Page 61 of Revelations of A Secret Princess

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JAKESURVEYEDTHEpair sitting across from him and fought to hide his response to the picture they made.

Ariane had begun the trip down the mountain’s steep cog railway on the seat beside Caro. But as Caro pointed through the carriage window, his niece had climbed onto her lap. Now Caro’s arm rested around Ariane’s middle as they chattered about the view and the quaint Alpine farmhouses.

His ribs tightened at their glow of happiness. His niece and her mother. Not that Ariane knew Caro was her mother. They’d agreed to keep that quiet till Ariane was better able to understand.

But she was still his niece and always would be.

His lawyers said there were legal arguments on both sides, for him as Ariane’s permanent guardian, and for Caro as birth mother. Though they thought, despite the wrong done years ago, they could successfully argue that the continuity of living with him would be best for Ariane.

Jake felt no triumph at the news.

He didn’twanta legal wrangle with Caro.

He watched their faces, alight with pleasure as Caro spotted hikers with a frolicking dog. Two shades of red hair, one coppery and the other a deep, ruby auburn, touched as they craned to look. Two sets of violet eyes and two smiles, each capable of twisting his heart.

He wanted Ariane with him. And he wanted Caro.

The twist of heat moved from his chest to his groin. HehadCaro. She’d been his lover ever since St Ancilla.

That first night back he’d been surprised by the rap on his door. When he’d found Caro there, huddled in a robe with her hair in waves around her shoulders, he’d pulled her inside, expecting to hear her appalling father had managed, despite Jake’s precautions, to contact her with threats.

It had taken all Jake’s once considerable restraint to hold back from her, invite her to sit, turn his brain to tactics to stymie the King’s machinations.

But instead of talking about her father or Ariane, Caro had surprised him. Gone was the wan woman who’d left St Ancilla beside him. Instead he’d been visited by the ardent siren who’d given herself so generously the night before.

Had he held back? Worried about taking advantage when he knew she’d been rocked by recent experiences?

Jake counted himself a decent guy, if hard-nosed in business. But he wasn’t into self-abnegation. He’d hauled Caro into his bed. For the last ten days he’d made sure she was satisfied, more than satisfied, there.

He truly was selfish. He had Caro each night and still he wanted more. He had no name for this craving. To possess her physically. But more too. To bask in her smiles. Enjoy her in ways that had little to do with sex.

‘Uncle Jake...?’

He found two pairs of eyes on him.

‘Sorry?’ He yanked his thoughts to the present. Their trip up the mountain. His sense of victory when he’d finally persuaded Caro it was safe to take Ariane out. That her father’s henchmen couldn’t grab them. Even then she hadn’t relaxed till his own security staff boarded the next carriage, keeping a discreet distance.

Jake hated the need for such a precaution but the deeper the experts dug, the less he trusted the King to behave reasonably. He’d do whatever it took to keep Ariane and Caro from the monarch’s reach.

‘What are you thinking, Uncle Jake? You look funny.’

‘Do I?’ He met Ariane’s bright eyes, so like her mother’s, and felt his fluency desert him. His brain went completely blank. Because he’d been thinking about sex with Caro and how his need for her kept growing, not diminishing with familiarity.

‘This sort of funny?’ he asked as he crossed his eyes.

Ariane giggled and the tight sensation in his chest eased. He loved hearing her happy.

‘Or this?’ He stuck his tongue in his cheek and scrunched his eyebrows down.

His gaze caught Caro’s. She was smiling, the shadows he sometimes saw in her eyes banished.

Elation hit. By rights it should be because he was finally on the verge of closing the deal he’d come to Switzerland to accomplish. Or because he might have found a way to protect Caro and Ariane from the King long term. Instead this burst of happiness came from the sight of Caro’s eyes, dancing with approval as he made a fool of himself in front of a bunch of tourists.

The realisation shook him. Her smile and her approval had such power.

What did that mean?

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