Princess in the Iron Mask by Victoria Parker

hesitation, she reached over, lightly grazing his fist where it now curled on his hard thigh. His skin was so warm. So perfect. ‘I know that.’
    ‘ Bueno. Good,’ he said, his chest visibly easing.
    Yes, he was hard—but in a warrior-like way. Good fighting against evil.
    And that one thought...the mere possibility that he might have faced evil...coupled with that one agonised look derailed her pride, her every defence. ‘I’m just really funny about my wrists. That’s all. And when...’ When you touch me I feel alive. For the first time in my life. And it scares me.
    Those beautiful sapphire eyes flicked down to where her fingers still smoothed over his flesh and his hand slowly began to stiffen as if repelled.
    Hurt kissed her heart and she snatched her hand back. ‘Anyway, I need to go inside.’
    Lucas reached for the door handle. ‘ Sí. We will go,’ he said, fierce, dominating, as if the moment had never happened.
    The change in him was so swift it took her a moment to gather her wits. ‘ We? No, Lucas. That’s not acceptable.’
    She wouldn’t put Bailey through a meeting with a stranger. She remembered all too well the pity. The staring. The crushing silence that seemed to stretch the air so thin she could barely breathe. The powerful desire for them to leave followed by the stomach-wrenching emptiness of the room. And just as unforgettable was the palpable unease of others. It wasn’t fair on Lucas either.
    ‘Claudia, you are in my protection,’ he ground out.
    ‘For once will you stop thinking about your bloody job and give me an hour’s peace before my life is obliterated? I need to see someone. In private. Can’t you understand that?’
    Lucas tore his gaze from the grim scenery and narrowed his eyes on her. ‘You feel deeply for this person?’
    ‘Yes. Just an hour. Please?’
    The shutters slammed down over his face. ‘One hour. I will wait.’
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘In Reception.’
    ‘ Reception? People are sure to ask questions as soon as they clap eyes on you. You’re hardly inconspicuous.’
    He shrugged those broad muscular shoulders. ‘Tough.’
    ‘God, you’re the most arrogant louse I’ve ever met.’ And to think she’d just told him something she’d never told another soul just to make him feel better.
    Pushing her glasses up her nose, she yanked her bag from the floor as the car door opened before her. And there stood Lucas.
    ‘How...? You know something? You’re the human equivalent of a silencer.’
    He flashed her a killer half-smile. ‘One hour, Just Claudia. ’
    * * *
    Lucas paced the reception area, his size twelves wearing holes in the thin matting, and yanked back the cuff of his jacket to check his watch. Again. One hour, seven minutes, thirty-six seconds.
    Dios, he abhorred hospitals: the thick air of grief sliding down his throat, the dread, the notion that control had been handed to God and Lucas would pay the price.
    Teeth bared, he let out a low growl. Where the hell was she? And who was this Bailey person? A lover? She’d intimated a female, but he knew women lied under the dense weight of desperation.
    Anger swirled, black and heavy in his gut, as well as some indefinable emotion he was loath to name. The suspicion sparked a flare of unease in him. Was she safe? The shock of it suddenly engulfed him and acted like an almighty trigger.
    He strode towards the curved reception desk, set like a barricade, denying all further access to the floors beyond. Her private business was no concern of his but, Dios, one hour was one hour, and if something happened to her...
    After flashing a smile to the emaciated blonde, some extreme lash-fluttering, flaunting his government credentials and name-dropping his right-royal-pain-in-the-ass, she directed him to floor seven and one Bailey Michaels.
    Adrenaline surged to every extremity until he felt hard—armed and ready to take on the world as he stalked towards the lift, then bypassed it for the stairs, needing to