by Angel Payne
Surprise, surprise.
“Well, as I was saying,”—as subtle as a sunburn—“I called Papa to check on all of you, and he told us about the terrible rock slide in the ravine. I contacted Novah immediately, knowing she would share my concern about doing whatever we could to ensure the film crew is successful during their time in our region. We drove up right away.”
Evrest frowned. “What about Edyn? Is she not also from Colluss?”
“Edyn does not know seventy hair styles by heart.” Novah’s quip earned her a fast kick in the shin from Chia Pet then a sympathetic glance from me. Solved: the mystery of the invisible stylists. Novah was a built-in advantage, Edyn, just another member of the Distinct—who also happened to have great boobs and a terrific personality.
“So.” It bubbled out of Chianna with over-bright cheer. “How can we help?”
A long pause.
Much too long.
Evrest looked at Joel.
Joel stared at me.
I glared back.
If he thought I was up for princess babysitting duty, especially after the operational nuke he’d just dropped along with his “fixit” of using horses, he could seriously pound all of this sand. Chianna and Novah were a cute set but they could go build sandcastles for all the use I had for them—especially in the arena of attempting to forget that I could never touch Evrest again.
Uncomfortable.
Embarrassing.
This silence was about to stretch too damn long.
“Hey, Cam!” came a sudden bellow across the sand. I looked up to see Leif in his Abercrombie ad finest, waving from an area near the crew break tents. “Hey, Cam! You have anyone free right now? Bunch of the Arcadians helping the crafties out are late because of the rock slide. We could use a few helping hands.”
“Hourra.” Novah’s exclamation sounded enough like hurray for an easy translation.
Evrest grinned. “Merderim to you both. A favor for our friends is a favor for Arcadia.”
“Of—of course.” Couldn’t say I didn’t see Chianna’s gritted smile coming—from a thousand miles away. “We are most happy to serve wherever we are needed. Errr…what are the ‘crafties’?”
“It’s short for craft services.” I barely contained my knowing smile. “You know…catering?”
The expense of a full-scale second unit location shoot? Tens of thousands.
The three trucks next to us, and all their equipment? Hundreds of thousands.
The descent of Chianna’s face into utter horror?
Priceless.
*
Two hours later, I hadn’t moved very far from the spot where I’d turned Chianna as white as a catering plate. But now karma was paying me back with interest. With my butt in the sand and my smart pad on my knees, I continued wrestling with what we could leave behind in truck three tomorrow morning. Trouble was, no matter how I scooted things around, the answer hadn’t changed.
We needed every piece of it.
“Uggghhh.” I rubbed my aching eyes then my hungry stomach, contemplating a break. Maybe the team hadn’t decimated everything at lunch and I could find a plate of food…
As soon as the thought hit, the food found me.
A tray floated in front of me, loaded with a burger, a salad, fresh fruit, and a semi-dry brownie.
“Ohhhh.” I didn’t bother hiding my orgasmic timber of appreciation. I followed the arm wielding the miracle, finally lifting my sights to Novah’s sweet smile. “So, ‘Novah’ means ‘angel’ in Arcadian, right?”
She laughed lightly. “Hmmm. No. But after your generosity at the state dinner, I have been anxious for a way to reciprocate your kindness.”
Reciprocate. They loved that word here, didn’t they? I think I did now, too. The word was definitely different after the ways Evrest had used it on me—in all the best and hottest ways—in his office yesterday.
Whoa.
Yesterday.
Sometimes, a day did make a difference. In so many ways.
“Okay, stop,” I joked, before noticing she really had. I grabbed her hand, frozen in the middle of popping open a can of diet soda for me. “It means that what I did for you at the state dinner was my pleasure. I wished I could’ve stayed, but I had a headache, and jet lag…” And a serious onset of hot and lusty for the man you might be marrying in five weeks…
“You’re being too noble again.”
I nearly spat out my first bite of the burger. Would’ve been a damn shame because it tasted like heaven. “How the hell do you know about that?” I queried after chewing and swallowing, instead.
