Mistress to the Prince (13 page)

Chapter
6

Tara
heard the whistling and cringed.  Her head immediately started throbbing and she closed her eyes, hoping to block out the bright light streaming into her bedroom. 
The pain was so intense that she wished she could just pull the covers over her head and die. 
At the same time, s
he was afraid the death would be too slow and she needed quick relief. 

After a few more minutes, she realized that this wasn’t her bedroom.  The light was coming from the wrong side of the bed.  If this wasn’t her
bedroom, she puzzled, then whose
bedroom was it?
  Was she sure that this wa
sn’t hers?  Daring to open her eyes only a small amount, she looked at the covers.   Sure enough, the sheets were a blue but hers were a soft yellow.  The thought panicked her slightly which only intensified the pain. 

“What have I done?” she whispered.  She wracked her brain, trying to remember the night before.  But all she could remember was leaning against Max and feeling warm and protected.  Surely she and Max hadn’t….no, that was too….Oh no!

Tara
concentrated
on the sounds around her.  She heard music coming from a stereo somewhere but she wasn’t sure what song was playing since it required too much concentration, a commodity she didn’t really have at this point in the morning. 

There was also a shower going somewhere in the distance.  The whistling was coming from that direction.
Tara
decided to be brave and open her eyes
a little more
.  There were too many puzzles that were hurting her head more than the light was.

The shower turned off and the whistling grew slightly louder.  Whoever was showering was getting out of the shower. 
Tara
opened her eyes and looked around.  The soft sheets felt wonderful against her aching body and she looked at the pillow beside her.  There was an indentation on it that shouldn’t be there, she thought.  Odd, but perhaps the whistler was also the p
erson whose
head had been resting there.

That last thought triggered something in her brain and
Tara
groaned as the memories came flooding back to her.  “Oh no!” she said out loud. 

The whistling stopped and Max appeared in the doorway to what must have been the bathroom.  “Good morning!” he said, smiling as he approached the bed. 
His cheerfulness made her cringe.  Couldn’t he be a night person?  No, that wasn’t fair.  As the memories slowly starting coming back to her, she remembered that he had been a night person as well.  She was the one that had fallen asleep whereas he had been wide awake.  How could the man have so much stamina?  Especially when she felt so awful!  It just wasn’t decent, she decided.  She closed her eyes again, wishing the scene would just disappear and she’d be back in her own bed without the pain throbbing behind her temples. 

“Closing your eyes won’t get you out of my bed,” he replied and
Tara
could hear the amusement in his tone. 

With those words, her eyes popped ope
n, wide open as she watched him walk
toward
her across the wide expanse of the unfamiliar room. 
Tara
stared at the large expanse of incredibly muscled chest and stomach, amazed that someone with so much power and responsibility had the time to work out enough to produce those muscles.  Her eyes wandered down the expanse of his chest, to his stomach, then lower. 
Tara
gasped and sat up in bed. 
Her hands automatically reached for the blue sheet, pulling it up to cover herself and pushing her thick hair out of her eyes at the same time. 
He was only wearing a towel! 

Accepting that
she had to know the truth, no matter how embarrassing it was.  Wondering if she and Max had….well, she just needed to know. 
“
Your Highness
, please tell me we didn’t…”
Tara
couldn’t finish the sentence and she felt her face turning bright red.

Max chuckled and tossed the extra towel he’d been using to dry his hair over onto the end of the bed. 
His casual attitude frightened her more than the broad expanse of his incredible chest. 
“No, we didn’t.  But I got no help from you on that end,” he went on. 

She knew she didn’t want to know but also didn’t want the unknown to haunt her later on. 
“What do you mean?”
she croaked out. 
She felt her shoulders touch the pillow behind her and wished she wasn’t shrinking back from him.  If only she was more confident…more experienced.  She was sure that the other women who had shared his bed would be
laughing at this scene.  But she wasn’t experienced and she didn’t know how to handle being alone in his bedroom. 

He sat down on the bed beside her, a charming grin on his face as he looked at her sleep tousled face. 
“I mean, I was trying to be the gentleman
and keep my hands off you but you had other ideas,” he said, running a finger down her bare shoulder.  “I can’t believe you don’t remember kissing me last night.
  I can guarantee that I remember it.  Every special moment,
”
he said softly. 

Tara
closed her eyes and her face got even redder.  Max laughed
gently
.  “I can see that you do remember that part.”

“Yes,” she choked out.  “But I don’t remember anything after that.”

Max moved closer to her on the bed.  “
Tara
, I can guarantee that when we
make love, you’ll definitely remember it.  But as for last night, after you kissed me, you promptly fell asleep. 
Another thing,” he continued,
his eyes dropping down to observe her hands still clenching the sheet in front of her,
“
I can
also
assure you that when I make love to you, I won’t leave your clothes on.”

