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She froze.
What had he said wrong? They were always doing challenges.
People were coming up to them now, slapping him on the shoulder and congratulating him. They had no idea how big of a prize he’d won from his spur-of-the-moment challenge. He wanted to shrug them all off and focus on Ellery.
“I’ll think of something impossible to complete,” Ellery teased, but there was something in her green eyes that he didn’t like. She released her grip and jumped from his arms.
He had to let her go. Dang it.
“Hey, Ellery. You ready to train?” Nash stood apart from the crowd, wearing a barely-there tank top and flexing slightly as he waited for Ellery. Derek had never liked the guy. Too cocky and annoying. At the moment, he wanted to shove the man to the ground, pick Ellery back up in his arms, and carry her off like the conquering hero before claiming a very long, delicious kiss from those lips he dreamed about.
“Yes, sir.” Ellery gave Derek one more look and then leaned back in. “I can take a week off for the wedding. When do you want to fly out?”
A week? This was fabulous news. She must’ve already planned on coming with him before their impromptu stunt if she’d arranged to take a week off. In the six months he’d known her, she’d only taken time off for essential qualifying Ninja Warrior competitions and the finals.
How quick could he get her passport like he’d bragged about? What other details did he need to think about? What about her mom, her work, her financial worries?
“I’ll get an appointment tomorrow morning for your passport and hopefully we can leave Tuesday night.” It was Thursday. He liked the idea of flying through the night and having as many daytime hours as he could with Ellery and his family in his castle and mountains and kingdom.
“All right. Alecia will know when I have an opening in my training schedule tomorrow. Bye.” She raised a hand and walked off with her client.
Derek watched her go. The crowd pressed in on him, congratulating him on the stunt, asking him questions about his brother’s upcoming wedding.
He tried to be kind to everyone who spoke to him. A lot of people wanted to talk to the ninja prince, and his mum had taught him that royalty was a responsibility and he was expected to behave as a kind prince and not a pompous one. He’d always been friendly and used his royal status to make others feel good about themselves. Right now, he couldn’t respond to anyone. He couldn’t do anything but watch Ellery walk away.
She’d impressed him so deeply with her selflessness, cheering Jaylene and himself on after she’d fallen. He loved her. He could admit that to himself, at least.
Did she care for him at all?
She had agreed to go to Augustine with him. That was fabulous news. Somehow in a week, with a royal wedding and his family wanting his and Ellery’s attention, he would make her fall in love with him in return.
It should be an easy quest for the ninja prince that women flung themselves at, but Ellery was different than any woman who’d pursued him. She was the right one for him, but she was reluctant and didn’t seem to think he was the right one for her.
Derek loved competition, and fighting hard to win Ellery’s heart was the most important quest he’d ever have. He’d win this challenge.
Her independence and reluctance should have been a barrier. Both made him admire and yearn for her even more.
CHAPTERFOUR
Ellery had a busy Friday with the passport office and stacking up training appointments and somehow fitting her own workouts in, and Saturday with the commercial shooting. The protein shake company had contacted her Thursday night, as promised. They didn’t say a thing about Naomi Rindlesbacher, white silk pantsuit lady as Ellery thought of her, and that was fine. Ellery hated the thought of the commercial deal being a handout. Loathed the thought, actually, but it would make it possible for her to go to Augustine with Derek and somehow protect him and his family from a devious murderer, Hattie Ballard, if the woman was even alive.
She hoped Hattie was in fact dead and Prince Steffan was safe and simply volunteering in third world countries with his medical expertise because he was mourning his lost love like the media claimed. Derek’s family life was crazy, but also intriguing and exciting. It was so far out of her realm to think about being amongst them that she was nervous and at the same time felt like she was living in a fairy tale.
Derek was right there with her throughout the passport experience, proud of her that she had gotten another commercial deal, and asked her to go to lunch and dinner with him each day. She kept having to turn down his dining offers, explaining that she was just too busy. It obviously bothered him, and he’d thoughtfully brought her takeout Friday night.
There’d been a shift in their relationship yesterday during the insane monkey bar experience. She would never forget how it had felt to cling to his beautiful muscled body as he showed off superhuman strength and carried her through the last of the swinging bars and then did a pullup with her wrapped around him.
Maybe to some girls, a sweaty, tough guy carrying them around like Tarzan and Jane wouldn’t be appealing, but it had been the most romantic experience of her life. It rated right up there with when he’d pinned her against his super car a couple nights ago and … leaned. Prince Derek was a lot like his car—beautiful, unrealistic, completely out of her sphere, and far too appealing. She had to somehow remember that she was a ‘challenge’ to him.
What was she doing thinking she could spend a week with him and not fall for him, not let him win his challenge?
Saturday night she closed the gym at seven, early because it was the weekend, and was looking forward to a quiet, restful, and healing Sabbath with her mom and Aunt Elise. She needed to run to the store for some groceries tonight and cook a bunch of extra food for her mom to eat while she was gone. Sometime before she left Tuesday night, she had to take some of the earnings from that commercial and buy dresses and shoes. How awkward would she be walking into Bloomingdale’s in her workout clothes and shopping for fancy dresses and high heels? The royals wouldn’t expect a poor girl from Boston to have expensive jewelry, would they? It didn’t matter because she wasn’t buying it.
Locking the door, she turned and ran into a wall of man. She gasped and stepped back against the building, clutching the keys.
“Elle …”
Her gaze focused on the man’s handsome face.
