TBAT-Christopher

by Anne, Melody

  Chapter Six

  Chris was battling to maintain a calm he didn’t feel. At all. If it were only his life on the line, this would be a thrill. He was more than confident in his skills as a pilot. But with Adara next to him, a strange new fear filled him.

  He couldn’t allow anything bad to happen to her.

  No such luck. The initial impact of the plane skipping across the water sent her head into the side window, instantly knocking her out.

  “Adara!” He shouted out her name, but he couldn’t reach for her, couldn’t do anything but sit helplessly by as the plane barreled forward.

  As they wobbled, the wing nearly hit a wave, which would have torn the aircraft apart, giving them no chance of survival. But they somehow avoided that terrible fate.

  Finally, the plane came to a stop, and Chris was able to breathe almost easily again. He’d had to shut down everything because of that damnable electrical fire. And that wasn’t the last of their problems — not by a long shot.

  Water immediately began filling the cockpit. Chris knew he had only seconds to get Adara out. He unbuckled her and did his best to wake her up, but he got no response. He pressed the handle on the door, sliding it open. More water rushed inside. Great.

  Holding Adara securely with one arm, he dived into the water and began swimming away from the rapidly sinking jet. It was replaceable. She wasn’t.

  Thankfully, they’d “landed” — “oceaned” was more like it — close to the island, so he made it to shore without further mishap, and, as he laid her on the sand, he turned to see the tail of his jet sinking below the surface of the smooth blue water.

  After catching his breath, Chris picked up Adara and carried her farther inland, to the line of trees, putting her in the shade while he waited for the rescue team to find them.

  It wouldn’t take long.

  And it didn’t. Within an hour he heard the distinct sound of a helicopter. His brothers were most likely in a panic right about now. A smile formed on his lips.

  As much as his family sometimes drove him absolutely bonkers, to use yet another slang term that he’d picked up during his time in America, he loved them all and valued them. And that was really the world he wanted to bring Adara into. Yes, he wanted to remain a prince of the realm, and he was willing to marry a little sooner than he’d intended, to keep his royal status, but it wasn’t the only thing in life now that gave him joy.

  The helicopter landed, and Xander was the first one off.

  The loud whirring kept Chris from calling out to his brother, so he waited for Xander to look in his direction. Bryan leaped out right by Xander’s side, and when his two brothers spotted Christopher at the same time, they came running.

  “We were so worried, Christopher,” Xander said. “Especially since we couldn’t see the plane when we circled down.”

  Chris replied in level tones. “I knew you’d find me.”

  They all looked toward Adara, who still hadn’t woken up. “Who is this? Does she need medical help?”

  “This is my fiancée, Adara, and she hit her head when the plane crashed into the water. I’ve done what I could to check for other injuries and haven’t found anything, but I want her seen to right away.”

  “We’re closest to your private island. Let’s move her there and have the royal physician brought in. He will advise us whether she needs to be taken to the hospital.”

  “I agree. Thank you,” Chris said. He lifted Adara and began to move toward the helicopter.

  “We’d better get out of here before the media pick up on this,” Bryan said. “Let me help you with Adara. I can take her to the helicopter for you.”

  “No!”

  When both Xander and Bryan smiled, Chris realized he’d been shouting. “Sorry,” he said more calmly. “I have her.”

  Ignoring his brothers’ assessing looks, he made his way to the helicopter with Adara in his arms, and only then handed her over — temporarily — as he climbed aboard.

  After buckling up, he insisted that she be put in his lap. She shifted — that was a good sign — and snuggled against his chest. Did she somehow realize that she was back with him and happy about it, despite their rift? That’s the way he was choosing to look at it.

  They would work through the problems they were facing in no time at all. They’d been together for a mere three months now, but it was long enough for him to know they were meant to share their lives together. Hell, his brother Xander had known the same sort of thing in no time at all, and when Bryan had decided on the one woman for him, he hadn’t waited. Maybe it was in the family DNA.

  Maybe once they knew, they knew, and there was no turning back.

  “We’ve arrived,” Bryan told him, breaking into Chris’s reveries. “The doctor is already here.”

  “Thank you, brother.”

  “We’re going to wait here with you,” Xander told him, “until you know all is well.”

  “I appreciate it.”

  They moved together into what Chris called his cabin. It was on his own island, a place he was able to retreat to, but close enough to his homeland that he could return quickly if he was needed.

  The “cabin” he’d built was five thousand square feet — modest, in his humble opinion. His staffers didn’t live there in the house, but were more like ghosts, coming and going silently, there when he needed them while giving him the privacy he desperately wanted the rest of the time. They lived nearby, in their cottages.

  “Please wait here, Your Majesty and Your Highnesses,” the doctor said.

  Chris paced the hallway, and his brothers moved along with him as they waited for the doctor to re-emerge. No one said a word. Xander and Bryan knew that it was better to offer silent support.

  When the door to Adara’s room opened, all three brothers stopped walking, and they waited for their trusted family physician to speak. It seemed like an insufferable amount of time before he did.