Tara
could only stare at him with big eyes.  “
Your Highness
, please…”

He leaned over her and she pushed herself into the pillows as his big body blocked out all the light from the windows.  “If you call me ‘
Your Highness
’ one more time, und
er any circumstance
, I’ll have to do something drastic to stop you.  Understand?” he said. 

Tara
could only nod.  The vague threat of “something drastic” sounded ominous enough that she didn’t think she’d test it right at this moment. 

“Good.  How about some aspirin?” he smiled. 

“Um…that would be very helpful,”
Tara
said, her hand going to her
suddenly
throbbing head. 

“I have some in the bathroom.  There’s coffee in the front room,” he called back to her as he disappeared into the bathroom. 

Tara
had been clutching the sheet to her chest this whole time but as soon as he disappeared, she pulled it away and looked down at herself, just to assure her mind that she really was clothed. 
She was extremely grateful that she was still wearing her underwear but her dress was gone. 

Max caught her and laughed.  “Didn’t believe me, did you?” 
He was already walking back into the bedroom.  He held out a
glass of water for her and his eyes showed his continued humor in her shyness. 

Tara
blushed but held the sheet close to her chest, using it more as a security blanket than anything else. 
“I’m not very sure about anything right at the moment,” she said and took the glass of cold water gratefully.  He also handed her two aspirin but that was slightly harder since she didn’t want to touch him.  He finally turned her hand over with his and dropped them into her palm.  “I won’t bite,
Tara
,” he said and winked at her.  “Not very hard anyway.”

He stood up from the bed again and disappeared into what she suspected was the closet. 

As soon as he was out of sight, she tried to quickly slip out from under the covers. 
“I have to go,” she said and slid to th
e edge of the bed, grabbing her satin dress and pulling it quickly over her head. 

“Have breakfast with me at least,” he said
popping his head out from the closet door
. 

Tara
felt like she could just drool at the sight of his chest and almost wished he wouldn’t put any clothes on.  But she was being ridiculous. 
“No.  No, I really need to get home,” she said, frantic to get away from his devastatingly handsome physique. 

Max
walked out of the closet, pulling a sweater over his head as he moved back
toward
the bed
.
  Thankfully, gone was the towel, replaced by a pair of jeans that were almost worse than the towel for her peace of mind.
 
That man could definitely fill out a pair of jeans, she thought. 

“Why?”
he asked, pulling the sweater down over his lean, muscular torso.  He stopped only inches from where she was standing next to the bed. 

“I…I just need to.  Please understand,” she said, looking down at the floor.

Max was quiet for a moment
as he surveyed her features, noting the color still
tingeing
her cheeks
.  Then he
acquiesced
.  “Fine, but I’m driving you home.  I tried to take you home last night
but we couldn’t find your home
address,” he said.

Tara
pushed her hair out of her eyes and nodded.  “I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble.”

Max laughed.  “Please, cause me this kind of trouble any time,” he said.  “Have a cup of coffee and I’ll call my driver to take you home,” he said.

Tara
longed for coffee to give her strength but needed to get away from him more urgently.  Having coffee would me at least another fifteen minutes in his presence and she wasn’t sure what would happen in that time. 
“No, I don’t want you to do that.  Pl
e
ase, I’ll just take a cab home.”

Max shook his head, not allowing any more arguments on the subject. 
“No way.  Sit down, drink some coffee and I’ll call Jimmy.  He’s probably downstairs pacing in boredom anyway.”

After two years of working for the man, she knew a firm order from Max when she heard it and so she gave in reluctantly. 
Tara
poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down on the sofa
, but wouldn’t relax, perching herself on the edge instead of leaning back against the cushions
.  The coffee was wonderful and made her feel marginally better
and she was grateful for whoever called him on the phone, thereby distracting Max from teasing or questioning her further
. 
Just as she’d predicted, f
ifteen minutes later, they were driving away in Max’s limousine
toward
her house. 

Once there, Max walked her to the door.  “Invite me inside,
Tara
,” he said and leaned an arm on either side of her doorway. 

She held the door, afraid of looking up into his handsome face, afraid of what her eyes might reveal in her weakened state. 
“Why?”
she whispered. 

“Because I want to see where you live,” he said as if it were the most normal thing in the world.  “And also because I’m going to kiss you goodbye and I’m guessing you don’t want your neighbors to see that.”

That last statement got her moving.  It wasn’t because she wanted him to kiss her, she told herself.  But she definitely didn’t want her neighbors to think there was something between her and the ta
ll, dark man in her doorway.  Sh
e was relatively sure they wouldn’t recognize him as their Crown Prince but the limousine parked on the street was a big indicator of someone wealthy and powerful which would raise suspicions.