Page 132 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

Esme stood and smiled at the young man who gave her a friendly smile as he walked out of a boardroom.

“Yes,” she replied as she shook his hand.

“Welcome to Executive Security.”

She stepped inside and blinked at the jaw-dropping view of New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge and the East River flowing beneath it.

Two other people, a man and a woman, sat at the table. They both gave her pleasant smiles as she sat in the offered chair.

“We’ve spoken to your former employer.”

Her smile froze on her face.

“Yes?”

“Exemplary,” the woman said. “They were sorry to lose you.”

Relief made her so weak she had to resist the urge to sink back into the plush office chair.

“It was hard to leave.”

“Why did you?” the man who’d greeted her asked.

“I’ve lived in Rodina my whole life. I needed a change of scenery. And my mother lives here.”

Not that it had impacted her decision in the slightest. She’d reached out to let her mother know she was in town, her first time in the States in nearly ten years. Her mother, predictably, had been on a cruise in the Bahamas and rushed to get off the phone and back to her husband.

Instead of making her feel sorry for herself, it had been cathartic in a way. Her mother would always be the way she was. Her focus on herself, her inability to enjoy motherhood, hadn’t been Esme’s fault. Neither was her father’s inability to see her as anything more than her accomplishments.

Something Julius’s blunt assessment had helped her realize.

She swallowed hard. Julius cropped up far too often in her thoughts. She shoved him away and tried to focus on the people in front of her. But doubt kept plaguing her.

Did she even want another bodyguard position? Would that make her happy? She’d originally gone into the profession to make her father happy, but now...

They asked her a few questions, but she could tell it was mostly to tick the boxes. Whoever they’d spoken to in Rodina, coupled with the fact that she had been on a security detail for an actual prince, had impressed them. She’d built up the kind of reputation that made her the perfect candidate for any security job.

“Last question,” the woman asked. “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Esme froze.

“I’m...” She offered up a slight smile, one that hopefully would pacify. “I’m not sure. Leaving Rodina was a big step for me.”

“Of course.” The woman returned her smile with a kind one of her own. “How about what you want out of your life? What do you want out of your career? What’s important to you?”

Julius.

The sudden surety of her unspoken answer floored her. She wanted Julius. Loved him. Had had the chance to be with him and had shunned it out of fear of losing her newfound independence, of being shoved into yet another box and smothered with someone else’s expectations.

When he’d proposed, she had been so focused on how he’d had everything planned out, a plan he hadn’t bothered to ask her about, that she had let pain overtake her, keep her from telling him her own feelings and what she needed. What would allow her to accept his proposal.

And Rodina...being a queen, leading a country, might not be her first choice of a job. It would come with scrutiny, long hours and rules. So many rules. But she had been so afraid of accepting the role in the form Julius had presented it to her that she hadn’t stopped to think about what she could do. What she would do if given the chance to be a leader.

She hadn’t stopped to talk to Julius, to ask him, to challenge him. She’d been so afraid of what his answer might have been that she had chosen to run instead of standing and fighting for herself, for them and what they could be.

“Miss Clark?”

Esme blinked. Three faces were regarding her with mixtures of concern and confusion.

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