Ruling Passions. Laura Wright

regrets.

      “Sophia?”

      Sophia gasped at the masculine call, reached down and snatched up her towel. Alex was back from dinner. Way too early. No doubt to check on her, make sure she hadn’t run away.

      With a quick shiver, Sophia glanced over her shoulder at the bathroom door. She swallowed hard. It stood open a good foot. He was right outside, and his close proximity made her feel as though she couldn’t move, as though her feet were stuck to the bathroom tiles. “I didn’t expect you back so soon. Could you close the door, please? I’ll be out in a minute.”

      She heard him snort. “Don’t tell me you’ve become shy all of a sudden.”

      “Not all of a sudden,” she mumbled.

      “Is that right? And today—”

      “Today I was temporarily blinded by—”

      “Lust?” he offered.

      “More like a near-death experience. Now, are you going to close the door or what?”

      “Not just yet. I’m rather intrigued by the ‘or what.’

      On a frustrated sigh, and without thinking, she stalked to the doorway and faced him. “You are impossible!”

      “And you are…”

      “I’m impossible, too. Now, what can I do for you?”

      His fierce gaze raked boldly over her. “You shouldn’t ask a man such a question wearing only that scrap of cotton.”

      Sophia pulled her towel closer. “Are you telling me that I can’t trust you to be a gentleman?”

      “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”

      Heat moved through her, but she kept her tone cool. “Let’s get one thing straight, sire. Today was a lapse in judgment. It’s not going to happen again.”

      He nodded succinctly. “Fine.”

      “Fine?”

      “I don’t supplicate, Sophia.”

      “Good. And I don’t kowtow to royalty.”

      His mouth twitched with amusement. “Just so we understand each other….” He gestured behind him. “Now get dressed and come out. I brought you dinner.”

      She glanced past him, saw several steaming, silver chafing dishes on the glass dining table. “I appreciate the thought, Alex, but I’m not very hungry.”

      “You will eat, Sophia,” he insisted with a vague hint of disapproval.

      “Maybe you didn’t hear me a moment ago, but I won’t be commanded to do—”

      “This isn’t about you.” A muscle twitched in his jaw, his eyes growing dark as eggplant. “You will not starve my child.”

      Sophia’s body stiffened with shock, her mind reeling. Alex’s words, his command, cut her deep, deeper than she could have imagined. Just the thought of harming a child, her child, a child that might be growing inside of her at this very moment, brought tears to her eyes.

      She blinked them back and took a calming breath. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

      He nodded, a hint of warmth passing over his dark and very dangerous gaze. But it was gone quickly. And after a moment he took a step back and closed the bathroom door.

      Three

      Holding two mugs of coffee, one black as mud, the other creamy and decaffeinated, Alex followed Sophia out onto the beach house’s sprawling deck. “What are you thinking so seriously about tonight?”

      “My future.”

      “And what do you see?”

      She shrugged. “It’s very uncertain, isn’t it?”

      “I suppose it is,” he said, sliding the mugs of steaming liquid onto the teak sombrero table.

      All around them, the night sky gleamed clear, but for the brilliant clusters of stars winking down at them. A cool sea breeze blew across the beach, shifting specks of sand here and there.

      Alex motioned for Sophia to take a seat at one of the rustic dining chairs, but she shook her head, then headed down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she gave a weighty sigh and sat down on the last step, dug her toes in the sand.

      “I’m not used to being on this side of the sand,” she said. “But it’s very beautiful.”

      Alex watched her stare out at the ocean as it crashed against the shore in cloudy tufts, biting his tongue from telling her just what he found beautiful on this side of the sand.

      Instead he followed her down the stairs. “Why have you been sailing the isles for four months, Sophia?”

      “I don’t know if you’d understand the reason.”

      “Why?”

      She glanced over her shoulder, gave him a half-smile. “You seem too, well…practical.”

      “You have the wrong perception of me,” he said, dropping down beside her on the step.

      “Wacky, wild and crazy, are you, your highness?”

      “I can be.” He glanced out toward the sand, the place where they’d made love not long ago. “Tell me about your journey,” he said, trying to shove away the surge of desire that was running through him at a hectic pace.

      Her voice softened. “Well my parents died when I was young, and I didn’t think I had any family besides my horribly overbearing aunt. I was so afraid of her. She was so much like my parents. Too protective, too concerned, yet totally invulnerable.” She released a sigh. “But then I found out that I had a grandfather.”