“I’ll go check on him,” Goran announced.
“No!” she blurted out, lifting a hand to stop him. “He might talk to me more openly than you.”
“Why do you think that?”
Calista shrugged, smiling brightly and with a sudden twinkle of mischief in her eyes. “Because men usually like to brag to me about whatever stupid ideas they have in their mind. I can’t tell you how many dinners I’ve sat through where one diplomat, general or very important person decided to regale me with their latest glorious tale of how impressive they are. And as a representative of my family, I had to endure every one of their stories with a smile on my face and my legs crossed at the ankle.” She stepped forward, her grin widening. “Trust me, I’ve got this.”
Neville smiled as he read the news. The Sheik of Skyla was kidnapped along with Princess Calista of Silar. Brilliant! Ned Afrehoster had been a good investment after all! The Silarian government was frantically searching for Princess Calista and the Skyla government was working overtime trying to hide their leader’s kidnapping! Absolutely brilliant!
No one was watching the small town in the north of Skyla. It was very close to the border of Silar, so the mining equipment was moving into position during the night hours. It would take two or three days for Neville’s people to get everything adequately hidden and another few days to start operations.
He lifted his phone and made a call. “Excellent plan,” he said when Ned answered the call. “Give me updates every day. Move up the schedule. I want everything hidden and digging operations started within the next four days instead of a week.”
He ended the call, not bothering to wait for Afrehoster’s reply. The man would get the work done, or Neville would take care of him the same way he’d taken care of the previous idiots who had failed him over the years.
“Where’s my sister?!”
Astir stopped in the doorway, facing a furious woman. “She is…”
Princess Ayla del Taran narrowed her eyes at her older brother. “Don’t you dare lie to me. She’s not off somewhere with that dud she is engaged to marry. She’s not hiding out somewhere, trying to get to know the man. I know for a fact that Calista was going to break up with Sheik Goran after yesterday’s official visit.”
Astir wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh at his baby sister describing Sheik Goran el Istara as a “dud”, furious at the revelation that Calista was going to break things off with a man Astir considered to be a good friend, or jealous that Ayla and Calista obviously had a closer relationship with each other than he had with either of them.
Thankfully, a soothing hand moved over his arm and Astir looked down at Rachel. His wife was…everything, he thought. She soothed him and inflamed him. At just her soft touch, he wanted to pull her into his arms and once again thank her for coming into his life and giving him such joy, as well as toss her over his shoulder and carry her back to their bed so that he could make love to her all over again. The soft roundness of her belly where their child grew only aroused him even more!
Her knowing smile told him that Rachel knew exactly where his mind had gone.
With a sigh, he turned back to Ayla who was still standing in the salon, her tiny hands fisted against her sides and her dark, lovely eyes glaring daggers at him. “Lovely”? When had his tiny, always energetic, always bouncing baby sister turned into such a beautiful woman? And breasts! Uncomfortably, Astir realized that, at some point, his baby sister had grown into an actual woman! She was just a child! How could she have breasts?!
Another touch, this time Rachel laced her fingers through his, and Astir sighed, rubbing his forehead as he tried to concentrate on the current crisis. He could deal with Ayla’s inappropriate aging another time. She was frightened now and he needed to reassure her that everything would be okay.
“Ayla, Calista is fine. She’s just…”
Ayla tsked with annoyance, slicing her hand through the air to silence him. He almost laughed since that was a gesture that he’d performed several times over the years. Now he knew how annoying it was.
“Don’t you dare try to patronize me, Astir. Calista is not fine. She hasn’t answered my text messages or answered my calls. The only reason she wouldn’t respond is if she couldn’t respond. So I know that something is wrong.” She stepped forward, her dark, almond shaped eyes morphing from anger to pleading. “Astir, just tell me what’s going on. I know that you still consider me to be a child. But I’m not. I can handle the truth. What I can’t handle is not knowing. My imagination has gone crazy, picturing all the horrific possibilities.” Her soft, full lips cringed slightly into a silly grimace before she smoothed her features back to normal. “Trust me, you don’t want to be inside my head. It’s become a pretty gruesome place.” She took yet another step forward. “Just tell me what you know and stop trying to protect me. I’m tougher than you think.”
Astir stared at her, stunned all over again. She’d grown breasts and developed into quite a little force of nature.
He almost laughed again when he realized how patronizing his thoughts were. Smoothing his astonishment away, he tightened his fingers around Rachel’s briefly, then moved forward, gestured with his hand to the chairs, indicating that they should all sit down.
He paused only long enough to accept the crystal glass of scotch from a servant. “Could you give us some privacy, please?”
The servants standing against the walls immediately moved out of the room and Astir paused, waiting for his body guards to give him the signal that the room was clear.
Only then did he turn to Ayla.
“I’m sorry for keeping you out of the loop. I should have come to you and explained as soon as I had any information.”
Ayla immediately waved his apology away. “You’re under a great deal of pressure, Astir. I know this. I try to keep out of your way because I know that you don’t have much free time.” Her eyes turned shiny as tears threatened, but she rallied, straightening her shoulders and leaning forward slightly. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
Astir sighed. “We don’t know,” he told her and continued quickly when Ayla’s eyes widened. “We know that Goran and Calista were kidnapped at some point between Goran’s last speech and the airport, where they were both scheduled to travel home. What we don’t know is who took them, or why.”
“Do you have any theories?” she asked, her eyes pleading now and Astir noticed that her hands were clenched together so tightly that her knuckles were white with the strain.
“We have a few, but…” he rubbed his forehead. “They just don’t make sense. And once my security team looks into one possibility, they dismiss it because the evidence doesn’t back it up.” He looked her directly in the eyes as he said, “We’re going to get Calista back, Ayla. And I promise that I’ll keep you informed in the future.”
She smiled slightly, but the warmth didn’t reach her eyes as she said, “Thank you for that.” She stood up then. Ayla straightened her shoulders and took a slow, deep breath, then nodded firmly. “I’m not a baby anymore. I can handle real life.”
And with that, she walked forward and threw her arms around Astir, hugging him tightly. After brushing a brief kiss to his cheek, she straightened out once again, smoothed a hand down over her stomach to ease the non-existent wrinkles out of her dress and walked to the door. Even as he watched, Ayla paused, with one hand on the doorknob, took in a slow, deep breath, then lifted her chin, pasted a calm smile to her features and opened the door.
When they were alone again, Rachel said what he was feeling. “Wow!”
Astir agreed. Ayla had become a stunningly beautiful woman. The strong-willed, stubborn, energetic child had somehow grown up without him noticing!