Page 23 of Royal Guard

I glanced at the bathroom. What Ireallyneeded right now was a bath but the motel room only had a shower. At the palace, I had a big corner tub that I could happily spend a full hour in, the room lit with candles and the water fragrant with a special scented oil a local craftswoman made.

I closed my eyes but, as soon as I saw darkness, I started to feel the cold stone under my hands, the damp in the air wetting my skin. That feeling of being utterly and completely alone. It becomes overwhelming in my nightmares but it’s there evenwhen I’m awake. It’salwaysthere. When I’m standing on a balcony, waving at a crowd. When I’m giving an interview on TV. Even when I’m in a room full of people.

Except today—God, was it really only a day since I first woke up on the plane? Today, for a brief time, when he’d held me in his arms...I didn’t feel alone.

After a long time, I slept. The nightmare came, as I knew it would. I was in the cell, running my fingers over the rough stone again and again just to give my mind some texture, some stimulation, in the absolute blackness. The lack of sound was the worst. No birds, no wind in the trees,nothing.

I began to panic, the sound of my own frenzied breathing bouncing off the walls and reflecting back at me, making me panic even more. But this time...something was different. I was taking huge gasps, my mouth wide, but I wasn’t getting any air—

I woke up and looked straight into the face of the man from the plane. I’d fallen asleep with the lamp on and its glow lit up his pale, tight skin, his hate-filled gray eyes.

It isn’t over!Somehow, he’d found us again. I screamed...but nothing came out.

He was straddling me, his weight on my chest and his hands wrapped around my throat. His thumbs were crushing my windpipe. I couldn’t breathe...or make a sound.

I heard something outside. Voices. Garrett and Emerik, right outside my window!Help me!I thrashed with my arms and drummed my heels on the bed, but it made almost no noise.

Garrett and Emerik kept talking, oblivious.

Iscreamedbut still nothing came out.

My head started to feel light. I was dying.

And they didn’t know anything was wrong.

13

GARRETT

My plan wasto get some sleep for a few hours, then go and relieve Emerik on guard duty. But I spent the time tossing and turning. I told myself it was because the motel bed wasn’t big enough: my feet were almost hanging off the end. But in the corps, I’d learned to sleep anywhere. It wasn’t the damn bed. It washer.

In a way, she was the opposite of everything I’d expected. I’d never met a politician before who was so genuinely passionate about peace. Most of them are happy to send thousands of grunts off to die just to make themselves look tough and get a boost in the polls. And I’d never expected someone from her background to be so down to earth and caring.

But in other ways, she was exactly what I’d expected. She was everything a princess should be: beautiful and noble and...better.Better than the rest of us, in a way that makes you want to be better, too. I was crazy about her. Obsessed. That’s why whathappened in my doorway was still spinning, nonstop, in my mind. I’d nearly tasted those sweet lips.

But I couldn’t. I couldn’t get close to her, or she’d find out what a mess I was, inside. From now on, I’d make sure to keep my distance. I’d protect her, but that was it.

To distract myself, I tried to figure out how to get her home while staying off the radar of whoever was trying to kill her. I sure as hell couldn’t put her on a commercial flight. Her name would make ten thousand computer screens light up at the FBI. Whoever was leaking information to the assassins would tell them, they’d sneak someone onto the plane again, and she’d be a sitting duck for eight hours. Or they could just plant a bomb on the plane. Three hundred passengers meant nothing to these people.

It took me over an hour of wracking my brain, but finally, I got it. Barney. Barney could do it. It meant getting her to New York, a two thousand mile drive. But it would work.

The downside of figuring it out was that my brain went right back to what happened in the doorway. Whatwouldhave happened if I’d kissed her. The scent of her, warm and sweet, but with that coolness of mountain mist. The soft push of her breasts as I crushed her to me. Her panting as I pinned her up against the doorframe and unbuttoned her jeans. I’d slide a hand down the front, under her panties, and cup her. She’d moan and toss her head, that chestnut hair lashing my face—

Under the covers I was achingly hard. The temptation to just keep thinking about her, to slip a hand down there and—

No!Jesus, I wasn’t going to jerk off to her! I wasn’tsome teenage kid and it didn’t seem right, with her sleeping just a few rooms away. I sprang out of bed and pulled on my clothes. If I couldn’t sleep, I might as well go relieve Emerik early.

Outside, I walked down the line of rooms to where Emerik stood outside the Princess’s door. “Go get some rest,” I told him. “I’ll watch her, then Jakov can take a shift.”

Emerik didn’t move. “I’m fine,” he said. “It’s my duty.Youget some rest.”

I frowned at him. Sure, he was loyal, but I’d never known anyone argue with having their shift cut short. “Seriously,” I growled. “Go.”

“Seriously,” he echoed, “No.”

I frowned again and then tensed, staring at the Princess’s door. “Did you hear something?”

He went silent for a moment and then shook his head. And I didn’t hear anything more, either. I relaxed.Just my imagination.

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