Read Royal's Untouched Love for Free Online Page B

thirty."
    "Why?" she blurted out, and then her hands flew to her mouth in horror. "Oh god, that's not what I meant at all …"
    To her relief, Jaque burst into laughter, shaking his head. "Well, that's not a response I've ever gotten when asking a woman to dinner," he chuckled.
    "That was so rude, I'm so sorry …"
    "It's fine," he said. "I will understand if you have other plans, but if you do not, I would like to take you out because it will assuage my guilt over abandoning you without a word in Athens two months ago, and because I would also like hear about how you found your feet and how you like the city. Simple, yes?"
    "Yes," she agreed. "I … I would love to get dinner with you. Five thirty?"
    "Yes. I'll come for you, so just wait in front of the building."
    As Jaque walked her back to her office, Heidi's mind was spinning. She might dress a little better now, but underneath, she had never felt more like the little foster child who had been bullied by all the other children at school.
    When she was finally alone in her office, she set to work, because otherwise, she was going to be a nervous wreck. It sort of worked, but every now and then, she would look up, realize she was going to dinner with perhaps the most handsome man she had ever met, and feel that same clutch of anxiety.
    *
    Heidi was waiting on the steps in front of the research building at five thirty on the dot, but when Jaque still hadn't shown up fifteen minutes later, she started to feel a little restless.
    Had he thought better of this and decided to go home? Had he forgotten all about her? Those thoughts, though certainly unpleasant, were better than the darker ones at the back of her mind. She had seen how reckless Athenian drivers could be, and she had heard company rumors about the risks that Jaque took in his cherry-red Ferrari.
    By six, Heidi's stomach was tied into knots, and when Jaque finally pulled up, she was shaking a little.
    "I'm sorry I'm late," Jaque said, coming out to get the door for her. "An investor trapped me on the phone, and though I always dream of simply leaving them to talk to an empty room, I never seem to quite get up the nerve to do it … Heidi, are you all right?"
    She started to say yes, but then, for some reason that she couldn't fathom, the truth came out instead.
    "I was scared," she said simply. "I thought maybe you had had an accident."
    Jaque went from inquisitive to regretful in a heartbeat, and he reached down to squeeze her hands.
    "I'm sorry, I truly am," he said. "I'll do better in the future and send you a text, all right?"
    She gazed at him blankly. If she had been able to expect anything, she would have assumed that the notoriously reckless Jaque LaMer would have ignored her fear, or perhaps even mocked her for it.
    "All right," she said. "I'm sorry, I'm a little … shaky, I guess …"
    "Of course. Are you still all right to get into the car? I promise, rumors all aside, I'm a safe driver. I like my skin and my car too much not to be."
    That won a small laugh from her, and she nodded. She allowed him to hand her into the car, and as she sunk into the leather seats, she felt herself calming down.
    "Have you been in accidents before?" he asked as they pulled into traffic."That looked a bit like personal experience talking there for a moment."
    "I haven't, but my parents were killed in one when I was fifteen," she said. She wondered if she was in some kind of shock, because that wasn't the type of information she disclosed at the drop of a hat. When she could see that Jaque was not shocked, but only sorrowful, she found herself continuing.
    "It was just a senseless tragedy," she said. "I was at a friend's house, and they were out getting some groceries. There was a rainstorm, and the water on the road sent them skidding into a tree. The paramedics said it was fast, but …"
    She trailed off. Jaque nodded with sympathy.
    "And after that, where were you?"
    "I was in shock for what seemed like forever, and when