Chapter 47

Nicki stiffened as everyone focused on her once more. "Hey, I simply followed orders," she said, lifting her hands. What was Stefan doing? She needed more attention like a hole in the head.

He kept talking over her protest. "It was an excellent decision, Your Highness, to insist that Nicki accompany us on this mission." Stefan's words were impossibly polite and neutral, which somehow increased the impact of what he said next. "She was instrumental at every turn, from fulfilling her requirements as a travel videographer to stepping in where needed with the windsurfing community in Ala?ati. She interacted capably with the Turkish officials and made suggestions that enabled us to complete the mission quickly and effectively. Without her, the mission would probably have been completed, but I'm not certain we would have recovered Ari as seamlessly." He turned to her. "The kingdom of O?ros is in your debt."

Nicki blinked, startled out of her own spinning thoughts by the formality of his language, but the king and queen were focusing on her with renewed interest. "I have a feeling that will make a very interesting story," the queen murmured, her brows lifted.

King Jasen merely looked concerned. "Everyone is safe? Uninjured?"

Nicki's stomach knotted, but Stefan continued. "The entire team is safely aboard the yacht, unharmed. We do need to rechart our course for Asteri, but we expect to reach that port in approximately eight hours. It would be best if the team you were assembling was in place before we arrived. There are enough unoccupied villas there, I suspect, to ensure the prince's privacy?"

"The guests we had on the island left yesterday. No one else is scheduled?" Jasen quirked a glance toward the queen, and she shook her head, her expression indicating that her thoughts were already on a dozen different topics.

Nicki stifled a grin. Of course the royal family would have a private island for their personal use, and of course they'd be able to staff it in a matter of hours. Poor Ari might not be walking into the palace, but she had a feeling he would be in for a dramatic welcome all the same. "We'll be there before you, but keep us updated on your progress and any developments that will impact our personnel."

"Of course, Your Highness."

They talked for a short while further, then Stefan signed off. He spoke quickly to his men, and while she knew he wasn't speaking English—it once again sounded like English to her. She didn't just know how to speak O?ros, it was like the language was encoded in her DNA. Could that even be possible?

Stefan turned to her. "We need to move quickly now. There's a lot of preparation to take place in a few hours."

She nodded briskly. "I can totally make myself scarce?—"

"What? Oh—no," he said. "There's still the matter of the debrief. We'll want to ensure our stories match before you're interrogated by the queen."

He gestured her out the door and she lifted her brows. "Interrogated?" she asked, though she obligingly exited in front of him.

"It will probably include a liberal helping of tsipouro," he said. "You would do well to be prepared."

His words were light—much lighter than the tone he'd used with the royal family, and Nicki found herself grinning in response. To her surprise, Stefan didn't take her to another of the small conference rooms, however, but up the corridor to the main deck, then across to where the sleeping cabins were situated. He stopped at his stateroom.

"The veranda here is more private and protected from the wind. We can talk," he said, ushering her inside.

"Of course." She pointedly did not glance toward the doors that led to the bedchamber, and instead headed outside.

Stefan was right. The small sitting area was wonderfully comfortable, open to the sky but with walls high enough to cut most of the stiff breeze coming off the ocean. Nicki ducked under the shade to sit at the table, and Stefan joined her, their chairs angled to make the most of the view.

The view and decided proximity to each other.

Stop it, Nicki reminded herself again. Her time with Stefan was rapidly nearing an end, and she needed to focus on what was real, not what was wishful thinking. He'd become even more protective than ever since she'd gotten dizzy and passed out in the shower, but she supposed she only had herself to blame for that.

She pushed all those thoughts from her mind, and refocused on the issue at hand. "So," she said, leaning forward to put her elbows on the table. "What do I need to change about the story? Or is it a matter of not giving specific details?"

"The queen is cagier than that," Stefan said. He also leaned forward, and Nicki fought her shiver. He was so—competent. Strong, vibrant, masculine, smart, sexy as hell—the total package. She was going to miss that.

She was going to miss a lot of things.

"Primarily, though, it's a matter of what you should omit."

"Yeah?" she asked, refocusing. "Like the part where we broke laws, or the part where we had sex?"

His gaze remained steady. "I think she'll be unfazed by either of those revelations. In fact she'll give herself full credit for the latter." He shook his head at her quick grin. "Specifically, though, the accounts of the squatters on the nature of Ari's arrest—the timing, the details. Those can be left out. The queen will learn easily enough that he was rounded up as part of a work detail, but she would take issue with the way the Ala?ati authorities handled Ari's incarceration, and that's not useful at this juncture."

"That makes sense." Nicki said. "Anything else?" She narrowed her eyes. "Are you going to tell her about me passing out? Because I certainly won't."

"I won't share that directly with the queen, but with Cyril and King Jasen," Stefan said. "What they choose to tell the queen, I can't say."

"Well you could choose not to tell Cyril and Jasen anything either. That would solve that problem."

He shrugged, "I could, but there is the matter of the, ah, medical tests we'll be running. I've already set those arrangements in motion, and they aren't secret."

"Fine," Nicki said, sitting back in a huff. "I'm still not bringing it up."

"There's no need to do so." He quirked her a glance. "Unless you're feeling poorly?"

Irritation crested. "I'm feeling fine. I told you that. I don't know why you're making such a big deal about this."

Stefan lifted his brows. "Because you nearly died?"

She scowled at him. "I didn't nearly die. I passed out! That's it."

"Which begs the question. Why did you willfully keep such a vital piece of information about your health hidden from me for so long?"

"Gee, Stefan, maybe so I could avoid this exact conversation?" Nicki found herself dangerously close to tears, so she converted her annoyance to anger. "Maybe so we could focus on the mission and not on something that might or might not have been a concern—and even then, only for me?"

"Only for you?" he snapped, and she watched him visibly struggle with his temper. He looked away, his jaw working as he stared out to sea for a long moment. Then he spoke again. "If I had known you might be put at risk because of an adrenaline spike or dehydration, or that your body might not respond well to stress, you're correct. I wouldn't have put you at risk."

"You wouldn't have taken me on that last mission, for sure. And I helped! You said yourself that I helped."

He gave her a curt nod. "You could have helped in other ways, though. Just because you're not on the front lines doesn't make your role any less vital."

"But the front lines is where I belong. It's where I've always been. And I was fine—right up until I wasn't. There was no way to predict that."

"There were ways to work around it though. Ways to manage through it. And when I found you in your room…" his words trailed off and she saw the tightness to his jaw, the way his hands clenched. "I only had a sense something was wrong. I didn't know for sure. If I hadn't reached you in time…"

"You did reach me, though," she said. "It all worked out and I'm here. I'm fine."

"You're fine." He sighed heavily and turned to her, and to her surprise he lifted his hands to either side of her face, drawing her close for a long, searching kiss. "You're fine."

His voice trembled with emotion, and Nicki's own heart trembled in her chest—not with anxiety, but with a surge of excitement that swept through her like a cleansing fire. Stefan desired her—still. She held on to that realization with both hands. He wanted her.

And she wanted him back.

Then Stefan pulled away and stared at her. "I need you to be more than fine, Nicki. I want you healthy and safe. I want you to be able to do whatever you want, for as long as you want."

She smiled, her hands shaking now, too. "Well, it looks like you got your wish."