Free His Royal Love-Child by Lucy Monroe

tonight.
    She was careful not to look that way again, though she felt his eyes on her more than once.
    When it was time to go, Ramon offered to see her to her door and she gratefully accepted. She had no desire to ride with Lizzy as planned earlier, not knowing then as she did now that Lizzy’s boyfriend would be in the car, too. She had no desire to play fifth wheel.
    Ramon stopped in front of her cottage and got out to let her out of the car. He walked her to the door and waited while she unlocked it. “Thank you for an enjoyable evening.”
    She didn’t think she’d added much to it. It had taken all her self-control not to break down and cry. “Thank you, Ramon.”
    He grasped her shoulders and went to kiss her goodnight, but she pulled her head back. “I’m sorry. I don’t…”
    He changed the direction of his lips and kissed her cheek before stepping back and smiling. “You know, I think it is just as well. The boss kept watching you during dinner and he gave me a couple of looks that wished me to Outer Mongolia. I like my job. I think I will keep it.”
    “I’m sure he would never fire you for dating me.”
    “Perhaps not, but I do not mind not putting it to the test.” Then he stood straighter. “I would date you regardless if you had offered encouragement, you understand?”
    “I do understand. You’re not the kind of man to be cowed.” She said it for the benefit of his ego, but she thought really that she might very well be speaking the truth.
    After all, he had tried to kiss her after deciding that Marcello was interested in her. But she hadn’t encouraged him and he had decided to cut his losses.
    “Watch out for him, though. He is in a league far beyond us normal mortals.”
    “I believe you.”
    She was sitting rigid in a chair by the window when Marcello arrived an hour later. She’d known he would come, but she hadn’t expected him for another hour, or more. He must have cut his evening short with his family.
    She wondered why. Surely he wasn’t worried. His supreme male confidence would not allow him to expect anything to have changed between them from something as simple as an unexpected meeting at dinner. But it had. She couldn’t stand being his secret mistress any longer.
    She had the door open when he got out of his car.
    He walked toward her, his expression grim. “It is a good thing Ramon is not here. The entire way over, I played one scenario after another in my head of what I would do if you were entertaining him for after dinner coffee.”
    “I can only imagine one scenario myself,” she said quietly and without rancor. She hurt so much, there was no room for anger. “You would have turned around and driven away if you saw his car. Any other option would have risked exposing the fact that you were here to see me.”
    “Your imagination is sadly lacking then. My fantasies centered on a very satisfying letting of blood and definitely required me getting out of my car.”
    “How primitive.” But she didn’t believe a word of it.
    “I am primitive where you are concerned.”
    “In bed maybe, but not out of it. Fantasies is the right word. You would never have gotten out of your car to stake a claim. Admit it.”
    He was inside the house now and she shut the door behind him, her movements jerky and awkward. She felt like her arms and legs did not belong to her, as if she was outside of her body looking at the carnage within and wondering at it.
    “You are wrong, Danette . I would have gotten out of my car. Never doubt it. It is a good thing for all involved it did not come to that, but you have made your point.”
    “What point is that?”
    “You did not like seeing the picture of me dancing with another woman. I did not like seeing you out to dinner with another man.”
    “You believe I went out with Ramon to teach you a lesson?”
    “Yes. Why else would you go out with him?”
    She could have told him for the simple reason that she’d been tricked into it, but