Page 77 of A Girl and HER Prince
“Venice!”Who had who here?She could barely move to reach his bandages. “Behave yourself!”
The storm of his eyes glittered at the challenge and he ran his hands down her back. “Ha, you’re sweating.”
Livvy shouted out, her back arching. “It’s polite to call it a glow!” She tried to wriggle away.
He wouldn’t let her get too far. “I like it! I like it,” he reassured her. “Stay here and glow all over me.”
She couldn’t keep back her smiles now. Clearly, someone was in a good mood, and it wasn’t hard to figure out why. Freedom from the island was at their fingertips, and it was making him giddy. He rested his chin against the top of her hair, taking a deep breath as he stared out into the sea behind her.
She relaxed against him, enjoying the strength of his hands against her aching back. It felt good to finally take a break, and his touch had a way of energizing her. Her guy was sizzling with heat, and she’d be sweating more if they kept this up. She nudged him to get him back for his teasing. “You’re sweaty too!” she complained, but not very convincingly.
“You poor thing,” he said. “Holding you like this isn’t going to cool us down, will it?” His fingers tightened against her back and he found her mouth in a kiss that blew every logical thought of hers out of her brain.
He should’ve done that when he was trying to convince her to take this galley warship out in the first place. He’d never have heard a peep from her.
Livvy returned his every kiss. Soon, they’d be free to be together like this without the Myrdons breathing down their necks. That would feel so nice.This feels nice too.His rough jaw tickled her cheek before he drew back with an anguished gaze that told her he didn’t want to let her go.
Well, well, well, Livvy wasn’t the only one who could talk with her eyes. Venice’s held volumes of meaning.
“Let’s get this boat into the water first,” he said. “And then I’ll letyoumanhandle me all you want.”
“Me?” She let out a dizzying laugh. How’d he turned this on her? Wait! Those bandages. He’d completely distracted her. She wagged her finger at him. “Are you kidding me?”
He threw his hands up and danced away from her. “I’m fine.”
She supposed she could wait to check on them after they’d sailed away from this place. “You got out of it this time, Venice, but it won’t happen again.”
He grinned and found BamBam and Ronnie’s halters.
Grasping Steve’s, she followed Venice back to the boatyard to start the process of loading up their donkey wheelbarrows with wood, stopping only for water and lunch breaks.
Livvy stared around her in wonder. They were beginning to feel like a couple from… well from 400 BC in Greece. Never in her wildest dreams, when she’d been stuck in her office doing video editing and graphic design, had she ever imagined she’d be working with loudly braying donkeys and gathering pleasant-smelling shards of pine… with a prince!
The immensity of what they were doing tried to overwhelm her again, and she shoved it out of her mind. She’d wanted anOdysseyadventure, and she got it. How many times had that ill-fated ancient sailor been forced to make his own boats on the islands he’d crashed into, and without his men to lend their strength?
Hopefully the sailing weather would be kinder to them. So far the wind was brisk, and the few dark clouds in the horizon kept their distance…and Venice called me brave. She could do this. Her heart sang under the cheerfully whistling breeze. They were getting out of here and sailing to an even bigger adventure.
Venice found the long pieces of wood to make their little makeshift bridge across the extensive pothole. The wood was strong, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to double some of them up so that they wouldn’t fold under the boat’s weight.
The prince worked like a dog, carrying just as much as the donkeys as he balanced out the pieces of heavy wood, dumping off the pieces and coming back for more. She tried to offset the labor by doing what she could, trying to ignore her aching back and shoulders. She wouldn’t mind a massage when all of this was through.
Turning to Venice, she noticed the droplets of sweat pouring from him. He looked paler than earlier. Immediately she grew suspicious. “How are you holding up?” she asked.
“Good.” He said it too quickly.
That triggered alarms in her head. He’d been burning up when he’d held her. Did that actually mean something else? She was so mad at herself for not noticing, she could barely think. “Let me check those bandages.”
He avoided looking at her as he dumped off the rest of the lumber. “Theywillbe good as soon as we get help… how’s that?”
Panic sparked through her. “Let me see those now!” He hesitated and she snapped her fingers. “I’m not joking anymore.”
Rolling his eyes, he wiped off the dirt from his palms and fumbled with the new bandages on his forearm. He wasn’t going fast enough for her. Her hands joined his to get them off. The skin underneath was a good, healthy color, and it was no longer bleeding.
So why had he been stalling?
Her gaze lowered to his torso. It heaved under his breaths. “Show me your stomach,” she said.
He stilled before lifting his shirt and rolling off the bandages from skin glistening with sweat. The gaping laceration wasn’t doing as well—it was swollen and infected. She hissed out in alarm when she saw it was bleeding again. Her eyes snapped to his.
