The Future King's Love-Child. Melanie Milburne

      CHAPTER ONE

      CASSIE was just congratulating herself on getting through two hours of successfully shielding herself behind the Aristo palace’s pillars and pot plants, dodging both the press and Prince Regent Sebastian Karedes, when she suddenly came face to face with him.

      She swallowed thickly, her heart coming to a clunking stop in her chest as her eyes went to his inscrutable dark brown ones so far above hers. She opened her mouth to speak but her throat was too tight to get a single word out. She felt the slow creep of colour staining her cheeks, and wondered if he had any idea of how much over the last six years she had dreaded this moment.

      ‘Cassie.’ His deep voice was like a warm velvet glove stroking along the bare skin of her shivering arms. ‘Have you only just arrived? I have not seen you until a few moments ago.’

      Cassie moistened her dry-as-parchment lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘Um…. no,’ she said, shifting her gaze sideways. ‘I’ve been here all evening…’

      A small silence began to weight the atmosphere, like humidity just before a storm.

      ‘I see.’

      Cassie marvelled at how he could inject so much into saying so little. Those two little words contained disdain and distrust, and something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

      ‘So why are you here?’ he asked, his eyes narrowing even further. ‘I do not recall seeing your name on the official guest list.’

      Cassie swept the point of her tongue across her lips again, trying to keep her gaze averted. ‘As part of my…um…parole programme, I took a job at the orphanage,’ she said, loathing the shame she could feel staining her face. ‘I’ve been working there for the last eleven months.’

      When he didn’t respond immediately Cassie felt compelled to bring her gaze back to his, but then wished she hadn’t.

      A corner of his mouth was lifted in an unmistakably mocking manner. ‘You are looking after children?’

      She felt herself bristling. ‘Yes,’ she clipped out. ‘I enjoy every minute of it. I’m here tonight with some of the other carers and educational staff. They insisted I attend.’

      Another tight silence began to shred at Cassie’s nerves. She would have given just about anything to have avoided coming here this evening. She had felt as if she had been playing a high stakes game of hide and seek all night, the strain of keeping out of the line of Sebastian’s deep brown gaze had made her head pound with sickening tension. Even now the hammer blows behind her eyes were making it harder and harder for her to keep her manner cool and unaffected before him. His commanding and totally charismatic presence both drew her and terrified her, but the very last thing she wanted was for him to realise it.

      She surreptitiously fondled the smooth pearls of the bracelet around her wrist, the only thing she still had left of her mother’s, hoping it would give her the courage and fortitude to get through the next few minutes until she could make good her escape.

      ‘Well, then,’ he said as his eyes continued to skewer hers, that sardonic half-smile still in place. ‘As the royal patron of the orphanage you now work for, I would have thought you would have made every effort to include yourself in this evening’s proceedings rather than hide behind the flower arrangements.’

      Cassie’s chin came up. ‘And have the press hound me for an exclusive photo and interview?’ she asked. ‘Not until my parole is up. Maybe then I’ll think about it.’

      His eyes began to burn with brooding intensity. ‘I must say I am surprised you haven’t already sold your story to the press, Cassie,’ he said. ‘But perhaps I should warn you before you think about doing so. One word about our…’ he paused over the word for an infinitesimal moment ‘…past involvement, and I