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She didn’t remember mentioning her brother, but she must have done so. She gave one of the rare smiles that occurred when she thought of her family. “My brother is different. He has been raised to be just like my father, but he’s not. You can’t tell on the surface, but he does special things to let me know.”
“Like what?” Sebastian’s obviously genuine interest encouraged her to be more open with the truth than she would have normally.
“He spends time with me.”
“Don’t your parents?”
“My mother does…sort of.” Though the sessions spent training Lina for her station could hardly be classified as mother-daughter bonding time.
“Not your father?” Sebastian didn’t sound surprised or disapproving, simply curious.
“No. He’s far too busy to spend quality time with a mere daughter.” Though, according to her sister, their father made limited time available to his daughter still living in Marwan.
“That bothers you?”
“Wouldn’t it you?”
He looked a little startled and then shrugged. “I suppose. But in my case it was my mother that couldn’t be bothered to see me. My dad is and has always been pretty busy with his business interests, too, though.”
“And that doesn’t upset you?”
“Why should it? I’m busy with my own life.”
“So, you don’t think a family should spend time together?”
“You mean the dream of dinners together and family camping trips every summer?”
“Something like that.”
“If you’re born into a family like that, I’m sure it’s nice. But if you aren’t, you have to accept your circumstances and move forward.”
“Or change them.”
Again, he looked surprised by her comment.
“How would you do that?”
“Me, personally? I plan to marry someone who believes family is as important as I do or I won’t marry at all. I will spend time getting to know my children, if I have any. No son or daughter of mine will grow up feeling expendable.”
“You think you are expendable to your parents?”
“I know I am.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I came to the U.S. at the age of six because my mother’s older sister had been unable to conceive and it was decided that she would be given the honor of raising me. I only see my parents once a year, for a week.” She never ever gave details of her life to people, but Sebastian was different. She trusted him.
“And your brother?”
She smiled again, warmth filling her at thoughts of her brother. “When I’m staying with my parents, he makes sure we eat at least one meal together each day. And we talk. He asks about my life and listens to my answers. He praises me for my grades and other things. He’s the only person in my family who knows that I was on the kayaking team at school. He also makes sure he comes to visit me every time he is in America. My father flies to Washington, D.C., at least twice a year, but he’s never once made the additional effort to come see me as well. Even when he and my brother are traveling together and Hasim makes arrangements to do so.”
“I’m sure he’s confident that you are well taken care of by your aunt and uncle.”
“I am. I don’t want to denigrate them in any way to you. My aunt is sweet, if a bit reserved, and my uncle is much more open to new ideas than my father, having been raised himself in Canada. He was a third son.
Though sometimes family attitudes still show, I was allowed to attend university only at his insistence. If it had been up to my parents, I would have gone to a finishing school in Europe.” Even after her father had agreed to her university education, Lina had taken the added precaution of pursuing United States citizenship as soon as she turned eighteen.
It had taken her two years and had been the reason she’d learned to ditch her bodyguard as well as how to get out of her home undetected. She had two sets of papers. Her Marwanian papers, which she used traveling under the aegis of her country’s ruling family. She also had legitimate U.S. passport and citizenship papers, which her family knew nothing about.
As a Marwanian citizen, her father had had final say over anything and everything in her life, no matter what her age. That was not true for all Marwanian women, but as a member of the ruling family, she could not legally act without her father’s permission. However, as an adult U.S. Citizen, her freedoms were numerous including the right to refuse to return to Marwan if it became necessary.
“But your relationship with your parents makes you unhappy?”
“My lack of a relationship. Like I said, if I have children, I want a different life for them.”
“I am sure you will succeed at whatever you set your mind to.”
She gave him a glowing smile. She was definitely falling in love with this man. “Thank you.”
* * *
When they arrived at the cabins the kayaking group was staying in, Hawk noticed only one other car there. It turned out to be Bob’s. He and three more members of the group were still unloading. Hawk made sure that he was in one of the bedrooms of the cabin Lina was staying in. He noticed that Bob did, too. In fact, they were sharing the room. Which worked for Hawk. He was a fan of efficiency and this would allow him to keep an eye on both the princess and her wannabe hook-up.
Lina was sharing her room with one of the other coeds. A blonde who looked like a pinup and talked like
G. I. Jane. Lina told Hawk when they were reconnoitering the lake (well he was surveying their environment, Lina was just walking) that the blonde was former military and had just started university this semester.
