Czytaj książkę: «Commander's Little Surprise»

Chapter One

The romantic atmosphere created by her cousin’s wedding this weekend stirred Victoria Esterhazy’s senses. At twenty-three, and with, as custom demanded, her own arranged marriage imminent, she yearned to experience a night of real love before it was too late. Certain she would be alone in these early-morning hours, she gave in to an impulse to dance away her romantic yearning under a new moon in the palace garden.

She bit back a gasp of dismay when a male figure materialized out of the night and strode toward her. Hugging her sheer robe about her body, she froze, ready to run.

“Are you real, or are you just a figment of my imagination?” he whispered as he came to her side.

Victoria shook her head. He might look like the romantic figure she’d conjured up in her head, but he was a stranger. What would happen if she were to be found here in the gardens in the middle of the night with him?

When she looked as if she was about to run, Dan began to feel foolish. His mystery lady had come out of the palace; she could be a member of the royal family. He was out of line, and he knew it, but somehow he didn’t care, even if the last thing he needed was to offend a member of the bride’s family. Whoever she was, she was entitled to her privacy. After all, he was no more than the best man at the wedding.

Dan knew he should go back to the palace and try to sleep, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave…not just yet. There was something magical about her that drew him to her. Something that made him want to linger by her side.

She finally whispered, “Who are you?”

“A figure from your imagination—a phantom,” he answered softly. There was no point in giving her his name, he thought. He had the strong feeling that they were living a fairy tale, and might never meet again after tonight. When she still lingered, he hesitantly gathered a few strands of silken hair that fell over her shoulders and let it fall through his fingers. “You have beautiful hair,” he murmured, when she gazed wide-eyed at him. His gaze drifted lower to her lips. “Tell me, moon sprite, who are you?”

Victoria glanced back at the dark windows of the palace looming behind her and shook her head. She might yearn to experience the kind of love her cousin May had found during her state visit to the United States, but she couldn’t afford to give away her true identity. Not when it might embarrass her family. Aware of his sensuous gaze sweeping her, she drew the low neckline of her sheer robe more closely together and turned to flee back into the palace.

Dan reached to stay her. “Don’t go,” he murmured as he gave in to an impulse to brush the soft skin on her cheek. To confirm that she was real, he told himself, but he knew better. She was real, and in her sheer nightclothes looked to be the most desirable and enchanting woman he’d ever met.

He smiled his pleasure when she remained frozen in place. Her skin was as soft and velvety as a fragile rose petal, her scent sweet. “Since you might turn out to be someone out of a fairy tale,” he added with a wry smile, “I suppose I could call you a fairy princess or my mystery lady.”

The silence drew them together. Crickets chirping in the background and the water splashing down the tiered water fountain were the only sounds to break the stillness of the night. He was right, Dan thought as he gazed down at her. Under the dim light of the cloud-covered moon that shone over them, she did look like a figure out of a romantic fairy tale. To make matters even more intriguing, if not downright sensuous, the faint scent of gardenias clung to her.

Driven by a deep and unexpected emotion, Victoria felt herself responding to the yearning in her phantom’s gaze. Her skin tingled, her heart beat faster and a glow spread throughout her middle. Soon to be married to an unknown man of her father’s choice, she was all too aware no mere mortal man could have affected her so.

“If I’m your princess,” she murmured shyly, “then you must be my phantom prince.”

Her phantom was a tall, masculine man. His blond hair was tousled and his white shirt was partially unbuttoned as if he’d started to undress. After a closer look at his chiseled features, she found herself aching to explore his tanned skin just as he had touched hers moments before. She wanted to wind her fingers through the light, curly hair she’d glimpsed on his chest. To feel his arms around her and, heaven help her for her runaway thoughts, to taste his lips on hers.

Drawn to her phantom as if to a magnet, Victoria gazed into his warm blue eyes and the questioning smile that curved his lips. A thought came to her like a whisper out of the night; this man could be her destiny, sent to her by the gods she thought had passed her by. Hers, to have and to hold, if only for tonight.

Carried away by the crescent moon and the romantic setting, she gave in to the need to have him hold her, caress her, to make her his. To have, for at least a few precious moments in her life, a chance to create a memory to last her a lifetime. A memory of a love chosen by her for herself. Gazing into his warm blue eyes, she shivered at the thought of how it might feel to be held in his arms.

“Cold?” Drawn by the longing he saw in her eyes, Dan couldn’t help himself. He put his arms around her shoulders and gathered her to him.

