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“UCLA?” he asked.
She shook her head, but said nothing to enlighten him, as if she didn’t want to tell him what school she attended.
“USC?” he tried again.
And again she shook her head. Then, clearly reluctant to divulge even a vague direction to her place of learning, she told him, “I attend a small private college near Santa Barbara.”
Woo, now they were gettin’ somewhere, Shane thought. That was just so specific. “But you’re not American, obviously,” he said, wanting to know more about her, even if she was evasive and starchy and refined and wearing a pink sweater.
“No, I’m from Penwyck originally,” she told him. Adding nothing more to enlighten him.
“You grew up there?”
“Yes,” she said. And nothing more.
“So…” he tried again. “What brought you to the States?”
“That small, private college near Santa Barbara,” she told him.
“You couldn’t major in your specialty in Penwyck?”
When she smiled this time, it was in a way that made Shane think she knew something he didn’t know, and that she got great pleasure in the knowing of it. “You could say that,” she said. Evasively. Starchily. Refinedly. Pink sweaterishly.
Shane narrowed his eyes at her. Just what was she trying to hide? he wondered. What could she possibly be studying here that she couldn’t study in her homeland? Especially since she looked like the kind of woman who would major in English or library science or home ec. Surely they had those things in Penwyck.
“So,” he began again.
“Mr. Cordello, I don’t wish to be impolite, but I do have finals next month and quite a bit of work to do before they arrive. Since I’m obligated to miss my classes for the rest of this week, I thought the least I might do was take advantage of our flight to get in some study time.”
In other words, Shane translated, Leave me the hell alone.
He lifted both hands, palm out, in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry,” he said, finding it hard to feel apologetic. “Don’t want to distract you from your studies. I’ll just, um—” he glanced at the call button on the arm of his seat “—summon the attendant. How will that be?”
And before Miss Pink Sweater, Finals-to-Study-For Wallington could say another word, one of the flight attendants appeared at Shane’s side, obviously ready at his beck and call. And although she was by no means a princess—unlike some people, he thought morosely—the attendant was quite…fetching. Fetching in the dark, curvy way he liked for women to be fetching, too, and not wearing a pink sweater and pearls. Fetching enough that she might very well make the next sixteen hours more bearable. If Shane played his cards right.
Sara read over page 548 of Detente and Diplomacy for a New Millennium for perhaps the sixteenth time and tried not to notice how tantalizing was the sound of Shane Cordello’s rough, rich laughter. It was much more appealing than the flight attendant’s laughter—which Sara found much too high-pitched and much too obvious—that was certain. And Sara should know. She’d been listening to both of them laugh for the better part of fourteen hours now.
Of course, there had been a few breaks in the hilarity during that length of time, periods when Sara and Mr. Cordello had slept with dubious success, and periods when the jet had landed to refuel and restock, and periods when the cabin crew had taken breaks. But for the most part, Shane Cordello and Fawn the flight attendant—honestly, Sara thought, as if anyone on board actually believed that was her real name—had gotten on swimmingly. And if there had been moments when Sara had found herself grinding her teeth and swallowing her irritation, well… It was only because Fawn had one of those tittering laughs that could drive any sane person to drink.
Of course, Sara realized she had only herself to blame. She had, after all, fairly chased Mr. Cordello into Fawn’s clutches by treating him so shabbily since meeting him. But she hadn’t been able to help herself. He confused her, made her feel things she wasn’t used to feeling, things she didn’t want to feel. In doing so, he’d raised her defenses, as well. And when Sara’s defenses were raised, she wasn’t the most accommodating person in the world. No, actually, she was the most fearful. And her fear always made her behave badly.
Oh, when would they be landing? she wondered, checking her watch. It was now nearing 3:00 p.m. Thursday, West Coast time, so they must be within two hours of Penwyck. Absently, she adjusted the time on her watch to reflect the Meridian Time Zone, which would now put them at 10:45 p.m. Penwyck time.
