upset you?”
“Why should it? I’m busy with my own life.”
“So, you don’t think a family should spend time together?”
“You mean the dream of dinners together and family camping trips every summer?”
“Something like that.”
“If you’re born into a family like that, I’m sure it’s nice. But if you aren’t, you have to accept your circumstances and move forward.”
“Or change them.”
Again, he looked surprised by her comment.
“How would you do that?”
“Me, personally? I plan to marry someone who believes family is as important as I do or I won’t marry at all. I will spend time getting to know my children, if I have any. No son or daughter of mine will grow up feeling expendable.”
“You think you are expendable to your parents?”
“I know I am.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I came to the U.S. at the age of six because my mother’s older sister had been unable to conceive and it was decided that she would be given the honor of raising me. I only see my parents once a year, for a week.” She never ever gave details of her life to people, but Sebastian was different. She trusted him.
“And your brother?”
She smiled again, warmth filling her at thoughts of her brother. “When I’m staying with my parents, he makes sure we eat at least one meal together each day. And we talk. He asks about my life and listens to my answers. He praises me for my grades and other things. He’s the only person in my family who knows that I was on the kayaking team at school. He also makes sure he comes to visit me every time he is in America. My father flies to Washington, D.C., at least twice a year, but he’s never once made the additional effort to come see me as well. Even when he and my brother are traveling together and Hasim makes arrangements to do so.”
“I’m sure he’s confident that you are well taken care of by your aunt and uncle.”
“I am. I don’t want to denigrate them in any way to you. My aunt is sweet, if a bit reserved, and my uncle is much more open to new ideas than my father, having been raised himself in Canada. He was a third son.
Though sometimes family attitudes still show, I was allowed to attend university only at his insistence. If it had been up to my parents, I would have gone to a finishing school in Europe.” Even after her father had agreed to her university education, Lina had taken the added precaution of pursuing United States citizenship as soon as she turned eighteen.
It had taken her two years and had been the reason she’d learned to ditch her bodyguard as well as how to get out of her home undetected. She had two sets of papers. Her Marwanian papers, which she used traveling under the aegis of her country’s ruling family. She also had legitimate U.S. passport and citizenship papers, which her family knew nothing about.
As a Marwanian citizen, her father had had final say over anything and everything in her life, no matter what her age. That was not true for all Marwanian women, but as a member of the ruling family, she could not legally act without her father’s permission. However, as an adult U.S. Citizen, her freedoms were numerous including the right to refuse to return to Marwan if it became necessary.
“But your relationship with your parents makes you unhappy?”
“My lack of a relationship. Like I said, if I have children, I want a different life for them.”
“I am sure you will succeed at whatever you set your mind to.”
She gave him a glowing smile. She was definitely falling in love with this man. “Thank you.”
* * *
When they arrived at the cabins the kayaking group was staying in, Hawk noticed only one other car there. It turned out to be Bob’s. He and three more members of the group were still unloading. Hawk made sure that he was in one of the bedrooms of the cabin Lina was staying in. He noticed that Bob did, too. In fact, they were sharing the room. Which worked for Hawk. He was a fan of efficiency and this would allow him to keep an eye on both the princess and her wannabe hook-up.
Lina was sharing her room with one of the other coeds. A blonde who looked like a pinup and talked like
G. I. Jane. Lina told Hawk when they were reconnoitering the lake (well he was surveying their environment, Lina was just walking) that the blonde was former military and had just started university this semester.
Hawk had known that from his agency’s reports. What he hadn’t known was that Lina’s admiration for the other woman’s independence and lifestyle bordered on hero-worship.
“She’s been to seedy bars in more countries of the world than I’ve even visited.”
“And you see this as a good thing?” Hawk asked.
Lina’s laugh was joyous and too damned appealing to his libido. “Yes. My life has been so sheltered. A weekend like this is as about as adventurous as I’ve ever gotten.”
“But you want more adventure?” Hawk asked with a sinking feeling. If her family didn’t beef up Lina’s security, she would get that adventure. She was too resourceful not to.
“Yes. I want to travel. I want to do things…help people. See the world, but not as a member of…um…the privileged classes. As someone trying to make a difference.”
“You make it sound like you want to join the Peace Corps.”
“That’s one of my dreams, but I doubt I’ll ever realize it.”
Hawk had to take a deep breath or choke on his surprise. A princess in the Peace Corps? He didn’t think so. “If you can’t have a dream, find a practical replacement.” Like donating money to worthy causes. That was something a princess could do without causing a political incident.
Lina stopped walking and stared out over the lake, her expression thoughtful. Hawk stopped, too…but he watched his princess. Her golden skin glowing in the sunlight, her perfect features shone with a beauty that took his breath away. Of its own volition, his hand reached out and brushed her hair away from her face.
She shifted slightly so their eyes met, her velvet-brown irises drawing him in, her smile tempting him to taste her lips. Her head tilted; his dipped until their lips barely brushed. Electricity jolted through him at the contact, freezing time around them. Neither moved. They did not deepen the kiss, but nor did they move apart. Both stood in a paralysis of feeling he knew he had never experienced and suspected she had not, either.
They were only linked physically in two places—his lips barely touching hers and his hand still against her cheek—but he felt the connection in a place deep inside that he had not even known existed.
“Hey, you two.” Bob’s voice brought Hawk abruptly to his senses.
Yanking his hand away from her cheek, Hawk stepped away from Lina.
What
