“You can’t be serious. You want to stop for a meal now and spend our last three dollars?”
Tom grinned at her. “Why not?”
She watched in disbelief while he searched the interior of the bustling restaurant. It seemed that he found what he was looking for because he pulled her toward a table near the back. An imposing looking man sat there with a napkin tucked into his button down chambray shirt complete with fringe across the chest and down the sleeves. He was chowing down on a humongous plate of BBQ.
“I’m running for my life and you’re enjoying a plate of ribs?” Tom greeted the man with a barely concealed smile. Joan had no doubt the man was Jai. Whatever she’d been expecting, it hadn’t been this. He stood and gave Tom a bear hug. Not hard to do when you had to be near seven feet tall, she thought, and took note of the man’s meaty paw when it clapped Tom on the shoulder after he’d released him.
“I sure am glad to see ya’ll,” he told Tom in a surprising Texas drawl. “Your mama would have my hide if anythin’
happened to ya.”
Curiouser and curiouser. She’d thought he’d grown up with Tom in Rafferstonia. His accent screamed that he’d been born and raised in Texas, though.
Tom pulled Joan into their little soiree. “This is Joan. The woman who did your job and saved my life.”
Jai shook her hand and nodded at her. “Much obliged ma’am.”
“He’s exaggerating. I didn’t do anything he hasn’t done for me. Tom pulled me out of a wrecked car, so I figure we’re even.”
Jai frowned and gestured toward the other side of the booth.
“Tell me everything.” And just like that, the Texas accent was gone.
Once they were settled in the booth, they filled the man in on everything that had happened. They paused when their waitress stopped by the table to put in an order of BBQ to rival Jai’s. Joan handed over the busted camera and memory card. Without missing a beat, the man hooked the card up to an adapter attached to his phone. The remains of his easygoing manner all but disappeared once he watched the video of their botched “bank robbery”.
Hearing how Joan had been the victim they’d tried to turn Tom into completed the task.
“A mighty fine mess this is. A mighty fine mess,” Jai commented before tapping away on his phone’s screen. He disconnected the memory card and handed it back to Joan. “That oughta get the ball rolling. I sent it to a friend of mine in your FBI.
Copies also went to my staff back home.” Jai propped his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers. “Since we don’t know where these guys are or who they’re working for, I recommend we head to the airport and go wheels up within the hour. Get you home.”
Wow! This was all happening so fast. In an hour, Tom would be flying out of her life forever. She worked to keep her sadness from showing on her face, but it was difficult. She was glad neither of the men was addressing her at the moment because she wasn’t sure she could speak around the tearful lump in her throat.
Tom nodded his agreement. Jai turned his focused on Joan.
“Can I assume you don’t have your passport on you?”
The question was so contrary to what she’d thought was about to happen that she didn’t comprehend it at first. “My passport?”
“Your government would not look too kindly on my kidnapping one of its citizens even if I am royalty,” Tom informed her and squeezed her hand.
“You want me to go with you?”
“Of course. You will still be in danger until these men are apprehended. You will remain under my protection. Just like I promised.”
Ah, yes. That promise.
Jai chimed in. “I know it can be hard to leave your life behind, but I promise it will just be until we capture the men who are after you. Then you’ll be free to return home. Wherever you deem that to be.”
He said the last with a look at Tom that she couldn’t quite comprehend. Not with so many other fantastical things and monumental decisions to be made right this moment. If she were honest, she had nothing more to lose. Her job was gone. Her friends thought she was a bank robber. It could take some time for this mess to be straightened out. Why not take an extended vacation until the dust settled?
She shook her head. “I don’t have a passport.” Tom grinned at her while Jai nodded and jotted a note in his phone. What had she done? Did she just agree to leave the country with two men she barely knew?
She had no time to further dwell on the decision. Jai tossed some cash on the table then spirited them off to the airport. Unlike Tom, he had his diplomatic credentials with him. They made security more than a breeze to sail through. They were allowed to keep their shoes so Joan didn’t even get to try out the little booties provided for passengers to wear through the scanners.
Once inside the international terminal Tom asked, “Is there time for a little shopping spree? I can’t bear these clothes a moment longer.” He squeezed her hand. “You?” She could only shake her head, there were so many doubts and questions swirling through her head at what she was in the midst of doing. Jai pulled a credit card from his wallet and handed it over to Tom.
“Get yourself something nice.” The Texas accent was back.
He gestured with his phone. “I’ll finish making the necessary arrangements.”
“Excellent. Let’s go shopping.” Tom pulled her along the terminal before she thought to protest.
A short time later, Joan found herself sitting in an overstuffed armchair waiting for Tom to emerge from the dressing room of the men’s shop they’d found. He wore one of the gazillion suits he’d taken in there with him. She still couldn’t wrap her head around everything. Was this happening? Did she only have thirty minutes left before fleeing the country of her birth? Could she go through with it? Then what?
