A knock on the door startled them all. “Come in,” said Priia, shakily.
The head footman entered, head slightly bowed. “The reporters, they’re anxious for a statement.”
“Oh, goodness.” Priia waved her handkerchief. “AJ, could you go tell them something?”
“Like what? We don’t know any more than they do. Less, probably.”
The head footman seemed to shrink a bit, and stared at the floor. “They want to know how this affects the wedding plans.”
Lani let out a little gasp, then hid her face.
The dark reality of the situation settled over AJ like an executioner’s hood. “It’s off. Lani can’t consider remarrying while her husband might be alive.” His words came out cold and hard.
And what about the baby he’d grown to think of as his? Vanu would claim the child as well. It was his, after all, just like Lani.
AJ suppressed a curse. Only a brief while ago he and Lani had lain, wrapped in each other, surrounded by the warm embrace of the jungle, looking forward to a joyous future together with their new family.
Now he saw that future evaporating like a jungle mist.
“Did they find any signs that he survived?” AJ questioned the footman.
“They found footprints leading up out of the cave. So it seems he did walk away from it.”
Lani whimpered and tears rolled down her cheeks. AJ tried to suppress the ugly surge of anger that rose in him at the sight. She was obviously distressed and hopeful that Vanu was still alive.
Yes, it hurt. Especially since he’d felt a deep connection with her during their lovemaking. Of course that was probably his body talking rather than his brain. “I’ll go join the search party. Just stay away from the press until we know more.” He turned and marched from the room, unable to even look at Lani.
AJ cursed himself for being drawn into this nightmare. How had he gone from wanting to leave at the earliest opportunity to hating the fact that he’d have to leave?
He returned late at night, sticky and tired from combing through the jungle. It probably hadn’t done his soul much good that he was hoping against hope that they’d find a body, not a live Vanu with an ugly smirk on his face. As it turned out, they’d found nothing at all and the search was scheduled to resume the following morning.
No one spoke much at dinner, and Priia retired early, begging a headache.
Lani seemed very tense, avoiding his gaze. No doubt she felt guilty that she’d made love to another man while her husband might still be alive.
“It’s not your fault,” he murmured. “You had no idea he might still be out there.”
“I know.” She didn’t meet his gaze. “No one could have known.”
“The fire chief thinks he’s alive.” He studied her face. A muscle spasmed in her cheek. “They found traces of a fire in another natural cave. Looks like someone stayed there.”
“That’s wonderful.” Lani’s voice sounded oddly hollow. “It would be such a miracle for him to survive for so long by himself.”
“He never was the rugged, outdoors type.” AJ frowned.
It was hard to imagine Vanu picking a berry to feed himself, let alone lighting a fire. He’d required a large staff just to get dressed in the morning. “But I suppose anything is possible. People can act differently in a life-or-death situation.”
“Yes.” Lani sat ramrod straight. Unapproachable. Not that he’d even think of trying to touch her now. How odd, when he’d enjoyed touching almost every inch of her luscious body only hours earlier.
His life seemed to be spinning like a weather vane in the wind lately. He’d had calls from L.A. this afternoon asking if—due to the shift in circumstance—he’d be back to oversee the edits for Hellcat. He’d replied honestly: that he had no idea.
The dim light in the dining room picked out the gold threaded through Lani’s lustrous hair. Soon, perhaps Vanu would be running his bony fingers through it again. AJ fought a wave of revulsion. “How are you feeling? I’m sure the stress must be hard on you when you’re pregnant.”
“I’m okay.” She shot him a wary glance with those wide, honey-colored eyes.
He cursed the surge of lust that jolted through him. “Must be a little odd to be dangling between two men like this.” His words sounded cruel, and maybe that’s what he intended. Pain tightened his muscles and hardened his heart.
Lani shuddered and a small sob escaped her mouth. “It’s terrible.”
AJ’s hands itched to reach out and touch hers. But that would only deepen his torment. “No one will ever know what happened between us today. It’ll be yet another secret we’ll keep forever.”
Lani nodded. Tears glittered in her eyes. “Yes. I won’t tell anyone. Especially Vanu.”
AJ’s flesh crawled at the thought of her talking to Vanu again, sharing intimacies. In such a short time he’d developed powerful feelings for Lani. He’d never felt anything like them before in all his years of adventures with the fairer sex.
And the child. His initial revulsion at the deception had quickly transformed into a firm conviction that he could raise this child and love it as his own. He’d been prepared to lie and pretend and carry out a charade to everyone else’s fantasy of the perfect royal family come true.
He glanced up and saw Lani’s delicate profile turned to look out the window. Just yesterday his bold and tender new feelings had been convenient rather than crazy. Now they were disastrous. He had to comfort and support the woman he craved as she hoped and prayed for the safe return of her husband.
Pain crashed over him in an untidy wave. He staggered to his feet and sucked in a breath of moist night air.
He’d spent his childhood in his brother’s shadow, and now it stretched out from the grave to cast him into darkness once again.
Lani didn’t love him. Didn’t have any feelings for him other than a sense of duty and some rather unexpected lust. He’d been fool enough to mistake that for far more.
He’d never let himself make that mistake again.
Lani paced back and forth in her room all morning. The crews were out for the second day, combing through the jungle on the uninhabited atoll.
She hated the way they described it as “searching for Vanu,” as if they’d find him there, perhaps lazing on a sandy beach, waiting for them to take him home. No one said anything as grim as “hoping to recover a body.” Priia wouldn’t hear any of that. As far as she was concerned, he was alive and well and on his way home.
And Lani knew she was probably cursed to eternal damnation for hoping otherwise.
How could she wish someone dead? Only a truly evil person would have a thought like that. Obviously she wasn’t the “nice” girl AJ had originally mistaken her for. She’d certainly jumped on him with reckless abandon, and she couldn’t even blame it on “duty” anymore. She’d made no effort to hide her lusty enjoyment of AJ’s body.
She blew out hard. Everything had been so perfect for those few brief hours. Now she was back, snared in the web of pretense and pain that had been her marriage to Vanu. Pretending to be happy—or at least content—while inside she was longing for freedom.
A knock on the door startled her.
“Dinner is ready.” The shy girl servant darted in and out like a lizard. No one would look