“I don’t know if I should go in there,” he said. Once again, he was feeling unsure of himself. It was happening so often now, and it had never happened before.
“Just rip it off — like a bandage — and get it over with,” Xander told him, though the king seemed pretty unsure himself.
“You’ll be fine, Christopher,” Bryan said. “It will work out. I see the way the two of you look at one another.”
But the cowards didn’t stick around to see the show. Chris’s brothers scattered before he could open Adara’s door.
But he had to be brave. He couldn’t hesitate any longer. So he turned the doorknob and walked inside. The room was lit only dimly from the lamp on the bedside table.
“How are you feeling?” Chris asked as he approached the bed.
“Maybe I was the one blocking my memory. I didn’t want to remember what you’d done,” she said. Her voice was filled with sadness. “How could you do this to me, Chris?”
He went over to sit down, but she sent him a withering look, letting him know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t at all welcome in her bed.
“I did what I needed to do. In time you will realize that I made the right decision. We’ve found each other, and we care too much to let each other go.”
In his fear of losing her, he’d gone on the offensive. He couldn’t appear weak right now.
“I see. It’s that old ‘the end justifies the means’ crap. Your royal prerogative, or something like that. I need time to think about this, Your Highness. I want you out of my sight. Immediately. Get out of this room.”
Her words pierced his chest, and he ached. But he wouldn’t show that to her.
“We’ll get through this, Adara,” he said before he did her bidding and left.
He had to believe that or he wouldn’t make it through the night, let alone the rest of his life.
Chapter Seventeen
Adara walked away from the palace in the early morning light and entered the waiting car. The driver had asked her no questions when she summoned him — she wasn’t under house arrest, after all. Still, she hoped the fellow wouldn’t get in trouble once Chris found out what she’d done. Their little — or big — drama wasn’t the driver’s fault.
She was out of sight of the palace before she allowed her tears to fall. Her heart was shattered, but she’d survived worse things in her life and she would survive this too. Yet she could never stay with a man who had deceived her so thoroughly and with so few qualms. That was all she knew right now.
The idea of life without him was killing her. But their entire relationship was built on nothing but lies. The truth they’d seemed to find in each other couldn’t withstand that foundation of deceit. She was in love with him, but she didn’t believe he loved her — couldn’t believe it. A man in love didn’t kidnap a woman he professed to love and then lie to her about what had happened for nearly a month. His feelings couldn’t possibly be real. All he’d wanted was to get married in time, before he turned thirty.
The car pulled into the small airport terminal, and she put a handkerchief to her face in hopes the driver wouldn’t notice her pathetic weakness.
“I’ll wait for you here,” he told her.
“That’s not necessary. I’ll be a while,” she said. He gave her a concerned look, but she was able to force a smile. “It’s okay. I’m meeting my friend here, and we’ll be exploring the town. We’ll get a taxi.”
He looked at her doubtfully, but she felt sure that she was putting on a good performance, a Chris-worthy performance. That thought almost made her burst into tears all over again. But she wouldn’t, not for a man like him. Hardly a prince of a man. She said goodbye to the driver and walked into the terminal with her spine stiff and her head high.
A flight was leaving for the States in three hours, and she used the last of her money on the ticket, and then had nothing to do but wait. The waiting wouldn’t be fun, of course. The longer this took, the more likely it was that Chris would discover she was missing. But he surely wouldn’t think to check out the airport until it was too late. That, at least, was in her favor. Just about the only thing in her favor right now.
At long last, she heard a woman announce her flight in at least four languages — luckily, one was English. Adara walked over, held out her boarding pass, and went onto the jet. She was doing the right thing, dammit, even if her heart was telling her the opposite.
And, boy, was her wretched heart rebelling right now. Turn around! Think about that man! You’d come to know him after you let your guard down!
No. She hadn’t studied science for nothing. She had a logical brain, and she wasn’t about to let it be overpowered by her weak heart. She kept moving forward, and she found her seat on the plane and sat down. She could do this without falling apart.
