The Royals Collection. Rebecca Winters

even if she wasn’t!

      ‘I wasn’t thinking about you. I was thinking about Charlotte.’

      If Kamel ever found himself faced with an angry and unreasonable woman he generally removed himself from that scene. By choice he avoided women likely to indulge in scenes, but you couldn’t always tell and it paid to have a plan B.

      He should have walked. She was asking him to explain his actions, and no woman had ever done that.

      Looking into her eyes was like staring straight into a storm. Though storms were preferable to thinking too much about the flash of desperate hurt he had seen in those shimmering depths. Crazily, of all the emotions he was struggling to contain the one that rose to the surface—the compelling urge to wipe that hurt away. It made no sense. It had been her decision to enact a Greek tragedy when given the same circumstances most women would have chosen to tactfully ignore it.

      ‘Look. I’m sorry that the room was not cleared. I’ll have t—’

      ‘You’re crazy if you think I am going to sleep in that bedroom with you!’

      His jaw tightened. ‘You know something? I’m starting to feel quite nostalgic for Hannah the ice queen.’ He jammed his thumbs into the waistband of his shorts and glared at her. ‘Just what is your problem, anyway? I had a sex life before we were married.’ He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. ‘Having sex does not make me some sort of weird pervert. Most people would think that it makes me a lot more normal than a woman who is so uptight and controlling that she saves herself for marriage.’

      ‘So now I’m not normal? Well, let me ease your mind on one thing. I sure as hell wasn’t waiting for you!’

      ‘And yet, you can’t get enough of me in bed.’

      ‘It’s the novelty value.’

      He clenched his teeth and glared at the gold gown in her hands. ‘Give me that damned thing.’

      She looked into his dark eyes and felt the answering passions surface. Heart thudding like a trip hammer, she ignored the hand extended to her and shook her head.

      ‘You’re being very childish. I have had other women. This can hardly be a surprise to you.’

      Of course it wasn’t—so why the hell was she acting like this?

      ‘I don’t give a damn about your girlfriends!’ she contended, snapping her fingers to show how little she cared. ‘You can have a damned harem for all I care!’

      ‘I’m glad you explained that. So this—’ his hand sketched a toe-to-head line in the air ‘—is someone who doesn’t care a jot? If you hadn’t explained I might,’ he drawled, ‘have thought it was jealousy.’

      Her reaction to the suggestion was dramatic. The colour that had flooded her face receded, leaving her eyes a deep well of colour.

      ‘This isn’t jealousy,’ she denied, trying desperately to think of an alternative and failing. ‘This is wanting to be treated with respect.’

      ‘Am I asking you to hide in the damned shadows?’ The woman, he decided, took irrationality to new uncharted levels. ‘This has gone on long enough. Hand it over.’

      He caught the hem of the dress and Hannah responded with teeth-gritting determination, pulling it into her chest with such force she heard the sound of fabric tearing. She was clinging on so hard that when he pulled the dress she came with it.

      To absorb the impact of her soft body into his, Kamel took an automatic step back and felt his foot hit the edge of the pool just as Hannah lifted her gaze.

      She saw the intent gleaming in his dark eyes and shook her head. ‘You wouldn’t!’

      His smile was answer enough.

      She hit the water yelling a warning and spluttered as the water filled her nose and throat. His arm was wrapped around her waist as they both surfaced. When the water cleared from her eyes she saw he was laughing. She opened her mouth and Kamel pressed a hard kiss to it before he let go, kicking away from her.

      She lifted a hand to her mouth. Thinking only of the kiss and not the fact there were several feet of water beneath her feet, she stopped treading water to stay afloat.

      He waited for her to surface, breathless and angry and still, amazingly, clutching the damned dress.

      ‘I’m drowning.’

      ‘No, you’re not.’ Flipping onto his back, he kicked lazily away from her, still maintaining eye contact.

      He was utterly heartless. She hit at the water surface angrily, sending a spray of silver droplets his way. None reached him, and she struck out towards him. Hannah was a reasonable swimmer but her efforts were severely hampered by her sodden clothes, and after a couple of feet she was puffing and panting.

      ‘Stand up.’

      Easy for him to say—he was ten feet tall! Cautiously she put a foot down. Her toe found the bottom, and, bouncing along for another few feet, she finally risked attempting to follow his advice.

      The water reached her shoulder but it only reached Kamel’s waist. He looked like a glistening statue—if cool stone had been capable of oozing the sort of restless vitality he projected. Kamel was not stone or cold. ‘You did that deliberately!’ she charged, focusing on her fury and not on his body—at least that was the aim.

      When the sexiest man on the planet was standing there dripping wet and gorgeous it was hard to ignore.

      He shrugged, fixing her with a gleaming amused gaze. ‘What can I say? The temptation...’ His voice trailed away as his glance dropped. The immersion had left her shirt plastered to her body; the lacy outline of her bra was clearly visible, as were the thrusting projections of her nipples. Heat pooled in his groin and the laughter faded from his heavy-lidded eyes as in his mind he saw himself drawing the ruched rosy peak into his mouth and heard her hoarse cry. He took a step towards her.

      ‘Get away from me!’ Refusing to recognise the heart-pounding excitement that made her feel light-headed, she banged the water with the heel of her hand in warning.

      His response was a predatory smile. Holding out a hand to ward him off, she took a staggering step backwards and immediately sank beneath the surface. Floating on her back, kicking to stay afloat safely out of reach, she glared at him with eyes several shades deeper than the glittering water.

      ‘That was so childish!’ she accused, finding her feet again and stepping into marginally shallower water. ‘I could have drowned—you’d have liked that.’

      He arched a satiric brow. ‘Me, childish?’

      Hannah blinked back at him, an expression of shock filtering into her eyes as their glances connected and locked. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened as she thought, He’s right. Who was the person who had charged in all guns blazing? She turned her glance downwards over her drenched clothes, and felt the clutch of cold, horrified embarrassment in her stomach. This wasn’t her. She lifted her eyes, saw the way he was looking at her, and the cold in her belly turned hot and liquid.

      ‘You’re right. It is me!’ she yelled. The discovery was liberating.

      Kamel didn’t have a clue what she was talking about and he didn’t ask, because she was churning the water, windmilling her hands, sending as much spray over herself as him—and he reciprocated.

      Hannah threw herself into the exertion and was not even aware of the point when she began to cry. Blinded by the spray, she didn’t realise until her arms and shoulders got too tired to retaliate that Kamel had stopped splashing and he was standing right there, toe to toe with her.

      The sun and the water droplets on her lashes gave a shimmering effect to his dark outline.

      Everything seemed to slow, even her heartbeat. Her throat closed over, then she stopped breathing completely. She closed her eyes and felt his finger on her cheek. Leaking control from every pore,