A Throne for the Taking Read Online Free PDF Page A

once been the only friend he thought he had and who now had been reincarnated as a woman who heated his blood and turned him on more than he could recall anyone doing in the past months—the past years.
    It was like coming awake again after being dead to his senses for years—and it hurt.
    ‘It’s not that I don’t believe you.’
    The fight he was having to control the sensual impulses of his body showed in his voice and he saw the worried, apprehensive look she shot him sideways from under the long, lush lashes. She clearly didn’t know which way to take him, a thought that sent a heated rush of satisfaction through his blood. He wanted her off-balance, on edge. That way she might let slip more than her carefully cultivated, court training would allow her.
    ‘Merely that I see no reason why you or any member of your family would renounce the royal title that has meant so much to you.’
    ‘We didn’t renounce it. It was renounced for us.’
    A frown snapped Alexei’s black brows together sharply as he focussed even more intently on her face, trying to read what was there.
    ‘And just what does that mean? I’ve heard nothing of this.’
    How had he missed such an important event? The people he had employed to watch what was happening in Mecjoria should have been aware of it. They should have investigated and reported back to him.
    ‘It’s been kept very quiet—at the moment my father is officially “resting” to recover from illness.’
    ‘When the reality is?’
    ‘That he’s under arrest.’
    Her voice caught on the word, a soft little hiccup that did disturbing things to the tension at his groin, tightening it a notch or two uncomfortably.
    ‘And is now in the state prison.’
    That was the last thing he’d expected and it shocked some of the desire from him, making his head swim slightly at the rush of blood from one part of his body to his head.
    ‘On what charge?’ he demanded sharply.
    ‘No charge.’ She shook her head, sending her dark hair flying. ‘Not as yet—that—that all depends on how things work out.’
    ‘So what the hell did he do wrong?’ Gregor had always seemed such a canny player. Someone who knew how best to feather his own nest. So had he got too greedy, made some mistake?
    ‘He—chose the wrong side in the recent inheritance battle. For the throne.’
    So that was what was behind this. Alexei might never want to set foot in Mecjoria ever again, but he couldn’t be unaware—no one could be unaware—of the struggle that had gone on over the inheritance of the throne once old King Leopold had died. First Leopold’s son Marcus had inherited, but only briefly. A savage heart attack had killed him barely months into his reign. Because he had died childless, his nephew Felix should have inherited the crown, but his wild way of life had been his undoing, so that he had died in a high-speed car crash before he had even ascended to the throne. Now there were several factions warring over just who was the legal heir to follow Felix.
    ‘And then when Felix died... My father is currently seen as an enemy—as a threat to the throne.’
    She wasn’t telling the full truth, Alexei realised. There was something she was holding back, he was sure of it. Something that clouded those amazing eyes, tightened the muscles around her delicate jawline, pulling the pretty mouth tight, though there was no mistaking the quiver of those softly sensual lips.
    Lips that he wished to hell he could taste, feel that trembling softness under his own mouth, plunder the moist interior...
    ‘It will all work out in the end.’
    Once again his own burning inner feelings made the words sound abrupt, dismissive, and he saw her blink slowly, withdrawing from him. Her head came up, that smooth chin lifting in defiance as she met his stare face-on.
    ‘You can promise that, can you?’ Ria asked, her tone appallingly cynical.
    And where her unexpected weakness hadn’t beaten him now, shockingly, her