“Not anymore,” she whispered a moment later when she burrowed closer into his warmth and closed her eyes. A moment later, his open shirt drew her gaze. Before she realized what she was about to do, she ran her fingers through the blond curls on his chest. It was the first time she’d touched a man so intimately, she thought as she felt the stirring of desire. “You make me warm all over.”

Dan gasped as his body responded to her touch. Of all the things he might have expected to happen to him tonight, finding this enchanting woman in his arms and responding to his desire so honestly wasn’t it.

He turned her chin up with a forefinger until their eyes met. He intended to give her one last chance to turn away, but the yearning he glimpsed in her blue-green eyes melted any reservations he might have had. They were two actors in a scene that had to be part of the fairy tale in the fairy-tale country he’d found himself in. Considering the rising mist and the surreal darkness surrounding them, he was half-afraid he was bound to wake up in the morning and find it had all been a dream.

Tomorrow would have to take care of itself, he decided as he drew her back into his arms.

He caressed her warm, silky skin and felt himself responding to the yearning in her eyes. Driven by an impulse that had come over him the moment he’d caught a glimpse of her dancing in the moonlight, he smiled down into her eyes. “I have to kiss you.”

Kiss her? Victoria sensed that if she agreed to a kiss, one kiss would not be enough. Not for him, and certainly not for her. This was a moment like none other she’d experienced before in her sheltered life. Considering her pending arranged marriage, this might be a moment like none she would experience again. She nodded, raised her lips to his and put her arms around his neck.

She was right about the kiss, she thought; he held her so tightly her breasts were crushed against his chest. She moaned softly at the bittersweet pain.

“Sorry.” He took a deep breath and held her away from him. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Shaken by the magical sensations rushing through her, and sensing they were just a prelude, Victoria shook her head. “You haven’t. Just love me.”

“I will,” he promised and lowered his head to hers. Gently, back and forth, his lips moved, teasing her lips into opening for him. When his tongue brushed the inside of her mouth as he deepened his kiss, Victoria’s world tilted on its axis. When he moved on to her throat and down to the slant of her exposed breasts, she experienced shocks of sweet sensation. And when he lowered her gown and teased her sensitive nipples with his tongue, she melted in his arms.

She heard him sigh, felt his hands tighten around her, pulling her closer. “This may sound crazy, but I can’t get enough of you,” she heard him murmur. “Who are you, moon sprite? Where have you come from? Where can I find you in the morning?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “We have tonight.” She glanced around her, searching for a more private place where she could show him how real she was without revealing her identity. A place where the world couldn’t intrude on her new-found happiness.

Tonight would be the night of passion she had dreamed of all her adult life, she mused as she slipped across the lawn, drawing her phantom lover with her. She would make love with him until the dawn, then slip away into the real world. For surely such a man could only exist in a dream.

Victoria drew him deep into the heart of the maze until they reached the white lattice-work gazebo. Cushioned benches rimmed the walls; luxurious rugs carpeted the floor and sweet-smelling vines crept through the latticework. “This used to be one of my favorite places to hide when I was a little girl and came to visit my cousin,” she said happily. “I used to sit here hoping no one would find me, and I’d invent all kinds of fairy tales.”

“And now?” He stroked the sides of her face with gentle hands. “Is it still your favorite place to hide?”

“Not since I grew up,” she said, “but it is as long as you’re here with me.” She raised her lips for his kiss.

Her phantom lover murmured his pleasure at her answer. Grasping her around the waist, he drew her to a cushioned corner of the gazebo. He ran his hands over her shoulders, her swollen breasts that ached for his lips. And slowly, sensuously down her hips to the place that cried out for his touch. She couldn’t get enough of him, couldn’t wait to belong to him.

“Love me,” she said impulsively, not recognizing herself. She felt alive, wanton and needy for him. Her hands plucked at his shirt until he drew it over his shoulders and, chest bare, pulled her into his arms again. She tongued his nipples as he had tongued hers and found his bare skin salty to the taste. Flames ran through her as her desire to become his grew. “Love me as if you mean it,” she whispered.

“I do,” he said into her lips, his voice shaking with desire. “So help us both, moon sprite, I do.”

“My turn,” he finally said and drew her robe and nightgown all the way off her shoulders. She stepped out of the garments and he tossed them onto a bench, held her away from him for a moment, then smiled. “You’re even lovelier than I thought you would be.”

In a few heated moments her phantom became everything she had wished for, dreamed of and had despaired of ever finding, Victoria thought dimly as she lost herself in a storm of passion. Skin to skin, lips to lips, he drew her deeper and deeper into a fantasy world that knew no end of desire. She forgot everything but the man who was making all of her yearnings come true.

