PRINCE'S LOVE-CHILD.

BY.

CAROLE MORTIMER.

Sapphie had no defences left, no strength to fight Rik.

He took her into his arms, his brilliant blue gaze holding hers briefly before he lowered his head and his mouth claimed hers.

Oh...!

Her need for this man was just too much for her to resist, her lips parting beneath his even as her arms moved up over his shoulders.

Rik deepened the kiss, his arms tightening about her waist as he moulded her slender curves to the harder planes of his body.

Nothing had changed, Sapphie acknowledged achingly; she loved and wanted this man. Only this man. She realised now that she always would.

THE PRINCE BROTHERS.

Enter the glamorous world of these gorgeous men...

Enter the glamorous world of the movies when you read about the love lives of the celebrity Prince brothers, owners of the prestigious company PrinceMovies. Each brother is super-successful in his field: Arrogant, forceful and determined, the oldest, Nik, is a movie director.

PROLOGUE.

'RIK...! Rik Prince, can that really be you...?'

He froze at the first sound of that husky, sensual voice. No-it was worse than that, he actually felt paralysed, every muscle and sinew immobile with shock, his chest having stopped rising and falling, only his heart, with a will of its own, continuing to beat. But faster, so much faster than normal, as if trying to protect itself from the onslaught of remembered pain.

That voice!

So easily recognisable, so painfully remembered. It was the voice that had spoken to him in his dreams so often in the past. The voice that, for months, had motivated him to pick up the telephone a dozen times a day, hoping to hear its honeyed warmth on the other end of the line...

Calls he had never made. But, he realised now, he hadn't thought of her for months; his previous unhappiness was completely buried.

Or so he had thought...

'Rik...?' The precisely English-accented tones were closer now.

In fact, as her hand reached out to touch him gently on his T-shirted back, Rik knew she had to be standing directly behind him.

How the h.e.l.l was he supposed to deal with seeing her again after all this time?

He wasn't dealing with it at all at this moment; just standing here in the middle of the street, paralysed with shock, couldn't be cla.s.sed as dealing with anything!

Breathe, you idiot, he instructed himself firmly, relieved when his body obeyed the command and his chest began to rise and fall once again. Now turn around, he ordered determinedly. Just turn around and face her. It couldn't be any harder than walking away from her had been five years ago.

Could it...?

If anything she was more beautiful than ever; tall, golden and tanned, with the most incredible green eyes he had ever seen. Diamond McCall. And how she lived up to that name-her beauty was dazzling.

Even in a skimpy pink T-shirt and ragged denim cut-offs, there was no doubting that this woman was someone. In Dee's case, despite or because of her melodious English tones, she was the present highest-paid actress in Hollywood, her name at the top of the credits, and enough to guarantee any movie she was in would be a box-office hit.

She was also someone else's wife...!

'I thought it was you!' she exclaimed excitedly now, her face alight with pleasure as she smiled at him. 'But how marvellous!' she beamed, one long, slender hand reaching out to grasp the strength of his bare forearm. 'I had heard that if you sat outside Fouquet's on the Champs-Elysees for long enough you would eventually see everyone in Paris who was anyone walking by, but I never believed it until now!' She gave an amazed shake of her head, long, honey-coloured hair swaying against her tanned shoulders. 'What on earth are you doing in Paris?'

His mind had gone completely blank. Had been so since the moment he looked into those deep green eyes.

Why was he here? In fact, who the h.e.l.l was he? d.a.m.ned if he knew...!

'Rik...?' Dee gave him a quizzical look now. 'You aren't still angry with me, are you?' she cooed.

Angry with her? Had he ever been angry with her? Hadn't his anger all been reserved for her manipulative stepmother and stepsister, both so determined that Dee would marry the mega-rich and powerful Jerome Powers? As he looked at Dee now, so beautiful, so intensely alive, it was difficult to believe anyone could ever be cruel or angry with her.

She gave him a poutingly reproving smile. 'At least say something, darling!'

He wasn't sure that he could, his tongue seeming cleaved to the roof of his mouth, like some awkward schoolboy. Which for a man of thirty-five, with a succession of screenwriting awards to his credit, plus ownership of a movie company with his older brothers, Nik and Zak, was pretty pathetic.

It was because he had had no warning of this meeting, he consoled himself.

Today had begun like any other day of his two months' stay in Paris: he woke at eight o'clock, went for a brisk walk beside the Seine, returned to his hotel for a breakfast of coffee and croissants and lingering over the newspaper, before venturing out again later in search of somewhere to eat lunch.

