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He lifted his lips a fraction and murmured, “I’ve missed you. Can we take this someplace more private?”
Her smile curved against his cheek and she nodded.
Grasping her hand, he pulled her in the direction of the newly returned town car, settled her in the backseat and nearly dived in after her.
He’d never been able to resist her, and now he didn’t have to.
Somehow, Finn had been granted a reprieve. The king hadn’t phoned him to demand an explanation for the photographs from last night. Now he had this one chance to recapture a small slice of heaven before submitting to an arranged marriage.
He’d hoped, against all logical reason, that the woman Elise matched him with could heal his broken heart. The odds of that happening with the woman who’d smashed it in the first place were zilch. Especially since he’d never in a million years give it to her again.
So he’d grant EA International another chance. Once he had a new bride by his side, the public would forget about the Party Prince and he could become known for something worthwhile.
The People’s Prince. He liked the sound of that.
In the meantime, he could have Juliet...and all the good things about their relationship. Without getting into the painful past.
“So I take it you thought dinner went well?” he asked with a grin he couldn’t have wiped off his face for anything. “You know, since you agreed to a repeat of the kiss.”
Her hair was a little mussed from his fingers. He itched to pull out all the pins and let those silky locks tumble over him.
“I’m staying open to where the night leads. But it’s been good so far.” She studied him speculatively. “We’re not fighting. We’re connecting, like you said.”
They weren’t fighting because they’d thus far avoided the problem. And he was totally prepared to keep avoiding history with a capital H for as long as possible. “If this driver would step on it, we’d be connecting a whole lot more.”
She laughed. “We have all night. But while we’re on the subject, does connecting mean you’re open to being on my side this time around?”
Apparently she did not subscribe to the same desire for avoidance of the past. “I’ve always been on your side.”
“If that was true, you’d never have taken the stance you did.” Her expression closed in. “You’d have supported me and my family when we tried to talk to your father.”
That was the Juliet he’d last seen in Delamer. His stomach dipped. The connection part of the evening appeared to be over.
“You say that like I had no choice, like I had to agree with you or it equaled lack of support.” But that’s how he’d felt, as well. As if she couldn’t see his side. Instantly, it all came roaring back. All the hurt and anger he’d been living with for a very long year. “You didn’t support me either. And I never asked you to go against everything you believed in.”
She yanked her hand from his. The heat in her expression reminded him she got just as passionate about taking his head off when they clashed.
So much for dinner going well.
“That’s exactly what you wanted me to do.” A lone tear tracked down Juliet’s face and his gut clenched. It hurt to see someone as strong as Juliet crying. “Forget about Bernard and support you every day as you put on the uniform of the Delamer military. Every day, I’d be reminded Bernard died wearing the same uniform and I did nothing to avenge that. Every day, I’d be reminded you chose to stand with the crown instead of with me.”
The car stopped at the private entrance to his hotel. It was positioned discreetly in the secluded rear section of the property, off to the side of the underground parking garage.
Finn didn’t get out. This wasn’t finished, not even close.
“Vengeance well describes it. You humiliated me. That protest garnered the attention of the entire world. Juliet—” Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. They should have recorded this conversation and played it back, saving them the trouble of having it again. “I’m a member of the House of Couronne. You burned the flag of the country my family rules while we were dating. How can you not see what that did to me?”
Not to mention the man she’d vilified was his father. He loved his father, loved his country. She’d wanted him to choose her over honor.
“My family is forever changed because of your father’s policies. Bernard is gone and—” Her voice seized, choking off the rest. After a moment, she stared up at him through watery eyes laced with devastation. “A man who claimed to love me would have understood. He would have done anything to make that right.”
But he wasn’t just a man and never would be. He could no sooner remove the royal blood in his veins than he could fly blindfolded.
The tearing in his chest felt as if it was on repeat, as well. “A woman who claimed to love me would have realized I have an obligation to the crown, whether it’s on my head or not. I don’t get the choice to be someone other than Prince Alain Phineas of Montagne, Duke of Marechal, House of Couronne.”
He belonged to one of the last royal houses of Europe and he owed it to his ancestors to preserve the country they’d left in his care. No matter how antiquated the notion became in an increasingly modern world.
Now he was ready to get out of the car. To be somewhere she wasn’t. That was one thing that hadn’t changed—Juliet causing him to feel a touch insane as he veered between extreme highs and lows very quickly. She followed him to the curb, clearly determined to continue twisting the spike through his heart.
