Chapter Ten
Our father has asked, so to speak, that you come home right away. News has gotten out that you have a potential bride whom you’ve hidden away here on your private island.”
Chris frowned as he looked at his brother — now his country’s king — and then he said, “I’m not ready to go back yet.”
“You can only hide out for so long, brother. I understand wanting to keep the woman away from our customs, from our people, from it all, until you absolutely have to return to the real world. I too wanted more freedom than we’re allowed. But you are a prince, and it’s time to come home.”
“What if we get there and she remembers everything?” Chris asked Xander. He was speaking to his brother, not to his king.
“I’m not sure what you’re saying to me,” Xander asked. “What really happened between the two of you?” He walked over to the bar and poured himself a nice glass of scotch. “Be precise.”
“She was sort of . . . well . . . she kind of told me I could go to hell . . .”
“Good heavens, Christopher! You’re speaking like a commoner now. An American! And what happened next?”
“ I . . . well, I did what we’re supposed to do. I took her,” Chris said, shifting on his feet.
“Hah! I knew she hadn’t come of her own free will. You were looking just a little too on edge when we came to your rescue after that sensational plane crash of yours,” Xander said. And he guffawed. “Did you engineer that too?”
“This isn’t the time to mock me, brother. Right now, I’m worried,” Chris told him as he marched up to the bar, poured himself a drink, and downed it quickly.
“Any time is the right time to mock you, Christopher. But I do understand what you’re going through. I’ll be candid. As you know all too well, I thought that I would lose Reanna, certainly lose her, after what I’d done and with all that drama. But it all worked out despite everything. She is now my wife. We have a beautiful child together, and another on the way. It doesn’t matter how the journey begins, ultimately. What matters is how it ends.”
Chris was silent for several moments as he thought about his brother’s words. “Do you think Adara will ever forgive me when she finds out what I have done?”
“Do you love her?” Xander asked him.
“I . . . I don’t see how that’s relevant.”
“Not relevant? That’s what it’s all about. If you love her, then tell her. Show her the man, not the prince, and let her love you back.”
“When did you become so damn wise, Xander?” Chris was trying to insert a bit of humor into this heavy conversation, but his heart was far too full to pull it off.
“The moment I met Reanna — that’s when. I thought I was saving my country, that I was protecting my royal title and doing what I was meant to do. Duty and honor and love of country. I never for one minute realized that Reanna was the one saving me, protecting me, and making me a better man, a man capable of ruling with compassion and great love.”
“I just don’t know what I feel. I’m eaten up with guilt now and I can’t figure anything out. Do I love this woman or do I just want her to be mine? A sort of possession, I suppose. And a means to an end.”
“Can you imagine living without her?” Xander asked his youngest brother.
“Not for even a second,” Chris said without hesitation.
“Then you have a starting place. It’s all happened quickly, and though there isn’t a fixed time on falling in love, there is a limit on how much a person can take. Just know that if you care about her, you must tell her. The truth — the whole truth. It will be difficult, and I doubt she’ll take it well. But there’s hope. I was certain that I’d lost Reanna forever. We were meant to be together, though, and we managed to find a way.”
“Thank you, Xander. I will tell Adara that I’m taking her to the palace. Maybe I’ll tell her about all of this after the marriage.”
“That is your choice, my brother. But I need hardly repeat to you the famous lines about a woman scorned, which includes being lied to,” Xander said with a smile. “Terrifying as hell.”
Chris found his sense of humor again. “Ah, but she is no match for me.”
“Of course not,” Xander told him with a laugh. “You know, I once thought the very same thing.”
The king left after his little brother promised to return home the next day. And Chris went to find his fiancée. Today wouldn’t be the day he told her the truth. That could wait. For now, he was focused solely on getting her to the altar and making her legally his before she could walk away from him again.
It would all work out. He was a prince, after all. Didn’t stories about princes always have happy endings?
Chapter Eleven
Adara sat across from Chris, looking at him over a table lit with candles. The waiter poured out a little wine, and after sniffing and tasting it, Chris nodded. The man poured them each a full glass and disappeared.
Chris lifted his glass to her, and a bead of moisture on his lips made her want to knock those candles over, reach across, and pull him to her. There was something in his manner that she couldn’t resist, making it impossible not to find ways to touch him these days.
Meeting his father hadn’t been nearly as terrifying as she’d thought it would be, but still, she was an American and didn’t know the first thing about how to address royalty. What if she did something completely wrong and caused an uproar?
Ugh! Whoever said life was easy had obviously never been engaged to a prince before. She’d heard mention of princess lessons. Maybe she would have to take them if she planned on staying with this man, which at the moment, anyway, she most certainly did.
“Why the look of concern, agape mou?”
“What does that mean?”
“‘My love,’” he answered. “It’s Greek. But I’m versatile. Would you rather I said something similar in French?”
“You can say it in any language,” she said, her heart beating faster.
“Je t’adore. That, of course, is a full sentence and not just a term of endearment.”
“Ooh, that’s very pretty,” she said with a sigh.
“It means that I adore you — it reminds me of your name, Adara. I have just one more thing to say,” he told her with a smile. He reached across the table and took her hand, then pulled a black velvet box from his pocket. “Veux-tu m’épouser?”
She gazed blankly at him, trying to figure out what he meant, until he opened the box and a beautiful diamond ring was sparkling up at her. She looked from the ring to his face and back at the large round-cut diamond surrounded
by smaller diamonds.
“You . . . um . . . you’re going to have to speak in English,” she gasped, her heart absolutely racing now.
“Will you be my wife, Adara?” he asked, stroking the back of her hand with his long fingers.
“I don’t quite know how to respond. I feel as if we don’t really know each other,” she said, afraid to even look at the ring again.
“Just tell me you will become my bride. Everything will fall naturally into place after that.”
“But you said that we’re already engaged.”
“We had agreed to be married,” he told her. He glanced away for a moment before reaching into the velvet box. He pulled out the ring, lifted her limp hand, and put the diamond on her finger.
It was a perfect fit, of course. These royals never got anything wrong. Or that’s the way it seemed.
“I think I want to marry you,” she finally said, her emotions now all over the map. It wasn’t joy that she felt, but it wasn’t sorrow. She had only two weeks’ worth of memories with this man; she wished so seriously that she could remember all the rest.
“That’s all we need for now. The rest will grow over time,” he told her, rubbing the back of her hand in soothing circles.
They sat in silence as the courses of their meal were served, each in its turn. Even with all these succulent dishes set before her, Adara had a difficult time forcing herself to eat anything.
Why was she the least bit reluctant about marrying this man? He was perfect in every sense of the word. He was kind, spontaneous, romantic, and giving. He was what every rational woman dreamed about having in a partner. And yet she couldn’t shake this feeling that something was wrong.
But maybe that was just because she just couldn’t remember what had happened before. He surely hadn’t changed dramatically after the plane crash. No person could do that. So if she’d agreed to marry him earlier, why should she hesitate now?