Nowhere in any of that relaxed routine had he had the least premonition that he would also see Dee McCall again today!

But he had to say something, couldn't stand here like a speechless moron for ever.

'You're looking well, Dee,' he finally managed gruffly, his American accent totally at variance with her softer English tones.

'So are you, Rik,' she returned softly, her eyes flirting with him beneath lowered dark lashes. 'Are you-?'

'Is-?' He broke off as they both began talking at once. 'You first,' he invited wryly.

He might not have thought of this woman for months-years?-but when he had, he had never imagined the two of them meeting like this, awkwardly, stilted, like two strangers who had never been madly in love with each other. He hadn't imagined Cathy and Heathcliffe either, but this-this was just ba.n.a.l!

Dee gave him a mischievous smile. 'I was just going to ask if you're here with someone.'

He shook his head. 'And I was just going to ask if you were here with Jerome.' Her husband. The man she had married five years ago instead of him. Despite all his pleadings for her to do otherwise.

It wasn't a period of his life he was particularly proud of, but at the time he had been so much in love with Dee that nothing else seemed to matter.

At the time...?

Yes, at the time, he realised dazedly now as he looked at her, because he wasn't still in love with Dee; time, and absence, had made that impossible to sustain. It was the memory of what they once had together, those fierce, s.n.a.t.c.hed times together, that had kept her memory so much alive.

She had been so young, only twenty, on the way up in the world of acting, pressurised by her stepmother and stepsister into becoming engaged to and marrying Jerome Powers, then a man of forty and even more powerful in the world of media and entertainment than the three Prince brothers.

Rik had argued, Dee had been stubbornly adamant, tearfully pleading with him to understand that she had to marry Jerome in order to get away from her grasping stepmother and stepsister. His promises that he could-and would-protect her in the same way, had all been tearfully rebuffed.

No, he wasn't still in love with Dee, but the anger he felt towards her stepmother and stepsister was still there!

'Dee-Dee, you have to come and look at the most beautiful little purse and pocketbook we found for you!' a man's deep voice interrupted.

Rik didn't need to turn to know who that man was; only one person called Diamond McCall Dee-Dee in that possessive tone; Jerome Powers, Dee's husband of the last five years.

'h.e.l.lo, who-Rik...? Rik Prince!' Jerome greeted warmly as Rik finally steeled himself to turn and look at him. 'What on earth are you doing in Paris?' Jerome smiled at him warmly, at the same time dropping a lightly possessive arm about Dee's shoulders.

It was impossible not to like this man, with his genuine warmth and charm, his iron-grey hair and sophisticated good looks attracting women of all ages. Even Rik couldn't help liking Jerome, and it would have been so much easier to dislike the man who was married to Dee.

'I was working for a while,' Rik answered, 'but now I'm just taking a couple of days' holiday before returning to the States.'

Jerome nodded. 'How are Nik and Zak? I heard they both got married recently. Making you the last of the Eligible Princes, I guess.' He grinned good-humouredly.

A grin Rik found very hard to return; if things had worked out for him five years ago he would have been the first of the Prince brothers to marry. Except the woman he had loved had married this guy instead...

'They're both good,' Rik nodded. 'Very happy, in fact.' Yet another reason for him to spend this time in Paris. Not that he begrudged his older brothers their newfound happiness, because he didn't, knew both of them were married to lovely women. But the settled happiness of his siblings made his own bachelor state seem all the more lonely.

Meeting Dee again like this in the company of her husband wasn't helping that situation.

'Excellent.' Jerome nodded happily. 'Dee-Dee, would you like to come and look in the store? I just know you're going to love the purse and pocketbook, and-h.e.l.l, where are my manners?' Jerome shook his head self-disgustedly. 'I totally forgot to introduce Sapphie.' He turned to smile apologetically at the woman standing slightly behind him.

Rik hadn't even noticed the pet.i.te, auburn-haired figure until then-what man would when in the company of a golden G.o.ddess?

But as she stepped forward at Jerome's encouragement, shoulder-length auburn hair gleaming brightly in the sunlight, amber-coloured eyes gleaming like a cat's as she looked up at Rik challengingly, he felt the last vestiges of colour fade from his already pale face.

Today was already turning out as something of a shock; first the unexpected meeting with Dee and her husband, then the realisation that his love for Dee had died long ago. But now, with this other lady's appearance, it had just taken on nightmarish proportions!

