Bound to Her Desert Captor

‘I knew he wouldn’t.’

‘That’s beside the point.’ Jag turned to stare at Regan’s brother. ‘Tell me, just how close have you become?’

‘Not as close as you and my sister,’ Chad ground out.

‘Chad, please,’ Regan admonished. ‘Don’t make this worse.’

‘How can my stating the obvious make things worse? I’ve been without internet access this past week, and when I reconnected I nearly died seeing photos of you and him together. You’re everywhere in the news, do you realise that?’

She hadn’t because she hadn’t been given any access to the interne

t herself. ‘I’m sure it’s nothing.’

‘Nothing? It’s not nothing. Ask the King.’

Regan’s eyes flew to Jag’s. He stared back at her and she saw that he knew how big this had become and that he hadn’t cared. The only thing he’d wanted was for Milena to come back and now she had. ‘Chad, it’s not important. I agreed to do it because we both wanted you to return to Santara.’

‘You both agreed to what?’ He looked from her to the King and back. ‘To becoming engaged to him? My God. I can see it’s true. Please tell me you didn’t sleep with him for that as well.’

‘Chad!’

Ignoring her, he glared at the King. ‘How could you involve my sister? She had nothing to do with any of this.’

‘I don’t think you’re in a position to question me,’ Jag growled softly.

Before her brother could get any more aggravated and say something really stupid, Regan stepped in. ‘I came to Santara to look for you, Chad. No one forced me to do that.’

‘Why? I sent you an email explaining that I would be out of reach.’

Regan narrowed her eyes. ‘The last time you told me not to worry I got a call from the police precinct to come and bail you out.’

‘I was sixteen!’ he exclaimed. ‘And this is a completely different thing.’

‘Yes,’ Jag interjected coldly. ‘It’s far worse. And you should be thanking your sister, not haranguing her. If she wasn’t here you’d be in a far worse position than you currently are.’

‘I don’t think—’

Jag turned on him then, using his formidable height and years of authority to silence her brother. ‘No, for a smart man you didn’t think.’

‘Chad, please,’ Milena pleaded. ‘It will only make things worse and it’s all my fault.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Chad corrected. ‘It’s that you live under the reign of your autocratic brother, who never takes anyone’s needs into consideration except his own.’

‘Okay, enough.’ Regan stood up. ‘Jag is not like that and you clearly have no real understanding of the worry you’ve both caused by sneaking off together.’

‘Just tell me.’ Jag pinned her brother with his icy gaze. ‘Did you compromise my sister?’

Milena gave a shocked gasp. ‘Jag—’

‘Silence,’ Jaeger snapped at his sister. ‘You are betrothed to be married to a very important man. If you’ve slept with Chad James I need to know.’

‘She hasn’t,’ Chad bit out, facing the King with his shoulders back. ‘Your sister is a beautiful person and I would never take advantage of her like that.’

Regan heard the protective way Chad spoke about the younger woman and stared at him. Was he in love with Milena?

‘We didn’t do anything like that, Jag,’ Milena said crossly. ‘Chad was a perfect gentleman. If you’re going to be angry then be angry with me.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Jaeger bit out. ‘I’m furious with you.’