Bound to Her Desert Captor

He looked down at her, his blue eyes blazing. ‘Don’t fool yourself. You don’t hate me, little America. Far from it.’

CHAPTER FOUR

THE FOLLOWING MORNING Regan was still incensed by the King’s high-handedness. Clearly nothing was beyond him: imprisonment, trickery, sexual domination.

‘Don’t fool yourself. You don’t hate me, little America. Far from it.’

She did hate him. Of course she did. He was autocratic...arrogant... He was... The memory of the way his warm breath had moistened the tip of her finger, hinting at the dark heat of his mouth, made her shiver. He was unbelievably sexy!

Not that she was thinking about that. Or her response. She liked men who saw themselves as equal with women. King Jaeger obviously saw himself as equal with no one. Not even the gods!

‘I make the rules here,’ she muttered under her breath, completely oblivious to the beautiful, sultry day outside. ‘You’ll do as I say.’

How could she find a man like that sexy? Stress. Lingering jet lag. Inconvenient chemistry.

If only he were a rational man you could reason with. But he wasn’t. He had decided her brother was guilty, and appealing to reason wasn’t going to work.

Which left her with no option but to get away, or at the very least get word to Chad that she was fine and that he needn’t worry about her. As much as she wanted to find out what was going on with him, she couldn’t bear it if he panicked and did something crazy. Such as put himself in King Jaeger’s path.

She glanced around the high walls that surrounded the gardens. She had thought about scaling them but had almost immediately dismissed the idea. They were about twenty feet high and smoothly rendered. There wasn’t a foothold anywhere. She had also tried brazening it out and simply walking out of the door on the first day but it was always locked. The only time it wasn’t was when the maid was cleaning, as she was now, but on those occasions a security guard was stationed outside the door.

Regan knew because she had tried to sneak out the day before and been met with his implacable, blank stare. Maybe the King trained them personally.

Frustrated at how utterly helpless she felt, she strode back inside. Had the photo of her in the King’s arms been released to the media yet? Probably. She hated the thought that Chad had seen it and was worried about her, but more, she hated the thought of what would happen once King Jaeger got hold of her brother.

Good God, what had her brother been thinking, running off with a princess? Was he personally involved with her? And could the King really have him executed? More importantly, would he? He definitely seemed ruthless enough to do it but something told her that he wasn’t as bad as he made out. Closed, yes. Bad...no.

Regan fought back a wave of helpless frustration, absently watching the maid enter something into her tablet before picking up the feather duster again. Regan didn’t know what she could possibly be dusting—the room was immaculate. The maid was young, no more than twenty, at a guess, and seemed sweet enough. Unfortunately she spoke limited English, totally clamming up that first day when Regan had informed her that she wasn’t a guest of the King and needed to leave the palace as quickly as possible.

The girl had given her a confused, shy smile and told her in broken English how wonderful the King was, at which point Regan knew she wouldn’t be getting any help from her direction.

But if King Jaeger thought she would sit back while he planned her brother’s demise he was very much mistaken. As soon as she was free she would contact the American Embassy and demand that they...that they...what? Put in place economic sanctions against Santara? Ban tourism to the smaller nation? Most likely Jaeger would laugh and shrug those impossibly broad shoulders with a care factor of zero.

Irritated, she watched as the maid returned to her trolley and retrieved a cloth and cleaning agent before heading into the bathroom, leaving the trolley behind. Wandering around the room like a caged tiger in need of exercise, Regan passed the trolley and abruptly stopped when she realised that the maid had not only left her trolley unattended, but she’d left the tablet on it as well.

Heart thumping, she glanced towards the bathroom, where she could hear the maid singing softly to herself, and grabbed the electronic device. Praying that it wasn’t password-protected, she nearly gave a cry of relief when the screen lit up at her touch.

Ignoring her sweaty palms, she quickly connected to the internet and chewed on her lip as she thought about what to do next. Not having expected to get access to the web, she had no idea who to contact. The American Embassy? Did they have an emergency email on their website? But even if she contacted them they would have no way of telling Chad that she was fine. That she wasn’t at the mercy of King Jaeger. Worse, they might not even believe her.

Thinking on her feet, she pulled up her social-media account and had a brainwave. Rushing over to a sun lounger, she quickly unbuttoned her shirt so that her bra looked like a bikini. With trembling fingers she angled the tablet, plastered a bright smile on her face and took a photo of herself with the pool in the background. Then she quickly captioned a message underneath.

Having fun chez King Jag. Hope you are too. The King is a wonderful host! ??????

She grinned as she added the three heart emojis. They were a fun joke between her and Chad that she had started when he had been an easily embarrassed teenager. It was something her mother would have taken great joy in doing to both of them.

Before she could reconsider her actions she hit ‘post’ and watched it come up on her home page. It wasn’t much, and she had no guarantee that Chad would check the site, but it was a way they had kept up with each other’s lives after he’d gone to university. With any luck he would check it before panicking about what the heck she was doing in the King’s arms.

Spiked with adrenaline at having outsmarted His high-and-mighty Majesty, she was about to write Chad a private message when she heard a noise in the room. Not wanting to alert the maid to what she had done, Regan quickly closed down the page she was on and strolled back inside, the tablet behind her back.

The maid didn’t even look her way and Regan only realised that her whole body was shaking after she quickly put the device back on the trolley. She exhaled a rushed breath and tried to calm her heartbeat. The tablet wasn’t in the same place as where she’d found it, but with any luck the maid would think that she had moved it herself.

Glancing at Regan quizzically, the young girl returned to the trolley and gave her a small smile as she wheeled it out of the room.

A shiver snaked its way down Regan’s spine. She had managed to thwart the King. She only hoped he never found out. A small smile touched her lips. But, even if he did, it wasn’t as if he could do anything about it. The man didn’t control the world.

* * *

Jag pounded his opponent so hard the man’s knees nearly buckled beneath him.