“You know what, Javier Cortez? Everybody should have a friend like you.”
“Compliments won’t work with me.” He stared down his sharp nose at her. “Remember, I’ll be watching you.”
The door swung open abruptly. The security guru jerked upright.
Duarte frowned, looking from one to the other. “Is something wrong here, Javier?”
“Not at all,” he answered. “I was only introducing myself to your fiancée.”
“Kate?” Duarte asked her, his gaze skeptical.
She stepped in front of Javier and a little too close to Duarte. His hair still damp, she caught a whiff of her faux fiancé’s aftershave and a hint of crisp air. Had he already been for a walk outside?
And ouch, how silly to wonder how he’d spent his morning.
A cleared throat behind her reminded Kate of the bodyguard. “Your buddy Javier was just giving me the lowdown on security around here.”
As much as she wanted to tell Javier to shove it, the guy had a point. She needed to watch her step.
She couldn’t allow herself to be swayed by Duarte’s charming images of jet-setting dates and catnip gifts. This was a man who lived with security cameras and ruthless armed guards. He was every bit as driven as she was. She needed to harden her resolve and shore up her defenses if she expected to survive this month unscathed.
Which meant keeping tempting touches to a minimum.
Outside Kate’s Boston apartment, Duarte slid inside the limousine, heater gusting full blast. The door closed, locking him in the vehicle with Kate and his frustration over finding her with Javier earlier. Not that he was jealous. He didn’t do that emotion. However, seeing them standing close together made him…
Hell, he didn’t know what it made him feel, but he didn’t like the way his collar suddenly seemed too tight. He swiped the sleet from his coat sleeves.
After they’d taken the ferry from Martha’s Vineyard, they’d spent the past couple hours driving through snow turned to sleet on their way to her place. She’d insisted on retrieving her cameras herself, stating she didn’t want one of his “people” pawing through her things. He understood the need for privacy and had agreed. He controlled his own travel plans, after all. A few hours’ wiggle room didn’t pose a problem.
A hand’s reach away, Kate sorted through her camera bag she’d retrieved from her tiny efficiency. The bland space where she lived had relayed clearly how little time she spent there.
She looked up from her voluminous black bag as ice and packed snow crunched under the limo’s tires. “May I ask what’s next on the agenda or are we going to an undisclosed location?”
“I have a private jet fueled and waiting to fly us to D.C. as soon as the weather clears. After we land, we’ll stay at one of my hotels.” He selected a card from his wallet and passed it to her. “Here’s the address, in case you want to let your sister—or the Intruder—know.”
Not that anyone would get past his security.
He’d bought the nineteenth-century manor home in D.C. ten years ago. With renovations and an addition, he’d turned it into an elite hotel. He catered to the wealthy who spent too much time on the road and appreciated the feeling of an exclusive home away from home while doing business in the nation’s capital.
Silently, she pulled out her cell phone from her bag and began texting, her silky hair sliding forward over one shoulder. She was a part of the press. He couldn’t forget for a second that he walked a fine line with her.
He needed to be sure she remembered, as well. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking Javier is cut from the same cloth as his cousin. You were able to trick Alys, but Javier is another matter.”
She kept texting without answering, sleet pinging off the roof. He studied her until she glanced over at him, tight-lipped.
Anger frosted Kate’s blue eyes as chilly as the bits of melted sleet still spiking her eyelashes. “For your information, I didn’t have to trick your pal Alys. Yes, I approached her about the photo I accidentally snapped of you at Senator Landis’s beach house. But she came to me about your half sister.”
Duarte registered her words, but he could only think about her determination, her drive…and her 34C breasts. He wondered what his assistant had chosen for Kate. As much as he wanted to know, checking out the clothes before they were sent to her felt…invasive. Privacy was important.
He understood that firsthand. “You made the contact with Alys when you chased her down about that photo of me with the senator.”
