Page 21 of Cursed

“None of them are going to come over here, as far as you know?” She shook her head. “What about the real princes?”

Edeena made a face. “I suspect those are now officially off the table,” she sighed. “I went through this once before, when Ari had been missing for a few months. I knew Silas would eventually come around to having an issue over my continued mourning for the Crown Prince, and force the question. But the true princes who were available were every bit as hopeless then as they are now. My father’s not an idiot—he knew that. He’s apparently spent his convalescence working out ways to get around the prince issue. ‘Princely comportment’ appears to be the ticket, currently.”

“Excellent,” Vince nodded. “Then there’s something else I need to discuss with you. In private.”

Edeena didn’t move. “I’m not finished organizing the files.”

Prudence spoke hurriedly. “You go on ahead, dear. I can put these documents into a possible order, and it will be much easier for you to re-sort them once I’m through. Whenever you get back.”

Vince stood and held out a hand, and Edeena reluctantly took it. The touch of her fingers in his sent a jolt of fire through him, but he was done trying to resist it. He had Edeena for a week, and a week would need to be enough. As long as she was completely on board with the program, that is. He had some work to do to cover the rest of his assignments for the next several days, but he could do that later. After he made a few things clear.

“Where are we going?” Edeena asked warily as she moved with him through the house. She’d expected him to head for the front door, he knew, but he wasn’t about to do that. He was the one who’d placed all the cameras in the house. He didn’t want any footage of him making a pass at his own client surfacing somewhere on his servers.

“We’re going for a walk,” he said instead.

“I’m not dressed for—”

“A short walk.”

They emerged from the screened porch moments later, and Vince dropped Edeena’s hand as he trotted down the steps ahead of her. Camera 7 tracked them discreetly from above the gutter, and he pointedly did not look at it. Camera 8 would be picking up their trail at the fountain, but the magnolia tree forest became denser at that turn, and he had a good hundred feet or so of relative privacy until they reached the dock with its cameras 9, 10 and 13.

Thank God he’d not decided to use drone coverage for the Saleri house, or even this moment of privacy wouldn’t be possible.

“You’re being very strange,” Edeena said testily as they moved beneath the canopy of the trees. He glanced back as they turned another corner, the move casual enough to pass muster, then stepped closer to her.

“Pause a moment here, if you would.”

Obediently she stopped, turning to look at him, and then understanding flashed in her eyes.

Only as usual, it was the wrong understanding. “This was all a misdirection, wasn’t it?” she asked, her brows lifting sharply. “You have something you need to tell me, only you didn’t want Prudence suspecting. What is it?” She clenched her fists at her side. “Is it Prudence? Something you’ve learned about Silas?”

“No,” Vince said in an effort to quell her response, but Edeena was already turning away to pace a few short steps then come back.

“The girls are in Charleston, but they’re safe, they have to be safe.” She looked up at him, and he nodded, willing to let her work it out. “It’s not Silas, it’s not Prudence—ah! It’s the house.”

Was it his imagination, or did she sound relieved? “There’s something wrong with the house. The realtors said they would have to do research to ensure Mother’s estate was clear, and . . .”

Vince couldn’t help it, he laughed. Edeena stopped cold, her face blanking with anger. “What?” she snapped. “Explain this, because I seriously do not understand.”

“Is it so hard to imagine that I simply wanted you alone, Edeena? That I couldn’t bear arguing with you anymore?”

That stopped her, and she blinked at him. Vince pressed his advantage. “Have you even stopped to consider that the idea of you marrying someone else so carelessly, so casually . . . is making me a little bit crazy?”

“But, why would you care?” Edeena sounded genuinely perplexed, even as a blush darkened her cheeks.

“Because I want to be with you, Edeena. God help me, I want it more than anything. I swore that I wouldn’t—couldn’t—make a move. But now that I know this plan of yours to throw your life away . . .”

Vince edged forward, intimately close, and Edeena reflexively stepped back, her hands lifting to his chest as if to ward him away.

But she didn’t push him away. Instead her hands lingered there, light and firm on his pecs, and his abs tightened in response to the touch of her fingers. He stepped closer, and Edeena’s breath caught, her face lifting.

Instead of crowding her further, however, Vince lifted his own hands and covered hers. Her skin was hot, her fingers shaking, and he squeezed them gently as he met her gaze. “I need to make something very clear, Edeena. I want to spend time with you this coming week, not for any sort of professional security reasons, though I can assure you you’ll be completely safe at all times while you’re in my presence.”

Well, not completely safe. He hurried to amend his words. “Completely in control.” Also not quite right, but Edeena didn’t seem to be paying close attention. Her eyes were thick with an emotion he couldn’t quite place, her lips had parted to accommodate her rushed breathing, and her heart was beating loud enough that he could hear it in the hush of the magnolia trees.

“No?” she managed faintly.

Vince shook his head. “No. I want to do it because I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since that night at the Sea Witch. Your beautiful eyes . . .” he leaned forward and drifted his lips across her forehead, down the gentle curve of her cheek. “Your soft skin . . . your mouth.” He tasted that mouth then, feeling it warm and firm beneath his. “I’m doing this because I can’t imagine wasting another week, another day, thinking about you cooped up in this house, while I’m off working jobs that’ll be there next week and the week after. But you won’t be here, will you, Edeena?”

“No,” she whispered and he nodded, then pressed his lips more firmly to hers for one, long, exquisite moment. She kissed him back, and he could taste the beginnings of her own desperation in that kiss. It was enough, he realized. It was more than enough.

Then he stepped back. “Today I have to take care of everything to clear the decks for the coming week. I suggest you do the same,” he said as she stared at him, her hands still locked in his. He quirked a grin to lessen the intensity of his words, though in truth he was ready to haul her off through the trees right then.

“But starting tomorrow, Countess Saleri . . . you’re mine.”

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