Because he knew her.

He hadn't seen her for five years either, and their acquaintance had been brief-very brief!-but nevertheless he knew her.

In every sense of the word!.

CHAPTER ONE.

RIK PRINCE had recognised her, Sapphie realised with inner dismay as he continued to stare at her in disbelief.

Not that any of her own emotions showed-she kept her own expression deliberately bland, and betrayed none of her shock, or the effects of the painful memories that were flooding back: the love that had shaken her world apart after she had spent a night with this man. Most definitely, she showed none of the horror she felt inwardly at finding herself face to face with a man she had thought she'd never see again!

But then, it might have been OK if he hadn't so obviously recognised her and remembered too...!

Her small, pointed chin rose defensively as she thrust her hand out in greeting. 'Sapphie Benedict, Mr Prince,' she introduced herself with a pointedness that only a complete idiot could miss. And, despite the fact she knew that Rik Prince loved Dee to distraction, she didn't believe he was a complete idiot.. just a selectively blind one!

Rik continued to stare at her, making no effort to take her outstretched hand, giving every impression of a man who had just been poleaxed.

Sapphie's direct stare turned to a glare as she mentally willed him to pull himself together and say something. Anything. Just staring at her in this way was sure to be noticed, and commented on, by the other couple who were with them, and- 'Miss Benedict,' Rik Prince finally bit out tautly after briefly touching her hand. 'Or is that Mrs...?'

'It's Miss,' she corrected abruptly, her hand dropping back to her side, un.o.btrusively ma.s.saging the slight tingling of her fingers where he had briefly touched her.

Incredible...! She couldn't believe, after all this time, that she could still be so totally aware of this man. It had been five years, for goodness' sake; she should have got over this long ago!

'Much too formal,' Jerome put in with cheerful reproach. 'Rik and Sapphie sounds much more friendly!'

Friendly was the last thing Sapphie wanted to be with Rik Prince! Especially with Rik Prince. Something she intended making clear to him at the earliest opportunity. In fact...

'Why don't you take Dee to see those accessories she was interested in, Jerome?' she encouraged lightly. 'Rik and I will order more coffee for us all, and by the time the two of you get back we may have managed to get on to a first-name basis!'

'You will join us for coffee, Rik...?' Dee prompted huskily.

Sapphie's brows rose as Rik dragged his gaze away from hers in order to answer Dee in the affirmative.

Really, did the man have no sense whatsoever? she wondered impatiently; Dee and Jerome's suspicions were sure to be aroused if he didn't stop behaving in this way.

Not that Jerome seemed to have noticed anything unusual as he turned, smiling, to his wife. 'Come on, honey, I want to buy you an anniversary present,' he encouraged Dee indulgently. Then the two of them departed to go shopping.

Leaving behind them the kind of silence that could be cut with a knife!

But what else could Sapphie have done but encourage Jerome to take Dee away from here-even though the last thing she wanted was to be left alone with Rik Prince? He certainly hadn't been playing his part in the drama of two strangers being introduced for the first time.

'I thought Dee and Jerome's wedding anniversary was in September.' Rik suddenly spoke as he turned back from watching the couple leave.

'It is,' Sapphie sighed, moving to sit down at the table where Dee's coffee was cooling. 'Please-join me,' she invited curtly as Rik Prince continued to stand in the middle of the pavement, as if unsure what to do next.

She had seen that dazed look before on dozens of men's faces after spending time looking at Dee-seen it and, in this case, lamented it.

She slipped her sungla.s.ses up in her hair as she continued to look at Rik Prince. He was just as handsome as she remembered: perhaps slightly leaner, but his dark hair was still as vibrantly overlong, brushed carelessly back from his brow, and his eyes as deep blue, his good-looking face all strong angles, and his muscular frame visible beneath the faded denims and cream polo-shirt he wore.

Finally he moved, his movements fluid as he sat down in the chair facing hers, his expression under control now, his eyes guarded by lowered lids.

Sapphie gave a frustrated sigh at his continued silence. Jerome might have been unaware of the intimacy between Dee and this man a few minutes ago, but she certainly hadn't been. She also questioned whether the meeting had happened by chance; if anyone had known how devastated Rik Prince had been five years ago when Dee married Jerome, then it was her. He had been in love with Dee then, and Sapphie had every reason to believe he was still in love with her now.