His Princess - Stacy Gail Page 0,24
off, a flight attendant brought mojitos and a small charcuterie board of grapes and strawberries, cold meats and cubed cheese. Joelle stared first at the mouth-watering board, then at the drink in her hand.
“I think I know where we’re going.”
“Oh?” He set his drink aside, laced his fingers across his lean middle and watched her like a cat knowing he had his little mouse cornered. “Tell me.”
“Florida, or somewhere off its coast. The mojitos are a dead giveaway.”
“Uh-huh. And did you mention anything about Florida while we were at Gillooly’s?”
“Ugh,” she grumbled, looking skyward before sipping at her drink. Mmm. “You are making me crazy with this whole surprise thing. If we land and I still haven’t figured it out, I’m going to be so pissed at myself.”
“I had no idea surprising someone could be this much fun.” Chuckling as if thoroughly enjoying himself, he leaned over, picked up a toothpick and speared a chunk of meat. “Seriously, this could get addictive. I’m already trying to think of other ways I can surprise you.”
“Everything about you surprises me.” The words were out before she knew they were coming, but since they were accurate, she didn’t mind. “If I live to be a hundred, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the first moment I saw you.”
His gaze tangled with hers. “That makes two of us, my lady.”
Funny how her heart fluttered when he called her that. Almost like she was starting to feel like she actually was his lady. “You stared at me so intently, I assumed you had mistaken me for someone you knew.”
“You were someone I knew.”
In the process of spearing a cheese cube, she paused long enough to look up at him. “I’m sorry? Did we meet before the night of that charity event, and I somehow don’t remember it?” Though that was impossible. There was no way she’d ever forget a man like Gus Bloch. Not even with soap-opera-level amnesia.
He shook his head. “I mean that what I once told you was true. When I was growing up rough at St. Ambrose, I dreamed about having my own castle that no one would be able to take away from me. And since it’d be such a fine castle, naturally it would need a princess. Or queen,” he added when she opened her mouth to once again protest that label. “When I saw you that night, gleaming like living, breathing gold under chandelier light and looking so unbelievably magnificent, from the top of your pale blonde head to the tips of your pedicured toes, something in me recognized you as the woman I’d pictured being with me in my castle all those years ago. I don’t even care if it sounds crazy. Every damn word is true.”
“I don’t think that sounds crazy at all,” she said just above a whisper, forgetting all about the cube of cheese she’d speared. She was too busy trying to remember if anyone had ever said anything so beautiful to her. “I’ll be honest—I’ve never given a thought to what sort of partner I would conceivably wind up with. For most of my adult life I’ve been too busy pushing to make a stable world for myself, because the one I’d been living in as a child was vanishing out from under me. I hated that, because I was helpless to stop it. So I made myself a promise to be as self-reliant as possible just as soon as I could hold down a job. That’s one of the reasons why I started streaming when I was a freshman in college,” she added wryly. “I’d read that money could be made off of sponsors and endorsements if you managed to get enough followers, and I wanted that. I wanted to be in charge of how my world was shaped, rather than letting fate shape it for me. But for some reason, I always pictured my world with just me in it.”
“So you pictured it wrong.” Smiling, like he knew his pronouncement was arrogant as hell and he didn’t give a damn, he reached over to pick up her abandoned cheese cube and held it up to her lips. “No big deal. I’m here to show you that your world is much better with me in it. Eat.”
No one was more amazed when she followed his order. “You’re unlike any man I’ve ever met, Gus Bloch.”
“Yeah?” He reached over and handed her the drink she’d left on the table. “In what way?”
“You don’t seem