Hawk had known that from his agency’s reports. What he hadn’t known was that Lina’s admiration for the other woman’s independence and lifestyle bordered on hero-worship.
“She’s been to seedy bars in more countries of the world than I’ve even visited.”
“And you see this as a good thing?” Hawk asked.
Lina’s laugh was joyous and too damned appealing to his libido. “Yes. My life has been so sheltered. A weekend like this is as about as adventurous as I’ve ever gotten.”
“But you want more adventure?” Hawk asked with a sinking feeling. If her family didn’t beef up Lina’s security, she would get that adventure. She was too resourceful not to.
“Yes. I want to travel. I want to do things…help people. See the world, but not as a member of…um…the privileged classes. As someone trying to make a difference.”
“You make it sound like you want to join the Peace Corps.”
“That’s one of my dreams, but I doubt I’ll ever realize it.”
Hawk had to take a deep breath or choke on his surprise. A princess in the Peace Corps? He didn’t think so. “If you can’t have a dream, find a practical replacement.” Like donating money to worthy causes. That was something a princess could do without causing a political incident.
Lina stopped walking and stared out over the lake, her expression thoughtful. Hawk stopped, too…but he watched his princess. Her golden skin glowing in the sunlight, her perfect features shone with a beauty that took his breath away. Of its own volition, his hand reached out and brushed her hair away from her face.
She shifted slightly so their eyes met, her velvet-brown irises drawing him in, her smile tempting him to taste her lips. Her head tilted; his dipped until their lips barely brushed. Electricity jolted through him at the contact, freezing time around them. Neither moved. They did not deepen the kiss, but nor did they move apart. Both stood in a paralysis of feeling he knew he had never experienced and suspected she had not, either.
They were only linked physically in two places—his lips barely touching hers and his hand still against her cheek—but he felt the connection in a place deep inside that he had not even known existed.
“Hey, you two.” Bob’s voice brought Hawk abruptly to his senses.
Yanking his hand away from her cheek, Hawk stepped away from Lina.
What the hell was he doing? He hadn’t even heard Bob’s approach. This was totally out of line. He would fire an operative for being so sloppy. If Bob had been a threat, Lina could be dead right now. Cold chills chased along his skin.
He was here to protect Lina, not make love to her. Or moon over her like some lovesick calf. He was not the mooning type.
Maybe he needed a vacation. One filled with discreet liaisons that would rid his mind of his…the princess’s image.
One thing he knew with certainty. The idealistic pocket-size Venus was turning out to be a weakness he could not afford, “Hi, Bob.” Lina’s voice was softer than normal and her eyes were unfocused.
Hawk had to suppress a groan. This thing was getting totally out of hand. It alreadywas, a taunting voice whispered inside his head. Bob gave them both a knowing look. “This is supposed to be a sports trip, not a romantic getaway.”
Sebastian glared at Bob. As if jock-boy wouldn’t take advantage if he got the chance. And he’d have a hell of a lot less scruples about it than Sebastian did.
Lina looked away, her cheeks going an adorable pink.
“Was there something you wanted, Bob?” Hawk asked. Trying to forget that the word adorable was not usually part of his vocabulary and that he had applied it to a client.
“Just thought I’d check the lake out. We’ll start out on the smooth water tomorrow morning. Assess everyone’s skill level, then move to the river after lunch tomorrow.” He gave Hawk a significant look. “That is provided we’re all ready to move to the river.”
Hawk was about to assure the other man that he would be ready when Lina spoke up. “If Sebastian isn’t comfortable enough for moving water, I’ll stay on the lake with him in the afternoon.”
And just like that, Hawk’s plans for proving his proficiency changed. “If you’re sure you won’t mind,” he said.
Bob frowned. “That’s hardly fair to you, babe. I’m sure one of the other experienced kayakers would be willing to stay with him.”
Hawk noticed Bob didn’t volunteer.
Lina’s features set in what was becoming a familiar look of stubbornness. “Don’t be silly. I invited Sebastian to come on the trip. I promised him I would teach him and I will.”
Which was exactly what she did. Hawk’s previous experience canoeing made learning the balance and movement of the kayak easier, but Lina was also a good teacher and could take most of the credit for his proficiency by afternoon. He was careful to dump into the water a couple of times though to lend credence to his request to stay on the lake for the rest of the day.
