Plus, they had unfinished business from that night in September, because however much he might have tried to persuade himself he didn’t want her in the months since… He did.
But first, he had to stop her shouting at him, and get her on the damn plane.
‘It’s too late to make the ferry,’ he said, cutting through her diatribe. ‘But it was a dumb idea anyway. Your face is one of the most famous in the principality.’
‘No one would expect to see me there… And I’m wearing a disguise!’ she hurled back.
He choked out a laugh, which didn’t go down well. Her wide eyes narrowed, and the mossy green turned into a vivid emerald… Which spiked the heat in his gut that had been having a field day already while she’d been stuck to him on the bike.
‘How dare you laugh at…?’ she began, going off on another rant.
‘Princess, your disguise isn’t worth shit,’ he cut her off in mid-rant. ‘I spotted it was you—just by the way you moved—from fifty yards away, and I sure as hell wasn’t expecting to see you acting like a cat burglar in the palace grounds either.’ His gaze coasted over her furious features. ‘And then there’s that face. Believe me when I tell you it’s unforgettable, because I’ve put a lot of effort into forgetting it for three solid months and it hasn’t worked.’
She stiffened, the blush going radioactive. Okay, maybe that was too much information. But time was running out. Galicos closed its airspace at eleven-thirty, which gave them less than twenty minutes to board the plane and get out of here.
‘I… But…’ she stuttered, looking less sure of herself. ‘I’ve been planning this for months. I don’t have any other way to leave without my father finding out and stopping me.’
He got off the bike and walked towards her. She looked devastated. And for some unknown reason, it made his heart clutch again… Another surprise, as he rarely gave a damn about other people’s emotions.
‘Yeah, you do,’ he said. He nodded towards his jet, and the pilot who was standing a respectful distance away waiting for them to finish their argument. ‘I’ll take you anywhere you want.’
But instead of her looking grateful, her brows furrowed. And those remarkable eyes went squinty with distrust. ‘Do you think I’m completely stupid?’ she announced. ‘Why on earth would I believe you? When you’ve already lied to me!’
He simply smiled, enjoying her outburst. Weirdly. He didn’t usually appreciate discord, especially when he was the target. But there was something about her temper tantrum that appealed to him. In her boy’s clothes, her hair peeking out from under her cap, and her face devoid of make-up, she ought to look nothing like the woman he’d met three months ago, but the fire in her eyes—vivid, vibrant and unrestrained—was exactly the same. And for some reason that captivated him.
‘I didn’t lie. I never said I would take you to the port,’ he offered.
‘You know I expected you to. And I would not have got on your bike if I knew you were planning to kidnap me.’
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Damned if kidnapping her didn’t seem like a good idea when the pilot interrupted them.
‘Mr Caras, if we wish to depart tonight, we need to make the slot in the next ten minutes or we may not get another.’
‘Thanks, Nico,’ he replied, not taking his eyes off his unwilling travel companion. ‘So, are we doing this the hard way or the easy way, Your Highness?’
‘What is that supposed to—?’ she started in on him again.
‘The hard way it is, then.’ He bent down and scooped her onto his shoulder.
It took her a moment to get over the shock, but then all hell broke loose. She started pounding his back with her fists and kicking her feet, while screaming right in his ear.
‘You bastard, put me down. I’m not going with you. And you can’t make me.’
The pilot looked concerned, but Theo paid the guy enough not to question anything he did. And Nico knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t hurt her.
‘Get the plane started, Nico, and have the ground crew load the bike. We’re leaving right now. And tell the stewards me and the princess here don’t want to be disturbed.’
The man nodded and dashed off. The plane’s engines had already kicked to life, covering Freya’s furious shouting as Theo mounted the steps with her slung over his shoulder.
He manoeuvred her into one of the jet’s bedrooms, his shoulder aching as she continued to punch him.
He dropped her on the bed as the plane began to move.
She leapt up and tried to dash past him, but he grasped her round the waist and dragged her against his chest. He captured a lungful of her delicious scent as her cap fell off and he buried his face in all that glorious hair.
‘Relax, Freya, I’m not gonna hurt you. We just didn’t have time to waste on an argument.’
His breath gushed out in a shattered grunt of pain as her elbow connected with his abs. Doubling over, he was forced to release her.
