Once a Princess, always a Princess

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

After an exhausting morning scuba diving, exploring multicoloured coral reefs and swimming along side vibrant fish. I was lounging on the patio alongside Xavier, on a matching deck chair.

Glancing over at him a tingle shot through me as my eyes glanced over his half naked body, still not being used to the dazzling site.

Looking away I asked the obvious question, one that should have been asked long before I plopped into the water of potentially dangerous seas.

"Where are we?"

Xavier chuckled. "I was wondering how long it would take you to ask that. You could be sat at the bottom of an active volcano but as long as it was pretty you wouldn't care."

I blushed. "Not hardly."

"We are on a small remote island just of the west of Brazil. It's not known for tourism, though it does have an extensive culture, there is only the land owned by the natives and the land privately owned by some celebrities and then the likes of us. It has reasonable facilities, which you could guess needing to cater for resort owners, like a small runway which you have seen and about 10 minutes from the beach there is a small village and a market."

I nodded my head, taking it all in.

"Wow, celebrities."

Xavier rolled his eyes. "Of course, from all that celebrities would be the only thing you picked up on."

I frowned at him. "I was just appreciating my fellow neighbours."

He scoffed. "Of course you were."

Ignoring his comment I moved on. "Can we visit the village?"

"Sure, we can do that tomorrow. I think we have exhausted ourselves enough for today."

And boy was he right, my legs were aching from all the swimming and I don't think I could possibly move an inch let alone do a 10 minute walk.

*

Later that evening we moved into the living room to watch a film. I seated myself in the glass dome, one knee resting in it, the other leg swinging bellow. Xavier sat on the pristine sofa, feet up on the coffee table. We were watching Abducted and though I really wanted to see Taylor Lautner in it, I couldn't concentrate one bit. My gaze kept flitting to Xavier lazing on the couch as tingles spread through me Sure enough to say, I was being stupid. This was the same guy that used to trip me up when we were kids and pull my hair. But looking at him sat there now, in this remote resort, far away from his friends and the parties and sat with me, some pathetic, idiotic, hopeless 'princess' I had to admit that the butterflies in my stomach weren't from pangs of guilt.

Taking a deep breath and willing my self to act normal I got up and moved to sit next to him, dipping my hand in his bowl of Doritos.

"Where's the popcorn?"

He gave me a sideways look. "You don't like popcorn." He replied simply, then returned his attention to the film.

A surge of warmth went through me. He gave up one of his favourite treats because I didn't like it. Had this kindness been going on for long? Was I just blind to it? What happened to the self obsessed jerk?

As the movie continued I found myself being more enthralled by it and was able to concentrate better. By the time the credits rolled I was deeply involved with the plot line.

"Ahh that was such a cute ending."

Xavier rolled his eyes. "Typical girl. What happened to a major shoot off or fight?"