Marooned with the Millionaire

They both stood as if transfixed, and he felt awkwardness engulf him.

Really, Marcus?

He was thirty years old and embarrassed by a bed simply because he was with a woman.

He needed to get a grip, but it took an immense effort to step into the room, open the wardrobe doors, then exit onto the outside veranda—yet another security headache. And all made worse by the fact that when he went back inside April was actually inspecting the damn bed. As he watched she ran her fingers over the covers, leant forward to inspect the headboard. The black-and-white dress moulded to her body and desire leapt inside him, clenching his gut even as he reminded himself of the impossibility of acting on it.

She stood up straight, saw him, and jumped backwards from the bed, pulling the pen from behind her ear and starting to scribble once more.

‘I’ll need to vet those notes.’

‘Why?’

‘Because if they do honeymoon here the last thing I need from a security point of view is a detailed description of the honeymoon location.’

‘OK.’

‘No argument?’

To his chagrin he realised he wanted an argument. For real, Marcus? Was he actually looking to pick a fight out of sheer frustration? Because here and now, in this cosy, intimate honeymoon setting, it seemed important to remember that April and he were closer to adversaries than friends, let alone anything more?

‘Of course not. I like Frederick and Sunita—I don’t want to compromise thei

r security.’

‘If you like them so much, how can you contemplate contributing to toppling their life?’

‘Because this isn’t personal. It’s about whether or not the people of Lycander have a right to know the truth about their ruler.’

He shook his head, suddenly sure that it was more than that. ‘I think it is personal. This is about you and your belief that Frederick should pay for the decision he made, regardless of his motivations for making it.’

‘That makes me sound punitive—as if I am setting myself up to be judge and jury.’ Her voice shook with pure anger.

‘Aren’t you?’

Suddenly he was no longer angry; instead he was wondering why she felt such a need for the absolute truth.

‘And if you are, then perhaps you need to consider the mitigating circumstances. If Brian Sewell’s claims are true, all Frederick did was go along with a white lie—originally told by Axel himself—in order to prevent a possible revolt which would have overturned everything Axel believed in and would have been disastrous for Lycander. From a personal viewpoint, Frederick was perfectly happy with the life he had—he didn’t want to rule. But now he is doing everything in his power to be a good ruler, to turn his country around. If you choose to make him pay for that, then that is your choice to make. Just be sure you can live with it.’

April stared at him, eyes wide, and he wasn’t sure which emotion was uppermost in her mind—anger or perhaps shock. And still desire urged him to kiss her. Stupid.

It was time to go. He turned to close the door to the balcony, and paused to glance up at the sky. Late afternoon and nary a cloud—and yet there was an oppressive feel to the heat.

‘We need to go.’

Perhaps the storm was more imminent than expected—but even so Lycander was only a four-hour flight away. It wouldn’t break before then.

‘Fine.’

There was both anger and hurt in the word, but Marcus refused to react. He’d called it as he’d seen it.

They crossed the beach to the helipad and climbed aboard in silence. Marcus carried out the routine checks, forcing himself to be thorough even as his instinct told him to make haste. It was an instinct honed in childhood to alert him to incipient danger—either on the streets, where gang warfare had been rife, or in his home where his parents’ actions had been rendered unpredictable by their addictions.

Once en route he relaxed slightly—only to realise that relaxation had been premature. The helicopter suddenly jolted—almost as though it had encountered some form of resistance in the clear, cloud-free sky...almost as though something had hit the rotor blade. Another jolt. And another.

Next to him, April gave a small gasp but otherwise remained still. Marcus weighed the options—there was clearly a problem but he wasn’t sure what it was. That meant... ‘I’m turning back. When I land, get down as fast as you can safely and run.’

It seemed unlikely that the aircraft would go up in flames, but he was taking no chances.