Page 27 of His Accidental Princess

He made a face and rubbed the back of his neck.

“At some point, you get tired of dodging bullets and jumping out of airplanes and moving vehicles, because there’s only so much beating your body can take.”

I froze at the picture his words painted. DV had been shot at. And beaten. He could have died! And I wouldn’t have known anything about it until they brought him home in a box. I wanted to retch at the thought. Or even punch his lights out for putting himself at risk so willingly. But I settled for throwing him an acid glare.

“How could you not tell me, DV? We were engaged to be married!”

I guess that really showed me how much I had mattered to him.

“I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone, Tasha,” he said gently.

I was just ‘anyone’ to the man I had loved ever since I discovered the meaning of the word. Was there anything more heartbreaking than that?

“Did you enjoy being an agent?” I asked.

“I did. It was stressful as hell, and quite frightening at times, but it was also exhilarating. It was the only time in my life that I felt alive!”

Huh. I had no idea my stodgy ex-fiancé was an adrenaline junkie. He had never revealed this side of himself to me. Not once in all those years that we were betrothed.

I forced back my tears and gave him a shaky smile.

“I understand, DV. For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you for your service to the country, and I’m glad you came home safely.”

“I came home for you!”

It sounded as if the words were wrenched from him against his will.

“Excuse me?”

“I retired from the service because we had to build a future together,” he explained. “That would have been hard to do if I got myself blown up in the Middle East.”

“I wish I had broken up with you earlier, then. You could have retained the freedom to throw yourself out of as many airplanes as you like,” I said bitterly.

“Do you really believe that, Tasha? Do you think it’s as simple as that? We’re not together anymore, and yet, I’m still here.”

“Like a termite infestation,” I quipped half-heartedly.

“You can get rid of termites, but I promise you this. You will never be completely rid of me. I will always be around. Maybe not as a fiancé or a husband, but definitely as a friend.”

I smiled politely, knowing that he expected me to be happy about that. It was a very sweet thing to say, but the last thing I needed was for DV to be around me all the time, keeping my heartbreak alive. Because even if I was still frozen in time, he wasn’t. The bastard was already dating. Soon, he’d marry some fluffy-headed twit like Vinnie, and he would invite me to the wedding.

Dammit! Maybe Goa wasn’t far enough. I wondered if I could get a seat on a rocket to a planet on the far side of the galaxy. Didn’t NASA have any relocation program for the brokenhearted?

“You don’t need to worry about your mother. I’ll make sure she doesn’t call you again. It won’t take much to convince her that I can make her jail term so uncomfortable that she’d rather suffer the death penalty than mess with you.”

I didn’t mind that because my mother deserved every bit of the misery that was in store for her. But I didn’t see why he had to interfere in the matter at all.

“You really have it in for my mother, DV. What did she do to you?”

“Are you really so blind?” he asked through gritted teeth. “Do you think this is about me?”

“Then what is it about?”

“It’s aboutyou, Tasha! I will make her pay for every mark on your body and soul.”

“But why?” I asked uncomprehendingly.

I simply couldn’t understand why he was making such a big deal out of this. She was in jail, and that was enough for me.

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