Her words spit past gritted teeth. “I. Can’t.”
   And I know with a sick tightening of my gut that she’s not going to last.
   Scanning the activity below and the choppers cutting across the sky above, I make up my mind right then.
   “All right.” I swallow. “Here’s the plan. We separate—”
   “No—”
   “I’ll break cover first. Then, once they’ve gone after me, you head for water. Go under and stay there. However long it takes.”
   Her dark eyes gleam wetly, the vertical lines of her pupils throbbing.
   “Got it?” I demand.
   She nods jerkily, the ridges on her nose contracting with a deep breath. “W-what are you going to do?”
   I force a smile, the curve of my lips painful on my face. “Fly, of course.”
   Also by Sophie Jordan
   Lessons from a Scandalous Bride
   Wicked in Your Arms
   Wicked Nights With a Lover
   In Scandal They Wed
   Sins of a Wicked Duke
   Surrender to Me
   One Night With You
   Too Wicked to Tame
   Once Upon a Wedding Night
   ABOUT THE AUTHOR
   * * *
   New York Times bestselling author SOPHIE JORDAN grew up in the Texas Hill Country where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she lives in Houston with her family. When she’s not writing, she spends her time overloading on caffeine (lattés and Diet Cherry Coke are preferred), talking plotlines with anyone who will listen (including her family), and cramming her DVR with true-crime and reality-TV shows. Sophie also writes young adult romance novels for HarperTeen. You can visit her online at www.sophiejordan.net.
   Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
   COPYRIGHT
   This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
   Excerpt from How to Lose a Bride in One Night copyright © 2013 by Sharie Kohler.
   Excerpt from Firelight copyright © 2010 by Sharie Kohler.
   THE EARL IN MY BED. Copyright © 2013 by Sharie Kohler. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
   EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062222466
   Print Edition ISBN: 9780062222473
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 The Earl in My Bed: A Forgotten Princesses Valentine Novella Page 9