He ground his teeth. ‘I can wait a day,’ he said, even as his eyes stung from lack of sleep. ‘I’ve waited this long already.’
Her eyes suddenly brightened. ‘Then—if we’re not leaving, I can work my shift tonight, right?’
Theo pressed thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. He needed sleep desperately. He needed even more not to be bothered with this undeserving princess. But if he could grab a decent meal while keeping an eye on her, the evening might not be a total waste.
‘I’ll be watching you,’ he said. ‘Every move you make.’
‘Oh,’ she said with a smile and a coquettish hitch of one shoulder, ‘If you insist. Well, I guess I’d better go get unpacked again.’
‘Don’t get too excited,’ he growled. ‘This delay is for a day. Twenty-four hours. Don’t bother unpacking everything. I’m sure we’ll be on our way tomorrow.’
‘We’ll see,’ she said.
Theo watched her go.
Sure she was happy about their departure being delayed, he got that, but she was almost too happy. Almost flirtatious. What was that about?
Bottom line, after last night’s little escapade, he didn’t trust her an inch.
‘So, what would you like to do today?’
The Princess was standing and leaning her elbows on the kitchen counter, snacking on an apple. Theo didn’t like her stance. Mostly because of the way her knit top clung to her curves, accentuating her breasts and then the scoop to her waist, and then that shapely derriere jutting out behind.
Not that he was about to protest the way she was standing and let her know how she affected him. Instead, he said, ‘What are you talking about? Haven’t you looked outside?’
Her gaze flickered to the windows. ‘Sure, it’s blowy. But do you really want to waste this bonus time on the island?’
He snorted. ‘Bonus time. That’s one way to put it.’
‘But it is. Do you realise Lord Howe Island is one of Tripadvisor’s top ten places to visit in the entire world?’
‘And your point is?’
‘And you would have had, what?—if this weather event hadn’t intervened—just twenty-four hours to experience the island’s magic. At least now you have the chance to experience more of what the island has to offer.’
He glanced out the window again. The wind was mad, palm trees lashed from side to side, their fronds buffeting and slapping together in the wind. ‘What exactly did you have in mind, Princess? A climb around the cliffs and up to the heights of Mt Gower? A glass-bottom boat tour of the coral reef? Or maybe a scenic flight over the island?’
She put her hands on her hips, slowly shaking her tilted head. ‘You are such a fun person, you know that?’
He moved his head from side to side. Slowly. Deliberately. ‘I’m not here to have fun. I’m here to do a job, Princess. And I fully intend to carry it out.’
Her smile slid away, her eyes dropped. His words had hit the mark and he’d just reminded her what the end goal was.
Good.
He didn’t need the taunting. It wasn’t like he didn’t know what fun was. He remembered fun. He remembered good times.
Even if none recently.
The fun times, the good times, had ended when Sophia had. When he looked back, he couldn’t think of any good times he’d had since then.
Now he didn’t look for fun.
Instead, what he’d found in its place was the satisfaction he’d taken from his work. Reuniting kidnapped children with their desperate families. Finding lost and missing and amnesiac adults who appeared to have fallen off the face of the earth without a trace.
He’d been too busy seeking justice to look for fun. Too busy trying to atone for what had happened.
Too busy.
