He pushed a button. When a flight attendant immediately entered the room, he gave her a brisk order in Italian, and she left again.
The attendant hadn’t even glanced at Adara. And the captive was clearly about to break a window and take her chances on skydiving without a parachute.
“There’s no way off this jet, Adara, so you might as well relax. We will discuss our situation further when we get to our destination.”
“And where is that, Chris?” she snapped. She lurched to the farthest seat away from him. Play nice? To hell with that.
“It’s a private island that I happen to own. I want to take you there before bringing you to Rubare Collina, my country.”
When the attendant brought them each a drink — Adara’s was a fruit juice, since she refused to drink the coffee — Chris was pleased to see her down the entire thing in seconds.
She was sliding over in her seat within a quarter of an hour. He’d given her something to help her sleep, but nothing that would harm her. When they landed on his island, he would have plenty of time to show her that they were a perfect match.
She might be holding back, but her feelings for him were crystal-clear. He could see them without any effort. If she wasn’t exactly in love with him now, she would be soon. No problem.
At least that old law wasn’t still in effect, the one that would have threatened her life. Chris would never allow this woman to be harmed by anyone.
Unfortunately, her biggest threat right now wasn’t some outside force, wasn’t the Arcano — it was him.
No! He was a prince of Rubare Collina, and to be with him was an honor. She would surely come to see that.
As he watched her sleep, her body stirring a little every once in a while, he started having doubts. Maybe he should have thought this over a little bit more. Would a woman like Adara accept that he’d followed his country’s traditions when he abducted her?
Yeah, right. Would she ever forgive him for his desperate measures?
Chapter Five
Adara was fighting to emerge from the heavy fog that had enveloped her. But she couldn’t seem to pry her eyelids open.
What had happened? She was trying to put the pieces together and then images began streaking through her mind. An argument with Chris? Why? She couldn’t quite remember.
Her eyes now flashed wide open. Yes, she suddenly recollected that quarrel — on his damn jet. That’s where she was! But something was wrong. She looked in front of her, and the scene was different. Though she was still on a plane, it wasn’t the same one she’d been on before.
As she turned slowly to the left, she found Chris . . . flying the freaking plane! His shirt was unbuttoned, the sun was reflecting off his aviators, and a headset was covering his ears. He seemed to be in his element. That wasn’t inspiring anything good in her. Turning again, she gazed out the window at her right and saw nothing but bright blue skies and what seemed to be endless seas below.
“What in the world is going on?” Her voice came out hoarse, distressingly so.
Chris reached over and placed a microphone against her lips, and then he spoke, his voice coming through clearly through the headset she hadn’t realized she was wearing until just now.
“We’re not too far away. Sit back and enjoy the ride,” Chris said.
“What do you mean, we’re not too far away? And what are you doing flying this plane?”
“It’s okay. I’ve been a pilot since I was fourteen. This is only a six-seater jet, but I’m qualified to fly much bigger ones,” he said with the arrogance only a pilot seemed to possess.
“You didn’t answer my question about where we are and where we’re going.” She wasn’t going to even acknowledge the pilot situation.
“I told you earlier that we’re going to my island. We’re only about thirty minutes out now. You’ll enjoy it. It’s very peaceful there, and I’ve already had my staff stock my residence with all the necessary provisions.”
“Your staff?”
Other people would be there! Hope began brewing within her. She could explain to them that she’d been abducted, that she was there against her will with an insane man. Their boss had flipped out and thought he was a prince.
“Yes. I enjoy the privacy of the island, but I’m used to certain luxuries,” he said with a chuckle. “Food and drink among them.”
“I quite agree. I’m exactly the same way,” she said. When dealing with crazy people, pretending to go along with them was what you had to do if you had no other options.
“You’ll understand soon, Adara. You’ll understand us. Think back over our time together, and how wonderful it’s all been. I know you have feelings for me — even if you don’t want to confess to them.”
“Of course I have feelings for you, Christopher. I just need some time alone to contemplate what those feelings are.” She’d say anything now to escape from this nightmare.
If she had developed feelings for this man, she was a fool, just like her mother had told her. Of course he wasn’t the man he’d pretended to be. These bastards never were. Then again, it wasn’t as if she’d asked him any questions, so she had to share some of the blame for her predicament.
She knew nothing about where he worked or what he did in his time away from her. Heck, she didn’t even know if he had a family. She hadn’t wanted to know those things, hadn’t wanted to grow attached to the man in any way, because she’d known that the second she did, she’d be vulnerable. And to be vulnerable was something she couldn’t afford to be.
It would lead to a situation like . . . okay, like the one she was in right now. Great. She’d played this so brilliantly, she said to herself with the most impressive eye roll of her life.
Protecting her heart hadn’t helped her at all. Maybe she should have tried to get to know the man she was sleeping with, though without the sleeping part. Maybe she wouldn’t be a kidnap victim, carted off against her will to some private island. If he was even telling her the truth about that . . .
Just as Adara was ready to try another method to get Chris to stop this wacked-out flight, she turned toward him to see that he was no longer smiling.
“What’s wrong?”
“Do you smell something, Adara?” he asked. His tone of voice, normally easygoing, was now tense.
“No,” she replied, and then white smoke began filling up the cabin. Terror seized her instantly. “What is going on?”
He was silent for a moment and she didn’t think he was going to speak, but when he did, she wished that she’d just continued in a state of ignorant bliss.
“We have an electrical fire somewhere inside the plane. I have to turn the master switch off and try to isolate this issue.”
“What does that mean?”
“Stay calm, my love. I know it’s difficult in such situations, but these planes are made for emergency landings. I just need to find somewhere to set her down.”
“All I see is a lot of blue,” she said. “Or green. Water, water everywhere.”
“Look over to your left. There’s an island. Not my island, but it’s something to aim for, and that’s what I’m doing. I need to call a mayday in.” He unplugged her mic, and she wasn’t able to talk with him anymore, or to listen to anything he said.
Suddenly the engine noises faded away, and the only sound Adara could hear was her own panicked breathing. The plane turned in the direction he’d pointed to, but what she saw ahead didn’t look like much of an island at all. How were they going to land on that tiny patch of earth? She stayed silent. She could hardly speak anyway, and she hoped that if she didn’t distract him, he’d have a much easier time dealing with the crisis at hand.
And yet she made the mistake of looking behind her. Through another window, a trail of smoke appeared, and though she was no pilot, she knew enough to realize what it meant — they were now running on fumes. Not good. Not good at all.
They circled down lower and lower in the sky, and the water was coming up on them far
too fast. Adara swallowed heavily and clutched at the sides of her seat.
“Are we going to make it?” she yelled out.
He pulled his headset off and looked at her, grim acceptance of the inevitable in his eyes. “No. You need to brace yourself for impact.”
“How can you be so calm about this, Chris?”
“You’re in the hands of the best pilot in Rubare Collina.”
“You have a hell of a lot more faith in yourself than I do right now.”
“I will not fail. I refuse to. It’s not in my nature.”
Turning away from him yet again, she stared out the window to her right and could now see the whitecaps of the ocean, which was quickly approaching.
Before she had any chance of preparing herself, the plane hit the water. Adara’s head slammed into the side window, and then she felt nothing.
