Chapter Six
Chris was battling to maintain a calm he didn’t feel. At all. If it were only his life on the line, this would be a thrill. He was more than confident in his skills as a pilot. But with Adara next to him, a strange new fear filled him.
He couldn’t allow anything bad to happen to her.
No such luck. The initial impact of the plane skipping across the water sent her head into the side window, instantly knocking her out.
“Adara!” He shouted out her name, but he couldn’t reach for her, couldn’t do anything but sit helplessly by as the plane barreled forward.
As they wobbled, the wing nearly hit a wave, which would have torn the aircraft apart, giving them no chance of survival. But they somehow avoided that terrible fate.
Finally, the plane came to a stop, and Chris was able to breathe almost easily again. He’d had to shut down everything because of that damnable electrical fire. And that wasn’t the last of their problems — not by a long shot.
Water immediately began filling the cockpit. Chris knew he had only seconds to get Adara out. He unbuckled her and did his best to wake her up, but he got no response. He pressed the handle on the door, sliding it open. More water rushed inside. Great.
Holding Adara securely with one arm, he dived into the water and began swimming away from the rapidly sinking jet. It was replaceable. She wasn’t.
Thankfully, they’d “landed” — “oceaned” was more like it — close to the island, so he made it to shore without further mishap, and, as he laid her on the sand, he turned to see the tail of his jet sinking below the surface of the smooth blue water.
After catching his breath, Chris picked up Adara and carried her farther inland, to the line of trees, putting her in the shade while he waited for the rescue team to find them.
It wouldn’t take long.
And it didn’t. Within an hour he heard the distinct sound of a helicopter. His brothers were most likely in a panic right about now. A smile formed on his lips.
As much as his family sometimes drove him absolutely bonkers, to use yet another slang term that he’d picked up during his time in America, he loved them all and valued them. And that was really the world he wanted to bring Adara into. Yes, he wanted to remain a prince of the realm, and he was willing to marry a little sooner than he’d intended, to keep his royal status, but it wasn’t the only thing in life now that gave him joy.
The helicopter landed, and Xander was the first one off.
The loud whirring kept Chris from calling out to his brother, so he waited for Xander to look in his direction. Bryan leaped out right by Xander’s side, and when his two brothers spotted Christopher at the same time, they came running.
“We were so worried, Christopher,” Xander said. “Especially since we couldn’t see the plane when we circled down.”
Chris replied in level tones. “I knew you’d find me.”
They all looked toward Adara, who still hadn’t woken up. “Who is this? Does she need medical help?”
“This is my fiancée, Adara, and she hit her head when the plane crashed into the water. I’ve done what I could to check for other injuries and haven’t found anything, but I want her seen to right away.”
“We’re closest to your private island. Let’s move her there and have the royal physician brought in. He will advise us whether she needs to be taken to the hospital.”
“I agree. Thank you,” Chris said. He lifted Adara and began to move toward the helicopter.
“We’d better get out of here before the media pick up on this,” Bryan said. “Let me help you with Adara. I can take her to the helicopter for you.”
“No!”
When both Xander and Bryan smiled, Chris realized he’d been shouting. “Sorry,” he said more calmly. “I have her.”
Ignoring his brothers’ assessing looks, he made his way to the helicopter with Adara in his arms, and only then handed her over — temporarily — as he climbed aboard.
After buckling up, he insisted that she be put in his lap. She shifted — that was a good sign — and snuggled against his chest. Did she somehow realize that she was back with him and happy about it, despite their rift? That’s the way he was choosing to look at it.
They would work through the problems they were facing in no time at all. They’d been together for a mere three months now, but it was long enough for him to know they were meant to share their lives together. Hell, his brother Xander had known the same sort of thing in no time at all, and when Bryan had decided on the one woman for him, he hadn’t waited. Maybe it was in the family DNA.
Maybe once they knew, they knew, and there was no turning back.
“We’ve arrived,” Bryan told him, breaking into Chris’s reveries. “The doctor is already here.”
“Thank you, brother.”
“We’re going to wait here with you,” Xander told him, “until you know all is well.”
“I appreciate it.”
They moved together into what Chris called his cabin. It was on his own island, a place he was able to retreat to, but close enough to his homeland that he could return quickly if he was needed.
The “cabin” he’d built was five thousand square feet — modest, in his humble opinion. His staffers didn’t live there in the house, but were more like ghosts, coming and going silently, there when he needed them while giving him the privacy he desperately wanted the rest of the time. They lived nearby, in their cottages.
“Please wait here, Your Majesty and Your Highnesses,” the doctor said.
Chris paced the hallway, and his brothers moved along with him as they waited for the doctor to re-emerge. No one said a word. Xander and Bryan knew that it was better to offer silent support.
When the door to Adara’s room opened, all three brothers stopped walking, and they waited for their trusted family physician to speak. It seemed like an insufferable amount of time before he did.
“I’m sorry to keep you all waiting,” Dr. Marcello said.
“Never mind that,” Chris replied. “Just tell me that she’s okay.”
“She will be fine in no time at all,” the doctor told him with what he probably thought was a reassuring smile.
“Explain further,” Chris said.
“She’s awake . . .”
Chris tried to push past the man, but the doctor stopped him. “Move out of my way,” the prince said in anger and frustration. “I want to speak to her.”
“Wait one moment, Your Highness,” the doctor said firmly. Chris stopped impatiently, but he allowed the man to continue speaking. “She seems to be suffering from a form of amnesia. I expect it to be a temporary condition, but she currently has no idea who she is.”
Chris stopped in his tracks. “She remembers nothing?” he gasped.
“No, Your Highness. Nothing.”
“I guess your soon-to-be bride doesn’t realize she’s about to become a bride,” Bryan said.
Chris stopped again. “No, she can’t realize that, can she?” he said, the wheels beginning to spin in his brain.
“What’s going on, brother?” Xander asked.
?
??Nothing,” Chris answered. “It would be for the best, though, if you and Bryan left us now. I’ll need time to remind her of who I am, and I’d rather not overwhelm her with too many people, too many . . . strangers.”
“Are you sure? Maybe it would be an even better idea for all of us to go back to Rubare Collina.”
“No. I assure you, brother, that this is for the best. If anything at all comes up, I promise that I’ll call you immediately.”
“I will trust you,” Xander told him, placing his hand on his youngest brother’s shoulder.
“I disagree with Xander about leaving you here,” Bryan said, “but I do love you and I’ll honor your wishes. We are only a phone call away.” He patted Chris’s other shoulder.
When his brothers and the doctor walked away and out of the house, Chris took a deep breath before stepping up to Adara’s door. He could do this — could convince her they were madly in love. It was halfway true, after all.
He did have feelings for her, and he knew she had feelings for him. Her amnesia had a surprising upside. It gave him the opportunity to prove to her that they were made for each other.
Piece of cake, no?
If only real life were that easy.
Chapter Seven
Hello, Adara.”
Adara looked at the stunning man walking toward her and felt a small stirring in her gut, but she didn’t recognize him, not even in the slightest. How was that possible?
She finally returned a tentative “Hello.”
“I understand you’re frightened right now. The accident has left you with a memory disorder, the doctor said, but he has assured me that it won’t last long,” the man told her as he sat down in the chair next to her bed.
“I’m sorry. I guess we’re supposed to know each other, but I have no idea who you are.”
“Don’t be distressed, darling. I’m more than happy to spend as much time as you need so you can get to know me all over again.” He stood up and sat carefully down on the side of the bed and reached for her hand.
