CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SIX
In truth, Adonis could remember very little about the rescue. Once he had been taken to the nearest medical facility approved of by his father’s team, they had determined that he was significantly more unwell than he had originally imagined. He had thought that because he was conscious, able to eat and able to communicate that he was more or less fine. He had lost a significant amount of blood, and the wound had been dangerously close to going septic.
And all the while, he wondered about Stevie. What had happened to her? If she was well.
Stevie…
She hadn’t just kept him alive.
Their night together had been extraordinary. If anything had given him the will to live it had been that.
But he’d had no contact with her since and he didn’t like it. The media had been in a frenzy. For two days he’d been missing, without a trace, and while there had been rumors he was off on a bender before his wedding, there had also been some concern for his safety.
And in the time since…
The media had been frenzied.
He’d been stranded in the woods with a female pilot who had saved his life. Stevie’s name had been printed, along with a photo that had clearly been taken of her from across a street in some Montana town. Which meant she wasn’t in the hospital but it also meant she was wandering around unprotected.
He felt protective. Angry.
And outraged at his inability to do anything because his body was choosing to be so…mortal about it all.
He came to the end of his tether two weeks into his recovery.
He wrenched out his IVs, disconnected every monitor and stormed into his father’s office in the palace with the aid of his shiny black cane.
“I need to get out of here.”
“Do you?” his father asked, not raising his head.
“I promised Stevie a reward.”
“Ah yes,” said the old man, looking quite spry for someone supposedly knocking at death’s door. “Stevie Parker. Twenty-five, of Bozeman, Montana, pilot. A poor pilot, at that.”
“You’ve done your research.”
The King nodded. “Of course I have, Adonis, you were alone with her for days and I needed to know who she was. Especially with the media so enraptured by the story.”
“Have you offered her protection?”
“Protection?” his father asked, sounding incredulous. “It’s you who might need protecting. She’s going to be able to sell her story.”
“What makes you think there’s a story?” His father stared at him. Hard. “Father, I am injured,” he said, gesturing to his leg.
“So you’re saying you did not have sexual relations with the girl?”
He cleared his throat. “I didn’t say that.”
Damn his father for knowing him. Damn himself for being so predictable.
“You know the media has decided there is a potential romance between you.”
“Yes. But doesn’t the media always?”
“Hmm. But not always when you have a fiancée.”
Drusilla.
He had chosen her because she was the best option. The most expedient.
He was no longer certain that was the case.
Stevie had saved his life.
Stevie was the last woman to set him on fire.
Stevie was the woman the press couldn’t stop talking about.
Stevie might be the answer to everything.
The truth was, whatever his father thought, his time with Stevie had not been about a playboy reverting to type. What had passed between them had been singular, and he’d thought continually of her since they’d been rescued.
Yes, he’d wanted to protect her, and that had been his driving focus as he remained trapped in the hospital bed, but he also…
Wanted her.
And the truth was the backlash over the wedding was something he didn’t feel was fixable. Drusilla was already unhappy with him over the scandal surrounding everything, and he suspected she would rather they called it off altogether.
He knew he wanted to.
He knew what his solution was.
“I think previous plans might need changing,” he said slowly.
“Which previous plans?” his father asked.
“The future Queen of Olympus must be smart, brave and resourceful, do you not agree?”
His father looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Yes.”
“She must be popular with the people, and of course there must be chemistry between us else she leave me for the bright lights of Hollywood.”
His father scowled. “My own mistakes are not on trial here.”
“Well, we can litigate those another time.” He lifted a brow. “A princess who is down-to-earth, who has spent her life working. Who knows how to engage with the majority of the populace…because she is like them.”
“Of course those things would be good, but I am hard-pressed to believe you could find such a woman who is also suitable.”
He smiled. Slowly. “Oh, I have already. I think that Stevie Parker is a much better solution to the problem you’ve been trying to solve.”
* * *
Stevie was… Well, she was furious. She’d been back at her home in Montana for two weeks, she had no reward, no contact with Adonis, His Royal Highness , at all. She was being hounded by reporters. Because now it was a global news story. That the Playboy Prince had crashed in the wilderness, and had been saved by a female pilot, and everybody wanted to know what was happening.
And on a personal note… She’d been worried about pregnancy. Weirdly sad when her period had come and oddly bereft even in her fury over everything.
In the two weeks since the accident had occurred, her entire life had been turned upside down. Not only did she not have the means to work, she didn’t have her anonymity, her privacy, anymore. And she was still poor as a duck.
It was not a conundrum that she had ever expected to find herself in.
One time, when her sisters were very small, a news crew had come to the school to do a feature on the solar panels that had been installed, making the school the first in the state to run off of alternative energy.
And Topaz had said, quite seriously, I avoided getting on camera. I don’t want to accidentally become famous.
They had all laughed at that. Stevie most of all.
I don’t think that you’re in danger of accidentally becoming famous.
