Free Secret Fire by Johanna Lindsey Page A

girl? After what she put me through?”
    “Yes, but what did we put her through? Look outside, husband. It is dawn.”
    He squinted at the windown, and sure enough, the sky was tinted violet. He came instantly full awake and threw off the light spread Marusia had covered him with before she had gone down to the kitchen to light the fires. He was still dressed in yesterday’s clothes. He had stayed up half the night waiting for the Prince to leave the woman’s room. He had not meant to fall asleep at all, only to rest on the bed a few moments.
    “He is probably just rising early,” Vladimir said. “You know he needs little sleep. He can’t have stayed the whole night with her.”
    “Whether he did or didn’t, Lida says he is awake, and you had best get the woman out of the house before he leaves his room. You know he doesn’t like to encounter these casual women of his after he is done with them.”
    He gave her a look that said “You don’t have to tell me that” before he swept up a bundle of clothes and started up the stairs to the third floor. The hallway was empty. The guards had been dismissed last evening before Dimitri arrived. Ithad been imperative then that he not suspect anything until after he had seen the woman. Now if the unguarded wench had managed to vacate the premises on her own, Vladimir wouldn’t find it amiss, even though he owed her something for her trouble.
    Quietly he opened the door. There was a chance that Lida had been mistaken and had only heard Dimitri’s valet moving about in his room. Yet the odds against finding the Prince still here were so likely that Vladimir chided himself for being this careful. And the room was empty, save for the woman. She was still there, sound asleep under the satin cover.
    Dropping her clothes on a chair, he crossed to the bed and shook her.
    “No more,” she groaned.
    Vladimir felt a momentary twinge of pity. She had been well and truly used. The odor of the night was overpowering in the enclosed room. In fact, that was the first order of business: letting in some fresh air.
    He shoved the heavy wardrobe away from the window, panting with the effort, then welcomed the early-morning breeze that wafted in.
    “Thank you, Vladimir,” the Prince said from behind him. “I was dreading the thought of putting my shoulder to that clumsy thing.”
    “My lord!” Vladimir swung around. “Forgive me. I was just going to wake her and—”
    “Don’t.”
    “But—”
    “Let her sleep. She needs it. And I have an urge to see what she’s like when she has her wits about her.”
    “I…don’t recommend it,” Vladimir said hesitantly. “She’s not a very pleasant young woman.”
    “Isn’t she? Now I find that fascinating, considering how pleasant she has been all evening. In fact I can’t remember when I last enjoyed myself so.”
    Vladimir relaxed. The Prince wasn’t fencing with words, as he sometimes did in his sardonic way, but was truly well pleased. The gamble had paid off. Now if they could only sail without any mishap to disturb this good mood. But the woman—no, surely Dimitri had charmed her and she wouldn’t be disagreeable this morning.
    Dimitri turned toward the bed, where just a slim arm and a pale cheek were visible on the pillow, her abundant brown locks in utter disarray hiding everything else. He had been compelled to come back to this room. He had meant to bathe and get a few hours’ sleep before the hectic preparations for departure began. The bath he had had, but he had been unable to dismiss the woman from his thoughts.
    He had spoken the truth to Vladimir. He didn’t think he had ever spent such an unusual and yet delightful evening. By rights he should have been as exhausted as the woman was. But then he had paced himself, held back his own pleasure, deliberately conserving his strength by satisfying her in other ways. The thought of having to summon a few of his men to take over if he should grow weary had disgusted him.