Temporarily His Princess by Olivia Gates Page A

has…appreciated. You were always gorgeous down to your toes, but the years have ripened you into something impossibly…more. I ached the whole time you were at my penthouse to test and taste every remembered wonder, every new enhancement. I am now in agony to explore and devour every part of you. And I know you need every part of me, too, on you, in you. I can feel your arousal echoing mine even at this distance. But if you think you’re not ready yet, I’ll come…persuade you. I’ll remind you what it was like between us, prove to you how much better it will be now we’re both older and wiser and certain of what we want.”
    Fighting another surge of response and haywire heartbeats, she said, “Now that I’m older and wiser, you think I’ll let you have me without guarantees, like when I was young and stupid?”
    “You want a ring first? I can bring it with me right now.”
    “ No. That’s not what I meant….” She gulped, her head spinning. This was zooming beyond warp speed. Just a few hours ago she’d never thought she’d see him again. Now he was almost seducing her, over the phone no less, and she was a breath away from telling him to just hurry the hell over. “I didn’t mean material guarantees. I meant guarantees of being treated with respect when you decide I’m no longer ‘convenient.’ I don’t even have the advantage or excuse of obliviousness like I did when I believed you valued me.”
    A silent moment followed. Then an expressionless drawl. “Let’s leave the past buried. We’re different people now.”
    “Are we? Maybe you are, whatever the hell you are. But unlike you, I have one basic character, and I’m pretty much the same person I was six years ago. Just older and wiser, as you pointed out, and aware that what you’re suggesting would cause long-term damage. And mentioning that, if I become your ‘princess,’ temporary or not…”
    “ When you become my princess. Very soon. Though, with the necessary preparations, not soon enough. But say the word, and I’ll be worshiping your glorious body within the hour—”
    She cut him off before she combusted. “I demand to have a say in the details, since I have no choice in the fundamental stuff. If part of this charade is a ring, then I want to choose it. You’ll have it back in the end, but I’m the one who’s going to be wearing it, and ‘only a year’ is still a long time.”
    His voice suddenly lost the mind-scrambling sexiness and filled with a different passion. “Then you will choose your ring. And everything else you want. As my princess you can and will have everything you wish for.”
    Her heart squeezed into her throat. “Weird. I have a two-hundred-page volume detailing how I can’t have anything.”
    Silence stretched over long seconds.
    A forcible exhalation followed. “That volume is only to…” He stopped again. As if he couldn’t find the right words. Which was even weirder. Vincenzo was never at a loss for words.
    She decided to help him out. “Only to protect you from any opportunistic ideas I might develop at contract termination. So it’s strange you’re willing to be wide-open for those same ideas at its start. Not that I want anything from you, but I’m just observing the contradictions.”
    Another long silence answered her.
    Then another heavy exhalation. “I changed my mind.”
    He did? He was taking back his offer of “everything”? Figured. That must have been his need to have sex talking. She must have managed to douse his desire and he was back to thinking straight, and taking back his reckless concessions.
    Then he went on. “You don’t have to sign if you find it excessive. And you don’t have to make a decision now. And you are free to say no. Of course, I won’t stop trying to persuade you. But for now, you can go back to sleep. I’ll come for you tomorrow at five to pick the ring. Sorry if I woke you up.”
    The line went dead.
    She pulled the phone from her ear,