Read Online Princess in the Iron Mask by Victoria Parker - Free Book Online Page B

seconds.’
    Her eyes widened.
    ‘Four.’
    ‘I have to see someone,’ she said, her words rushing out as she covered her heart with the palm of her hand.
    ‘Not enough. Three.’
    ‘I promised, okay? I can’t just disappear. You’ve smashed into my life with the delicacy of a ten-ton brick. I have to see her before I leave.’
    ‘Two. Her?’ he asked, slightly mollified by the sex of this person.
    ‘Bailey...she would be devastated. This is a huge deal to me, Lucas. Please. ’
    Clenching his fists, he eased back. Maybe if she hadn’t been looking up to him, with those heart-achingly beautiful eyes pleading. Maybe if he hadn’t seen the effort it had taken her.
    Tamping down on the emotion flickering inside him, he motioned towards the bathroom door with a jerk of his head. ‘If you can manage a hot shower, there is a robe on the back of the door. Then we will eat and you may sleep.’
    Her entire body wilted. ‘I may? ’ she said, a smile quivering about her lips.
    Lucas imagined it was half pleasure that he’d granted her leeway and half indignation that he was calling the shots. She had spunk. He’d give her that.
    ‘ Sí. You may. ’
    * * *
    Claudia closed the bathroom door, turned and slumped against the solid oak.
    ‘That man is killing me softly,’ she whispered. He was so stern his icy orders could freeze a running tap mid-flow, yet he’d agreed to let her visit Bailey and carried her from the car. Although she imagined in that instance he’d acted on automatic, and the experience had been as pleasurable for him as being tear-gassed.
    Groaning, Claudia pushed away from the door and began to unpeel her sticky clothes from her skin. After kicking off her shoes, she wriggled out of her tights and panties, glancing around the huge plush bathroom.
    A black clawfoot tub sat on cream tiles luxuriously warm under her now bare feet. Walking over to the shower, she unbuttoned her lab coat with one hand and turned the shower dial with the other, until steam began to pour over the glass wall—shaped in a slinky S—and filled the room, blissfully warming every inch of skin she unveiled.
    Shallow twin basins took up one wall and, unsnapping her bra, she walked over to peek inside the huge complimentary basket, wrinkling her nose at the visual feast. God only knew what products were in there. Before she got a decent look she was snagged on her condensation-hazy reflection in the wide mirror above the ceramic bowls.
    ‘Oh, lovely!’ Colour high, clumps of dark-brown hair hanging about her face, huge puffy bags under her eyes: she looked like a human panda bear. Was it any wonder Lucas looked at her as if she were half-mad? She certainly acted half-mad around him.
    Grimacing, she closed her eyes, and her mind drifted to a close-up of Lucas, towering above her, as she was plastered to his car. Who was the woman who’d reached up for his kiss? So sure she’d been. So wrong she’d been. He’d been furious, attempting to show her who was boss. A man like Lucas wouldn’t be interested in her. His women would be lithe, glamorous, über- confident. Everything Claudia wasn’t.
    Sadness crept into her chest until each breath ached and she gently rubbed her wrist, her eyes wavering on the basket. He might not fancy her, but she didn’t have to look a fright in front of him, did she? Snagging a bottle of shampoo, she dipped into the shower. The hot splash of water firmed her resolve. She had twenty-four hours to get her head on straight, visit Bailey and fly home to face her parents for the first time in years.
    Suddenly it didn’t matter what Lucas thought of her. What mattered was that her mask didn’t slip in front of him. In front of any of them. Staying strong, she had more chance of getting back to London, with her body, mind and soul untouched.
    So when she strode out of the bathroom twenty minutes later, a towel wrapped turban-like around her head and cloaked in a huge white robe, she was armed and