Now to find his fiancée. After last night, he was eager to set a wedding date. The sooner, the better, he thought with relish. Something else occurred to him. Tamara had been a virgin last night. That had been an unexpected surprise. A very pleasant surprise, although he didn’t believe that women should remain virgins until their wedding night. He wasn’t a virgin, so why should women? In his mind, which ran counter to what many men in his culture believed, both men and women needed to gain a bit of experience in the world and with their sexuality in order to know what they wanted in life.
His Tamara was a savvy businesswoman. The reports his security team had provided to him of her business acumen yesterday surprised him. She’d grown her business quite well over the past five years, gaining in properties and renting them out on both long and short term basis. Her company now had a strong income based off the excellent reviews from previous renters.
He liked that about her, Jurid thought. A woman who had been out in the world, who had started her own business and struggled with the issues that every business owner dealt with, both with the startup learning curve as well as managing the growth of a business so it didn’t get too large without proper support staff in place, but also didn’t stagnate, was a problem for many businesses. Some entrepreneurs were good at gaining business at the beginning, but couldn’t sustain that growth. Others had a good product, but they didn’t know how to get that product out onto the marketplace and gain a following.
Princess Tamara had experience with all of it. She’d built an amazing company in a difficult economy and expanded carefully and strategically.
That business knowledge will help her when she became his queen, he thought. She would be able to empathize with his citizens trying to start up small businesses, and she’ll be able to advise him on how to ensure that these small entrepreneurs had the resources to expand.
Leaving the small office of the penthouse suite, he found his guard standing just outside the door. “Where’s my fiancée?” he asked, eager to talk to her and get her opinion on a variety of issues.
The man standing sentry looked startled by the question. “She went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast several hours ago, Your Highness,” the guard replied.
His eyes narrowed. “Hours ago? Where is she now? Still chatting with her friend? Willow, right?” he thought, remembering the pretty red-headed woman with the melodious Texas accent.
The guard still looked startled. “Your Highness, I’ll find her.” He stepped away, muttering into his microphone. He nodded and Jurid watched, waiting impatiently. At the appalled look on his guard’s face, Jurid knew that he wasn’t going to like whatever the man said next.
“I’m so sorry, Your Highness. I ordered my team to watch her, but they weren’t aware that they should stop her. She left in a cab over ninety minutes ago.”
“Left?” he barked, stunned and furious. “Where the hell did she go?”
The guard looked painfully uncomfortable. “To the airport, Your Highness.”
Jurid stared at the man, not understanding. “The airport? Where…?”
He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “She flew home, didn’t she?” he asked, irritated that he hadn’t discussed his intentions with her earlier this morning. Shaking his head, he tamped down his anger. “My fault,” he said to his guard. “I didn’t give you specific instructions.” With a sigh, he looked around. “I suppose we’re off to London, then. Make the arrangements.” He started to walk away, then stopped and turned back to his guard. “We’ll come up with a more direct plan once we are in London. But she needs to be protected.”
“Sire, I have men in London,” his head of security explained. “I can have someone pick her up at the airport. We can keep her safe until we arrive.”
Jurid thought about that. He didn’t want her frightened. Or angry. If he dispatched a team of guards to intercept her at the airport, one or both of those emotions would be her initial reaction. That wasn’t how he wanted their time together to start. “Don’t intercept her in London. I’ll go myself. She and I will talk and work things out. But yes, get a team of guards there in London to protect her.” He paused, then said, “They aren’t to reveal themselves to her. She should be free to do what she needs to do.”
With that order in place, he headed to his next meeting, although his thoughts lingered on what he would do to Tamara once he saw her again. The idea of spanking her sexy butt came to mind. But that wouldn’t be for punishment, he thought. No, he might enjoy that too much.
Oh, the things he wanted to teach her...
Now that he knew her better, he wasn’t as hesitant to start their future together. Shockingly, Jurid was actually looking forward to getting married. What a difference one night made in his anticipation of his wedding! Before last night, he’d been dreading the idea of marrying a “docile, submissive woman”. Now, knowing a little more about Tamara, he knew that there wasn’t a docile or submissive bone in her beautiful body!
Chapter 5
“What?!” a grumpy voice answered her call.
“I need help.”
There was a pause. “When did you get back from Greece?” Mike asked.
“Last night,” Tamara replied.
“Are you bleeding?” Mike asked, still sounding grumpy, but there was a hint of concern in his voice.
“No!” she laughed, horrified at the idea. “I’m not bleeding.”
“Do you have all of your limbs?”
She laughed again. “You’re grim in the morning, aren’t you?”
“Are you kidnapped? About to be decapitated? Bad guys outside your door? A six foot alligator thwacking his tail against your bed?”
Tamara leaned back against the headboard of her bedroom. “No to all of the above.”
“Good. Then call me back in…” he paused and Tamara pictured him looking at the time, “three hours and I’ll help in any way I can.”
“I’m about to be married,” she said before he could hang up.
There was a long pause, then she heard bedsheets shuffling, some muffled conversation and Tamara knew that Mike was explaining to Joe about the early morning call.
A moment later, he came back on the phone, sounding much more alert. “Okay, what’s going on?”
She sighed. “It’s complicated, but I need help.”
“Does this have anything to do with all of those pictures you asked me to take of you dancing at the nightclubs with me and Joe?”
“Yes, in a way.”
“Okay, so are you finally going to explain everything to me?”
She closed her eyes, and nodded. “I’ll explain, but you have to promise nothing will change between us.”
“Right. Honey, I know you right down to your pretty little soul. There’s nothing you can say that could shock me.”
“I’m a princess,” she told him, then held her breath.
“I know that, honey. Don’t I treat you like a princess all the time? And I’m your prince, darling.”
She heard the coffee maker begin and knew that he was grabbing a mug by the way his voice went muffled, then cleared again.