Prince's Love-Child

On the one hand, there he’d been with Dee, the woman he’d believed himself in love with for the last five years—though now he knew that he no longer loved her at all.

Then there’d been Jerome, the man Dee had married instead of him: a man that Rik couldn’t help but like.

And lastly there’d been Sapphie Benedict, a woman he had spent a burning night of passion with five years previously; Dee’s half-sister. One of the women who had played a leading part in taking Dee from him all those years ago. He was still so angry about that, he hadn’t even been able to bring himself to talk to her this evening!

Instead he had spoken to Dee, whom he could now view with dispassion—and with whom, he realised, he had absolutely nothing in common! Her conversation was of fashion and the artificial world of acting, from which he normally chose to distance himself.

Adding to his confusion was his disgust with himself for the way he had treated Sapphie earlier, which had been building up inside him all evening.

Yes, at the time he had been angry with Sapphie, suspicious of her motives for what had happened between them five years ago. And yes, the pain of that had erupted out of control. But the way he had behaved, the physical retribution he had exacted, seemed more in keeping with his eldest brother Nik’s ruthless nature than his own. Rik was the serious, caring, sensitive one of the family, not some arrogant monster who heaped vengeance on anyone who got in the way of what he wanted.

At least, that was what he had believed of himself until earlier tonight…

He gritted his teeth and turned to Sapphie. ‘I owe you an apology—’

‘I believe we’ve already had this conversation, Rik,’ Sapphie dismissed. ‘I think we agreed that you don’t owe me anything!’ she added bleakly.

There it was again, he recognised frowningly, that something in her voice that he couldn’t quite put a name to…

‘I do owe you an apology,’ he insisted firmly, his hands clenched into fists inside his trouser pockets. ‘I don’t—I have never in my life before behaved towards any woman in the way that I did to you earlier tonight.’

Sapphie shrugged her slender shoulders. ‘I’m sure that at the time you believed you had due provocation.’

‘Whether I did or not is totally…’ Rik broke off frustratedly, breathing hard, realising that even his apology was coming out all wrong.

What was it about this woman that made him behave so uncharacteristically? He really had no idea—and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to know, either!

He sighed his impatience. ‘Sapphie, will you, for goodness’ sake, just let me apologise?’

She gave him a cool glance. ‘If it makes you feel better.’

‘It isn’t a question of making me feel better…!’ But wasn’t it? Wasn’t he just trying to salvage his own conscience, rather than anything else? After all, his anger was no less now than it had been earlier; he had just been unnerved by his reaction. He hadn’t even known he was capable of behaving in that coldly ruthless way. ‘What sort of name is Sapphie, anyway?’ he challenged in order to give himself time to think.