ll just be—”

  She was going to say “a minute” but Sierra, accustomed to an open-door policy, didn’t wait for the rest of her response but stepped into the room.

  Gabriella had just finished fastening the belt on her robe, and her daughter automatically apologized. “I didn’t think you’d be asleep already.”

  “I wasn’t asleep. Not yet.” She tried to move out of the room, to steer her daughter back into the hall before her eyes adjusted to the dark enough to realize that there was someone still in her mother’s bed.

  She didn’t know if Cameron had awakened, but if he had, she trusted that he would quickly assess the situation and stay quiet until Sierra was out of the room. She didn’t anticipate an untimely phone call.

  “What was that?” Sierra asked, obviously not recognizing the ring-tone.

  She blew out a breath. “Cameron’s cell phone.”

  Sierra’s jaw dropped open. “Cameron’s here?”

  Gabriella took her daughter firmly by the shoulders and steered her out into the hall.

  “Oh. My. God.” Sierra stared at her, obviously stunned and hurt and furious. “You are such a hypocrite.”

  “I’m an adult,” Gabriella said sharply. “And I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

  “So it’s okay for you and Cameron to spend the night banging the headboard against the wall while I’m watching the clock at the party to ensure I’m home by my twelve-o’clock curfew because you don’t trust me to stay out with my boyfriend any later than that?”

  “That’s enough, Sierra.” It was Cameron who spoke this time, and there was steel beneath his quiet tone.

  Sierra spun to face him. “This is between me and my mother. You have no right—”

  “I have more rights than you know,” he told her.

  “Because you’re a prince?” She practically sneered the question at him.

  He met her gaze evenly. “Because I’m your father.”

  Sierra felt as if all the air had been sucked out of her lungs.

  She stared at him, unable to think or breathe. She couldn’t believe it—it couldn’t be true. She looked to her mother, silently seeking confirmation—or maybe she was hoping that Gabriella would deny his outrageous statement.

  “Is it—” She had to swallow. “Is it true?”

  Gabriella glanced at Cameron. Sierra had been on the receiving end of that look often enough to know what it meant—it was a silent reprimand to him, and a wordless confirmation for her.

  “Oh. My. God.” She had to lean back against the wall because her knees were suddenly feeling too weak and trembly to support her.

  “Why don’t we go downstairs to talk about this?” Gabriella suggested.

  Sierra didn’t want to go downstairs. She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want it to be true. And yet, while her brain scrambled desperately for any othe
r explanation, the heart that had always ached for a father urged her to believe.

  Gabriella put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Sierra?”

  She pushed away from the wall and started down the stairs.

  While Gabriella busied herself making tea, Sierra tried to wrap her head around the possibility that Prince Cameron Leandres might actually be her father. She shook her head. It was too outrageous to believe.

  She waited until her mother had brought the pot and cups to the table, then she asked, “Are you sure?”

  Gabriella’s cheeks flooded with color. “Of course, I’m sure. I was never with anyone else.”

  She turned to Cameron. “So you seduced a virgin and then abandoned her when she got pregnant?”

  “I wouldn’t have described the situation exactly like that,” he said, “but that’s essentially the truth.”

  She was surprised that he didn’t try to paint the facts to present his actions in a more favorable light. Surprised and wary. “So why are you here now? It’s been sixteen years.”

  “Because I want a chance to get to know you, to be a father to you.”

  “And how is sleeping with my mother supposed to accomplish that?”

  “Sierra.” Her mother’s tone was sharp, and the glance she sent in Cameron’s direction this time was apologetic.

  “Well, at least I know now why you were always so tight-lipped when I asked any questions about my father,” Sierra said to her. “It would have been embarrassing for you if I’d gone to school in the second grade and told my friends that my father was a prince. I mean, who would have believed it?”

  “I’ve always tried to be honest with you,” Gabriella said.

  “If you’d really wanted to be honest, you would have told me who my father was when I asked. Instead, I got a song and dance about how he was someone you’d known a long time ago, someone you really cared about but who wasn’t ready to be a father.”

  “All of which was true,” her mother insisted.

  “And suddenly he’s ready and I’m supposed to be the happy, dutiful daughter? Well, you can forget that,” she said. “I don’t want or need a father now.”

  “Whether you like it or not, I am your father,” Cameron told her.

  “I don’t like it,” she decided. “And the way I see it, you weren’t really anything more than a sperm donor.”

  His eyes narrowed dangerously, and Sierra shifted in her seat, suddenly nervous that she might have pushed him too far.

  That she might have pushed him away.

  “I think it might be a good idea to continue this discussion another time,” Gabriella interjected. “Maybe in a few days…”

  “Maybe in a few years,” Sierra muttered.

  Gabriella sighed. “Why don’t you go up to bed? We’ll talk in the morning.”

  Sierra wasn’t sure how she felt about being so obviously dismissed, but she was grateful for the opportunity to escape. She needed time and space to get her head around everything. But as she moved into the hall, she heard Cameron say, “I’m leaving for Rome tomorrow.”

  “Rome?”

  Sierra hesitated, because in her mother’s single-word response, she heard both surprise and suspicion.

  “That was my secretary on the phone earlier,” he explained. “I had some meetings scheduled for the end of the month that needed to be brought forward to accommodate the prime minister’s vacation.”

