Xanthos felt his heart miss an unexpected beat. Despite his professed disdain of women with attitude, it was a hypothetical rather than a real dislike, because it hardly ever happened. He was used to adoration and acquiescence. He’d never had to try very hard with women and sometimes he wondered what it would be like if he did.
But his momentary flicker of interest was quickly replaced with a sense of impatience. He didn’t want to think this way about Bianca Forrester. In fact, he didn’t want to think about her at all. She was the sister-in-law of his unacknowledged royal brother and, as such, she was nothing but a complication. All he needed to do was get through the next few hours before he was free of her and then on to Switzerland for some fun and games...
Sitting in the cockpit, he methodically went through his checklist before getting the all-clear from air traffic control and making a smooth ascent into the wide blue ribbon of the winter sky. He looked down as the famous red volcanic mountain of Monterosso grew ever smaller and thought it unlikely he would ever return, no matter how much Corso should try to persuade him otherwise. For he had no real desire to deepen the relationship with his brother. He did not want a newly discovered family, because families were nothing but a drain. They brought with them pain, and heartbreak, and disappointment. They had the power to wreck your whole life from the inside out. Who in their right mind would ever want a family?
He settled into what should have an uneventful flight and the journey proceeded with textbook ease—reminding him of the pleasure and satisfaction he always got from flying a plane.
And then, out of nowhere, things started to happen.
At thirty thousand feet, air traffic control informed him they could no longer get his flight read-out. He frowned. It should have just been a blip, but it wasn’t. With mounting disbelief Xanthos watched as both transponders failed and then the radar flickered ominously before packing up completely. He felt the rush of adrenaline, but despite the tension in his body and mad race of his heart, he was strangely calm. Because, like every experienced pilot, he had trained for an eventuality such as this and was almost prepared for the sudden whiff of smoke from behind him and the thundering of feet as Bianca came running into the cockpit, her lips a gasping gash in her terrified face.
‘S-smoke...’ she managed and then again. ‘Smoke!’
Quickly, Xanthos glanced over his shoulder and saw ominous grey clouds billowing from the bulkhead as the emergency systems suddenly kicked into overdrive. Alarm bells sounded and red lights were flashing and he went into crisis-management mode. Glancing down at his map, he calculated that the nearest airport was forty minutes away and knew an aircraft had twenty minutes’ sustainability in case of fire. His mouth dried.
Twenty minutes.
He met the terror in Bianca’s eyes as he punched out the four-digit Mayday signal and scanned the screen in front of him, his heart hammering with relief as he located a nearby disused airfield in the valley of a mountain.
‘We need to make an emergency landing. Go back and strap yourself into your seat. When I yell “brace” you do just that and we get off the plane asap. Leave everything behind. Do what I tell you and don’t ask questions. Understand?’
To her credit she nodded and disappeared and then all Xanthos could think about was bringing down the craft safely, as he’d been taught. His concentration was total as they made a spiral descent and, just before bumping onto the icy runway, he yelled at Bianca to brace. The plane lurched and slid sideways on landing, careering towards the high white wall of a snowbank before coming to a juddering halt. And then he was charging into the cabin and undoing her seat belt and lifting her from her seat as smoke billowed all around them, making it hard to see.
He helped her outside into the bitter chill and never had it felt so wonderful to connect with the earth, even though the snow was hard and impacted like metal against his feet. For a moment it was difficult to keep his balance and he heard something like a sob escape from her lips. Their eyes met and something unfamiliar stirred deep inside him as he read the naked fear in hers. The need to protect her. To keep her safe. But first he had to get her away from the damned plane in case it exploded. Putting his arm tightly around her waist, he pulled her close, so close that her breath was warm against his cheek.
‘Now run!’ he yelled, leading her away across the runway, the cold wind leaving them both gasping for breath.
CHAPTER TWO
THESENSATIONOFXanthos half carrying her across the airstrip was the only thing in Bianca’s world which felt real right then. Everything else was like the worst disaster movie she’d ever seen. There was no colour in this unknown place, with its heavy grey sky and snowy landscape. No sound of traffic or birdsong—nothing but the wild howl of the wind as it whipped around them, with its icy fingers. The distant plane with its nose embedded in the snowbank added yet another nightmarish element and she wanted to scream and run as far away as possible—back to civilisation and everything she knew.
‘L-let’s get out of here!’ she shouted, aware of his arm fixed firmly around her waist. ‘Come on!’
But Xanthos didn’t seem to be listening. He was scanning the area, as if committing every forbidding inch to memory. ‘At least the smoke coming from the plane has subsided,’ he said, almost reflectively. ‘Which means it’s unlikely to explode. We’ve been lucky.’
Lucky?Was he insane? Bianca stared at the distant aircraft. ‘Please,’ she whispered. ‘I want to go.’
‘Go where?’
‘I don’t know. Anywhere!’ She looked around distractedly. ‘There must be a village or town nearby. We need to go and find help!’
‘No, we’re not going to do that.’
His calmness was freaking her out and Bianca wondered if he’d bumped his head when he’d landed the plane during that scary descent, when the craft had been spinning like the slow cycle of a washing machine, leaving her dizzy with fear. Why was he refusing to see sense? Was she expected to take charge—as usual—and mightn’t that be the best thing if Xanthos wasn’t thinking straight?
‘We must,’ she said. ‘We must!’ In desperation she began to drum her bunched fists against the solid wall of his chest, but he didn’t even seem to notice that either. ‘I want to get away from here! As far away as possible.’
‘You see that building over there?’
His continuing coolness had the effect of removing some of her panic and Bianca let her hands fall from his chest as she mirrored the direction of his glance to see a rudimentary stone building, topped with snow. It was possibly the most unwelcoming place she’d ever set eyes on and, instinctively, she shuddered.
‘Of course I can see it.’
‘That’s where we’re going.’
‘If you think I’m setting foot in that place—’
‘Now listen to me, Bianca,’ he interrupted, his coolness now replaced by a grim note of determination. ‘We can do this one of two ways. You can choose to walk with me and do what I tell you, which would be preferable. But if you continue to resist, I’ll be forced to put you over my shoulder and carry you.’