Page 25 of Hiding out with a Royal Billionaire

“Wasn’t he at the gala?”

“Yes.” Brooks answers were sternly curt.

“Do you not like him?”

“I trust him.” But something about his tone and deceptively blank expression told her he didn’t, not really, and she immediately started to worry.

“No.” He held her hand in his own. “He’s here because he’s one of the best. I trust him to do his job.”

She nodded, slowly in response, but didn’t ask what exactly he didn’t trust. Something said to leave this topic alone. But she eyed Chase when she thought Brooks wasn’t looking. He was a handsome man. Seemed quiet, focused. He stood as broad and tall as Brooks. And shared his singular intensity. “He’s not a prince.”

“Who?” Brooks looked up from his book, saw the direction of her gaze and his face went blank again. “No, he’s not.”

She nodded and then directed her attention to his book. “Can I read over your shoulder?”

“Oh, not this again.”

‘What, I’ll read slow to keep pace with you.”

‘I do not read slow.”

“You do.”

‘Well, then don’t read over my shoulder if you don’t like the way I read. I don’t skim. I consume. And no one can possibly grasp all the concepts on a page at the pace you read.”

She shrugged but then leaned over and rested her cheek on his arm to share the pages.

He started up again. And sure enough, she’d finished the pages and waited for him.

“You’re doing it.”

“Doing what?”

‘Impatiently trying to be patient while I finish reading. It’s distracting.”

“How can you even know that?”

“Your breathing changes. You’re, I don’t know, different. Waiting. It’s oppressive.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’m just sitting here, not even impatient.” Though she was. “Are you gonna turn the page?”

“See!” He handed her the book. “You know what? I’ll get another one.”

Victorious, she accepted his copy and opened it back up. “Thanks.”

“Just once I’d like you to bring your own reading material.”

“Why? Yours are always so good.” She smiled her impish smiled and then dug back into his book.

Watching her face pucker in concentration, relaxed and sitting next to him, he knew he was well on his way to falling completely in love with this woman. And that thought scared him. What would that mean? He’d never given much thought to his life as someone’s other. He was a younger son. No one was waiting for him to inherit a throne. He knew his parents cared for him, but with the other brothers, his sisters starting college, and Brooks now a grown man, they let him be. They would be fine without him. But Skye. Caring for Skye gave him a whole new reason to care for himself. To keep himself safe.

They had flown an extra hour, starting in a wholly different direction than the one they eventually took. And at last were commencing a descent into Mallorca. The island orange groves, the beautiful flowers and farm land surprised her. “I don’t usually see the interior of this gorgeous island.”

“Our air strip.” He pointed and they turned, going lower in the sky. He craned his neck and pointed far off to the right. “And that peek, right there.”

“With the lighthouse. Cap de Formentor.”

“That’s where we are going.” She had ridden up to the top, visited the lighthouse and the beaches along the way many times but had not noticed any kind of fortress safe house place.

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