Stepping into the Prince's World Read Online Free Page A

look. She just wanted to stay still for a moment longer and hold Rocky and think about anything other than what would happen when she had to move.
    â€˜Tell me what’s wrong?’
    He’d stirred. He was pushing himself up, looking down at her in concern.
    â€˜H...hi,’ she managed, and his eyes narrowed.
    Um...where was her bra? It was down around her waist, that was where it was, but she didn’t seem to have the energy to do anything about it. She hugged Rocky a bit closer, thinking he’d do as camouflage. If he didn’t, she didn’t have the strength to care.
    â€˜Your arm,’ he said carefully, as if he didn’t want to scare her.
    She thought about that for a bit. Her arm...
    â€˜There...there does seem to be a problem. I hit the rocks. I guess I don’t make the grade as a lifesaver, huh?’
    â€˜If you hadn’t come out I’d be dead,’ he told her. ‘I couldn’t fight the rip and I didn’t know where it ended.’
    â€˜I was trying to signal but I didn’t know if you’d seen me.’ She was still having trouble getting her voice to work but it seemed he was, too. His lilting accent—French?—was husky, and she could hear exhaustion behind it. He had been in peril, she thought. Maybe she had saved him. It was small consolation for the way her arm felt, but at least it was something.
    â€˜Where can I go to get help?’ he asked, cautious now, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.
    â€˜Help?’
    â€˜The charts say this island is uninhabited.’
    â€˜It’s not,’ she told him.
    â€˜No?’
    â€˜There’s Rocky and me, and now there’s you.’
    â€˜Rocky?’
    â€˜I’m holding him.’
    Silence. Although it wasn’t exactly silence. The waves were pounding the sand and the wind was whistling around the cliffs. A stray piece of seaweed whipped past her face like a physical slap.
    What was wrong with her arm? She tried a tentative wiggle and decided she wouldn’t do that again in a hurry.
    â€˜Do you live here?’
    â€˜I caretake,’ she said, enunciating every syllable with care because it seemed important.
    â€˜You caretake the island?’
    â€˜The house.’
    â€˜There’s a house?’
    â€˜A big house.’
    â€˜Excellent,’ he told her.
    He rose and stared round the beach, then left her with Rocky. Two minutes later he was back, holding her pile of discarded clothes.
    â€˜Let’s get you warm. You need to put these on.’
    â€˜You’re wet, too’ she told him.
    â€˜Yeah, but I don’t have a set of dry clothes on the beach. Let’s cope with one lot of hypothermia instead of two. Tug your knickers off and I’ll help you on with your jeans and windcheater.
    â€˜I’m not taking my knickers off!’
    â€˜They’re soaked and you’re freezing.’
    â€˜I have my dignity.’
    â€˜And I’m not putting up with misplaced modesty on my watch.’ He was holding up her windcheater. ‘Over your head with this. Don’t try and put your arm in it.’
    He slid the windcheater over her head. It was long enough to give her a semblance of respectability as she kicked off her soggy knickers—but not much. She should be wearing wisps of sexy silk, she thought, but she was on an island in winter for six months with no expected company. Her knickers were good solid knickers, bought for warmth, with just a touch of lace.
    â€˜My granny once told me to always wear good knickers in case I’m hit by a bus,’ she managed. Her teeth were chattering. She had her good arm on his shoulder while he was holding her jeans for her to step into.
    â€˜Sensible Granny.’
    â€˜I think she meant G-strings with French lace,’ she told him. ‘Granny had visions of me marrying a doctor. Or similar.’
    â€˜Still sensible Granny.’ He was hauling her