“Believe what you want.” She changed out the lens on a camera with the twist of her wrist. “I merely traced people in the picture until one of them was willing to give up more information on the mysterious past of a guy who called himself Duarte Moreno.”
Hearing how easily someone in his father’s inner circle could turn angered him. But it also affirmed what he’d thought during his entire isolated childhood on the island. There was no hiding from the Medina legacy. “You’ll be wise to remember how easy it is to misstep. If our secret is out, I’ll have no reason to keep you around until the wedding.”
A small yellow rag in hand, she cleaned a lens. “One screwup and that’s it? No room for mistakes and forgiveness? Everyone deserves an occasional do over.”
“Not when the stakes are so high.” A single mistake, a break in security, could cost a life. His mother had died and Carlos still carried scars from that day.
“Aren’t you curious as to why Alys was willing to sell out your family?”
“The ‘why’ doesn’t matter.”
“There, you are wrong.” She handled her camera reverently. “The ‘why’ can matter very much.”
“What happened to neutral reporting of the facts?” He hooked a finger along her black camera strap.
“The ‘why’ can help a good journalist get more information from a source.”
“All right, then. Why did Alys turn on us?”
Kate raised the camera to her face, lens pointed in his direction, and when he didn’t protest, she clicked.
He forced himself not to flinch, tough to do after so long hiding from having his image captured as if the camera could steal his spirit. “Kate?”
“Alys wanted to be a Medina princess.” Kate lowered the camera to her lap. “But how much fun would the tiara be worth if she couldn’t show it off to the world? She wanted everyone to know about the Medinas, and my camera made that possible.”
“Don’t even try to say she had feelings for one of us. She wouldn’t have betrayed us if she cared.”
“True enough.” Her voice drifted off and he could all but see the investigative wheels turning in her mind. “Did you love her? Is that why you’re so edgy today?”
His restlessness had everything to do with Kate and nothing to do with Alys, a woman he considered past history. “What do you think?”
“I believe it must have hurt seeing a trusted friend turn on your family, especially if she meant something more to you.”
“I’m not interested in Alys, never was beyond a couple dates. Any princess dreams she may have harbored were of her own making.”
In a flash of insight, he realized she was curious about his past relationships, and not as a reporter, but as a woman. Suddenly his frustration over finding her with Javier didn’t irritate him nearly as much.
He slid his arm along the back of the leather seat.
“Uh…” Kate jumped nervously. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Dipping his face toward her hair, he nuzzled her ear. When she purred softly, he continued, “Kissing my fiancée, or I will be,” he said on his way toward her parted lips, “momentarily.”
Catching her gasp, his mouth met hers. His hand between her shoulder blades drew her closer. The rigid set of her spine eased and she flowed into him, her lips softening. The tip of her tongue touched his with the first tentative sweep. Then more boldly.
Carefully, he moved her camera from her lap to the seat. He untied her belt and pushed her coat from her shoulders. The turtleneck hugged her body to perfection, the fabric so thin he could almost imagine the feel of her skin under his hands. He cupped her rib cage, just below her breasts. If his thumb just twitched even an inch, he could explore the lush softness pressed against him.
Heat surged through his veins so quickly he could have sworn it would melt the sleet outside. Shivering, she brushed against him, her breasts pebbling against his chest in unmistakable arousal.
Kate’s breathy gasp caressed his face and she wriggled closer. “What are we doing?”
“I want to reassure you. You have no worries where Alys is concerned.” He swept her hair from her face, silky strands gliding between his fingers, catching on calluses. “You have my complete and undivided attention.”
“Whoa, hold on there a minute, Prince Charming.” She eased away. “That’s quite an ego you’re sporting there.”
“You wanted to know if I had a relationship with Alys. And you weren’t asking for some article. Am I wrong?”
“I’m the one who’s wrong. I should have stopped that kiss sooner. I’m not even sure why…” She pulled her coat back over her shoulders. “Last night was a different matter. That display was for the public.”