“When Mr. Joel Bell came through the craft services line for food, he and Evrest were talking about you.”
“They…were?” Curiosity and anxiety hit at once. “And Joel griped that I’m determined to show up Joan of Arc again?”
She chuckled. “Oh, my. He did not say that, but I am thankful he did not.”
“Why?”
“Because Chianna…was already being a…”
“Bitch?” I supplied when her cheeks flared dark red. “Self-important alpha cooch?”
“‘Bitch’ will suffice.” She stared at her own soda with wide eyes. I wasn’t sure if I’d scared her or thrilled her. Maybe both.
“The point’s made. She doesn’t want Evrest thinking about too many people other than her.”
She started tapping a finger on her nose. “Ding ding ding ding!”
I burst out laughing. Her response was a delightful surprise. “You’re full of surprises, angel Novah.”
She sipped from her drink before answering softly, “As are you, Cam Saxon.”
My next bite of burger went down like a mouthful of lead. “Annnnd, you’re still just as transparent as that water.” I stabbed a finger at the sea. “So why the I’ve-got-something-juicy-on-you-now tone? What the hell else did Joel say?”
She took another sip of soda. Her pretty profile was reflective—perhaps by too much. “It was not Mr. Bell.”
My stomach grinded on the lead. “So it was…”
“Evrest.” Adamant nod. Could’ve had something to do with the astonished scowl I shot at her first. “I think…perhaps…he was trying to make Mr. Bell talk. He asked Mr. Bell something about why you are so afraid of the horses we will travel on tomorrow—”
“I’m not afraid.” I stabbed the plastic fork into a slice of fruit.
“Which is why you just broke your fork on a piece of cantaloupe?”
“This is barely a fork.” I shoved the fruit in by hand.
“He also wondered why you feel the need to put up a brave show for us all.”
I chomped down on a grape. “Said that, did he?”
“Well…he growled it, mostly.”
Another fast sip, emanating a nervous vibe now.
“King Evrest…has strong feelings for you, Cam.”
Thank crap she’d been slipping glances at me. I was already girded for the assertion. “He has strong feelings about all of us, Novah. Think about how much is riding on this project. I know, I know; both sides have a stake, but I’d tag your country’s risk as the huger of the two. All we’re doing is making a silly movie. If this ‘experiment’ fails, everyone in our cast and crew gets to go back home and pick up our lives where we left them, while Pinnacle Pictures slants the story in about fifty different ways, most of them favoring us. But the future of your country’s relationship with the outside world, a world you all know you can no longer ignore, begins right here.”
I looked up—and my gaze automatically found Evrest. I fought the temptation to linger but he had no idea I was staring, making it all too easy to do…and melt over so many new things about him.
He chuckled at a joke from one of the electrical crew guys, his laugh sincere and warm.
Lifted his face into the wind, as if connecting his soul to it for a moment.
Edged one side of his mouth higher, marveling at the flight of a seagull.
I sighed. Felt my breath
s moving in and out, soft as the motions of his mesmerizing mouth.
Hell.
I was one step away from timing my damn breaths to his.
And I bet even that would feel amazing.
I finally looked back at Novah.
She was waiting with the same concentration I’d just directed at Evrest.
Freaking lovely.
What had she noticed?
Her soft smile didn’t betray anything. Nor did the contemplative finger she twirled around the bottom of her braid. “All of what you say, Cam…it is true, of course.” Another twirl. A sweeter lift to that smile. “But that does not erase how Evrest talks about you. And looks at you.”
I casually reached for another grape. No way was she pulling me down that road. “Look, he’s just being—”
“It is the same way you look at him.”
The grape tumbled out of my grip. “I don’t—”
She actually clamped a hand over my mouth. Before I could recover enough to glare, she rasped, “I know it because there is someone I yearn to gaze at in the same way.”
Brows up. Jaw dropped.
