An Officer and a Princess by Carla Cassidy Read Free Book Online

heat.
    Her hair smelled clean, with a subtle scent of vanilla. As he held her, smelling the sweet fragrance of her, feeling the warmth of her body pressed so close, his mind filled with the memory of another time when he’d held her while she’d cried.
    At that time he’d been her commanding officer and she’d come to him heartbroken because her father had forbidden her to pursue a military career.
    Adam had held her while she’d wept and had found himself fighting an overwhelming desire for her. It was a desire that had built during their months of working together, a desire he knew could destroy his career.
    He felt the same desire now. It was a need that formed a ball of heat in the pit of his stomach, and that heat radiated outward, traveling the entire length of his body.
    You aren’t her commanding officer anymore, a small voice whispered inside his head. There is no reason you can’t follow through on your desire, no reason to ignore the fact that you want her.
    As that tiny internal voice bewitched him with sweet possibilities, Isabel raised her head and looked up at him. In the depths of her luminous green eyes and the slight tremble of her lower lip, again he thought of the last time he’d held her like this.
    That time she’d looked at him beseechingly, her lips parted to invite a kiss. Despite the desire that had roared through him, Adam had done the right thing. He’d dropped his hands from around her and had gently pushed her away.
    Now as she gazed at him and the internal voice reminded him that there would be no repercussions to his career or hers, without conscious thought, Adam claimed her mouth with his.
    He took her mouth in hunger and she responded in kind, opening her mouth and encouraging his tongue to deepen the kiss. And he did, swirling and dancing his tongue with hers.
    Her hands grasped at his shoulders, as if in an attempt to get closer. It was as if she didn’t justwant to be next to him, but wanted to meld into him, become a part of him.
    Adam fell into the kiss, losing all concept of place and time, all sense of identity. He was no longer Lieutenant Commander Adam Sinclair. He was Adam Wilcox, kissing his wife, Bella. He was simply a man kissing the woman he desired more than any other woman on earth.
    His hands stroked up her back and he could feel the press of her breasts intimately against his chest. His desire for her electrified him.
    He wanted to strip away the clothes that were at the moment an irritating barrier, he wanted to stroke every inch of her skin until they were both gasping in exquisite pleasure.
    A horn blared from someplace nearby, yanking Adam back to reality. Reality was they were standing in the middle of a stinking alley. He was not really Adam Wilcox and the woman he was kissing was not his Bella.
    She was Princess Isabel and unofficially betrothed to Sebastian Lansbury. And he was Lieutenant Commander Adam Sinclair, the only son of a man who was suspected of being a traitor to the crown.
    â€œCome on, let’s get out of here.” Adam took Isabel by the arm. Silently they left the alley and returned to the King’s Men Tavern.
    They didn’t speak until they were back in their third-floor room.
    â€œAdam, I’m sorry,” she said as soon as he closed the door.
    â€œSorry?” He eyed her intently, wondering what, exactly, she was apologizing for. For kissing him so deeply, so sweetly that he’d momentarily forgotten all the reasons he shouldn’t have her…couldn’t have her?
    â€œI apologize for losing control like that.” She sat on the edge of the bed, still looking achingly vulnerable. “Normally, I don’t let my emotions get the better of me”
    â€œThere’s nothing to apologize for,” he replied briskly. He sat in the lumpy chair that had served as his bed the night before. He was irritated with himself, for momentarily losing control.
    Isabel raked a