THEIR_VIRGIN_PRINCESS(33)

“Do you think she’s going to keep her eyes closed the whole trip, Dane?” Cooper asked from the back of the plane.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! She shook her head, praying that she was just having a dream. No, a nightmare.

“I think eventually she’ll come to the conclusion that this is reality, and she’ll open those gorgeous brown eyes. Then she’ll probably start spewing more bile at us. Or at the very least objecting that we’re crashing her clandestine solo holiday. Either way, she’s going to be pissed off. So just sit back, relax, and wait for it. After the pointless argument is over, we’ll have hours to hash out how everything between us is going to work from now on.” Dane’s voice reeked of self-satisfied authority. And sex. After last night and coming so close to discovering firsthand the whole big deal about consensual sex for pleasure, she really didn’t know how to cope with how hot he sounded.

Alea gritted her teeth. It didn’t matter. In theory, she was the princess, and they were paid employees. She’d be well served to remind them of that and establish firm boundaries.

The seats beside, behind, and in front of her all jostled. She opened her eyes, and sure enough, she was surrounded by miles of gorgeous man flesh. Sure, all three of them were wearing clothes, but she could guess what sort of hard muscle was under those T-shirts. Still, that didn’t mean a thing because they weren’t welcome on her vacation.

“Get off this plane.”

Landon’s clear blue eyes widened innocently. “How—jump? Gosh, Lea. It’s moving. I don’t think now is a good time to do that.”

“Here comes the bile-spewing portion of the day, my brothers,” Dane said with a smirk that really should have crawled under her skin. But his almost obnoxious confidence was somehow sexy. “Watch. She’s going to go through a bunch of steps of the grieving process. She’s already been through denial.”

Two weeks of this—of them—and she’d be no closer to finding peace than she had been last night.

“You have to get off this plane,” Alea said, her voice tight. “Please. I need time alone to think, so you can’t go with me. After last night, you shouldn’t want to be with me. Just tell Tal I skipped out on you. I promise I’ll come back safely if you’ll just give me some space.”

“I think she’s a little bit afraid, Dane,” Cooper suggested.

Dane shrugged. “She’s bargaining now. Only because she doesn’t understand yet and doesn’t trust that we mean business. She will soon enough.”

“Lea, we’re not going to hurt you,” Lan vowed. “We’re here to protect you.”

“Among other things.” Dane smiled smugly. “Just wait, man. This is the pain and fear talking. She’ll calm down soon.” He settled back into his chair like he was enjoying the show and waiting to see the next act.

Oh, she was so done with him. Dane thought he understood her? That he could read her mind and guess how she was going to react? Bullshit.

Despite the plane still rolling along the runway, Alea yanked her seat belt off and stood, then grabbed Dane’s hand in hers. She would throw his ass off the plane herself if she had to. She could do it. She’d read about women who got great bursts of strength when they really needed it during a panic. Surely this qualified.

“How far out are we, Coop?” Dane asked as she pulled fruitlessly on his arm.

He glanced out the window. “Looks like there’s another plane ahead of us. I think that’s the prime minister heading home. She’s got three-to-five minutes to try to haul you out of here.”

If that concerned Coop, he didn’t show it. Instead, he leaned his head against the headrest and closed his eyes like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Damn you, get off this plane!” She tugged even harder, putting her weight into the effort. Instead of staring at her like he was bored, this time Dane stood. His massive frame towered over her. He wasn’t smiling.

“Sit down, Alea. We’re going to cut through the rest of this crap and get straight to acceptance. We’re going wherever you’re going. If you would like to stay in Bezakistan, we can do that. As it happens, I think a little time away would be good for all of us.”

“No,” she nearly shouted. “I need time away from everything that distracts and confuses me. That definitely includes you three.”

“Does it now?” he asked, his voice going dangerously low.

He didn’t touch her, but she could feel the heat of his body reaching her, wrapping around her. He was so close. Like Cooper had been close the night before. Alea took a long breath, trying to calm herself, but what she got was a nose full of the delicious, masculine scent of soap and something else uniquely Dane.