Page 5 of Hiding out with a Royal Billionaire

“Yup. Think about it. We’d rock a deserted island.”

“Um, until we got hungry.”

“What? No, you always catch the most fish.”

She waved her hands. “Why are we talking about this? We are not going all survival are we?”

“No, well, I hope not. I have appointments tomorrow. It just came up, I don’t know.”

What was wrong with him? He and Skye were never sentimental like this. Why was he all of a sudden giving off this vide? He tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t leave. He hid it from Skye but the whole mission was putting him on edge in many ways. Watching a spear fly by her face with inches to spare had scared him like nothing on any other mission had. Why had he involved her in this? Because if she found he’d gone after the gold without her, she’d have been so betrayed. And, he admitted, it was important to him, to both of them. They had talked about it since they were kids. How ironic the chest was also embroiled in so much international intrigue.

He gave coordinates to Paul his assistant of the row of islands, but that was just for Skye’s benefit. Paul would already know where to go. Now, to think of a reason to tell Sky that he owned a safe house on an island. Should he take her there? The other option was to go hide out at her house. He shook his head. He couldn’t embroil her or her family in this mess.

“What?”

“What what?”

“You’re thinking, your forehead is creased.” She ran a cool finger down the stress lines between his eyes. “People get injections to fix that.” She smiled.

“Oh, I don’t know.” He tried for honest. “Honestly, Skye I’m pretty shaken. That spear, the pirates. I’m going through scenarios in my head. And none of them good.” He ran a hand through his hair and was embarrassed that it shook.

“Hey now. Come here. We’re okay. Look. No pirates in sight.” She stepped into his arms and rested her face on his chest.

As he wrapped his arms around her, he wanted to keep her close, just like that until he knew they would be okay. His body surged with a strong protective current that pounded his heart. He felt his muscles flexing and his arms tightening. But he forced himself to relax, and to let her go. “Okay. So I need to go hit the punching bag for a couple hours or something. Let’s go up on deck. I’ll feel better with the wind blowing in my face.”

She followed him out the door and around to the next deck level. They made their way to the very front point of the boat and they stood, facing the open ocean.

“We should be there in about an hour.”

“And we aren’t being followed.”

He shrugged, knowing there were other ways to track a person besides just the visual. “And it looks like Lucan backed off with his bird.”

“Probably taking care of the bad guys.”

“If we hurry, we can dock and hide before he comes back. But I’m not worried about Lucan.”

“You are worried about the other guys, or someone else though.”

He nodded. “But more than anything, I want to look through our loot.”

“Me too! When I was little, I used to imagine what could be in it. Was it gold, was it gems? For awhile I was convinced it must be magic because no one could find it. I thought it had unicorn dust. And that ghosts guarded it.”

“You might not be far off.”

“Though we never did see who threw that spear. So creepy.” She shivered and he wished she had never had to experience any of this life he lived.

“So does our treasure hunt live up to your expectations?”

“Totally. Even that it exists is awesome to me. We were right! All those years, we knew something the experts couldn’t find.”

“I know. We should not be surprised. We were the dynamic duo, remember.”

“Well, that was Rhett and Emily.” Another royal couple who’d just gotten together romantically.

“Oh right, people called them that. Well, anyway, there’s nothing we couldn’t do together.”

She sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to go back to school.”

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