LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Never trust anything ‘they’ tell you,” Monty offered cynically. He wasn’t grinning but he caught her eye and gave her a significant look, too. She had no idea why, and she frowned at him.

      “They told me Agatha was coming as well,” Will said with studied disinterest. “Any truth to that rumor?”

      “Could be,” Monty replied. “I haven’t talked to her.”

      She was half sitting now, while Dr Will checked out her breathing, thumping her chest and listening intently. The entire situation felt so odd and the cavernous space with the gentle lapping of the water in the background only made it more so. She was in a castle, sitting beside an indoor swimming pool and being carefully examined by two of the most attractive men she’d ever seen. It was enough to turn a girl’s head.

      But she had to keep hers right where it was. She had a job to do. She had to keep reminding herself of that.

      “So what’s he like, anyway?” she asked them.

      They both stared at her.

      “Who?” they said at the same time.

      “The prince.”

      “Ah.” Will laughed softly as he put away his stethoscope. “The crown prince, now.”

      “The prince?” Monty chimed in, eyes shining with what she took as amusement. “He’s a fine fellow. One of the best you’ll ever meet. The toast of the nation.”

      Will snorted, but he went on.

      “I’m sure songs will be written about him soon,” he said in a tone she thought might be a bit sarcastic, though she wasn’t certain she was reading him right. “Stories told, legends taken down. After all, he comes from a long line of kings, and he fits the part, if you ask me. Tall as an Alpine cedar, honest as a cloistered nun, strong as a…as a…”

      “A blue ox?” Will put in helpfully.

      Monty gave him a baleful look.

      “Strong as a northern wind, sharp as a…”

      “Serpent’s tooth,” Will interjected. “And just as yellow.”

      He leaned toward her earnestly. “Don’t listen to Monty. Truth be told, the prince is an ugly bloke. His eyes are small and evil and much too close together for comfort. And he’s got bad breath and he’s a bit of a drooler, if you know what I mean.”

      “Really?” Emma was pretty sure he wasn’t being serious. Despite the fact that her mind was still full of cotton, she was alert enough to know when her leg was being pulled. “I’d heard he was quite handsome.”

      “Who told you that?” Monty asked with interest.

      But Will waved it away. “They always say that about royalty. You know the media. Always trying to hype their main product. They give royals attributes they don’t deserve, just to make them more interesting to the public.”

      Emma frowned. “I don’t know if that’s true.” Her face cleared. “Oh, you’re teasing. I know he’s very handsome. I don’t think I’ve ever seen pictures myself—I don’t really follow the society pages. But I’ve heard it from others, people who pay attention to these things. I’m sure he’s quite good-looking.”

      “Well, don’t you believe it,” the doctor said cheerfully as he packed away his instruments. “I know him personally. Lazy layabout, that’s what he is. Never done a day’s worth of work in his life. Always off on some yacht in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean.”

      “Isn’t that pretty much the way they all are, those royals?” Emma asked him, looking for confirmation. “At least, from what I hear.”

      Monty scowled but Will nodded wisely. “Over-endowed libido, under-endowed intellect,” he noted. “That’s our boy, the prince. Take my word for it.”

      Monty’s head swung around at that and his mouth opened in protest. “Hey!”

      “Yes, my dear,” Will droned on. “Centuries of inbreeding.” He made a face. “Leaves them a little bewildered, you know. You’ll catch a glimpse of one now and then wandering mournfully about the castle like a lost sheep.”

      “That does it,” Monty said, springing lightly to his feet and lunging for the doctor. “You’re going into the pool.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      EMMA gasped, feeling dizzy. She was used to verbal rages between people. They happened all the time in her very volatile family. But physical confrontations were different. Were these two very large men actually going to fight?

      Monty’s body seemed to be a symphony of muscles all working together taking a form a Greek statue would have envied. His legs looked like steel and his arms bulged in places she hadn’t known she liked to see bulges. And the sense she got of things barely covered by that tiny black swimsuit made her blush and suddenly, to her surprise, she had to catch her breath.

      But she couldn’t tear her gaze away. Monty was just so beautiful. The only flaw seemed to be a long ridged scar from just beneath his ribs down toward his hip-bone, as though a knife had…

      She shuddered, not wanting to think what might have made it. And at the same moment Monty grimaced and seemed to clutch at the scar area.

      Will stopped wrestling immediately. “That still bothering you?” he asked, frowning.

      Monty shrugged, straightening slowly. “It grabs now and then. Mostly it’s okay,” he said dismissively. “It doesn’t stop me from doing much.”

      Still, it was obvious that the so-called fight was truly over.

      “You ought to get the scar tissue massaged periodically,” Will told him. “It’s probably building up calcium deposits. A little massage with Vitamin E should help break it down again.”

      Monty nodded, rubbing the scar with his hand as though that were relieving pain. “If it hadn’t been for this, you’d be in the pool by now,” he said, threatening his friend mockingly.

      Will grinned and turned to Emma.

      “It’s touching how protective he is of the prince,” he explained to her as he held off the other man’s by now halfhearted attack. “I’m afraid I take a more realistic view.”

      “Your view of everything will be quite damp if you keep it up,” Sebastian warned him. “You got off easy this time.”

      Will didn’t look particularly chastened, but he did glance at the pool, then grinned at his friend.

      “Okay, you win. No more about the prince. I’ve got doctor stuff to do. Let me talk to the young lady, if you please.”

      Monty let him go with some reluctance, glared at him a moment longer, then stood back and made a sweeping bow. “Be my guest.”

      Emma sighed with relief as Will stepped around him rather gingerly, then smiled at his patient. Even though their entire battle had had the choreographed look of something they had done many times before, probably beginning in childhood, she was glad it was over.

      And she was glad it was Will who was coming to her side. There was something nice and comforting about the doctor. She was pretty sure she was going to like him.

      Monty, on the other hand, was beginning to make her distinctly uncomfortable. There was something sharp and edgy about him. He was nice to look at, but in a hard, scary way that disturbed her. His golden eyes seemed to see too much and to scorn much of what he saw. His full, beautifully defined lips seemed to stretch more often in disdain than in smiling. There was a ruthless, wild quality in him, something she’d first noticed when he was wrestling with Will. She suddenly thought of what he reminded her of—an untamed horse, a stallion that was beautiful to watch, but frightening to get too close to.

      “Well,

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