Chapter One

      The romantic atmosphere created by her cousin’s wedding this weekend stirred Victoria Esterhazy’s senses. At twenty-three, and with, as custom demanded, her own arranged marriage imminent, she yearned to experience a night of real love before it was too late. Certain she would be alone in these early-morning hours, she gave in to an impulse to dance away her romantic yearning under a new moon in the palace garden.

      She bit back a gasp of dismay when a male figure materialized out of the night and strode toward her. Hugging her sheer robe about her body, she froze, ready to run.

      “Are you real, or are you just a figment of my imagination?” he whispered as he came to her side.

      Victoria shook her head. He might look like the romantic figure she’d conjured up in her head, but he was a stranger. What would happen if she were to be found here in the gardens in the middle of the night with him?

      When she looked as if she was about to run, Dan began to feel foolish. His mystery lady had come out of the palace; she could be a member of the royal family. He was out of line, and he knew it, but somehow he didn’t care, even if the last thing he needed was to offend a member of the bride’s family. Whoever she was, she was entitled to her privacy. After all, he was no more than the best man at the wedding.

      Dan knew he should go back to the palace and try to sleep, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave…not just yet. There was something magical about her that drew him to her. Something that made him want to linger by her side.

      She finally whispered, “Who are you?”

      “A figure from your imagination—a phantom,” he answered softly. There was no point in giving her his name, he thought. He had the strong feeling that they were living a fairy tale, and might never meet again after tonight. When she still lingered, he hesitantly gathered a few strands of silken hair that fell over her shoulders and let it fall through his fingers. “You have beautiful hair,” he murmured, when she gazed wide-eyed at him. His gaze drifted lower to her lips. “Tell me, moon sprite, who are you?”

      Victoria glanced back at the dark windows of the palace looming behind her and shook her head. She might yearn to experience the kind of love her cousin May had found during her state visit to the United States, but she couldn’t afford to give away her true identity. Not when it might embarrass her family. Aware of his sensuous gaze sweeping her, she drew the low neckline of her sheer robe more closely together and turned to flee back into the palace.

      Dan reached to stay her. “Don’t go,” he murmured as he gave in to an impulse to brush the soft skin on her cheek. To confirm that she was real, he told himself, but he knew better. She was real, and in her sheer nightclothes looked to be the most desirable and enchanting woman he’d ever met.

      He smiled his pleasure when she remained frozen in place. Her skin was as soft and velvety as a fragile rose petal, her scent sweet. “Since you might turn out to be someone out of a fairy tale,” he added with a wry smile, “I suppose I could call you a fairy princess or my mystery lady.”

      The silence drew them together. Crickets chirping in the background and the water splashing down the tiered water fountain were the only sounds to break the stillness of the night. He was right, Dan thought as he gazed down at her. Under the dim light of the cloud-covered moon that shone over them, she did look like a figure out of a romantic fairy tale. To make matters even more intriguing, if not downright sensuous, the faint scent of gardenias clung to her.

      Driven by a deep and unexpected emotion, Victoria felt herself responding to the yearning in her phantom’s gaze. Her skin tingled, her heart beat faster and a glow spread throughout her middle. Soon to be married to an unknown man of her father’s choice, she was all too aware no mere mortal man could have affected her so.

      “If I’m your princess,” she murmured shyly, “then you must be my phantom prince.”

      Her phantom was a tall, masculine man. His blond hair was tousled and his white shirt was partially unbuttoned as if he’d started to undress. After a closer look at his chiseled features, she found herself aching to explore his tanned skin just as he had touched hers moments before. She wanted to wind her fingers through the light, curly hair she’d glimpsed on his chest. To feel his arms around her and, heaven help her for her runaway thoughts, to taste his lips on hers.

      Drawn to her phantom as if to a magnet, Victoria gazed into his warm blue eyes and the questioning smile that curved his lips. A thought came to her like a whisper out of the night; this man could be her destiny, sent to her by the gods she thought had passed her by. Hers, to have and to hold, if only for tonight.

      Carried away by the crescent moon and the romantic setting, she gave in to the need to have him hold her, caress her, to make her his. To have, for at least a few precious moments in her life, a chance to create a memory to last her a lifetime. A memory of a love chosen by her for herself. Gazing into his warm blue eyes, she shivered at the thought of how it might feel to be held in his arms.

      “Cold?” Drawn by the longing he saw in her eyes, Dan couldn’t help himself. He put his arms around her shoulders and gathered her to him.

      “Not anymore,” she whispered a moment later when she burrowed closer into his warmth and closed her eyes. A moment later, his open shirt drew her gaze. Before she realized what she was about to do, she ran her fingers through the blond curls on his chest. It was the first time she’d touched a man so intimately, she thought as she felt the stirring of desire. “You make me warm all over.”

      Dan gasped as his body responded to her touch. Of all the things he might have expected to happen to him tonight, finding this enchanting woman in his arms and responding to his desire so honestly wasn’t it.

      He turned her chin up with a forefinger until their eyes met. He intended to give her one last chance to turn away, but the yearning he glimpsed in her blue-green eyes melted any reservations he might have had. They were two actors in a scene that had to be part of the fairy tale in the fairy-tale country he’d found himself in. Considering the rising mist and the surreal darkness surrounding them, he was half-afraid he was bound to wake up in the morning and find it had all been a dream.

      Tomorrow would have to take care of itself, he decided as he drew her back into his arms.

      He caressed her warm,