“I love you,” she heard herself whisper when her release began to ebb, leaving her floating in a warm sea of sensations. “I will love you forever,” she whispered into his closed eyes.

Too late, she realized her phantom lover had drifted off to sleep. She smiled sadly as she realized he hadn’t heard a word she’d said. She shouldn’t complain, she told herself. After all, he’d taken her into a place every woman dreamed of. A place she’d longed to be in without knowing why.

And now she knew.

She moved closer into his warmth and closed her eyes. The return to reality would inevitably come with the dawn, but the night belonged to her.

CUDDLED UNDER the blankets in her room in the palace’s guest wing later that day, Victoria opened her eyes when she heard her name. The lasting sweet sensations of last night’s stolen hours still lingered. A new tender sensation between her thighs reminded her of last night’s passionate embraces.

“Time to get up, my dear.” Lydia Monsour, Victoria’s long-time elderly friend and companion, glanced at the small gold watch pinned to her blouse. “It is well past noon.”

“Not now, please,” Victoria murmured, reluctant to let go of a dream that had come true.

“Now,” Lydia said firmly. “Today is a very important day. The wedding rehearsal for your cousin’s wedding is to take place this afternoon.”

Victoria smiled dreamily. The romantic wedding ambience of her cousin’s marriage had been part of the reason for her restlessness last night. A restlessness she wouldn’t have been able to explain before, not even to herself. But now she knew it had been the desire of a woman to be held in the arms of a man who loved her back. Last night had turned into the most wonderful night of her life.

She glanced over at Lydia. If there were anyone she could tell of meeting her phantom lover last night without hearing recriminations, Lydia was the one.

“I met someone late last night,” she began dreamily. “Out in the palace gardens.”

Lydia froze. “Alone? At night? It isn’t done! If you wanted to go out to get some fresh air, you should have called me. I would have gone with you.”

“Yes, alone.” Victoria stretched and turned over on her back. “He was wonderful.”

“Obviously.” Lydia glanced uneasily at her charge’s glowing face. “Who was he?”

“An American. Probably one of the groomsmen over here for May’s wedding.”

Lydia relaxed. “Good. Then we don’t have to worry about your meeting him again once the wedding is over. He will undoubtedly return home.”

“I have to find him, Lydia,” Victoria said. She threw back the covers. “First, I’m going to take a shower.” Dream or not, real or not, and no matter what Lydia might think of her, Victoria had to find her phantom. “I have to know if last night was a dream or real.”

Lydia tightened her lips. “I don’t understand what drove you to do such an outrageous thing, my dear; certainly not after your convent upbringing. Did you stop to think of possible consequences?”

Victoria shook her head.

“I thought not,” Lydia sighed. “Your mother has told me that your own wedding will be announced soon.”

Victoria smiled. “Not when I tell her I have found the man I love.”

“You said it was in the middle of the night. How will you be able to recognize the man in daylight?”

“I’ll know him from the sound of his voice,” Victoria said as she headed for the shower. “He has an American accent, the same as Cousin May’s bridegroom. He must be here as a member of the groom’s party. That should make it easy to find him.”

Lydia sniffed and hung up the dress Victoria had worn last night. “Easier said than done, my dear. Americans all sound alike to me. From what I hear, the groom has invited six of his fellow naval officers to serve as groomsmen. With the men in uniform, how will you be able to tell one from another?”

With her phantom’s face in her mind’s eye, his low, melodious voice still sounding in her ear, Victoria blew Lydia a kiss. “I’m sure I will be able to find him.”

Lydia smiled sadly and watched Victoria disappear into the bathroom. First as Victoria’s childhood nanny, and now her close companion, she understood her charge all too well. Young blood, a royal wedding and a romantic, uniformed hero were a potent combination not easily cooled by a convent upbringing and the prospect of an arranged marriage. Victoria was no different than other young women of her age.

As she looked under the bed for Victoria’s shoes, Lydia mulled over the coming wedding. May, Victoria’s royal cousin, had managed to escape the stringent customs of the royal family as practiced in the twenty-first century, but there was a difference. This was to be May’s second wedding, her first, an arranged marriage, having ended with her husband’s untimely death.

As a member of the extended Baron family, Lydia knew that no matter how Victoria felt about the archaic custom, her charge’s marriage, like May’s first, would be determined by her father.

