lashes, all set against skin as white and pure as alabaster. Her dress was cut low enough to reveal a lot of smooth, luscious skin. Made of something slinky, it was shaped trim and tight in the bodice and around her full, lavish hips, only to whirl out around her knees, giving a generous view of her perfect, athletically muscular legs. She was still the most gorgeous creature he’d ever seen.
But seeing her again drove a knife into his heart. Real, physical pain sliced through his body. For just a moment, this man who had stood up to armies and assassins without a qualm was flooded with the instinct to turn and run. Facing her like this was hard. If it hadn’t been for his suspicions about her, he would have stayed away. But he was pretty sure she had something that belonged to him. This was a stand he had to take.
He watched as she laughed up at the sophisticated-looking man with silver hair at his temples who was standing next to her. The man smiled down at her as though he had a claim. Dane raised an eyebrow. Another dragon to slay?
No matter. He’d come on a mission and he wasn’t going to be deterred. But as the man reached out and put his hand on the woman’s naked upper arm, a feeling like cold anger twisted inside Dane. His heart, which had been thudding harder than usual, but at a steady pace, began to bang against his chest wall. Adrenaline. He always felt like this before a fight.
The people around her had fallen silent, watching his approach, and finally she turned and saw him. Her gaze met his and caught, held by the intensity in his eyes. It was one of those crystal moments that would be seared into his soul for a lifetime. For just a few seconds, time stood still. Everything else faded away—all the people, the music, the noise, even breathing itself. There was only the two of them and the deep, tangled connection that sizzled between them.
And then her green eyes widened and her mouth opened as though she might almost cry out. And that was when he saw the fear.
She covered it up quickly. Her chin rose and her eyes flashed defiant fire. But he’d seen the truth. She didn’t fear much, but she was afraid of him. And if she feared him, there could only be one reason. It meant his guess was right.
It was an educated guess. He’d heard rumors and he’d put two and two together. He’d been shown pictures, but pictures could be faked.
Still, he had to admit, hope had come into play. But he didn’t think he’d let it carry him away. He knew a reliance on hope brought only heartbreak. He’d spent a lifetime learning to control his emotions. Hell, some might even say he’d learned to snuff out any communication with his heart. It had a basic function, to keep pumping vitality into his body. As for the rest, he’d learned to live without it. Life was simpler that way.
She tossed back thick, silky hair that glowed with deep-red highlights, scattering confetti that had caught in it as she did so. Squaring her shoulders, she faced him boldly.
“So, what do we have here?” she said in a sort of mock greeting. “The pretender to the Carnethian throne, isn’t it?”
He gazed back steadily. “I’m not the pretender, Alexandra. You Acredonnas were the pretenders.” He put his hand over his heart as he added coolly, “I’m the real thing.”
All the fire and pain of the war stood between them, the war during which his family, the Montenevadas, took back the country her family, the Acredonnas, had wrested from them fifty years before.
“I want to talk to you,” he told her.
The smile that twisted her carmine lips held no hint of warmth. “Interesting. But this is a dance club. I want to dance.”
He shrugged, his eyes hooded. “I’m at your service.”
That seemed to surprise her. A look of wariness flashed in her green eyes.
“Not with you,” she said, a bit too quickly.
He raised an eyebrow. “Why not? What are you afraid of?”
“Not you,” she said again, eyes narrowing. “Never you.”
But there was a thread of quivering emotion in her voice that gave lie to her declaration. Something in him responded to it, softening. His impulse was to reach for her, and his hand went out to do just that.
Too late. The tall man with the silver sideburns had come to her side, and she stared at Dane’s hand as if it were a snake. Quickly she took the tall man’s arm, leaning into him as though for protection.
“I’m all booked up, you see,” she told Dane flippantly. “Maybe some other time.”
He shrugged, dropping his hand to his side. “I’ll wait,” he said, not allowing her to see evidence of the ache that tore through him at her rejection.
The tall man flashed Dane a look of pure triumph, but he ignored it. The man was nothing. A mere annoyance. Alexandra was in his sights and she was all he was focused on. He leaned against a post, arms folded, and watched them go out onto the tiny, crowded dance floor.
They were good. It was obvious they’d danced together before. He watched her turn and shimmer to the music, and he cursed the way it made him feel. She moved like an angel with just enough fire to be an arousing delight, but not so much as to lose that simple, decent elegance that he’d always seen in her. She moved like a lady—a provocative lady, but a lady, nonetheless.
His mouth went dry as he watched her. He wanted her. He always wanted her. This was his fatal flaw, the chink in his armor, the weak place in his soul. If he wasn’t careful, it could destroy him.
Every muscle in his body hardened. Somehow this woman appealed to him in ways no other female had ever come close to. And here she was, the enemy. Their families had fought against each other for decades. She hated him. She’d made that very plain every time they’d met. He knew there could never be anything but fierce animosity between them.
Still, for some reason, people were always telling him what she was up to, where she was, who she was seeing. No matter how often he ordered them into silence, somehow they managed to convey every rumor that poisoned the air. And one rumor in particular had chilled his blood. That was the one he had to check out. Once he’d heard of it, he knew he couldn’t stay away.
Alex and her brothers had been difficult to find since they’d escaped from Carnethia at the end of the war. He’d heard only that morning that she might be coming to Chic’s tonight, in this small, neighboring neutral country. Interestingly, it had been his sister, Carla, who had told him, in casual conversation over toast, and not the intelligence people he’d specifically tasked for the last few weeks with the job of finding her—ever since he’d heard the whispers about her and what she’d been doing for the last year or so.
She came back to the table with cheeks stained red and a new sparkle in her green eyes.
“Are you still here?” she asked as she passed him.
“I’m still here. We need to talk.”
She glanced back at him over her shoulder. “I don’t think—”
His hand flashed out and took her upper arm in his grip, fingers curling tightly into her soft flesh. Two men in her party reacted quickly, stepping forward and looking to her for a sign.
“I do think,” Dane said crisply, ignoring her protectors. “Either you dance with me, or I’m taking you out into the street. One
