He said nothing for a moment, surprised and not displeased that she had understood that so quickly. “I was more of an officer and less of a prince then. I can’t say I have the sea in my blood the way Captain Dumont does, but it isn’t something I’ll forget.”

“What is it you remember best?” she asked before she caught herself.

“Watching the sun rise at sea or better, riding out a storm. God, we went through one off Crete. The waves were a fifty-foot wall. The wind was like the wrath of God, so loud, so enormous that you could shout in someone’s ear and not be heard. No sky, only water, wall after wall of it. An experience like that changes you.”

“How?”

“It makes you realize that no matter who you are, what you are, there’s something bigger, greater. Nature’s a powerful equalizer, Hannah. Look at her now.” With one hand he gestured toward the sea as he negotiated another curve. “Calm, almost impossibly beautiful. A hurricane doesn’t make her less beautiful, only more dangerous.”

“It sounds as though you prefer the danger.” She understood that, perhaps too well.

“At times. Danger’s its own seduction.”

She could say nothing to that. It was something she had learned herself years before.

With the briefest of signals to the car behind him, Bennett pulled over. “At the moment I prefer the calm.” He got out of the convertible, ignoring the guard who stood anxiously by the hood of the trailing car. “Walk with me on the beach, Hannah.” He opened her door and held out a hand. “I promised Marissa some shells.”

“Your security doesn’t look pleased.” Nor was she when she noticed how open they were.

“They’d only be pleased if I were sitting in a bulletproof globe. Come now, Hannah, didn’t you tell me sea air was good for the constitution?”

“Yes.” She laid her hand in his. He was safe, after all, as long as she played her part and played it well. “You’ll have to find shells big enough that they can’t be swallowed. At Marissa’s age, children tend to eat the oddest things.”

“Always practical.” With an easy laugh, he lifted her by the waist over the low seawall. He saw her gaze focus over his shoulder and knew a guard would be following at a discreet distance. “You should take your shoes off, Hannah. You’ll only get sand in them.”

It was the practical thing to do, of course. The logical thing. Hannah tried to tell herself she wasn’t shedding part of her cover along with the pumps. “You must have some fascinating coral formations in these waters.”

“Do you scuba?”