  “I’m sorry to keep you all waiting,” Dr. Marcello said.

  “Never mind that,” Chris replied. “Just tell me that she’s okay.”

  “She will be fine in no time at all,” the doctor told him with what he probably thought was a reassuring smile.

  “Explain further,” Chris said.

  “She’s awake . . .”

  Chris tried to push past the man, but the doctor stopped him. “Move out of my way,” the prince said in anger and frustration. “I want to speak to her.”

  “Wait one moment, Your Highness,” the doctor said firmly. Chris stopped impatiently, but he allowed the man to continue speaking. “She seems to be suffering from a form of amnesia. I expect it to be a temporary condition, but she currently has no idea who she is.”

  Chris stopped in his tracks. “She remembers nothing?” he gasped.

  “No, Your Highness. Nothing.”

  “I guess your soon-to-be bride doesn’t realize she’s about to become a bride,” Bryan said.

  Chris stopped again. “No, she can’t realize that, can she?” he said, the wheels beginning to spin in his brain.

  “What’s going on, brother?” Xander asked.

  “Nothing,” Chris answered. “It would be for the best, though, if you and Bryan left us now. I’ll need time to remind her of who I am, and I’d rather not overwhelm her with too many people, too many . . . strangers.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe it would be an even better idea for all of us to go back to Rubare Collina.”

  “No. I assure you, brother, that this is for the best. If anything at all comes up, I promise that I’ll call you immediately.”

  “I will trust you,” Xander told him, placing his hand on his youngest brother’s shoulder.

  “I disagree with Xander about leaving you here,” Bryan said, “but I do love you and I’ll honor your wishes. We are only a phone call away.” He patted
Chris’s other shoulder.

  When his brothers and the doctor walked away and out of the house, Chris took a deep breath before stepping up to Adara’s door. He could do this — could convince her they were madly in love. It was halfway true, after all.

  He did have feelings for her, and he knew she had feelings for him. Her amnesia had a surprising upside. It gave him the opportunity to prove to her that they were made for each other.

  Piece of cake, no?

  If only real life were that easy.

  Chapter Seven

  Hello, Adara.”

  Adara looked at the stunning man walking toward her and felt a small stirring in her gut, but she didn’t recognize him, not even in the slightest. How was that possible?

  She finally returned a tentative “Hello.”

  “I understand you’re frightened right now. The accident has left you with a memory disorder, the doctor said, but he has assured me that it won’t last long,” the man told her as he sat down in the chair next to her bed.

  “I’m sorry. I guess we’re supposed to know each other, but I have no idea who you are.”

  “Don’t be distressed, darling. I’m more than happy to spend as much time as you need so you can get to know me all over again.” He stood up and sat carefully down on the side of the bed and reached for her hand.

  Not wanting to spook her, he kept his movements slow, and it did the trick — she wasn’t afraid when he gripped her fingers gently. She was anything but afraid, if truth be told. As he began rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand in soothing strokes, she felt heat flickering low in her stomach.

  “Who are you?” she gasped, feeling a bit off balance, a sensation that grew more intense as he increased his efforts.

  “You might not remember exactly who I am, but I can see in your eyes that you can feel what I am to you, Adara.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and ran his lips along her knuckles before turning the hand over and kissing her palm.

  “I can feel something,” she said, and her cheeks heated.

  “Don’t be shy, my love. My name is Chris, and we’re engaged to be married. We’ve often . . . shared a bed, and soon you’ll see that we have nothing to be embarrassed about around each other.”

  She wanted to tell him to stop — tell him not to talk that way — but his words were wreaking havoc on her insides, making her also want him to keep on doing and saying the things he was. Strange.

  “I’ve tasted you many, many times, most cherished Adara. Our love life, if I may say so, is breathtaking.” Chris moved his lips to her wrist, to the exact place where her pulse was beginning to beat out of control.

  His tongue drifted out and he forged a tingling path against her skin, going up to her elbow and then back down to her wrist. She was practically moaning by the time he had finished.

  “May I lie down with you, Adara? You gave me quite a scare, and I need to hold you,” he told her, making her heart thump.

  “I . . . I kind of understand that we might have been in a relationship, but I’m afraid right now, really afraid, and this all feels brand-new to me. I’m not ready . . . I mean . . .” She stopped speaking, not knowing what to say to this man. She was worried that if she turned him down now, he would just go away, and though she wasn’t sure who he was, he did feel familiar to her. She couldn’t help but want him right there beside her.

  “I won’t make love to you tonight, my lovely Adara. I promise you that. I just need to hold you.”

  Still, he did nothing more than kiss her wrist, her fingers, her palm. He didn’t lie down, didn’t press her. And after a few moments, she felt her tension ease.

  “Yes, I think I would really enjoy it if you held me,” she told him.

  He stood, releasing her hand, and she nearly whimpered at the loss of his touch. He looked at her with a knowing light in his eyes. How frustrating it was not to remember this man. How could anyone forget a man like him?