Once she was on foreign soil she couldn’t very well expect Tom to continue taking care of her. Maybe he could give her a job reference. Joan wrinkled her nose at that. She was sure there wouldn’t be too many employers who’d turn their nose up at a letter of recommendation from their ruler. And what would happen to her? Would Tom be her ruler, too? She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Then there was the tiny matter of her life her in the States.
Sure, she’d lost her job, but she still had an apartment and other bills to pay. Would she be able to afford rent on two residences, both here and in Rafferstonia, until she could return home? If not, how did she go about breaking her lease? What would happen to all her things? Could she afford movers to pack everything up and ship it to her? Or maybe she could have them put it in storage. Still, that meant she’d lose the cute little apartment she called home. Just the thought of it made her sad.
That was the problem with running away from something instead of running to something. When you ran away, there was nothing to fill the void left by all one was leaving behind. It made everything seem much more tragic. She suspected it would be much easier if she were running toward something. At least then she’d have a goal.
Tom stepped out of the dressing room looking spectacular from head to toe in the suit he’d selected. He looked so magnificent she almost didn’t recognize him. His dapper new appearance was such a far cry from how she’d been used to seeing him. At this moment, she had no doubts the man was royalty. It wasn’t so much that the clothes made the man, because they’d seemed like mere rags on the hangers. But on him, they were wonderful. Oh how nice would it be if she were running toward him.
“Well?” Tom did a graceful turn for her in the new socks he’d picked out. “What do you think?”
“It’s quite nice,” was all Joan could manage. He cocked an eyebrow.
“Quite nice? That’s it? What happened to ‘hot’, ‘sexy’,
‘gorgeous’? You know. All those words you used to describe me before.”
Joan rolled her eyes. Now she recognized him. “I don’t believe I’ve ever used any of those words in the same sentence as
‘Tom’.”
He gave her a scandalized look. “That’s not what you said on the train.”
She frowned and pretended to have to think about to what he was referring. She’d known her little comment was going to come back and bite her. “You mean yesterday morning? Any guy who has food for me is hot.” She stood with a shrug and walked around him to act like she was checking out his new threads. In reality, she was trying to keep her expression hidden from him. She paused behind his back to brush some imaginary lint from his shoulder. He whirled and captured her gaze with his. The smile on his face told her he wasn’t buying the bill of goods she was trying to sell him.
“Of course. What was I thinking?” His warm breath fanned over her face. They were so close. If she leaned forward even the slightest little bit, she knew he’d meet her more than halfway with a kiss. Did she dare? They were back in civilization. There were people around so it wasn’t like they could go too far. Sure, she was jetting off halfway around the world with him in a few minutes; but from what he’d told her of his life, it sounded like they’d be surrounded with unwitting chaperons at all times. What could it hurt? Just one little kiss. And despite what she’d told him to the contrary, she did find him to be smokin’ hot. With or without the suit.
Oh no. She’d just thought of him without the suit. Given their close quarters for the last few days, there was very little left of his body, or maybe not so little, that she hadn’t seen. “Ummm, this is a family store. Why don’t you two pay for that suit? Because I’m sure I can’t sell it to anyone else now. And take all that sexual tension to the hotel across the parking lot.” The annoyed voice interrupted Joan when she was about to give him the tiny bit of encouragement he must need to take things the rest of the way.
She stepped away with her cheeks feeling like they could fry eggs and stared at the short salesgirl in her black attire, black nails, black lips, and multiple piercings. Did they really just get a lecture on ‘family friendly’ from someone who looked like she could scare Satan himself?
Without sparing the girl a glance, Tom handed over the credit card Jai had given him. “Add the shoes.”
With a toss of her spiked haired head, the girl marched off to the cash register to ring up the sale. Desperate to break the spell he was weaving around her, Joan tried to follow. Tom had other plans.
He caught her elbow and pulled her back to the spot she’d just vacated.
“You were going to kiss me, weren’t you?”
“What? You’re so imagining things.” She tried to flee again, but he held her in place.
“We don’t have time to be coy, Joan. Things need to be arranged if we’re to pursue this thing between us. There’re some things you need to know before making any decisions.”
“I’m not being coy.” She frowned. “What things? Things about you?”
“In a way. We need to be sure before the press gets wind of anything. You’ll be expected to become—”
“There you are!”
Joan and Tom whipped their heads toward Jai who was rushing toward them.
“We’ve got to go. The press knows you’re here. You need to board the jet now unless you have answers to the questions you know they’re going to ask.” His eyes flicked to Joan, but she couldn’t understand why. Their situation was straight forward as it came. If you can call being accused of robbing a bank then fleeing across state lines straight forward.
Tom studied Joan for another moment, and then shook his head. She got the feeling he wished his answer had been different.
But she didn’t get what the big deal was. It would have just been a kiss.
Jai nodded and ushered them toward the door.
The salesgirl held up his credit card and receipt, but made no move to meet them. Jai strode to the cash register to retrieve both. When he was out of earshot, Joan whispered, “Okay, yeah. I wanted to kiss you. It was a silly urge that’s already passed.
Happy?”
