“Agreed.” He gave her a lopsided smile that eased his harsh features and banished the tiredness from his expression. “In the meantime, is it too much upheaval if we consider taking a long weekend away?”
She loved him so much, with all of her heart. She loved his harsh side and needed his ruthlessness, because she knew he would always provide for her and Liam, and protect them with every ounce of his considerable power. But when he smiled at her like that, everything inside of her brightened, until she felt like she floated in a sea of light, and she grew weightless and dizzy with delight.
She peeked at him between her lashes. “I don’t know, Dragos, this is awfully sudden. Where would you want to go?”
He tugged at a strand of her hair behind her ear, and her gaze fell to his wrist. It had been a year since she had sewn a lock of her braided hair around his wrist, and he still wore it. He had done something to protect it, and it shone with an extra sparkle of Power.
“You said you’ve never been to Bermuda or the Caribbean.” He angled his head, watching her expression. “How would you like to go there? I think it would be fun to do some treasure hunting. We can go swimming and soak up some sunshine, and go out to eat. I could use a break before we plunge into all of the summer solstice activities, even if it’s a short one, and I’ll bet you could too.”
She smiled. “I would really love to get away.”
“How soon could you be ready to go?”
She tilted her head, and her smile turned into a grin. “Is fifteen minutes soon enough?”
“Really. Fifteen minutes.” His gold eyes narrowed suddenly. “Those books. That conversation. You little Machiavellian, you set me up.”
She closed one eye and held her thumb and forefinger close together. “Maybe a teensy, weensy bit. Actually, I just presented you with opportunities.”
He laughed. “Is that what you call it? I should know by now to expect this kind of thing from the thief who stole from my hoard.”
Her eyes rounded. “You’re never going to get over it, are you? I only stole one time, and it was just a penny!”
“I can’t tell you how glad I am of that,” said Dragos. “Because you’re pretty lousy at it. The gods only know what kind of trouble you would have gotten yourself into, if you had kept up your life of crime.”
Her tone of voice turned aggrieved. “That is completely untrue. I was absolutely excellent at stealing the very one time I did it. I was not quite so excellent at the getaway.”
“You have a point,” he admitted.
She grew serious. “While everybody else has a vacation scheduled, you need and deserve a break more than anybody. But you’re so driven, I knew you would have a hard time disconnecting from work unless you had something else to focus on, so I went to the library to do some research. When I found new books about ships that had disappeared, I thought if I could interest you in some treasure hunting, it would be a good way for you to stop and smell the roses—or, in your case, search for some shiny sparklies.”
His eyes flashed with an acquisitive gleam. “It’s been a long time since I’ve found a good stash of treasure.”
“I know.”
“And you are wiser and far kinder than I deserve,” he said quietly. He leaned forward to kiss her. Her eyelids fluttered shut as his warm, hard lips caressed hers. “And so damn sneaky.”
“That’s one of the things you love best about me,” she reminded him.
His whisper turned into a low growl. “Damn right.”
“What do you have to do to get ready to leave?” She stroked his face.
“Pack. I’ve already talked to Graydon, and he’s good with us leaving. The jet is in the hangar, so I just need to make a phone call. While we’re getting ready, I’ll have Kris find us a good place to stay. What about you?”
“I need to finish packing Liam’s stuff, but that won’t take more than five or ten minutes. I would like to take Hugh and Eva so they can babysit.”
He cocked his head. “We’ll go out to dinner somewhere by the beach.”
She beamed at him. “You mean we’ll go on a date?”
He smiled. “Just as soon as we can get out of here.”
Chapter Three
Since Liam restricted her movements, Dragos helped her pack the baby’s things. While he changed out of his suit into khaki pants and a black knit shirt and packed, she called Eva and Hugh.
Eva laughed. “Girl, you got some scary mojo.”
“I just know my husband.” Pia felt too excited to be smug.
Eva and Hugh soon showed up at the penthouse.
They stared in shocked silence at the sleeping baby dragon draped around Pia’s neck. Pia smiled as she held a finger to her lips and silently warned them to be quiet. Nodding and grinning broadly, they took charge of the luggage.
Dragos made phone calls, while Pia raided his supply of organic beef jerky in the kitchen. She wanted to have lots of snacks in her purse, in case Liam woke with the same kind of desperate hunger as he’d shown earlier.
Dragos strode into the kitchen and looked at her and Liam. “If people caught sight of him in his Wyr form, it would start a riot, and we would never get out of here. Let’s take the private elevator down to the parking garage.”
“Sounds good to me,” she said with relief.
Liam never stirred as they rode down the elevator or climbed into the waiting limo with Eva and Hugh. Pia eased him off her shoulders and into the car seat, and after some finagling managed to get him strapped in. During the ride to the airport they talked in quiet voices. Dragos’s phone buzzed, and Pia twitched. He wasn’t going to get much of a break if he kept answering phone calls and text messages.
He checked the screen of his iPhone and smiled. “Kris found us a place to stay. It’s a house on Cambridge Beach Bay.”
He handed the phone to Pia, and she scrolled through the images. The rental was a historic, peach-colored villa with a veranda that faced the ocean, and it had eight bedrooms and five baths, private gardens and a barbeque pit. Two grocery stores were a five minutes’ walk away, and restaurants, shops, and boat rentals were all in close proximity. Even better, it had a terraced path to the beach framed by flowering bushes and palm trees.
She caught a glimpse of the astronomical price tag on the webpage. The cost for renting the villa for a week was close to ten thousand dollars.
The number danced in front of her eyes. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was no need to hyperventilate. Dragos deposited twice that amount each month into a personal account for her, just for incidentals. She bought herself and Peanut anything she wanted, and she still had serious money left over, enough to dump into a fast-growing, hefty savings account. The point was, they could easily afford the rental.
“Forget about me,” she told Eva. “Dragos’s assistant has some serious mojo.” She turned to Dragos. “This is amazing. How did he get it at such short notice?”
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Kris implied there was a last-minute cancellation.”
Or Dragos paid the other vacationers to change their plans. She paused to listen to her internal radar. Did she feel funny about that?
Nope. Her internal radar felt quite serene today. The others would have gotten a deal they couldn’t refuse, and Dragos got to take a much-needed break. Plus, beach! The water looked so lovely.
Dragos continued. “We’ve got the house for up to a week if we want it. The manager of the property will stock the fridge with plenty of food and drinks, and is setting up a crib for the length of our stay. We don’t have to do anything when we arrive. We can just relax and do whatever we want.”