“I never wanted you to be someone else. I loved you.”
Past tense. It didn’t escape his notice.
“You meant everything to me, Finn. But it’s peacetime. The mandatory military service law is ridiculous. Why can’t you see that your royal obligation is to stop being so stubborn and think about people’s lives?”
“For the same reason you can’t see that the military is mine,” he said quietly.
He’d never wear the crown. Flying helicopters was the one thing he could do that Alexander, as the crown prince, couldn’t. Juliet’s refusal to get out from under her righteous indignation prevented her from taking his side.
She was the stubborn one.
Anger coated the back of his throat. Juliet was still the same crusader under the cosmetics and sexy dress. She was still determined to alter the heart of the institution to which he’d sworn loyalty.
Suddenly, it was all too easy to resist her. He didn’t have the slightest interest in rehashing all of this for the rest of the night, regardless of the more tangible rewards. He’d never bowed to anyone before and he wasn’t about to start now.
Arms crossed against her abdomen, Juliet stared dry-eyed at the unoccupied valet booth behind Finn. “I think it’s safe to say the date was not a success.”
“I’ll have the driver take you back to Elise’s house.” Finn tapped on the passenger-side window.
The squeal of tires on cement reverberated through the quiet underground lot. A van sped down the ramp and wedged tight against the rear bumper of Finn’s hired car. Four men with distinctly shaved heads, beefy physiques and dark clothing jumped out, trouble written all over them.
“Juliet, get in the car,” Finn muttered, angling his body to shield her as the men advanced on them.
He never should have given his security guys the night off.
It was the last thing he registered as the world went black.
Four (#ua99c6a2f-3c53-56a6-a53d-40bd8a451e1a)
Grit scraped at Juliet’s eyeballs. She tried to lift a hand to rub them. And couldn’t.
Heavy fog weighed down her brain. Something was wrong. She couldn’t see and her hands weren’t working. Or her arms.
Rapid blinking didn’t improve her eyesight. It was so dark.
She never drank enough alcohol to be this fuzzy about her current whereabouts...and how she’d gotten there...and what had happened prior to.
“Juliet. Can you hear me?” Finn’s voice. It washed over her, tripping a hodgepodge of memories, most of them X-rated.
Finn’s voice in the dark equaled one activity and one activity only. Pleasure, the feel of his skin on hers, urgency of the highest order to fly into the heavens with him—
Wait. What was Finn doing here?
“Yeah,” she mumbled thickly. “I hear you.”
Pain split through her brain the moment her jaw moved, cutting off her speech, her thoughts, even her breath. Inhaling sharply, she rolled to shift positions—or tried to.
Her muscles refused to cooperate. “What’s...going on?”
“Tranquilizer,” Finn explained grimly and spit out a nasty curse in French. “I think they must have used the same dose on both of us.”
The sinister-looking men. An unmarked van. The date with so much promise that ended badly. And then got worse.
Juliet groaned. “What? Why did they give us tranquilizers?”
“So they could snatch us without a fight,” Finn growled. “And they should be thanking their lucky stars they did. Otherwise I would have removed their spleens with a tire iron.”
Snippets of dinner with Finn flashed through her mind. Okay, good. So she hadn’t lost her memory and she wasn’t suffering from the effects of a hangover. “We were kidnapped? Stuff like that only happens in the movies.”
“Welcome to reality.” The heavy sarcasm meant he was frustrated. And maybe a little worried. That didn’t bode well. Finn always knew what to do.
Shifting along her right side indicated his general vicinity. Not too far away. “Can you move? Are we tied up?”
It was hard for her to tell. Everything was numb. That’s why she couldn’t move. She’d been drugged. And blinded, maybe forever.
What sort of scheme had she stumbled into simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong companion?
A strong, masculine hand smoothed hair from her face, throwing her back to another time and place where that happened with frequency.
“Nah,” Finn said. “They shot us up with enough narcotics that they didn’t need to tie us up. I’m okay. The cocktail didn’t affect me nearly as long as it did you.”
Gray invaded her vision and got lighter and lighter with each passing moment. Thank goodness. “Where are we?”
“Not sure. In a house of some sort. I was afraid to leave you alone in case you needed CPR, or the welcoming committee showed up, so I didn’t do more than look out the window.”