  He began undoing the buttons on his shirt and her mouth gaped open. His tanned chest was magnificent, solid, and defined, and beneath it were the most incredible abs she could imagine. The dark hair and tanned skin along with his bright blue eyes and firm jawline — they were all perfection. He was all perfection. Hell, dictionaries probably used him to illustrate that word.

  “I . . . um . . . thought we . . .um . . . weren’t going to do anything,” she managed to stammer.

  “I didn’t say we’d do nothing. I just said we wouldn’t make love,” he said, smiling broadly and showing his beautiful white teeth.

  “Oh . . .” She didn’t know what else to say.

  “Do you want me to touch you, Adara?” he asked as he undid the button on his trousers and began sliding them down, leaving himself standing before her in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs.

  Her eyes were drawn to the only part of him now covered, and as she gazed at him, she was fascinated to watch his shorts tighten. Wow. Nature had been generous.

  “If you keep looking at me with that hungry look in your eyes, I’m not going to be able to keep my promise to you,” he said as he sat back down on the bed.

  She kept staring at him for a few seconds more. “I’m sorry. . . . I . . . I was just trying to figure out if I could remember . . . you know . . . um . . . us making love . . .” Adara’s face flamed deepest red.

  “I assure you that you will remember, and when you do, you’ll wonder how you could have ever forgotten,” he told her. He lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms.

  She was stiff against him for a moment, but as he rubbed soothingly up and down her back with one hand, she began to relax. Slowly, she moved her own hand from her side and rested it on his hard chest. And then she found herself drawing small circles around his nipples and down the solid lines of his abs.

  “Ah, I could lie here all night and feel your touch. What it does to me is indescribable,” he said on a slight moan.

  “I can’t remember us, but it’s almost as if I can remember doing this,” she had to admit.

  “To hear you say that brings me so much pleasure,” he murmured as he turned from his back to his side so they were facing each other. Her covered breasts pushed up against his chest, and their faces were now only inches apart.

  “Lying next to you feels so familiar. I wish I knew the right words to say,” she said with a hesitant laugh. Then she spoke again. “Do we often cuddle like this?” When he didn’t answer immediately, she grew concerned. “What’s wrong?”

  His eyelids drifted down for a brief moment. But he opened them again and their gazes met.

  “I don’t want to lie to you, Adara. It’s hard for you to speak of your emotions. You say everything with a look, with a touch, but you’re uncomfortable, it seems, with speaking from your heart. When you know me again, I hope you’ll be able to tell me more openly what you’re holding there inside that beautiful heart of yours.”

  She wasn’t sure how she felt about this man, but she did know she wanted to give him almost anything he desired. She wanted to please him, to love him — and for him to love her. She didn’t have the words, but she did want to show him what she was feeling right now.

  Leaning in — was this something she did often? — Adara captured Chris’s lips, and suddenly emotions filtered through her that made her press her body against his in an attempt to find relief.

  He nibbled on her bottom lip before biting down a little harder, making her open up to him. Then heat overtook her as he explored the recesses of her mouth, capturing her tongue with his in a wild dance, then releasing it and tracing her lips again.

  He pushed against her back and drew their bodies tightly together. He groaned against her lips, and she thrust her hips forward, needing to feel his hardness against the part of her now aching the most.

  “Adara, Adara, what you do to me,” he gasped as he pulled back only the slightest
bit so he could look at her.

  Gazing at him through passion-filled eyes, she couldn’t imagine ever having to struggle to tell him how she felt. “You’re so beautiful.”

  He chuckled. “Men rarely like to be described as beautiful, my princess.”

  “Oh, but that’s the first thought that comes to my mind when I look at you. Beautiful — absolute perfection.”

  He moved a hand up her side and slipped it around to her stomach before traveling upward, over the curve of her breast, and her breath whooshed in when his palm came into contact with her swollen nipple.

  “You, my darling, are the one who’s beautiful. And I want to show you all night long how much I worship your beauty, but I can’t. I made a promise to you, and I intend to keep it,” he said with a deep sigh. He pulled his hand away and let it rest on her side.

  “If we’ve already made love before . . .” She wasn’t quite able to tell him that she had to have him inside her right now, but she desperately wanted him to keep on with what he was doing.

  “Oh, you are a temptress, and I will pay the price tonight. I predict an ice-cold shower in my near future. But I insist on waiting. I hope that it’s not too long, but I will hold off for your sake. Then, when we finally come together, it will be spectacular.”

  Though her whole body was aching, Adara felt another sensation of warmth travel through her as Chris flipped onto his back, drew her against him, and whispered loving words against her hair.

  She still felt the desire inside her, but it was ebbing as a different warmth filled her, a warmth she was sure was telling her that she was in love with this man. Her memory had to return soon.

  Chapter Eight

  Stretching her arms above her head, Adara lifted her back from the bed and let out a groan of relief. She’d slept so soundly, and that was amazing, really, under the circumstances.

  “Are you okay?”

  She jumped and turned her head to find Chris sitting by the bed, a smile and a day’s growth of beard on his beautiful face.