by Anne, Melody
“Excuse me, miss. Are you Adara Burnadette?”
This man was wearing a suit and tie, clearly someone official.
“Yes, that’s me,” she said, smiling at him as she wobbled a bit on the stupid bar stool.
“I’m glad I found you, Ms. Burnadette. There’s been a change in your flight,” he said, and he held out a new ticket.
Her eyes narrowed. “A change? Why?” she asked.
“Such things often happen when you fly,” he said with a trustworthy smile. “I’m sure you know that. Brave new world. Your flight will now leave from South Concourse A, gate 15. Would you like me to walk you there?”
“Um . . . do you usually do that?” she asked, scooting off the stool and finding herself staggering just a bit.
“Yes, we provide excellent customer service here.”
After placing the money she owed on the bar, plus a respectable tip, of course, she picked up her purse and her carry-on — the only baggage she had — and followed the man for what seemed like forever. But maybe that was just because she was seeing double.
When they finally approached the gate, she didn’t see many people around, but she also didn’t think much about it.
“You’re all cleared to go on, Ms. Burnadette,” the woman at the gate said after the man in the nice suit handed her the ticket.
“Wow. Nice. Thanks.”
Adara walked down the jet bridge and inside the plane, then looked around in confusion. She’d only flown once before, but the plane she’d been on had a lot more seats than this one did.
The man who had told her of the change was right behind her. “Is there something wrong?” he asked.
“This doesn’t look like what I was expecting,” she said as she moved farther inside. “And where are the other passengers?”
Maybe she really should have had that cup of coffee.
“Go ahead and take a seat. Everything will be fine, Ms. Burnadette.”
Adara’s head was starting to spin, so she plopped down in the plushest airplane seat she’d ever been on before.
“Maybe I should have some caffeine,” she muttered as she closed her eyes.
“Coming right up,” the man said.
Adara fell asleep before he made it back with her coffee.
Chapter Four
Adara’s fear of flying was working well in his favor. Chris had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to pull this absurd stunt off. He stepped into the cabin of his private jet and smiled as he saw her sleeping soundly.
“Thank you, Henry,” he said to the man who had lured her into the jet.
“You’re welcome, Your Highness. Certain events conspired to make the operation rather easy. I trust that you will have a pleasant trip.”
The man left the jet and Chris turned to his crew. “Close the doors and get this bloody thing into the air.”
He needed to make sure that she had no chance of escape. Once he was off U.S. soil, he’d be in a much better position.
He didn’t breathe evenly until the engines were fired up and the plane was taxiing away from the airport. Over the past week, he’d come to an important decision. He just couldn’t walk away from Adara. She might consider him something like a monster . . . for a short time . . . because of his . . . how to put it? Yes, not to put a fine point on it, he’d, um, kidnapped her, sort of. But these things happened, especially when his homeland was involved. And he knew she cared about him, even if she refused to admit it. He just had to prove that significant fact to her. Women could be a bit troublesome at times.
They’d been in the air for a couple of hours when she finally began to stir. He had his flight attendant pour a cup of fresh coffee and set it next to her. Adara would certainly need it.
“Where are we?”
Adara uttered that groggy question and Chris concentrated solely on her as she began to open her eyes.
“We’re just going for a little ride,” he said.
“Wait! Chris? Is that you? Or am I dreaming?”
She still wasn’t fully awake, and she definitely wasn’t putting the pieces together. Interesting. Had she been dreaming about him lately? He sure as hell had been dreaming of her.
“Just get some rest. You had a little too much to drink at the airport bar,” he said in as soothing a voice as he could manage. “Or so I’ve been told.”
“What in heaven’s name are you doing here? I’m on my way to Las Vegas.” Her eyes snapped open and she focused on him. “You’re not supposed to be here.” She looked around. “And where in the hell are the other passengers? This is a commercial flight.”
Yep, she was certainly awake now.
“We’re in my private jet, Adara.”
Her eyes grew wide. “How? I don’t understand,” she snapped, and she ripped off her seat belt and stood straight up.
He stood as well, afraid she was going to fall over. She was still wobbly.
“You . . . you . . . you . . .” She lurched toward him and stabbed him in the chest with her fingernails.
He took hold of her and sat with her struggling in his arms.
“Calm down, Adara. It was the only thing I could think of when I found out you were leaving for Las Vegas. I told you this before. I have chosen you to be my wife. You want me, of course. You know you do. I know you do.”
She froze right there in his embrace, deathly still, for several moments, and he didn’t know what else to do or say. Dammit. He’d rather hear her yelling at him again, because then he’d at least know what she was thinking. He shouldn’t care about that, but for some ridiculous reason he did.
“Will you please let me go?” she said far too calmly.
“What will happen if I do?”
“I’ll sit in my own seat, away from you, and think for a moment,” she told him between clenched teeth.
“You realize we’re in the air right now, right?”
