“What?” Rita shrieked, her hand coming down to grip the armrest at her side.
Jag remained calm, despite her outburst. “I am taking you to the oasis for your pregnancy,” he repeated calmly.
“No,” Rita said.
Jag kept his eyes on the road. “We’re already halfway there.”
“I don’t care. Turn the car around.”
“No,” Jag said.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Then you’re kidnapping me.”
He shrugged, the move incredibly American. “So be it.”
Dropping her arms, she smashed her fist against the armrest. “Not so be it. You can’t kidnap me.”
“It seems I already have. And I seem to recall you packing your own bags and getting into the car willingly.”
Narrowing her eyes, a new suspicion forming in her mind, she asked, “And what are you going to be doing?”
Brushing her question off, he said, “Everything I normally do, in Hayat City. I would stay with you, but I cannot. Not if I hope to keep it a secret. People are already remarking that they have seen very little of me of late. Your retreat from the public is one thing, but a prince cannot disappear for six months. My responsibilities require my presence in the capital.”
She hissed in response, and he took a sudden left, veering the vehicle onto a steep, hidden road to a hidden rocky valley, nestled in the folds of which was a cozy oasis lagoon and town.
Under any other circumstances, Rita would have been thrilled at the sight of the lush, beautiful surprise, lit up by a colorful sunset, but at the current moment, she would have been happy to burn it all down with a glare.
Glorious water that went from blue-green at its shallows to deep turquoise at its depths pooled in the large, long lagoon that was surrounded by rocky outcrops on one side and a tidy stone village built into the surrounding hillsides on the other.
While most of the structures in the village looked ancient, there were modern buildings mixed in among the old.
Few cars dotted its roads, and most of them were parked.
Figures moved about on the streets, but from this distance it wasn’t possible to tell if they were men or women, adults or children.
“The hospital in the village is brand-new and staffed with excellent practitioners whom I personally selected to service the people that live here. For all of its isolation, you will not lack quick medical care.”
Rita could not help but be blown away, not by the advancement of this remote village—which was impressive—but by her husband’s ability to simply charge forward as if they were not in the middle of an active argument, and he was not in the midst of depositing her like so much trash in the desert.
“I’m sure there’s a library, too,” she said sarcastically.
“As a matter of fact,” he said tersely, “there is.”
“How convenient for me.”
He said nothing to that.
Curving their way out of the village around a long bend, the landscape opened up to reveal a gorgeous massive stone fortress. From size alone she would have guessed that this was the familial home of the rulers of this isolated microcommunity.
Outside of it, gorgeous foliage softened the stone facade, naturally blending into the surrounding landscape, and if she wasn’t mistaken, there were frankincense trees mixed in with the date palms and shrubs.
To the right of the grand stone palace was another open lagoon, deep and still and clear, its mirror finish so crystalline and reflective that Rita would not have been surprised to look into its depths and see all the way to the center of the Earth.
Stopping the Mercedes in front of the timeless structure, Jag said, “We’re here.”
“I’m not getting out of the car, Jag.”
“Then I’ll carry you.”