Page 9 of The King's Fake Bride

“Did you just tell me I look sickly?” he says, pretending to be aghast, his hand flying to his chest while the corner of his mouth twitches.

If the earth would open up and swallow me whole right now, I would die a happy woman.

“No, I mean, not really?” I groan and look out at the water as he starts laughing. “You know, you’re decent at making me flustered. Normally I’m able to carry on a conversation without making a fool of myself.”

He snorts. “I don’t know in what world you come off as a fool. We might have only just met, but I can tell that you’re a competent woman.”

I stop and turn to him, not quite believing him. “You really think so?”

“I do.” He looks out at the water as the sky gets darker, stars dancing above the waves. “It’s getting late. Are you staying nearby?”

“Yeah, I was able to get a hotel, fortunately.” My throat goes dry.

I could invite him back to the room. I don’t think I’m quite done talking to him yet.

He might be the only person on this island who’s fluent in English.

But I know it’s more than that. There’s something about the way he looks at me that makes it feel like life is being breathed back into my soul.

Maybe it’s the sea air or the long two days of traveling, but I want to be someone else for a night. I want to be the kind of woman who takes an attractive stranger back to her room for the night.

The words are on the tip of my tongue, but they die on my lips before I can force them out.

Xander gestures in front of him. “Lead the way. I’ll make sure you get back safely.”

“I didn’t think there would be much crime going on in a town this small.”

“Have you seen much beyond the harbor?”

I give him a sheepish smile, shaking my head. “Not really. I found a place to stay, and then I came to the beach.”

“I’d avoid walking on that section of the beach during the daytime if I were you. It’s private. Belongs to the castle, and the king can be an ass, or so I hear.”

I groan. “Great. We’ll add trespassing on royal land to the list of things that have gone wrong in my life in the last two days.” I shake my head and look up at the sky. “Enough of the pity party. It’s been going on for too long already.”

Xander smiles. “Don’t stop your pity party on my account.”

“I would rather hear more about you.” I dodge a smashed shell on the boardwalk. “Tell me something about yourself that nobody else knows.”

“Sometimes I think about leaving all this behind and starting over where nobody knows me,” Xander says, nodding to the town on the other side of the boardwalk. “There are more people on the island than you would think, but the towns are clustered so close together that they may as well be one city. It seems like no matter where I go, I can’t outrun my past.”

“What are you running from?”

He shrugs, and I can practically see the defensive wall he constructs between us. “A lot of things sometimes, other times nothing at all.”

“Cryptic.” I nod to the little hotel as appears in front of us, the outside light casting a dim yellow glow. “This is me.”

“Well, it was nice meeting you, Amy. I hope that you’re able to find your way to Mykonos.”

I pause a few feet from the door, and he stops beside me. His charming smile makes my heart beat so fast that I’m sure it’s going to pop out of my chest. “Do you want to come inside?”

The smile falters for just a moment before he nods.

My pulse pounds, my hands clammy as I pull out the key to my room and lead the way into the hotel and down the hall.

I push open the door, and all of a sudden it feels like all the oxygen has been sucked out of the room.

With Xander standing so close, the warmth from his body surrounding me, I don’t know what to do.

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