Hawk’s security team came for them half an hour before departure. The airport was close and they were flying on a charter, so they didn’t need to be there too early. They were still acting with an abundance of caution even though the news of Cash and Ella’s marriage had filtered out to all the news outlets by now. Her family knew, Fahd knew—what could they do now?

Cash didn’t put anything past them, which was why he appreciated the security. Desperate people did desperate things. He didn’t know if they were desperate, but he didn’t want to take that chance.

“Mendez wants to see you when you arrive,” Hawk said as he walked with them to the elevator. “He’ll send an escort to meet the plane.”

Cash resolutely didn’t allow his gut to tighten at the mention of his commanding officer’s name. Mendez was one badass motherfucker. He’d taken on a vice president, a Russian oligarch, and probably saved the world from certain destruction on more than one occasion. The man was a legend—and he wasn’t someone you wanted to piss off.

Not that Cash had done anything wrong. He’d saved the girl. Nothing wrong with that. Except now he’d gone beyond the parameters of the mission and made it personal.

Like getting married wasn’t personal?

Yeah, but that was cover. Actually taking the principal to bed on a mission? Not quite by the book.

“Any word on Fahd or her relatives?” Cash asked in a low voice.

Ella was ahead of him, one guard flanking her and one leading. He and Hawk had dropped back to talk, but he still pitched his voice low just in case.

“Fahd has left the country according to the report I got about an hour ago. Her family is still in Virginia. They haven’t stirred since the press conference they gave when news of the marriage broke.”

He didn’t expect they would deviate from the official story. How could they without admitting they’d been forcing Ella to wed against her will? If they insisted she’d run away and been kidnapped, they had a long road ahead of them to convince anyone she’d married him because she’d been coerced. The photos of the wedding, the pictures and video from their night out with Gina and Hawk—it was all much too convincing to fight.

Though why did he have a pit in his belly anyway whenever he thought of them doing just that?

Hawk’s gaze slid to Ella and then back again. “Be careful, Money. With her.”

The pit in his belly widened. “I will. Her safety is my priority.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Hawk gave Cash a significant look that let him know the man had noted the mark on her neck and the apparent tension between the two of them. Before Cash could reply to the charge, they reached the service elevator and everyone stopped.

Hawk held out his hand and Cash took it. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

He gave Ella a brief hug, and then they were in the elevator and plunging down to the lobby level. The doors slid open onto a hallway where staff rushed between the public areas. No one batted an eye at their appearance. Hawk’s men ushered them out the back door and into an armored car. Only a few moments went by before they were pulling away from the curb and rolling toward traffic.

It took a good fifteen minutes to reach the airport. The jet waiting for them wasn’t as big as Gina’s, but it was still nice and lushly appointed. Cash could get used to this life of private jets and high-roller suites. Who couldn’t?

Most of his flying took place on military transports with minimal comforts. He wasn’t complaining, but when you got to see how the other half lived, it was kind of shocking to think this was the way some people traveled all the time.

Hell, maybe she should have married Fahd. She’d have had every luxury in the world if she had.

He had a visceral reaction to the idea of her standing beside another man and pledging herself to him. Of her virginal body being stripped of her wedding attire while another man got to enjoy the unveiling of flesh no man had ever touched before.

Except me.

Holy shit, he’d never thought that was a turn-on. The idea that he’d been her first. Her only. But it was.

And it only made him want her again. He wanted to show her everything, give her all the pleasure she could handle, teach her everything they could do together.

She lifted her gaze from the contemplation of the menu a flight attendant had handed her. She hadn’t spoken much to him since he’d left the bed earlier. She hadn’t been impolite, but she hadn’t been her usual self either.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and her eyes widened.

“For what?”

“Earlier. Walking away when you needed me to stay.”

Her gaze dropped. “I didn’t. I was fine.”

“But you would have liked it. If I’d stayed with you, both of us naked, talking. Maybe touching. Maybe doing it again.”

Her dark eyes boiled with hot emotion. As if he’d cracked into the heart of her. But then she slammed the window shut, and he was left wondering if he’d imagined the simmering cauldron behind those eyes.

“Yes, it might have been nice. But you had things to do. I understand.”

