He shook his head. “Nothing. It appears our engine has stalled, so unless by chance you have some knowledge of aerospace engineering, I suggest you sit tight.” He spoke sarcastically, though his forearms flexed against the plane’s yoke.
Mina nodded. She did not, so she sat calmly in the co-pilot’s seat, closed and adjusted her seatbelt, and was still. Searching for something to hold on to, her hand found the King’s thigh, and she squeezed as she watched the rapid approach of the long beach of rich chocolate-brown sand.
At what felt like the last possible moment, he straightened the plane, lifting its nose just enough to bring the wheels into jarring contact with sand, rather than the front end of the plane. They skidded to a halt, the plane’s front end digging huge tracks into the beach but miraculously holding its shape and integrity.
“Are you all right?” the King asked, once the noise and dust had settled around them.
After her breath returned, Mina nodded.
“Thank God.” The words came out on an exhale, along with the unspoken message that he’d been far more uncertain about landing than he’d projected.
Taking a deep breath, Mina said, “I’m glad you know how to fly planes.”
The King let out a shaky laugh. “Me too.” But he was back to business quickly. “Now, I hope you’re ready to walk. It’s about a half-day’s trek through the woodlands to get to the cabin, and then another couple of hours of pretty steep hiking from there to get to the summer palace, as the crow flies.”
Mina nodded. After surviving an emergency plane landing, she could handle a half-day hike through gentle woodlands.
“Leave your luggage here for now—just worry about water. The cabin is stocked, as is the summer palace. The clean-up team will collect what’s here.”
“Won’t they be looking for us at the plane?”
“I sent them a message in my SOS. They know we’re heading to the cabin rather than waiting. This beach is inaccessible via land vehicle, and we do not have any ship large enough nearby to handle carrying the plane, so it will take hours for the crew to get organized.”
He was up and moving, grabbing items from the cabin as he spoke, and soon Mina had no choice but to follow the King across the beach and into the woods.
CHAPTER SIX
“TAKEOFFTHEsweater,” Zayn said through clenched teeth, waiting for an obviously overheated Mina to catch up once again.
While the wild woods of Cantorini were renowned in the region for their density, they remained Mediterranean woodlands, comprised of a mixture of oaks and mixed sclerophylls. It was an infinitely traversable landscape, even if the rocky terrain was brutal on the ankles. But not if one was wearing a wool sweater more appropriate for a winter evening by the sea than a warm summer walk through the woods.
“Excuse me, I will not,” she insisted.
It was the same thing she’d said each time he’d made the demand, but this time he was going to make her do it. He was the King, after all. It was his prerogative to order people to do things.
Her cheeks had a rosy flush to them that had nothing to do with her reaction to him, and her skin glistened with perspiration. He wasn’t having it. She had only a few more miles in her before heatstroke set in, and they had more miles than that before they’d reach the cabin.
Rather than repeat the order, he simply began to unbutton his own shirt.
Mina’s green gaze widened. “What are you doing?”
“Giving you my shirt.”
“What?”
“You’re going to wear my shirt.”
“I couldn’t,” she said, shaking her head.
“I insist,” he ground out, his irritation at being resisted growing with every button he freed.
“Absolutely not.”
“If it requires my tearing that atrocious sweater off your body with my bare hands, I absolutely insist.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she challenged.
“As that eyesore has been burning itself into my mind’s eye since the early hours of this morning, I can assure you I would. Quite happily.”