“Yes. It’s rather obvious.” She’d tried to speak in a restrained manner, but her inner fury came through loud and clear.
“Fine, Adara. I’m going to release you now. But don’t try anything . . . as the Americans would say . . . stupid.”
“Something stupid like, let’s say, kidnapping?”
She struggled against him, and when he let her go and she jumped to her feet and backed away, she was a lot more steady now, and she was glaring at him the entire time. She’d sobered up quickly.
“You’ll find coffee next to your seat,” he told her.
The look she shot him in return was eloquent in its outrage.
She paced back and forth through the large cabin area in front of him, and nearly fell down when they hit a small pocket of turbulence.
Christopher stood up and came toward her.
“Don’t touch me, you worthless son of a–”
He interrupted her before she could complete that sentence, moving a step closer. “I just want to make sure you don’t get hurt.”
“Seriously? Are you kidding me? You’re worried about me getting hurt?” she gasped. “Maybe that was something you should have thought about before you took me against my will into your plane . . .”
“Actually, it’s a jet,” he had to point out.
“Don’t you dare try to correct me!”
“Sorry,” he said with a smile. “Damn, you are beautiful. Especially when you’re mad.”
“Really, Chris? That remark was so old school.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened those lovely eyes again, she appeared more in control of her emotions, and the look she gave him had him more curious than anything else.
He waited.
Interesting, he thought, as he watched her. One moment she was spitting fire, and then the next she was smiling, looking at him in an entirely different way. He waited to see what would c
ome next.
“Look, I’m sure you’ve had a bad day,” she said, in full-appeasement mode. “We’ve all had them. I’m sure you’re very sorry about all of this, about taking me on a plane — sorry, I mean on a jet. I’m not mad at you. Not at all. We all make mistakes. I say that we should both just forget all about this. Why don’t you tell the nice pilots to turn this thing around? We’ll land, go somewhere nice for dinner, and talk this all over in a . . . rational manner.”
It took a moment for the prince to realize what she was doing. His mouth dropped. “You think I’m crazy?” He gulped in his amazement. “You’re actually talking to me as if I deserve to be in an insane asylum? I can honestly say that’s never happened to me before.”
“No, of course I don’t think you’re crazy,” she said with a sugary-sweet smile. “I think you’re wonderful. Let’s just land and we’ll talk about relationships and that sort of thing.”
Chris considered what he wanted to say to that, but he couldn’t come up with anything. “Sit down, Adara,” he finally told her. “It’s going to be a long . . . ride. Maybe a little bumpy.”
He pushed a button. When a flight attendant immediately entered the room, he gave her a brisk order in Italian, and she left again.
The attendant hadn’t even glanced at Adara. And the captive was clearly about to break a window and take her chances on skydiving without a parachute.
“There’s no way off this jet, Adara, so you might as well relax. We will discuss our situation further when we get to our destination.”
“And where is that, Chris?” she snapped. She lurched to the farthest seat away from him. Play nice? To hell with that.
“It’s a private island that I happen to own. I want to take you there before bringing you to Rubare Collina, my country.”
When the attendant brought them each a drink — Adara’s was a fruit juice, since she refused to drink the coffee — Chris was pleased to see her down the entire thing in seconds.
She was sliding over in her seat within a quarter of an hour. He’d given her something to help her sleep, but nothing that would harm her. When they landed on his island, he would have plenty of time to show her that they were a perfect match.
She might be holding back, but her feelings for him were crystal-clear. He could see them without any effort. If she wasn’t exactly in love with him now, she would be soon. No problem.
At least that old law wasn’t still in effect, the one that would have threatened her life. Chris would never allow this woman to be harmed by anyone.
Unfortunately, her biggest threat right now wasn’t some outside force, wasn’t the Arcano — it was him.
No! He was a prince of Rubare Collina, and to be with him was an honor. She would surely come to see that.
As he watched her sleep, her body stirring a little every once in a while, he started having doubts. Maybe he should have thought this over a little bit more. Would a woman like Adara accept that he’d followed his country’s traditions when he abducted her?
Yeah, right. Would she ever forgive him for his desperate measures?
Chapter Five
Adara was fighting to emerge from the heavy fog that had enveloped her. But she couldn’t seem to pry her eyelids open.
What had happened? She was trying to put the pieces together and then images began streaking through her mind. An argument with Chris? Why? She couldn’t quite remember.
Her eyes now flashed wide open. Yes, she suddenly recollected that quarrel — on his damn jet. That’s where she was! But something was wrong. She looked in front of her, and the scene was different. Though she was still on a plane, it wasn’t the same one she’d been on before.
As she turned slowly to the left, she found Chris . . . flying the freaking plane! His shirt was unbuttoned, the sun was reflecting off his aviators, and a headset was covering his ears. He seemed to be in his element. That wasn’t inspiring anything good in her. Turning again, she gazed out the window at her right and saw nothing but bright blue skies and what seemed to be endless seas below.
