Page 33 of Raul
Raul smothered the jab of envy. Plenty of women had shown interest in being his princess, but that was the problem. He needed a woman like Quinn or Eve who loved him in spite of his title, not because of it.
“I would support Quinn’s wish one hundred percent,” Mikel said with a spark of humor. “But how may I be of service to you?”
“Someone is poaching our dragons.” Raul gestured toward his injured ankle. “The pit I stepped in was an empty nest, the eggs and dirt around them removed.”
Mikel’s dark brows snapped down in a frown. “How do you know that?”
“My guide, Erica Ortiz, and Pascal found the claw marks of a dragon’s digging. I also saw two upupa birds nearby. They dine on baby dragons.”
“Wouldn’t the mother be guarding the nest?” Mikel asked.
“Erica and Pascal believe the poachers took her too.” Raul paused before saying, “It requires specialized knowledge to find a nest in such a remote location. Someone knew where to look.”
“It could also be that the poacher simply bought the information.” Mikel slipped his phone out of his breast pocket and tapped at it. “We’ll examine the finances of anyone who works with the dragons or in that area of the mountains.”
“You won’t ask Quinn to do this with the wedding coming up,” Raul commanded.
“On the contrary, she will be relieved to have something to focus on that doesn’t involve lace, flowers, or receiving lines,” Mikel said with a half smile. “Furthermore, she can handle an assignment like this with both hands tied behind her back.”
Raul had a vision of Quinn typing with her nose and chuckled. “Muy bien.Please let me know what she finds.”
Mikel rose and gave another half bow. “Bien, Señor.And now I must leave you.”
Raul stifled a sigh. “Back to video games, then.Adios.”
After the door closed behind Mikel, Raul pulled out the tablet he had hidden under the sofa and brought up a report he had just received. He realized he had read the first paragraph threetimes before he gave up and sat back against the cushions to gaze unseeing at the carved rafters of the ceiling.
He let his mind go where it wanted…to Erica, with her cloud of dark hair, her gray-brown eyes, and her curves that made him long to feel them against his palms. If only that were all. Being attracted to a woman’s looks was something he could control.
But he was also attracted to her whip-smart brain, her courage, and the strange feeling that he could tell her anything, and she would not judge him.
Even more, she would understand him.
Chapter 9
As Erica approached the door to Raul’s palace suite the next morning, the guard on duty murmured into his radio. She smoothed the hair that she had already brushed about a thousand strokes and smiled as the guard opened the door.
“Erica!Genial!Come in! Have a seat!” Raul was sitting on the sofa, his injured foot resting on a pillow on the coffee table. His face lit up with a smile that made her insides go hot and liquid.
“No company this morning?” She scanned the room while she got her reaction under control. He had texted her the night before to request she come for an update on the missing dragon. Her heart had leaped before she could control it and typeyes.
“Grace just left. At least she’ll talk palace business with me,” Raul said. “Everyone else insists that I’m on vacation.”
He picked up the tablet lying on his thighs. The thighs she had watched flex as he climbed the cliff while joined to her on a belay rope. The thighs she had pressed against as they sat talking and gazing at the mountaintops. The thighs now covered by worn denim and stretched out directly in front of her.
Heat bloomed low in her belly, and she shifted on her chair.
Fortunately, Raul was swiping at the tablet. He found what he was looking for and held it out to her. “Quinn did some digging into the finances of park rangers and dragon wardens.”
“Quinn? Isn’t she busy with wedding stuff?” Erica took the tablet, the aluminum warm with Raul’s body heat. That didn’t help her self-control.
“Mikel said she begged him to let her take on this assignment.” Raul’s smile returned. “She needed to take her mind off walking down the aisle with hundreds of dignitaries staring at her.”
Erica’s stomach felt a sympathetic queasiness at the thought of all those critical eyes focused on the royal bride. “The whole thing must be pretty overwhelming.”
“I think they’ll both be relieved to have you fly them away from here the next day,” Raul said. “Honestly, the wedding is the only reason I’m still sitting around with my foot up. The media would come up with some lurid story about my injury—like that Gabriel and I had a fistfight at the bachelor party—and that would be the big news.”
Even if his ankle were killing him, Raul would walk normally on Gabriel’s wedding day because the prince couldn’t be anything less than perfect for his cousin.
