Hope blossomed under her breastbone.
Anything felt possible now. She was on her own at last. And while it wouldn’t be easy, she welcomed the challenges, the hurdles, the freedom to fail, the chance to learn, the opportunity to be someone not bound by royal duty and forced into the increasingly narrow box her father had constructed for her.
The cold wind whipped at her cheeks, and she buried her face against Theo Caras’ broad back. His butt flexed—her thighs clamped tight around it—as the bike accelerated.
The giddy excitement took a hot sweet turn, into arousal, and awareness…
But instead of being confused by her livewire attraction to him, she let herself enjoy it.
Why wouldn’t she respond to Caras? He was gorgeous and she was a girl who had been refused contact with any eligible boys from the point she’d reached puberty.
The rush of desire didn’t have to be about Caras per se.
Her fanciful heart swelled against her aching ribs. Perhaps she would take a boyfriend, someone kind and cute and not dangerous like Theo Caras. Someone who could introduce her slowly to the joys of sex. Who could give her another taste of what Theo Caras had given her a tantalising, intoxicating glimpse of three months ago. But preferably without that scary loss of control.
She shivered, the thrilling thought delicious beyond belief. Then the bike tilted, accelerating as it shifted position…
Why were they moving so fast? Shouldn’t they be near the port by now?
She eased her eyes open and blinked at the huge eighteen-wheeler they were overtaking at speed. The blur of light and colour that raced past slowly became recognisable as a four-lane freeway.
What the hell?
The romantic dreams were blasted away on a wave of harsh reality.
What were they doing on the coastal highway? Which headed out of Galicos towards France, and away from Port Gabriel.
Where on earth was Theo Caras taking her? Because it was not to the ferry terminal, which was no more than a mile from the palace through the streets of Port Gabriel.
‘Theo, you’re going in the wrong direction!’ she shouted at his back, but the words were whipped away on the wind, drowned out by the powerful rumble of the superbike’s engine and her thundering heartbeat.
She squeezed his ribs and shouted at his nape, which was pressed against her nose, demanding to know what they were doing on the highway.
He shouted something over his shoulder that sounded like: ‘Relax, Your Highness!’ The cynical, arrogant tone, though, was crystal clear.
Her temper—which had dissolved in a fog of excitement and gratitude—roared back to life. Theo Caras was kidnapping her!
‘Merde!’she shouted into the darkness, hurtling to who knew where—while forced to cling to the most infuriating man on the planet.
Theo slowed the bike to turn into the airplane hangar, aware of his pilot heading down the steps of the jet. And the woman behind him bristling with tension as she released her hold on his waist.
She scrambled off the bike as soon as it came to a stop, then tore off the helmet.
‘You bastard! What are we doing here?’ Her voice rose to a shout. ‘I can’t miss that ferry.’
She punctuated the exclamation by flinging the helmet at his head. He caught it one-handed, before it could give him brain damage. He smiled, impressed with her throwing arm, and the vivid flush on her cheeks that made her magnificent in her fury.
‘Stop grinning. You have to take me back. There’s no other way for me to get out of the country without being noticed.’
‘Calm down, Freya,’ he said, able to see the fear in her eyes now, under the fury.
His heart squeezed with something he didn’t recognise. Because he rarely changed his opinion of people, especially rich, entitled people like her. But then he’d never felt the surge of protectiveness either, as when he’d watched her smack against that wall, while refusing to let go of the rope.
That she had decided to run away from her privilege, to escape her father—in the middle of the night, on her own—had surprised him, but not as much as the spurt of joy when she’d told him she’d never had any intention of marrying Faron.
Even so, he wasn’t about to rethink his spur-of-the-moment decision to get her out of Galicos on his jet.
Her father’s deal with Faron was dead—evenwithoutthe marriage. Because Theo planned to kill it. But why not use this situation to his advantage? If he had the princess, her father couldn’t use her to attract another rival investor. Especially not if he kept her with him until January sixth when Andreas’ loan payment was due.