They all ate lunch together in the biggest cabin. Lina was animated and grinning most of the time, praising him for his efforts and complimenting the others on their techniques. She and her roommate got into a discussion of what their most challenging kayaking course had been. And that’s when he learned that Lina had come very near to drowning once, sending a sick feeling through him.
Her senior year of high school, while on a very difficult race course, another kayaker had dumped. She’d bumped her head and hadn’t come up. Lina dove into the white water to save her. Both girls had come close to drowning, but Lina had managed to get them to shore.
Hawk experienced an unexpected, unfamiliar, and not to mention totally irrational fear as Lina recounted her story. That fear did not dissipate when Lina looked on with wide-eyed wonder and no small amount of interest when her G.I. Jane roommate recounted shooting the rapids on the Yangtze River. Damn…if Lina’s family didn’t do something soon, she was going to get herself killed in her search for adventure.
She needed a husband to watch over her.
Heaven knew her father, uncle and their hired security weren’t doing a good enough job. Unreasoning black anger washed over Hawk at the thought of a protective male in Lina’s life that was not him. He dismissed the image of Lina in some faceless man’s arms with a vicious precision he refused to analyze.
CHAPTER THREE
HE AND Lina finished on the lake before the others returned from the river and she suggested going swimming.
“Haven’t you spent enough time in the water?” Hawk asked, having to admit privately that he had enjoyed his time on the water more than he ever had in the past.
Lina shrugged, smiling. “I love water. Maybe I should have been born a dolphin.”
“Oh, no. I think you make a perfect woman.” Hawk had to stifle a growl. He should not have said that. Things were getting out of hand with his princess. But he couldn’t deny the warmth that shot through him as her smile increased wattage. “Thank you,” she said happily without a hint of a woman’s usual coyness at such a compliment.
They pulled the kayaks up onto the shore, took off their slim life vests and jumped back into the water. At least he did, but when he turned to see where Lina was, she was on the beach still, peeling off the Neoprene suit she’d been wearing to kayak in. The very brief bikini she wore underneath made the air stall in Hawk’s chest.
Damn. She had a luscious figure. Her breasts were a little oversized, her waist tiny above the flare of her hips, her legs toned and smooth. And that damned scrap of cloth that passed for bikini bottoms showed way more skin than it covered and clung to the perfect curve of her backside. She kicked the wet suit aside and walked back into the water.
She stopped a few feet from him, her head cocked to one side, her doe-brown gaze questioning. “Something wrong?”
“Uh—” He had to clear his throat. “No. Nothing. You sure you don’t want to wear your Neoprene to swim in? It’s warm for spring, but not exactly hot out here.”
“I’m fine.” But she shuddered with a full body shiver, belying her words. She smiled self-deprecatingly. “Well, I’ll warm up swimming, anyway.”
Her body was covered in goose bumps, but it was the hard nubs of her nipples behind her scant bikini top that drew his gaze.
And held it.
He watched in inescapable fascination as the wet lycra of her swimsuit did nothing to hide how the already hardened pebbles tightened into fine points.
“Sebastian…” The husky desire mixed with confusion in her voice was a potent aphrodisiac.
She wanted him and didn’t know what to do with that need. What man would not be drawn by that combination of innocence and feminine awakening?
She did not move, her body frozen there, half in the water. Her breathing increased to pants, further revealing arousal so unfamiliar to her. Her small hands fisted at her sides, her knuckles turning white.
Had any woman exhibited such intense desire for him?
Perhaps it was the result of Lina’s innocence. Hawk hadn’t had a virgin since high school. He had a strict policy of keeping his liaisons limited to experienced women who weren’t looking for a relationship much less a lifelong commitment.
So, what the hell was he doing looking at Lina like a wolf did his prey?
He forced his gaze to lift to hers. And it was worse. The evidence of her interest in him shone brightly in her doe-brown eyes. Damn it.
Unblinking, her gaze fixed to his, she bit her bottom lip and damn if he didn’t want to replace her teeth with his.
If he didn’t do something soon, he was going to end up giving her her first time right here in the lake. His entire body vibrated with the need to go to her.
It took every ounce of his formidable self-control to turn and dive into the cold water. When he came up fifteen yards from the shore, she was only a few feet behind him.
Treading water, she grinned. “You aren’t supposed to dunk yourself, don’t you know that?”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really.” Without further warning, she launched herself toward him.
Her hands pushed against his head and he let himself go under as his training took over and he used her momentum to get her into a hold she had no hope of getting out of. He brought them both up, breaking above the water to the trill of her laughter.