She whooshed out a breath as if relieved of a giant weight, before lowering her hand.
“Novah,” I gasped. “Really?”
She dropped her head. When she lifted it, her big blue eyes carried the sheen of tears. “His name is Enock. He lives in my hometown…and he is the love of my life. We have known each other since childhood, a friendship grown into deep love. He was saving money to ask for my hand when my mother and father received the Distinct Twelve screening results.” She swallowed hard. “Maimanne cried in happiness. I sobbed in grief.”
I shoved my plate aside, no longer hungry. “I don’t understand. Why did you even go to the screening, if you already knew you wanted to be with Enock?”
“The screening is pressed upon us as our national duty. They make it glamorous and fun, a social outing with friends. You have a phrase for it in America…” Her brow crunched, searching for the words. “‘Girl bonding’?”
“Okay. I do understand.” I peered out over the waves. Tried to envision what the last two years of this woman’s life had been like. One month she was planning a future with her high school sweetheart, the next she was opening the door to find the footman outside with the glass slipper on a pillow—a shoe she never wanted to wear. “So you won the lottery. And I assume that saying ‘no, thanks’ wasn’t an option.” After her answering yip of laughter, I added, “What did Enock say?”
Her mirth faded. “The only thing he could.” Tears pushed at the edges of her eyes again. “He agreed with Maimanne and Paipanne. Told me to go to Sancti.”
I gaped. “He what?”
She grabbed my hand, a death squeeze of emphasis. “Cam…it was a pure, selfless act of love. I see how it is difficult for you to understand, but try to see—”
“How he was fine with your parents shipping you off to market like the family goat?”
She pushed my hand away. “The chance to marry the king of our land—”
“A man you don’t love?”
“Love has nothing to do with something like this.”
I rolled my eyes. “Is this the part where you spout bullshit about honor for your family, duty to your country, and security for your parents, your personal happiness be damned?”
“Is this the part where you spout something meaningful about your ‘silly’ movie, your personal fears be damned?”
She flashed a sugary-spiteful smirk, Taylor Swift mated with Scarlett O’Hara. I wasn’t buying the act. “I’m getting on a horse for an hour, Novah, not committing the rest of my life to a life I don’t want.”
“Hmmm. Excellent point.” More cotton candy rancor. “Because that never occurs in America anymore. No celebrity weddings with broadcast rights…prenuptial agreements with time limits and infidelity clauses…women marrying men three times their age because of the car in the drive and the yacht in the harbor…”
I held up a hand. “All right. Fair shot.”
“Perhaps just honest.” She sighed. “Which has only been my intention from the start.”
I pulled my knees to my chest and dropped my head between them. “I know, Novah. I know.”
It was, to the syllable, all the encouragement I dared give. Though she nodded her understanding, her shoulders sagged a little. I felt like a heel. The woman was obviously a dreamer and a romantic, a lethal combination with her observations of Evrest and me. But letting her rewrite an into-the-sunset scenario between the two of us…
Shake it off, sweetheart.
“Tell you what,” I ventured. “How about we concentrate on something we can control? Would you consider…holding my hand through this whole horseback riding adventure tomorrow?”
Her face lit up. “I would be honored.”
Alarm jolted my stare back over. “Wait. You know a little about horses, right?”
She giggled. “In Colluss, everyone learns to ride nearly before taking their first steps. The terrain on this side of the island makes it necessary.”
“Okay, good.” I smiled my relief. “That’s good.”
Novah reached for my hand again. “Cam, I know you are frightened. That something happened to make you this way. I do not require the details. The memories must be difficult for you already. But together, we will make sure that tomorrow is not a repeat of your past.”
I tackled her with a thankful hug—not just for what she promised, but how she made the vow. Novah might look like she was made of porcelain but her spirit and heart were formidable as the sea she’d grown up with, ousting the doubts I’d had about her Evrest-worthiness the first night we’d met.
Irony really was determined to be my best buddy today.