She’d probably do well to try and sneak in another nap before they landed, she thought, since she would no doubt have little opportunity to really sleep until dawn. Once the jet landed—in the dead of night, she couldn’t help reminding herself morosely—she and Mr. Cordello would be met by members of the Royal Intelligence Institute. But she was under royal edict to stay with Mr. Cordello herself until she could hand-deliver him to Queen Marissa and his brother. Those two would almost certainly be in bed asleep by the time they arrived, which meant that Sara would be obligated to keep an eye on Mr. Cordello until morning. They could eat a proper meal at the palace, she thought, then exchange pleasantries until Her Majesty joined them. Or, if Mr. Cordello wanted to sleep himself, Sara could… She sighed heavily. She supposed she could stand in the doorway of his room and watch him sleep. Because she had promised Queen Marissa she would not leave the man’s side until he was safely delivered to Her Majesty.
Sara reached for her cup of Earl Grey, then decided that she’d consumed enough tea on this flight to float the entire India Company, and that a glass of champagne would be most welcome now. She pushed the buzzer to summon the attendant—oh, what rotten luck, it was Fawn on duty, and now the poor thing would be forced to end her conversation…and effusive tittering…with Shane Cordello—in an effort to order a drink. And although poor Fawn did her best to hide her irritation at being so put-upon as to perform her job, it seemed to take an inordinate amount of time for Sara to finally get her drink.
Honestly. Good help was so hard to find these days.
As Fawn—the darling girl—retreated to the minibar, Shane Cordello returned to his seat opposite Sara’s. He was wearing a smile that was much too smug for her liking, but he didn’t seem too much the worse for wear. He did look tired, though, Sara noted, his hair rumpled—adorably so, she couldn’t help thinking—and faint purple crescents smudging his eyes. She doubted she looked much better, having worn the same clothes for more than twenty-four hours now, but somehow, he didn’t make her feel as if she should be discomfited by the fact. His own white T-shirt and jeans were as rumpled as his hair, but on him, somehow, the look worked to his advantage.
All in all, Sara thought, with his untidy clothes and his tousled hair and his heavy-lidded eyes, and his day’s growth of dark beard, he looked like a man who wanted to collapse into bed…with a willing woman…and get absolutely no sleep while he was there.
A strange, languorous heat wound through her as she envisioned him doing exactly that, with—oh, dear—herself cast in the role of the willing woman. Immediately, Sara banished the graphic image from her brain. But remnants of it lingered, scorching the edges of her mind, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t banish it completely.
“So, Miss Wallington,” Mr. Cordello began in that luscious voice, smiling his delicious smile, “how much longer ’til we get there?”
Sara lifted her champagne to her mouth for a quick—but substantial—sip. “Not too, I should think,” she told him when she completed the action, the velvety liquid warming her throat, her chest, her belly and points beyond. Oh, no, wait, she thought. It wasn’t the champagne warming those points beyond. No, it was Shane Cordello’s smile that was doing that. Oh, dear. “No, ah…no more than an hour or two I would imagine,” she managed to add in a voice that she was relieved to realize didn’t make her sound too awfully feeble-minded.
His smile seemed to grow even more dangerous somehow, and Sara couldn’t help thinking that he had almost certainly picked up on that points beyond business. Probably because of her not too awfully feeble-minded voice.
His verbal response, however, wasn’t quite in keeping with that dangerous smile. “Wanna play Twenty Questions?” he asked.
Sara arched her brows curiously. “I beg your pardon?”
Mr. Cordello lifted his shoulders and let them drop in a shrug that she supposed he meant to look casual, but somehow it didn’t. “Twenty Questions,” he repeated. “It’s a game my brother and I used to play as kids to pass the time on long car trips.” His expression went a bit grim when he added, “Or to drown out the noise of our parents’ shouting at each other there at the end.”
Tactfully, Sara pretended she hadn’t heard that last part, and focused on the first part instead. “You and your brother must be very close. Being twins and all, I mean.”
