Tempted by the Prince (The Raminar Family Book 4) by Elizabeth Lennox (10 ebook reader .txt) 📗

“Coming?” she parroted, startled.

“Yes.  This meeting is the first discussion about the university project.  I need your feedback and you need to hear what’s going on right from the start.”

With huge eyes, she jerked forward, stumbling slightly.  He caught her arm and they both froze.  He looked down into her eyes and wanted to lose himself in those emerald depths.

Before he could do something stupid though, he pulled away and nodded towards the opposite door.  “This way,” he replied, his voice gruffer than he’d intended.

They walked into the meeting and sat down. He noticed that Rachel took one of the chairs along the wall, even though there were several empty chairs at the conference table.  He didn’t understand why, but let her sit where she was comfortable.

Rachel smiled as she walked down the hallway later that afternoon.  She felt as if she was tingling with happiness and challenge!  And excitement.  She couldn’t ignore the excitement she felt just being near Tarin again.

He was so amazing!  She’d watched him in several meetings today, encouraging everyone to talk, never shooting down an idea, no matter how ill conceived.  Rachel didn’t think he’d care about her opinions on the ideas being tossed around.  She knew that her job was to facilitate everyone else’s ideas.  Hence why she was walking back to her office now to organize a long travel plan.  Tarin wanted to interview several leading architects, needing to feel them out and get a sense of who they were.

An hour later, she’d called the palace travel office and given them Prince Tarin’s itinerary, organized hotels in each of the cities, and coordinated with his housekeeping staff and security team.

It was after hours now and she guessed that Tarin had gone to eat dinner with his family.  She knew that they enjoyed meals together, especially since they all seemed to take a hand in raising the two orphaned nieces, Elsa and Ellora.  Those two darlings were getting on in school now and were normal, rambunctious young ladies.  Amit was the closest to a father figure that the girls had, but Gaelen and Tarin both made themselves available for advice or conversations, or especially fun activities.

It was one of the things she loved about this family.  They were just that: a family.  There were no harsh insults, no passive aggressive compliments, and no power grabs, which she knew happened in other royal families.  Furthermore, there was no ridicule for dressing one way or another, no competition for grades or friends or girlfriends.

Unlike in her family, she thought with a groan.

Not that Rachel and her older sister, Wendy, ever competed for anything.  What a ridiculous thought.  As if Rachel could even compete with Wendy’s beauty and glamor.

Packing up, she glanced around to ensure that everything was neat and tidy, then headed home…or at least, back to the temporary apartment she’d be calling home while working on this project.

Chapter 3

Tarin tapped his pen against his notebook, bored out of his mind. Rachel wasn’t cleared for military briefings, so she wasn’t with him.  It was just him, Gaelen, and Amit, as well as Izara’s generals and he wanted to toss these papers aside and get the hell out of here.

Amit and Gaelen seemed to be enraptured by the newest information on troop movements, readiness capabilities, and the seemingly endless issues with their enemies…and their allies.  There really was no such thing as a trustworthy ally in the game of world politics.  Friendships were formed out of necessity and loyalty, but both could be shattered with one false move.

Rachel would give her loyalty and friendship completely, he thought.  More tapping.  More fidgeting in his chair.

“Are we boring you with this national security stuff?” Amit demanded, turning away from the generals to glare at Tarin.

Tarin laughed.  “Nah.  I’m utterly fascinated.”  He turned to the general.  “Please proceed.  I’m completely enraptured.”

The generals shared in the laugh, knowing that their information was dry.  “I think we’re about finished for now,” he replied.

Even Gaelen smiled, although he tried to appear stern while in Amit’s presence.  Chronologically, their oldest brother might be only a few years older, but Amit was an old man at heart.  He loved spending time with his family, had never really gone out and sowed his wild oats.  He was a home body who worked intensely during the day, only to escape to his family’s private quarters to play with his small kids, then pick up his sketch pads or paintbrush and free his mind as he captured his children or wife’s smiles on paper and canvas.

Slowly, everyone stood up from the conference room table, but Tarin was aware that no one seemed to be in a hurry to leave.  So, instead of sprinting out the door in order to go find Rachel, he waited around, chatting and joking with the others.

“I have to get back to work,” he finally muttered to someone, he wasn’t really sure who.  With that announcement, he turned and walked out, eager to see Rachel’s huge, green eyes and quirky smile.  Yeah, he had it bad, he thought as he headed down the long hallway.

Rachel watched the instructional video carefully.  She nodded along, shifting in small half movements, locking the next steps into her memory.

“Right!” she muttered, then stepped into position.  Arms up.  Chin up.  “And…one, two, three, four.   One, two, three, four.”  Her mind focused on keeping her left elbow high, her right arm straight and tight.  “No spaghetti arms!” she reminded herself.  “One, two, three, four.  One, two, three, four.”

The music swelled from her computer and she glanced over her shoulder at the video that was playing.  “And turn!” the man in the video called out.

“Turn?” she muttered, glaring over her shoulder at the laptop.  “Turn how?  And where am I supposed to turn?”

“Definitely avoid the other people,”