The Playboy Prince by Nora Roberts Page A

murmured.
    Caught up short, she handed him the shell. “No, but I think Marissa might.”
    Bennett slipped the shell into his pocket. “Your feet are wet.”
    “They’ll dry quickly enough.” She started to step back. He took her hand again, holding her in the shallow, foaming surf.
    “Since we’re here, we ought to try for a couple more.” Without waiting for a response he began to walk along the shoreline.
    The water was warm and soft on her feet and ankles, but no warmer, no softer, than the air that blew in over it. Through the crystal water she could see the bed of white sand and the glittering sparkles of shells that had been crushed by waves. The surf was quiet here, all sighs and whispers.
    There was nothing romantic in it, Hannah warned herself. She couldn’t allow there to be. The line she walked was thinner and sharper than any she’d walked before. One misstep could mean tragedy at least, war at the worst. Determined to keep her place, she concentrated on the guards a few yards at their back.
    “The ceremony today was lovely. I’m grateful you asked me to come.”
    “My reasons were purely selfish. I wanted your company.”
    Struggling not to be touched, she tried again. “In England there’s often satire and criticism of the Royal Family, but beneath it all is a very real affection. I see that same kind of love and respect for your family here.”
    “My father would tell you that we serve as well as govern. He gives them solidity and confidence. Alex gives them the hope for the future. A continuation of tradition. In Brie they have glamour and intelligence as well as humanity.”
    “And in you?”
    “Entertainment.”
    It annoyed her. She couldn’t say why but his careless dismissal of himself made her stop and frown at him. “You underestimate yourself.”
    Surprised, Bennett cocked his head and studied her. It was there again, that something, that indefinable something in her eyes that had attracted him all along. “Not really. I’m well aware that I do my duty. My father raised all of us to understand that we didn’t simply inherit a title or position. We had to earn it.” He drew herback a bit so that the spray from the surf didn’t dampen her skirt. “I won’t rule. Thank God. That’s for Alex and then for the son I continue to hope Eve gives us all this time around. Because I won’t, I don’t have to take myself as seriously as Alex, but that doesn’t mean I take Cordina or my responsibilities to it lightly.”
    “I didn’t mean to criticize.”
    “I didn’t think you did. I only meant that above my official duties, my official position, I give the people something—someone to talk about over a glass of wine or an evening meal. I’ve been haunted by the title of Playboy Prince since I was in my teens.” He grinned then and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “I can’t say I didn’t do everything possible to earn it.”
    “I prefer literature to gossip,” Hannah said primly as she started to walk on.
    “Gossip has its place.” Amused, Bennett stopped her.
    “Apparently you enjoy it.”
    “No.” His eyes darkened as he looked beyond her and out to sea. “I’m just accustomed to it. It’s difficult, when you’re twenty, to know that every time you look more than casually at a woman it’s going to be splashed somewhere in bold print, pictures included. I like women.” This time he smiled and looked back at her. “Since I didn’t want to change that aspect of my personality, I decided to live with public speculation. If I’ve sinned, it was in lack of discretion.”
    “Some might say it was the quantity.”
    There was only the shortest of hesitations before he threw his head back and roared with laughter. “Oh, Hannah, what a gem you are. So you
have
whiled away some time with something besides Yeats.”
    “I may have skimmed a few headlines.”
    Laughing again, he swung her in a circle before she could prevent it. “Priceless. Absolutely priceless.”