Page 10 of His Runaway Princess

Amalia took a seat in the chair and grimaced.

“Neither one is very comfortable, are they?” The sympathy in his voice told her he’d noticed.

An idea flitted through her mind, but she hesitated to say anything.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” His feet hit the floor as he leaned forward. “Is everything all right?”

“I just had a thought.” Amalia glanced between him and the television.

“What’s that?”

She didn’t look at him as she blurted it out. “The telly is on a swivel. We don’t have to sit in here. The mattress seems much more comfortable than either one of these.”

“That’s an idea, but I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

This time when she looked over, Amalia saw something akin to trepidation on his face. Rather than replying, she stood and walked to the telly, pushing on one side until it faced the other direction.

Without looking back, she took a seat on the closer side of the bed.

By the time Ryker sat against the headboard with his legs once again stretched out in front of him, he’d maneuvered the guide to the movie and restarted it.

“This would make a good drinking game,” he mused. “Not that I’m suggesting it. We could take a drink every time we found a royal inaccuracy.”

Amalia looked at him, her head tilting slightly as a confused look crossed her face. “We’d be drinking constantly. Is that the definition of something that makes a good drinking game? Something where you’d get drunk quickly?”

Ryker laughed. “I supposed it is. I’ve never played one, and seldom drink enough to get remotely drunk, so it would be kind of pointless.”

She picked up the remote and paused as it came back from a commercial. “There has to be something we can do. Every time there’s an inaccuracy glaring enough to mention... something.”

He seemed to think it over. “Like truth or dare? Whoever notices something first gets a truth or dare from the other one? Nah. Seems too hard.”

And too dangerous for Amalia when she kept such a big secret from him. “Or we could just watch?”

The grin he gave her made her stomach do slow flips. “That works.”

4

By the time the movie ended, Princess Amalia had fallen asleep.

Ryker wasn’t quite sure what his next move should be. He knew there had to be another blanket somewhere that he could cover her with. At some point, the princess had moved from sitting on the bed to lying on it.

He really didn’t want to sleep on the couch for multiple reasons, with comfort being the least important. The idea of leaving the princess even a bit unguarded didn’t sit well. Maybe sleeping on the floor? The other side of the bed simply wasn’t an option, despite how the emptiness beckoned.

Or maybe the chair in the bedroom area would be more comfortable than the ones in the living area. It didn’t look like it would be any better than the others, but then the ones in the other roomlookedlike they should be far more comfortable than they were. This one could be the opposite.

After looking through the drawers and closet, Ryker found the stash of extra pillows and blankets. Carefully, he laid a blanket over her and made sure it covered her completely. Once the lights were turned down, he took another blanket and tried out the chair.

Deciding it felt much more comfortable than the one in the other room, he propped his feet up on the end of the bed and settled in.

He didn’t know how long he’d been asleep when something woke him.

“Ryker?” The princess’s sleepy voice told him what it had likely been.

“Go back to sleep.” He kept his voice as calm and soothing as he could.

“Why are you in the chair?”

Ryker knew he shouldn’t notice how adorably rumpled she looked. “Go back to sleep,” he said again. “We’ll talk in the morning.” Or they wouldn’t. One of the two. He’d prefer not.

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