CHAPTER 1

          Ava was just congratulating herself on getting through two hours of successfully shielding herself behind the Bartovia palace’s pillars and pot plants, dodging both the press and Prince Regent Federico Alberto Enrico di Altavilla e Portanova when she suddenly came face to face with the man she was trying to avoid.

          The shock of seeing him so close almost threw her back. She tried not to faint in front of the most powerful man in the country. Ava swallowed thickly, her heart coming to a clunking stop in her chest as her eyes went to his inscrutable dark brown almost black ones so far above hers.

          What to say after all those years? How to address him? What to say? Awful things happened, hurtful words had been said… Ava stood there, anxious like she never was before. Maybe he was expecting her to talk first…

          She opened her mouth to speak but her throat was too tight to get a single word out. Ava felt the slow creep of color staining her cheeks, and wondered if Fede had any idea of how much over the last six years, she had dreaded this moment.

“Ava Marie!”

          His deep voice was like a warm velvet glove stroking along the bare skin of her shivering arms. How she’s missed him calling her name… He was the only person calling her with her full name.

“Have you only just arrived? I haven’t seen you until a few moments ago.”

          Ava moistened her lips, dry as the desert under the afternoon sun, with the tip of her tongue.

“Uh… no… I…” she said, shifting her gaze sideways, “I’ve been here pretty much the entire evening…”

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

“I see…”

          Ava marveled 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… I was wondering… Why are you here, Ava Marie?” he asked coolly, his eyes narrowing even further. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t recall seeing your name on the official guest list… So, allow me to ask again… Why are you here?”

          She swept the point of her tongue across her lips again, trying to keep her gaze averted.

“I’m here because… Uh… As part of my… um… parole program, I took a job at the orphanage,” she mumbled, loathing the shame she could feel staining her face. “I… I’ve been working there for the last eleven months.”

          When he didn’t respond immediately, Ava 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.

“The orphanage? You? You are looking after little children? Well, with this being said, I believe the Apocalypse is just around the corner.”

          Ava felt herself bristling.

“Yes, I am working there.  And yes, I really take care of them,” Ava clipped out. “I love doing it. I enjoy every minute of it. Tonight, I’m here with some of the other caretakers and educational staff. Even if I said no numerous times, they insisted I attend. So, in the end, I let them drag me here.”

          Another tight silence began to shred at Ava’s nerves. She would have given just about anything to have avoided coming here this evening. Ava 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 Federico’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 Ava 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 realize it.

          Surreptitiously, Ava 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 strength to get through the next few minutes until she could make good her escape.

“Very 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 or the granite pillars.”

          Ava’s chin came up.

“And give the press the golden opportunity to hound me for an exclusive photo and an interview?” she asked. “No, thank you. Not until my parole is up. And not even then, if I’m being totally honest...”

          His eyes began to burn with brooding intensity.

“Honest? I wasn’t sure you knew the word… I wonder if it tastes funny in your mouth… Anyway, I must say I am surprised you haven’t already sold your story to the press, Ava Marie,” Federico 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 will have you thrown back into prison where the majority of the population of Bartovia believes you still belong. Have I made myself clear?”

          Ava felt anger run through her like a red-hot tide.

“Perfectly, Your Serene Highness,” she bit out, her eyes flashing with fury.

          How she hated him at that moment… The injustice she had suffered was bad enough, but to have him threaten her in such a ruthless manner was abominable! But until her parole was up what else could she do but pretend she had nothing to hide? She had learned the hard way that silence was her most precious defense… her only defense. 

                                             ************

          Federico was conscious of the time and the press of the crowd behind them. He had told his bodyguards to give him a few minutes but he knew they would come looking for him soon.

          His formal duties for the evening were more or less over and the crowd would soon begin to disperse. But he hadn’t seen Ava Marie Antonini for over six years, and he had to make sure she wasn’t going to be a threat to his future as King of Bartovia now that she was out of prison.

          They had parted on such bitter terms… Federico had been so blisteringly angry at the way she had ended their affair, and her betrayal still rankled even after all this time.

          When he had caught sight of Ava Marie disappearing behind one of the pillars, Federico had thought he must have conjured up her image, so great was the shock and effect on him of seeing her again.

          It had taken every bit of the thirty-two years of his royal training to keep his reaction hidden. He had formally opened the gala, chatted with the official guests, smiled in all the right places, but all the while, wondering how he could capture five minutes in private with her… The woman who broke his heart in a million little fragments.

          But now that he had, Federico wondered if it had been wise to seek her out. Every pore of his skin was erect with awareness, his nostrils automatically flaring in the primal hunt for her feminine scent, and his groin tightening with an ache so intense he had trouble standing still.

          Finding that after all these years, after all the women he had, his body still hummed with desire for her was so annoying and terribly frustrating. He had considered himself over her, and yet one glimpse into that emerald gaze of hers had made him realize there was still a place deep inside him that responded almost involuntarily when he looked at her.

          It was as if Ava Marie had secretly planted a tiny fish hook in his chest all those years ago, and every time their eyes met, he felt its tiny but still-painful tug. For all her supermodel beauty there was no escaping the fact she was a sleep-around socialite whore who had wantonly led him on only to dump him, no doubt for the glory of having bedded a prince meant to become a king one day.

          Federico had met plenty of women like her before and since, but he hadn’t seen her rejection and betrayal coming and that irked him more than he wanted to admit. No one had done that to him before or after.

          He had never had his pride rubbed in the dust like that, but then that was Ava Marie Antonini. She had come along with those amazing green eyes, her long, silky, blonde hair, and sensually seductive wiles, and snatched the breath right out of his chest.

          His eyes ran over her appraisingly. She was wearing a shell-pink sheath of a dress that clung lovingly to her willowy frame, highlighting the small but perfect globes of her breasts, skimming over the slight, almost boyish hips and the endless legs that had so many times wrapped around his in the throes of their heated passion.

          Her slender arms were bare, but on her left wrist, she wore a pearl bracelet which he had noticed her fiddling with earlier with those slim fingers of hers. Federico had to remind himself that Ava Marie Antonini had killed her father with those very delicate feminine hands. So, she was a menace for him and his future.

          The lesser charge of manslaughter didn’t make her any less of a murderess, or at least certainly not according to the press and public’s view. But right now, she didn’t look capable of doing anyone harm.

“Be very careful, Ava Marie…” he added. “I’m not the same man I was six years ago. Fede you once knew died the moment you stabbed him to death with your lies and your cheating… Prince Federico Alberto Enrico has no mercy for killers… such as yourself.”

“I won’t forget that, Your Serene Highness…” Ava replied slowly looking down and trying not to burst into tears. “Am I free to go now?”

“Yes, you are free… Until your next crime,” he said and watched her ran desperately toward one of the French windows of the Great Ballroom.