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to let herself relax in his arms again, to press her cheek against his chest and listen for his heartbeat. The moon was out again, sending beams in through a window just over their heads. What could be more romantic than to wrap herself in his arms and…?
    Fanciful nonsense, of course. None of that could happen or would happen. She hadn’t had such silly daydreams since she’d been a preteen and had been mooning after a boy named Romano Puccini. Bad things usually followed when you let your emotions run away with you. At least, that had been the lesson she had learned that long-ago summer.
    “That’s the second time tonight you scared me out of my wits,” she told him accusingly.
    “And that’s the second time tonight I found you sneaking around where you shouldn’t be,” he shot back at her.
    She tossed her hair, hooking the mop of it behind her ear with one quick swipe of her hand. “That’s only true if you are the one who gets to set the rules of where I may or may not go.”
    He moved closer. Even in the dark, she could see the outline of his scar clearly. It was a slash of silver across his moonlit face. Eerie…otherworldly…and somehow alluring.
    “And why wouldn’t I set the rules?” he said firmly. “It’s my house, remember?”
    She looked up into his eyes. They seemed to glow in the dim light. “But you forget—I’m only passing through.”
    “Trespassing through, you mean.”
    Well, she had to give him that one. Suddenly she was so very tired.
    “You know, I…I just want to go home.” There was a quaver in her voice that she regretted, but, still, it was only the truth.
    He took her hand, still looking down into what he could see of her face. “We all want things we can’t have.”
    The hint of desolation in his voice hit her hard and stopped her from taking offense. An unexpected wave of sadness swept over her. She wanted to reach for him, to help him somehow. But then she remembered—he was the prince. What in the world could she do to comfort a man like this?
    “Come back to the Blue Room and let Marcello take a look at you,” he ordered, beginning to lead her that way. “After all this, we might as well go through with it.” He glanced down at her as she walked beside him. “Then I’ll have someone drive you home.”
    She sighed. She hated to admit how tempting it seemed to just follow wherever he led. She was going to have towork on that. A little strength of character—a little more confidence in her own strength—that was what she needed.
    “My car is…is down by the south wall.” She flushed as she said the words. Oh, how guilty she sounded.
    When he replied, he sounded bemused, but satirical. “So you drove yourself out from the village, parked along the wall, and then what? Did you vault over?”
    “Not quite.” She hesitated, but she didn’t want to tell him that she’d sneaked in exactly where her father had been sneaking in for years. Only her father had the good sense to do it in daylight, and he’d never been caught.
    “Not going to say, are you?” he said, sounding cynical again, as though he really did consider her an outlaw in his world. “You’re going to keep it a secret. That way you can keep your options open for sneaking in again.” He tugged on her hand, leading her around a sharp corner. “But I would advise against that, Isabella Casali. I think we’ll have to let the dogs patrol twenty-four hours a day from now on.” He glanced back at her. “I don’t want you anywhere near that river.”
    That surprised her. She would have expected him to say he didn’t want to risk any more interruptions to his own life and peaceful existence, not to her welfare. But maybe she was taking his words too kindly. Of course, that was exactly what he meant. After all, if she got hurt, he would have to deal with it. Still, there was something in his tone when he mentioned the river that gave her pause.
    He stopped just outside the door to the Blue Room