was.
Flashing faster than instantaneous replay, scene after scene of her time with Sebastian rolled across the movie screen in Lina’s mind.
Sebastian had offered to drive her to the kayaking excursion in his car. A Dodge Viper, the same gunmetal gray of his eyes, the powerful sports car didn’t have room for anyone else. So they would spend the ninety-minute drive to the campground alone. She found her attention occupied by his profile and the way his powerful thighs bulged in his jeans, rather than the admittedly gorgeous scenery out the window.
She’d spent endless hours thinking about this man, trying to decide if he was as interested in her as she was in him.
She had no experience and no one she felt comfortable going to for advice. That left her with her own opinion based on…well nothing. Okay, there’d been the gossip from other girls in high school, but none of it seemed to apply. Sebastian wasn’t pushing for sex or copping a feel every time they were in a remotely private place.
She thought it was probably because he was older, a graduate student who already had some experience in the business world.
She was pretty sure he desired her, though. The way he looked at her at times made her brain melt. And other bits as well.
She’d tried reading women’s magazines, but they all touted open communication in a relationship. Did that mean she was supposed to just ask him?
She would rather pick up on nonverbal clues. And she was convinced there were some.
Sometimes, his eyes would gleam with something that responded to the ache deep in her womb whenever he was around. But he had never acted on it and they had been seeing each other for three weeks now. They hadn’t had any dates per se, but he’d been around pretty much constantly since she’d run into him in the quad.
Since he did not seem like a big joiner, the fact that he was at meetings she’d never before seen him at or rallies she was pretty sure he had no personal interest in, she had to assume she was the reason he showed up. Which meant he wanted her, right?
It amazed her, really. That a man like Sebastian would be interested in Lina Marwan was pretty incredible. She was accustomed to people being drawn by her royal status, but like the rest of the students at the university, he had no way of knowing she was a princess. But he liked her…maybe…
He was everything she had dreamed of finding in a boyfriend, not that he was actually her boyfriend.
She sighed. Sebastian gave her a questioning look. She smiled a little and shrugged. Thankfully he didn’t ask her what she was thinking. She might just blurt it out and embarrass herself unbearably.
He was so gorgeous; he was assertive without being domineering. He listened to her, maybe even better than her brother. He was smart and driven—his going for an MBA showed that. And he was intense in this really, super sexy way. Was it any surprise she was falling for Sebastian Hawk in a big way?
The problem was that sometimes she was convinced that all he wanted was friendship.
She was so bad at this whole male-female thing. Her lack of practical experience was becoming a real nuisance. If she had been like the other girls who attended the female-only academy she had, she would have at least had a chance when not in school to meet people of the opposite gender. To learn to flirt for goodness sake. Though she had to admit that even if she had the opportunity, the male dominant nature of her family had made her wary around men and she probably would have shied away from any sort of interaction.
That caution combined with the reality that in order to date it would have meant further deceptions, or the indignity of being subjected to not only a bodyguard, but a chaperone as well, had also kept her from pursuing or responding to the pursuit of any guys since she’d arrived at university. Until Sebastian.
Of course, it helped that he was willing to spend time with her doing the things she already arranged for involvement in.
Only…for this man, she would do whatever it took to see him personally. She just wished she knew what to do with him.
Not that lack of experience had ever stopped her from trying something that she wanted to. She was not the demure, ornamental—aka useless—piece of feminity her father believed her to be.
Sebastian was so different from the men in her family. He never dismissed her thoughts as unimportant simply because she wasn’t heir to a throne or provincial position. He wasn’t surprised by her intelligence and he didn’t seem to think her political science major was a waste of her time. Not that he knew why she had chosen that major, but he acted like he believed she could, and most likely would, do something valuable with her education.
That was her hope.
She’d spent her childhood separated from her home, only to see her parents and siblings one week out of the year when she flew to Marwan and stayed in the royal palace with them. She did not remember her parents ever touching her with affection, and knew for a fact her father had never once given her any recognition as anything but his inferior female offspring.
She refused to spend her adult life feeling and being insignificant. She wanted to make a difference in the world and not merely as the attractive, well mannered appendage on some man’s arm.
“You’re pretty quiet over there,” Sebastian said.
“I was thinking how different you are from the men in my family.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
“In what way?”
“You don’t discount me simply because I’m female.”
“Who does that?”
“My father. To some extent my uncle. Others.”
“Your brother?”
She didn’t remember mentioning her brother, but she must have done so. She gave one of the rare smiles that occurred when she thought of her family. “My brother is different. He has been raised to be just like my father, but he’s not. You can’t tell on the surface, but he does special things to let me know.”
“Like what?” Sebastian’s obviously genuine interest encouraged her to be more open with the truth than she would have normally.
“He spends time with me.”
“Don’t your parents?”
“My mother does…sort of.” Though the sessions spent training Lina for her station could hardly be classified as mother-daughter bonding time.
“Not your father?” Sebastian didn’t sound surprised or disapproving, simply curious.
“No. He’s far too busy to spend quality time with a mere daughter.” Though, according to her sister, their father made limited time available to his daughter still living in Marwan.
“That bothers you?”
“Wouldn’t it you?”
He looked a little startled and then shrugged. “I suppose. But in my case it was my mother that