People worked tirelessly to become famous. She didn’t think it was going to happen to someone accidentally.
And yet, here she was. Embroiled in accidental fame while coping with… She wasn’t going to call it heartbreak . That was dumb. She’d had sex with the guy one time. She was…thwarted because he’d made promises he hadn’t kept. That was all.
To say she didn’t care for it was an understatement.
And yet it was becoming an issue everywhere she went. Even in the grocery store in her tiny town. Normally she would’ve said the citizens of the little Montana hamlet couldn’t have cared less about celebrity. But her saving a prince had made waves.
She growled in a fury, and went over to the stove to look at her dinner. Red beans with bacon and onion and ham hocks.
That just made her think of Adonis all over again. And she got even more furious.
Then she heard a knock on the door.
Her sisters clambered from down the hall, from their shared bedroom, hollering and fighting over who was going to answer the door.
“We don’t know who it is,” she shouted, wiping her hands on a dishcloth as she made her way to the front.
But she could tell that the girls had already opened the door. And then there was a chorus of screams.
“If it’s an ax murderer, I swear to God…”
But then she saw. Her sisters were frozen, staring at the man standing there. And she couldn’t blame them. Because there he was in all his state. And he was still in a state .
He had on black gloves, and one hand was clutching the silver handle of a shiny black cane. He looked imposing and severe. There was no question that he was a man used to being in charge.
Of course.
How had she not realized? Really, how had she not realized who he was?
Because his bearing was something beyond. It was royal .
And he was here. Prince Adonis.
“Stevie,” he said, her name so exotic on his lips.
And it made her…
Oh no, she wanted to swoon. She was so, so angry at him and he was still so gorgeous he sent her whole body into a fine fiery frenzy.
She’d come back home and had tried to be the girl who took care of her sisters, the one who handled paperwork and practicalities. The one who fought with insurance companies and lost sleep over the mortgage and paying for health insurance.
But he immediately reminded her she was more than that now.
That she was a woman who’d taken a lover and the impression of his hands on her body still left her burned.
Her sisters turned to look at her, like a chorus of baby owls swiveling their heads, eyes wide.
She was worried, for a moment, that the truth of it all shone brightly on her skin. That what the press was writing about them was true. That they’d had a…liaison out there in the wilderness with nothing but the stars as witness. That she had fallen prey to his charms like every other woman to ever cross his path because she was absolutely the opposite of special.
She was just like all of them.
And for her he’d been…singular.
“Your Majesty,” she said. Because she couldn’t bring herself to say his name. Not out of respect. For her own…sanity.
“Not Clem?”
“Well, it turns out that’s not your name. Though, you didn’t tell me that. Maybe because when you promised the reward you were intending to welsh on it, and you didn’t want me to track you down.”
“Believe me,” he said. “I’m not worried about being tracked down.”
Of course not. His people could track him down if they needed to, and mere peasants would never be allowed entry past his threshold. And yet there he was at hers.
He stepped inside without being invited.
“Stevie, I have come to make amends. I’m sorry it’s been two weeks without contact and without protection from the press. I have been undergoing forced recovery .” He said it like it had been torture. “But I recently decided my recovery was over.”
“You mean you… You just left your sickbed?”
“Yes.”
“Well. They probably frown on that.”
“Undoubtedly. But many things that I do are quite frowned upon. Somehow I persevere.”
She squinted. “It helps when you are insulated by money and power.”
“Undoubtedly. Is there a place where we can speak?” He looked at her sisters. “Privately?”
She bit the inside of her cheek. “No,” she said. “Not in this house. There are eight people living under this roof.”
“I see.”
“Girls, let him in.”
Her sisters parted like the sea and he came in on his cane, looking at ease and practiced as if he had used it all his life.
He looked around the place, and she knew a moment of shame. Which was silly. One thing she had never been was ashamed. Because they had worked for all this. And it might not look like much to somebody else, to a prince, but it was hers. The little ramshackle house with its threadbare rugs, and charming yellow kitchen. It had kept them. Sustained them.
And she gritted her teeth against any rising embarrassment.
“I’m here to speak to you about your reward.”
“Oh.” Her heart rate picked up.
“I’ve been thinking. And I believe that I have thought of just the perfect way to thank you for what you’ve done for me. And to give you a role that I know you will excel at.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. You quite literally saved my life. And that is not something I will ever forget. But beyond that, listening to you speak about your life was…inspiring.”
He lifted his chin, his expression arrogant. “I would do this properly, but the crutches prevent it. However, I have not come empty-handed.” He reached into his suit jacket, and took out a diamond ring. She could scarcely believe what she was seeing.
It was the most spectacular piece of jewelry she had ever seen in her entire life. Beyond anything she could have even imagined. Beyond…everything.
“Stevie Parker, you saved my life. And so I have decided, that when it comes to the matter of who is the most suitable woman to become my princess, it is you. You are going to marry me.”