Page 27 of Royally Matched

“Long,” he said with a grin, “but worth it.”

Gesturing to the items nearby, he asked, “Up for a game?”

“Sure,” she said, running her finger down the stack. “I haven’t played a game in years.”

“I have to admit, I haven’t either, but I used to love them when I was a kid.”

“Let’s play Monopoly. It’s a time-suck, but you said itwill be a long flight, so it shouldn’t matter.”

“Right, let’s set it up. You should know though; I tend to be great at board games.”

“I’m surprised we never played any together when we were little,” Lily noted.

“I think it was the whole boy—girl thing. I wanted nothing to do with girls until I hit my teens.”

Lily let out a laugh. “And then you couldn’t keep away from them.”

At first, Max was slightly offended at the comment, but realizing it was accurate, he joined in and laughed with Lily.

They spent the next couple of hours playing the game, with Lily winning at the end by bankrupting Max.

“Your winning seems about right,” Max joked. “You’ve always made way better decisions than me.”

“That might have been the case, but not lately,” Lily corrected. “Lately, you’ve done a great job with your decisions.” Giving him a playful smile she added, “Like taking me on this date for instance.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Max said, returning her smile. “Let me go check with the pilots and see if we are on schedule to arrive at our destination.”

“I can take care of that for you, your Royal Highness,” Patrick offered.

“That’s all right. I got it,” Max said as he stood up and made his way over to the cockpit. He opened the door and stepped inside. “How is it looking?”

“We’re right on time, your Royal Highness,” the head pilot said. “We should arrive in Karamay, China, in three hours.”

“Thank you,” Max said, shutting the door behind him as he exited.

Max sat back in his seat across from Lily.

“How’s everything going?” she asked, placing a card down as she played solitaire. “Are we going to arrive at your private island soon?”

Max let out a chuckle. “Nice try, Lily, but I’m not that easy to trick.”

“Can’t blame me for trying.”

Max picked up a book, trying to distract himself from how gorgeous Lily looked as she concentrated on the cards in front of her. No matter what he did though, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her pretty lips and how enticing they looked.

Unable to stop himself, Max leaned across and cupped Lily’s face with his hand. He stared into her eyes for several seconds before his mouth claimed hers. Rather than pull away, Lily leaned into him as he deepened the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair.

Breathlessly, Lily finally tilted her head back and whispered, “That was a surprise.”

“It won’t be the last,” he promised.

They spent the rest of the flight watching a movie before the plane touched down. As they disembarked, Lily must have noticed the writing on the outer part of the terminal because she quickly asked, “Are we in China?”

Max nodded, enjoying the fact she was trying to figure out why, but hadn’t quite landed on the reason yet.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“Just a little while longer, and you’ll have your answer.”

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