“How did you get in?” AJ lunged toward him, responding instinctively to the invasion of privacy.
“Couldn’t stand to see your brother’s wife claim the throne?” A female reporter darted up behind him, holding up a camera phone.
AJ grappled with the first man, getting him in an armlock. “Guards! There’s an intruder.”
People rushed around them, servants hurried along the corridors and reporters poured in through the unsecured and glassless windows that ringed the palace and linked it to the gardens outside.
AJ grappled with a smelly man in a plaid shirt and yelled to the servants to make sure none of the scum got anywhere near Lani. Reporters who’d been hanging around the palace bored out of their skulls for weeks surged in after the others, shutters whirring and microphones thrust in his face.
“Are you back for good?”
“Is Dragon Chaser Five going to start shooting?”
“Did you fly the plane yourself?”
“Is the baby really yours?”
“Did you miss Lani?”
This last question made him look up, and his eyes met the beady blue ones of a blond reporter he vaguely recognized.
“I did miss Lani.”
The scrum of reporters suddenly hushed.
“Did you come back for her?”
“I came back to see her.” He didn’t want to claim more than that. He wasn’t sure if Lani even would see him, after he’d promised to marry her—in front of the whole world—then welshed on the deal.
“Do you want to marry her?”
“I think that’s a bit premature. I…” Something caught his eye behind the reporter’s head and he looked into the long hall leading to the interior of the palace.
Lani. Flanked by two guards, standing only a few feet away. Her face was blank, expressionless.
Blood rushed to AJ’s muscles and he pushed through the crush of reporters. He’d imagined her so many times, soft honey eyes, long silky hair hiding her slim figure, her hesitant walk and sweet laugh and his vision seemed conjured to life in front of him.
But as he approached her, Lani seemed to shrink from him. She glanced at the reporters behind him—why were they still there? Couldn’t the guards throw them out?
“Let’s go somewhere we can talk.”
She nodded.
He turned to the guards. “Make sure they don’t follow us.” He reached out to take Lani’s arm, then noticed how stiffly she held her body and pulled it back. What did she think of his sudden appearance?
Nine
Lani marched as fast as she could beside AJ. Her thoughts ran in all directions. Why was he here, and so suddenly? Hope mingled with terror and anticipation as they drew farther away from the crowd of crazy reporters and into the quiet recesses of the palace.
“In here.” AJ opened a door into the darkened throne room. She stepped past him, agonizingly conscious of his big, broad physique and the energy that always crackled in the air between them.
None of the hundred sconces or the incongruously high-tech video conferencing equipment was turned on, and the only light came through a small skylight in the ceiling. The massive “throne”—a squarish chunk of black basalt etched with symbols so ancient that no one could actually read them—hulked in the middle of the room.
AJ closed the door quietly behind them. The shaft of light from overhead threw his strong features into high relief, including the frown etched in his brow. “I had to come right away, to apologize.”
“For what?” He had much to apologize for, but she didn’t want to jump to any conclusions.
That, and she didn’t know what else to say.
“I feel like such an ass. Why couldn’t I see it?” AJ turned and paced across the room, disappearing into the semi-darkness. “Why didn’t I realize that Vanu had made your life hell, too?”
“I kept it secret.” Her voice was almost a whisper in the vast chamber. “Until I couldn’t keep it secret any longer.”
“Before your middle-of-the-night phone call, I didn’t even realize what I’d done.” He strode back across the darkened room. “That I’d let my own fears and insecurities get the better of me. I didn’t want to live a life being second-best, the backup, the understudy after the tragic loss of my glorious brother who was loved and missed by all.”
His eyes gleamed in the half light, and he let out a snort of disbelief. “But that brother never existed at all—except in my own mind, as my tormentor. The man who died was a small and petty individual who lived for his own amusement. That man can’t keep me from Rahiri—or from you.”
He drew her into his arms, and she rested her head against his broad chest, feeling protected and comforted for the first time since Vanu’s boat was found. Desire flared inside her like a spark under an encouraging breath.