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She was not surprised the king of Marwan had engaged Hawk Investigations when rather than accept the edict she marry a man she had never met, his recalcitrant daughter disappeared. After all, hadn’t the agency done a bang-up job eight years ago? Not only had Sebastian kept her safe, but he had recommended certain changes in her security that had severely limited her ability to have a life outside of her studies.
Thank goodness for Jennifer. Without her, Lina’s remaining years at the university would have been miserable. Once those years were over, however, it had been those same security measures that spawned her first all-out rebellion against her family. That rebellion had resulted in a relaxation of the strictures surrounding her, but it had also led to a near break between her parents and her aunt and uncle. Once again dismissing Lina’s own will and intellect, the royal couple blamed the Americanized relatives for their daughter’s unwillingness to conform.
Yet despite her insistence on a certain amount of autonomy, her parents had still umed she would be willing to marry a man of their choosing. The level of their sheer arrogance left her breathless. Then and now.
She reached the shore.
“Awesome jump, Lina. You ready to go again?” Aaron slapped her on the back…or was it Adam? She couldn’t remember. He was ground crew, that’s all she knew for sure.
She shook her head. “I’m going to have to forgo any more jumps today. Can someone give me a ride back to the hotel? Um…right away?”
She wasn’t naïve enough to believe she could outrun Sebastian, but she definitely didn’t want to have the coming confrontation in front of a group of strangers.
“You okay? Something happen on the jump?”
She shook her head. More like someone. “I’m fine. I just need to get back to the hotel.”
“Hey, no problem. I’ll take you,” he said with a flirtatious smile before calling out his plans to the other ground crew.
The Jeep ate up the miles between the jump site and Lina’s hotel.
Aaron…Adam…whatever…downshifted and took a tight curve coming out of the canyon on squealing tires. “So, you going back to the hotel…it got anything to do with the suit yelling his head off on the bridge?”
“Sebastian doesn’t yell.”
“Artie said the guy’s got a set of lungs on him. Near to made Artie jump off the bridge when he pulled the gun.”
“He pulled a gun?” Lina asked with genuine shock.
“Yeah, but you’d already jumped. The guy…Sebastian you said…he cursed better’n any sergeant Artie ever had in the Army, he said.”
“How do you know?”
“Artie called from the bridge when the guy took off in his car. Thought he might be headed down to us.”
“He might have been.” But even Sebastian couldn’t drive the distance by road as fast as she had plunged on her bungee cord.
She was however slightly surprised they hadn’t run into each other at the junction out of the canyon.
“This Sebastian dude your boyfriend, or something?”
“Or something.”
When she didn’t elaborate, her blond driver just shrugged. “Hey, I can respect your privacy.”
“Thank you.”
“You want me to tell Artie you won’t be taking the job with the outfit after all?”
Startled by the blonde’s perception, she said, “If you don’t mind.”
“No problem. You going to need transportation into the city?”
Seeing a sleek black Jaguar parked outside her room as they pulled into the small hotel’s parking lot, Lina’s spine stiffened. “No, I don’t think that will be necessary, but thanks for the offer.”
The Jeep came to a stop beside the Jaguar. “Looks like your ‘or something’ beat us here. You want me to come in with you?”
Lina couldn’t help smiling at that. There were lots of good people left in the world and she had to remember that. Even if her own family was happy to sell her out to the god of political expedience.
She turned to face him and put her hand on his arm. “Thanks, Aaron—”
“Adam.”
She grimaced. “Sorry.”
“No problem.”
“I really appreciate the offer, but I’ll be fine. Sebastian’s not here to hurt me.” Not physically anyway.
“Good luck with your life, Lina. You ever want a job, you come on back. Artie is plenty impressed with you. I am, too.” There was no mistaking the interest in Adam’s eyes, but Lina felt no responding feminine pique.
She hadn’t felt anything like that since the night eight years ago when she discovered she was nothing but a job to Sebastian Hawk. Goodness knew she’d tried, but it was as if her libido had turned off and she had no idea how to turn it back on.
In some ways, her lack of sexual interest in the men who had dated her had made life easier. She hadn’t gotten hurt again and she’d had more time and energy to devote to her causes than she would have otherwise.
She leaned forward and kissed Adam on the cheek. “Thanks.”
He turned his head and kissed her back—on the lips. He wasn’t aggressive and she didn’t feel threatened, but she didn’t feel anything else, either. Nevertheless, she smiled before grabbing her pack from the backseat, where she’d left it that morning, and got out of the Jeep.
Sebastian was waiting in the open door to her room when she turned from the still running four-wheel drive. He was indeed wearing a suit, or at least what was left of one. He’d discarded the jacket and tie, having rolled the sleeves of his crisp white shirt up to reveal his tanned, muscular forearms. His no doubt designer label slacks had been tailored to fit his and long legs perfectly.
Lina’s mouth watered while her hands itched to reach out and touch.
What was happening to her?
She’d spent eight years as close to asexual as a woman could get and all of a sudden her hormones were on a roller coaster that rivaled the scariest ride at Six Flags Amusement Park.
It took all of her training in hiding her emotion, to maintain a blank expression as she faced the man who had haunted her dreams for almost a decade. “Hello, Sebastian.”
His left brow lifted sardonically. “You don’t sound surprised to see me.”
She shrugged, as if the very sight of him wasn’t sending a plethora of signals to nerve endings she hadn’t been aware of in eight years. “I could say the same. I could have run.”
“I would have caught you.”
“Probably.” Her initial flight hadn’t been well planned after all…more an act of rebellion than anything else. She had nothing in place to help her disappear with a hunter like Sebastian seeking her out.
That did not mean she couldn’t disappear. Just not right this minute.
He stepped back into the room, indicating she should join him. She went without argument. Why not? Privacy was exactly what she wanted for their upcoming discussion. It also didn’t hurt to lull him into believing she was as docile as her family believed she should be.
A quick double honk behind her had her turning and waving off Adam as he drove away.
Sebastian closed the door, turning the security lock as well. “I’m glad to see you being so reasonable.”
“You expected anything less?” she asked, trying to ignore the sense of the room being too small now that he was in it.
“I have personal experience with how little credence you give duty to your family and crown. I admit, I expected a lot more trouble from you. You didn’t even try to get your boyfriend to rescue you.”
The words hurt, but she refused to let him see that. The truth was that his opinion shouldn’t matter. The fact that it had the ability to impact her made her furious…with herself. “Perhaps I don’t buy into the belief that my filial duty extends to marrying a man I have never met and moreover one who has been dubbed the Playboy Prince. That does not mean I’m interested in getting an innocent bystander embroiled in my situation.”
“I see the years have not changed you.”
“Really? In what way?” she asked in masochistic compulsion.
“You are still putting your own comfort above that of the people who depend on you.”
“Oh, right…because the people of Marwan are going to be devastated if I don’t marry the younger son of a neighboring sheikhdom.”
“Your father believes it is best for his country.”
“Maybe it is, but since Marwan stopped being my country more than two decades ago, I fail to see why I should sacrifice my life for political expedience.”
“You are still a princess in Marwan.”
She shrugged, not willing to continue the argument standing there in nothing more than a damp T-shirt and shorts over her still wet swimsuit. “As fascinating as this discussion is, I need to take a shower and put some dry clothes on.”
