“A walk?” She blinked, as memories of her childhood came back to her. When was the last time she’d walked anywhere without a handful of bodyguards? When was the last time she’d walked for pleasure instead of for the purpose of getting from one appointment to another?
“Yeah. You know, you put one foot in front of the other until you’ve covered as much ground as you want?”
She laughed. “I haven’t walked for fun in … well, since I was a child.”
He studied her. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, he wondered about her life. The gilded cage she must have been raised in. Had it been as miserable for her as he would have found it?
“You, on the other hand, look so at home out here,” she heard herself remarking.
“Do I?”
“Did you grow up somewhere like this?”
“A cabin in the middle of nowhere?” He teased, pushing to his feet and holding his hands down for her.
“I’m fine,” she demurred, instinctively resisting the contact. Her hand was still tingling from where she’d pressed it against his chest. There was danger in physical contact with this man. “No, just … somewhere woodsy.”
“Woodsy?” He laughed. “My house was a few streets away from Harry’s. But my folks had a cabin a bit like this. We used to spend summer’s there.”
“So you have done this before.”
“Brought a billionaire princess to a derelict cabin on the edge of an almost-frozen lake? Nope. Never checked that box in my life.”
She couldn’t help the smile that danced on her lips. She realised that she smiled a lot around this man. “You know what I find unusual?”
“Many things, I’d imagine.”
“Perhaps.” She watched as he lifted two bowls out of the pantry and wiped them with paper towels. He began to ladle the soup into them. The smell was heaven-sent. Lilah’s stomach clenched with sharp hunger. “But I meant how strange it is that I am not completely freaking out right now.”
“Why would you be?”
“Well, for a start, I still don’t really know why you whisked me away from the building.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Right. Beyond your as-yet unfounded suspicions, I mean.” She shook her head ruefully. “And I don’t have my phone. And I have no idea how my security agents are reacting to my disappearance. For all we know there’s a massive hunt on for us, and yet … out here … I don’t know. Nothing else seems real.”
He nodded. “It’s the magic of the wilderness.”
“It is magical,
” she agreed quietly. Her eyes drifted to the window. The daylight had broken with a milky softness, yolking into the valley hesitantly almost, as though anxious to disturb the magic of the night. “There seems to be no need for time here.”
“It’s a slice out of life.”
“Yes! That’s exactly it.”
He slid a bowl of soup towards her and Lilah toyed with the spoon. “Do you see Harry often?”
He frowned as he lifted some soup into his mouth. “Not as often as I should.”
“You speak as though you owe him an obligation.”
Will’s eyes were thoughtful as they studied Lilah’s beautiful face. He had been wrong to think that the cosmetics she wore made her seem regal.
Her bearing was regal.
Everything about her was elegant and graceful. Even the way her fingers lightly gripped the spoon as she lifted it to her lips seemed to be a divine act.