  “And he called you after midnight on a Saturday to apprise you of the details?” Gabriella asked skeptically.

  Sierra was blatantly eavesdropping now, but she didn’t care.

  “I told him to let me know as soon as the plans had been finalized,” Cameron explained.

  “Well, then.” Sierra heard the scrape of chair legs on the tile floor, could picture her mother pushing away from the table. “You should be getting home to pack.”

  “I’m sure my valet has taken care of that already.”

  “Of course,” she acknowledged coolly. “I should have realized you’d have someone to take care of those kinds of details for you.”

  Cameron finally seemed to clue in that something was up. “Why are you mad at me?”

  “I’m not mad at you,” Gabriella said wearily. “I’m kicking myself for being an idiot. Again.”

  “You think I’m going to Italy because we slept together? I got what I wanted and now I’m leaving the country to get away from you?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “I thought we’d moved past this, Gabriella. Yes, I treated you badly. I was a selfish and self-centered twenty-year-old who didn’t think about anyone else. As a result, I missed out on the first sixteen years of my daughter’s life, and it’s quite possible she will never forgive me for that. But right now, I’m trying to focus on the future rather than the past—a future that I want to spend with you.”

  Gabriella’s only response was to ask, “How long will you be gone?”

  He blew out a breath. “Three weeks. After Italy, I’m going to France then Germany and Switzerland.”

  Sierra took a step forward. She was still hidden in the shadows but could partly see into the room, and she saw Cameron take her mother’s hands in his.

  “Come with me,” he said.

  Gabriella blinked, clearly stunned by the invitation. “What?”

  “Come with me,” he said again. “We could ride in a Venetian gondola and climb to the top of the Eiffel tower, catch a performance at the Frankfurt Opera and visit the Palais des Nations in Geneva.”

  “I thought it was a business trip.”

  “If you came, it would be business and pleasure.”

  She shook her head. “I have responsibilities here, I can’t just take off on a whim—”

  “If you really wanted to, we could make it work,” Cameron insisted.

  She didn’t respond.

  He made his way to the door, paused with his hand on the knob. “Maybe I am the one who’s leaving, but you’re the one who’s running this time.”

  Gabriella stared at the door for a long moment after he’d gone. When she finally turned away, Sierra fled, silently tiptoeing up the stairs, trying not to think about the tears she’d seen shimmering in her mother’s eyes.

  Elena had a copy of Cameron’s itinerary on top of her desk, so she knew that he was already on his way to Rome. He had a welcome dinner with the prime minister later tonight and meetings scheduled for the next several days after that.

  She had hoped that it wouldn’t come to this, but her son had left her no choice. She picked up the phone and called Reynard.

  “It’s time to get this started.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sierra hid out in her room most of Sunday. Katarina came home from her weekend with Dominic later that evening, and Gabriella stayed awake all night second-guessing her refusal to go to Italy with Cameron.

  She’d never been to Italy. Actually, aside from one trip to New York City with Rafe, she’d never been outside of Tesoro del Mar. She frowned at the thought, surprised by the realization that it was the first time she’d thought of Rafe since she’d said goodbye to him more than three weeks earlier. She’d thought she was in love with him, she’d even considered marrying him, and less than a month later, she was twisted up in knots over some other guy.

  Okay, so Cameron was more than that. He’d been her first lover, the first man she’d ever loved, maybe the only man she’d ever loved. And the man she still loved.

  She dropped her head down on her desk, banged it against the wood, as if the action might knock some sense into her. How was that possible? How could she still love him? And how could she have only realized it now, after she’d sent him away?

  If she’d had qualms about her decision on Sunday, it was nothing compared to the fears and uncertainties that began to nag at her when she saw the photo of Cameron and Bridget Dewitt in the paper on Tuesday.

  She waited for him to call, but he didn’t, and she wasn’t sur
e what to make of his silence. He’d invited her along on his trip, she’d said no. Maybe he felt that they’d said everything there was to say. But dammit, they’d slept together the night before he’d left. He should have at least called to explain why he was cuddled up with some other woman less than forty-eight hours after he’d left her bed.

  She knew that she was being irrational. If she really wanted to talk to him, to demand an explanation, she could call him. But of course she didn’t.

  She was relieved when he finally left Rome on Thursday. And then she saw the paper on Friday.

  This time he’d been photographed at a cocktail reception for international delegates attending the trade summit in France. There were several recognizable faces in the picture—political leaders and international financiers—but her gaze was drawn immediately to Cameron and the statuesque blonde by his side.

  If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was courting the press, that he was angry with her for turning down his invitation and wanted her to know where he was and who he was with. Except that he didn’t look like he was angry. He looked like he was immensely enjoying the company of the gorgeous woman by his side.

  She tossed the paper aside and took her mug of coffee into her office.

  She tried to put the photo out of her mind and concentrate on her column, but the words wouldn’t come. Every response she tried to write sounded false, and she knew why. Because a woman who could screw up her own life so completely had no business trying to advise others about theirs.

  The tap at the door was a welcome reprieve, and she smiled when Sierra poked her head into her office.

  “Busy?”

  Gabriella shook her head.

  “Have you seen this?” Her daughter held up the morning newspaper as she stepped cautiously into her mother’s office.

  She nodded and lifted her mug to her lips, wincing as she sipped her now stone-cold coffee.