CHAPTER 3

          The cobbled streets were lit with the occasional lamp post but even so, Ava felt the menacing shadows of the night creeping towards her with every step she took. She shone the narrow beam of the torch Teresa had given her around, but so far, she had found nothing but the occasional cigarette butt or gum wrapper.

          It made her think of her father, how he as the town mayor, had orchestrated a campaign to clean up the ancient streets of Bartovia, even though his own home had contained the filthiest of all secrets.

          Ava gave a little shudder and forced the memories back and continued on her mission, her head down, her steps carefully measured as she went as close to the palace as she dared.

          She was no more than three blocks away when she suddenly came up short, her heart thudding in fear as a pair of large male sports shoes were illuminated by her torch. Ava brought the beam shakily upwards to find Prince Federico Alberto Enrico, dressed similarly to her in a dark tracksuit, his eyes unreadable as they meshed with hers.

“Looking for something, Ava Marie?” he asked.

          Ava had never imagined there would be a time in her life when she would have rather met a mugger on a dark street than the man she had once loved with all her being. She had faced fear before, many times, gut-wrenching fear that most people thankfully never had to face. But this was something else again.

          He had the power to destroy her in a way even her father hadn’t been able to do. Everything Ava had fought so long and hard for seemed to be hinged on these next few moments.

          The tension built in her spine… she could feel it moving up vertebra by vertebra, a vice-like grip that made her stomach crawl with the long spidery legs of apprehension.

“Oh… I… I seem to have lost my bracelet,” Ava said, lowering the torch. “I thought if I retraced my steps, I might find it.”

“You left without saying goodbye,” he said. “I was hoping for a few more minutes with you in private. There are some things I would like to discuss with you.”

          Ava turned off the torch with her thumb in case the soft light showed the fear on her face.

“As you said, it’s not a good idea for us to be seen anywhere together, Your Serene Highness,” she replied. “You know what the paparazzi are like. You are about to be crowned as Bartovia’s King. It wouldn’t do your reputation any favors being seen talking with an ex-prisoner.”

“There is no paparazzi here… now,” Federico insisted. “I think we should go back to your place. We wouldn’t be disturbed there, I’m pretty sure.”

          Ava was glad he couldn’t see the way her eyes suddenly flared in panic. Christian wasn’t the deepest of sleepers. He still occasionally wet the bed, which made him wake up distressed and call out for her.

“No,” she said, far too quickly. “I mean… It’s awkward… I… I have a flatmate.”

“A… man?”

“No.”

“There isn’t a lover in your life?”

          She felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck start to prickle at the seemingly casually asked question. Unless she turned the torch back on, Ava had no way of reading his expression, and even then, there was no guarantee she would be able to decipher what motive lay behind his query.

          Federico was a master of disguising his feelings if indeed he had any. Ava had often wondered if his coldness and slight air of arrogance were a guise or an innate part of his personality. She had never quite made up her mind either way.

          He had been trained from a young age to step up to the throne upon the death of his father, which had occurred only a few months ago. That he was prepared to risk being seen with her was as surprising as it was deeply disturbing.

          Ava knew she was at risk of revealing too much. She could feel it now even under the cloak of darkness. The pulse of her blood was like thunder in her veins, her breasts felt tight and sensitive, and that secret feminine place he had possessed so many times, throbbed with a hollow ache that was almost painful.

“I’ve been seeing someone,” Ava lied, hoping it would put an end to the undercurrent of attraction she could feel coming towards her.

“The same person you were seeing when you ended our affair?” Federico asked with bitterness sharpening his tone.

“No… It’s someone else.”

          Oh, how easily the second lie followed the first, she thought.

“How serious is your relationship with this man?” he asked again.

“Serious enough.”

“Serious enough to risk your freedom?”

          Ava dropped the torch, but even as she heard it clatter its way over the cobblestones, she was unable to move.

“W-what are you suggesting?” she asked in a dry croak.

          He bent down and retrieved the torch and, flicking it on, shone it on her face.

“How about we go back to my private quarters and discuss it?” Federico suggested.

          Ava blinked against the probe of the torch’s beam.

“I’m not sure there is anything we have to discuss, Your Serene Highness,” she said, “or at least, nothing of interest to me.”

“On the contrary, I think it will be of the greatest interest to you,” he went on and turned off the torch with a click that sounded portentous in the still night air. “You see, Ava Marie, I have something that belongs to you...”

