But something had her pushing that thought out of her mind. If she needed to. If she needed to, she could make an international incident. But for some reason she believed everything that Javier told her. And since she did, she truly believed that things in their country had been dire, and that he and his brother were working to make them better.
She didn’t want to undo that.
So she supposed he was right. She did have some sense of broader responsibility.
But that was why she needed a better idea of what she was dealing with. Of who she was dealing with. And that meant she was going exploring.
CHAPTER SIX
JAVIER IMMEDIATELY WENT to the gym. He needed to punish his body. Needed to destroy the fire that had ignited in his veins when he had touched Violet King. It was an aberration. He knew he had to turn his desires on and off like a switch.
In his life, it had been a necessity. Sometimes he had to go months without the touch of a woman, when he and Matteo were deep in trying to redirect one of his father’s plans from behind the scenes, or when they were actively harboring refugees, helping wrongly convicted citizens escape from prison... Well, sometimes there was no time for sex. When he wanted a woman, he went and found one.
Weekends in Monaco. Paris. Women who had appetites that matched his own. Voracious. Experience to match the darkness that lived inside of him.
And never, ever a woman who was meant for his brother.
He had far too much self-control for this.
Perhaps the issue was he had been too long without a woman.
It had been several months while he and Matteo worked to right the balance of Monte Blanco. And though he did not think they had been entirely celibate—either of them—since his brother had taken the throne, it had left little time for them to pursue personal pleasure.
Javier was feeling it now.
He growled and did another pull-up before dropping down to the floor, his breath coming hard and fast.
And he could still feel the impression of her softness in his arms. He had been in the gym for hours now, and it had not dissipated.
He would find a woman. He would have one flown in.
At this point, he felt deeply uncomfortable finding his pleasure with women in his own country. The power imbalance was too great.
And he was wary of being like his father.
So you’re more comfortable lusting after the woman you’re holding captive?
No, he was not comfortable with it. It was why he was here.
Because she was in his care, if one could say that of a captive. And he could so easily... Crush her.
He had harmed people before in the service of his father. A blot on his soul he would never scrub out.
“Oh.”
He whirled around and he saw the object of his torment standing there, her mouth dropped open, her eyes wide.
“What the hell are you doing in here?”
“I asked around. They said that you might be in the gym. And I had found a computer, so I found an internal schematic for the palace and... Anyway. I found my way down here.”
“A computer?”
“Yes,” she said. “You see, conveniently, your staff doesn’t know that I’m a prisoner. They all think that I’m here of my own accord. So of course there is nothing wrong setting me up with a computer that has internet. Really. You need to watch me more closely.”
He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “I hear no helicopters. So I assume you did not call in the cavalry?”
“No. I figured I would wait for that.”