She muttered her dismay at what might happen if Victoria did somehow manage to find the man she’d encountered in the palace gardens last night. The only peaceful thought she had was in knowing that whoever the man had been, he would be gone forever in a matter of hours.

When Victoria returned, they were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Excuse me, ma’am,” a palace footman said politely, “I have a message for Miss Esterhazy.”

Victoria caught her breath. Was it possible her phantom lover had found her before she had a chance to find him? Her heart raced as she took the envelope Lydia handed her and tore it open. Seconds later, her face whitened.

“Something is wrong?” Lydia dropped Victoria’s slipper on the bed and hurried to her side. “Have you had bad news?”

“My father wishes to see me. At once,” Victoria murmured as she dropped the message to the floor. She glanced at her watch. “With the rehearsal only hours away, what could Papa possibly want that is so important?”

“Oh, dear! You don’t suppose he knows about last night, do you?” Lydia shuddered. “I blame myself. It would never have happened if I had kept a closer watch over you.”

Victoria patted Lydia’s ample shoulder. “I’m a grown woman now, Lydia. Papa couldn’t possibly know about last night. I’ll tell you what Papa wants when I come back.”

Victoria squared her shoulders and made her way to a suite set aside for wedding guests. In spite of what she’d told Lydia, her thoughts were uneasy as she knocked on the door. “Papa? You wished to see me?”

Basil Esterhazy, tall and stately, with the famous Baron cleft in his chin, smiled down at her. “Come in. Come in and sit down, my dear. Your mother and I have good news to share with you.”

Victoria dutifully kissed her silent mother’s cheek and took a seat on the velvet upholstered couch beside her. “Good news?”

“Yes.” Her father beamed at her and cleared his throat. “Weddings seem to bring out the romantic nature of people, do they not?”

Smiling, Victoria agreed as her thoughts flew to her mystery man and the precious hours they had spent together. “Yes, Papa, I suppose they do.”

“With May getting married to her American suitor, it appears you are going to be the next bride in the family,” he said as he gazed fondly at his only child.

“I am?” A cold premonition passed over Victoria’s shoulders. Her worst fears seemed about to be realized as her mother took her hand and squeezed it gently.

“Yes, my dear. Because you are our only child, I’ve put off arranging your marriage until now. However, you are now twenty-three. Accordingly, I have accepted Rolande Bernard’s suit for your hand in marriage.” He paused to let the announcement sink in. “You will no doubt be happy to know he wishes the marriage to take place as soon as arrangements can be made.”

“Rolande Bernard?” Victoria’s head swam, a hollow feeling grew in her middle. “He’s much older than I am, Papa. I scarcely know him. Why would he wish to marry me?”

Her father frowned. “Bernard is a smart man. He recognizes your worth and your position in the family. We both agreed that the marriage will be an asset to our country and to him in his new position as our ambassador to the United States.”

Victoria’s mother, Clara, generally too docile for Victoria’s own peace of mind, spoke up. Clad in a blue velvet cocktail suit for the upcoming wedding rehearsal, she put an arm around her daughter and frowned at her husband.

“As usual, Basil, you are being obtuse and thinking as a man. Our daughter wishes to know if Rolande cares for her, not that she will be an asset to him.”

“Of course he does, or he wouldn’t have asked for her hand in marriage,” her father huffed. “Furthermore, the reason he wishes to marry immediately is that he is about to present his credentials to the United States State Department. He will become Baronovia’s first ambassador to the United States in a matter of weeks.” He turned his annoyed gaze on Victoria. “Rolande feels, as I do, that at his side, you will make a fine showing for our country. I would remind you that it is your duty, Victoria.”

Victoria nodded faintly. She’d always known that she would eventually marry the man of her father’s choice. It had been that knowledge as well as the romantic wedding of her cousin to her American naval officer that had prompted her to accept her phantom lover last night. But now? Just when she’d tasted love, her world was about to fall apart.

“I would like to have time to think about this, Papa,” she murmured.

Her mother patted her on her shoulder. “Not too long, my dear, your father wishes to make the announcement soon. All will be well, you’ll see. Rolande Bernard may seem to be a little too old for you, but he is a fine man with a bright future. I’m sure you will be happy.”

When Victoria managed a weak smile, her mother went on as if everything was settled. “You will enjoy living in the United States. And just think! Your cousin May will be living nearby.”

Evading her father’s frown, her dream of finding her phantom lover in ashes, Victoria excused herself and made her way back to her suite. Her heart broken, Victoria wanted to hide from the world. May’s wedding rehearsal, the following dinner and the wedding would have to go on without her.