years old seemed to go down, down forever. The only light came from the slit windows spaced every so often. Rain beat against the panes.
Without the flashlight they would have been entombed in total darkness once they reached the bottom.
Alex flashed the beam around the vast cavern with its labyrinths and pillars. Water dripped from the dank walls where moss was growing. Above them she could hear the waves on the lake crashing against the castle walls. It caused her to shiver.
“Whoa—” Phillip whispered. Vito stood manfully by himself, but Jules stuck close to his uncle.
“Stay with me everybody,” Alex warned them. They advanced a few feet.
“What are those chains for?” Jules asked.
Darrell could see them lying on the stone floor at the base of one of the pillars.
“When it’s good weather, the knight is the castle’s prisoner.”
“No, he’s not, Dad—”
“Shh. I think I can hear him,” Alex whispered. He handed Phillip the flashlight. “Go ahead with the boys. See what you can find.”
“Come on you guys. Dad’s only teasing us.”
Strange how the darkness made Alex stand out to Darrell as if it were full daylight. She could feel the warmth from his body though they weren’t touching. She knew he was smiling.
“I take it you and your cousin used to come down here to play.”
“All the time.”
“Did your parents know?”
“Not if we could help it. Security wasn’t as tight back then, so we got away with a lot.”
“Your son appears to be fearless. You couldn’t have planned anything more thrilling than this. He’s going to want to bring his friends down here when they come to visit.”
The second the words left her mouth, she realized her mistake. “I shouldn’t have said that. I apologize.”
“For what?” The air sizzled with tension.
“For assuming that everything’s normal when I know it’s anything but. I—I’ve been thinking about you and Isabella. The only way your marriage can work is for us to set up a visitation schedule that will make her happy.
“Phillip knows exactly what’s at stake here. He might not like it, but now that he feels your love he’ll be able to plan his life around the times when he can see you. It’ll work. Maybe next time he can bring his friend Ryan.”
She heard the changed tenor of his breathing. “Of course his friends will always be welcome, but I want him around more than two or three times a year, Darrell. I want you to move to Bris.”
Her heart slammed into her ribs. “You couldn’t mean permanently.”
“Is that so hard to understand? It would solve a lot of problems.”
For you and our son, Alex. Not for me or the princess or the monarchy.
“I couldn’t do that. My life’s in Denver. Yours is with Isabella and the family you’re going to raise. After your wedding is over and things have settled down for you, Phillip can fly here to see you. As long as he can talk to you on the phone between trips, it’ll be fine.”
Sucking in her breath she added, “It’s awfully chilly down here. I think I’ll wait for all of you upstairs.”
Relying on her instincts to guide her, she turned back toward the staircase, needing to get away from him before she found herself considering his wishes.
To her dismay she stumbled into the bottom step. But the cry she emitted came from the feel of Alex’s hands on her hips. At the first touch she longed for him to turn her in his arms and kiss her as if they had the right to lose themselves in each other.
But he belonged to someone else and she needed to get far away and stay there.
“Did you hurt yourself?” He’d asked the question out of concern, but the way his hands slid up her arms before relinquishing her body told her he hadn’t forgotten yesterday’s incident. The one she hadn’t been able to dismiss from her memory no matter how hard she tried.
“No—I’m all right, thank you.”
Frightened by her weakness for him, she began the long circular climb, knowing he couldn’t come after her while the boys were still down there.
By the time she reached the top, to her surprise the rest of them weren’t far behind her. They filed into the lighted hallway.
“Mom? I didn’t think you’d get scared down there.”
“I didn’t, either.” Her voice shook.
But being alone with Alex for any reason was too dangerous now. A few minutes ago she’d been willing to crush him in her arms and be swept away again by the passion that had flared between them on the mountain.
She addressed Jules. “Did you see the ghost?”
“No, but we heard something.”
“It was a rat,” Vito informed him. Darrell cringed.
“Maybe next time,” Alex muttered, taking the flashlight from Phillip. “It looks like the worst of the storm has passed over. Let’s hurry home to your mom. I bet she’s fixed her homemade Wiener schnitzel for us.”
The last thing Darrell felt like doing was meeting the boys’ mother. She was too shaken up by what had happened in the dark.
To have lost control yesterday was one thing. To almost lose control again today was something else. She hadn’t imagined Alex’s low moan once his hands had molded to her body. Desire had engulfed both of them.
Maybe it was because he represented forbidden fruit that she trembled even thinking about him.
Possibly the fact that she was forbidden fruit produced a similar response in him.
This close to the wedding you’d have thought just the opposite would be true.
Maybe this was Alex’s own sort of private bachelor party—a kind of midnight-hour urge to let go before he became a married man.
That explanation made the most sense to Darrell.
It was kind of like his princely lapse with Melissa years ago. Only her sister hadn’t had the sense to run from the fire.
Apparently the Collier women were pushovers, but Darrell was putting an end to it right now.
“DO YOU know going down those steps made me a little dizzy?” Darrell said loud enough for everyone
