Royal Seduction by Donna Clayton

about his son.
    Richard Strong was the profound “something” her life had been missing for so long. That much was a certainty. However, there were so many unanswered questions rolling around in her mind. She needed to know if he ever thought about her. If he had ever missed her over the years. If he, like she, had wished that things could have turned out differently for them.
    She needed to know if he could forgive her.
    She would never be happy until she had some answers. But answers weren’t possible until she found Richard.
    Where on earth could he be?
    Â 
    The following morning Riley sat at the conference table with Faye Lassen, a slew of Portland General’s administrators, various laboratory personnel and several otherswhose names, titles and interest in the NoWait testing he was oblivious to. He’d been sitting in this meeting for well over two hours, but everyone might as well have been speaking a foreign language for as much as he’d gotten out of it.
    Catherine consumed his thoughts. Every time he attempted to concentrate on the topic at hand, something about her would whisper across his brain. Something she’d said, or something she’d done, or some expression on her angelic face.
    She’d had him running the full emotional gamut last night.
    Her shamelessness had stunned him. Yet each time she’d made some bold move, it was immediately followed up by a flash of uncertainty that he’d suspected she’d been unaware of. But Riley had seen it, time and again, and he had thought it was so sweet. It had been patent proof to him that her overly confident behavior probably wasn’t the norm for her.
    She’d made him laugh, and she hadn’t minded looking silly to do it. At one point she’d cracked a self-deprecating joke that had him laughing so hard his cheek muscles had begun to ache.
    The complexity of her moods had intrigued him.
    She’d annoyed the hell out of him at the restaurant when they’d talked about whether or not the clinic’s clients suffered with real problems. He’d tried to make her understand his position, and that he hadn’t meant to make light of their situations, but he simply couldn’t compare the medical needs of someone needing to lose a couple of pounds with someone in the throes of a life-threatening illness. However, she’d stubbornly stood by her opinion that the people in the clinic deserved just as much attention asanyone else. He’d let it drop, silently deciding they should agree to disagree.
    At the end of the evening, however, she’d made him understand a little better about the sufferings of overweight people. When she’d spoken about her treatment at the hands of her father—his callous name-calling, his withholding of affection—the vulnerability that emanated from her had disturbed him greatly. All he’d wanted to do was wrap his arms around her, hold her tight and make all the pain go away.
    Catherine had scars from her past. And from the way she talked about her relationship with her father, she might very well be acquiring more scars even as an adult who had conquered her childhood weight problem.
    Catherine had stirred his desire. When he’d first picked her up, her physical appearance had blown him away. And later, with her body pressed up tight against his at Midnight Blues, Riley’s insides had writhed with wild, primal urges. He wanted her, there could be no doubt about that.
    And then she’d bluntly insisted that he kiss her good-night… He grinned even now, thinking about it. He’d been so plagued with need that he feared he would lose all control. But he hadn’t, and the only reason had been because she’d just finished looking so damned defenseless when she’d talked about her past. He’d been determined not to take advantage of her in that state. So when he’d kissed her, he’d been shooting for physical contact