“What in the world is going on?” Her voice came out hoarse, distressingly so.
Chris reached over and placed a microphone against her lips, and then he spoke, his voice coming through clearly through the headset she hadn’t realized she was wearing until just now.
“We’re not too far away. Sit back and enjoy the ride,” Chris said.
“What do you mean, we’re not too far away? And what are you doing flying this plane?”
“It’s okay. I’ve been a pilot since I was fourteen. This is only a six-seater jet, but I’m qualified to fly much bigger ones,” he said with the arrogance only a pilot seemed to possess.
“You didn’t answer my question about where we are and where we’re going.” She wasn’t going to even acknowledge the pilot situation.
“I told you earlier that we’re going to my island. We’re only about thirty minutes out now. You’ll enjoy it. It’s very peaceful there, and I’ve already had my staff stock my residence with all the necessary provisions.”
“Your staff?”
Other people would be there! Hope began brewing within her. She could explain to them that she’d been abducted, that she was there against her will with an insane man. Their boss had flipped out and thought he was a prince.
“Yes. I enjoy the privacy of the island, but I’m used to certain luxuries,” he said with a chuckle. “Food and drink among them.”
“I quite agree. I’m exactly the same way,” she said. When dealing with crazy people, pretending to go along with them was what you had to do if you had no other options.
“You’ll understand soon, Adara. You’ll understand us. Think back over our time together, and how wonderful it’s all been. I know you have feelings for me — even if you don’t want to confess to them.”
“Of course I have feelings for you, Christopher. I just need some time alone to contemplate what those feelings are.” She’d say anything now to escape from this nightmare.
If she had developed feelings for this man, she was a fool, just like her mother had told her. Of course he wasn’t the man he’d pretended to be. These bastards never were. Then again, it wasn’t as if she’d asked him any questions, so she had to share some of the blame for her predicament.
She knew nothing about where he worked or what he did in his time away from her. Heck, she didn’t even know if he had a family. She hadn’t wanted to know those things, hadn’t wanted to grow attached to the man in any way, because she’d known that the second she did, she’d be vulnerable. And to be vulnerable was something she couldn’t afford to be.
It would lead to a situation like . . . okay, like the one she was in right now. Great. She’d played this so brilliantly, she said to herself with the most impressive eye roll of her life.
Protecting her heart hadn’t helped her at all. Maybe she should have tried to get to know the man she was sleeping with, though without the sleeping part. Maybe she wouldn’t be a kidnap victim, carted off against her will to some private island. If he was even telling her the truth about that . . .
Just as Adara was ready to try another method to get Chris to stop this wacked-out flight, she turned toward him to see that he was no longer smiling.
“What’s wrong?”
“Do you smell something, Adara?” he asked. His tone of voice, normally easygoing, was now tense.
“No,” she replied, and then white smoke began filling up the cabin. Terror seized her instantly. “What is going on?”
He was silent for a moment and she didn’t think he was going to speak, but when he did, she wished that she’d just continued in a state of ignorant bliss.
“We have an electrical fire somewhere inside the plane. I have to turn the master switch off and try to isolate this issue.”
“What does that mean?”
&nb
sp; “Stay calm, my love. I know it’s difficult in such situations, but these planes are made for emergency landings. I just need to find somewhere to set her down.”
“All I see is a lot of blue,” she said. “Or green. Water, water everywhere.”
“Look over to your left. There’s an island. Not my island, but it’s something to aim for, and that’s what I’m doing. I need to call a mayday in.” He unplugged her mic, and she wasn’t able to talk with him anymore, or to listen to anything he said.
Suddenly the engine noises faded away, and the only sound Adara could hear was her own panicked breathing. The plane turned in the direction he’d pointed to, but what she saw ahead didn’t look like much of an island at all. How were they going to land on that tiny patch of earth? She stayed silent. She could hardly speak anyway, and she hoped that if she didn’t distract him, he’d have a much easier time dealing with the crisis at hand.
And yet she made the mistake of looking behind her. Through another window, a trail of smoke appeared, and though she was no pilot, she knew enough to realize what it meant — they were now running on fumes. Not good. Not good at all.
They circled down lower and lower in the sky, and the water was coming up on them far too fast. Adara swallowed heavily and clutched at the sides of her seat.
“Are we going to make it?” she yelled out.
He pulled his headset off and looked at her, grim acceptance of the inevitable in his eyes. “No. You need to brace yourself for impact.”
“How can you be so calm about this, Chris?”
“You’re in the hands of the best pilot in Rubare Collina.”
“You have a hell of a lot more faith in yourself than I do right now.”
“I will not fail. I refuse to. It’s not in my nature.”
Turning away from him yet again, she stared out the window to her right and could now see the whitecaps of the ocean, which was quickly approaching.
Before she had any chance of preparing herself, the plane hit the water. Adara’s head slammed into the side window, and then she felt nothing.
