deserted. She waited until the driver went inside, then jumped.
And got the wind knocked right out of her. Hitting the top of the truck felt pretty close to what it would have been like to hit the sidewalk. Apparently, she’d miscalculated.
Crates had been packed from top to bottom in the van. Hard, wooden crates that had no give in them whatsoever. She lay there for a minute, her hip and shoulders pulsing with pain, wishing she’d thought a little more before she’d leaped. Canvas-top jumps always worked out fine in the movies.
“Morgen habe ich wieder Freizeit,” someone coming from a side alley said in German.
“Das weiss ich nicht…” another man responded as they walked out of hearing distance.
She didn’t have much time to contemplate, so she ran through her options as she pulled on the sweater then painfully climbed down and thumped into the snow on the street. For a second, she leaned against the van’s side, against the sign that advertised Fresh Breads of Sacorata, and gasped to catch her breath. Sacorata was the next bigger town, according to Miklos, fifty miles into the valley.
She could stay and trust his protection. Except thathe had his family to worry about. She would be nothing but an added handicap, slowing him down, putting him into even more danger.
Or she could get out of town on her own, out of the country before anyone realized that she was gone. She shouldn’t have come to Valtria in the first place, that much was becoming increasingly clear.
Regardless of the fact that she was attracted to Miklos. More than attracted. She had nearly made love with him, might have if he hadn’t pulled back.
She kissed him, when she had sworn she wouldn’t. She was losing all good judgment. If she stayed with him, he’d somehow talk her into going along with the whole arranged-marriage insanity. She would have been willing to give him her body, just minutes ago, after having known him for only days. And he wanted so much more than that. He wanted her to honor some archaic agreement and become his wife, a princess.
Basically, he wanted her entire life. She would have to give up everything that was familiar to her, everything she had achieved so far. She couldn’t do that. She thought of the gilded prison her life had been before her father’s death. Receptions and protocols, never a moment allowed to let her guard down. Her family represented Valtria in a foreign land. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there’d been that…
She didn’t even want to think about the political enemy her father had unwittingly made, the one who’d begun a nasty media war against them, not sparing any member of the family. And since her stepmother decided to run for local office after her father’s death,the spotlight had remained on them. Judi had grown up hating public life with a vengeance.
If she stayed in Valtria and let the prince work his magic on her, if he kissed her a few more times…She had a feeling that if she didn’t leave right now, it’d be all over save for the wedding bells.
Best thing to do was to go with her screaming instinct of self-preservation.
She had to get out of Valtria before she did something foolish like fall for the prince. She had to get out of the village before whoever had broken into the room upstairs came out and discovered her.
The van’s driver was coming through the front door, a burly looking young man, although that could be just the down coat he wore against the cold. Judi wished she had something like that.
She approached him carefully, ready to turn tail and run at the first indication of trouble, aware that he could be allied with the men who pursued them. “Hi, are you going back to Sacorata?”
The young man’s handsome face split into a grin, innocent pleasure that could not be faked. “I should be. This is my only delivery up here. But I can stay if you wish,” he said with a slight accent and stepped closer, his gaze warm on her face, a playful glint
And got the wind knocked right out of her. Hitting the top of the truck felt pretty close to what it would have been like to hit the sidewalk. Apparently, she’d miscalculated.
Crates had been packed from top to bottom in the van. Hard, wooden crates that had no give in them whatsoever. She lay there for a minute, her hip and shoulders pulsing with pain, wishing she’d thought a little more before she’d leaped. Canvas-top jumps always worked out fine in the movies.
“Morgen habe ich wieder Freizeit,” someone coming from a side alley said in German.
“Das weiss ich nicht…” another man responded as they walked out of hearing distance.
She didn’t have much time to contemplate, so she ran through her options as she pulled on the sweater then painfully climbed down and thumped into the snow on the street. For a second, she leaned against the van’s side, against the sign that advertised Fresh Breads of Sacorata, and gasped to catch her breath. Sacorata was the next bigger town, according to Miklos, fifty miles into the valley.
She could stay and trust his protection. Except thathe had his family to worry about. She would be nothing but an added handicap, slowing him down, putting him into even more danger.
Or she could get out of town on her own, out of the country before anyone realized that she was gone. She shouldn’t have come to Valtria in the first place, that much was becoming increasingly clear.
Regardless of the fact that she was attracted to Miklos. More than attracted. She had nearly made love with him, might have if he hadn’t pulled back.
She kissed him, when she had sworn she wouldn’t. She was losing all good judgment. If she stayed with him, he’d somehow talk her into going along with the whole arranged-marriage insanity. She would have been willing to give him her body, just minutes ago, after having known him for only days. And he wanted so much more than that. He wanted her to honor some archaic agreement and become his wife, a princess.
Basically, he wanted her entire life. She would have to give up everything that was familiar to her, everything she had achieved so far. She couldn’t do that. She thought of the gilded prison her life had been before her father’s death. Receptions and protocols, never a moment allowed to let her guard down. Her family represented Valtria in a foreign land. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there’d been that…
She didn’t even want to think about the political enemy her father had unwittingly made, the one who’d begun a nasty media war against them, not sparing any member of the family. And since her stepmother decided to run for local office after her father’s death,the spotlight had remained on them. Judi had grown up hating public life with a vengeance.
If she stayed in Valtria and let the prince work his magic on her, if he kissed her a few more times…She had a feeling that if she didn’t leave right now, it’d be all over save for the wedding bells.
Best thing to do was to go with her screaming instinct of self-preservation.
She had to get out of Valtria before she did something foolish like fall for the prince. She had to get out of the village before whoever had broken into the room upstairs came out and discovered her.
The van’s driver was coming through the front door, a burly looking young man, although that could be just the down coat he wore against the cold. Judi wished she had something like that.
She approached him carefully, ready to turn tail and run at the first indication of trouble, aware that he could be allied with the men who pursued them. “Hi, are you going back to Sacorata?”
The young man’s handsome face split into a grin, innocent pleasure that could not be faked. “I should be. This is my only delivery up here. But I can stay if you wish,” he said with a slight accent and stepped closer, his gaze warm on her face, a playful glint
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