No marriage, no sex, and there hadn’t been time for it anyway—not when she had been on her way to becoming NECTAR.
Spending time in the presence of the stunningly and unconsciously sensual Crown Prince of Hayat, however, was doing things to her system that she had never before experienced—uncomfortably activating processes that she had been certain she lacked and sparking questions and curiosities she had never felt.
And here on the plane with Jag made for neither a good time and place, nor partner, to be setting anything like this ablaze.
CHAPTER FIVE
ASTHEJETdescended into Hayat, having stopped once midway through the journey to refuel, Jag took in his homeland. It took him a beat longer, though, to recognize the unfamiliar apprehension he felt as caring about what another person thought. Did the woman who was his wife see an expanse of large flat inkblot-black seas broken by stretches of abysmal beige—as he’d once overheard a Westerner describe it—or did she see the turquoise-azure sea meeting the ivory-cream ocean of sand, pulsing and mixing at the point of contact like freshwater meeting salt, as he did?
As they neared the ground and Hayat City proper, did she note the incredible and whimsical shapes of the great sand works that seemed to float like lotuses at the top of the churning sea? Did she see the incredible architecture, how the traditional and ancient met the bold and new, the oldest of humanity’s histories jumping right into the scientific and technological future of their collective imagination?
Did it matter?
Appreciating the beauty of the country she was the pretend Princess of wasn’t why he’d married her. She was here to serve a different purpose.
It was absolutely irrelevant what she thought of Hayat or its capital.
But that did not stop him from feeling a sense of pride when she gasped as they touched ground and she got a good look at the city around her.
“I never realized... Would you look at the size... Is that a mosque?” Each statement was more like exclamations, most left incomplete, abandoned in favor of the next.
The flow of her words didn’t stop, all the way through the airport and into the car that awaited them.
If he had wondered what she thought of Hayat, her enthusiasm gave him a strong suggestion as to the answer.
“And you’re telling me that three of the world’s ten tallest buildings are located here in Hayat?”
At his nod, she made yet another note in her phone. “We’ll have to see all three.”
She had begun taking notes as soon as their driver entered traffic and they passed two parked police vehicles.
“That was an Aston Martin One-77 and a Lykan Hypersport!” she had squealed joyously. “For the police!”
Since then, she’d hardly stopped jotting things down.
Observing her, he sent a text to the head of his team to coordinate a new encrypted device for her use. Her US-based carrier and model would be too easy to break into here in Hayat.
And, while his mind was on the topic of preparing her for Hayat, he needed to do something about her clothing.
As was the case in Dubai, Hayat City’s citizens prided themselves on living on the front lines of fashion, with straight-from-the-runway couture a common sight on the streets.
Her wide-legged American blue jeans, baggy sweatshirt and canvas sneakers would not do.
Beyond that, the getup was inappropriate because it was far too warm to wear in Hayat City—even for the purpose of strolling from a climate-controlled car into a climate-controlled building interior.
Retrieving his phone from his pocket, he called his secretary, catching Rita’s attention in the process. “Alert my tailor that we are on the way and will be using the private entrance.”
Rita had paused her back-seat tourism and was looking at him quizzically.
“We need to outfit you like a princess,” he explained.
She looked down at her clothes, then back up at him. “I thought we were waiting to announce until the race. I was really hoping to see the stadium first.”
And to push the debut from your thoughts.He noted her lingering reticence on that point, but said only, “There will inevitably be photos of us taken before then. The moment we leave this vehicle, our game is on. There is no room for misstep. You must look the part even while playing the mysterious stranger at my side.”
She narrowed her eyes at his words, pressing her lips into a line, but ultimately shrugged and returned to taking in the city as they traveled through it, and he found himself curious as to what she was thinking.
The driver made the turn into the belowground entrance of the secured building, and Jag smiled.