Secret Fire by Johanna Lindsey

Patience was not one of his better qualities. But he had nothing else to do this morning before he sailed.

Chapter Eight
    A s the sun rose higher, the activity in the house increased, for the Prince liked to leave a place as he found it. The Duke of Albemarle’s servants, dismissed yesterday because the Prince liked only his own staff around him, would find nothing amiss when they returned later that day. But in the room on the third floor, all was still quiet.
    Vladimir, waiting patiently at the end of the hall to be summoned, assumed Dimitri had fallen asleep. Three hours more he had spent with the woman. He must be asleep. But there was still time before they were due at the docks. He would wait awhile yet before disturbing him.
    Dimitri was quite awake, still not the least bit tired. He had surprised himself by his patience, for the morning was moving by at a devilishly slow rate. And he had managed to keep his hands off of Katherine until now. But at last he drew her into his arms and began to caress her awake. She fought against him peevishly.
    “Not now, Lucy! Do go away!”
    Dimitri smiled, wondering only vaguely who Lucy might be. Katherine had spoken French to him last night because he had first addressed her in French, and she spoke it superbly. But English suited her much better, and the commanding tone she affected was rather amusing. Still, English was not the language he preferred, so he didn’t bother using it.
    “Come, Katya, join me,” he coaxed her, his fingers playing with the silky skin of her shoulder. “I grow bored waiting for you to wake.”
    Her eyes opened on a level with his, their noses nearly touching. She blinked once, but couldn’t seem to focus clearly. There was no sign of recognition, none of surprise, either, or even of confusion. It was as if she didn’t even see him. But she did. She moved back slowly until she was at arm’s length. All the while her eyes were moving over him, clear down to his toes, then back up again, in a way that was quite unnerving, for Dimitri had the distinct impression that she found him wanting.
    Katherine was in fact having difficulty accepting that he was real. Adonis again, had been her first annoying thought. The fairy-tale prince. Her practical eye truly doubted what she was seeing, for reality didn’t create men like this.
    “Do you disappear at the stroke of midnight?”
    Dimitri burst into delighted laughter. “If you say you have forgotten me so soon, little one, I will be pleased to refresh your memory.”
    Katherine flushed with flaming color from the roots of her hair to the cover, which she gripped tightly to her breasts as she sat up. She remembered.
    “Oh, God!” she moaned, only to demand quickly, “Why are you still here? You could have at least had the decency to let me deal with my shame alone!”
    “But why should you be ashamed at all? You have done nothing wrong.”
    “Well I know it,” she agreed bitterly. “The wrong was done to me. And you—oh, God, just go away!”
    Her hands slid over her face to cover her eyes. Her shoulders were bent dejectedly. Fretfully she rocked back and forth, giving Dimitri a tantalizing view of her smooth back and a small portion of her derriere.
    “You aren’t crying, are you?” he asked casually.
    Katherine stilled, but didn’t lower her hands, so that her voice came out in a mumble. “I don’t cry, and why aren’t you leaving?”
    “Is that why you’re hiding, waiting for me to leave? If it is, you may as well give up. I’m staying right here.”
    Her hands fell away to reveal eyes narrowed and sparkling with rancor. “Then I’ll leave!”
    And she started to do so, only the cover she attempted to drag with her wouldn’t budge. Dimitri was stretched out on top of it and made no effort to move.
    Katherine twisted back to face him. “Get up!”
    “No,” he said simply, crossing his arms at the back of his neck in a thoroughly relaxed manner.
    “Playtime is over,