“Actually, our closeness has less to do with being twins than it does being cast adrift at an early age.”
“I’m not sure I follow you,” Sara said.
“Our folks split up when Marcus and I were nine. Marcus went to live with our father, and I went to live with our mother.”
A pang of something sharp and unpleasant twisted Sara’s midsection, and she was surprised to realize how very much she cared about what had happened to this man she had only just met. “That must have been very difficult for you both,” she said softly.
He expelled an exasperated sound. “To put it mildly. We were able to spend a month together every summer, but it never felt like enough. Even now, I wish we had more time to spend together.”
“Yet, as adults, you live hundreds of miles away from each other,” Sara couldn’t help pointing out.
Mr. Cordello shrugged again, almost apologetically this time. “My mother has made Southern California her home, and I don’t want to be too far away from her. She’s—” He halted abruptly.
“What?” Sara asked before she could stop herself, knowing it was impolite to pry. Even if Mr. Cordello had been the one to bring it up.
He expelled a weary breath. “She’s… She’s not very… She has a habit of…” Now he uttered a restless sound. “Let me put it this way. She’s on husband number five, and none of them since my father have been much of a prize. Even my father didn’t do right by her, as far as I’m concerned. But at least he loved her. For a while. She’s just not good at taking care of herself,” he finally concluded. “She needs someone close by to keep an eye on her. On things,” he quickly corrected himself. “So as long as she calls L.A. home, that’s where I’ll be, too.”
Something inside Sara turned over a little bit at hearing his admission. He was a good son. He wanted to make certain his mother was well cared for. In spite of his rough outward appearance, he had a protective, gentle streak inside. She never would have guessed that. And knowing it now…
Well. Knowing it now only made him that much more dangerous, Sara thought. Because it made him that much more appealing. That much more interesting. That much more likable. And she couldn’t afford to like Shane Cordello. She just couldn’t. Circumstances being what they were, it couldn’t possibly go anywhere. She had a career all mapped out, one she hadn’t even had the opportunity to embark upon yet, and it did not include the addition of another human being in her life. And Mr. Cordello might very well be embarking on a new career of his own—heir to a kingdom—one that would turn his entire life upside down. The best either of them could hope for would be something temporary at best. And what would be the point in that?
“Twenty Questions,” Sara said, backpedaling. “How is it that you play such a game?”
Mr. Cordello seemed not to understand the question at first, because he was clearly still lost in memories of his brother and his mother and the mix of everything those two created inside him. Then suddenly he smiled, a smile that was at once relieved and regretful. “I think of something, and you can ask me twenty questions that I have to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to. If you can’t guess what I’m thinking about with twenty questions, I win. If you do guess before you reach twenty, you win. Or we could do it the other way around. You think of something, and I get to ask you questions until I guess what it is you’re thinking.”
Sara gazed at him again, more studiously this time, considering his blue eyes, his full, succulent mouth, the overly long dark hair that was just begging for a woman’s fingers to sift through it. Lowering her gaze surreptitiously, she noted the way the sleeves of his T-shirt strained over salient biceps, and the rich, dark hair that sprung from the V-neck. Then higher again, over the strong column of his throat and the sculpted jaw, darkened and coarsened now by his uncivil beard. And for some reason, she found herself wondering how it would feel to have her own delicate skin abraded by his.
“Maybe you should start,” she said. “You think of something first, and I’ll ask you questions.”
Because God knew there was no way that Sara wanted him delving into her own thoughts just now.
Three
Oh, man. Shane was ninety-nine percent sure he could tell what Miss Sara Wallington was thinking right now, without having to ask her a single question. Because, whether she realized it or not, she was giving off clues like nobody’s business. Really good clues, too. Clues he wanted very badly to pick up and run with. Maybe that washroom at the front of the cabin could prove useful after all…
The thought was just forming in his brain when the small jet suddenly gave a lurch. Automatically, Shane gripped the arms of his seat, but not before he was thrown sideways by another jolt. Then forward by another. And backward by another. Immediately, his gaze flew to Sara’s. “What the hell was that?” he asked.
