The attraction between them couldn’t be forgotten, no matter how much they might wish to fight it. Lifting a hand, he cupped her chin, rubbing his thumb along her jawline.
“Don’t.” Lidi turned her head away. “For the last three weeks, I’ve only been able to wash in rivers and streams. I can’t imagine what I must smell like.”
“You smell incredible.” That was part of the problem. Lidi’s scent was driving him crazy. She smelled of the forest. Of fresh air, new rainfall and pine needles with a hint of the wild honeysuckle that reminded him of home. He rested his forehead against hers briefly, fighting the temptation to do more. “God knows, I don’t want to change anything about you, but why don’t you take a bath? Then I’ll deal with those injuries to your arm and you can get some sleep. Even if I can’t come back to Callistoya with you, I can help in other ways.” He smiled. “I can book you on a flight to Siberia faster than you can steal a car.”
She regarded him thoughtfully and he could see she was weighing her options. After a moment or two, she relaxed and nodded. “A bath would be heaven.”
Ged showed her to the bathroom. Once he could hear water running, he took out his cell phone and called Rick.
“Any problems?”
“Other than the fact that you’ve got a crazy woman in your room?” Even though they were friends, Rick rarely crossed the employer-employee boundary when he was working. Now Ged could sense the anger and frustration in his voice. “Yeah, everything is très bien, as they say around here.”
“The two guys who were with you, are they okay?”
Rick snorted. “Well, Marty’s gonna be talking like an overexcited schoolgirl for a day or two, but the hotel guy’s nose isn’t broken. I managed to persuade him it was all a misunderstanding. When I say persuade, I mean I gave him a barrel full of cash to forget it.”
“Thanks.” Rick always came through for him and for the rest of the band. Although Ged had never shared the truth with the other man, Rick must know there was something unusual about Beast. Even if he hadn’t guessed they were all shifters, he had seen enough over the years to figure they were different. He had covered up werewolf attacks and dragon flights, as well as a few less dramatic supernatural events. “Can you get me a first aid kit?”
“Are you hurt?” He could hear the concern in Rick’s voice.
“It’s not for me. And bring some women’s clothes to my room.”
“What sort of women’s clothes?”
“How the hell do I know? The sort women wear.” Ged drew a breath, reminding himself it wasn’t Rick’s fault his whole world had been turned upside down a few hours ago. “Go to the boutique in the lobby. Make up some story about your niece losing her suitcase. Tell them she’s tall and slim. They’ll do the rest.”
He ended the call and went to stand at the window, looking out at the view of the Mediterranean. When he’d arrived in Cannes, his head had been full of business deals and upcoming concerts. His usual distractions. Now he was barely seeing the beautiful promenade, the dark waters and the first light of dawn streaking the sky. Instead, his mind was focused on a grander view, one that encompassed dramatic mountains and sweeping forests.
From the moment he’d been forced to leave Callistoya, he’d made a conscious effort to put it from his mind. But he would never be able to erase it from his heart.
That old expression bear with a sore paw? That had described Ged for a long time. He had been angry about everything. Furious that the places he visited weren’t the same as his home. Judgmental of the people he met because they were different to the Callistoya nationals, annoyed that he had to explain his wants and needs, when in the past everyone around him understood them. Gradually, he understood what his rage was about. He didn’t hate new people and places. He just missed his old life.
Ged had no idea what had happened to him on that awful night when almost his entire family, as well as his fiancée, and most of his father’s council were murdered. He believed he had been either drugged or subjected to a powerful magic spell. He vaguely recalled standing at the entrance to the palace with Alyona at his side as they greeted the guests for their engagement meal. His next memory was of waking at the bottom of a deep ravine here in the human realm.
That was just the start of the nightmare. A frantic dash to his homeland had ensued, but his attempt to cross the invisible border into the magical land known only to shifters had proved futile. Somehow, the man who was the rightful monarch had, from that day forward, been locked out of his own kingdom.
Tortured by frustration and guilt, he had finally been forced to accept defeat and refocus his energy on a new life.
He hadn’t wanted this new start, but it had been forced upon him. Telling himself he had to come to terms with that, he had channeled his royal training into new experiences. He could either make the best of what had happened, or spend the rest of his long, immortal life ricocheting around the human world in a fugue of self-pity.
That was when the idea for his alter ego had been born. As a child, Ged’s favorite literary character had been Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel. The story of the society fop who led a double life as a daring rescuer during the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution had gripped his imagination. The palace corridors would ring with sounds of mock sword fights as Ged and his younger brother, Andrei, acted out heroic combat scenes.
Rock band manager by day, shifter rescuer by night. Ged had become his own version of his childhood hero. But the ache in his heart had never gone away. And Lidi’s presence had brought the homesickness and the memories back. Stronger, sharper and more painful than ever.
I’m a bear. We don’t do feelings. He bit back a laugh. Yeah, keep telling yourself that whenever the homesickness hits.
He looked up as the bathroom door opened and Lidi emerged. Wrapped in a fluffy white bathrobe, she had dried her hair and it hung in soft waves almost to her waist. His heartbeat stuttered at the sight of her, a new realization hitting him.
It didn’t matter what he told himself about old loyalties and past promises. He had become engaged to Alyona for the sake of his country, their union born out of politics. not love. He had convinced himself back then that he could have been content with a marriage of convenience. Right now, it was as if the fates were laughing in his face.
The moment Lidi had walked—or stormed—into his life, everything had changed. His feelings for her went way beyond anything physical. The fates had decided she was his mate. Whether he liked it or not, that meant he was responsible for her.
What he had to do now was find a way to make his past and present work together in a way that didn’t bring the future crashing down around them.
Lidi viewed the first aid kit with suspicion. “I can’t take this robe off. I’m not wearing anything underneath it.”
Ged groaned. “Comments like that aren’t helping me concentrate on the practicalities.”
She knew exactly what he meant. They were sitting inches apart on the bed and his nearness was so tempting it was sinful. Inexperience didn’t count. Her imagination was going into overdrive, heat surging through her in waves that were pleasurable, tormenting and wildly inconvenient.
Since Ged seemed determined to deal with her injuries, she reluctantly slid the robe off her left shoulder and down to the elbow on that side, clutching it tightly in place across her breasts with her other hand.
She already knew the cuts on her arm were bad. When she had broken the tiny bathroom window of her prison and forced her way through, she had been aware of the jagged shards tearing into her flesh. Because she had needed to slither down a steep wall and get away from the palace as fast as she could, it had been some time before she was