Impulsively, he reached for her hand. She started to pull away, but he tightened his grip. Just enough to stop her. And then he loosened his hold so she still could if she wanted.

She did not.

“I did have things to do. But I could have handled that better. I could have spent a few minutes giving you what you needed.”

She blinked. Her pink lips were shiny with lipgloss. He wanted to mess them up. “And what about you, Cash? What do you need?”

He felt as if she’d stabbed a dagger into his heart and twisted it. Why? It was an ordinary enough question—

And then it hit him. No one ever asked him that. No sexual partner, no friend, nobody. What do you need?

So many things. So many damned things.

He squeezed her hand before letting go and put on his easygoing face as he slouched in the seat. The one that said he didn’t care what happened so long as it was good. “Nothing, babe. I’m good.”

“Are you?”

His heart hitched for a second. Hurt and anger flared. He stuffed them deep. Gave her a wink and a smile. “Yeah. Just fine.” He tipped his chin at the menu still in her other hand. “You figure out what you want to drink yet?”

The flight attendant arrived as if on cue and took their drink orders. When she left, Ella gave him a serious look.

“What happens when we arrive?”

Cash shrugged. “Not much. We’ll be met by my team, and we’ll go talk to the boss. Or I’ll go talk to him. Not sure about you.”

And he wasn’t.

Her skin paled. “I don’t want to be without you. Not yet. You’re the only person I know outside of my family. Please don’t let them take me somewhere away from you.”

In any other circumstance, he’d have been alarmed by a woman he’d slept with saying those things to him. Begging him not to leave. But not this time. He understood where she was coming from.

“I don’t think that’s the plan, Ella. We put too much into this story to turn around and call it into doubt. We aren’t being separated. Not yet.”

She seemed to relax then. The drinks arrived and she sipped the sparkling water she’d ordered. Her fingers were long, elegant. The wedding band on her ring finger seemed naked without a diamond residing beside it. He wasn’t going to put one there, of course. Didn’t mean he couldn’t notice it would look better if she had one. As if he could afford to put one there anyway. At least not the kind royalty deserved.

“It’s been a long day,” she said after a few moments. “So many things have happened.”

“I’d say it’s been a long few days.”

“Well, yes. But today I learned I would be a queen if circumstances were different. And I finally lost my virginity.”

Cash dropped his gaze to her neck and the mark there. He wanted to give her another one. Hell, he wanted to be inside her again. As soon as possible.

“Any regrets?”

She lifted her lashes, her dark eyes boring into his. “Many. But none of them involve you.”

---

It was still dark when the plane landed at a private airstrip in Maryland. Ella blinked awake as a hand gently shook her. She shifted in the seat and winced at the soreness of her interior muscles. She’d expected it would hurt a bit, but it was surprising how much it did. Then again, it was like working out. When you worked a body part that hadn’t been worked in a long time—or ever in the case of her vagina—then you had to deal with a bit of soreness at first. It would get better with time—and more workouts.

Which she really hoped she got, though she couldn’t be sure she would. Cash had grown so serious since they’d left the hotel, so businesslike. Once they’d gotten airborne, he’d stopped talking altogether—and she’d finally given up and fallen asleep.

“What’s wrong?” he asked now.

She turned her head, their gazes colliding. The cool mint color of his eyes struck her as one of the prettiest things she’d ever seen. The dark rim around his irises intensified their prettiness. Not that she thought he’d appreciate that word. Pretty. Cash was a lot more than pretty.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.”

“You didn’t look fine.”

She sighed as she sat up and stretched. “I’m sore, Cash. Bits of me are still recovering.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“You did your best. I think it’s to be expected. Non-use and all that.”

He looked so chagrined that she didn’t expect him to snort. “Jesus, Ella. You always make me laugh, even when I don’t want to.”

“It’s a gift,” she said, though she wasn’t sure it was any such thing. Still, the fact he laughed—the sound of his laugh—did things to her insides. Made them fluttery and happy. He was a dangerous man in more ways than one, only the danger was to her heart. Her poor, unloved, starving-for-affection heart.

He took her hand and wrapped his fingers around it. The aforementioned heart fluttered and trembled.

“Yeah, it is. You ready?”

“What happens now?”

