I step toward her, reaching for her, and she leans toward my touch. “It’s a long story.”
“Then tell it. All that in the club, no names—” She waves one hand in the air dismissively. “I think we both know that’s over now.” The look in her eyes is half-hopeful, half-terrified, and I realize she’s waiting for me to do the logical thing, the expected thing, and end it now.
“Your highness, we really have to—”
I silence Nate with the raise of a hand.
“I have to go, Jessica.”
Her shoulders sag just an inch before she straightens her back. She gives a sharp nod and her chin quivers slightly before I speak again.
“Come with me.”
She lets out a short burst of laughter and her forehead wrinkles with disbelief. “Go with you where?”
I suck in a deep breath. There’s no goddamn way she’s going to agree to this. She probably hasn’t even heard of Saintland, unlike the media hounds outside.
“Listen,” I begin, keeping my voice even despite the rising pressure I feel to get out of here. “I know this may sound a little farfetched to you, but in my home country of Saintland, which occupies an area of land formerly—” I stop myself. “In Saintland, I am second in line to the throne.
My heart is in my throat. All I know is that in this moment I can’t leave things unfinished with her. If I go back to Saintland now, I may never get another opportunity like this, and even if I do, a woman like Jessica will have found a replacement by then. I can’t find adequate words to convey to her how badly I need to continue this conversation with her, until we find out where what we have together leads…or how badly I need one more night with her in my bed.
“If you come with me now, we can sort all of this out. And if we decide…no matter what we decide, you’re free to come back whenever you’d like. But right now I absolutely must go.”
She looks into my eyes, and the room is so still that I can feel my heart thudding in my chest.
Her lips part.
I prepare for a crushing blow. My heart feels like it’s about to combust.
She takes one deep breath, and then gives her answer.
“I’ll come with you.”
Chapter 13
Jessica
The sheer adrenaline fueling our actions over the next couple of hours makes it nearly impossible for me to think. We spend them hustling through the building in last night’s clothes, racing across town in a town car driven at breakneck speeds by Alec’s bodyguard and driver Nate, hastily scrambling up to my apartment to find an outfit suitable for air travel—“Just get a few things, Jessica—we can buy anything you need in Saintland”—, making several phone calls to the Saintland equivalent of the State Department to sort out a last-minute Visa for me, and sprinting through customs to catch the only outgoing flight of the day.
It’s not until we reach cruising altitude, Alec holding my hand in first class, that I catch my breath.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” he says into my hair, and I lean my head against his shoulder, breathing in his masculine scent that I’ve come to love.
I’m quiet as he flips through the in-flight movie selections, but my mind is racing.
Holy shit, holy shit. What have I done?
Start at the beginning, I tell myself sternly. You’ve bought yourself some time to think, and that time is right now.
Memories of the first time I saw Alec flicker in front of my eyes. His out-of-this-world body, the confidence he exudes in every movement, the way he zeroed in on me from across the room and hasn’t looked away since. More than that, the way I felt is what has made such an impact. It doesn’t make sense—we’re still almost total strangers—but I recognized something in him almost immediately that makes my heart race, filling with unspoken promises and possibilities for the future.
And we’re not total strangers, are we? What we have is on another level, and I’m almost certain that the way we play off each other in bed, driving each other wilder the more we’re together, unable to quench our need for one another, is a reflection of something deeper than lust.
Maybe I’m kidding myself.
Maybe I’ve just made a huge mistake. I’ve up and followed a guy who claims to be a prince, and could have any woman he wants, onto a plane bound for a country halfway around the world. It’s like I’m some kind of modern-day Cinderella, only I’m not really in need of rescue. I have a nice life in New York—good friends, a steady job…
But something was missing, I hear that pesky truth-sayer singing to me in the back of my mind. Something was missing, and you know it.
Something will definitely be missing now if this doesn’t work out. People will think I’m missing! It’s not like I called in sick…
I bolt upright in my seat with a gasp.
“What is it?” asks Alec—Prince Alec, I remind myself—gripping my hand tighter, eyes wide with concern.