Shocked, Regan stared down at the beautiful ring before lifting her eyes to Jag’s, only to find his eyes completely devoid of emotion.
‘Regan?’ Chad stared at her hand. ‘How is this possible?’
Regan shook her head, her brain struggling to keep up with the fact that Jag had trusted her not to lose something so precious.
‘There are more important things to discuss,’ Jag cut in coldly. ‘Like, where have you been?’
Milena’s face went pale as he bellowed at her, clearly unable to handle her brother’s wrath.
‘I think we need to calm down first,’ Regan suggested quietly. ‘They’re both safe and home. That’s the most important thing.’
As well as her getting this ring off her finger and back in a vault.
‘Stay out of this, Regan,’ Jag rasped with icy precision. ‘You will not influence how I deal with this.’
She felt Chad bristle beside her. ‘I don’t think you should speak to my sister that way.’
‘I’m not interested in what you think.’ Jag turned his lethally sharp gaze on Chad. ‘And you’re lucky she’s here. If she wasn’t you’d already be in jail.’
‘Jag!’ Milena cried.
‘One of you had better start talking,’ he grated. ‘And if you have compromised my sister in any way, James, you’ll be sorry you ever set foot on Santarian soil.’
‘As you have compromised mine!’ Chad burst out.
‘Chad!’ Regan stared at him. As he had grown up he had become as protective of her as she was of him, but she’d never experienced him coming to her defence so avidly before.... ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t I?’ Her brother puffed out his chest. ‘There’s obviously something going on between the two of you. I can tell by the way he looks at you.’
By the way he looked at her?
Right now he was looking at her as if she were chewing gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
‘What has happened between myself and Regan is not your concern,’ Jag advised with a killing softness. ‘What has happened between you and Milena is.’
‘That’s your opinion, Your Majesty, but I can’t believe my sister would be with you of her own free will.’
‘Chad, stop,’ Regan implored him. ‘Don’t make this about me. You’ve been gone for two weeks. Of course the King wants answers. So do I.’
‘I feel terrible,’ Milena mumbled. ‘This is all my fault. Please, Jag; Chad isn’t to blame.’
Regan watched him run a hand through his hair, clearly trying to rein himself in for his sister’s sake. Her heart went out to him because she knew why he’d been so worried about her. ‘Why don’t you both sit down and tell us what happened?’
Chad threw Milena a quick glance but was wise enough not to approach her.
Milena cleared her throat. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve caused a big mess, Jag, but I couldn’t go into my marriage next month without having some time to myself.’
‘You did this for time to yourself?’ Jag thundered.
‘No. Not just that.’ Milena looked to Chad for reassurance. ‘I just wanted to feel normal for once. No bodyguards, no photographers, no having to be polite all the time. I know you won’t understand this because it all comes so easily to you, but sometimes I don’t think I know who I am.’
‘Milena—’
‘No, let me finish,’ she said, taking a deep breath. ‘Chad and I have grown close over the last few months and...when I told him my plan to take a secret holiday he insisted that he come with me to make sure nothing happened to me.’ She threw Chad a quick smile. ‘I knew it would be a mistake, but I also thought that if you knew I was with a friend you would worry less. I was only hoping you’d find out it was a male friend after we returned.’
Jag’s expression told her that it hadn’t made an ounce of difference, but Regan heard the note in Milena’s voice that said that she’d been hoping to return in triumph, presumably so that she could prove to her over-protective big brother that she had grown up. Unfortunately such a tactic was likely to have the opposite effect. Milena winced at Jag’s continued silence. ‘I guess not. But please, don’t blame Chad. If anything, you should be thanking him for being there for me. I didn’t even know how to buy a train ticket!’
‘I would be thanking Mr James if he had come to me with your hare-brained scheme instead of sneaking off and foiling my attempts to find you. Do you have any idea what would have happened if anyone had got wind of your disappearance? If the Prince of Toran had?’ He paced away from her. ‘It’s only fortunate for us that he expects Santara to take care of all the wedding arrangements. If he’d once tried to call you—’