She shook her head, her expression—and her ferocious stranglehold on the arms of her own seat—indicating that she was clearly as alarmed as he. But where Shane would have expected someone in a pink sweater and pearls and a bun to fasten her seat belt and start wringing her hands and muttering something like, “We’re all going to die, we’re all going to die,” what Sara Wallington did was leap up from her seat and march forward, stating in no uncertain terms, “I have no idea what the hell that was, but I intend to find out.”
No sooner had she stood, however, than the jet began to execute a fierce turn, something that threw her right back into her seat in an awkward sprawl. For one long moment, the jet banked so sharply and so swiftly that neither of them could rise from their seats. When the vessel finally did come out of the turn, though, Sara immediately jumped up again and began her forward march once more.
Shane was about to leap up right behind her when Fawn the flight attendant came striding down the aisle toward them, brushing one hand over the backs of the seats as she came, as if she were preparing for another one of the jet’s odd maneuvers. Reluctantly, he eased back into his seat, because he figured she was going to reassure them that everything was fine, they’d just hit a little turbulence, had had to change course to avoid more, and how about another Scotch or champagne to tide them over for the remainder of the flight, hmm? But instead of reassuring them, as the curvy brunette drew nearer, she whipped out a small automatic pistol and pointed it right at Sara’s heart.
All in all, it wasn’t a development that Shane had anticipated.
“You’ll do well to take your seat, Miss Wallington,” Fawn said in an even cooler, crisper tone than Sara had been using herself on this flight. And that was saying something. “Otherwise,” she added just as coldly, “I shall be obliged to shoot you.”
And again Shane’s pink-sweater-and-pearls-wearing companion surprised him. “Oh, I don’t think so,” she said coolly as she stepped forward, and in one fluid effort disarmed the other woman with a good swift kick to her hand. Without hesitation, Sara then scooped up the dropped weapon, grabbed the flight attendant and spun her around into a chokehold that would have done Hulk Hogan proud, and pointed the weapon right at Fawn’s head.
Shane’s mouth dropped open in astonishment, but before he could say a word, the other flight attendant—a man—and one of the pilots, likewise a man, appeared in the aisle beyond Sara and Fawn, each of them armed with their own weapons.
“Release her and sit down, Miss Wallington,” one of the men said.
As he spoke, Fawn began to struggle with Sara, and in the ensuing altercation, Sara dropped the pistol again, but tore the sleeve of the flight attendant’s uniform. On her exposed forearm, Fawn bore a tattoo, an ugly black dagger, which was something Shane thought an odd choice for a woman like her. He would have had her pegged for a long-stemmed rose. Or a unicorn, maybe. Something fluffy and harmless.
Until Sara, too, noted the mark and said, “I should have known. Black Knights.”
Her voice dripped with contempt when she said it, leading Shane to believe she knew exactly what she was talking about, even if he was totally clueless.
“Of course we’re Black Knights,” the male flight attendant agreed with an evil smile, holding his gun steady on Sara as Fawn scooped up the dropped weapon and did likewise with it. “Who else would we be?”
“Dissidents,” Sara said, and Shane knew she was providing the information for his benefit. “They’re traitors to the crown.”
Fawn made a soft tsking sound in objection. “Please, Miss Wallington,” she said. “We’re activists, not traitors.”
“Oh, yes, I forgot,” Sara agreed bitterly. “You actively participate in dissension, treason and terrorism. Sorry for the confusion.”
“We have a very noble cause,” Fawn told her. “We want independence for the people of Penwyck.”
“The people of Penwyck are already independent,” Sara said.
“They won’t be if this alliance with Majorco goes through,” the pilot objected. “And joining with the United States for any reason is certain to make the country dependent on the evil empire.”
“Oh, please.” It wasn’t Sara who took exception this time, but Shane. “Evil empire?” he added. “C’mon, guys. Drag yourselves into the twenty-first century already.”