A fuzzy Finn swam through her eyesight, along with a few background details. White walls. Bed.
Finn held her hand. She squeezed, gratified that her fingers had actually responded, and then licked dry lips. “Guards?”
“Not that I can tell. I haven’t seen anyone since I regained consciousness.” Finn nodded to a door. “As soon as you can walk, we’ll see what’s what.”
“Help me sit up,” she implored him.
Finn’s arm came around her waist and she slumped against him. Two tries later, her legs swung off the bed and thumped to the floor.
Barefoot. Had they taken her shoes? She wasn’t even completely over the sticker shock at the price of those ivory alligator sandals and now they were probably in a Dumpster somewhere. And she’d actually kind of liked them.
“Now help me stand,” she said. Their captors might return at any moment and they both needed to be prepared. Sure Finn was stronger and better trained, but she was mad enough to take out at least one.
Finn shook his head. “There’s no prize for Fastest Recovery After Being Tranquilized. Take your time.”
“I want to get out of here. The faster we figure out what that’s going to take, the better.” Throbbing behind her eyes distracted her for a moment, but she ignored it as best she could. “How far do you think they took us from your hotel?”
Elise would be worried. Maybe she’d already called the police and even now, SWAT teams were tearing apart Dallas in search of Prince Alain.
Or...Elise might be smugly certain she’d staged the match of the century and assume they’d gotten so wrapped up in each other, Juliet had forgotten to call. The matchmaker probably didn’t realize they were missing yet.
“There’s only one way to find out where we are. Come on.” Finn took one step and her knees buckled.
Without missing a beat, he swept her up in his strong arms and she almost sighed at the shamefully romantic gesture.
Except he was still the Prince of Pigheadedness. Why had she ever thought she could marry him—even under the guise of changing Delamer policy from the inside?
Finn deposited her easily on the pale blue counterpane and kept a light but firm hand on her shoulder so she couldn’t sit up. “It’s early afternoon, if the daylight outside the window is any indication. We’ve probably been captives for about eighteen hours. The entire Delamer armed forces are likely already on their way to assist the local authorities. Stay here and I’ll go figure out the lay of the land.”
“You’re not the boss just because you’re a boy.”
He scowled. “I’m not trying to be the boss. I’m trying to keep you from cracking your stubborn head open. If you think you can walk, be my guest.”
With a flourish, he gestured toward the door.
Now she had to do it, if for no other reason than to prove His Highness wrong. Slowly, she wobbled upright and took excruciatingly slow steps, one in front of the other.
The door opened easily, despite her certainty that she’d find it locked. It swung open to reveal a bare hallway. “Let’s go.”
She’d almost taken an entire step across the threshold when Finn leaped in front like her own personal bulletproof vest.
She rolled her eyes. Of course. Bullets bounced off the perpetually arrogant all the time, right?
“Don’t you have any sense?” he growled in her ear. “This is a dangerous situation.”
If the kidnappers had wanted to harm them, they would have. Finn was more valuable alive than dead. “If anything dangerous is lurking in these halls, it’s going to get you first. Then who will protect me?”
“What makes you so certain I’d lose?” he whispered over his shoulder as he flowed noiselessly away from the bedroom. He’d always moved with elegant flair, but this cloak-and-dagger-style grace was sexier than she’d like to admit.
She dogged his steps, tearing her gaze from his spectacular backside with difficulty. “A hunch. If the kidnappers had tranquilizers, they probably have guns. Unless you think they’re in this for the opportunity to have afternoon tea with royalty.”
“Shh.” He halted where the hallway ended in a large room and poked his head out to scan the space with a double sweep. “All clear.”
An inviting living area with a fireplace and high-end furniture opened up around her as she stepped out of the hall. “This is not what I would have envisioned as a place to keep captives.”
A breathtaking panorama of sparkling sea unfolded beyond a wall of glass. The house perched on a low cliff overlooking the water. That particular shade of blue was etched on her heart, and her breath caught.
“We’re not in Dallas anymore,” Finn announced needlessly. “And those were some serious drugs the kidnappers used if they brought us clear across the Atlantic without me realizing it.”
“We’re on an island.”
She was home. Back on the Mediterranean, close to everything she loved. She’d sailed these waters often enough to recognize the hills rising behind the city, the coastal landscape.
