His Royal Prize by Katherine Garbera Page A

Amelia was different here in her garden. She wouldn’t look directly at him, and it struck him that she was vulnerable.
    She’d invited him to the place where she let down her guard and he wondered if she had second thoughts now.
    “This is the second secret you’ve shown me tonight.”
    “What was the first?” she asked, looking at him carefully.
    “That you are more than the shallow socialite. This is the real Amelia Munroe, and I feel very privileged that you brought me here.”
    “Come sit with me.”
    “Are you sure?” She nodded.
    He did as she asked. The bench was a solid wrought-iron frame with a thick padded cushion. He sipped his cognac and wrapped an arm around her.
    “Do you wish you hadn’t invited me up here?”
    She shook her head and the silky strands of her thick hair brushed against his neck as she turned her face toward him.
    “I’m not sure what to do now. With anyone else I’d be a little drunk and I wouldn’t be thinking so much.”
    He wondered how often she drank simply to endure her life or merely because it was expected of her. He suddenly felt the need to protect her, shield her from what the world expected her to be.
    “Really?”
    She shrugged. “In the old days. I haven’t brought a guy home in a long time.”
    He arched an eyebrow at her. “You’ve been seen with men lately.”
    “You and I both know that being seen with someone has nothing to do with actually being with someone.”
    He took their glasses and put them on the ground by their feet. Then he took her beautiful face in his hands, rubbing his thumb over the blade of her cheek and down to the full curve of her bottom lip.
    “That’s very true,” he said, leaning in for the kiss that he felt like he’d waited ages to claim.
    It wasn’t the dramatic, lust-filled kiss he’d given her in front of the restaurant. It was deep and steady, and made promises that he wasn’t ready to vocalize but that he couldn’t help making with his lips. This woman was special and he wanted her in his arms for a very long time.
     
    Amelia knew that inviting Geoff to her place wasn’t the wisest decision she had ever made, but she didn’t regret it. She’d had learned fairly early on that if she was going to be able to live in her own skin she couldn’t regret anything. She’d have to just learn from it and move on.
    Being in Geoff’s arms felt too good for her to think about regrets. His hands skimmed up and down her back and she shivered with awareness as his mouth moved over hers.
    He was touching her with such skill and tenderness that her head was spinning. He was passionate. And commanding. Everything that he was in business she realized he was in life.
    She’d made a mistake in judging him. The way he’d probably made a mistake in judging her.
    What if he expected something exotic from her? Thanks to the media’s interpretation of the video that ended up on YouTube, past lovers had expected some strange things from her.
    She pulled back. “Did you see that video?”
    He stared down at her, his brooding eyes unreadable, and she wondered if this would be the moment that he left. Was this going to be the one thing that would make him think poorly of her?
    Why had she brought it up?
    “I haven’t. I’m not the kind of man who bothers with things like that.”
    “Oh, well, it was a long time ago. I mean I know that everyone thinks it just happened yesterday but I was a lot younger.”
    She was babbling. She couldn’t help it. Every part of her was outraged that the video had been shared the way it had. She hated that everyone thought they knew intimate details about her because of one mistake.
    “Amelia, love, you don’t have to explain anything. I’ve done things in my past that I wouldn’t want the world to watch online. What you and I share together has nothing to do with a video.”
    He kissed her so softly and tenderly then that she almost wept. She felt like he was truly kissing her, Amelia, not some