The cabin depressurized as the exterior door opened.

“We get in the waiting SUV out there and go where it takes us.”

“You don’t know where that is?”

“I suspect I know. But it’s nowhere you’ve heard of or will hear of. So we go. Or not. Depends.”

She turned to look out the window. There was indeed an SUV there. A black one with a man standing near the door. Two other men stood nearby. They looked dangerous too. Intense and determined.

Cash helped her up, and they walked down the aisle to the stairs that had been rolled up to the plane. He stepped out first, then turned and waited for her to join him. They walked down hand in hand while he slowed his steps for her.

At the bottom, the two men strode up. They were both grinning. It made her feel a little better. A little less apprehensive.

“Congratulations, Money,” one of them said. “Never thought to see the day.”

“Shut up, Camel,” Cash growled. “You too, Cowboy. Not a word.”

The one named Cowboy snorted. But he turned his attention to her. “Your Highness, welcome. Don’t pay any attention to this jerk,” he added, nodding toward Camel.

Camel? She thought it an odd name. A homely desert animal with a humped back? This man was not homely. At all. He was tall, dark-haired, and strikingly handsome. So was the one named Cowboy—except he was the bigger of the two. Wider, more muscular. Not that Camel wasn’t muscular, but he was leaner.

“Thank you,” she said when she remembered to stop staring and open her mouth.

“Boys, this lady is my wife,” Cash said, tucking her arm into his and stepping closer to her. “Princess Antonella Maria Rossi McQuaid—or however that works. Not quite sure of it yet.”

“Call me Ella,” she said. “Please.”

“Ella, these two idiots are my teammates. Alex Kamarov and Cody McCormick. You can call them whatever you like, including asshole—they’ll answer to it.”

“Jesus, Money,” Camel said. “Do you really talk like that in front of your lovely bride?”

“He does,” Ella replied. “But it’s okay because I tend to shock him too.”

Camel’s eyebrows went up. So did Cowboy’s.

“You don’t say,” Cowboy replied. “I’d love to hear all about it.”

“No you wouldn’t,” Cash interjected. “Mind your own business. You taking us somewhere in that land yacht or are we gonna camp out on the tarmac at this ungodly hour and shoot the breeze?”

“Nope, we’re going,” Camel said. “After you.”

They went over to the SUV where the man waiting for them opened the doors. “Welcome back, Money,” he said. “And congrats.”

“Thanks, man. Ella, this one is Adam Garrison. You can call him Blade—or asshole. Same thing applies.”

Blade laughed. “Ma’am, you can call me whatever you like.”

“Watch it,” Cash growled as Blade took her offered hand and kissed the back of it. “She’s married.”

“For now,” the man said with a wink.

Ella laughed. Okay, so she liked Cash’s friends. Cash helped her into the SUV and climbed in beside her. The others piled in as well. Their luggage—which wasn’t much—was loaded into the rear of the vehicle, and then they were speeding away from the plane and out onto a dark access road.

Ella yawned and tried not to nod off as they sped through the night. She wanted to hear everything these men said, but she was disappointed because they didn’t say much. There was some teasing about her and Cash’s marriage, but they kept it light. Ella sat up straight and tall in the back seat and tried not to lean against Cash, but after the second time she jerked herself upright, he tugged her into the circle of his arm, draping his fingers over her shoulder where he could twirl her hair.

She felt the quiet stillness of the vehicle then. The way the conversation sort of died off for a moment, the silence seeming heavy, before one of the men said something about someone named Viking.

Lord, she would never keep up with these people and their names. Real names, nicknames—they all blurred together for the time being. Too many people. Too many names. Though she thought maybe she’d met Viking before, back at the fishing cabin.

After a short trip, they turned into what appeared to be a military facility. A guard stood by a building in the center of the road, checking the identification of everyone who entered. Before Ella could stir, Cash lowered the window and held up her passport along with his own identification. The guard looked at everything and then waved them through.

“Where are we?” she asked softly.

“It’s where I work. We need to find out what the plan is for keeping you safe, where we’ll be staying, that kind of thing.”

“You promised,” she said, trying to keep her voice low. She got the impression the other men heard her anyway.

“I know, Princess. Don’t worry.”

She couldn’t do anything else.