Royal Captive by Dana Marton

doing so far?” She looked pleased as anything with herself.
    On the one hand, he found her quick thinking incredibly sexy, watching her mind work a thing of beauty. On the other hand, he couldn’t say her guessing his secret so effortlessly didn’t annoy him.
    “What is it about?” She tilted her head, a sparkle in her eyes.
    “I don’t know.”
    “You can’t decipher it?” The question was put forth with such belittling intonation as if to say she would have broken the code on a single lazy afternoon with a hand tied behind her back if given half a chance.
    “Of course, I can read it,” he said and realized too late that he’d given himself away, which had been exactly her purpose. His mind was still too steeped in lust to follow her quick thinking.
    “Okay, then let’s try this again. What is it about?” she asked with a smirk.
    He decided to tell her. In equal parts because he didn’t want her to leave yet and because none of the diary made any sense anyway.
    “It’s a collection of poems and sayings. Like the Song of Solomon and the Book of Proverbs in the Bible.”
    She held the page out for him. “What does it say here?”
    He let his gaze run across the marks. “The wealth of a nation is in the head of the ruler.”
    “Makes sense. The smarter the king is, the better off the country will be.”
    Yes, in some way, but the gems of wisdom were no help to him whatsoever. When he’d found the diary he’d been hoping that the clues would lead him to the treasure of the Brotherhood.
    The original Brotherhood of the Crown was made up of eight princes who put Casanova to shame. The only thing that outshined their deeds in battle had been their deeds in the bedroom.
    When the country went through a particularly difficult period of foreign invasion, their lovers supposedly gifted the young princes with massive amounts of their jewelry, as love tokens and as support for an uprising. Except, the princes were betrayed and the treasure had disappeared.
    Lauryn held the paper to the light. “Which one is the word for wealth? ” she asked.
    He pointed it out.
    “And ruler? ”
    He showed her that, too.
    “Then this is the letter E, ” she guessed correctly. Then asked a few more words and within minutes, literally, had the entire alphabet decoded, by which time he regretted ever giving her any information.
    “So it says, The wealth of the nation is on the head of the ruler. ”
    “ In and on were interchangeable in the old language.”
    She nodded. “This is interesting. Can I take these back to my room to read through them?” Her head was tilted, the light playing on her slim neck, reflecting off alabaster skin. Mesmerizing.
    He very nearly fell for it, but in the end came to his senses.
    “Absolutely not.” He held out his hand for the page.
    Her eyes narrowed. He expected one of her biting remarks, but in the end, she stuck her tongue out at him. “You’re no fun to play with.”
    A bolt of desire shot through him. “Didn’t hear you complain a couple of minutes ago.”
    The reference to the passionate kiss they’d shared made her cheeks tinge. Interesting. She hadn’t seemed shy when she was kissing him back. Urgent need resurfaced quickly at the memory. “Lauryn—”
    She backed away from him, an intriguing creature of the night that begged further investigating. “Good night.”
    He hated to see her go, something he needed to consider later. He was going to have to straighten out his thinking and his unexpected attraction to her the first chance he had.
    “Fine. Go back to your room and stay there,” he told her. “How are your stings?” he asked belatedly, more than ready to give her thighs a close inspection.
    Her impertinent response was, “None of your business.”
    As soon as she was gone, he called security to meet her in the hallway, escort her to her room and stand guard in front of her door until he sent for her in the morning. Then he stretched out in his bed, his arms