But the Black Knights ignored him—except for the pilot, who aimed his pistol directly at Shane’s head.
“Fascists,” Sara spat at them. “You’ll never win, you know. Your only support comes from within. The people of Penwyck love their king and queen and trust them to do what’s best for the country, as indeed they will. You’re nothing but scum, all of you.”
At that, Fawn stepped forward, doubled her fist and backhanded Sara as hard as she could across the face. “We will succeed in our cause,” she said levelly as Sara immediately straightened again.
And Shane had to hand it to the pink sweater, because Sara didn’t so much as raise a hand to her face to acknowledge the strike. He, on the other hand, lurched out of his seat with the intention of charging Fawn, stopping only when the pilot extended his arm meaningfully, sharpening his aim. Shane honestly wasn’t sure what he’d planned to do when he’d reacted as he had. He’d certainly never considered himself to be the kind of man capable of striking a woman. But he also knew there was no way in hell he’d let anyone get away with hitting Sara Wallington.
Not unless, you know, they pulled a gun on him.
Sara extended an arm across the aisle to stop Shane from going too far, even before he stopped himself. “It’s all right,” she told him.
“The hell it is,” he retorted, still poised for attack, his entire body humming with the adrenaline that pumped through it. He couldn’t begin to understand what was going on, but the danger was clear, and he was naturally itching to do something about it. The problem was he just couldn’t imagine what to do that wouldn’t end up with a gunshot wound to either him or Sara, or both, one that might potentially be fatal.
“It’s pointless to fight them,” Sara said, clearly speaking to Shane. “They outnumber us, and they’ll kill us both without a thought.”
“Indeed we will,” Fawn said, angling her gun on Sara again.
Which, Shane had to admit, was infinitely more effective in keeping him at bay than pointing a gun at him was, something Fawn obviously realized. Dammit.
“In fact,” she added, “I don’t see why we need to keep you alive anyway. We have the diamonds we came after, after all.”
“Fawn!” the pilot rasped. “You stupid git! Don’t say another word!”
The flight attendant looked properly chastened, but a bitter fire still burned in her eyes.
“Diamonds?” Sara asked. “I’ve never known the Black Knights to take an interest in fine jewelry.”
Evidently unable to keep herself quiet, Fawn piped up again, “They’re to finance—”
“Fawn!” the pilot interjected once more. “Shut your trap.”
“Yes, do, please, Fawn,” Sara cajoled. “You’re becoming tedious.”
Fawn doubled her fist and raised her hand once more, and Shane prepared to spring forward to… Do something in retaliation. But the other flight attendant tugged Fawn backward, nudging her behind himself, and took her place instead.
“Sit,” the pilot told Sara as if he were speaking to a cowering spaniel. “Sit, Miss Wallington, or die. And if you die, then where will that leave the future king of Penwyck, eh?”
“I’m not the future king,” Shane quickly pointed out. “I’m just a construction worker from SoCal who’d rather be surfing.”
The man turned his attention to Shane and grinned an evil little smile. “Well, we don’t know that for sure, now, do we? And neither do the king and queen. Oh, you have value to us, Mr. Cordello. You have no idea how much. Now return to your seats,” the man repeated. “We’ll be landing shortly.”
“Where?” Sara demanded.
He chuckled. “As if we’d tell you.” Then he smiled. “All right. Not Penwyck. There. That should narrow it down for you.”
“And what will happen when we get there?” Sara commanded.
The man’s smile broadened. “You ask too many questions, Miss Wallington. You and Mr. Cordello are safe for the time being, provided you do exactly as you are told and don’t try to escape. But if you try anything improper, we will kill you.” He turned his icy gaze on Shane then, too. “Both of you. In the world of the Black Knights, all people are created equal, whether they be a mere student or heir to the throne.”
“Meaning all life is equally cheap to you,” Sara said flatly.
In reply, the man only turned his gaze back to her and smiled that grim smile again.