          ‘Yes, well, so do I,’ Ava thought wryly, once again glad of the mantle of darkness so he couldn’t read the apprehension on her face.

“You have my bracelet?” she asked hopefully. “Can I have it back, please?”

“No, since it’s at the palace.”

          She wondered if he was telling the truth, but she could hardly ask to search him. She gnawed at her lip for a moment.

“Maybe you could have someone send it to me…” Ava suggested.

“Not unless you want to take the risk of it being mislaid or perhaps even stolen,” Federico replied. “I would prefer to hand it over to you face to face. It looks rather valuable.”

“It is… Very,” Ava said, her heart sinking as she realized she would have no choice but to accompany him back to the palace.

          They had met in secret so many times in the past… Just the thought of doing so again conjured up so many intimate images. Ava wondered if Federico was revisiting any of them in his own mind.

“Come.”

          He placed a firm hand at her elbow.

“There is a back entrance to the palace a couple of blocks from here.”

          Reluctantly, Ava fell into step beside him, her flesh burning under the touch of his hand. They walked in silence. Ava because she didn’t know what to say and Federico, she assumed, because he was waiting until he had her somewhere secluded to discuss whatever he had planned for her.

          Because there was a plan… she was in no doubt. Proud men like Federico di Altavilla e Portanova didn’t take rejection well, and her rejection of him had been particularly cruel.

          Federico led her through a wrought-iron gate where an aide was waiting. They talked briefly before the man led the way to a suite of rooms down a long, marbled corridor.

          The walls were lined with generations of the Royal family… all their eyes seemed to be following Ava as she walked soundlessly by Federico’s side. The aide opened a door leading into a private lounge. The furniture was modern and, although the palace was centuries old, somehow the mix of old and new worked brilliantly.

“So, Ava Marie,” Federico said once the aide had closed the door on his exit, “this is like old times, is it not?”

          Ava searched his features for a moment but couldn’t read his inscrutable expression.

“I’m not sure what you mean…” she hedged, although her mind had already taken a wild guess.

          He reached out and lifted her chin with the blunt end of one of his long fingers. She felt a shiver of reaction cascade like a shower of exploding fireworks down her spine at that jolt of skin-to-skin electricity passing from his body to hers.

          It had always been this way between them. The air in the room was charged with the electric tension of sexual attraction. She could see it in the dark, brooding intensity of his gaze. She could sense it in the sensual curve of his mouth and, God help her, she could feel it in the core of her body, where her intimate muscles were already starting to ache.

“You and I always met in secret, did we not?” he said, looking down at her mouth for a pulsing moment. “I see no reason to change that now.”

          Ava stepped back out of his light but eminently disturbing hold, her legs almost tripping over themselves in her haste to put some distance between her body and his.

“Are you suggesting we resume our… illicit affair?” she asked in a brittle keep-away-from-me tone.

          He gave a little shrug.

“We were good together, piccola, (Ita for ‘baby’)” Federico answered, using a term of endearment he had chosen for her all those years ago. “Andiamo… (‘Come on’) You know we were.”

          Ava wanted to cover her ears and block out the sensual lure of his deep velvet-toned voice. God, did he have any idea of how he still affected her? How could he possibly think she had forgotten how good they had been together?

          The moment she had set eyes on him again it had been as if the faint background pulse in her body she had done her best to ignore had suddenly come to fervent life again. It was thumping now beneath her skin, so strong and heavy, it made her feel dizzy.

          She had been so strong for all this time. Now wasn’t the time to fall apart. Not now when she was so close to final freedom. She had just a matter of weeks to go until her parole period was finished.

          Once that time was up, she would leave the Isle of Bartovia with her baby boy, making a new life for them both. This wasn’t the time to be drawn back into Federico’s sensual orbit, no matter how very tempting it was.

          Ava pulled back her shoulders and sent him a glittering glare.

“You seem to be forgetting something, Your Serene Highness. We ended our association six years ago.”

“Spare me the ‘Your Serene Highness’ part. While orgasming, you used to call me Fede… And I didn’t end our relationship, Ava Marie, you did,” he said with an unmistakably embittered edge to his voice.

          She lifted her chin even higher.

“So… Should I call you Federico, or would you prefer Your Serene Highness? Should I have bowed or curtsied when I ran into you on the street? How very remiss of me.”

          Something moved at the side of his mouth as if her words had pulled on a tight string beneath the skin on his jaw.

“Federico will do perfectly,” he said through tight lips. “At least while you’re in my bedroom, lying in my bed… naked.”