Page 13 of Mercenary Princess

Chapter 5

Paris, France

Jen stayed silent on the ride back to the hotel, allowing Sophia to be still with her thoughts as she stared blankly into the quiet night. The city streets careened by in a hazy blur of gray.

She barely registered Jen parking the car, but she was on high alert for some kind of Russian ambush on the entire walk back to the courtyard of the hotel. Moonlight still lit the shrubbery-lined path, but it wouldn’t for long.

Dawn was coming.

James had sent one of the guys to follow them back in case the threat wasn’t what they’d thought. Now she and Jen were on their own. There hadn’t been another option; either the Russian saw her, or he didn’t. All he would have learned was that she’d snuck off with her guard.

Being distracted was dangerous, so she forced herself to focus on the task at hand.

She definitely needed her trip to London to relax after all the anxiety of the Paris operation and the added stress that would come from being at the palace for a while.

Irina, Jen, and Lauren had all voiced their concerns for her, knowing how she hated going back to Porenza. The only person who’d kept his mouth shut had been James, and she’d bet he’d only been silent because he’d been working. It didn’t matter. The others had made it clear how they felt about her stress levels. She hated that it made her feel weak, but they were right. Apparently, the strain had been etched on her face, which hadn’t been good news.

“Is your mind on the climb?”

Sophia rolled her neck. “Always.” But damn it, she had been in another world, wondering if Viktor’s men had really followed her.

Jen seemed extra diligent, scanning every inch of the space around them, particularly a window on the other side of the courtyard.

Viktor’s suite.

The room was shrouded in darkness, but the curtains were pulled open. He could have been up there watching her at that very moment. A tremor rippled through Sophia at the thought of him scrutinizing her every move. He’d effectively unnerved her twice in the same night. That man turned her stomach into a pile of twisted nerves.

She frowned, finding she resented his sudden interest and the potential intrusion into her life. He was threatening her neck and her fantasies all at the same time.

She sucked in a deep breath as she glanced up. The moon had started its descent, shining its dim light through the trees in the early hours of the day. She could only hope that meant Viktor was fast asleep instead of watching her, if he’d watched her at all. She had no idea if any of their suspicions were even valid at this point.

“Take your time. I’d hate to fish you out of the bushes.”

It wasn’t as if she had a choice. She damned well had to get up there somehow.

“I’ll try not to make a mess,” Sophia replied with only a hint of sarcasm before crouching down to do her quick change for the climb. They were running out of moonlight, so it was beyond time to haul her ass up to the suite.

In no time, she was back in all white to blend in with the wall. She secured the long cable to her compact safety harness, huffing as Jen bent to give her the boost she needed to get to the first decorative hold. Jen had nothing to worry about. If Sophia ever went down, it wouldn’t be from climbing a wall. That was not how she planned to go.

The usual enjoyment she gained in climbing was gone. All she felt was the stretch of her muscles as she made her ascent, not the almost euphoric rush of freedom.

She only wished it were over already. Her heart was beating too fast, and she’d never been more aware of her movements or the fact that Viktor could be watching her ass.

She breathed out slowly, blocking all thoughts, and nearly moaned in relief when she reached the balcony. She took a moment before silently swinging first one leg then the other over the railing. She had to ensure her guards didn’t hear her. With shaking hands, she wound the cable and harness into as small a package as possible. After a check to see that Jen was aware she’d made it safely, she breathed in the fresh night air one last time, grateful she’d made it without dying or humiliating herself, which would have been the case if she’d fallen and ended up dangling from her safety harness.

Everything was silent as she eased through the French doors and slid through the dark curtains into her nearly pitch-black room.

Her snug climbing shoes and cap went into a secret compartment of her barely visible makeup case with the harness and cable before she pushed a button to rearm the door alarm.

It wasn’t until she pulled the tie from her hair and shook out the heavy waves that she sensed something was off. Using the light from the cracks in the curtains, she scanned the room, her heart rate kicking up. What she could see seemed just as she’d left it, but it felt… occupied. She spun around, searching the inky space, wishing the curtains hadn’t blacked it out so completely. Her pulse thundered in her ears as she readied her prepared excuse if Antony had caught her.

The ominous snick of the bedside lamp seemed too loud in the otherwise quiet space. By the time her eyes adjusted, her cover story had fled her mind along with all the air in her lungs.

Viktor Popov was in her room. His big body lounged in the high-backed armchair on the opposite side of the ornate white-and-gold bed. The glass bedside lamp sent a soft glow along his tan skin.

He hadn’t been watching her climb. The insane man had actually broken in to her hotel suite. Never would she have expected this. All she could do was gape at him when she should be terrified that a man had broken into her room. His heated gaze held no indication this was a violent threat. But, Jesus, he broke into my room. The room of a crown princess!

She should feel threatened. But all she felt was shock. And… heat.

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