Free The Makeover Mission by Mary Buckham Page B

waited until she heard the door click shut behind his
departure before she allowed the sigh she was holding to escape. She might feel
better in the morning, but she'd still be an impostor in Vendari. She'd still be
everyday Jane Richards playing a life-or-death part with no script.
    Lucius waited outside the door, feeling as frustrated and
powerless as a raw recruit on his first mission. Part of him wanted to turn
back, tell the hollow-eyed exhausted woman he'd left on the other side of the
door that there'd been a mistake, that tomorrow he would put her on a plane for
home and make her nightmare disappear.
    But he couldn't do that.
    He started down the hallway, seeing all too clearly in his mind
the way she'd walked it earlier. Who'd have thought a librarian could wear silk
with the grace of a duchess? They'd lucked out there. She fit the part of a
king's intended better than the real thing, though he figured he'd be keeping
that observation to himself—if he wanted to retain his role as peacekeeper to
Tarkioff.
    But there were other issues he'd be addressing with the king and,
though he felt like day-old dog meat, chewed up and spat out, there was no time
like the present to get a few things straightened out.
    Tarkioff sat behind the desk as Lucius entered the library. A room
so called because a former owner had enjoyed literature and had filled this
room with the thick dark wood paneling, shelf after shelf of books, and plush
red carpet he felt befitted a man of literature.
    The fact that those who had followed never cracked open one of the
handsomely bound books didn't seem to matter. They too enjoyed the aura the
room exuded and kept it virtually intact. Like a lot in Vendari, there was
power in appearance alone.
    "Ah, Major," Tarkioff hailed him as he looked up.
"Come in. I think we have much to discuss."
    Since McConneghy agreed and knew the room had already been swept
for listening devices by his men, he didn't hesitate to speak his mind once he
closed the door.
    "You should never have authorized the abduction of Miss
Richards," he spoke bluntly, knowing the best way to deal with the man
before him was head-on. Tarkioff listened to little else. "Or at the least
you should have allowed me to handle it differently."
    "You were moving too slowly." The king waved away
objections like fireflies in the night.
    "We are asking her to risk her life." He'd moved far
enough into the room to splay his hands across the highly polished surface of
the desk. "You might have given her a choice."
    "And if she had said no?" Tarkioff rolled an unlit cigar
between his stocky fingers. "You and I both know there is too much at
stake to have allowed that."
    "I could have persuaded her." At the other man's look,
he added, "A willing individual is much easier to work with than an
unwilling one."
    "I still think you can use your powers of persuasion,"
came the casual reply as Tarkioff continued to study his cigar, rolling it back
and forth. One eyebrow arched.
    "We're not talking about a seduction here," Lucius bit
back, surprised at the anger rolling through him. "We're talking about a
young woman who could lose her life for your country. She deserves better
treatment than she has received thus far."
    The cigar snapped between the king's fingers. "It is of no
consequence. She is of no consequence." The man's voice no longer
sounded modulated and even; his face was as flushed as the pile carpet.
"She has a purpose. As you do, Major, or have you forgotten your own
role?"
    "I may have found the girl for you, but I certainly did not
authorize her being drugged and kidnapped."
    "And yet you brought her to Vendari."
    He knew he'd have to live with that knowledge for a long, long
time. "I had my orders."
    The king leaned forward. "And is not one of those orders to
make sure that I am kept content? That my goodwill continues to be extended
toward your country?"
    Lucius wanted to wipe the smug look off the bastard's face with
one punch. But it would