To Claim His Heir by Christmas(3)

He knew fine well what Seve had dragged him here for. All work and no play made Thane a dull, arrogant ass, apparently-and for a minute or three he had considered it. But when the redhead sitting to his right had appeared from nowhere he'd turned to stone. Unable even to contemplate getting close to another woman. In fact, if she touched his arm one more time …

Dios, didn't she know he was dangerous? That his blood ran black and his heart was dead? That he was more powerful and more feared than any other man in Europe? Surely his scars were enough to give her a clue?

Maybe he should give the mindless female a lesson in Princes of Galancia. Top of the list: do not touch.

He hated being touched. Didn't want anyone close to him. Ever again. While getting beaten to a pulp couldn't possibly hurt him any longer, it was the softer stuff that was more dangerous. One taste and he might very well crave it. Long for more of it. Glut himself on it. Live for it. Every touch. Every caress. Every kiss. Until it was taken away, as it inevitably would be. Leaving him empty. Aching. Feeling. Weak. And the dark Prince of Galancia could not afford to be weak. Not again. When he was weak he took his eye off the ball and everything went to hell.

Thane reached for his tumbler of rare single malt, his hand stalling in mid-air as an army of ants marched across his nape. Instinct born from a childhood in the barracks made him turn to peer over his right shoulder. Past the garish pine trees smothered in red ribbons and gold baubles, declaring the onslaught of the festive season. How quaint. How pointless.

Ah, yes, there was Augustus. Averting his gaze like an errant schoolboy. No woman with him-not that Thane could see.

But what he did see was a striking, statuesque blonde walking in the direction of the hallway that led to the restrooms. No. Not blonde at all. Her rich, decadent shower of loose tousled waves reminded him of a dark bronze. Like new-fallen acorns.

Now, she was beautiful. And that thought was so incredulous, so foreign, that he felt a tingle of something suspiciously close to shock.

His avid gaze locked on its target, his usual two-second scan turning into a drawn-out visual seduction, and he trailed his eyes over the low scooped neck of the black sheath that hugged her feminine curves. Lingered on the lapels of her long white dress coat, frisking and teasing all that flawless golden flesh.                       
       
           



       

A faint frown creased her brow and Thane narrowed his eyes as she raised one hand and rubbed over the seam of her lips with the pad of her thumb.

A pleasurable shiver of recognition rippled over his skin and his entire body prickled with an unfathomable heat.

Ana used to do that. Stroke her mouth that way. When he'd asked her why, she'd said it likely came from sucking her thumb when she was a little girl. Thane had smiled and cracked some joke about her still liking things in her mouth, and she'd proceeded to prove him right. Many times over …

The brazen fires of lust swirled through his groin, and when the woman inhaled deeply-the action pushing those full, high breasts of surreal temptation to swell against the thin silk of her dress-ferocious heat speared through his veins until he flushed from top to toe.

It couldn't be. Could it? His Ana? Here in the Alps? No, surely not. Ana's hair was sable-black. Her body far more slender.

Look at me, he ordered. Turn around, he demanded. Now.

And she did. Or rather she spared a glance across the room in his direction, then wrestled with her poise, giving her head a little shake.

Thane's hands balled in frustration. But he kept watching as she reached the slightly secluded archway leading to the restrooms. Alone, doubtless believing she was unseen, she tipped her head back, glancing skyward as if praying to God, and graced him with the elegant curve of her smooth throat.

Another flashback hit with crystalline precision-his woman, arching off the bed, back bowed as she seized in rapture beneath him, inarticulate cries pouring from her swollen ruby-red mouth. And for the first time in his life-or maybe the second-his insides started to shake. Shake.

Dios, was his mind playing tricks on him? Months he had searched for her. For that trail of sable hair, that mesmerising beauty mark above her full lips, those clothes that harked of dark blood, a roaming gypsy. No stone had been unturned in Zurich, since that was where they had met, where she had claimed to live. Torturous years of not knowing whether she was dead or alive. Living with the grief. The ferocious anger and self-hate that choked him at the notion that he might not have protected her. That she could have been taken from him because of who he was.