She’d made this decision and she would stand by it. She’d come to see that her mother was wrong, that some men could be trusted. Adara had made a terrible mistake, had opened her heart to the wrong man, but that didn’t make them all worthless. Maybe, just maybe, at some point, she’d find someone, the One . . .
The doors of the plane slammed shut, and Adara let out a breath. Was it panic? Relief? She wasn’t sure. But whatever it was, there was no going back now.
The great love of her life, or the supposed love of her life, just wasn’t meant to be. But she couldn’t watch as the airplane made its departure from the beautiful island of Rubare Collina, so she yanked down the shade over her window. She would keep her eyes closed and tell herself over and over again that she was making the right decision, the only possible decision that she could make.
She heard a small crackle, and the captain’s voice came over the intercom. “We’re sorry to inform you, but there’s been an unavoidable delay. I’m sure that the problem will be resolved in just a few minutes. Please sit back and relax. We’ll be underway very soon.”
When would this hell end for her? Adara sat up, wondering how much more of this she was expected to go through. The fates must have it in for her. She needed to get out of the country, the sooner the better, and she wished the freaking plane would just take off.
Just her luck, again. She could hear the airline doors squeal as they were wrenched open. And then people around her were gasping. She just wanted to bury her head in her hands, but doesn’t everyone look toward a train wreck? Or a plane wreck? Or whatever? Suddenly all the passengers began applauding.
She opened her window blind and looked out and her mouth dropped open. Chris was riding up to the jet on his horse, and he was dressed in full military uniform.
What was he doing? Her stomach fluttered at the sight of him. She hated herself for feeling that flutter, but there was no way to control it.
Within seconds he was jumping from his horse and running up to the aircraft, his guards close behind him. And then he was standing right there before her. For the smallest of seconds, there was a sad vulnerability in his expression, but that soon vanished, and he smiled at her with a twinkle in his eye.
“Guards, seize her,” he said. He didn’t break eye contact with her for an instant, and she just gaped at him. Was he insane? Seize her? What the . . . heck was he playing at? He had to be talking about someone else, and she looked all around her to find out who it was.
But the guards walked straight up to her. No way. She wasn’t setting foot out of the jet no matter what they said.
“Miss Adara, you’ll need to come with us,” one of the guards told her.
She’d seen this same guard countless times over the last month, and he’d always been quite respectful.
“You are kidding, right?” she replied.
“Sorry, ma’am, but we don’t joke in matters involving national security.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said in her haughtiest voice. “A
s you can see, I’m getting ready to leave for home.” She looked from the guard to Chris, who was still smiling, then crossed her arms and sat there stubbornly.
“You’ve given us no choice,” Chris said.
He grabbed her seat belt and quickly unbuckled it, pulled her from her seat, and handed her over to his guard. The guard tossed her over his shoulder — no easy task, considering the tight space in the aircraft. She let out a scream and pounded on the man’s back. The passengers looked on in glee. They were obviously witnesses to something great.
The guards took her off the aircraft and put her down next to Chris’s horse. He was still on the jet; she had no idea what he was doing there.
He finally descended the stairs and came to stand beside her. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but slugging him was a definite thought dancing around in her mind.
“You are being charged with theft, with stealing from the palace,” he told her.
She looked at him in shock. She was devastated that he’d think she would take anything from him besides the clothes he had bought for her, and she’d only taken the ones she was wearing right now.
“I didn’t take anything. Why would I do that?” she said, her eyes filling with tears.
“You know perfectly well what you took. You stole my heart, Adara, my soul, my very existence,” he said, and he hauled her into his arms.
It took her a few seconds to grasp what he was saying.
“No, you know perfectly well that what you just said isn’t true. Our relationship is nothing more than a lie,” she said. “A way for you to retain your title.”
“On the contrary. I publicly renounced my title this morning, the moment my driver called to inform me he’d dropped you off at the airport. I made a formal announcement to my people. I want nothing on this planet more than I want you. But I’m not about to force you to do anything, my Adara. Not this time. Tell me you don’t love me, and I will set you free, even though it will cost me everything I am.”
