hair and a body sure to draw second glances.
He expected the duchess to protest. To use her royal status as an excuse to overrule this bodyguard-as-an-escort business. To his surprise she stared at him for a few moments before she bit her lip and spoke up.
“And how do you propose to change me into a typical tourist, Commander?”
He was a dead man.
Contrary to his hopeful expectations, instead of firing him, Duchess Mary Louise of Baronovia was actually going to go along with him! Grudgingly he had to give her credit. She’d not only gotten him for a bodyguard, she was smart. Smart enough to know when to fold.
All the more reason he had to be on his guard.
“First, Your Grace,” he said eyeing her cocktail dress frankly, “we’re going to go to Wal-Mart in the morning and outfit you in ordinary clothing.”
Ordinary clothing to turn her into an ordinary woman? he asked himself as he continued to lay down the rules. No way! Clearly he was out of his mind for even thinking so. No matter what she wore or how she looked, the duchess Mary Louise could never be ordinary. Still, if it was the only way he could get her attention it was worth a try.
After a moment’s pause, she shrugged. “You may be right. If you think clothing will make a difference, I’m willing. What else?”
“The Secret Service stays, both of them.”
A blush rose over her face, and for a moment she almost looked human. “They are two old married men with old-fashioned minds. Everything I told them I wanted to see was off-limits.”
Wade’s sixth sense sounded warning signals. As in any big city, there were enough off-limit places in D.C. to blow any bodyguard-cum-escort’s mind, and he was no different. Still, with him keeping an extra watchful eye on her and the two Secret Service men as backup, how much trouble could she get into?
“What exactly do you have in mind to see?”
“I’ll let you know in the morning,” she said airily and started to turn away.
“I don’t play games, Your Grace, and neither should you.” Wade said quietly. “To begin with, why don’t you make a list of the places you’d like to visit. I’ll look them over and let you know which ones I think are okay.”
She stopped in her tracks, and her eyes narrowed. Without saying a word, Wade knew that under that cool facade she was angry…and that he didn’t care. He was going to do his duty as he saw it, even if she didn’t like it. Furthermore, he sensed she hadn’t chosen him for an escort merely because he was younger than the Secret Service men assigned her. Age had nothing to do with it; she had to have another motive.
He raised his eyebrows and swallowed a begrudging smile. The angrier the duchess became, the more enchanting she looked, more the pity. For all her attraction, she could have come from another planet and was just as unreachable.
She didn’t fool him, either. She may have agreed to dressing down, but strong-minded women like her never gave up, any more than a leopard could change its spots. It would only be a matter of time before the lady was back trying to use her wiles to persuade him to see things her way.
Thank God he was going to be hers only for a few days.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, it sounds to me as if you’ve already tried your wiles on the Secret Service men and couldn’t get away with it,” he said dryly. “You can forget trying anything on me.”
“Now see here, Commander,” she retorted, all traces of the wistful and sexy woman gone in the blink of an eyelid. The imperious duchess was back. “In spite of what you think about me, I am not a spoiled child. Nor am I a fool. I am not looking for trouble, either. I merely wish to see your country’s capital and I wish to see it my way.”
“I don’t have a problem with that as long as the Secret Service tags along,” he agreed. And then he asked the question that continued to bother him. “Of all the men you could have asked for as an escort, why me?”
She looked at him cooly. “Simply put, Commander, I chose you for an escort because you looked to have an open mind and apparently knew how to enjoy yourself. So, if you think my dressing up or dressing down will make me inconspicuous, I will allow it.”
Wade reluctantly nodded his agreement. In his book the lady could never be inconspicuous. He might take her shopping for nondescript clothing, but as for her fading into the tourist landscape, he wasn’t going to bank on it. Any more than he could bank on her complete cooperation.
To make matters worse, there seemed to be no way out of the escort duty.
Escorting the duchess around Washington might actually turn out to be interesting, he mused as he eyed the folds of sheer material designed to hide her pert breasts. Instead, they only managed to heighten his interest. He’d always felt that when a woman left some hint of modesty in her clothing, it did more for him than a blatant invitation.
Whoever had designed the duchess’s cocktail dress had known exactly what he or she was doing. And, from his own reaction to the way she looked, he wouldn’t have been surprised if the lady knew it, too. To muddy the waters, he was sure, from the parting look she gave him she hadn’t given up on persuading him to see things her way.
He followed her back to the party with a sinking feeling in his middle. He was going to have to protect the lady for a few days. But who was going to protect him from her?
Chapter Two
She hadn’t told him the whole truth.
May, as the family called her, hastily adjusted the neckline of the white evening dress that had drawn Wade Stevens’s frankly interested gaze. The whole truth, a truth she wasn’t about to share with him, was that she’d requested him as her escort because she’d been as attracted to him as he seemed to have been drawn to her.
His age, his personality and the probability he was more likely to understand her than the two older Secret Service men hovering over her, had been a factor in his favor. But the truth was that it had been his virile appearance in his immaculate white dress uniform that had first captivated her and then held her attention.
She’d kept her eyes on him while he’d worked his way through the room, occasionally stopping to chat with someone he knew. It had been his easy smile, the way the corner of his eyes crinkled as he laughed that had finally convinced her.
She’d sensed then he was a man who had a sense of humor and knew how to enjoy life. A man who would know how to make her laugh.
She hadn’t known much laughter during her arranged marriage. Married at nineteen to a titled cousin, chosen for her by her father, she had tried to be the proper wife her late, older husband had expected. He had suddenly fallen dead at her feet of a heart attack a year ago.
Her period of mourning over, she had taken her father up on his invitation to travel with him on this short trip to the United States. She was desperate to enjoy her stay. Now was her chance to enjoy her youth and taste the freedom that had evaded her as a member of the royal family of Baronovia, and, until the recent birth of her half brother, its heir apparent.
The sight-seeing agenda laid out for her by the U.S. State Department had left her cold. The rules laid down by her Secret Service escorts had left her even colder. As for the commander, he may have been right about her wanting to see a side of Washington that was more than its stone monuments, but she didn’t care. She was more determined than ever to visit the places she’d longed to see.
If it meant using her royal status to charm or intimidate him into seeing things her way, so be it.
It was too bad she had to play a game with him, she thought regretfully as he held the door open for her. He appeared to be a genuinely decent man. Just as she knew herself to be a flesh-and-blood human woman under the role of imperious royalty she was playing. In different circumstances she might