He blinked and she was gone. Disappeared once again. And before he knew it he'd shoved his chair backwards with an emphatic scrape.

'Thane?'

'Restroom,' he said, and followed the dark blonde, his heart stampeding through his chest.

Thane thrust the double doors wide, then took a sharp right down the first corridor-and came to a dead end. A swift turn about and he flung open the double doors to the wraparound balcony. Empty.

Impatience thrummed inside him. The notion of being thwarted tore at his guts. He closed the doors with a quick click, turned and-

Slam.

'Ooof.' He ran straight into another body so hard and fast he had to grab hold of her upper arms to stop her from careening backwards and crashing to the floor.

'I … I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going. Please … '

Just the sound of her voice washed clean rain over him. She was breathless, winded, clutching his lapels as if he was her life raft in the darkest, most turbulent storm.

'Please. I need to … '

That soft, husky whimper flung him back in time, sent electricity sizzling over every inch of his skin. And the way she'd jolted-he would hazard a guess she'd felt it too.

Stumbling back a step, she jacked up her chin and their gazes caught, clashed …

Madre de Dios!

'Ana?'

Brandy-gold eyes flared up at him as bee-stung lips parted with a gasp. And for the endless moments they stared at one another she seemed to pelt through a tumult of emotions. He could virtually see them flicker over her exquisite face. Fancied each one mirrored his own. She was astounded. Bewildered. Likely in denial. Half convinced she was hallucinating. And all the while Thane drank her in as if he'd been dying of thirst and his pulse-rate tripled to create a sonic boom in his ears.

He wanted to take her in his arms. Bury his fingers into the luxurious fall of her hair. Hold her tightly to him. Despite the internal screech of warning not to touch, not become ensnared in her again.                       
       
           



       

Thane swallowed around the emotional grenade lodged in his throat. 'Ana, where have you been? I looked for you. What happened? I … '

Unable to wait a second longer, he reached out-but she staggered back another step; her brow pinched with pain.

'No. No! Don't touch me. I'm sorry. You must be mistaking me for someone else. I … '

That pain morphed into something like fear and punched him in the gut.

'Please excuse me,' she said, and she made to duck past him.

His confusion made his cat-like reflexes take a second too long to kick in.

'Ana? What are you talking about?'

Why was she scared of him? He didn't like it. Not one bit. Everyone else? Yes. Her? No.

A man emerged from around the corner and when Thane recognised Augustus he almost swung his fist in the other man's face. Though at the last second he thought better of it. His word, he'd been told, was vehement enough. Consequently he opened his mouth to deliver a curt command but the Viscount beat him to the punch.

'Luciana? Are you all right, querida?'

Luciana? Hold on a minute …  Querida?

What the hell was going on?

'Luciana? Is this man bothering you?'

Thane whipped around to face him. 'Back off, Augustus,' he ground out, jabbing his finger at the other man while he tried to think around the incessant clatter in his brain. 'And while you are doing that, if you know what is good for you, turn around and walk away.'

Augustus paled beneath his tanned skin, nodded and went to do just that. But not before he motioned to Ana with a jerk of his chin. Or was it Luciana? Dios, Thane felt as if his head was splitting in two.

'Why are you beckoning her? How do you know each other?' Thane asked, darkly incredulous.

Augustus straightened to his full height. Thane would give the man points for the gutsy move if he still weren't several inches shorter than him and trying on a smug smirk for size. But what really set Thane's teeth on edge was the way the disturbingly dashing Viscount-who was as suave and golden as Thane was dark and untamed-practically stripped the sheath from Ana's body with his lustful covetous gaze. It made a growl threaten to tear up his throat. He felt as if he could grow fangs.

'Luciana is to be my fiancée, Prince Thane. So I would appreciate it if you … '

The rest of his words were swept away on a tide of realisation and a watery rush sped through his ears, drowning out sound.

'Fiancée?' he repeated, black venom oozing from his tone. Because that meant …  That meant …

With predator-like grace he pivoted to look back at the woman who had bewitched him so long ago. Invaded his every salacious dream for five years.