Page 4 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
But when his hold on her wrist didn’t relent, she reluctantly allowed her fingers to splay. Her only weapon sifted out of her grasp.
His hold on her lifted away. “Can you stand on your own?”
She could not, but she refused to admit it. “I’m not going anywhere with you ever again,” she choked. “I’d rather drown.”
There was such a profound silence at that statement she opened her eyes and glanced around, half expecting the guards to have somehow evaporated.
“You were on theQueen’s Favorite?” the Prince demanded.
“You know I was.” She was really at the end of her rope. The salt on her cuts was killing her and her stomach was no longer tolerating all the seawater she’d swallowed.
“You swam the whole way from there? Impossible.”
“Well, I didn’t have a life ring or anything else to help me, did I? What sort of vile person leaves someone alone in the open water? Atnight?” The force of her emotive outburst put pressure on her stomach. Reaction to all that had happened—and all that she now faced—was starting to hit her with shattering force. She was definitely going to vomit.
“Porta la luce.”He snapped his fingers.
One of his guards came forward to blind her with the light of a hideously strong torch. She flinched and tried to duck away from it, but the Prince took hold of her arm again and forced her to stay on her back.
It hurt like hell, but he ruthlessly kept her there and said, “Look.” He pointed at the white line on his cheek. “Did I have this scar when you saw me last?”
“No.”
Oh no...oh no.She had thought there was nothing worse than being trapped and preyed upon by the Prince of Nazarine.
There was one thing worse, though. One man worse. TheotherPrince.
“I am Felipe. Crown Prince of Nazarine. You will come up to the castle and tell me everything that happened tonight.” He rose and offered his hand. “Can you walk? Or shall I carry you?”
She couldn’t answer. It took all her strength to roll away so she wasn’t violently sick all over his pretty shoes.
CHAPTER TWO
FELIPESIGNALEDHISmen to turn their backs and gently lifted her wet hair until it was behind her shoulders, then he supported her while she returned half the lagoon to its rightful owner.
When she’d finished retching, he drew her to sit braced between the V of his bent legs.
“Lean on me,” he insisted while he removed his shirt.
She was trembling, likely in shock. Her long cold marathon of a swim was something even he, with his very athletic habits, would hesitate to attempt. It would also be taking a mental toll.
She was like a cloth doll, boneless as he threaded her arms into his sleeves. He brushed at sand on her shoulder which caused her to flinch, making him realize the skin beneath was scraped raw. Her shins wore similar injuries and there was a dark stain coming through on the elbow of his shirt.
He carefully closed two buttons between her breasts, concentrating on that task rather than letting himself fully take in what she had put herself through to get away from Francois. That reckoning would come later, after he’d had a full account from her.
He gathered her in his arms and stood. She was long and lean and essentially a dead weight because she was so spent. Barely conscious, he suspected.
His head guard glanced warily over his shoulder, having been warned that one more step out of line—likestepping on her again—would cost him his job. His life, if they had lived a short century or two ago.
“A sling is on its way, sir,” the guard said, taking a tentative step toward Felipe, arms outstretched.
Felipe shook his head, rejecting the man’s attempt to help. He carried her to the bottom of the steps where he met the men who had brought the rescue sling. He gently placed her on it, draped a foil blanket across her and secured her with the straps.
“What is your name?” he asked as he worked. “Is there someone we should call?”
“I want to go home,” she said with a pang of longing in her voice.
“I’m sure you do.” Pity rose in him. He knew what it was like to be a target of Francois. His brother was cruel enough to enjoy terrorizing someone and dangerous enough to kill them in the process.
