hope to convince you to reconsider my suit.’’
‘‘I absolutely will not. I meant what I said. I won’t marry you. No matter what…happens.’’
‘‘You won’t marry me. I understand. You’ve said it repeatedly. There’s no need to say it again.’’
‘‘Oh, why can’t I get through to you?’’
‘‘But Liv darling, you have gotten through to me.’’
‘‘I am not your darling.’’
‘‘Ah. Yes. I believe you’ve mentioned that, too.’’
‘‘Then don’t call me that.’’
He dropped into the chair again, rested an elbow on the wide, padded arm and looked up at her, an absolutely infuriating expression of charmed bemusement on his gorgeous face. ‘‘He who fights shadows only squanders his strength.’’
She really, sincerely, wanted to bop him on the head with her Balenciaga lariat bag. ‘‘What is that? One of those obscure Gullandrian sayings of yours?’’
‘‘Hardly of mine. And I do think the meaning is clear.’’
‘‘There is no point to this. This will get you exactly nowhere.’’
‘‘So you’ve explained to me. I find, though, that I have an unrelenting yearning to see Sacramento.’’
‘‘Oh, right.’’ She was truly furious. She felt as if, any second now, steam would start hissing out of her ears. ‘‘Prime vacation destination in the Golden State. No doubt about it. What’s Monterey, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, when you can be in Sacramento?’’
One corner of his mouth lifted. Lazily. Seductively. ‘‘A visit of…two or three weeks, I would say…’’
Oh, there was absolutely no point in talking with him. It got her nowhere and seemed to provide him an endless source of amusement.
Should she deplane?
To what purpose? She’d just have to find some other way to get home. And Finn would still be there when she arrived.
She turned from him abruptly and yanked open the door to the galley area. The attendant stood on the other side, looking sheepish.
‘‘Come in, come in,’’ Liv said with heavy irony. ‘‘Prince Danelaw and I have nothing more to say to each other.’’
Liv put the man on permanent ignore. For the entire flight, she did not say one word to him.
They were served an excellent meal of veal medallions with pasta salad and artichokes. Liv savored hers in silence, careful never to let her gaze stray in the direction of the prince, shaking her head when the attendant offered her a glass of wine. It would be a long time before she let anything with alcohol in it cross her lips again.
After she’d eaten, she moved to the bedroom half of the cabin, pulled the accordion doors shut and didn’t emerge for the several hours left in the flight.
It worked out fine. She had a bed to stretch out in and a rest room all to herself if she needed it. She watched a movie, read the new Sandra Day O’Connor memoir and told herself she was hardly giving a thought to the patient, gorgeous, relentless man on the other side of the flimsy doors.
She even had the foresight to call ahead and arrange for a cab to be waiting at the other end. Her father had sent a limousine to pick her up and take her to the airport for the flight to Gullandria, but she had no illusions he would have made any such arrangement now. She was not going to be stuck without a ride—not with the ever-resourceful Prince Finn around. Of course, he’d have a limousine waiting. And he’d be oh-so-eager to give her a lift.
The flight took ten hours. With the eight-hour time difference, they touched down at Sacramento Executive Airport at a little after eight in the evening—only two hours later than the time it had been when they left Gullandria.
Liv looked out the window and saw a throng of reporters waiting on the tarmac—along with a shiny black limousine and an undistinguished-looking white four-door sedan: her cab.
She scrawled the address and phone number of her summer sublet on the back of a business card and gave it to the flight attendant along with a fifty. ‘‘Make certain my bags get to that address tonight.’’
‘‘Yes, Your Highness. I’ll see to it. Thank you for flying with us.’’
Liv smiled politely and moved on. She got out the door first, ahead of Finn. The cameras started clicking the minute she appeared on the small landing at the top of the steps. And the questions came at her as she descended.
‘‘Princess Liv, how’s your sister, the warrior’s bride?’’
‘‘Elli is blissfully happy.’’
‘‘Where will they honeymoon?’’
‘‘You know, I can’t say for certain….’’
‘‘I see Princess Brit isn’t with you. Why?’’
‘‘She decided to extend her visit in my father’s country.’’
Finn was right behind her. And they noticed. The women in the crowd waved and called to him—by name. ‘‘Prince Danelaw!’’
‘‘Prince Finn, this way!’’
Finn grinned and waved. Click-click-click went the cameras. More than one woman fanned herself and sighed.
‘‘Princess Liv, we understand that you and Prince Finn will be celebrating a wedding of your own very soon.’’
She’d been smiling until then. ‘‘I beg your pardon, I hardly know Prince Finn.’’ Well, it was true. Just because she’d slept with him, didn’t mean she knew him. ‘‘He’s visiting Sacramento. We merely flew here on the same plane. We are not engaged—I’m not engaged to anyone.’’
‘‘But my sources have it that—’’
‘‘Your sources have it wrong.’’ Liv elbowed her way through the jostling crowd as quickly and smoothly as she could manage it, with the questions still flying and the cameras clicking away.
She couldn’t believe it. How could they possibly have any clue about her and Finn? But then she thought of her father and decided this was just like him: to plant false information and put her in the embarrassing position of having to deny it.
Finn stayed right with her, too close for comfort. He was at her side when she reached the cab. The cabby hadn’t thought to get out and open her door for her.
Finn did the honors. He reached for the handle and then stopped to grant her a heart-twisting smile. ‘‘Are you sure you won’t ride with me? I’d be happy to take you wherever you’d like to go.’’
Oh, I’ll just bet, she thought.