If only willpower could be, as well.
Because dammit, no matter how much extra work had just gotten piled on my plate due to the rock slide, my coping method seemed to involve stolen glances at Evrest throughout the afternoon.
Correction: stolen, lusting glances.
Which wouldn’t have been so torturous if he hadn’t started to notice—then give back as good as he got. Wicked half-smiles. Peeks through his thick lashes, angled from beneath that chapeau-le-sex leather hat. And on a few occasions, using the bottom of his T-shirt as a sweat rag, ensuring the fabric clung to a lot of his jaw-dropping abs.
By the end of the day, all I craved was a cold shower. If not that, then my vibrator—even if it was several hundred miles away, tucked into my other bag in my room at the palais. Okay, stupid move—but when one was packing for a couple of nights in a camp with a hundred other people, Mr. Vibe wasn’t exactly the first name on the necessities list.
But as the horizon welcomed the sun and everyone washed up for dinner, I was a hotter mess than the poor crafties trying to keep the meal rolling.
I needed some solitude.
After dropping everything but my phone back in the tent, I walked out toward the water. It felt natural to follow the berm, letting it guide my steps as I allowed the crazy pieces of my life out of the mental box they’d been stuffed into.
The life I’d built at home, far away and foreign.
The world immersing me now, equally alien and confusing.
But the work, familiar and invigorating. The pace, the urgency, the camaraderie—likely the closest experience I’d ever have to being in a real family. Undoubtedly, the feelings were heightened by being here, on Arcadia.
Arcadia.
Had I ever thought the word would come to mean so much?
An island that had captivated my soul.
Ruled by a man who’d awakened my body.
No.
A lover who’d shaken my world.
Opened me. Exposed me.
Made me see…the beauty in me.
Only now, I didn’t know what to do with that awareness. Or who to even talk to about it. Despite the bonding time with Novah, she was hardly a confidante—and God only knew what maneuvers Chianna w
ould pull to make her spill about it, anyway. Mom? No. Dad? Hell, no. Harry? Hell to the freaking no—ruling Beth out by default, as well. And Faye? Well, she’d be thrilled by the call, even if I dumped every intimate detail on her—but did I want my boss to know all of this? Or any of it?
“Shit.” It ripped up from my gut, into the balmy brine of the wind.
The ridge dipped, making way for a rocky outcropping. Curiosity prodded, I peeked around the edge, discovering a small but deep cove. Its rock walls soared like a cathedral, protecting a pristine white beach leading to a cave framed by bougainvillea.
The rising tide tackled the shore as I walked, erasing my footsteps with each retreat. Even after I stopped to dig my feet in deeper, every wave wiped away the indent. New elements redefined the sand. Rolling seashells. Scuttling sand crabs. Bits of sea kelp. Every time, the pattern was different yet the same…or so I thought. Over centuries, these tides would change the shoreline. One look at the colored striations in the cliffs was proof of how they’d once been part of the ocean’s floor.
Slow change…brought by stability first.
Sometimes—maybe a lot of the time—that was how people had to change, too.
To know the shore was still going to be there, even if they let the tide carry them a bit.
To know they had a friend to watch their back while they got on the damn horse.
To know their king wasn’t going to rip up all the treasured traditions—like, say, how he picked a bride—before he asked them to break with others.
“Shit.”
It didn’t come from my gut this time. It echoed from my heart.
Like the tide exposing a fresh swath of sand, the universe gave me a fresh shore of understanding. And humility.
I’d been so arrogant. Cavalier. Coming here with the mindset of some noble visitor from the “civilized world” to help change these “backward savages”…
When I was the one now changed.
The realization tumbled in, my mental ravine caved in by a rock slide of insight. But instead of falling beneath the weight, my head lifted with it. To it.
Maybe because my soul already knew the sight that awaited me.
Evrest emerged from the depths of the cave, wind lifting his hair, sunset burnishing his skin, and surprise popping across his features—before determination marked his every step toward me.