Tom stared down at her for a moment and smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. There was no feeling behind it. She got her second glimpse of Saracen Tomas, the prince and not Tom her friend and protector. This time it was minus the charm. Joan didn’t like it one bit. But she couldn’t admit to him she still wanted to kiss him and she had for some time. She wasn’t ready to open that can of worms.
Jai rejoined them before Tom could say anything more. The three of them hurried out of the store and through the terminal.
Her hand was still secure in Tom’s firm grasp, but she’d hurt him just now. She’d have a chance to make it up to him later. To explain. After all, they had a pretty long plane ride ahead of them.
They’d talk then.
“How fast can you change?”
Jai’s question startled Joan out of her thoughts. She looked up at Tom. “Pretty fast.”
He pointed to a dress in the window of a boutique. “That would look very nice on you.”
It was a simple sundress similar in cut to the one she’d had on the day they’d met. “Do we have time?”
Jai smiled. “I love this woman. Great sense of priorities.” He handed her the card. “Grab whatever you want. You can change on the plane.”
Joan nodded then hurried into the shop. Tom started to follow, but Jai held him back. For the first time in what seemed to be a really long time, Joan found herself alone and not caring all that much for it. What was wrong with her? She was a strong woman who didn’t need a man taking care of her. She checked out the credit card clenched in her hand. But it sure was nice. She shook her head and flipped through the dresses on the rack until she found her size.
While she had a moment out of Tom’s magnetic presence, she reconsidered what had almost happened between them. Why hadn’t she just gone for it? Was she that much of a chicken despite all her “independent woman, hear me roar” ways? Besides, it was just a little kiss. She could do that. And so what if more happened to develop between them later? Isn’t that how it was supposed to occur? How people fell in love. And it was all too easy to fall for Tom. He was everything she expected a man to be. And more. He was hot, no question about that no matter how much she’d hemmed and hawed over the matter when he called her on her slip of the tongue.
He was nice, courteous, teachable, good under pressure, and she felt safe with him. He’d protected her throughout this entire ordeal when he could’ve jaunted off to his country by himself with a lot less trouble. He’d done all of this despite the fact that he is royalty and slated to take the throne in the near future. The one piece missing from this puzzle was how he felt about her.
Joan wasn’t royalty and Queen of Coupons didn’t count. She was a survivor who’d grown to love a good deal. Joan considered the items in her hand. Despite having a credit card backed by a small country who loaned money to the rest of the world, she’d still managed to find the sale rack. Talk about the definition of common.
If Joan knew nothing else about royalty it was that they didn’t marry common folk.
Joan put the brakes on her train of thought. Marriage? Boy was that getting way ahead of herself. She’d just chickened out on kissing the guy. How did she expect the two of them to get down the aisle? And that was assuming he was as attracted to her. It was so difficult to imagine that to be the case here, but plain looking women managed to snag hot guys every day. Why couldn’t she? So what if Joan didn’t exactly know what she was doing. That hadn’t stopped her when she’d first started to coupon and attracted horrendous cashier after horrendous cashier who seemed to think couponers were nothing but a bunch of thieves.
A plan. She was good at making those. Starting with the kiss she’d missed out on giving him a few minutes ago. Just a kiss. It was all very simple.
Chapter Eighteen
“This is a huge complication, you know. If I hadn’t interrupted when I did…” Jai leaned against the wall across from the boutique where Joan was shopping and eyed Tom. “I did interrupt in time, right? I mean, nothing more has happened between the
two of you I should know about?”
Tom worked to keep his annoyance off his face at his friend’s questions. He knew they were legit and of utmost importance, but that didn’t stop him from being irritated.
“In fact, you interrupted way too soon. She’s only just allowed me to hold her hand over the last day or two. I’d love to report that I could’ve gotten further except for my extraordinary restraint, but that’s not the case.” Tom shoved his hands in his pockets hoping it would keep him from thinking about how bereft he felt without holding on to Joan’s. “The lady has shown no interest in me on a romantic level.” Except, he thought, she wanted to kiss me just now. It was best he kept that to himself.
Jai examined him with the discerning gaze Tom hated so much. He always felt like his friend could read his every thought and know what he was about to do before he did it.
“And if she had? Are you prepared to bring her home as your queen? You know you’re way past your wild fling stage. The next woman you become romantically involved with will become your wife. You’ve sailed past the point of no return long ago, man.”
“Don’t you think I know that? After all, a day hasn’t gone by that I haven’t thought about the bad timing of our meeting. We can’t even date to see if we’re compatible. I’m starting to think this tradition is pretty messed up.”
“The tradition is, or you are?” Jai’s look took on a smug quality.
“I’m well aware that this is my fault. If I’d found a wife before my year away this could’ve been a honeymoon instead of torturous celibacy.”
Jai grinned. “I take it from your tone you succeeded.”
Tom cut his eyes to the man then positioned his body with what he hoped was a casual movement so he could look in the boutique window. Maybe he’d get a glimpse of Joan.
“That’s good news. Should I add Joan’s name to the list to be vetted? She’s going to be in Rafferstonia anyway. Who says the two of you can’t get to know one another with a lenient chaperon present?”
Royal Opposites Page 15